Logic

Great in September and October, folds in November and beyond. Great in the 1st and 2nd quarter, folds in the 3rd quarter and beyond. Until further notice, this is who BOTH Tua AND McDaniel are to me. When its early in the season and its a sunny day and things are going well, they're lions. When it's crunch time and its a cold December night and adversity hits, they turn into lambs. I think McDaniel can be an EXCELLENT offensive coordinator in this league for many years, but I don't think he has what it takes to be a head coach. I think he's not a natural speaker, not a natural leader, and that his cutesy schtick only works when things are going well. If the Dolphins ever hit a rough patch, or continue to be unable to break through to greater postseason success, I expect his act to wear thin on players. I do not fear Mike McDaniel, and I do not fear Tua Tagovailoa. "...other than that, Miss Lincoln, how was the play?"

I'm not sure if these things are what they once were. Maybe I'll give this a shot, maybe not. This used to be one of my favorite articles every year. I'd read every single team's version. But ever since they moved away from Deadspin and Drew Magary, they've undergone a consistent and precipitous decline in quality and funniness. Now they're mostly shoulder shrug material.

It's from Ron Jaworski's (excellent) book: "The Games That Changed the Game". Here's the actual excerpt: "As we watched, we were surprised to see Manning taking virtually all the reps in the session. Jon [Gruden] asked Tom [Moore, the Colts offensive coordinator,] why he wasn’t giving some snaps to Peyton’s backups…He looked at us both in the eye, paused for a moment, then said in that gravelly voice of his, “Fellas, if ‘18’ goes down, we’re *****. And we don’t practice *****.”

Yeah I know it. The Hardy one I get. Promising rookie who looks like he could be good depth on defense. Cain was weird to me. Been around since 2019. 124 career receiving yards. I get that he looked good in spots this preseason but...yeesh.

Absolutely fair point and a good question!

This. If Allen misses a quarter of the season, we want to be able to stay afloat. If Allen misses the WHOLE season? Yeah. We're cooked. My favorite football quote of all time is Colts QB coach being asked why Peyton Manning's backup doesn't get more reps. His response? "If 18 goes down, we're *****, and we don't practice *****". That quote notwithstanding...we need a guy who can keep our season alive for a few games. Anything beyond a few games and we might as well start talking draft prospects.

WR Jalen Virgil now officially signed to the Bills practice squad, WR Deon Cain released to make room. per Joe Buscaglia.

Yep. Exactly this. They'll only need to open a Practice Squad spot if Virgil signs, which it sounds as though that move may be imminent.

That's a deep cut. Only us true wrestling sickos are gonna appreciate your Virgil Runnels joke.

They quote an article from the Athletic, which quotes a player agent, and also references a thoroughly researched and expansive Athletic article from months ago. It's from a reputable source. It's also not really new information -- other than the quote from the agent.

Some potential good news there. This article is from May 2023. OTAs the year after the fracture: https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/8-months-after-injury-lewis-cine-looking-more-explosive-than-last-year It's been less than eight months since Vikings safety Lewis Cine suffered a compound fracture of his left leg while playing on special teams in last season's London game. And yet, if you watched him fly around the field at OTAs this week, you'd have no idea he was coming off a major injury. Vikings special teams coordinator Matt Daniels knows what Cine has been through because he suffered a serious leg injury of his own during his playing career. That's what makes it so shocking to him to see how quickly and how well Cine has recovered. Daniels even went so far as to suggest that Cine looks more explosive than he did at this time a year ago. "It's mind-blowing, quite frankly, because I suffered a similar injury, broken (tibula and fibula) and dislocated ankle, and he comes back off a compound fracture like that and he's looking more explosive than he did last year," Daniels said. "A lot of times when you do have these types of injuries, it's more of a mental block than it is a physical block. I think he has surpassed that mental block because of how he trained and rehabbed his way back to it. He has that supreme confidence back in him that he's out there flying around."

Posted this in another thread just now, but I'll paste it here: From what I could gather online just now, Cine's time in Minnesota went roughly like this: Unable to claim a starting spot as a rookie, he was playing special teams in London when he suffered a compound fracture in his leg that ended his year. Last year, after recovering from the leg fracture, he oscillated between missing games due to a lingering hamstring injury and just being a straight up healthy scratch. It sounds as though he never quite gelled with Brian Flores, and never quite stepped up and claimed a starting defensive spot the way the Vikings clearly hoped he would when they drafted him. Reading between the lines with Vikings fans and reporters a bit, it sounds as though maybe Cine's work ethic and will to be great were somewhat in question. Knowing there have been recent publicly discussed issues with Brian Flores and his way of, um...motivating and connecting with players, I'm at least slightly wondering if there's more to it than simply "Cine didn't want it badly enough". In any case...Everything about Cine's history in the NFL so far screams "in need of a fresh start and a change of scenery". I'm not absolving Cine or saying that the Vikings screwed up and the Bills got a great one, I'm just saying that sometimes a guy needs a fresh start. Hopefully McDermott, Babich, and Addae can get the most out of him, and his release after just two years will be a wakeup call if, in fact, he needs one.

