Logic

If the state HADN'T given them money for the stadium and the team left for greener pastures, those same people would have been complaining about lost revenue for the state. Some people just like to complain and will always find a way to do so, no matter the circumstances.

Amazing to think of how far this team has come in the past decade. Thinking back to 2014, the Bills were in the middle of a historic playoff drought, their image and culture were in the dumpster, and Ralph Wilson's passing -- followed by the looming bids from entities like Jon Bon Jovi and Donald Trump -- meant that the team staying in Buffalo at all was no sure thing. Fast forward to June 2nd, 2023. The Bills have quality ownership, a state-of-the-art training facility, a top 10 GM and head coach, excellent team culture, an elite franchise QB, and a perennial Super Bowl contending roster coming off a string of division titles. The Bills are now a team that players accept less money to play for, due to the team culture and the very real chance at a Lombardi. And best of all? They're three days away from breaking ground on a new stadium that will keep them here for at least the next quarter century. Amazing.

Some players seem to have an exact niche into which they fit perfectly, and they're not really suited for anything else. McKenzie, to me, perfectly fills that "gadget role" niche. Jet sweeps, motion, eye candy, bubble screens. Sure, he'll have the occasional big play or big game as a traditional receiver (remember him going off against the Pats?), but by and large, that's just not what he is. Remember: Several times the Bills were happy to let McKenzie walk, and several times McKenzie tested the free agent market and never really had any suitors. He always wound up coming back to the Bills for relatively low pay. He CLAIMS that he was turning down more money from other teams because he preferred Buffalo, but who knows if that's true. Maybe it's the mental aspect of the game. Maybe it's imprecise route running. Maybe it's so-so hands in big moments. Maybe he didn't have the trust of his QB for a combination of the reasons mentioned here. Whatever it is, McKenzie is very good at the role to which he is suited. He is average to below average as a traditional receiver. I had hoped that, as the season went on, Dorsey would realize this and use McKenzie the way that Daboll had. Daboll seemed to know EXACTLY how to use and how not to use McKenzie. Anyway...I'll be interested to see how he does with the Colts.

In college, Oliver was very good at stopping the run and plugging gaps, but had only decent pass rush production. In the pros, he's been basically the same. A generally good run stopper who shows flashes of quality pass rush but is simply not someone to be feared in the pass rushing department. The Bills figured, based on his physical skillset and his being miscast as a nose tackle in college, that they could harness his quickness and athleticism as a 3T and unlock the pass rushing facet of his game. It hasn't quite worked out that way. When you use Beane's "draft elite physical specimens who haven't reached their potential and entrust the coaching staff to help them reach that potential" model, sometimes it works out (Josh Allen, Matt Milano), and sometimes it doesn't (Ed Oliver, Tremaine Edmunds). Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.

Anyone else remember when Booger McFarland said on national TV that Kelvin Benjamin was one Popeye's biscuit short of being a tight end? And then Kelvin Benjamin actually BECAME a tight end on his next team?! That doesn't have anything to do with this topic, I just enjoyed remembering it and thought you might, too.

Nah. I come to this thread hoping to stumble upon a couple of board members engaged in a pages-long pissing match over semantics, with lots of repetitive points made, hyperbole, and unnecessary personal insults. That stuff really revs my engine.

I predict it'll be about three days before some surprise team -- thus far totally unmentioned by the "plugged in sources" of the national media -- will emerge from out of nowhere and sign Hopkins to a big money deal. It'll be some fringe playoff contender or nobody team, and it'll strictly be about money. And like JJ Watt before him, he'll preach culture and "chance to win a championship" but really it will have been solely about money. I'll just randomly pick, oh...the Saints.

Agreed. For the first time in....ever?......Beane seems to have taken the IOL seriously this offseason. I feel pretty confident that two of the four guys mentioned in the quote above will step up and be capable starting guards, and the two who don't will provide good depth. Now...Offensive Tackle depth? Well....let's just hope Dawkins stays healthy and Brown takes a step forward. I don't think anyone wants to see Quessenberry, Shell, or Doyle protecting the franchise's blindside.

It's always funny to pop into a thread to try to read the latest updates on the situation, only to see that it has temporarily devolved into a dick measuring contest.

We don't judge here.

