BillsFan4

Nice! I was hoping for the AAV to come in under $10M, but I figured that wasn't all that realistic on an 8yr deal, half of those being UFA years. Thrilled to have Eichel in Buffalo for 9 more years!

I hope he stays out starter until someone better actually legitimately takes the job from him.

IMO we were very lucky to land this guy. I consider him to be one of the very best D line coaches in the NFL. I guess there were quite a few other teams after him, too, from what I read/heard.

We have a number of coaches on this staff with ties to Andy Reid. David Culley as you already mentioned, and Sean McDermott is obviously from the Andy Reid coaching tree (worked for him for 12 yrs) Leslie Frazier was a Reid disciple from Philly. Reid gave him his start as an NFL coach IIRC. Juan Castillo worked under Reid for 13 years in Philly. Chad Hall played for Andy Reid in Philly. I wrote a long, detailed post on all the ties between McDermott and Andy Reid during the offseason, but I don't know how to go back and look through all my old posts to find it.

Hey, at least his people get to see him on TV now, right? lol

I realize I might be going way out on a limb with this one and some may call me crazy, but... I really think they look identical to the way the 2017 Bills did 4 games into the season. Anyone else see it too, or is I just me?

But do we know if he bought these automatic weapons illegally? or did he just modify a legally bought semi automatic weapon or use a legal device to make it shoot like an auto? Sounds like he bought most all of the weapons legally from what they know so far, and that he had a legal bump stock style device - http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-las-vegas-shooting-live-updates-paddock-had-19-rifles-in-room-1506985512-htmlstory.html "Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter, had an arsenal of 17 weapons in his hotel room, mostly military-style rifles, according to a law enforcement source. At least one of them had been modified with a legal “bump stock” style device that allows the shooter to rapidly fire off rounds without actually converting it to a fully automatic weapon, the source said. The devices modify the gun’s stock so that the recoil helps accelerate how quickly the shooter can pull the trigger. The devices are legal in the U.S. Paddock apparently bought the guns legally, passing the required background checks." This article explains what a bump stock is and shows a video of how it works (as well as other ways thenshooter could have turned legal guns into automatics) - https://www.wired.com/story/las-vegas-shooting-automatic-rifle/ Its still early into the investigation though. Let's see what they find out, and if the above info ends up being accurate.

I can not blame McDermott for passing on a QB at #10 in this draft. The way everything played out with the draft and what happened immediately afterwards, I think it's pretty clear he had a GM + an entire scouting & personnel staff that he did not have much trust or faith in. When McDermott took over the team he said that the job was available for a reason. He said usually when a team fires people that means it's "sick" and you have to examine everything, find the problem and then have the courage to fix it. He obviously diagnosed the GM and his staff as part of that "sickness". He was barely a few months into a job that he worked tirelessly the past 2 decades to earn so I can understand why he wouldn't want to basically bet his entire head coaching career on a top 10 drafted QB (that he'd be tied to for years) under those circumstances. Especially when he (most likely) knew that he wouldn't be tied to that front office staff and changes would be made right after the draft to bring in a people he trusted. Let's see what happens over the next few seasons before we declare passing on Watson a mistake. Same with Mahomes, who hasn't even played a game yet. We've seen plenty of QBs have a good stretch of games or a good season (or even two). The true test comes when coaches have a bunch of tape on a player and can design a game plan on all their tendencies +"weaknesses etc.

McVay is definitely a good story so far. I also like all the ex-Bills that play for the Rams. But this season (for Bills related reasons) I want them to do as crappy as possible. Next year, when we don't hold their 2nd round pick, they can win their division. Just please not this year! lol

Fair enough man. You seem to have done more reading and study on this than I have. I'll have to try looking into this more. Just to quickly address that link you provided - it doesn't actually redact that intelligence report. It's only saying that all 17 intelligence agencies didn't put the report out. The main 4 that I originally listed did. But it doesn't change anything about the actual report or that the other 13 disagree with the information contained. Unless the 4 intelligence agencies that worked on it say they were mistaken, then I don't see where that redaction is of all that much significance. It was just something Hillary Clinton said and the left leaning media ran with, which they later redacted. I haven't seen anything saying that the intelligence community disagrees with that ICA. All those quotes I posted yesterday were from the intelligence community and all of them seemed to universally back that report (and there were many more I didn't post, stating the same thing). If that position has changed since those quotes from June, then I haven't seen it myself and I apologize. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/06/17-intelligence-organizations-or-four-either-way-r/ (not 100% sure on this source, they've been ok in the past but sometimes tend to lean a bit to the left IMO. It explains what I mentioned above pretty well though) Do you have any credible sources saying that these other intelligence agencies actually disagree with the information in that ICA? I did read that ICA by the way, before I posted it. I'll have to dig more into this when I get a chance. I don't watch any of the main news channels (Fox, CNN, MSNBC etc) and try not to focus too much on all this stuff (as it drives me crazy when I do). I've just been kind of waiting for these in depth investigations to finish. But I hadn't read/heard anything about the Russia info from the IC being in question. Anyway... thanks for the nice response and sorry if I came off as combative in my last post. I also didn't mean it to come off that way.

