Rochesterfan

Nope - it says with the injury - go get the guy you are familiar with and you know can handle it, but continue to look to get better. This happens all the time to replacement level guys ask CJ Spiller a couple of years ago - he was signed and cut in KC like 8 times in one season, but they seem ok. The response says more about you than the signing says about the GM. He is trying to improve the roster.

I don’t think so. Very inconsistent with several shorter punts that were returnable. He did have 2 punts that ended up inside the 5, but the booming punts when we were backed up just do not happen. That was why they replaced him before the season and the only reason he was back was the injury. That is my opinion on what is going on here.

Nope - trading him for a fourth round pick would be even worse than if the Bills try to sign Bell this off season. Shady is part of their plans and he provides more than yards - he seems to help bring guys together across the team and for a HC that is preaching playing for each other - he is invaluable.

I don’t disagree, but that is also one of the reasons the Steelers have stayed out of Cap Jail. They have very few Dareus situations where you give that big contract with guarantees up front and the players then no longer play to their maximum. They give guarantees, but you earn them each year. Bell is a notoriously dangerous guy to give huge money to upfront. He has already been suspended multiple times for drugs - so you have that issue and you have a super talented o-line that once again this year with Conners proved it is more about them than Bell. I understand Bell thinking he is worth it and I get the Steelers saying we will give it to you, but you have to earn it each year. I think that whoever overpays for Bell in the off-season - assuming he even becomes free- will get a guy that returns to normal RB status and the will be greatly overpaying for actual production. The one exception might be Indy if they can keep the line getting better - he may be able to produce there and make an AAV of 15 million work, but Buffalo, NYJ, Cleveland, etc - he will not be worth it.

Yep - except for the multiple extensions Pittsburgh offered him at 14+ million for the next 3 years and the 4 year extension they offered him last year at over 12 million a season. Both deals would have made him the highest paid RB in the league at that time. He wanted more - he wants to be paid as a high end WR at over 16+ million.

He had 2 punts that bounced and were downed inside the 5 - great. He had 3 punts with little air time and gave up huge returns - luckily they called a penalty on Jac to negate the one return. A second had offsetting penalties to hold off another good return. He only had 1 fair catch and a touchback. Overall it is easy to see why they tried to replace him. He is way to inconsistent to say he had an excellent game.

No way - do not want to get into Cap jail for a RB. Like I said I would max out around 8 million and if he wants more - go get it elsewhere. Maybe the Jets do 14+ million - good for them. I think with his style he is a product of the Steelers more than an elite player. Give him an average line and he becomes a very average back. Agreed - people always assume they want choirboy players, but they have repeatedly stated they want guys that love the game and play for their teammates. To me that is the opposite of Bell. This holdout was was all about Bell and that rings very poor in my mind about who he is.

I would sign Bell only at a max of 7-8 million a season. He balked at 14+ from the Steelers. Any team going close to 14+ is going to regret it sooner rather than later. You can get excellent production from young players all over the draft and even undrafted guys at 1/20th of the cost. Look at Denver - an UDFA at RB getting the first 100 yard game against the Steelers. I would rather see that money spent on more productive positions like WR/OL and CB and if we have extra money - roll it forward than overpay for Bell.

I would hate this - it makes no sense with the rest of the rules - a fumble out of bounds does not move back to the spot of fumble (except in situations like the last 2 minutes because teams would purposefully fumble forward and out of bounds to stop the clock and get 1st downs - so it had to get addressed to prevent “cheating” plays. If you switch the rule you are giving teams the ability to “accidentally” attempt to fumble forward into the end zone with less consequences. The rule is designed to force the offense team to recover rather than force the ball out of bounds. Looking at risk/reward and consequences- I think the fumble through the end zone is a good rule and if it needs to be changed then it needs to be changed for all fumbles out of bounds. Make it a 15 yard delay of game penalty from the spot of the fumble everywhere. You also need to add the clock runoff if it is late in the game, but in the end I prefer the consequences of the offense if fumbled in a scoring position and losing the ball all together.

Done - good for SF. Even if if someone wants him - I suspect another NFL suspension will keep him off rosters for now.

Great CBS spot - nice to see the positives from football - even on guys that did not live up to his potential. He is now doing something meaningful for many others. He is a better fit in the real world than he ever was on the field. ? ???

This is the part I find fascinating because he may still not be free. If they can still tag him - he may get less offers at a lower price and he will really lose out. If he had signed and showed up there was no way the Steelers could tag him - the money would be prohibitive, but by not showing - there is a chance the Steelers could tag him at less or the same level as this year and force a trade to get something back. I still think he would of been better off signing and working out a trade than just sitting out. More in lines of how other leagues handle disgruntled players. If they show up - teams work with them more than the guys that just do not show up. Happens in football - is happening in Hockey with holdouts.

The ever popular: NEWS - New England will sign - referring to any mediocre Bills player released and how they will become HOF players in New England.

Yeah 90’s Zubaz on his Proline Card. Loved them. The fashion sure has changed as we age. ?

