hondo in seattle

Not just the speed and shimmy shakes, though both were great, but he could see the field in a way few backs can. It's like he had some innate sense of gridiron geometry and could not only see where everyone was but where they were going to be in the next few moments and optimally picked his route through all those moving pieces accordingly. And sometimes used the shoulder jukes and shimmy shakes to get a defender to move every-so-slightly out of his way. Well, not always "ever-so-slightly." I recall plays where defenders got so tangled up trying to stay with Juice's moves that they fell on their butts. Btw, you wouldn't know it looking at these highlights, but OJ frequently had a spy on him. Somehow, OJ got him out of the picture.

I watched both Brady and Brees in their prime and saw Brees make all the same reads and the same throws with the same precision. In particular seasons, Brees had better stats, but Tom had the rings. So I wonder, did Tom earn more rings than Brees because he was the better QB and leader or because he had a better supporting cast including both coaches and players? I don't have a firm answer for that but I tend to think it was the latter. And that makes me hesitate to call Tom the undisputed GOAT. In Brady's best season (2021), he threw for 5,316 yards. Incidentally, Brady only broke 5,000 twice while Brees did it an amazing five times. The next best guy in 2021 (Herbert) threw for 5,014 yards. Brady beat him by 6%. In OJ's best year (1973), he ran for 75% more yards more than the next best guy (Brockington)!!! Brady never had a season like that. Brady was very good for a very long time on a team that was very good and very well-coached. Does that make him the GOAT? I don't know. Maybe. But I've seen other players who in a given season were head-and-shoulders above their peers in ways Tom never was.

We have the same hopes!

I have mixed feelings. I was about 10 when OJ was drafted. He was my only sports hero ever, and a lesson why you shouldn't have athletes as heroes. I'm annoyed when I see lists of the greatest RBs ever and he's not #1 or at least #2 behind the great Jim Brown. OJ was otherworldly with the ball. In 1973 - back when the best athletes became RBs - OJ nearly equaled the combined output of the 2nd and 3rd best backs in the league. Imagine this year some excellent QBs throw for 4,000+ yards but Josh throws for 7,000+. It was something like that. Neither Tom Brady nor anyone else ever had a season so statistically off the charts as OJ's. In his prime, OJ may have been the best RB ever, maybe the best football player ever. He was like an Olympic god competing against mortals. And it wasn't just the numbers that tell us this. You had to watch him play to truly understand. He did things no other human could do and did it against defenses designed and manned to stop the run. Not like today's backs running against marshmallow Nickel and Dime defenses and breaking tackles by skinny coverage LBs who are more agile than they are tough instead of the monstrous brutes of OJ's day. I still feel a certain joy watching clips of OJ and marveling at the athletic beauty of it. But I hate the man for what he did later and want him off the WOF.

Not to be a Negative Nancy, but what if Tre doesn't stay healthy and/or doesn't return to pro-bowl Tre again? In that scenario, an injured or unready Max is a problem - and that's what some of us are worried about.

Is this generally true? I had a high ankle sprain when I played HS ball. I was on crutches for a while but felt great after about 2 weeks and never had a problem with my ankle again.

I watch most Bills games in the comfort of my home. But if the Bills go to the SB, I just might have to share the joy - or pain - of it by watching at a Bills Backer bar.

That's quite an accomplishment! I've run 3, all slower than a three-legged possum with asthma, but I'm hoping to win my age group someday. My family tends to be long-lived so I'm hoping to outlive the competition and be the only finisher in my age group.

Hiking/trail running in the mountains with my husky is top of the list. Also: eating at new restaurants with unfamiliar cuisines (including some very strange foods), meditating, reading (history, science, Buddhism, historical novels), traveling when I have the chance, writing, and reverse planking, which some people derogatorily refer to as sleeping.

