Rochesterfan

Well you can’t win if you don’t make it - therefore I would rather see Josh and the Bills win more games and win a division- than see Josh throw one more TD pass than Darnold. Now ideally- both could happen, but again - I am more focused on the Bills winning than a comparison of Josh and Sam’s TD pass totals. Now you stated Allen will account for more TDs than Darnold- does that matter to you. If Allen throws 40 TDs and runs for 10 more and the Bills only win 8 games and Darnold throws 25 TDs and runs for 2, but the Jets win 9 games are you happy?

I personally do not care about TD passes. I care about which team has more wins. The Jets D should be worse and therefore I would expect Darnold to have to do more over the course of the year, but it means nothing. I want wins and playoffs.

I have not seen anything that said he was not coming back. I believe the Dolphin thought it was a 4-6 week injury. He could be ready by the start of the 2nd quarter of games potentially. The ideal situation would be IR designation to return. They used that last year on a rookie LB with a similar injury. He is currently still on the Browns active roster - now they have the same choice as the Dolphins. Do you hold on through final cuts and then IR him to return or at some point do you need a spot and you have to waive him also. I totally agree - I would think with all of the former Pats on the Dolphins - this would have been simple. Keep him on the roster - cut a guy that you know will not sign elsewhere and then IR him at that point. Seems a bit off, but without seeing any practices - it is hard to know. Maybe Miami was not a great fit for him and his attitude showed that and they felt it was easier to move on. I just do not know. Seems like a huge blunder, but it is an experienced FO - so there must have been some thought behind it.

I believe the idea is that the player has to agree to the designation to try and help prevent gaming the system. The team cannot just IR the player. Also if they IR at this point - it is for the season - so if a player feels he is going to only miss a few weeks - there is little incentive to agree to full season IR. So many players at this point want to wait - make the final roster and then go on IR with a designation to return. PUP I thought was only a pre training camp designation or if a player is injured away from the field. One training camp hits all injuries are considered IR type injuries and they have to decide what to. Similar to Josh Norman right now for the Bills - he is injured, but counting against the roster. They can not free up that space without deciding that the injury will force him to miss at least 6 weeks - then they could IR him, but he is done for the season. I definitely think some teams do “game the system” and use an injury like this to IR a young player and give him a year to really learn and grow, but I think there has to be some mutual respect and understanding between player and team. Heck - I think the Bills may have used it last year to stash Joseph with a shoulder injury. I think the system worked perfectly for this - a young player with a minor injury that will cause him to miss 4 weeks or so. Years ago - The team could just stash him on IR and prevent him from playing for 2020. Now - they either had to hold on to him until after training camp or take a chance and waive him and bring him back as injured where they can then reactivate him as needed. If you think he is a cornerstone - you hold him and IR him to return - remember this come with the fact that not only do you lose him for the last 2 weeks, but he has to make you final roster - meaning you are cutting someone else that you (and other teams) may value. If you want the position- you waive him and take a chance.

I believe it had to do with the severity of the injury and how teams want to proceed with a player. A major injury like Delpit (out for more than 6 weeks) allows teams to directly IR the player. A minor injury like Weaver (expected out less than 6 weeks) the NFL and NFLPA have agreed they can not go directly to IR to prevent teams from stashing players. I believe the doctors have to designate an injury and then the player can also get a say if they agree to full IR or not, but the doctors must initially call it a major injury. The Dolphins doctors decided it was a minor injury and therefore Weaver was likely to miss less than 6 weeks of action. In this case - the Dolphins could not just IR the player - he would need to remain on the active roster until cutdown or they could try the waive/IR designation and free up a spot on the roster. Now the question becomes what have they seen and heard from the player in the last 2 weeks and do they think he has any long term value. The Dolphins must have thought he had little long term value and decided to risk it to try and free up the roster space. Seems crazy to me for a guy you “snagged” as a great value pick in the 5th round, but maybe he did not show a commitment that they want to see. This screams blunder because it is now officially a wasted 5th round pick that you lost for nothing, but if he was not going to practice between now and the season starting did they really want the roster spot more than the player. We will also see what the Browns do as he will not get to practice for them at all do they keep him and cut someone else so they can move him to IR or do they expose him during cut down or try getting him on a PS where the Dolphins can steal him back later on. We will see the final outcome over the next several weeks/years, but it is a really bad look for the Dolphins and a hard move to understand for the Browns with all of their current injuries, but I get it.

