BillsFan4

It can be detected in a drug test for up to 1 month after use, depending on the person. Just because they failed a drug test doesn't mean that they were getting high before games. Players show up to games hours early. They'd basically have to be using it right in the locker room to actually be "high" during a game. I can't imagine that would ever happen. Look, alcohol is legal and lots of players drink in their free time, yet they don't get drunk before games.

Nice! Thanks for sharing this.

I think they will do their best to sign Sammy if he has a great season, or just tag him. I was a bit upset that they didn't pick up his 5th year option at first. I felt like Sammy has so much potential that has yet to be realized. Plus the Bills gave up so much to get him, and I also kinda felt like they were betting on him failing. But then I started thinking more about it, and about what McDermott has been saying about every single person EARNING everything, and nothing just being given. McDermott is trying to change the losing culture here, and the players are only going to take him seriously if he actually does the things he talks about. As much potential as Sammy has, it's kind of hard to say that he has legitimately earned more than double his current salary at this point. So, making even your most talented player go out on the field and legitimately EARN his next contract sends a pretty loud and clear message to the entire locker room, IMO.

Agreed. And like I said I honestly don't know enough about Beane to have much of an opinion on how qualified he is for the job. I know he's been being groomed in Carolina for years, and that Carolina fans are somewhat upset at possibly losing him. I just wish we had done an exhaustive search and found the absolute best candidate for the job. But maybe Beane really is the best man for the job. I guess I just don't like that It seems like this was Beane's job from day 1. I kind of feel like this search was more/less just a sham. But Beane hasn't been hired yet, so I am a little early saying this... Who knows what will happen though. Maybe they will hire some top end personnel men and scouts (or other front office exec types) to help them. Or maybe they won't even need to. Don't get me wrong, I will still be optimistic if Beane gets hired. I will give them the benefit of the doubt from day 1 and wait to see what they do over time. I do think it's very important that you have a coach and GM who trust each other and work very well together, and McDermott doesn't seem the type that would want an unqualified guy in the GM role. If he wants Beane that badly, there has to be a good reason for it.

There is absolutely no proof that it was McDermott. I have not even heard anyone speculate that it was him, besides you. He had been hired less than 2 months before Gillislee was tendered. You seem to be assuming that he was running everything inside OBD from the day he was hired, but I don't think that was the case at all. All the reports have said that his power has Slowly grown inside OBD. Plus, if you look at past RFA tenders, it fits Whaley and Overdorf's MO. There's honestly no point in discussing this RFA tender any further though, I am clearly not going to change your mind and you are not going to change my mind unless you have some actual proof and not just your assumption that since Whaley was fired McDermott must have been making every decision... And as far as the free agents, there's plenty of proof that was Whaley and Overdorf, as I mentioned in my last post, and you completely ignored and just went on with this RFA tender thing. If it clearly was, you should have some proof then, right? Please post a link or any type of proof besides just your opinion.

I still feel like it's just a foregone conclusion that it's Brandon Beane's job. I am very glad to see them interviewing Brian Gutekunst, but if it's true that they already have a 2nd interview set up with Beane, I am not sure how seriously they are actually considering him. The Bills and Sabres MO under Pegula has been that any time a guy gets a 2nd interview, he gets the job. I feel like it's been a poorly kept secret for quite a while now anyway that it's Brandon Beane's job. I honestly don't know enough about Beane to make any real judgements on him. I just hope he's truly the best man for the job, if he is our next GM. They better hire some very very good personnel men and scouts though. I don't think Beane has a scouting background, does he?

No. There's no reason to think McDermott was assigning RFA tenders and negotiating with free agents just because of what happened after the draft... I don't know for sure that it was Whaley and Overdorf, but that is their job as GM + guy in charge of contracts & cap. That is something they've always done in the past, and the Gillislee move fits their MO with the way RFA tenders have been handled in previous years. Everything I seen written said it was Whaley and Overdorf's decision, too. (Here's just one example - http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/19/analysis-mike-gillislee-dilemma-starts-jim-overdorfs-mismanagement-salary-cap/ Call me crazy for blaming the GM and contract guy for the stuff that falls under their job description - responsibilities that they have always been in charge of in the past... We also seen reports long before McDermott was hired that the team wasn't willing to pay Gilmore more than $11.5M, and that they weren't even really negotiating with Robert Woods. Those guys could have been signed long before McDermott got here. The Bills had a long time to get them signed. They could start negotiating a year ago with Woods, or (I believe) two years ago, with Gilmore. Obviously Whaley felt that they were not worth the contracts they got in FA, since he didn't offer anything close to those contracts from what was reported. Also, I never said that the a Bills could not have given Gillislee the 2nd round tender. I just said not doing that was most likely a Whaley/Overdorf move. I was addressing your post that said the a Bills should have kept Gilmore, Woods and matched Gillislee's offer. That was not realistic. I actually don't know how realistic tagging Gilmore was, alone. The Bills had the 7th or 8th least cap space in the NFL heading into 2017. They only had roughly $24M in cap space, with only 49 players under contract and 24+ free agents. Tagging Gilmore would have eaten more than half that cap space. Signing Poyer and Ducasse took what, about $4M? Those are normal depth signing every team makes. Again, it wasn't McDermotts fault the Bills cap was so mismanaged... Like I said in my previous post - there are a lot of different things to factor in to why those free agents were not signed. Blaming it all on McDermott is just silly. He probably deserves the smallest share of the blame IMO.

