Rochesterfan

Excellent - could not have said it better myself. I think that confidence is born internally and the humility is a result of believing in himself, but having others always doubt him. From HS through Junior College to getting to Wyoming- every step he had others doubt him and I think it does wonders for the type of person he has become. Kudos!

Not to disagree to much, but you were probably closer with the 60 picks than 35-40. Cleveland is mid round and NE will be 15 picks or so later. So 5th to 6th is 32 picks plus 5th round comps (5 or so). Then the rest of the 6th and those Comp picks ( another 5 or so). So if Cleveland is 15 and NE ends up 27th you would have 32 picks + 5 (end of rd 5) + 15 (rd 7) + comp picks - about 55 - 70 picks or so. I do not think it is a loss other than the fact they have counted on him being there and now he is gone. They could have made a different move and maybe had not given up a pick and had someone for the rest of the season. It ends up being low risk and very low reward for them.

I don’t disagree they won’t bring either of those guys in, but I don’t think it is about them not being squeaky clean. It is that those players have shown themselves to be more concerned about “me” rather than “we”. The issue is exactly how good can they be? Many coaches call it different things, but have the same idea - team first and you are one of eleven. Frank Reich in Indy after this game talked about the importance of team and these guys really buying into playing for each other - same idea. Belichek In NE brings in a bunch of these guys, but they are forced to adjust or he moves on from them - even if they are talented. Just listen to the Gronk interviews from last season about why he could not celebrate TDs - the coach forbade individual celebrations. The biggest issue I had is you somehow lump Mayfield in for some reason when we have no idea what the staff really thought of him - with the assumption that because he is not squeaky clean - this staff would not touch him. I think they would look at his leadership and how he plays for his teammates and they would of had no issue with him, but it is only an opinion.

I really hate this lazy (and terrible) opinion about this staff - especially as it has been shown to be wrong repeatedly. We have no idea how they felt about Mayfield as he was the #1 pick and the Bills never had a chance to pick him, but considering they seem to like guys that want to play and give it their all - I do not think Mayfield would have been an issue. Rosen on the other hand makes so much more sense now that you see him playing in Arizona and he flashes immaturity and does not seem to be the natural leader and have the natural charisma of Allen. They have picked up and signed a ton of non-squeaky clean guys. Phillips was essentially kicked off Miami for arguments with the coaching staff, we have also picked up guys with suspensions like Murphy and the new kid Bolden along with guys during the off season. Just because what what they are looking for in players does not always match what you are looking for does not mean they only sign goody two shoes players. They do not Mind having players that are nasty or bad ass - see Teller, Phillips, and Incognito - as long as you do not have a me first attitude that permeates your play - see Dareus and Watkins. It is not the squeaky image, but team first play and thoughts that matter. This squeaky clean image garbage is just as bad as the take that they would cut people because they are not religious enough or that was the reason a guy like Peterman made the roster. It also is nearly as bad as the opinion that this front office only picks up former Carolina players - when it has been patently proven that on the current Bills roster there are now only 2 former Carolina players and one - Anderson - has not been active and is only here in a mentor role right now, but people still say - well they only pick guys up if they have been on Carolina’s roster.

Go and find any of a ton of threads on this. The NFL allowed dual ownership as long as they were in the same market or another market without an NFL team. The Pegulas were fine and never an issue. It would have been an issue if the owners of Delaware North would have tried to buy the Bills because he is a part owner of the Boston Bruins. The change is to allow guys in specific situations to dual own even if the market is shared with an NFL team. The Rams owner is also a partial owner of the Colorado avalanche. This is to allow him to consolidate so no one forces him out over a control issue.

Agreed - saw the combine time and thought “what the” - does not seem to match games speed at all. If he hit a legit 22.5 MPH in a game in pads - he can fly.

I have no issue with this - I think they are happy with what McKenzie is giving them in the offense - so find a guy to replace him and Murphy on special teams. Plus another young kid to mold into this group. His combine 40 time did not look elite fast and I saw he had a NFL suspension to start his career - anyone got any info on that? Looked like a banned PED that he took full responsibility for - just wondering if anyone saw or heard more - probably just a legit mistake, but always makes me nervous with such a young group.

