BarleyNY

Do they? I mean SOME people obviously watch it, but the ratings aren’t great. 10M (ish) viewers nationally isn’t nothing. It is about a tenth of the viewership the SB and about half of a nationally televised regular season Sunday night game. I probably haven’t watched 30 total minutes of the Pro Bowl in the last 15 years. And they don’t even get to go to Hawaii anymore. At least it’s in Vegas this year after being in (shudder) Orlando the three previous.

On the other hand, does anyone know of a reason to like it?

Agreed. McKenzie has been in the league for 5 seasons and has 922 receiving yards over that span - and there hasn’t exactly been a recent upswing to indicate that he’s made a jump. The last 4 years have been flat and 2021 was actually the worst of that span. IMO what we have seen is all that he’s going to be in this league. He’s a depth WR who is not a good enough returner to warrant a roster spot on most teams. He will probably bounce around the league for a few more seasons on one year contracts at or near league minimum. He is the kind of player fans overvalue. They know his name, they’ve seen him make a few plays and most know something about him personally. But that’s more emotional than analytical. He is the kind of player good teams are constantly trying to turn over. He belongs on a poor team that is blowing up their roster or just looking to fill out their depth chart with a serviceable WR. At minimum Buffalo should replace him with a younger player who still has some upside possible.

I heard that due to his mom-ager (fantastic, by the way) situation, most NFL people expected his deal to get done after all of the others and basically be a cut and paste of the other contracts with some minor number changes. Other teams (such as the Bills and Browns) were hoping his deal would get done early and be screwed up. If he took too little, they’d try to use it as setting the market. On the off chance he wound up with a great deal, they’d insist on throwing it out. My guess is that the Ravens were not too pleased that Allen’s deal was the only one done. I’m sure Lamar wanted something close to that. Too bad the Ravens know better.

I agree that would help, but thinking about the NBA Draft I’m sure people would still think there was tampering regardless of how fair it actually was. With the kind of money that is at stake, it’s not like some owners wouldn’t be willing to throw some illicit money at getting their QB. As a rule these people are far from angels. The NBA has examples that look too good to be true: Ewing to NY, LeBron to Cleveland and the Magic getting Shaq and then winning the lottery again the following year despite almost no chance of doing so. I think Joe Burrow to Cincy would have raised some eyebrows if a lottery would have been involved. Ditto if Pittsburgh or NE were to win - or even just get a high pick - right when they needed it to replace their HOF QBs. The NFL cares about looking clean, fair and unbiased much more than they care about being those things. The league sweeps a lot of dirt under the rug. Why invite scrutiny in one more place and give billionaire owners another avenue where some might cheat the system?

Nice. You totally had me.

I think they’ve avoided using a lottery because of optics. Even if it’s run completely fairly there will be cases when it looks like it was fixed. Still, your point that it would be another event is a good one. I can see the NFL wanting that revenue - and after the Flores suit (with evidence of tanking) they might not have much of a choice anyway. It will have to be non-playoff teams only though. Can you imagine if a SB winner got the #1 pick and auctioned it off to a QB needy team? Think KC with Mahomes winning the SB, then getting the #1 overall pick that draft. That would have been Joe Burrow. They could’ve gotten 3 first round picks plus more. Miami offered that and Cincy didn’t even bother to counter. No way does the NFL want that. So if it’s just non-playoff teams it would open up some late season decisions by teams on the cusp of a playoff spot. If you can’t win it all, do you take a small chance in the lottery with a potentially huge payoff or a likely first round playoff exit? Most wouldn’t but some might. That’s what the league would have to live with. As for taking, teams would probably still do it. That’s the biggest strike against a lottery. By having a lottery you’re just telling teams that are tanking that they might not get paid off like they expect though. Putting one in place is probably the better move from an optics standpoint for the NFL though. Their other option is to hammer the Dolphins by taking away premium draft picks and fining/suspending the owner and others involved.

No. If Edmunds is traded, his contract goes with him. There would be zero cap hit (dead money) to the Bills. As his salary is all fully guaranteed, if we were to cut him, then we still would have to pay him his whole salary, which would count against the cap. Realistically he’s here for the 2022 season.

I was not assigning blame. The needlessly watching someone die part was rough. Lots of people - especially young people - do stupid stuff, though I didn’t realize he was fleeing authorities. The speed indicator made me think it was a traffic helicopter, but it makes more sense. And I’m also sad for the person in the car. It wasn’t their fault, but they still were in an accident where someone died horrifically right in front of their eyes.

