Logic

There he is! Right on cue!

I was looking for hotel rooms in Eugene, OR, on the nights that Wolf Bros are playing there. I couldn't find anything good under $250 per night, and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that UCLA is coming to town to play the Oregon Ducks that weekend, and college football is enormously popular in Eugene. Damn you, football. I'm gonna end up staying in some weird guy named Bruce's AirBnB. 😝

I get why people wouldn't enjoy listening to Weir. As to the comment that he sounds like an 80 year old, well...he IS turning 75 in a couple months. Personally, I'm amazed that Bobby and Phil -- one in his 70s and one in his 80s -- continue to get up and play multi-hour sets of Dead music at their age. We tend to view rock starts as invincible and eternal, but imagine going down to the local nursing home and picking out a 75 and an 82 year old and handing them instruments and asking them to entertain 20,000 music fans for three hours. Me, personally? I will go and see Weir and Lesh (and Kreutzman and Hart) any time I possibly can. They're not going to be doing this forever, and the chance to experience live music -- however diminished -- being played by guys who have meant so much to my life -- 57 years after they started playing it! -- is an awesome treat for which I am very grateful. That said, in terms of quality of music, I'd argue that Dark Star Orchestra and JRAD are superior to Dead and Company. But I don't really go to Dead and Company shows because I expect to be blown away musically. I go because it's still some of my favorite musicians "searching for the sound" and sometimes finding peak moments, it's still a tribal celebration, it's still church. YMMV. I saw that Bobby just announced a tour of Wolf Brothers shows, and I plan to attend a couple of those. I really like the "Wolf Pack" horn section and what it adds to the music. I think I've grown to enjoy the Wolf Bros more than Dead and Company, and I suspect Bobby has, too.

Have seen them a handful of times all over the country. The highlight was being right on the rail, front row, and having Eddie pour some of his wine into my cup during the solo of Porch. Pretty ***** epic. They never disappoint. Enjoy!

I know that the Saints are planning to roll with Jameis Winston, but I were them, I'd sign Garappalo and have an open competition. Whereas Winston is a pretty volatile player, I feel that the Saints are an NFC Championship game contender with Garappalo at the helm.

“He is accurate, makes good decisions and has a good feel for the position. He has been very efficient. Even last year when he stepped in he seemed to have a good presence on the field and good command of the offense.” - Bill Belichick on Trent Edwards in 2008. "I think he's got the ability to make all the throws. Can throw down the field, intermediate throws. Plenty of examples of him going through a read progression . . . I think he's shown the ability to do everything. The consistency has looked better in recent weeks. Don't think there's any shortage of talent there, playmaking ability. We saw him run . . . He's an athletic guy that has great size. Good arm. Hard to tackle in the pocket. " - Bill Belichick on Sam Darnold in 2020. “He gets rid of the ball very quickly, doesn’t hold it much, sees coverage well, has taken good care of the ball, hasn’t thrown the ball to the defense. He understands the pressure, the timing of routes, gets the ball out quickly, and has enough quickness in the pocket to make it difficult for the pass rush to get to him. He can run a little bit, but I would say he’s more of a quicker guy in the pocket that’s elusive and really wants to throw more than he wants to run.” - Bill Belichick on Tua Tagovailoa in 2021. I just wanted to point out that Bill Belichick saying nice things about bad and mediocre quarterbacks is a pretty common occurrence.

Tell us how you REALLY feel though.

Mac Jones' ceiling, in my opinion, is Andy Dalton, Kirk Cousins, Chad Pennington...that type of guy. Which is to say: surround him with a good running game and defense, and he can bring his team to the playoffs most of the time. As far as consistently threatening the Bills for the AFC East or threatening for a Lombardi? I don't see it. The modern NFL is dominated by quarterbacks who can improvise, play out of structure, make off-platform throws, and are generally next level athletic phenoms who can carry their teams on their backs. Sure, every few years you'll get an outlier, but most years, the Allens, Mahomes, and Rodgers of the world will continue to dominate. Defenses are simply too good nowadays, especially once you get to the playoffs. If you don't have a guy who can create his own offense against those elite defenses....good luck. Another way of saying this is that I don't view Mac Jones (or Tua Tagovailoa, for that matter) being a threat to regularly outduel Josh Allen in big games or to regularly foster more team success than the elite quarterbacks.

Oh dear.

Thanks for this. It's similar to when I hear about a player making plays in practice against the second or third team opposition, and people are quick to point out "psshh, it came against backups, it means nothing". Well, no. A good prospect for whom we have high expectations -- AJ Epenesa, say -- is SUPPOSED TO be making plays against "inferior" competition! It's not necessarily news that he's making those plays, but it WOULD be news if he WASN'T making them!

