SoMAn

The X factor: which teams will remain relatively intact with good health? It’s impossible to know who and when a key player for the Bills or their competition may miss time. Assuming Allen and Diggs don’t miss significant playing time, the Bills will get deep in the playoffs and have as good a chance (or better) as anyone else to make it to the superbowl. If Allen goes down, I think they’re toast. The Bills have some tough competition on this year’s schedule, but so does the rest of the division and the other first place finishers from ‘22. They’ll all be handing losses to each other. I believe the defense will be top 4 and won’t miss Edmunds. I think Gabe will bounce back and be a legitimate threat. Hoping the O line will mesh with new additions. Not worried about big Spencer Brown. I think he’ll surprise a lot if you with improved play at RT. The line has room for improvement, but they weren’t as bad as some believe. Receivers finding openings and Josh getting rid of the ball quicker will magically make that line look great. I’m bullish on the Bills chances for winning it all. Bring it on.

Thanks for the insight. The only jerseys I ever owned was a replica #12 (I don’t believe it even had a name on the back) and a 2003 Travis Henry away jersey. That one should have come with the little family stencils seen on rear car windows, depicting Henry’s 20 kids and concubines. On a similar note regarding team Jerseys- I’d be reluctant to spend $100+ on an authentic jersey with players changing teams and numbers so frequently. They’re often already dated after a couple of years. Anyone get a James Cook #28 last year? Sorry. James is now #4. # 28, who knows? Camp fodder?

I’d be surprised if that’s correct. My recollection is it was only that single game against the Broncos. If you have any photo evidence or links regarding that same ugly helmet worn in Oilers contest, please share.

I heard he was sleeping under his desk

Uniform appeal is completely subjective and dependent on an individual’s opinion. I actually like the old school classic look of the Browns. Fall colors and the whole Jim Brown/Otto Graham vibe. Rub some mud on the jersey and stick some turf in the face mask and it almost looks like the way god intended it. Same opinion for Packers, Steelers, and a few other unis.

It is what it is…a changing game and changing market for some positions. If they don’t like the job, go sit for an insurance license exam. They effectively get paid over $1,000,000 with 4 months off to vacation or just spend time with family. In the glory days of when RBs where taken 1st overall and were often the best paid, corners, receivers, and OTs were second tier players on the wage scale. That’s flip-flopped with the change in game and rules that favor the passing game.

Anyone have a good potato salad recipe they’d care to share? 😏

It’s amusing to me how much if the off-season discussion is centered around rankings or opinions from various writers, commentators, and pundits who cover NFL matters. I get it. It’s not September yet and we’re all hungry for Bills football. I don’t put a lot of import on the rankings by Joe Blow of the Miami Herald or whomever is the latest lazy columnist who’s run out of stories. If they run dry they can always rely on ‘a list’ to make the deadlines. Not knocking it at all. It’s a conversation starter. But, I don’t know that the so-called experts who’ve managed to eek out a living sharing this stuff know any more than us or that their rankings have any real merit.

When I was a teen working in a Tonawanda foundry, we had a vending machine for coffee where someone had thoughtfully placed a Mr. Yuk sticker on it’s front glass panel to warn us of the inferior brew that could be ours for the bargain price of thirty cents. 🤮

Half the suburban basements surrounding Buffalo looked similar to that-including the one I grew up with. Did yours have drop ceiling panels knocked out from hockey sticks when playing street hockey down there?

All the way to the very end of the season

I won’t be surprised if Klein gets the job. There were reports that he’s very intelligent, described as like having a D coach on the field. Give me as guy with smarts and good instincts over the by-the-book superior athlete, any day. What good is all that length, wing span, and athleticism when you have no idea where the play is going? Edmunds was usually chasing the play rather than making the play. If the eventual replacement is a step slower than Edmunds, he’ll still get to the ball carrier sooner because he’s a better football player.

He got the green dot and radio helmet because of his positional proximity and ability to be heard in the middle of the defense. I don’t know that he’s any kind of defensive genius. More likely just the messenger. Though we don’t know who it will be, I have to believe whoever inherits the role will be a more aggressive tackler and less of a liability against the run. Yes, we will see.

I have a reasonably good vocabulary, but wasn’t familiar with that word. After learning it’s meaning, I’m amazed it’s not more commonly used. Thanks for the enlightenment! Yes, a PowerPoint presentation would be a useful tool to help us understand why McDermott should go, but maybe more importantly, who the replacement should be. 🙄 The statistics are ridiculously one-sided. A more balanced view might include how many years those rapidly ascending coaches went without getting to a Super Bowl after being there early in their careers. Tomlin, Payton, Carroll, etc. The great Don Shula-how many consecutive years did he lead without getting there? Considered one of the all-time best coaches, yet he went 25+ years after ‘74 not winning the big game. Loser! Can we get a pie chart illustrating the collective below-average IQ of the ‘fire McDermott’ throng?

