The Frankish Reich

It’s probably Knox or Gabe eventually. But “not enough money under the cap to pay all our good players” is a classic good team problem. As far as the wisdom of committing scarce money to Knox vs. Gabe (or another WR): it makes sense to me. They are at about the same stage of development right now - guys who took a big step last year and are poised to enter the ranks of the pro bowlers at their positions. But TEs generally peak later, and elite TEs are a more rare commodity. Ask yourself: when did this franchise last produce one? (“Never” is the answer that comes to mind.) The likelihood of replacing Gabe’s production through other avenues is greater. So yes, this does tie Beane’s hands a bit starting next year, but it’s the kind of calculated risk I applaud him for taking.

I don’t see anything leaked that was national security information. The latest leak is that Trump had some type of nuclear capabilities assessment re: a foreign country or countries. It is no secret that the defense intel community is charged with making such assessments. If someone (including the Trump team) were to leak the contents of that report, then it’s a different story.

Funny, it seems that the leaks so far have proved to be true: - the search was for classified docs. TRUE. - prior friendly requests, and then a subpoena were met with a refusal to return all classified documents (despite an attorney certification to the contrary). TRUE. - some documents were at the highest level of classified. TRUE. Do you want to make a friendly wager as to whether some documents involved nuclear weapons/nuclear assessments? So far the so-called leaks (much of it not a leak at all but info mentioned in the return on the warrant) are batting 1.000

Translation: I never had classified documents in my home. And if I did, they were handed over voluntarily long before the search warrant. And if they weren’t, they were declassified anyway. And if they weren’t declassified, they weren’t very important anyway, and surely had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. And if they did have something to do with nuclear weapons, I only took them to defend myself against anticipated trumped-up charges that are even worse than the mere taking home of classified documents. And besides, what about Hillary’s emails? What about Benghazi?

And to think I almost didn’t click on this thread for fear that it would be one of those Next Gen stats-heavy analytical deep dives.

Hah! They have the same term in French: “Dentes Anglais.” That reputation is well deserved. But … it appears they’re going all American now. Everyone is getting their teeth fixed. It’s no fun anymore.

I take the 5th. But as a more general point: why on earth is the United States now the only advanced democracy run by decrepit 70 and 80 somethings?

As I pointed out earlier: Joe Ferguson started all 14 games in OJ's record breaking 2,000 yard season. He threw for 939 yards. 67 yards per game. Really. 67 passing yards per game. Sorry, but the young uns have no idea how different the NFL was back then. The Bills' offense was like the Broncos Tebow 2011 offense. The passing game was barely existent. Everyone knew OJ was getting the ball (and when he wasn't, the fullbacks - Braxton and Larry Watkins - were) and they still couldn't stop him. Compare Thurman's best year: 2113 yards combined, rushing and receiving. That's awesome. But Kelly threw for 3457 yards. Taking out Thurman's receiving yards, that's still about 2800 yards gained not involving Thurman. OJ was the offense in those peak years. Put him on a team that actually had some other talent (beyond offensive line and a few guys on the defensive side) like the early 90s Bills and that's a Super Bowl team.

Great way of putting it!

First NFL game I ever saw in person was at the old Rockpile, back in about '71. About 9 years old. Yes, that wasAnd I have really vivid memories of OJ in his glory years. I never saw Jim Brown or Gale Sayers (at least not in my football fan memories), but based on clips I'd say they may be #1 and #1A and #1B as far as the ability to accelerate and break any run for a TD. Barry Sanders could break any run too, but it was really a different running style. Eric Dickerson is usually forgotten in these conversations, but he had that turbo boost thing too.

Not at all. That just shows it was a poorly thought-out question. Maybe we want to ask, "The most talented skill set FOR HIS POSITION in Bills history." Otherwise I'm going with the Punt God.

Kind of a strangely phrased question: "most talented player." Best athlete? Well, I suppose that would be a combination of football-relevant skills: strength, speed, agility, arm strength/accuracy, etc. Kind of what we call a "5 tool player" in baseball (hit for average, hit for power, run, field, throw). So that means QB only, or a guy (Marlin Briscoe) who could play QB and other positions too. So that would be: Josh Allen. All by himself. Followed (about a mile lower?) by ... Briscoe? (too small) JP Losman? (too JP Losman) Kemp? Kelly? I don't even know. You see what I mean. EDIT: I just remembered Logan Thomas. So there's your #2. James Harris was rumored to have some running ability (he was never allowed to use it) so maybe he's third.

