Rochesterfan

I think it is very relevant what was said at the end of year PC about what to expect in the off season. I do not expect then to go out and sign top flight talent in FA. I think they will use FA to once again fill all of the holes and upgrade some talent levels (see OT, WR, and DE), but it is not going to be the #1 guy at those positions. I also believe just like last year - if a true #1 WR is available via trade - Beane will be talking to the teams and trying to work something out if he thinks the deal works. For this to be ok to me (and I really doubt it will get there) - Beane needs to get that legit WR (maybe a Diggs type - not an AJ Green type - younger, fast, good catch radius - a guy you can still build around). They also need to improve talent at DE and OT - so they can strictly be working BPA. Finally you have to assume Kyle is the BPA at that spot. To me none of those things will line up at the Bills pick in the 1st round, but if they do then fine - I will be happy with the pick. The second statement is true of all teams, but Beane has shown they are good at drafting - just look at the team and the age of the starters at most important positions. The thing is - a good FO also must understand their strengths and weaknesses- especially when it comes to the draft. Some teams excel at identifying players at certain positions and struggle with players at other positions. If the recognize that - they can draft well and make sure they are hitting those strong positions early and hitting the weaker positions later and less often and supplementing that with FA and trades to get proven talent. NE often struggles with WR and DB in their drafts - so they hit those positions via FA and Trades - even with drafting a WR in round 1 last year - he looked like a potential weakness so much that they signed WRs in FA and signed then AB in season and also traded for a WR in season. Their best CBs were all guys they picked up in FA. They struggle with those positions, but recognize it and supplement those areas via FA and trades.

I will wait until after FA to determine that. I think if the Bills FO is great at drafting defense - then go ahead and draft defense. Use FA and trades to stock the offense with known players and hit on draft picks on defense. I personally do not care how they improve the team- just keep getting better. Now if they do not address they offense in FA and trade - then I may lose my mind with a safety, but they seem to have a handle on how to build that side of the ball.

Hapless - I do not disagree at all, but in the hours and the days after it happened - Garrett had no one at all defending him or the actions - 100% for long term suspension - kicking him out of the league. Suddenly - after coming up with the one “excuse” of race baiting - there have been several athletes and media that did not condone the action, but at least stated they understand. He suddenly at least got a small group of people back potentially on his side. It also shifted the context 180 degrees from assault to people questioning whether Rudolph is a racist or is Garrett a liar. Long term it has no impact, but it went from 100% against him to more people qualifying that it was wrong, but if a racial slur was used - I can understand the rage. He was able to change the narrative and I believe that was the goal of it all along. Now we will see if a lawsuit comes out - it could totally backfire for Garrett, but my guess is they come to an agreement and in the end Garrett doesn’t need to say it any more because it becomes a part of the narrative.

Well NE signed him and traded away another veteran WR and then after cutting him their QB complained so much about a lack of talent that they had to trade for another WR. So to me it cost them going after a better WR at a time they needed one and now financially they are still on the hook for money owed to AB even though he only played 1 game. I also get a prove it deal - I am asking you what makes you think he will accept a prove it deal and how much are you willing to pay. You said it is low risk, potential reward, but you are talking about a player that wanted out of Pittsburgh because they did not give him enough guaranteed money. He supposedly refused Buffalo when we would not up his guaranteed money. He accepted Oakland with huge guarantees and is now suing them for non-payment after being cut. He got big guaranteed money from NE - played a week and was cut and now has a lawsuit against NE also. I do not think you understand what he is going to want. I do not think you are getting him on a “prove it” deal without guaranteed money. So the question remains how much are you willing to spend on him because I am pretty sure our GM knows exactly what he is worth and it is nothing. You also left out what/how long do you think his suspension will be for? You also gave nothing on your expectations or what you think will happen as he complains about JA and how that impacts the team. As for NE - prior to AB and with AB they were the heavy favorites to return to and win another Super Bowl. They fell way short at the end and their leader and QB - Brady was complaining about not having AB and a lack of talent - so I think he had a pretty negative impact on the team and perhaps is part of the reason if Brady decides to move on.

Yes because even Belicheck and Brady - 2 GOATS - were able to keep him in control. I mean it is not like he called out the owner or anything in NE. Let’s turn this around - please tell us exactly what you think his “incentive laden” contract - that AB will want to play for - will look like (remember that was a big part of the issue in Pittsburgh as he wanted big guaranteed money)? Also what are your expectations for an AB suspension for next season if he signs? Finally, what realistically do you expect from AB if he is signed by the Bills at his age - having not really played in over a year. Do you really think the Bills or JA use him as a true #1 or much like the gameplans this year - is JA to find the open guy making AB very frustrated. What kind of numbers do you see and do those numbers make AB happy or does he constantly call out JA as not Big Ben?

