Tuco

Thank you.

Thanks for your interest all. If anybody wants a hard cover version it's now available. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1J5J3PV/ref=sr_1_2?crid=15OFU8MXHSYQR&keywords=deadly+possession&qid=1681573073&s=books&sprefix=deadly+possession%2Cstripbooks%2C185&sr=1-2 All the versions are supposed to be linked but aren't yet for some reason. Kindle and paperback are still found here - https://www.amazon.com/DEADLY-POSSESSION-M-K-Danielson-ebook/dp/B0BWB92V2M/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&fbclid=IwAR3wWkGZISbgtBUQ4l1BGkgLwiMRJfGlE5rhRRH_8wRaSnpw4AUe_np_DKo

Thank you and thank you!

Thanks Mup. And Shaw. And everybody else. No references to the Music City Miracle. That would be too much GRAPHIC HORROR!! LOL. I haven't hawked it too much myself yet as self-publishing is a learning experience. I'm still getting the hang of the little intricacies of using Amazon's website, and learning how their ad campaigns work, etc. But it is out there, available as an ebook or a paperback - and hopefully as a hard cover in a day or two. So thanks in advance to anybody who buys a copy. I hope you like it. Thanks I hope yoyu like it. Thanks I hope you like it.

The reason we lost out on Gilmore by signing scrubs was because it used to be any player in the top 50% counted. And it's possible there was a time when all FAs signed counted (which is why a lot of people still think it is), I can't say for sure there. But it's not that way any more. With teams signing 90 players, the majority of whom are very low contracts, it's not hard to fall into the top 50%. This year the top 35% is somewhere in the $2.5-$3.0 mil range. At 50%, like I'm pretty sure it used to be when we lost out on a pick for Gilmore, the figure would of course be much lower, and a lot more so-called scrubs would be figured into the formula. It was changed to 35% with the 2020 CBA. And the top 35% is not just the first year, it's the average per year of the total contract, figured as I explained above. You take the total of all salary and bonuses and divide by the number of years in the contract. So even if a guy has only a $2 mil salary in his first year, but a $20 mil signing bonus plus a huge salary in year 4 plus a huge roster bonus in year 2, it all adds up and is divided by the number of years in the contract. So the guy might only have a $2 million base salary for the first year, but if his contract is for a total of $40 million over 4 years, then he goes into the formula at $10 mil per year, while every other player in the league's contract (for the purposes of comp picks) is also figured the same. If the player's contract falls inside the top 35% he counts, and if it's outside he doesn't.

So many experts. So little time. In summary - As noted above, not all players count. Only unrestricted free agents (that includes RFA and ERFA candidates who are not tendered) whose contracts expired on the last day of the league year, and whose new contracts fall inside the top 35% of all player contracts count (currently around $2.5 - $3.0 mil). Players who were released before the start of "free agency" do not count. Also, tagged players whose tag was rescinded count. The deadline for signed players to count in the formula is 4:00 PM eastern on the Monday following the draft (May 1st this year). If a player initially counts and is then cut, he generally doesn't count any more. But he could still count if the amount of money earned before being cut still puts him inside the top 35% of all contracts. But the value would of course then be lowered depending on where his earnings eventually fit in. That's why the official list isn't released until after the season. The contract figure used considers the entire contract salary, bonuses and incentives, including likely to be earned and not likely to be earned, divided by the number of years in the signed contract. It is also adjusted after the season to adjust for these factors, and is also a reason why the official list isn't released until after the season. The formula used to be a secret - or at least was never made public. Since the signing of the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (when some of the rules were tweaked) however, the exact formula and all its rules have been available to anyone who wants to take the time to read and understand them. It's listed in the CBA as Appendix V, and starts on page 399. But for most of us, the OTC site does a pretty good job with their predictions. Some picks, of course, are adjusted during and at the end of the season for reasons listed above. But those are usually the bottom of the 7th round choices. For example, there are generally 32 picks given each year under the formula. Adjusting of contracts after the season can easily result in a player who would normally fall at say, 39 (no pick) to jump up to 31 (a 7th), or something similar, and vice-versa. Signed, Specifically yours, Cliff Claven

Looks to be right on.

Oh I see. Well 30 year old WRs who just missed 6 games in the previous season don't usually. And I never really expected that we would sign him. Just pointing out the team that does sign him sure won't be getting a $21 million cap hit. But yeah, anything we sign him for would certainly be cap issue - just like anybody we sign this offseason. Sure they can. Any team can always do that. But with a cap hit of $25.8 mil in 2024 I'm not sure just how much or how far they can move enough to make a difference - and whether they think it would be worth it. Which, I'm assuming, is why they are considering him a cap casualty cut in the first place.