Not sure if this was posted yet - http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/What-theyre-saying-Bills-credit-leadership-and-big-plays-in-road-win/69d1e10e-8299-48fd-9136-a28dbbeb1b28 Head Coach Sean McDermott - Became the first Bills coach to win three of his first four games since Kay Stephenson in 1983 - This is the first Bills team to beat undefeated teams in consecutive weeks in franchise history Loved the players reactions for Pat DiMarco too, in that video of the post game locker room speech. This really does seem like a close group of players.

I've been on board with McDermott since day 1. I was lobbying for him from the time I seen McDermott was interviewing with the Bills though, and have been a fan of his for years. So there is probably some bias/homer-ism on my part toward him. Beane I was less sure on. I knew Carolina fans thought very highly of him, but I didn't know a whole lot about him personally, except that he was a considered to be an up and comer who seemed well respected around the league. What gave me the most pause toward Beane was that I didn't feel that the Bills did a true GM search before they hired him. He was rumored to be the guy all along, and then after a small handful of interviews the rumors were confirmed and he was named GM. He impressed me with his first press conference though and then seeing the front office and scouting staff he put together really started to win me over. He added tons of experienced people to his staff. The Gaine hire really impressed me. A lot of GM's wouldn't hire someone to his staff that had just interviewed for the same GM job. I felt like he was setting any ego aside to do what's best for the Bills. But I am still in wait and see mode regarding Beane. He hasn't had a draft yet or a full offseason as GM. The Watkins trade wasn't my favorite. I do love all the picks he's collected but now he has to hit on them. I'd say so far so good though as far as Beane goes.

Even after the incomplete pass I was just waiting and waiting for a flag or something that gave Atlanta another chance. It took me a few minutes before I started to actually celebrate. lol.

Lol.

I am in absolute shock guys. Up until that 4th down incompletion I was almost sure we would lose by 1 stinking point. I can't believe it! We didn't blow it!!! A. Ma. Zing. I feel bad for doubting them. But it's hard to break that "we will blow it" mentality that has been so ingrained in us. We won!!!

This is from the declassified documents from the ODNI that I posted the link to above. I'd post more form it but we are only allowed to share a few paragraphs on this site - https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf "We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russias goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments." " We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trumps election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence." " We assess with high confidence that Russian military intelligence (General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release US victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets and relayed material to WikiLeaks." So, maybe I wasn't 100% right about the NSA concluding with high probability on every single issue. It appears they were only moderately confident on one. I apologize for that. But there is plenty of use of the phrase "high probability" in that document, when referring to Russia and their influence of the election (which all of those intelligence agencies signed off on). Here's what Dan Coats said (head of ONDI appointed by Trump) in another interview - "I think it's publicly known and acknowledged and accepted that Russia definitely did try to influence the campaign," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said during his confirmation hearing in February" Coats and other intelligence leaders reiterated that sentiment on May 11 when they told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they were convinced Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 elections. Here's a snippet of that testimony (click on link for testimony) http://www.npr.org/2017/07/07/535803676/trump-is-less-convinced-about-russian-hacking-than-his-intelligence-chiefs-are Here's another interview with Coats - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/intelligence-director-says-agencies-agree-russian-meddling-n785481 "Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, said Friday there is no dissent inside U.S. intelligence agencies about the conclusion that Russia used hacking and fake news to interfere in the 2016 presidential election... ...Other intelligence agencies, such as the U.S. Coast Guards, were not involved, Coats said. But, he added, there was no disagreement inside the intelligence community. Coats was the fourth Trump administration national security official this week to affirm the American intelligence assessment that Russia was behind the 2016 election interference. All spoke at the Aspen forum, a gathering of government officials, security professionals and journalists." Here's James Comey's statement at that June senate hearing - There should be no fuzz on this whatsoever. The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did it with purpose. They did it with sophistication. They did it with overwhelming technical efforts. And it was an active-measures campaign driven from the top of that government. There is no fuzz on that. It is a high-confidence judgment of the entire intelligence community, and and the members of this committee have have seen the intelligence. It's not a close call. That happened. That's about as un-fake as you can possibly get. Here's what Senator Warner (senate intelligence committee) said during James Comey's hearing - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/us/politics/senate-hearing-transcript.html "Were here because a foreign adversary attacked us right here at home, plain and simple, not by guns or missiles, but by foreign operatives seeking to hijack our most important democratic process our presidential election. Russian spies engaged in a series of online cyber raids and a broad campaign of disinformation, all ultimately aimed at sowing chaos to us to undermine public faith in our process, in our leadership and ultimately in ourselves. And thats not just this senators opinion, it is the unanimous determination of the entire U.S. intelligence community. So we must find out the full story, what the Russians did, and, candidly, as some other colleagues have mentioned, why they were so successful. And, more importantly, we must determine the necessary steps to take to protect our democracy and ensure they cant do it again." From everything I've seen there really doesn't seem to be any debate that Russia interfered. There's no media spin on the direct quotes I posted. I don't see how anyone could prove that the ODNI report is BS when much of the classified information that it contained wasn't released to the public, and (although I haven't extensively researched it) I have seen nothing from any legitimate source that proves it was BS. The entire intelligence community seems to back that report, along with many other government officials and many of them are privy to the classified information it contained. There has been more information that has come out since then, too. Now, this doesn't mean Trump has anything to do with it though and that is not what I am saying at all. But there does seem to be a consensus in the intelligence community on russia trying to interfere in our election. Unless I just missed it, I haven't seen any truly credible sources refuting this. I will try to remember to in the Trump Russia thread when I get the chance to check out.