Yes - you cut him - nothing ventured - nothing gained, but what they always forget to mentioned is what do you lose. You cut him and you gain nothing, but you lose the ability to bring in someone that will help the team for 16 games. You miss out on players that will actually bring gain. You end up like the Pats that were desperate for a WR so they bring him in and trade away someone that would have given them more. Then they are also forced to trade for a guy that is ok, but doesn’t give them enough. Who knows what that venture cost the Pats in both money and for the season.

Exactly what I said - he comes in suspended and acts up never even getting on the field - airing dirty laundry - turning players and coaches. You get rid of him and he acts even worse bad talking everything about your team - especially your young QB. Now you have media storm surrounding the team. It would be one thing if he cared and really wanted to play, but it seems obvious that he doesn’t care - see his treatment of the team and management in Oakland. He wants the money and doesn’t want to do anything to get it. He is working lawsuits against 2 NFL teams already - let’s add ours to the list. Additionally - let’s say Beane loses his mind and does this - now you have your #1 WR - suspended for most likely at least half the season - although my guess is with 2 sexual assault cases pending, multiple failure to pay lawsuits, and a full on assault case he was arrested for - it could be longer. Now you have signed him - does that prevent you from making a move to improve the WR position more. Then like Oakland and NE found out - he screws your team and now you have no #1 WR and you wasted time and resources on nothing. Plus you now have a potential rookie coming in and getting to learn and see the Diva act - it could create issues with development. The team places a huge emphasis on veteran leaders teaching the young players how to do things right - why would you want the WR room - the easiest room to go insane (Diva’s) - to have the king Diva present showing all the wrong ways of doing things. What I see is a player/contract with little upside (he couldn’t even make it work in NE and blasted the owners and team when he left) and lots of potential to destroy what you are building - especially at QB.

He would purposely lie to give others a reason to see why he did what he did. It has already worked as people question Rudolph and what impact this has on his teammates. He needed to make it seem like he didn’t just go crazy for no reason - let’s give everyone a reason that will play with a large segment of the population.

Why - what are you expecting from him. He will be suspended at minimum 8 games - so you get a guy that doesn’t care and you have to put up with him for 1/2 a season not around risking making you look stupid. Plus how motivated do you think he will be to take a low guaranteed contract. I do not see him being happy if a team like Buffalo that he already bad mouthed - offers him and incentive laden contract - my guess is you could lose a lot for very little reward. With little effort he could destroy your team just by leaking garbage or live streaming a meeting. If I am Beane - Brown can sit and rot - we would look elsewhere for talent that will actually play for you.

Yes he is threatening to sue for defamation not libel as CB suggested (and battery), but as the article states - difficult for Rudolph to prove Malicious intent to win this case. All a lawsuit does it keep this in the public eye. A lawsuit puts the burden of proof on Rudolph and since there are times where it is just the 2 of them away from others - very good chance it is just he said versus he said and the case either gets tossed or settled - if it even can get that far. In the end hopefully this will shut Garret up, but he is in deep and this is his only fall back - so he will have to stick to it. I just wish the NFL had kept him out for longer - I do not think he deserves to play after that kind of attack.

You keep saying this - you do understand to sue for libel - you must show how it financially impacted you and your future earnings. Just because someone says something about you does not mean you automatically can sue. Even if it is a bold face lie. Additionally - all suing does it keep it in the spotlight. If there was truth to it or not - how are they going to prove anything - the players on the Steelers that were there denied it. No Browns were close enough to hear anything - so it would be MG stating his piece versus a few Steelers with No real evidence. Not exactly law suit material. In the end - either way the ends are not justified by the means - you have a player that deserved to be suspended and has now been reinstated. We will see how long before his next suspension as he as continually pushed the line and even in his limited time before this was noted as a dirty player.

Not sure this is even true. He agreed to 1.75 million less in base salary to make it guaranteed. Both sources stated the per game bonus, signing bonus, and workout bonus stayed the same. So in reality if he plays every game with all of his bonuses he will make $500,000 less than his base salary alone would have been this year. If he played all 16 games on his old contract he would have made closer to 8 million with the bonuses. In real world dollars he just took a 1.75 million dollar pay cut to ensure his roster spot for this year. He also took the pay cuts out to year 2 and 3, with minor guarantees for injury. I am not sure he survives going into 2021, but he has provided himself with some insurance just in case.