This I sort of thing severely damaged traditional cable companies. ESPN had the largest cost of all the cable stations. Along with its sister stations and other sports networks their part of customers’ bills was very large. That was especially true after ESPN signed a bunch of exclusive contracts to broadcast games. But it turns out that many people who didn’t care enough about sports to pay for them started to cut the cable. Then those games lost casual viewers and couldn’t charge what they expected for advertising, so prices went up. A Death Spiral ensued.

That’s rough

I’m not a fan of his play, but I think there’s a fair chance Star will stay another year too. One is what you pointed out - only a $1.5M cap savings, though that includes $2.6M dead cap accelerated from 2023. They could designate him a July 1st cut and keep that $2.6M dead cap in 2023, which would create $4.1M in room in 2022. But the bigger issue to me is that Oliver is the only other DT currently under contract for 2022 (unless you want to count Basham, which I wouldn’t). Star is due a $500k roster bonus on 3/22. The league year starts on 3/16. So it might all come down to whether or not Beane can find a suitable replacement for him and at what price. Or maybe he does take a pay cut to stay. Heres hoping they can sign Phillips to a reasonable extension before 3/16 too. That might help them make the decision on Star.

I agree with that general strategy. Making the space we need is certainly doable without drastic measures. They’ll cut ties with a few players and restructure others. I’ve detailed what iI would do in other threads. No time to look that up now. I have to go snow blow the driveway.

It’s a team game - and I seem to remember Rodgers playing very well in most of them. I wouldn’t put those losses all on his shoulders any more than I’d do that to Allen. I’m not blaming Allen for this year’s playoff loss to KC. Are you?

Not quite the situation we are in. We need to clear space to make room to: - get back under the salary cap while we are under the Rule of 51 - sign our draft class - re-sign or replace some starters/key backups (Wallace, Phillips, Trubisky) - eventually fit all 53 active roster players plus a full practice squad plus replacement players for IRed players under the cap. There’s work to be done just to tread water.

Some cap hit increases: - Edmunds went up almost $9M - Allen up about $6M - Diggs up about $11.5M - note that the Bills paid him a large portion of his 2011 salary as a signing bonus to create space last year. - Sanders and Addison have dead cap of about $3.4M total due to voidable years. I just got started and there’s about $30M right there.

Literally one of the most difficult things to do around here.

He also had that year when he won the Super Bowl and was SB MVP. That was a pretty good year.

That’s really the issue. No owner seems to be interested in accountability becoming a thing for them. That’s strictly for the worker bees.

Not necessarily so. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Tua is probably a Jimmy G level QB. But running a wide zone like the 49ers do doesn’t mean that you think you’ve got a limited QB. The Rams run it too, though a different version than the 49ers run. McVay acquired Stafford because he needed a better QB than Goff to run his version. Still, Kyle Shannahan is the current master of it. If his DB could field a gift INT then he’d be probably 7-0 against McVay despite having a lot less talent to work with.

This is the pertinent situation. Josh gets injured and misses time but is back at some point. I think it’s pretty likely that Fitz would love to come back here and he could help the team remain competitive for a month or two if needed. What you can’t have is a backup who will 💩 the bed for 6 weeks and pile up a 1-5 record while Josh is healing a broken bone. If that happens then even going 8–3 in the other games only gets you to 9-8 and no playoffs. If that backup QB can get the same team to 3-3, then even 7-4 with Allen playing gets you into the playoffs. 8-3 probably gets you the East. Huge difference.

Regular. The strawberry taste like they’re flavored with Strawberry Quick to me. I liked that as a kid, but not so much these days. Maybe I’m just a purist. I think someone mentioned Special K with strawberries. I remember that was pretty good. At least I liked the strawberries. I think FMWs have more flavors now. What’s your preference?

Glad someone brought up Frosted Mini Wheats (FMWs in my house). Excellent call. I also like Great Grains Blueberry and cranberry. Usually Cinnamon Toast Crunch for those naughty times, though I agree that Golden Grahams are right tip there with them.

I’ve seen Squid Game and Train to Busan (zombie apocalypse movie). I liked both. Parasite is on my list to watch.

Josh Allen will the the comp every agent pushes for their raw, smaller school QB prospect. It usually won’t be accurate.