GunnerBill
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Posts posted by GunnerBill
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If you took out the endorsements variable, I would have to believe that Messi would be #1. Simply put he is the most dominating pro that we've seen in any sport since Michael Jordan.
Best player ever in the world's biggest sport.... but the list is about fame. I'm not surprised to see Ronaldo ahead of him in that regard. Messi lives a quieter, more unassuming, (and a little more tax dodging) existence....
I've had the privilege to see them both live a handful of times. Messi is incredible.
No surprise here. As far as the world is concerned the NFL is a regional nuanced sport. Outside of the US they have heard of Brady (maybe) but revere Messi, Christiano, Pogba, Neymar......
Pogba? Pogba? Seriously.... he isn't in the same league as those other three. Speaking from a general UK perspective the two NFL players that none fans mention when they find out I love the NFL are Brady (obviously) and OBJ (I think the Beckham name helps).
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Who cares? I want a coach that's successful and cultivates a winning atmosphere. There are coaches that have been successful who are quiet and mellow (Sean Payton, Walsh). Then there's been successful coaches that yell, bark and are hot heads (Ditka and Harbaugh). There's no right or wrong personality to succeed in this league.
I wouldn't call Sean Payton mellow. Mike McCarthy I would consider mellow, Belichick stoic.... it is true that lots of different styles can win. What the winners all have in common is their detailed preparation.
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i dunno... i think with our frontline and the way they have blocked for the last few years that JWill will do just fine as the second back. we had Karlos before Gillislee and we didn't miss a beat with either. sure, i could be wrong ... we'll see soon enough.
I just think those 2 are better than JWill. Maybe he is a lot more healthy and it all turns round for him but based on last year he has a lot of convincing to do for me.
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In his limited carries last year he looked slow, hesitant to hit the hole, and went down pretty easily. He also fumbled a couple times. I wouldnt count on him to be anything more than replaceable
Agree. I hope we have a gem there.... and we should treat it as a nice surprise if he is. I just don't think the Bills can bank on it. He is likely to be suspended the first two weeks of the season too, so his place on the 53 is not certain for me. An O'Neal or a Banyard is likely to get a first crack at that #2 job whilst JWill sits on the side, if they shine there is no guarantee he is brought back once the suspension is over.
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Hmmm....the way I see it, Henderson didn't "lose his job" halfway through his 2nd year, he had serious medical issues and now looks like he's drugging his way out of the league.
I'm not sure "starter" is the fair evaluation of later round draftees, especially in the 1st 3 years of their careers.
Strong contributor would do, lot of value there. And even with starter, you missed a few
What I think is a "fair cop" is that the Bills under Whaley def. went with some "high ceiling, high risk" guys - guys with red flags in college who would have all the potential in the world if they got their life in order or their medical probs. resolved. Henderson and Karlos Williams would def. fall into the "high ceiling, red flag" category.
Draftees from later rounds who have played well:
Kevon Seymour (2016, 6th) - played 15 games as a rookie. 22 tackles, 3 pass defense - not a star, but good value for 6th round
Adolphus Washington (2016, 3rd - played 15 games as a rookie. 12 tackles, 9 assists. May fall a victim to scheme change, but showed some promise.
John Miller (2015, 3rd) - You missed this guy. He was starting. Poor rookie year, much improved last year.
Karlos Williams (2015, 5th) - Million dollar talent, 10 cent head. He looked like "all that and a bag of chips" until he drugged and ate his way out of the league.
Preston Brown (2014, 3rd) - starter/not starter kind of tenuous distinction on Ryan's D with its zillions of substitutions, but I think you'd have to tag him as a "Starter", and the "Brown Bros" did pretty well
Russ Cockrell (2014, 4th) - he's starting all right, including in playoff games - just not for us, for a BETTER team (Steelers). Scheme change casualty of Ryan.
Seantrell Henderson (2014, 7th) - another example of a high ceiling, red flag guy. As you noted, Starting until his intestines went caflooie
Marquise Goodwin (2013, 3rd) - I guess you call your #3 WR a starter, even if it took him 4 years to get there? whether he should have been a #3 is another issue. I kind of have to give you a pass for overlooking Flash.
Duke Williams (2013, 4th) - started games (tenous distinction for DB). 39 tackles and 14 assists in 2014 good D. Whether he could have been more serviceable staying in another scheme than Ryans, can't say.
