Logic

I saw the sentiment expressed on social media in response to these lists that players' draft pedigree follows them into the league, and their pre-draft scouting reports do, too. That is, the people that vote on these lists are the same people scouting rookies and drafting players, and they often tend to stick to their priors. So, for instance, hypothetically: if they see a 1st round corner playing very well and a 7th round corner playing just as well, they're far more likely to give the 1st round player accolades, due to pre-existing bias, "take lock", name recognition, and draft pedigree. I'll also say this: Christian Benford tends to be pretty invisible as a corner. Invisible in a GOOD way, mind you. He doesn't make a ton of game changing plays or highlight reel interceptions. He also doesn't get thrown at a ton, because he's so good at what he does. He also wears #47, and yes, I think silly optics things like that matter. Sauce Gardner is another guy who is pretty invisible as a corner and doesn't have a ton of game changing plays or highlight reel interceptions, but he was drafted high, his name is "Sauce", and he wears number 1. What I'm saying is: Benford's draft slot, lack of visible and game changing plays, and even his odd jersey number all contribute, in my mind, to his lack of national recognition. I think he's going to need to make some big plays in visible moments more often if he ever wants to gain more national prominence. Even then, he's not likely to get as much shine on these type of lists as 1st round corners.

It's entirely possible. Von had one more sack than Bosa last year in one less game played. Bosa hasn't had more than 10 sacks since 2021, and hasn't had more than 11 since 2019. Yes, health has been a big factor, but...well...it can't just be discounted. The best ability is availability. Not sure what Von's asking price is/was, but if he signed for significantly less than what Bosa did, then it's fair to ask if the Bills made a smart move going from Miller to Bosa.

Good signing for them. All static and bluster aside, he's still a useful and productive player, health permitting. Top 15 in pass rush win rate last year and collected six sacks, despite missing four games. He's still got some juice.

Really? Because with the additions of Elijah Moore and Joshua Palmer, I can't help but feel that... The WR room quietly got better this offseason.

Respectfully, I believe that's fake news. The only place I see anything about it are on Facebook and Instagram. Until a more reputable source writes anything about it, I will presume that it's not real.

Hey. Beer and coffee contain water, soooo....

I think the yellow ones are wretched. They can say "gold" all they want, but those are urine yellow. Of all the things they could've done with that color scheme, they chose THAT? Sheesh. The dark blue ones are cool, as are the rest of their sets. The yellow ones, though, need to be loaded into a cannon and fired into the sun, never to be seen again.

Am I crazy to think he's overrated? Am I also crazy to think he has an invisibility cloak that allows him to CONSTANTLY get away with committing holding and DPI penalties without the refs noticing? Is it because he has a cool nickname? If he was called Frank Smith, would he still get the accolades and the bag he just got? Whatever. Wake me when Woody Johnson is gone or they have a quarterback.

Yeah I mean...we can go back and forth on it forever. I maintain that I think that Bills offense and Josh Allen -- both performing at a historically great level -- would have been enough to power the Bills to a Lombardi. There's no way to know for sure what the outcome would've been, and I suppose it's a moot point now.

I get your point, and I've thought about that. But it's important to note that that was also a pretty unstoppable version of the Bills offense. The way Josh was playing that year...I'm not so sure the results against the Bengals would've been the same as they were the year after.

That is the only Bills team during the McDermott era that I think clearly SHOULD have won the Super Bowl, and WOULD have won the Super Bowl if not for the unforgivable coaching/execution blunder that was 13 seconds. I'm convinced that if they get past the Chiefs, they'd have beat the Bengals and Rams. Every year besides 2021, it's muddier than that. But when it comes to the 2021 team....that was the Bills' year. They blew it.

Angsty, long-haired, sweaty-shirt, demonic eyed era Eddie, standing on his chair and scrawling political messages on his arm in Sharpie, climbing rafters 100 feet in the air and swinging out over the crowd... What a force he was in those years!

I'm not ashamed to admit I've become a bit of a Swiftie in the past calendar year. Okay, that's a lie. I've become a HUGE Swiftie in the past calendar year. And this is coming from a guy whose all time favorites are the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Dylan, and Pearl Jam. What can I say? This lady writes clever, singular, brilliant, beautiful music. This collaboration with Bon Iver is dope. Made all the more impactful in that it was recorded at the height of the pandemic, and the musicians couldn't be in the same room together.

I totally get the Sphere hesitance. Vegas is definitely not my bag either. The first time my wife and I went down there for a weekend of Sphere shows, it seemed novel and fun to pair the Dead with Vegas. I envisioned walking down the strip at 2 am with a head full of...something...after the show, Hunter S Thompson style. Of course, the truth is that a lot of Fear and Loathing is about exactly the type of bad vibes, greed, and weirdness that turns me off to Vegas anyway, and we got that in spades. Plus, the Vegas I'd have interest in hanging out in -- the Rat Pack, fancy suits, martinis and showgirls scene -- is long gone. It's all a big, stinky, cigarette smoke-y Disneyland down there. Awful. The SECOND time we went down for Sphere show, we just flew in, hung at the hotel pool, went to Shakedown and the show, and flew out. No Vegas shenanigans. Not a fan of what that city is nowadays. Aaaanyyway....I do think the Sphere is worth seeing once in this life. I'm very much an "eyes closed" guy at Dead shows. To the extent that my eyes are open during a show, they're not usually looking at a video screen. All of that said...I had to see the technological wonder of the Sphere and see what the Dead had in store for it, and I'm glad I experienced it. The first night we experienced it, all my friends and I did was laugh the whole time. It was so astonishing, so unlike anything we'd ever experienced, all we could do was laugh in amused shock and glee. And it WASN'T even due to any substances we took. It was just THAT far out! While I enjoyed the Sphere, I'm absolutely looking forward to the Golden Gate Park shows in August. Outdoors, on a sunny summer day, is where Dead shows are best experienced. Can't wait. Always a hoot!