Prayers for Kason and his family! So sad to hear this.

Just because 1 team was willi to pay Robert Woods $8M does not mean he was not overpriced. Same with Gilmore. Chicago was after him hard, and he priced himself out of there, too. Teams overpay free agents every single year, and it blows up in their face much of the time. Maybe if Whaley hadn't mismanaged the cap so much, the Bills would have been able to think about offering more money to those guys. You can't keep every free agent, though. Paying Woods $8M and Gilmore $13.5M, or tagging him would have had the Bills right near, or over the cap. They'd have had no room to fill any holes or attempt to sign the other 20+ fee agents they had. Keeping those 2 at the money they got was just not realistic with the situation the Bills cap is/was in. Getting our cap situation back under control is going to take some painful moves. But it's not McD's fault the Bills were put in that position. He just got here. Also, pretty sure that MG tender was Whaley/Overdorf, not McDermott. And you can put some blame on that huge McCoy extension for not being able to match, among other reasons. It also has to be taken into account whether or not Woods and Gilmore wanted to be here (IMO neither wanted to), and whether or not they fit the new scheme, especially when you're talking about trying to match the monster deals they got. It's hard to keep guys who don't want to be here (if that was the case. It appears to me Gilmore wanted to play for a bigger market team and Woods wanted to go home, but that's just my opinion).

lol 👍

I think it also had a lot to do with the Bills needing a QB. Doug Whaley said a few times before the draft that he had to add a QB, "just by a sheer numbers perspective", and I believe he had decided before the draft that he was taking a QB at some point. From what we can gather, they had a number of QBs higher on their board than Cardale. Then all of those QBs went off the board before Whaley drafted one in the 4th. Had Oakland not traded up for Cook, Dallas would have taken him, likely leaving Dak there for Buffalo. But Cook went off the board in the 3rd and Dallas then grabbed Dak in the 4th, and Cardale was basically the highest QB left on the Bills board, so I think that's a big reason why they took him.

So, is this the 3rd GM candidate the Bills have interviewed now? Him, Beane and Gaine are the only 3 I've heard of. Wonder if they will interview that Bret Veach from KC. I kind of feel like it's a foregone conclusion that Brandon Beane is our next GM though.

I didn't mean to sound like I was totally discounting YAC. I really wasn't saying anything at all about YAC except that just don't like looking at total passing yards statistics because, for one, they include YAC. And also, like you said, passing yards are not strongly correlated to wins. Passing yards are simply a poor way to evaluate a QB. I'm not all that fond of air yards either, but they at least only show the actual yards a QB threw for himself. But Yards per Attempt correlates strongly to winning. I've seen statisticsl breakdowns that show the team that won the YPA battle also won the game almost 75% of the time in certain NFL seasons. Usually the best QBs in the NFL are also near the top in YPA. Here's a pretty decent article on the different metrics for evaluating QBs, for anyone interested. I don't agree with everything they say, but they do a pret good job of breaking down each metric. I would recommend giving it a read for anyone interested. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1691533-which-metric-matters-most-when-evaluating-nfl-quarterbacks Here's a few articles on YPA's importance. They have a lot of good break downs of YPA on that football nation site if you read around a bit. http://www.footballnation.net/content/pigskin-prophet-commands-sports-media-to-act/6947/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/261433-nfl-stat-analysis-yards-per-attempt-more-important-than-you-think http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2013/7/8/4501716/nfl-statistics-yards-per-attempt Edit - I have no idea why the 2 bleacher report links don't work. I tried to fix them twice now. You will have to copy and paste them if interested. Sorry. Does anyone know, do bleacher report links just not work on this site or something?

That might be some of it, but I think it also had a lot to do with the Bills salary cap situation that Whaley out this team in, and the offers those players got on the open market. IMO Robert Woods is not worth the (roughly) $8M a year he is getting. I'm not sure Gilmore is worth the $13.5M he's getting (especially since the Bills will be running a zone coverage scheme), and even if he is the Bills couldn't afford it due to their cap situation and the large contracts handed out by the previous regime. Gillislee may or may not be worth the $4M he's getting this year. They probably should have just put the 2nd round tender on him and been done with it. Who's decision that was, I do not know. It doesn't seem like Gilmore and Woods had much of any desire to stay in Buffalo, either.

I thought he struggled quite a bit in Carolina. I guess he can't be worse than some of the depth S's we've had though... lol.