Players do not need to go this route - the Browns placed Delpit on IR to free up the space. Typically the waive IR is used for guys that are not going to make the roster and you want to get rid of them. It sounds like the Dolphins did not think enough of this player and used a route to get rid of him. The Browns thought enough to take a chance.

This video from Heather.

@Hapless Bills Fan - watching it again - the first drop back pass - that same guy mimicked a rusher around the outside of Josh. The pass in question was thrown between the second and third tap - so I really think they were just simulating pressure and minor contact. Fun stuff to see either way.

Not sure, I saw that and assumed it was just trying to give him a feeling of being in a pocket with movement around him and wanting him to focus, but it seemed very deliberate- so it could have been timing related. It was interesting for sure.

I think he is/was signed as a legitimate guard starter/back-up because of the Mongo injury. They needed to give themselves some nice veteran depth and he was an upgrade. I think when he became available it changed the teams depth vision. It allows Mongo to come back and fill the Spencer Long role of Guard/Center depth as Mongo showed well filling in at center. I would not expect them to use Winters as trade bait - I think he is their swing guard and still has potential to start as needed. Mongo becomes the swing interior lineman to cover for center and guards. Bates and Ty help cover the tackle position. I love the depth and the versatility these guys bring.

I believe the original agreement was testing - daily early in TC, then going to a couple of times a week during the season. The NFLPA wanted Daily testing during the season, but this is exactly why the NFL was looking at 2x per week during the season. The NFL wanted Monday and Thursday/Friday to ensure there was enough time to re-clear players before Sunday games. The NFL wanted to avoid any testing on Saturday or Sunday - unless to clear a player - because a false positive either day would rule them out of the upcoming game. That was a big part of the discussion between the league and the union as the players were still pushing for daily tests.

They are an enormous reference lab - I mean absolutely huge. They are doing most of the NYS non symptomatic testing (and many other states also) as they have agreements with many of the departments of health. I wonder if this will go beyond the NFL testing as I know that is where most of the upcoming college kids - returning to school in the north east - have their tests going through.

Maybe not, but with the Fitz lifecycle he will be back to starting by week 6 or 7. Then benched again by week 12 when they are out of the playoffs and then starting again by week 14 due to injury. I think that is how this works. ?

So sad and so young. What a leader.

Are you saying that due to all of the winning - Bills fans eat to much and each individual Fan doubles in size. That will suck for the flaming tables and sitting in the stands, but make for some epic tailgating. LOL ?

This just brings up so many questions. 1. How do we know if we have a Frank Reich on our team? Frank’s 1st 3 years in the league he completed 10 of 20 passes for just over 100 yards and 0 TDs with 2 Ints. Not exactly the stuff of legends. 2. Could Fromm become Reich like or at least be that good coming out of the gate? We do not know - just as we knew nothing of Reich until honestly the 1992 playoffs - 8 years into his career. At that point he was 4-2 as a starter with a 60% completion percentage on a team that was loaded with talent. 3. I love Frank for all his patience and the way he would stay back and help guide Jim when needed, but as a true QB - he was nothing special. He was 5-15 as a starter in his career with a sub 55% completion, 40 TDs and 36 ints. Heck throughout most of his career - he was Matt Barkley. Reich had a lower completion percentage, similar win %, but a much better TD to Int ratio. The difference is Reich did most of his damage when on a team with enough talent to go to 4 Super Bowls rather than limited talent teams like Barkley. Reich’s one year with more than 3 starts saw him with a sub 54% completion percentage, 16 TDs to 15 ints in 7 games with the Jets and a 1-6 record. Is that what you are looking for? I get that Back-up QB may be an issue, but I am not sure we do not have something similar in place already. We may need better, but then so do a ton of teams as there are not 32 legitimate starting QBs let alone back-ups in this league. I would love to see better, but not sure at this point what is really better and what is just window dressing.

Because the NFLPA wants to allow these guys the ability to get promoted. Therefore for a day and a half everyone is free. This just gives teams a bit more protection if they know they have a weak area and prevent teams from exploiting that late in the week.

This is correct - same as last year - if they designate him without the ability to promote him to the active roster. Then following the guidance we would get an additional spot, but Wade is sort of separate- just like last year.