Nice to see the variations with McKenzie. I love to see now that that they have some consistency in the WRs with Foster, McKenzie, and Jones - how they are starting to build different concepts. It had to be so hard earlier in the season with these guys with no experience or with KB with no speed and not being able to build and stack play types. It really bodes well for the future if you can take this experience and use it to plan for the next 2 weeks and then the entire off season.

I don’t think he was told to throw first and keep the running down - I believe that is what the Lions defense dictated. The Lions were running their version of the NE/NYJ defense used against Tyrod - slow rush from the edges - pressure the middle - keep a LB/safety near the middle to spy. It was designed to try and minimize escape lanes and prevent him from running and make him beat you from the pocket. The difference is Allen did just that - he made the plays with his arm from the pocket to win. A little help from his own receivers or a PI call for Zay when he tried coming back for the ball and his numbers look better and they force the defense to react - maybe opening those lanes back up.

Don’t think the o-line was all that good - the Lions defense played a lot of spy coverage and did not come after Allen much at all. It was similar to what the Pats and Jets used to do to Tyrod - rush/contain the QB and have a guy ready to spy and try to force him to beat you from the pocket. The difference was Allen completed some passes including the long TD to win.

I tend to disagree - I tend to think McDermott talked to him and Woods really wanted to head to the west coast. McDermott has made mention a few times I believe that Woods was someone he liked, but he wanted to be closer to family. McDermott especially in year one was looking for guys that really wanted to be here and I don’t think they gave Woods an offer because of how clear he made it he was leaving to get closer to family and I believe McDermott respects that. In addition - if you remember even before that season ended and media was talking with Woods - he made it sound like a done deal he was planning on heading out even before locker clean out day. Now with all that said - Woods would have been the perfect WR for this team with this HC and QB combo and if both were in place and established before Woods became a FA maybe he changes his mind and the team is family enough, but those last 3 years he was here - the Bills were not a family - they were a collection of individuals only.

Love this!! Combine this with what you hear Frank Reich saying in Indy. Guys playing for their teammates and essentially character and team matters. I know McDermott is not perfect, but give me that type of leader all day long over a Rex Ryan it is all about me coach.

I agree and thought they had squibbed one prior to the injury or at least short kicked it.

Has this been confirmed - I was under the assumption the squib kick was because of the weather and the fact that the NYJ return game had been gouging them all game. I never heard hem say the injury was the reason.

Overall - I guess I just do not care that much about this. We watch replay after replay and the vast majority of times they get the calls right. The biggest issue is that there are so many border line plays that even on a board like this we do not get a consensus - was it a fumble or was his knee down? Was it a catch or dropped/knocked away? Was it PI or not. We get 3 angles and one angle looks like pass interference, one angle looks like he does not touch him early and one is totally inconclusive. Holding is the same way - they have set it up so holding in the tackle box is very rarely called (which is why Hughes gets so few calls). The Bills end up with McCoy or Allen breaking out of the pocket and get the holding call on the change in direction. Can they improve - yes of course - everything can be improved, but to assume a guy off the field can watch multiple replays of every play and not slow the game down or create issues especially in hurry-up situations. Or that 2 challenges will work when right now with a team like NO ran out with 3 earlier in the year and that did not include penalties. I think younger officials and more transparent grading would be great, but I think adding technology will create new issues - just as adding replay and all of the slow motion replays have created more controversy rather than fixing things.

This is insane - there is just as good of a list going the other way. Every individual person has to be viewed in their own light. What we do know is that siblings and children of pro athletes have great genetics and typically a better understanding of what it takes to succeed. Sometimes that leads to them being better and sometimes they never live up to the hype, but the older brother/parent being better is not a valid point.

I just do not think Barkley was worth the investment and I certainly do not see them getting 8 years of playoff hunt out of Barkley. Everything they have won is on his back and he is piling up touches - nearly 300 so far, but when you look at top rushing backs - all are under 4 years in the league. By the time the Giants replace Eli (maybe 2019 draft) and you get the competent play from the young QB - Barkley will be 3 or 4 years in and will already at or past his peak. The case may be open on the QBs, but top QBs right now are playing 15+ years in the current NFL. Barkley should be easily one of the top offensive as RBs come into the league more ready to play (see UDFA - Lindsey in Denver), but top RBs start to decline after 4 or 5 years and are out of the league by 7 or 8 years. I would always take a chance on a top QB over a RB just based on worth in the league, what they do for a franchise, and how long they are valuable in the league.

