[You're Welcome - what did you do to help tonight?]

I made wings

[Is this the best coaching we have seen in the JA era?]

I have been a McDermott hater since he interviewed. He and his staff are doing a marvelous job this year. Everything is clicking. Our offense has people running routes where they can be hit in stride, and when something works we keep doing it for the first time I can remember in 30 years. We have completely outschemed our last two opponents and made great adjustments against the Cardinals. They look incredibly prepared.

Josh Allen is playing the best football of his career and while he certainly deserves a huge amount of the credit, I can't help but notice that one of the biggest reasons for it is because he's actually going through reads and hitting the open man consistently, which he's only done sporadically thus far. He did miss the read to cook for a TD yesterday when they took that offsetting penalty in the redzone, but he was otherwise flawless. To me, when all of your guys are playing to their max level, that's a tip of the cap to the coaches.

[Brett Farve announces Parkinson's Diagnosis]

I won't shed any tears for him. Dude's a royal a-hole. Terrible disease, but there are people with it much more deserving of my sympathy.

[Josh Allen vs Patrick Mahomes: The changing of the guard?]

KC looked like ***** most of the year last year too and it didn't matter. This is all just pre-season.

Allen looks the best he's ever looked and is playing the best ball in the league right now, but that doesn't make him better than Mahomes. If he does it for the next several years,collects some MVPs, and beats him in January then we can have that discussion.

[Christian Benford appreciation thread]

13 hours ago, NewEra said:

@BullBuchanan

 

do you appreciate Christian Benford?

 

what are your thoughts on him?

 

 

 

He's a great player. I praise him all the time.

[Who is the NFLs QB3?]

1 minute ago, GASabresIUFan said:

So far this season Derek Carr, Mayfield and Kyler Murray have been staking their claim to being in the top tier of NFL QBs.  How's that for a shocker.

plenty of players have had elite seasons without being elite QBs (Gannon, Schaub, Bulger, Flacco, Culpepper, Vick, etc).

Each of those guys could thow for 5k yards and I wouldn't consider them elite tier QBs.

[Who is the NFLs QB3?]

It's definitely Burrow for me, though Stroud could make a case this year to climb up there for sure. He was so very good last year.

[More Impressive 2-0 Start: Bills or Chiefs?]

6 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

You should be happy they are winning, but being grumpy about winning is so awesome…, lol, 

 

nuthin but luv, but lighten up dude, it’s a game, 

Good idea. Thanks.

[More Impressive 2-0 Start: Bills or Chiefs?]

Just now, Doc Brown said:

After the Broncos loss you said there was a 0% chance the Bills would make the playoffs.  That's a pessimist.  Not a realist.

Just because I was wrong doesn't make me a pessimist.

My underlying thesis is that under this regime, we are not a team designed to win in big moments under tough conditions. In order to make the playoffs last year, we needed to win out after losing to Denver. I figured that would be all but impossible given how poorly prepared the team was. In the weeks that followed they looked downright awful playing against Easton Stick and Bailey Zappe nearly losing both games. I watched them almost throw away the Tampa game, Fall to the NYG level and win a war of attrition, get panted by the Jaguars, etc.

I was wrong that they wouldn't make the playoffs. 100% They were still a severely flawed team that wasn't built to win a championship and they didn't.

 

That's why this is all pre-season. We could go 17-0 and I won't be much more excited than if they go 11-6. The only thing that matters to me is, are they a legitimate threat to win a Super Bowl? For me, based on the team personnel, coaching staff, and front office I can't find any way that doesn't involve injuries to opposing teams or massive upsets, in games we aren't a part of, to rationally think the answer is yes so far. That's been my opinion for most of the last 30 years with some exceptions (99,08,20,21). It's not some Eeyore, woe is me opinion. It's based entirely on their decisions and performance.

[More Impressive 2-0 Start: Bills or Chiefs?]

Just now, Simon said:

 

Until they lose one.

Then you'll be here to tell us all how revealing it is. 

I will if it is. The expectation is that they should win 11+ games. Sorry if I'm not excited when they beat bad teams in September.

[More Impressive 2-0 Start: Bills or Chiefs?]

3 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

Always the eternal optimist.

Why would anyone want to be an optimist? The entire concept is based on blind faith that things will magically work out even if you're not doing anything to address it.

I'm a realist. When there is cause for me to be excited, I will be.

[More Impressive 2-0 Start: Bills or Chiefs?]

it's irrelevant. This is all just pre-season.

[Tua’s Broken Dome (now being placed on IR-out at least 4 games)]

He's a grown ass man who's already made tens of millions of dollars and it's beaten into players these days just how severe of a problem concussions can be. Tua's playing because he wants to, and that's his decision. No one should be able to get in the way of that if that's what he wants to do. For a lot of players, being in the NFL is the culmination of their entire life's work. There is no after that will provide any semblance of parity to what they are actively experiencing.

I earn a solid upper-middle class living, am relatively healthy and if I've had concussions, it been a good 20 years since, but I would trade places with Tua in a   heartbeat if I could and I'd keep playing until no team wanted me, there was nothing left to achieve, or until I just couldn't do it anymore. The money wouldn't even be a top 3 reason for doing it. Life isn't that important that you should sacrifice the things that make it worth living in the first place.