I will not get too worked up about training camp reps, I will not get too worked up about training camp reps, I will not get too worked up about training camp reps...

Oh don't get me wrong, BADOL, I don't really care about Wawrow one way or the other. My post was solely to point out the huge ego and inflated sense of self worth it takes for someone with absolutely zero experience in sports journalism to be trying to give advice to a long time professional sports journalist, and then acting like he's big timing you when he ignores your nonsense. It's not the least bit surprising, mind you, because "guy with huge ego and inflated sense of self worth presuming to know better than everyone else" is kind of your whole schtick. Tell me: do you give advice to Bills players, too? I bet THEY'D listen!

Not sure. I don't subscribe.

Using a reputable VPN and subscribing to the European version of NFL Gamepass for $250 per year still looks to be the best option for those who don't have or want DirecTV. From there, all you have to do is hook your streaming device up to your TV either with an HDMI cable or via Aircasting, and boom, high definition NFL football on demand, on your television, plus NFL Network, Red Zone, and the full archive of NFL Network programming and past games and Super Bowls to boot. Hopefully, this is the last year that this is necessary. Sounds like from 2023 onward, we'll be able to just get Sunday Ticket (or whatever they're going to call it) from Google or Amazon or whoever wins the bid.

340 lbs. My goodness, that's a big boy, even for a guard. For comparison: Cody Ford, who is no one's idea of a small man, weighs 329.

I’m not sure where to find splits. I’ll poke around and see if I can find some and report back. If anyone reading this knows where to find some, please point me that way. But yes, they were using Gilliam more, and they were also using Tommy Doyle as an extra blocker and eligible receiver quite a bit. He basically took on the “Lee Smith role” and became essentially a blocking specialist TE2.

1) It was the implementation of more 12 and 21 personnel last year that finally got the Bills out of their offensive rut. They stagnated in a major way trying to operate only out of 10 and 11 all the time. 2) Heavier personnel does not necessarily mean running the ball more. The main objective is to put the defense in a bind as to what personnel to use themselves. If they come out in base, you can spread the field and get matchups like Cook or Knox vs a linebacker. If they come out in nickel, you have an advantage in the run game. 10 and 11 personnel do not necessarily present the same “pick your poison” dilemma. 3) Practicing and implementing heavier personnel groupings does not mean they’re not still going to spend a lot of time in 10 and 11 looks. It just means they’re diversifying.

If there’s one thing that long time Associated Press journalist John Wawrow needs, it’s advice from internet message board user BADOLBILZ. 🤣

Man, looks like Josh had a ROUGH offseason.

As I sit here and think about it, it makes sense. The players have to leave their homes and wives and routines to come sleep in a college dorm and eat cafeteria food for several weeks. I’m sure there are some fun team building aspects to it, but I get why the players wouldn’t love it. Besides, I think NFL players have mostly hated and dreaded training camp in general for the entire history of the league. Maybe less so now that it’s less physical and the league got rid of two-a-days, but still.

Which part isn’t true: that Josh likes to go away for camp or that Fisher makes great Turkey burgers?

Strange, I’ve never had that issue. I list “Bills” and “NFL” as my interests, and those are the articles I get. One can also just click on the Bills logo to access all the Bills material. To each their own, but I’ve found The Athletic to be highly worth the money.

He's been regularly posting training camp previews, position group by position group, for The Athletic. That's his dayjob. You can subscribe for less than the cost of two beers at the bar. I highly recommend doing so, especially during this time of year.

I hope you’re right. The adjustment period that I envision is mostly Ken Dorsey settling in, and the offense finding the right balance between the new stuff they’re trying to incorporate — more 12 and 13 personnel, getting the run game going consistently — and what has worked in the past. In addition to Dorsey being a first time play caller, Aaron Kromer being the new o-line coach might mean the run game takes a few weeks to find what works best and most consistently. As Brandon Beane has said in the past, you don’t really start to know what you are as a football team until week 5 or so. If the Bills are changing and evolving, it may take some time to get firing on all cylinders. We used to see this all the time with the Patriots. They’d be mediocre to slightly above average in September, but by mid October they were unstoppable juggernauts. Anyway, I’d love it if it turns out I’m being overly pessimistic and they end up going 14-3 instead.

I realize I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't ever need to see Josh Allen take a preseason snap again. No preseason reps sure didn't seem to hurt him in 2020.