I stayed with Chubb - to me this is easier because they picked up a QB in Case to get them through a couple of years because they still have an elitish defense. I think Vance Joseph is just a terrible coach for that team and that hurts the team. Allen would be the QB I would choose there, but I think they are happy with what they got.

The difficult thing there is after a few steps he is no longer looking to the edge - his eyes have moved inside. I can not tell from Waldman’s angle if Foster is still outside or if he has come off Foster and is looking for McKenzie. McKenzie reaches out and it goes just over his finger tips and it is a bit short and behind Foster. What none of us knows is did they run the right routes because it is weird they are right on top of each other and was he staring at Foster as Waldman suggests or did he come off to his second receiver and overthrow McKenzie who was coming open and the safety was not a factor.

Just saw the judge rejected his stay and he is not allowed to wear the gear this Sunday. The suit will go on, but the initial ruling sided with the Bears that being on the sideline is different than being in the stands. Interesting.

To me - the RB has played well, but even if you draft a QB next year it is probably year 2 or 3 before he is taking the team anyplace - by that point Barkley is in year 4 and looking at a huge contract for a 5th year option or 2nd contract. Therefore to me the wise thing at that spot was to grab a QB, but I get why they did not. It was similar to the Bills the the year before - new GM/coach combo wanting to scout players and choose a good fit at QB. I think for Pat Shurmer and that team - Darnold would be a great fit and having time to sit behind Eli would have made this team better now and going forward, but I get it and as I said in the buyers remorse thread - I do not think they are too upset because Barkley has been good.

I can’t imagine any of the teams that got a QB are having remorse right now. All have shown progress and all potentially give hope to the future. The only buyers remorse I can think is the teams like the Giants that really now appear to need a QB and were in position, but did not take one and they ended up with Barkley who is having himself a good season. Other teams like the Jags might regret missing out, but their draft position precluded a big move up and I am not sure Jackson is what they would have wanted.

Sorry to quote myself, but you can also look at Oakland before and after the trade. Carr’s percentage has dropped over 5% in the games without Cooperand his yards passing per game has also decreased with the big change being the loss 1 single WR within the season.

Overall - I disagree with the original take because reviewing the throws several inaccurate throws were throw aways under pressure. He did have the WTF interception (exactly the same as Darnolds Int by the way - so maybe that is a young QB issue in general). My biggest issue though is your statement above. You don’t climb 12 percentage points from better protection and better WRs. That is patently incorrect. Goff is a perfect example because what changed between year 1 and year 2 - got a new coach, 3 new o-lineman to give him better protection and 4 new weapons at WR and TE. The coaching was big, but even bigger is that he saw better protection to read plays and targets that made plays. Same thing with Chicago bringing in a bunch of FA WRs. To even better disprove the point - just go to Dallas and the Amari Cooper pick-up. One player to catch passes is the only real change prior to their 11/5 week. The 7 weeks prior to the trade - his best completion percentage was just over 65% with an average between 62-63%. He topped out at 270 yards passing with an average of around 200 yards per game. The 6 games since - his completion percentage has skyrocketed to around 72% with one game being above 85%. His yards per game has also gone way up with last week exceeding 450 yards passing. This is in season - Dak did not suddenly become more accurate- one player - one single player at WR - changed the entire offense and boosted his completion percentage by about 10%. Do I expect Allen to become a 65% completion player - no way, but his current percentage is similar to the other rookies and I expect all of them to jump next season. He also has one of the top air yards per attempt- so I expect more inconsistent throws due to where he is throwing and the talent. If after next year we are still having this discussion- then it will be TT all over again, but I think we will see improvement and he will be here for a while.

Just quickly looking at some NE games for example - NE used a time out after getting a first down at the Lions 12 yard line on the second drive of the 3rd quarter with about 10 minutes left - very similar situation. I think this is a common situation.