hondo in seattle

In another thread, I named the six wideouts who I thought would make the final 53. Beane mentioned 5 of the 6. The one he didn't mention was Claypool. I also thought that was telling. About Brady... People with the team tell a pretty consistent story. Brady is a good communicator. And some say it's not just one-way. He solicits feedback from other coaches and players. Reading between the lines, I guess Dorsey didn't do that.

Interesting trying to read between the lines about why Bean and McD liked Brady as OC over Dorsey.

The use of colloquialisms is hardly nonsensical. Everyone on this side of the pond understands the sense. Now, calling a cookie a biscuit is nonsensical. I can't imagine the Bills fans of yore yelling out, "Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Biscuit!" when Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist rumbled down the field with the ball. (Instead of Cornelius Bennett).

If you had said T-Rex, we would have understood you. T-rex arms had anatomically short arms as everyone knows. Alligator arms are the appendages of cowardly receivers who don't want to fully extend for fear of being hit. Shakir may have T-rex arms but he doesn't have alligator arms.

Alligators have short arms and it's okay to describe a short-armed receiver as having "alligator arms." But when I grew up playing football, "alligator arms" was a colloquial expression for when a receiver didn't fully extend to catch a ball because he was afraid of being hit. Sometimes, saying a receiver had "alligator arms" was akin to saying he was a coward. Shakir is not a cowardly receiver.

I saw that, too. Some other curious 2025 numbers... Fins are $11,000,000 over the cap. Jets are $58,000,000 under. Pats are $113,000,000 under!

I really hope so because we need the help.

Point taken. Aldi would be better than Dollar General. But cutting Diggs does help us get into Aldi next year. There were better ways to deal with Diggs' cap cost which makes me think there's more to the story. Was Diggs becoming a locker room cancer? Was his relationship with Allen declining? Did the Bills think his skill or commitment were beginning to fade? I'm sure there was something else behind the decision, but I think the cap was part of it and I'm glad Diggs won't count against us next season. I tend to believe this: A QB, once off his rookie contract, is obviously going to be a huge expense. I think that leaves room for just one pricey, big-splash FA. We had two: Miller and Diggs. I think Beane overextended himself in a way that made it challenging to build out the rest of the roster. He had to course-correct. Interestingly, he cut the big splash guy who was actually earning his paycheck (mostly) with his play on the field rather than the guy with a limp. I think to be a top-tier GM, Beane needs to get better at drafting our star players while filling out the rest of the roster with solid - but affordable - FAs.

I have ambivalent feelings about this. On one hand, there's a subset of athletes who are all about money, status, ego, sex, and fast cars. Butker is interested in things bigger than that. He's taking his Catholic faith seriously and applying it to the wider world. On the other hand, Butker's vision would move America backwards. Muppy is right when she says, "love is the answer." Butker's speech seemed to be more about judgment, condemnation, and dogma than love.

I'm not sure we're all that far apart. This is how I saw it a few days ago and how I still see it today. Beane got the Bills into cap trouble and he had to get us out. That meant Diggs had to go. And the departures of Diggs and Davis left the cupboard pretty bare without a lot of money to shop with. When you don't have a lot of money, you shop at the Dollar Store. But Beane's tried to go out and get guys with potential upside. Claypool, for example, was once a productive wideout. MVS has speed and has put together a couple of okay years. While it's Beane's fault that we're in this situation I'm not complaining about his efforts to now manage it the best he can without mortgaging the future. If you don't agree, that's fine. I'm not sure what value you add when you make remarks about me liking to get kicked in the nuts and drink piss. It's not an intelligent argument nor is it a kind or respectful thing to say. Luck and circumstance have sh*t on us Bills fans enough. It puzzles me that we'd want to add to that by sh*tting on each other.

You are correct, sir. I recalled events as simple housecleaning with Davis and Diggs departing followed by a slow, steady, humble rebuild. I was wrong. But my general idea still holds. At one point our WR room consisted of something like Shakir, Samuel, Shorter and Hollins. I'm happy that MVS, and some others, were added to the group, considering where we started.

Not as bleak as people think... but not as sunny as we'd hope. I remember when Kelly's targets included three guys destined for the Hall of Fame: Loften, Reed, Thomas. The guys we have now don't even qualify for Little House on the Prairie. But I keep hoping that (1) Brady shows us that he knows how to scheme guys open, and (2) a couple of these guys step up and surprise their critics. I do think there's some potential.