Nigel Bradham (2012, 4th) - another one who is starting elsewhere, for a team that looks upward bound (Eagles). Started 14 games for us in 2014, 66 tackles, 38 assists. Another scheme change casualty.
Kelvin Sheppard (2011,3rd) - started in 2012. I didn't think well of him, but he's still in the league - has started for Dolphins and Giants (last year, 11-5)
D'Norris Searcy (2011,4th) - started games beginning as a rookie - tenuous distinction DB starter or not - Played well in 2014 in good Bills D, Scheme change casualty. Started 2 years for Tenn.
Players who have/had potential, but have been IR'd so far:
Kolby Listenbee (2016, 6th) - still on IR and not participating in OTAs?
Tony Steward (2015, 6th) - on IR with the Bills, now on IR with the Saints
The points I'm trying to make would be:
-Late rounds not quite as bereft of starting talent as your post would have them be. An average of 2 players a year who contribute strongly from 3rd to 7th round is actually pretty good for late rounds (40%, good would be >30%)
-Scheme change has had a HUGE impact on talent retention for defense
I didn't miss Miller (who I am on of the bigger fans on this board of) or Preston Brown or Kelvin Sheppard or the useless Flash for that matter. We have probably batted slightly below average on 3rd rounders but I was specifically talking about 4th round or later.
Duke wasn't a starter.... he was a backup who started when a starter went down. Seymour was a pick I liked but as yet he hasn't established himself as a starter. Karlos was not a starter either he was a #2 back. Cockrell I agree was a victim of scheme change - and I actually accepted that principle a few pages back. If there is one I "forgot" it would be Nickell Robey-Coleman who was an UDFA in 2013 and became a 'starter' as the nickel.
But in 6 drafts to only find 4 guys from round 4 on capable of starting..... that guarantees you having to play the low end free agent market well - which in fairness was something of a Whaley strength. They need to improve in that facet for me. Scheme consistency will help, but look at the top teams in the league they almost all have star players who were drafted late. Whether it is Julian Edelman (7th Rd), Chris Harris (UDFA), Richard Sherman (5th Rd), David Bakhtiari (5th Rd), Davonta Freeman (4th Rd), Antonio Brown (6th Rd)..... the best the Bills can muster is two 4th rounders who walked after rookie deals and a less than average right tackle who played a season and a half.
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At first glance I agree. But what has me nervous is, what happens if he gets hurt during the season? Then you're scrambling to fill multiple roster spots simultaneously.
They will keep a punter and a kicker. I'd be shocked if Hauschka isn't on this team as the FG kicker but Rehkow has a chance to be the punter and kick off guy.
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Based on what, exactly? There are two backup RB positions available. Johnson has as good a shot as anyone.
I think he is a long shot, Williams, O'Neal and Banyard all start camp ahead of him. I think his best shot is to establish himself as a short yardage specialist and seek to stick in that role where the alternative is keep Tolbert as a 2nd full back. I'd have his chances low... but it is better than 0%.
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i was thinking about him hope he put on some muscle looked really quick last preseason but real skinny also seemed to be around the play alot fingers crossed
He is a Bengal.
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First of all, when 8 of 30 first and second round draft picks over more than a decade are outright busts -- they were essentially useless for the Bills and every other NFL team -- how is this a result of "the coaching carousel"?
There is no doubt our drafting through most of the 00s was brutal. I think it has got better since Nix purged the FO of Modrak and Guy after the 2010 draft. Since then their picks in the first two rounds have been:
2011 - Dareus, A. Williams (pretty good)
2012 - Gimore, Glenn (outstanding)
2013 - EJ, Woods (mixed results)
2014 - Watkins, Kujo (an incomplete and a bust)
2015 - Darby (pretty good)
2016 - Shaq, Ragland (incomplete)
Still not sensational but 2 busts in 11 (12 picks) 1st and 2nd rounders is, I would guess, probably slightly better than the league average. Where I personally think the Bills haven't done very well since the beginning of this decade is with their later round picks. The only people we drafted after the 3rd round in that period who have become starters at any stage in their Bills career are:
Searcy - drafted in the 4th in 2011 who started 1 year after 3 as a backup;
Bradham - drafted in the 4th in 2012 who started 2 years after 2 as a rotational player;
Henderson - drafted in the 7th in 2014 started in his rookie year and lost the job halfway through his 2nd year.