Even if you tried to set-up a signing bonus to be paid at the end with good behavior - a la the Pats. If he eventually plays for you team and screws up - you have a law suit coming your way to get his money. Why bother with the headaches for a guy that is looking for free money. He signed with Oakland with no real intention of playing there - just to get the money. Then tried double dipping with the Pats and couldn’t make that organization work. I do not want him for any money or any reason on my team. The negative outweighs the positive even if he could play a full season coming up.

At this point it doesn’t really matter because even if a team signs him - you have to figure with multiple sexual assault cases pending and his taped actions toward his “baby mamma” - plus now another legit assault case that he was arrested for with damages to other people’s property - he is not playing for a team in 2020. He is looking at a full year suspension without pay before he can ever play again. Why would anyone sign on for that. That would be a whole year of a guy on your team giving you nothing, but being put in a position to make it worse and make your team look bad. We saw exactly what kind of damage he could do to teams while still in the NFL and then we saw the crazy come out while not on a team. What are the chances he gets better after a sit down with the commissioner and being told he is getting suspended without pay for 8, 10, or even 16 weeks. He will explode again and make it worse. Just let him go and let the drama wash over you.

This is the kind of move a Miami makes. Take the contract and a decent pick/player and let it be part of the rebuild - just like Cleveland did. Does not mean it will work for them. This is not a move a decent team that is coming off a playoff run and wants to grow and build a team long term makes. So No for Buffalo. Maybe for a Miami/Cincinnati team that is still players and a year or two away.

That was Reid being nice. It seems he recognized that Shady is done and used that excuse to get some other guys touches. He has essentially been benched since Williams came back and has less than 5 cares since early December. They need him - on the bench.

He is speaking for the owners - his job as he did in SD, STL, Oak, etc - was to get in front and be the bad guy - warn those cities about what the owners want and put a threat of a move out there if they do not get it. His job is not to make you feel good. Notice how right afterward we hear the study is complete and they will be releasing it in the next few months - of course it is done - it falls right in the time frame Roger mentioned - coincidence? Nope! They already knew the outcome - now it is Roger’s job to sound the alarm and be bad - put out a move, lack of competition, etc. and then let the Pegula’s be the good cop and ask nice and move toward a public/private partnership to give them exactly what they want.

He said that because they already knew the Pegula’s report was complete and going to be released. He was up there being the bad guy for the Pegula’s. He put out the threats so the Pegula’s get what they want. In the end the NFL owners can decide many things, if enough of them voted they could strip him of the franchise and force him to sell - they also could continue to manipulate the CBA which is up and further lessen shared revenue- which means teams like Buffalo will continue to find it harder to be competitive. There are lots of things, but in this case just remember- Roger is speaking for the Pegula’s not himself.

Which is why they as owners have Roger stand up there and put out the “bad guy” news that the Bills need a new stadium and more importantly float info repeatedly about Toronto. Everyone keeps blaming Roger, but the league and the owners already knew the outcome of the “study” and now they have Roger once again push the buttons that to be competitive they need a new stadium and the elected officials need to start getting on board. Now the Pegula’s can swoop in with the study and push their agenda and kick in some money and look like the good guys and still get what they want. People just keep wanting to blame Roger - like he has any say in any of this. He is the owners mouthpiece - this is not his opinion- it is what the owners want.

See - the NFL looks like the bad guy - the Pegula’s respond and look reasonable, but both Goodell and the NFL knew this was done and they know what plan the Pegula’s want. Now the pressure moves to the financing and how much public money can they get. This is just the NFL doing its job - pushing for as much money as possible.

Here is the question and more importantly it is the answer to why the NFL talks about the situation and is asked every year. The NFL is working to get as much public funding as possible. First off - I do not blame Goodell - he is the mouthpiece of the owners - so what he is saying is coming from the viewpoint of the owners - including the Pegula’s. You do not think they know what the Pegula’s plan is. So this is just a shot to the NYS and Erie County Govt to be ready to bring some money. They talked about this at other sites like SD and St. Louis and when they did not get the money - those owners elected to walk. I do not think the Pegula’s will walk, but the NFL will use that as a push to get this done and they will continue to use the threat of Toronto to push their agenda. It really has little to do with revenue and more to push what the Pegula’s and the NFL want and it allows the NFL to be the bad guy and makes the Pegula’s the good guys when it is finally done, but the financing will come either for a huge remodel - $350-500,000 with an extended lease 10+ years or a $500-750,000 stadium downtown and a 20+ year commitment. Why the Bills constantly get brought up is because of the lease deal and it is always on the verge of expiring with various outs. They did the big upgrade and got a 10 years of deal, but a new ownership group also came in and allowed it to be discussed for several years. Once they make their plan and get things done - we will begin to hear about the next site the lease is coming up and they want public money - probably Cincinnati. For the people saying the Pegula’s should tell off the NFL and just re-up the lease. The NFL is talking for them and giving the warning so the Pegula’s do not seem to be the bad guys. The NFL will push as much public as possible and that will allow the Pegula’s to go in at a 50:50 deal with future upgrades and infrastructure upgrades and probably some upgrades to the arena as part of this and they will seem reasonable and will get what they want in the end.

