BarleyNY

That’s the other thing with PFF - they have to take semi-educated guesses as to what a player’s assignment is on every single play. You give a good example of them guessing incorrectly. Besides, how often is a player’s assignment more nuanced? In this situation your primary responsibility is to spy the QB. Secondarily it is to cover space or a player. Next play it flips due to circumstance. And then there are players like Troy Polamalu, who freelanced by design on most plays. How do you grade that?

I think PFF looks at every player more generically. Take DEs. PFF has a fairly rigid system for rating a rep from -2 to 2. On a pass rush rep it boils down to how quickly the DE beat the blocker (if at all) and whether they got a sack or hit the QB. There’s no chance that when the Steelers grade TJ Watt that they hold him to that generic standard. He’s too talented and too highly compensated to be judged by the same criteria as a JAG. His potential is too great to look at him the same way.

For ratings to be useful people have to understand what they really mean, which includes what they’re actually measuring as well as their limitations. I like a lot of what PFF does, but their grading has limited utility. It’s better with some positions than others, but is still limited to what players are asked to do rather than what they’re capable of. For instance, a QB like Cousins who plays a much more limited role in his team’s offense, can more easily score a higher grade than a QB like Allen, who much more is asked of. Sam Monson recently mentioned this on a podcast when PFF’s grading came up. He used Dodson as an example of a player who graded very highly due to him doing well in a very limited role. It makes sense that coaches would be more interested in a player’s overall impact on a game and would factor in things like the difficulty of the assignment, the ability of the player, the contract of the player, etc. Each has their use and a value, but they aren’t going to be the same.

$5.5M in new money for Poyer next season. That seems very doable versus finding two new safeties and getting them both up to speed. I really hate that I’m responding to this thread while the Bills are alive in the playoffs. Sigh.

At least it was only himself he almost killed this time.

Exactly. We should all have a nice, long discussion about the future of Diggs specifically and the WR corps in general after the season concludes.

This sums him up. He has a lot of the physical tools you want and that INT showed great visual processing and reactions. But he still doesn’t seem comfortable in zone, he can’t seem to stay with WRs at the top of their routes unless he gets grabby and his physicality is at best inconsistent.

Not really. Seems a simple enough concept to explain. Winter air coming across a relatively warm body of water is warmed and gathers moisture. The air then moves off the lake and over cold land so it drops the moisture as snow. It only occurs until the lake freezes.

Yup. Better for everyone.

Thanks for sharing what you know. Even though the Bills wanted Frazier back I would be shocked if they were surprised by him not wanting to return after having play calling responsibilities stripped. At his age, with his experience and with only one year remaining on his contract, I’m sure that Frazier saw that situation for what it was - a gradual push out the door. He would’ve realized that his options were to stay on as DC in name for one more season and then not have his contract renewed or leave immediately. He chose the latter.

Isn’t changing someone’s job responsibilities a way of pushing them out? I’m not saying that this situation is 100% on either party or that the Bills wouldn’t have been justified in telling Frazier that they were going in another direction, but those aren’t “100% jumped” scenarios. I’m not sure what happened exactly. I won’t speculate in this post, but if Frazier had asked out of his contract early (the 100% jumped scenario) I’m sure the Bills would have let him go. But they would not have paid him out for this season.

Agreed. I got so much grief on this site for stating this at the time……

Two soft teams made the playoffs - Dallas and Miami. No surprise that they’re both gone already.

The compensation for the hiring of a minority (including female) candidate to a HC or GM position is one third round compensatory pick in each of the next two drafts to the team they were hired away from. So a total of two third round comp picks. As others have already mentioned, if Frazier is no longer under contract with the Bills then it doesn’t apply.

I won my FF league in due in part to Kyren Williams. As such I paid attention to him. He was a freaking beast. Some notable injuries to other top RBs like Nick Chubb paved the way. He had similar totals to Henry, but a better average. I think that’s what got him the nod for second behind McCaffery. A good case could’ve been made for a few others too.

All Pro matters a great deal - both first and second team. Pro Bowl is what doesn’t.

Thanks for the info. Bummer he missed that read.

You definitely want to go for it on 4th & 2 from the opponent's 35. IIRC Allen would have had to run over a couple defenders to run for it so that was not the best option. So he had to throw it. I'd have to look at the play again to see if he missed a better option - and judging by how covered the receiver in the EZ was that is a definite possibility - but that is about the only place I would look for fault on this play. And it's worth noting that Allen was scrambling at the time. The throw across his body is something he has had success with so I don't fault him for that either. As for the "it was as good as a punt" argument, I agree that it is a poor one. That's just fans justifying the result of a play with a bad outcome. I'm more in the "the defense gets paid too and sometimes they win" crowd.

I was actually a lot more critical of Miami on the two EZ INTs. They cost themselves 17 yards on the one they returned the to 3 and 15 yards by actually intercepting the ball on 4th down rather than knocking it down. They got that one on the 20 instead of the 35. That’s 42 yards on those two mistakes. As for Allen heaving one on 4th down. Why wouldn’t he? He can’t throw it away, take a sack or run it (okay MAYBE HE CAN RUN IT). He pretty much had to throw it somewhere.

While Rudolph isn’t a great QB, he has plenty of arm strength. That won’t be what holds him back in this game.

I wish this would’ve happened 15 years ago or 15 years from now

Once substance use/abuse changes the brain chemistry to the point that there is chronic brain disorder then the medical community classifies addiction as a disease. At that point the medical realities are physical and in the same realm as other diseases so they must be addressed as such. But I think that the reason people often take issue with that classification is because a person's choices are (generally speaking) what leads them down the path where they get to that point. It isn't difficult to understand that someone who was born with or watched a loved one suffer/die from something like Cystic Fibrosis or cancer (despite living a healthy lifestyle) would take issue being classified the same as someone who chose to drink heavily until they got to a point of alcohol addiction. It isn't the same situation. Not remotely. That doesn't mean that one should not have sympathy for addicts, that they shouldn't be supportive or that addicts deserve to be mocked. I'm not saying that at all. But let's not pretend there are no differences in the process either.

Thats not what I got out of the article. The people he interviewed gave a wide range of opinions on McDermott. Some were harsh, but certainly not all.

I think a lot of people had a hard time separating the axe grinding from the legitimate criticisms. Dunne could have done that himself, but I’m guessing that would have kept sales down.