I believe the LB core will be improved with a replacement for Edmunds. He had a couple decent games, but more often he was out of position, pushed around unable to shed blocks, chasing the ball carrier up field, and at the end of the play frequently standing nearby the defender who actually made the tackle. Don’t believe he’ll be missed. Prediction: The Bears and their fans will soon realize what poor value they got for that big contract, and when it makes fiscal sense with the cap hit, they’ll cut him loose.

Reading between the lines of several statements from Josh since OTAs… Management wants him to play more disciplined ball. They want him to settle down, find secondary receivers, be more careful with the ball, execute the plays as they’re designed, and use his legs as a last resort or when the opportunity presents itself. I think the team has attempted to improve the O-line to put Josh in that position. Whether or not the line will be improved enough remains to be seen.

Don’t know who that is, but very possible. On One Bills Live there are several pensioners who call in frequently, and they wear their gerontology like a badge of honor, proud to share anecdotes of the leather helmet days of the All American conference Buffalo Bills in Civic Stadium. The tip off is when they refer to wideouts as ‘flankers’

Gravelly-voiced! Half of the old farts who call WGR sound like Tom Carvel- the guy who hawked Cookie Puss ice cream cakes on late night TV ads.

As a teen I worked at a pizza joint, and like all pizza places in Bflo area, they sold wings and subs too. Delivery was a huge part of the business, so the wings had to be crispy when they got there. BTW, The wings were: (10) $1.10 (20) $2.10 (30) $3.10 they all came in a fold-up cartons, shaped like a little house, handle on top that used tabs to keep it together. They had at least one punch-out vent hole either on top or at the end (I forget which). Pizza boxes also had vented punch-out holes. Those wing prices should give you some idea how long ago that was. 😊 That was when the local gin mills had nickel wings for happy hour and we could stop after work for a pitcher of beer, a dozen wings, tip the bartender, and it would cost us around $8. Apologies for sounding like one of those old gravely-voiced Polacks who call WGR’s One Bills Live every day and ramble on about their glory days at the rockpile watching Kemp and Cookie.

Brown does his homework and seems to be knowledgeable of the subject matter. That said, my impression of him is he’s a decent enough guy, but basically a jock-sniffing geek. He is to professional sports what Jack Black and Johnny Depp are to rock guitar. A wannabe. I’m not ever going to listen to the broadcast anyway, so I don’t much care. But hearing some of the audio highlights from him last year, it sounded like he was affecting Rick Jeanerette, as if that would sound good to the listeners. It seemed very contrived. Wish him well.

I doubt there are more than a handful of readers here who get the reference. I have a book of Mark Twain essays, and one of them was from a speech he gave in Paris in 1879 titled, ‘Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism’. The guy was whacked!

Or Billy Joe Hobert.

Overall, there were a lot of great times, many victories, historical team. The part that is the stickler for me (and many other Bills fans) is that the Bills should have won Super Bowl 25. They would have won 4 out of 5 against the Giants. They were facing the backup QB for gods sake. They had beaten the Giants in NJ after Kelly was knocked out of the game a few weeks earlier. Unfortunately, they faced the Giants after a crushing win 51-3 (blew their wad) and a single week between AFC Championship and Super Bowl to decompress. That is the ‘one that got away’. We know it. They know it. Then, the Bills had the unfortunate timing of playing Juggernauts Washington and Dallas, both of whom were peaking at just the right time. The Redskins were an anomaly with Rypien having the best year of his career. The Cowboys drafts from ‘88-‘92 were coming to fruition. Gotta give them credit for making the most of those picks. The Super Bowl matchup that never was: Buffalo and San Francisco kept missing each other. If that regular season ‘no punt’ contest the Bills won in SF was any indicator, that would have been a fantastic Super Bowl.

He was just average as a starting QB. His NFL career path as a backup and journeyman should be argument enough. He’s never been a top tier QB. Maybe not even in the top 4 tiers. He was a retread from another team, so he didn’t even have the love from Bills mafia afforded a draft hopeful with high expectations. A truly decent hard working guy and good teammate by all accounts, but he appeared a bit reserved, or even shy, so that may have prevented him from getting embraced by the Bills’ fan base in the same manner as the personable Ryan Fitzpatrick, who made no secret of his enduring affinity for WNY and the fans. That’s why he’s not more revered.

I believe ‘spanning time’ is an acceptable euphemism for extended periods of (often wasted) time. Since seeing that movie many years ago, it’s a phrase used frequently during spats with my wife. We can diffuse tense arguments by saying, “ok then, I guess we’re just spanning time”. humor is really the key to ‘spanning time’ with the same person for a long time 😊