I am sure someone with more knowledge can give a better assessment, but to me - I think they did not get the defense they expected at all. Probably because of the time of the game and the situation, but I think that confused Josh from before the snap. Typically you would expect either a man defense or a Zone defense and you make your read. It looks to me like Houston dropped 9 into coverage with a man/zone combo. Therefore I think Josh did not trust his read and fell back into college ball. I don’t know if it is “hero ball”, but it was see a guy and throw it. He did not look to me like he was “reading” the defense - I think he was confused and it was not the way they practiced it and you then revert to what you have done. As an aside - I was watching a Peyton’s Place on ESPN + and there was a great discussion with Steve Young about his development and how it took him forever to “trust” what he read and trust his throws and it really happened when his coach - I think it was McCarthy - told him he did not need to see to throw. They asked him to start making some blind passes in practice and trust his guys would be there. That propelled him to trust throws that early in his career he would never have attempted. I think this is what you see with many young QBs - they do not trust yet. I also think it is why Mahomes has had the success he has had. He trust his throws and it allows his guys to make plays. It is also why Brady struggled this year - after years of being able to trust and know where WRs and TEs are going - suddenly he lacked that and he ended up spiking the ball so much.

I understand this, but I believe Cover 1 has talked about this multiple times during the season. Bringing in DiMarco and Smith - should make the defense move to a base package. This should be a running package as you have a blocking TE and a FB. The idea is to force them into a base package by personnel and then by spreading that out - by who covers DiMarco- the QB should immediately know the coverage. Using Knox rather than DiMarco you put more of a receiving threat, but it also does not necessarily force the team to show coverage. They can play man with a safety on Knox or rotate and play zone. They are not covering Knox with a LB and that is a dead clue for coverage with DiMarco in the game. I totally agree Houston was not fooled and I do not think Dabol got the defense he wanted. It looks like Houston dropped 9 with man/zone concepts which I think is what confused Josh. Even with all of that - If Josh stays with the read - he has Brown open - which appears to be the design. If Josh was uncomfortable with Brown - there was the backside read of Singletary, but I think with the pre-snap read that play was supposed to go right and to Brown. If he felt it was not there - I wish he had pulled it down and run it with the 9 guys dropping he had some lanes. At no time do I believe the throw to DiMarco was planned - I feel that was Josh not feeling the throw to Brown and seeing an open lane to DiMarco. I believe next year the Bills have more plays off this - most importantly if they do not get the base coverage they want - pull DiMarco and Smith into a conventional formation and smash the ball at them. I think in the chess match of the game - Buffalo on that play did not get what they expected and did not have the ability for Josh to get them out of the bad play and into a good play against the defense. I also think it is a sign of the play design that even not getting the right defense for the play - the design still had 2 guys get open and if executed by the QB better - the play should have been successful.

The play design and use of DiMarco as the X was to dictate and tell Josh the coverage. DiMarco and Smith are attacking specific areas of the field to pull the coverage to them and that worked fine. Two guys everyone is complaining about being out on routes actually draw 4 of the 9 coverage men to them. The design seems to be a play set up for Brown press inside and then break out with single coverage trailing him. That also seems to work fine. Not sure why the timing or Josh’s read is off, but it looks like the play worked as designed and the read and execution by Josh was what was lacking. Singletary was most likely either a fall back safety valve or most likely the play is designed with the QB reading the coverage - if he gets one coverage - he reads the right side with 3 receivers with Brown as the primary receiver. If he gets a different look - he reads the left side and Singletary may be the read. That is typically how the NE offense worked - you ran zone beaters on one side and man beaters on the other - Brady identifies the coverage pre-snap - knows which side and which receiver should be open. Makes a simple throw. Josh just is not there yet and that is ok. The reading and understanding took years and lots of consistency from the Patriots- I will give them time. For all of the complaining- this is where I get frustrated. You can see the play design and call is not the problem. The right side had 5 in coverage and 4 are drawn to the 2 guys everyone wants out of there. The 1 WR should have been open and gotten a nice gain, but the execution was at fault as it was most of the season.

That was my thought also. I suspect Tua is the plan - just not sure Tyrod is the mentor. I think a new Veteran mentor that fits is more in the cards.