Because he has a $15.5 million salary with the Chargers in 2023, plus some prorated cap bonuses for a total cap charge in 2023 of $21.7 million for the Chargers. If he becomes a cap casualty and the Chargers cut him (not saying they will but whatever), they save $14.8 million in cap space in 2023. Allen becomes an unrestricted free agent who will. at the age of 30, presumably sign a new contract for a cap charge much lower than the $21.7 million the Chargers are strapped with.

For me the deja vu started 2 years ago. We lost the championship game (to the Bengals) in our star quarterback's 3rd year. The next year we took a step back by losing in the divisional round. Then we started a SB run against NFC East teams in our star quarterback's 5th year - with our first playoff game at home against Miami. Go Bills! Beat the kitty kats.

I liked it better when there were six , five team divisions and only 5 from each conference got in. Half your games were divisional. All division winners got a bye while the wildcards played. But I guess I'm old. Even when they went to 6 teams it was still better when the league had 30 teams and 6 divisions.

It's because when multiple teams are involved in a wildcard tiebreaker, the first step is to break the tie between any teams that are in the same division. The Lions currently win the tiebreaker with the Packers because they won their head-to-head matchup. So the Packers are out of the equation. Then the tiebreaker goes to the Lions and Seahawks. The Seahawks win because they beat the Lions head-to-head. So the Seahawks are currently in 7th. Eighth and ninth go back to the Lions beating the Pack, so Lions are currently 8th and the Packers 9th. If the Packers beat the Lions next week they will no longer be tied. And even if the Seahawks also win they will lose the tiebreaker to the Packers due to conference record. That will give the 7th to the Packers. As a note to the Bears/Redskins story, somewhere, I think around 20 years ago, the league changed the tiebreakers, and point differential, while still on the list, is much farther down the. I'm almost positive since that change no tiebreaker has gone further than strength of victory. My two cents.

No, they wouldn't. Even with all the uncertainty surrounding the week 18 schedule, the rules still say teams must be informed with no less than 6 days notice. The Bills will not be playing on Saturday.

If the defense commits the penalty after the 2:00 minute warning they enforce the penalty, re-set the play clock to 40 and then re-start the game clock. There is no advantage to purposely committing an Offside penalty before the snap to try to conserve time inside 2:00 minutes.

I've always said this too. Thanksgiving was a family affair so let's just say I had to watch the game with people I don't usually watch with. It was early in Josh's career and one family member kept calling him a "big fake." And yes, the timing of the play was huge. Big game on national TV, down 7-0 still in the first quarter and in danger of punting out of our own endzone, almost assuring we'd go down by 2 scores early in the game. Josh made the play and I've always looked back on it as the one I remember being convinced that Josh wasn't a "big fake." It was just different. EJ Manuel would have undoubtedly dumped it to either McKenzie at the 5 or the RB safety valve at the LOS and hoped for the best. Trent Edwards was very good at pre-snap decision making, dropping back 5 steps and pinpointing a perfectly timed pass. But when a team would disguise their coverage (which they did a lot of once the book was out on Trent), like showing zone pre-snap but actually blitzing and going to man at the snap, or if the coverage was just that good, Trent was lost. If Trent was the QB there, even if he did avoid the pressure, he would have undoubtedly dropped it short. Then after the game he would have repeated his favorite line about how they showed a lot of stuff we hadn't seen on film, etc. Losman would have decided at that point to launch one to Smoke or somebody 40 yards downfield. Unfortunately, in most cases even if Smoke was open, Losman would have thrown it 45 yards. Too bad I kinda like JP and wished he had better staff and surroundings. Anyway, Josh just gets it done. Sure, he had to learn a little bit and dial down the hero ball. But I wouldn't trade him for anything. And for me it all started with that play in Dallas. What happens when the play doesn't go as planned - which is often in this league? Many QBs struggle. A few of them just make plays anyway - timing and mechanics be damned. That's Josh Allen. Wish I could find a vid of just that play. But it's at the 1:45 mark here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmVut-6Acp4

Well while we're at it, there was a time when the QB couldn't just spike the ball to stop the clock either. They had to take the snap and fire it over the WR's head or at his feet. And there was a time when offensive linemen weren't allowed to move once they were set. There was none of this guards and tackle pointing all over the place until right before the snap. And there was no such thing as a neutral zone infraction. As long as no contact was made the defender could come across the line and if the offensive lineman moved it was a false start. Then they changed the rule to read if the neutral zone infraction causes the lineman to move instinctively then it's a penalty on the defense. And now, of course, offensive linemen simply point to the defender as soon as he comes across the line. That used to not exist in any form. O linemen got set and had to stay set without even twitching. And defenders could jump Offside and get back before the snap with no repercussions.