True serology testing is very easy - draw a tube of blood and spin it to get serum and run it with results in anywhere from 18 - 30 minutes. You can also do quick assays that are becoming available- like over the counter pregnancy test- that need less sample and 5 - 10 minutes. The cost is going to depend on the deal they get, but for a good assay using serum - it will run about $50 a sample - with a volume discount they might get it at $30 or so. Currently most labs are charging around $100 self pay for the testing now as the volume is low and there is no shown clinical utility to the testing - therefore insurance will not cover and the patient gets screwed (go US health care). The assays are ok depending on manufacturer with a higher level of false positive and false negatives that we typically see in Ab assays. The quick assays would be cheaper, but right now they tend to have high false positive and false negative rates because they have been rushed to market. They tend to cross react with other illnesses at a higher level as they are not as specific as they should be and for several patients tested as we tried to evaluate kits for pre surgical testing - we found they missed patients that were known positives and were picked up by other assays. The biggest problem is studies done in other areas have shown exactly what Hapless talked about. The antibodies fade very quickly so a negative does not tell you someone was not exposed as their levels may have dropped off to undetectable levels. The antibodies also have not shown to be effective long term in preventing reoccurrence of the illness as there have been some multiple infections around the world. Therefore - although it might be a nice additional piece of the puzzle- at this point until additional studies are done and most importantly a longer time review of the impact and effectiveness of the antibodies - it doesn’t really give anyone concrete info and could lead to some players thinking they are safe when we do not know that for sure. I am also not sure the players would agree to giving up a blood tube as they have fought that tooth and nail in drug testing. If they submit now - it might impact their argument long term on HGH blood testing. Totally different case, but potentially could be used in future arguments.

They do not need the stadiums for the fans, but they need it for everything else. To produce high quality video - you are going to need stadium quality lighting for each field. You will need a small-mid sized town’s worth of electricity and power to handle the Huge TV crews. You need enough high quality cabling to move a butt ton of data and video to the booth for the spoters and the guys calling the game. They need the stadium structure to get all of the angles for watching and having acceptable review angles. They have cameras - including the eye in the sky - throughout every stadium and at multiple levels to help get so many views. You also need the stadium so the traditional down the line of scrimmage view does not create a long range distortion with nothing really in the background. The players/teams would need workout space, rehab space, and excellent space for locker rooms. Coaching areas for watching film and getting prepared. The area would need a bunch of medical equipment needed at each field for things like x-rays, and MRIs during the game, and the ability to handle cases where someone needs immediate care like a neck injury or serious concussion. There is so much more in the background of an NFL game that really requires a stadium and the proper support staff to ensure the fans enjoyment on TV and the safety of the players. You would essentially need to create a good sized city to make this work with approximately 32 fields to allow practice, lights, data, power, and medical to handle the safety aspect. And enough support to make it work. It would be great - just not feasible. Even the NHL trying to make their hub city bubble is struggling to get space for games, practice, and rehab because the numbers are just to great. They will be better once teams are eliminated and they are down to 8 teams in the hub.

Not sure it matters much if many teams will use it as roll-over - May give some teams a bit more flexibility to sign guys this year if there are a lot of opt outs or injuries/COVID cases and you need to rebuild part of a roster. The pro-rated money to me makes sense to roll-over to balance out the contract and provides some protection to vet players. For example if a guy (maybe Mosley from the Jets) had a large prorated portion that you covered this year with him opted out - and then next year he is really only do a large salary - cutting him is easier. Now the team essentially pushes everything one year down the road - so it becomes more difficult to cut him. From the team’s perspective- yeah I rather get everything covered when I have the money, but with roll-over it has little impact on a well managed team. It could really bite a team that wants to go for it this year - with the drop next year, but I think most teams aren’t sure what the year will hold anyway.

My understanding if they opt out - they can not be cut until the new NFL year starts. They are essentially on hold. They are for all purposes not on a contract and their contract resumes after the season as if this year did not happen. He may get cut next year, but the limited info is high risk guys still get an accrued season for retirement - the rest is just a pause.

He does not need to get invited. He already has a contract with the Bills for next year. He does not lose this contract - it rolls to next year. He may or may not make the team, but his contract is set.

Man what is up with this take? You do know that so called “greedy” Roger Goodell and the owners wanted a bubble format, but the NFLPA rejected it from the beginning. The NFL floated several plans to the players, but got a lot of rejection.

why would you help JJ - so they could beat the Bills? Boooooooo to you sir. ?