I'm not sure what's changed in the past few years with regard to his voice and energy levels, but... My wife and I went to see Paul a few years ago and the show was OUTSTANDING. He played several hours with no break. He played bass, guitar, piano, and obviously sang throughout. He played everything you'd want to hear from the Beatles and Wings. The show was everything I wanted it to be. I actually was in disbelief for much of it. I kept looking up at the stage and thinking "That's a ***** BEATLE UP THERE!!!". Not someone else covering Beatles songs, but an actual Beatle! It boggled the mind. Definitely go see him if you haven't and are a Beatles fan. The guy won't tour forever. It's a bucket list item. Price be damned. Just do it.

Don't knock it 'til ya try it.

1989 is Bob Weir's pick for "the best the Grateful Dead ever played". In his opinion, the band's peak. Certainly everyone was healthy, happy, and playing well. For latter era Dead, it's hard to top '89.

The Jauron era really started to sap the enthusiasm out of me. It wasn't just that the Bills were bad. It was that they were boring, vanilla, irrelevant, and lifeless. And they didn't even have the courtesy of being BAD bad. Like 2-14, "get the 1st pick in the draft and nab a franchise QB" bad. Nope, instead they were 7-9 every full year of his tenure. That kind of perfectly consistent mediocrity seems almost hard to achieve. Just good enough to miss out on high draft picks, just bad enough to miss the playoffs. Infuriating. At one point, they gave him a contract extension, and I was all but ready to stop watching. Hard to believe how far the Bills franchise has come since those days.

Darrick Forrest. I remember when people thought Jordan Poyer would be a special teams only, end of the bench sort of player after an under-the-radar career with the Browns. I think history may repeat. Note: this does not mean I'm saying Forrest will have as good a career with the Bills as Poyer did, only that he'll be a bigger contributor than his past experience and salary would lead you to believe. I think Forrest will make the roster, and I think he'll make some plays for the Bills this season.

In an ideal world? Somewhere in Tuscany, or perhaps in an ashram in India. In a more realistic world? The Virgin Islands would be good. I lived on St John for a year and a half and it was beautiful. I miss it. Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

August 9th was actually the day ol' Jer left his body. Interestingly enough, he was born on August 1st, leading Deadheads to call the period from August 1st to August 9th "The Days Between" (after a Grateful Dead song) and celebrate his life the entire week. But to be honest...most Deadheads celebrate his life just about every day by listening to his music. I don't know that I can think of a single person who has impacted my life in such a singular and positive way, or who adds to it on a day-to-day basis as much as Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead is the soundtrack of my life, and in their thirty years of recorded live music (just about every show they EVER played is available to listen to in its entirety for free online!), they left an infinite treasure hunt of amazing improvised music and living spirit. No two shows the same, no song ever played the same way twice. As Jerry himself once said about The Dead: "'We're like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice". Yeah. That. I'll be in Golden Gate Park on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for three consecutive Dead and Company shows, celebrating 60 years of Grateful Dead. To answer your question, @Bad Things : The only place I see online to buy the Truckin Up to Buffalo CD is Ebay. They have it for about $30. You can buy the DVD on Amazon. I've listened to the show and watched the DVD. It's a good one! And since I'm here and have already typed too many words anyway...here's maybe my favorite picture of Jerry:

Agree. You've got the nod to the history of the glory years of Washington football, as well as the subtle allusion to the fatcat politicians in DC. Works on two levels.

Totally agree. As you say: fortunately for Bills fans, owners don't generally change THEMSELVES out. It's also the reason the Jets don't concern me. Woody Johnson is an AWFUL owner. The Pats -- with Robert Kraft, Eliot Wolf, and Mike Vrabel (not to mention Drake Maye) -- are far and away the closest to becoming contenders for AFC East supremacy.

Nothing in Dolphins land will change until Chris Grier and Mike McDaniel are gone. When a GM so consistently fails to adequately correct serious and recurring issues such as abhorrent offensive line play and rotting team culture, year after year, he's gotta go. When a team's culture becomes as toxic and rotten as the Dolphins' culture appears to be, it's time for the head coach to go as well. Everything starts at the top. The GM and the head coach who have resided over the team while it has descended to its current level of dysfunction have to be let go, or nothing will change. As long as Grier and McDaniel are in place, I will not fear the Dolphins, and neither will the rest of the NFL. Wake me when they have a GM, HC, or QB worth a darn.

It comes down to this: Do you believe that the Bills' problem are deep and systemic, and no amount of personnel turnover will fix them? - or - Do you believe that the Bills' formula is good enough to get them to the doorstep of the Super Bowl every year, and they keep being just a play or two away from getting there? If you believe the former, then you probably agree with this article. If you believe the latter, then you probably don't agree with the article. If you believe the former, you likely want some combination of Beane and McDermott gone, and you want a shiny new head coach and/or GM. If you believe the latter, you just keep trying to add talent and "keep trying to kick the door down", as one NFL executive put it to Beane last year. Which side are you on? That's the big question.