Even though it's an unwritten requirement to hate PFF if you're in the Bills Mafia, I'll mention that PFF has Benford the #8 ranked CB going into 2025 and T. Johnson as the #19. If Tre returns to peak form, and/or Max recovers and lives up to our hopes, this will be the best secondary CB trio we've had in a long time. www.pff.com/news/nfl-cornerback-rankings-top-32-ahead-of-2025-nfl-season

If I played Madden, I suppose it would make me happy to see Allen's talents acknowledged and recognized. But I don't. In fact, I don't really care how any sportswriter or football analyst (or team of analysts) ranks or grades Allen. I know and appreciate how good he is. I don't need the opinion of others to validate my assessment. As others have said, the achievement I most want Allen to earn is a Lombardi. The rest doesn't matter.

Maddy is somebody's daughter and may be an excellent human being so I'm reluctant to criticize. I'd rather watch more insightful content, but I don't blame her for doing what her employers pay her to do.

I think Josh is our only superstar and I'd be (happily) surprised if anyone else on this roster joined him in that club.

That's what my wife tells me.

Polling random, anonymous execs is a better methodology than polling random, anonymous lawn bowling fans, but still far from perfect. Some of these so-called "executives" aren't going to be very familiar with Josh. Maybe they're an NFC guy whose team hasn't played Josh in a while. Maybe their executive position is "Director of Marketing," and they've never played a down of football and can't tell the difference between a nickel and a dime. The perfect evaluator would be a football savant who's watched every play of every game. And if you consider leadership an important leadership skill like I do, then the evaluator needs to attend every practice, film session, huddle, and so on. I don't take QB rankings seriously, even when NFL executives are voting.

Here's my problem with Bledsoe... His first year with the Bills (2002), he averaged 284 ypg before the bye. After the bye, only 204 ydg. In his next two seasons with us, he averaged less than 200 ypg. He had one half of a good season with us. But he probably would have done better with the Drought All-Star roster.

What's kind of stunning about this is that if we take our very best players from a 17-year stretch of time, we still don't end up with a Super Bowl roster.

Improve: Torrence. He looked like an All Pro at times last season. This year he improves his consistency. I do think someone else on the team will probably take a larger step forward. There are a few candidates, but to me Torrence is the safer bet. Regress: Daquan. I really hope the ultimate 'winner' of this category doesn't turn out to be Milano, but I admit the possibility.

I don't believe it. But I like it!

Agreed. We can criticize some of McDermott's in-game decisions, but I pay a lot of attention to what players say - and don't say - about their coaches. I think, to some extent, you can read between the lines and start to understand what players think about their coaches and how well they prep them for the season during preseason and for individual games during the season. Current Bills players are, by and large, well-coached, well-prepared, and well-motivated. I think it was Orlovsky who said last year that the Bills and Lions had the best cultures in the NFL. Bills players know what they're doing, play hard, play together, and play for each other. It's a better coached team than any drought-era squad. And then there's Josh. (P.S. The Hondo in SWAT was probably the source and inspiration of my old high school nickname).

Thanks for letting us know about this show. Which episode has the Bills-Lions game?

Alpha, I don't usually like lengthy posts, but that was a great story. Thanks for sharing. I never met Josh but at a restaurant in California a couple of years ago, I met a couple who were from the Firebaugh area who went to school with Josh's mom and knew the entire family. Their stories were consistent with what you said: they're "good people." The couple heaped compliment after compliment on Josh and his mom.

I think the All-Drought team is better at a lot of position groups, but the current team would win for two reasons: HC and, mostly, QB. Btw, I personally think of Kyle, Tyrod, and Moulds as drought players even if they did get to taste the playoffs at the beginning or end of their Bills careers.

This is so good to see. I've been complaining for what felt like generations about the OL. For a while, I couldn't understand why Beane drafted a unicorn QB with little attempt to hire an adequate bodyguard to protect him. Well, little by little, Beane's built up a good one.

While you might be right, I hope not. Hamlin is a great story and a serviceable safety who knows the system and seems rarely to blow his assignments. But I'm hoping one of the other safeties proves to be better than him. Edit: I just saw Don Otreply's post and realized I just parroted what he had already said. I guess great minds do think alike. 😄