I agree that it depends on the band. If it's a band that changes its setlist up pretty often, then I don't necessarily feel inclined to check ahead of time. If it's a band that does the exact same show every night, and you know it's likely to be heavily sprinkled with "greatest hits" anyway, it can be helpful to look ahead of time. Helps me know what portions of the show are safe to go have a piss and get a $14 beer and what portions I need to stay glued to my seat for.

If you're squeamish about the idea of checking yourself, you can call a close pal over to your house and use the buddy system.

Absolutely gorgeous. Just stunning. And Hailee ain't bad either, I guess.

Starting to look like a busy concert season for my wife and I. Railroad Earth/Yonder Mountain String Band/Leftover Salmon in June. Dead and Company five times in July. Pearl Jam twice in September. Billy Strings twice in September. I always think I'm done spending so much disposable income on attending concerts and that I'll go travel instead. And then concert season rolls around and, sure enough, I'm driving/flying all over the country to see live music.

Anyone else love this show and looking forward to the series finale on Sunday? It'll be sad to see it go, but I think it's ending at exactly the right time. I thought the last couple episodes were some of the best in the entire series. Tom cajoling cousin Greg into doing coke by saying "Greg, it's medically good for your brain! It is! What are you saying, all Aztecs are stupid? Don't be a racist little b i t c h about it." The funeral episode last week. Just top level stuff. Can't wait to see how it all ends. Do any of the Roy kids get the top spot?

As a long time Madden player myself, I'd have to say that in my opinion, two things are simultaneously true: 1.) The lack of meaningful competition has led to complacency from the game's creators, and it should inarguably be much further along that it is currently. From the physics of the gameplay itself, to the graphics, to the franchise mode, to the pre and post game presentation. It should all be better, but because of a lack of competition, there's not much impetus for the game's creators to try very hard. 2.) It is still leaps and bounds above most of what came before it, and it's still pretty damned impressive in its own right. Football is such a complex game, with so many moving parts, so many collisions, so many peculiarities of physics, that it's hard to think any football video game will ever be completely without flaws. Nitpicking and ripping Madden apart has become an Olympic level sport in and of itself. Taking a step back and appreciating what it IS, rather than focusing on what it LACKS, one sees that it's certainly not as bad as many of its worst detractors like to claim. All in all, it's a mostly pretty fun and enjoyable game. It SHOULD be better, but it isn't. It's the only NFL representation in video game form that we have, and I'd rather play a football game than play no football game at all. I'd rather there was competition, but there isn't, and there's no use crying over things over which I have no control. And with all that said....All Pro Football 2K8 is my favorite football game of the past 20 years. What a blast that game was. I wish the series had continued.

Justin Shorter will be the talk of the camp...until the pads go on. Trent Sherfield will be a star of training camp and the preseason and will give Shakir a run for his money as the presumed starting slot receiver.

I would.

I think the only question mark is at RG. I believe Bates starts the season there, with Torrence perhaps occasionally rotating in at times if he shows well in camp and practice. Call it the Milano/Humber treatment. I hope and expect that by mid-season or so, Torrence takes over for good.

DM'd ya.

I generally agree with you about fandom, and I, too have trouble relating to people like the one you mentioned in your post. With that said... To play devil's advocate, I think it can be tough for people born and raised in or near a passionate football city like Buffalo to understand what fandom is like for fans who don't. For instance, was born and raised in Rochester, NY -- solidly Bills country. Nowadays I live in Portland, OR. No football team here, obviously, and not a very passionate football town. When it comes to football fandom, it's a mixed bag. People either like the Seahawks, some other random team, or don't follow the NFL at all, and are instead Oregon Ducks or Oregon State Beavers fans. Perhaps when one's fandom is not innately related to the region in which they were raised, it's easier to switch allegiances. I've met people over the years who particularly liked one specific player, and would follow that player from team to team, and thus switch allegiances. So a Tom Brady fan goes from being a Pats fan to a Bucs fan to....God knows what, once the player retires. Along these lines, having been raised in western NY, I don't have any passionate college football allegiances. I could root for Buffalo, or Syracuse, or maybe Ohio State, but...meh. I don't feel passionate about any of them. I could see, then, rooting for different college teams over the years based on players, coaches, play style, etc.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mark Cuban was right. The NFL is Icarus. The brazen, insatiable greed of the owners will continue to chip away at the quality and integrity of the game, little by little, until the leagues' waxen wings turn ashen.

Grilled Halloumi is so, so good. Like...impossibly good. Too many people don't know.