You are confusing your opinion with what is happening. Chicago/LA Rams - the QBs played their rookie years with subpar offensive talent. They both struggled badly in their rookie year. Year 2 they began amassing offensive talent. Year 3 the Rams went after a ton of defensive help because their offense got them to the playoffs and then knocked right out. KC - they amassed the talent for Alex Smith and then after sitting a year (so again year 2 for Mahomes) they let him play. Cleveland, NY, and Arizona all drafted QBs and do not have a ton of talent around them. Cleveland might have the most, but they have chosen to allow multiple 1st round WRs leave during this season and over paid for Landry and his production. The Bills drafted their QB and will be amassing the offensive talent in year 2 just like all of the other teams with their rookie QB. They have wasted nothing that every other team with a young QB is not going through. The issue is your opinion that he won’t be ready until year 5 to lead the team when he has been just as good or better than Darnold and Rosen and was on par with Mayfield before the injury. Mayfield has pulled away the last couple of weeks.

Not sure where this comes from - most NCAA football programs not at the very top (power 5 conference) make almost no money after costs are associated with everything. There was a nice article from 2017 in the Houston Business Journal about all of the Texas colleges and what their revenue and associated costs were. Colleges like Houston essentially break even or lose money on football due to the associated costs. There were like 4 or 5 Texas colleges that were profitable (mostly UT, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, and Baylor). The difference between the top programs and these mid level schools is huge. Additionally being in Houston - how often do they need these jackets. My guess is less than 1 time a year - so they probably do not have a bunch of the Jackets because they do not need them.

Whether it is a stupid rule or not - it is a rule. The fact that he and several others wore the jackets, but when told they were not supposed to all of the other players removed them - that tells me the team did try to address it quietly. Everyone else seemed to be to be ok with it - when the star player did not listen to others - it fell to the head coach to handle it. The fact that it had to go to the head coach level is part of the issue. I do not know how many of these special jackets they have - I do not know why they made up the specific rule, but it is a rule and their are reasons beyond what we can see why they make them. Belichick does not allow big celebrations- he had to talk with Gronk about that and Gronk acknowledged being disciplined for his actions - that seems stupid for the NFL, but that is their rule. We have all kinds of rules in society that have been in place because of reasons that are long outdated and it takes discussion to change these rules - both sides dig in if you have open conflict - even if it seems stupid. The coach needed to do a better job, but Oliver needed to respect the rules when asked originally to remove it and if he wanted to wear it - have the discussion with the coach. This smacks of other issues on the team with underlying disagreements between the coach and player that a small incident becomes this blown up.

Totally disagree with this take. The tantrum and the actions are not the issue why they would not choose Oliver. They have picked up several guys that have conflicts like that including Phillips just a couple of weeks ago. McDermott is not afraid to teach and coach a player like that - he has stated many times they are looking for passionate players with talent and he falls into that category. What I think would keep him from being high on the Bills board would be if the staff and trainers in talking with the Houston staff and trainers decide his injury should not have kept him out of the line-up, but he was only thinking of himself. The Bills staff want guys that are passionate and want to play not for themselves, but for their teammates and the love of the game. They are building a family and team environment and have steadily gotten rid of me first type players (Dareus/Watkins).

Once again I am not overly impressed with the job that Lynn is doing in LA for the chargers. I think once again he has a boat load of talent on both sides of the ball and does not maximize the talent. Both years he has basically beat teams below .500 and lost to teams with a winning record. His coaching at the end of the game yesterday (along with a poor job by Rivers) cost them the game. I think he has done an adequate job, but he is not a guy I envision being a long term solution- I think he was a get the team through the transition from SD to LA and then we will find the coach of the future. I don’t believe his long term vision would have been successful in Buffalo at all.

But an offensive HC like McVay or Reid is ok calling only offense and letting the defense be handled by the DC? This is crazy - heck Belichick pulled defensive duties when he feels like it and spends time meeting with the defensive team after drives. All head coaches have to trust their coordinators and they hire guys they feel they can trust and implement what they want.

Go look at Seattle’s roster movement when Carroll took over more changes than Buffalo by far. The Rams have changed well over 50% of the roster over the last 2 years. All new WRs, O-line, D-line, secondary. The difference with the Rams was they had no big contracts - they had guys like Gurly and Donald coming up, but they did not have the resigned players. Therefore they could begin acquiring talent without eliminating contracts.

Agreed- On top top of that - next longest longevity are Harbaugh (special teams), Lewis, Carroll, and Tomlin (defense), you have Payton and McCarthy on offense. Seems to me you can get consistency and Super Bowls with eight side of the ball.

TT from 3 years ago before team started game planning him - maybe. Current year TT with an under 50% completion percentage and 2TDs and 2ints - nope not a chance. We had his play in Josh Allen - although Josh had a better completion percentage and yards per attempt, but more ints in more games. I think we are sitting at 3-7 or 4-6 and we would be benching or have already benched TT - plus we lose some like Star on defense because we have TT and his over 16 million cap hit. I would also add that the NYJ seem to have TT number - so I am not sure we get that win. As an idea see how the NYJs handled TT in Cleveland and what happened after he left. Additionally do we get the Game Winning drive against Tennessee as TT has struggled with that over the years. I think they may have been in some games, but I do not see a real change in their record. Now could he help in this late season push - maybe, but by this point he would be benched - so he would not be finishing the season as the starter anyway - so I think it is all moot.

Nice cut ups.

Never - Rex adds nothing but garbage when he speaks - I would prefer to see him pushed out the door and never have to listen to his bull again. Hated him in NY with the Jets - thought he was a blowhard and a bad coach. Hated even more that the Bills were duped into his circus show. Now I get to not pay attention to the crap he spews on ESPN - showing just how fall they have fallen. The guy is a straight Buffoon and I really need to hear less from him not more.