From what I could gather online just now, Cine's time in Minnesota went roughly like this: Unable to claim a starting spot as a rookie, he was playing special teams in London when he suffered a compound fracture in his leg that ended his year. Last year, after recovering from the leg fracture, he oscillated between missing games due to a lingering hamstring injury and just being a straight up healthy scratch. It sounds as though he never quite gelled with Brian Flores, and never quite stepped up and claimed a starting defensive spot the way the Vikings clearly hoped he would when they drafted him. Reading between the lines with Vikings fans and reporters a bit, it sounds as though maybe Cine's work ethic and will to be great were somewhat in question. Knowing there have been recent publicly discussed issues with Brian Flores and his way of, um...motivating and connecting with players, I'm at least slightly wondering if there's more to it than simply "Cine didn't want it badly enough". In any case...Everything about Cine's history in the NFL so far screams "in need of a fresh start and a change of scenery".

I will admit to always being tantalized by highly talented, high round draft picks who need a second chance and a change of scenery. That said...if Cine is EVER going to excel in the NFL, one would think that playing for Sean McDermott and his former coach Jameel Addae would be the place. McDermott has been a bit of a safety whisperer in my opinion, turning late rounders and aferthoughts like Kurt Coleman, Jordan Poyer, and Micah Hyde into productive starters. Give McDermott (and Cine's college coach) a chance to work with a guy with Cine's demeanor, athletic ability, and pedigree, and let's see what happens. Is it unrealistic of me (after up to a season on the PS learning the playbook) to envision a Bishop-Cine duo leading the Bills defense for the next five+ years? Maybe, but I'm gonna envision it anyway. Cine is a tenacious and hard hitting guy. He's got a little but of Jordan Poyer to him. Love this move.

This thread will be filled with lots of jokes and snark, I'm sure, but I like this move. The offensive coordinator should call the offense, the defensive coordinator should call the defense, and let the head coach be free to be a head coach. Last year was the first year Sean McDermott had to concentrate more on the defense, and the offense wound up being an undisciplined mess (relatively speaking) until Dorsey got fired. I don't think McDermott wants to "take his eye off the ball" like that again.

Thanks for the post. It's a good one, and a great question. I think if anyone knows the answer definitively, they ought to rush to One Bills Drive and share their wisdom with Beane and Co, because I'm sure they'd love to hear it. To put it simply: The Bills have been the second best team in the AFC the past four years. Unfortunately, the FIRST best team in the AFC has been standing in their way that whole time. That team has a HOF QB, too, but they ALSO have a HOF head coach, and one can argue that that has made the difference. I can't answer the question of why our defense folds in the playoffs -- though bad injury luck has surely had something to do with it. I can't answer the question of why they can't seem to kick the door down, summit the mountain, whatever you want to say... The best I can say is that this Bills team is the modern version of Peyton Manning's Colts teams. Hall of Fame quarterback, and consistently a powerhouse in the AFC. Unfortunately, their run of greatness coincided with a SUPERIOR run of greatness by a HOF QB/coach combo. That's what I think is happening here. Sure, there's the loss to the Bengals. I'll never know how much to take from that game, because the intangibles of our team were so funky at that time after the exhaustion of Hamlin/deadly blizzard/moved games/Kim Pegula. Mostly, though, it's been the Chiefs standing in our way. By and large, I just think we're a great team who can't seem to get past an even greater team. And yes, the only way the Bills will likely EVER win a championship in the Josh Allen era is if the defense can figure out a way to perform in the postseason the way they perform in the regular season. Can they? That's THE question, in my mind. Josh Allen will almost always get the job done in the clutch -- or at least perform well enough for a Bills win. Can the defense hold up its end of the bargain in January and February? Where for art thou, Bobby Babich?

On a tangential but somewhat unrelated note: If you're ever arguing with your wife and you want to guarantee to make things 10 times worse, tell her to "relax" or "calm down".

The key is that Kumerow played on special teams and Hodgins didn't. I know fans hate it, and don't like to think this way, but if you're a WR5 or WR6 in the NFL, in order to stick and be valuable to your team, you HAVE to play special teams. Hodgins didn't/doesn't. So the Giants rostered a guy last year who had 20 receptions for 230 yards, and didn't contribute on special teams. It's just not a very logical use of a roster spot.

No. Zero chance.

I mean...even the 2019 Bills -- whose roster seemed irrefutably worse than this year's roster -- won 10 games and made the playoffs. That was with a second year Josh Allen. The Bills haven't won single digit games since Allen's rookie year. I'll believe it when I see it.

The more I think about it, the more I think Codrington took Hardy's roster spot. A surprise given how well Hardy showed on defense, but...there's a surprise roster cut just about every year.

Straw man says what?

Yep. Hardy is the surprise cut of the year. I hope he winds up on our practice squad and not suiting up for another team, a la Alex Austin and Rachad Wildgoose before him.

Joe Andreesen is the Vince Papale of John DiGiorgios.