I was referring to after we jettisoned Diggs and Davis.

Randy Moss might disagree. NFL Comeback Player of the Year (2007) 4× First-team All-Pro (1998, 2000, 2003, 2007) 6× Pro Bowl (1998–2000, 2002, 2003, 2007) 5× NFL receiving touchdowns leader (1998, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009) NFL 2000s All-Decade Team NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team New England Patriots All-2000s Team New England Patriots All-Dynasty Team

A starving man is happy to get a bowl of rice. At the beginning of the offseason, the WR receiver room was pretty much empty: one quasi-legit starter and not much else. Signing a guy who once had 690 yards is pretty exciting for some of us, even if his hands were carved from stone.

As The Jokeman wisely says, Leave no stone unturned... None of these players cost us much. And they're all good athletes so there is some slim possibility they amount to something.

This is a very interesting theory. I'll have to think about it. It seems like this would be true of nearly all positions: the difference between the Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 guys isn't as great as it once was. And if that is true, all teams will end up with - more or less - comparable talent. So as an owner, or GM, the first people you would want to find are a QB (where the talent difference is still substantial), and a coach. It would argue against paying big money on the free agent market for any position other than QB. (Maybe Miller and Diggs were mistakes?) Another reason RBs might be "a dime a dozen" these days is that elite athletes don't become RBs anymore. In the old days, RBs ruled the gridiron like dinosaurs ruled the Cretaceous. Nowadays, the best athletes become WRs, DBs, and sometimes even QBs! As an aside: modern defenses are designed to stop the pass. Speed and quickness are valued over toughness and violence. Jim Brown would run for 2,000+ against modern pass-first Ds and hurt guys doing it.

I was commenting on someone else's post who predicted these two (MVS, Claypool) wouldn't make the squad. I previously projected they would. But, if they each have a terrible camp with their worst shortcomings becoming worrisome, they could potentially be cut.

If MVS and Claypool don't make the 53, it's because MVS still hasn't learned to catch, and Claypool still hasn't pulled his head out of his butt. As a Bills fan, I guess those facts would make me sick too.

Seems like a good guy. Invite him to any game where he'll root for the Bills.

Looking at this group, I don't think many opposing DBs are going to say, "Man, playing the Bills is going to be a huge challenge. They have All-Pros running routes all over the field!" We don't have any All-Pros or Pro Bowlers. A skeptic might argue we only have one legit starter in our WR room. But I'm hoping one or two of these guys surprises the critics. There is some potential here. And I think the diverse wideout skillset, combined with the talents of our TEs and RBs, give Brady enough to create a viable passing attack.

This is a tough call but I think the Bills go with experience (and Coleman) and maybe stash the inexperienced guys on the practice squad. And I think the Bills keep 6: Coleman. I think he'll be a starter from Day One. Samuels. Most proven guy on the roster. Shakir. Looked strong in the second half of last season. Hollins. Versatile, process-type guy. MVS. I think McD wants some speed in the WR room and MVS beats out the other field-stretchers (Hamler and Isabella). Though I wish he had better hands. Claypool. I don't think Beane would roll the dice on this kid if he didn't think there was a good chance he could return to form. This is going to be a very interesting camp battle.

Thanks for finding and linking that. Interesting article. I could swear I heard his career nosedived because of a problem with his peripheral vision though I don't recall the source. I didn't remember that he was such an excellent athlete when young. And I didn't know about the bank fraud. The article makes him seem like a good and humble guy - outside of the felony, of course. I didn't think he was OJ's equal of course, but during Miller's rookie season I did think we'd be blessed with good RB play for another eight or ten years.

While I hate that this year's WR room is so unproven, I am glad Beane is managing the cap for sustained success. Every season, if you build a good team, you buy yourself a lottery ticket for the Super Bowl. No good team has a guaranteed path to the SB but the really bad teams have no realistic chance at all - they don't get lottery tickets. Only the better teams do. And if you buy enough tickets, the laws of chance say you'll probably eventually win. Beane's not the very best GM but he is getting us into the Lombardi Lottery every year.

On the one hand, it bugs me that Beane is spending less this year on the WR room than the majority of NFL GMs despite having a QB who can throw the ball all over the field. On the other hand, I don't think the cupboard is bare. If a couple guys with spotty or unproven backgrounds step up, and if Brady is good at scheming up an offense, we'll move the ball and score points. Yeah, there are too many ifs but they're not complete longshots. Keeping my fingers crossed.