Interestingly those two success stories - Searcy and Bradham - both walked after their rookie deal.
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I want a team that is coached to compete every week. I don't want someone who makes excuses..... which was Rex's calling card.
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Jake Metz the arena league defensive end. Total, total longshot but I think it is a position where there is a spot to be won. 9 sacks in 17 games in the Arena League in 2016. I'm interested to hear how he copes in camp.
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You are right Big Blitz. It was a terrible, terrible trade. It might be the moment their true Superbowl window closed.
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No doubt.
Bizarre signing.
I think it's funny how excited people were about that extra 5th rounder the Bills got for MG.......and then how fast the Bills then turned a handful of such highly fan-valued mid-round picks into dust by trading up for guys that nobody would have been surprised to see available at the Bills original drat positions.
I'd have been a little surprised to see Zay Jones make it to our original pick.... but I still thought the gap between him and the other receivers wasn't big enough to justify the trade up.
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I think the possible mishandling of the comp pick strategy this offseason may be in no small part due to the fact that we didn't have a GM. Whaley had clearly lost all power by that stage and maybe McDermott just doesn't understand the system or pay attention to it the way a GM would. Before anyone says "it was bad under Whaley too" the one time in Whaley's reign that we lost valuable pieces in free agency (after 2014) he turned that into two comp picks (a 4th and a 6th or a 7th I forget) in the 2016 draft.
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Their offensive line talent the last two seasons has been TERRIBLE. It pretty much explains everything.
It has but they only have so many cap dollars.... they have to scrimp somewhere... they have paid 3 of the legion of boom, Bennett and Avril, Wagner at LB, then Wilson, Baldwin and Graham (don't be shocked if Graham is cut by the way) on offense... the cash has to come from somewhere. I read last season that they had the lowest cap spend on o-linemen in the whole league. In Wilson's rookie year they had the highest. I really think the Max Unger for Jimmy Graham trade was a terrible one for Seattle.
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There is another way to gain some help that Rodak didn't mention. If Blanton, E.J., or Hunter play enough non-special teams snaps, they can become a CFA and count toward our losses. This would mean cutting 3 of our FA's would get us 2 more picks. It's not that far fetched -- Barry Church is gone in Dallas and the SS position is in flux, Blanton could win the starting job possibly.
Yep... people keep missing that there is performance element to it. The qualifying rankings now (based purely on $$s) is not the full picture. If Bryant can't behave in Pittsburgh and win people round then I suspect Hunter will get a lot of snaps as a redzone weapon... like he did for us last year.
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Foresight when it comes to resource allocation and draft picks was never Whaley's forte, and it's a big reason he's unemployed. I'm really hoping Beane has a sounder strategy when it comes to these things.
These were McDermott moves.
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Interesting. How did you come upon this inside scoop?
I've PM'd you. But I am also not the only person on this board to have heard that Whaley ranked the candidates and ranked Hue #1.
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If we end up with a Hodges/Ragland/Alexander base LB group, run fits should be much better. Hodges is seriously good vs the ground game.
That with Preston (inside) and Humber (outside) as depth sounds a little more encouraging.
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When you have 3 head coaches in a 4 year run-- draft picks get wasted.
Late picks are often very scheme specific guys that don't transition well and we've been a mixed bag on the top of the draft guys that should be around more often than not.
This is also true. Late round guys are much more scheme fits so the constant switching definitely plays a part.
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It does - no question.
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One thing just about everyone agrees on finally
"Buffalo sports media 100% truly does suck"
I'm not sure it does. I quite like WGR *ducks for cover*
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But they write well
They really don't. Vic is the exception. Vic writes pretty well whether you agree or disagree with his content. Graham's writing is not great and Sullivan's is brutal.
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That isn't true really. Some do complain about negativity for sure but not all. These guys are poor writers and childish. That is what receives most of the complaints.
Correct. People see criticism of the BN and assume we are all butt hurt because they are critical. Often we just wish they'd do their jobs a bit better. I don't hate Sully's articles because he is negative.... I hate his articles / columns because they are amateurish in the way they are written.
No NFL player famous in the world - ESPN
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Yea I knew Kohli and Dhoni would be on this list. India is a huge country and cricket mad.