Here's the salary cap and the rule of 51 (which everybody thinks they know but most don't) explained very briefly. MYTH: During the off seaqson only the top 51 salaries count against the cap. TRUTH: During the off season the salary cap consists of the 51 highest salaries (in cap charge terms), plus all the cap charge from dead money, plus all prorated bonuses for players who are outside the top 51. It's true. Go to Spotrac right now and scroll down past the top 51. You will see guys like Mike Love with a salary of $830,000. That figure is crossed out because it's not part of the top 51. But right below the $830,000 figure you will se $5,000. That's not crossed out because, since it's going to be charged whether Mike Love makes the team or not, it is included now. There are numerous other examples. And if you still don't believe me you can go ahead and add up the cap charges for the top 51 and you will see they don't add up to anywhere near our "top 51" figure. It's only when the dead monies are added in too that the number comes up to where it really is. REGULAR 53 MAN MYTH: Well there are lots of them. Suffice it to say every player under contract, including IR, PUP and practice squad players, along with all dead money, are part of the cap. The only real exception to this is a player under suspension by the league and in most cases a player on the reserve non-football injury list.

Yes they do. Along with all 53 on the roster plus anybody on injured reserve.

Right. That was back in a different day than the one I was referring.

Back in the day there used to be a 47 man roster and that was it. If you only had 45 healthy and the other team had 47 healthy, so be it. You just played with 2 fewer. The one saving grace to this was the IR system allowed each team a certain number of "free" moves from IR to the main roster. The number was limited, so if a team wanted to move a player from IR to the 47 man roster but didn't want to use up a "free" move, they would have to expose the player to waivers (this is exactly what happened when you hear about how we took Steve Tasker off waivers from Houston. Houston wasn't getting rid of Tasker. They were trying to move him from IR to their 47 without using a "free" move - thinking nobody would claim him, ha ha). It was also the days before the salary cap. So as you can guess, teams would instruct a bunch of young, possible developmental players to go out and get injured in the last preseason game so they could stash guys on IR instead of possibly losing them. Yes, they all did it. But once the salary cap came into existence they needed a new system to keep teams from stashing players. Or rather to give them all an equal field of stashability. So they came up with the 53 man roster, but kept the game day roster at 47. And they also, at the time, made it so any player who went on IR before making the final 53 could not return during the season. The idea being, the extra 6 spots were basically considered a team's development and/or in season IR. And regular IR would only be used for guys who were seriously injured and wouldn't be coming back anyway. They didn't just allow all 53 to dress on game day because, back then 53 players was basically it, just like 47 had been previously. No practice squads and IR players ineligible to return. So they didn't want a scenario where one team might have 53 healthy players dressed while their opponent might only have 49. And believe it or not, in the early days teams used to have to declare which 6 players were not playing at least 72 hours before game time. The system actually worked. But over the years they have added large practice squads with the ability to shuffle players back and forth. And they have added a certain number of IR players that can come back. So really the reasons for doing it originally don't really seem to make as much sense any more. But I doubt it will change any time soon. That's just the way the NFL works.

I agree with the watered down aspect, just like the Rock and Roll HOF. I think it comes from the feeling of needing to induct a minimum amount of people every year. After a while you get a group consisting of true hall of famers, and a secondary group who were very good. Excellent even. But adding to that secondary list every year eventually makes that group bigger while the core group of real stars remains very much the same size with a few exceptions. I'm also not surprised to hear Deion blowing his own horn. But I just want to mention, I too always thought of Deion as a Me Me Me guy. And everything about his actions have always shown that, and still do. But I also remember reading Tim Green's The Dark Side of the Game. He talks at length about Deion and his confident flamboyance. And while he doesn't deny its existence, he also says there was another side to Deion. Green claims Deion was actually a great guy. Always willing to share and wanting to win. And that he was very respected and well liked in the locker room. I don't think Green meant to convince the readers that Deion was anything less than his outward public appearance suggests. But I found it interesting that he went out of his way to praise the guy's locker room presence as a very positive influence rather than the divisive factor that most of us probably always assumed.

With the 19th selection in the 1982 draft, the Bills select -- 1982 - 7 games, 7 receptions, 107 yards, 0 touchdowns 1983 - 9 games, 17 receptions, 261 yards, 3 touchdowns After Buffalo, in Atlanta and Tampa Bay, a total of - 1984 - 8 games, 1 reception, 7 yards, 0 touchdowns Total - 24 games, 25 receptions, 375 yards, 3 touchdowns Ladies and gentlemen, I present you, The Hero of The Orange Bowl, All-American wide receiver, Perry Tuttle . . . bust extraordinaire.

Must be collusion. I smell a lawsuit in the near future.

The Lions and Cowboys alternate which team plays an AFC opponent, so CBS and FOX keep their normal schedule of games. This year it's Detroit's turn to host an AFC team on Thanksgiving. So unless they change that rule it will be either the Bills or the Dolphish for the Thanksgiving matchup. Also, traditionally, the Lions game is always at 12:30 and the Cowboys is always 4:30. So unless another trend is bucked, we will most likely be at Detroit at 12:30 on Thanksgiving.