He definitely has a better arm and may eventually end up being a better overall passer (the ability is there), but I just don't see a QB ready to start when I watch him play. I do agree that TT's days are likely numbered, unless he takes a major step forward this year. But I think it's more likely Peterman or even Yates start over Cardale, unless Cardale made some major improvements over the summer. By all accounts he struggled to even run the scout team last season... I think it's more likely Cardale gets cut or put on the practice squad than it is he starts a game for Buffalo. I wasn't aware that I said I was a scout... I am not, just to be clear on that point. I am just a Bills fan sharing my opinion on a Bills message board. Maybe I should put a disclaimer stating that in my profile? lol I am by no means an expert, and if I came off that way I apologize. I have watched all of Cardale's starts in college though. I mean, we're only talking about 11 games here. It's not like the kid has some extensive starting history. I am an Urban Meyer fan anyway, so I usually try to watch most Ohio St games. And IMO I just don't see a kid ready to start in the NFL, let alone get a team to the playoffs. If you watch his college starts, I honestly don't see how anyone would think he's ready to be an NFL QB. IMO it's painfully obvious that he's not. That 3 game championship run in 2014 was a lot of fun to watch (especially that game he came in and threw 3 TD passes), and it was a great story where the 3rd string QB came in and won those 3 big games, but even during that run I thought he struggled, although he did come through in the clutch. I also watched his first 7 games of the next season, before he was benched for JT Barrett, and while he had flashes, I thought he struggled pretty badly. There were multiple games he didn't throw a single TD pass, and other games where he didn't throw 1 until the 2nd half, or even the 4th quarter. IMO There were a number of games they won in spite of him, not because of him. Ezekiel Elliott and their FG kicker had to carry that offense at times. Personally, I thought Cardale struggled to even run the offense many games. Urban Meyer stuck with him as long as he could, but there was a reason he was benched for a younger player even when they knew Cardale was entering the draft that year. There were plenty of people who didn think he ever earned the starting job to begin with...

Excited to see what Rehkow can do. At the very least I hope he pushes Colton Schmidt to get back to his form of a couple years ago. But I could see him beating CS out. It'd be a cool story if Jordan Johnson could make the Bills roster. Ill be rooting for him.

He may be a head case, I haven't followed him closely enough to have any idea. But this article sure doesn't do anything to prove that he is. If anything, it does the opposite... lol

Is this still a thing? Don't you think we would have heard of a complaint, or at the very least rumblings of an accusation from Carolina by now? All indications are that Carolona got the offensive lineman that they wanted, even though we jumped them. And Again, teams jump other teams in the draft every single year because they believe that am is targeting a player they want. We even directly traded with a team doing that this year - Kansas City. They thought New Orleans wanted Mahomes and they were right. Oh no, maybe the NFL will strip Kansas City's first round pick next year... Bills are screwed now, since we hold it. They're taking our 1at round pick AND the 1st KC traded to us (joking, of course)

https://mobile.twitter.com/BlackBearsFB/status/860464101910233088 Bills invite QB Dan Collins to rookie mini camp. I'm guessing he's just an arm for rookie camp. I don't see him supplanting Cardale, Peterman or Yates. I guess he could possibly replace Woodrum, though.

I don't think so. I was looking too, because I was going to post same thing you did. lol

What makes you say that? I haven't really seen anything yet from Cardale in college or the NFL that makes me believe that he'd be a good NFL starter, let alone get the Bills to the playoffs this season. He has some potential, but has a very long way to go before I'd even think of starting him.

Are you talking total yards, or passing yards? If you're talking passing yards, there's a reason it's considered low on the list of measures to evaluate a QB. Passing yards isn't just what a QB throws for. It also includes the yards a receiver gets after the catch, and some offenses are better designed than others for YAC. Plus it doesn't take into account passing attempts either. For example, Greg Roman's offense has always been near the bottom of the league in YAC (all 4 years in SF were near bottom of the NFL and his 2 years in Buffalo I believe we were dead last in YAC), and that's with a number of different QBs. I can't really just put the blame on his QBs either, because they were near the bottom in YAC with Alex Smith, who then goes to KC and is near the top of the NFL in YAC. I think yards per attempt and air yards are a better measure to look at as far as passing yards go, because those stats don't have YAC added in. I definitely agree that Tyrod has to improve his passing game though, that is for sure.

Darnold and Rosen were gone ahead of our pick in their mock draft (Darnold #1 to Cleveland & Rosen #3 to NYJ). But I agree. As of now, Darnold or Rosen would be my main targets, with Allen coming in closely behind, and Falk is very enticing too. A lot can happen between now and next season, though. Let's see what they do this year, first. I definitely want more of an accurate pocket passer than a mobile, runner/athlete type QB (and the Peterman pick + what McDermott said afterwards has me hopeful for the first time in a while that the Bills might actually prioritize that).

Doing what, exactly? Did he say?