I didn't even know people actually still thought the election was hacked (I'm not saying some don't, I'm just saying I didn't know that was still a thing with some people). I thought that whole myth was put to bed many moths ago when this whole Russia election thing first started. It was, is and always has been about Russia trying to influence our election so Trump wins. The US intelligence community (FBI, CIA, NSA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence) concluded with high probability that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 US election (hence why the US issued sanctions against Russia). (If you want any info on that investigation, here's the declassified report from the ODNI "assessing Russian activities and intentions in recent US elections" - https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf The thing they are investigating is what, if any, part the Trump campaign played in it.

I agree. It was nice to see Watson do this. That's a class act move. But to be fair, many many NFL players donate to charities and help out in their communities. Here's a list of just some of the Buffalo Bills players charitable efforts. It is similar with most other NFL teams, too. NFL players are more active in charitable efforts and in their communities than many people realize. https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2017/9/24/16355250/buffalo-bills-players-support-charities-lesean-mccoy-lorenzo-alexander-colin-kaepernick Edit - here's another list I found with a quick google search. This was the very first result that came up - https://www.sbnation.com/2017/9/29/16375378/nfl-players-charity-donations-jj-watt-hurricane-harvey-patrick-peterson-foundation

I love seeing how legitimately excited he was, and especially like seeing how excited his fellow teammates were for him. That is something I'm noticing a lot of though. I think McDermott's "team first" and "love each other" message is really being taken to heart.

Agreed! Ive said more than once on these boards how encouraging it is that so many of the players the new regime brought in are having such an impact. It gives me a lot of hope for this team's future.

What they're saying about the Bills after week 3 (spoiler, they're saying some good things!) http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/What-theyre-saying-Bills-earn-high-marks-for-Week-3-performance/46cf3547-da7b-41f7-8a4f-e1f04b1a72d1 Here's a sample - "The Sean McDermott formula: The new Bills coach seems to have an unusual amount of personnel power in Buffalo, and he used it well this offseason. He re-made the team's secondary in one offseason with mostly spare parts, just like the Panthers used to do at his old job as defensive coordinator in Carolina. The Bills' secondary has been difficult to throw against for three straight weeks, with rookie Tre'Davious White and safety pickup Jordan Poyer standing out. It's a fundamentally sound defense that tackles and makes opponents earn yards. Combine that defense with a strong start from perennially underrated quarterback Tyrod Taylor, and the Bills were able to take out the Broncos on Sunday to improve to 2-1. The preseason talk of tanking is a memory. Bills ownership fired Rex Ryan because it believed this was a playoff roster. McDermott is doing his best thus far to prove ownership right." That's one of the reasons I originally became a Sean McDermott fan when he was in Carolina (and was thrilled when he was hired by Buffalo). He'd take guys who were looked at as no names or spare parts and turn them into very solid defenders in his scheme. Josh Norman was a 5th round pick that most thought would struggle to even make the team, and a few years later he was looked at as one of the top 2-3 CB's in the NFL. He turned a Carolina defense, that many overlooked and worried would give up too many points, into the #2 defense in the NFL in 2013.

Awesome. Congrats to the kid! He's played very well, especially for a rookie. Maybe the best part is that he also seems to be a great person and total team first guy who seems to have fully bought in here. When you can combine those types of traits with also being a great player on the field, you could have something special... Plus, my hope is that these types of high character guys will be more likely to want to stay in Buffalo when it comes time for their next contract, instead of wanting to run for the spotlight (like Gilmore and other "me first" players we've had over the years)

Bills worked out QB Garrett Grayson, WR Amba Etta-Tawo and 4 other including an OG and OT. http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2017/09/buffalo_bills_work_out_wr_amba_etta-tawo_qb_garrett_grayson_4_others_report.html

Haha that was great! Thanks for sharing guys.

I like that Rick Dennison seems to be open to change. Rigid systems in the NFL are less likely to work IMO. You have to be willing to adapt and change to fit the players you have. Hopefully Juan Castillo is willing to do the same thing in the run game. I kind of had a feeling that it would take our offense a few games to get going anyway, especially since they really didn't get any time together in the preseason and all the changes to the WR corps. Same thing happened last year when Rex held the starters out of preseason (and that was their 2nd year in that offense). It was probably even more important to get preseason time this year with the brand new timing based offense.