[Congratulations to Sean McDermott - 75 regular season wins and ties Bill Belichick win %]

It definitely nothing to scoff at, but a lot of those wins came despite McDermott's many blunders and failings as a game day coach. I give him a ton of credit for having a staff in place that can build up players, especially depth players, to the point where I feel we have less of a dropoff than other teams would given our many injuries and we get a tremendous return on late round/UDFA defensive players.

That said, I've watched other coaches put a clinic on him more times than I can remember. On some of those occasions we've still won, but in the most important games in KC, we haven't. I also put this team's miserable unpreparedness to play in Cincinnati completely at his feet. That game to me showed that he didn't have the ability to be a true leader, let alone a force multiplier for this team.

All that said, I think this week's performance against Miami was one of the best of McD's career. Miami, with Tua or not, was completely out-schemed and out-coached in every facet of the game. If you told me they had a direct line to Miami's headset, I'd 100% believe you because they just completely had their number. I was initially upset at the way the team started the Arizona game, but If I look at the 2nd half as an extension tot he Miami game, I feel much better about it. I still hated the gameplan for the end of the 4th quarter, but I've always thought McD's situational decision making in tight spots was his weakest ability as a coach.

Hopefully this year he proves that he's learned from his past mistakes when it really matters.

[Will Miami start taking calls on Hill?]

7 minutes ago, Process said:

Well I strongly disagree with your assumptions that Tua is a good quarterback and McDaniels is a good coach. Beating bad teams is meaningless when you fold every time you play a good one. So I guess that's where we differ. All good.

We fold every time we play the Chiefs or Bengals in the playoffs, so not sure we should be throwing stones regarding "beating good teams"

[Will Miami start taking calls on Hill?]

4 hours ago, Process said:

Not sure on Hill but at some point in the near future they are going to need to blow it all up in Miami. They are a mess right now with a bad roster, bad coaching, and bad contracts. 

I disagree on at least 2 of those 3 points. They had the #1 offense in the league last year and a top 10 defense. Their offense is stacked with talent and they stocked up on defense in this year's draft. Another good draft next year to help replenish their big men and secondary and they shouldn't miss a beat, assuming they have a QB. McDaniel also appears to be a good coach. I'd have him in consideration at the back end of my top 10 as of now. They struggle mightily against the Bills, which is obviously a huge problem but it shouldn't condemn their entire operation. It's a mirror version of us and the Brady-era Patriots.

[Who gets poached first Babich or Brady?]

Neither for at least 2-3 years best case. Ben Johnson still doesn't have a HC job.

[Browns fanbase/sports talk radio reminds me of the 2000s Bills]

Stefanski had them int he playoffs 2 of the last 4 seasons and has a winning record. Pretty far cry from the drought Bills.

[Rousseau named AFC Defensive Player of the Week]

I would have picked Likely for offense. Dude was an absolute beast. The called back touchdown probably cost him.

[Von Miller proves the doubters wrong]

Von had two good snaps that I saw. The bull rush and another where he got pressure. i still need to see A LOT more for me to want him to be anything more than a 5th/6th DE.

12 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

They're probably stuck next year because his dead cap hit on his foolish extension I think is 6M.  So we probably can't get out till after next season. AJE's ceiling is around 5-6 sacks.  Groot deserves someone substantially better than the reincarnation of Chris Kelsay.

Odd, because I have thought of Groot as a Kelsay type player thus far - very good against the run and a run of the mill pass rusher. He had an awesome game that included 15% of his career sacks. He hasn't exactly been DeMarcus Ware. If he gets 7 more sacks across the next 16 games do you want to pay him like a top 10 DE?

[Spencer Brown signs 4 year extension]

 

13 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

Spencer Brown was a manimal on Sunday as was Dawkins.  Our tackles were mauling people out there.

 

It’s only week 1, but his new deal versus his level of play Sunday is what I would bet will look like a bargain here pretty quick if this continues.  
 

Brown was literally one of the best players on the field Sunday.  Are you trying to say different?

 

And what happened to your “it’s just one play” defense of Diggs drop against KC?  You want to disregard that Brown was mauling people all game because of what feels like a negative bias recount of one play?  

Yikes. I thought he did his job and looked solid, but I would never have said he was "one of the best players on the field". It's true he had his side locked down most of the game, but he wasn't challenged at all. He spent most of the day fending off a 5th round rookie and a 7th year journeyman with 14 career sacks.  I definitely didn't see anything that would classify him as a "manimal". He wasn't out there blowing people off the line or running them over. He just did his job.

[Spencer Brown signs 4 year extension]

6 minutes ago, Andrew Son said:

Good point.  Josh only had 10 seconds on that one.

No doubt he was the primary cause there, as I already said earlier in the thread, but to completely discount the fact the brown ran into Josh's running lane, maybe even clipped him, and his man recovered a fumble is a bit much to sweep under the rug.

[Spencer Brown signs 4 year extension]

24 minutes ago, Roundybout said:

 

This is why we paid him

I'm not sure how they score him 100% when he was a big part of the strip sack

 

[Spencer Brown signs 4 year extension]

Just now, Roundybout said:

Quality offensive linemen are expensive these days. It’s harder and harder to find a franchise guy up front, so when you do, you pay them. 

I'm not sure a franchise RT exists. If they do, not sure I want one.

Morgan Moses graded out higher than Spencer Brown last year and makes 5M. Trent Brown did as well and makes under 5M.

Draft a rookie and grab a vet.

[Spencer Brown signs 4 year extension]

Now the 8th highest paid RT in the league - absolutely insane contract. Beane continues to bend himself over a barrel in very contract negotiation.