BullBuchanan

That's a catch a lot of Bills drop. Gonna be a battle for that last WR spot.

It's eating his forehead.

getting worked up about a potential implication of a week 1 game seems silly. Whether we win that game or lose it 40-0, it should have no bearing on our season outlook assuming we don't take big injuries.

That's my take with regards to the season as well. I just feel differently about this because he's a rookie behind an established vet, so his opportunity to get 1 on 1 coaching about his technique and the trade secrets of the pros is definitely going to diminish when they are playing games every week. There will probably still be some, but training camp is huge for those reps and putting together a regimen for what needs to be worked on during the season. I'm not doom and glooming over it, but it absolutely has to have an impact on his rookie ceiling, and for a team that needs to squeeze out every last ounce of potential in order to take the next step, this sort of thing matters. We already know what the floor and ceiling are without Hairston. He's part of the attempt to raise them.

It's very good news long term, but I have to imagine this has a seriously detrimental effect on his development for this season. Being in the classroom is good, but he'll be missing valuable practice reps and might not get back until everyone is in game planning mode. I hope they designate an assistant o work with him specifically throughout the year so come the playoffs he can be a meaningful contributor.

This guy's story must be amazing. He's about to turn 29, is working on his 8th year of pro ball, has played 15 NFL games with 9 receptions. Somehow he's able to keep grinding out chances, but for some reason no one seems willing to make an actual commitment to him. The dedication he has to being a pro ball player must be insane. Multiple generations of 1rst round WRs have come in and washed out of the league since he showed up. Give me an episode of "A Football Life" on a guy like this.

He's had a pretty brutal run of health issues, especially for a guy in such good shape with every financial advantage and access to top tier medical personnel.

That's a lame justification. Where was the appropriate spot for Maybin to be drafted? The 7th round? If we don't draft him, he absolutely goes in the next 10 picks, just like most "drafted too high" players. Most draft boards are pretty close. It wasn't some insane reach that the jags or raiders are known for.

They were a higher seed than us and beat us in the playoffs AGAIN. How am i supposed to take the rest of this seriously when your thesis statement is objectively false?

This is a total myth. People act like like it's no big deal to "just score an extra 3 points" or similar. We're already a highly efficient team. squeezing an extra 10% out of a team that's already operating optimally is not a small task and you need massive improvements to make it happen. If you watched what the Eagles did to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and thought to yourself, "we're in the same league as the Eagles", well the only thing I can say to you is that you aren't a serious person.

You can't lose what you never had to begin with. We're still nowhere near being SB Championship material, imo. I think we need 3-4 more all-pro level players to get there.

The roster is loaded ONLY with depth. We still lack impact players at most positions. That could change as the season goes on, but right now it doesn't look very promising.

Ask the Saints. Just add 30 void years to JA's deal and boom!

Watch the games. I just rewatched them at 1.5x speed and the difference between offensive philosophy was night and day. You're right, Brady had a terrible day in SB XLII. He was really the reason they lost. Multiple errant throws in critical positions that would have seen them score several more times. However, it was the scheme that allowed a bad day from Brady to lose them the SB. In XLIX and every SB Brady played with NE after that, his default look wasn't waiting 3/4/5 seconds to push the ball 7/15/25 yards down the field. It was bubble screens and drags to Edelman and Vereen that came out of his hands before the defensive line even made is back to the LoS. They kept the offense moving in every direction and neutralized one the the greatest defenses int he history of football. Witht hat scheme, Brady didn't have to be anywhere near as perfect and he was able to get into a rhythm. It was an evolution of what they ran when he first came into the league when he still had a noodle arm.

Thurman is a Hall of Fame back and clearly elite, but when you go down the list of all time greats he wasn't as special as a lot of them. Barry and Emmit belong well above him. So do Dickerson, Faulk, LaDanian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson. I think of Thurman more in the Frank Gore camp, but even Frank Gore's production was something Thurman didn't get close to.

Why do you keep trying to make this whole boundary vs slot receiver argument? What are you even talking about? It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I give up dude. You're right about whatever point it is you're trying to make. That was the story all game. They were off by a foot here or there over and over again all game. He didn't even hit the timing routes because that wasn't their bread and butter in that scheme. Fast forward to 2014 and everything was timing. The ball was out of Brady's hands before the D line even made it to the LoS.

What is a "slot offense"? My argument was quite simple and direct. For the New England Patriots, Julian Edelman was a more valuable player than Randy Moss despite Moss being the far more traditionally talented and gifted receiver. They realized that controlling the ball through a horizontal game, like they did in the early years with Branch, Givens, Patten was a more reliable way to win than by having a downfield attack. After they dumped Moss, they made no attempts to replace him. Instead they targeted guys like Danny Amendola and Chris Hogan, and they stacked trophies. Just watch the games, man. It's all on the tape.

Again, you're just making things up now trying desperately to be correct about something. What I wrote wasn't that verbose. Just use the real things I said to try to argue instead of making things up.

The obvious question that had an obvious answer is just you creating a strawman. Now you're acting like you defeated something. The Patriots did in fact learn something, because after they moved on from Moss, their offensive philosophy changed dramatically, and they became unstoppable. Watch the games. Brady keeps looking for that deep home run ball throughout the Giants game and they never get into a rhythm. Against the Seahawks, it's almost all horizontal attacks, the 2-3 yard passes that turn into chain movers. They were far more efficient play to play even against a much more vaunted defense. NE made the game boring, just like they did in Brady's early years and they piled up rings with that strategy. KC has been using that same approach to fill their hardware cabinet.

Of course not. What's your real question?

One could argue they learned their lesson from the Randy Moss experiment. Edelman has 3 rings, Moss has zero. The Pats were at their best when they ran boring efficient offenses with dependable player. The Chiefs philosophy has been the same after Mahomes first couple years. Yes. Is it not obvious that they serve completely different roles? See my note above above Edelman vs Moss. As for how you're ranking it, you may not be factoring in situation, but I am. Situation is EVERYTHING in sports.

He's the best in the league at the thing that he does, and that's what matters. Put him on Philly and he probably doesn't see the field. In Buffalo he's our Julian Edelman, and that makes him the most important weapon on the team, even if we had a guy like Metcalf who's clearly a tier or two ahead from a pure WR standpoint.

Yes, because they had a bizarre fixation on trying to make the Miller situation work despite it being clear it wasn't. McDermott also maintains an unbreakable stance that he MUST constantly rotate his defensive line regardless of game situation and if the talent dropoff is massive, like it has been for years. I don't know if you remember, but more thana few people were upset about AJ being spelled for Miller in critical situations, and Miller predictably went on to lumber 10 yards out of the play.

The difference is Von was getting snaps in prime opportunities at the expense of Epenesa. AJ was playing on obvious rushing downs where Von wasn't.

He was playing so few snaps because he's beyond washed.