Not sure we were watching the same OJ as kids. The OJ I saw would be great in any era. His 2,000 yard season (14 games): 6.0 yards per carry. The Bills had a very good O line, but it wasn't Dolphins perfect season good. And we had Joe Ferguson at QB, who was ... barely adequate. How the game has changed: Fergy started all 14 games and threw for a grand total of 939 yards. Less than half what OJ ran for. He was a world class sprinter and could break one at any time - the acceleration when he saw daylight is still the best I've ever seen. Top 5 all-time? No doubter.

Well played.

Sorry, think I quoted the quoter ...

Correct. I'm just making the rhetorical point: if Biden is largely to blame for the rise in gas prices, then he must be largely credited with the fall.

I actually hated the movie. Bullet Train. Post-Tarantino Hollywood dreck. But for 3 bucks? Yeah, the A/C was good.

The moment Bills Mafia* storms Roger Goodell's NYC office building, threatens to hang Troy Vincent, Sr.**, and demands a do-over of the entire KC-Bills playoff game, well, then I'll gladly state that the existence of the Bills Mafia poses a threat to our very institution of professional football.*** *I hate that term, but it seems to be the accepted one, so, oh well ... **NFL VP/Football Operations ***Despite what many seem to think, our Way of Football is not our Way of Life.

Interesting how this thread is no longer active ... I paid $3.18/gallon to fill up my car yesterday (Costo, Colorado). Oh, and I paid all of $13 for 6 chicken breasts for dinner. And then my wife and I went to a movie on $3 cinema night. So I guess Bidenomics is working?

Maybe. I'm no campaign expert, but I always hear these campaign consultants say that midterm elections are all about turnout. So ... that's the route they're taking. Juice the base turnout (full overturning of Roe was kind of turnout magic no one expected) and hold the House and/or Senate. Nothing desperate. If this were an NFL game, we'd be talking about the Dem team trying to grind out a victory in a battle of field position.

Maybe that’s because Trump keeps playing the part the Dem strategists assign him? Voting (at least the fraudulent, early voting, 😛) begins in about a month in a lot of states. And there’s Donald John Trump, willingly taking the bait, talking about how he just might pardon the ex-cop who got 10 years for using the flagpole as a weapon against a current cop. And talking about his fantasy that somehow there will be an election do-over, halfway into Biden’s term, in which the Trump presidency will be gloriously restored. As Biden said in one of the debates — his best, and only memorable moment in his whole campaign, just shut up, man … … I finally watched the speech. It wasn’t meant for me. I’m a cynical old lesser of two evils, a pox on both their damn parties voter. It was meant to: (1) troll Trump and his endorsed candidates, who now get to answer fun questions like “do you favor a call for a do-over election and pardons for Jan 6 convicted rioters? And (2) to set a tone, aiming squarely at suburban/women voters, of the ominous future (all red-lot and doom and gloomy) that awaits if Republicans get power back. From that marketing/theme-ing perspective, I think it was effective. It’s a rally the base, turn out the suburban vote message. Against this we have the Repubs, seemingly forgetting everything that worked so well before (Reagan’s hopeful Morning in America themes) focused solely on old school rallies and trucker caps. So bad speech, cynically presented as a Speech to the Nation instead of a campaign rally speech? Yes. Effective in achieving its 2 goals? Yes. And Yes again.

It's obvious to me what this (including the speech) is all about. Democratic polling no doubt shows that "nationalizing" the midterms by associating every Republican with Trump is their best path to keep the House and/or Senate. And the Republicans seem hell-bent on making that easy. Biden trolls Trump; Trump responds by suggesting that he'll pardon the convicted Jan 6 rioters. In some alternate universe there is a more disciplined Trump just getting out of the way. But in our universe there is no such thing.

How dare you call our men and women in uniform dust mites.

I didn't watch it. I don't like this type of thing. It's a political campaign speech posing as an "address to the nation." Biden sees that Trump is on the ropes now and he wants to kick him while he's down. I'm not so naive as to think this is Trump's final undoing. But, you gotta admit it: Trump is being suckered into doing exactly what the Dem strategists want him to do. He's going full Q Anon/nutcase, scaring away all those suburban voters he'd need to win (and I mean actually win, not claim he "really won" even though the vote count says he didn't). Unhinged Trump is a really bad face of the Republican Party. They do best when people focus on Inept Biden instead.

Well, to life on the crappy party school campus at least. I am sooo happy that these dedicated students will have at least $10,000 of their loans forgiven.