Rochesterfan

Where’s @Gugny and his poll - about this? We need to know. LOL ? or maybe the Gase eyes ?.

Well to be fair if you go through the current Bills roster on NFL.com the pipeline looks to be Baltimore, Chicago, and Miami as each team is connected to 5 players on the current Bills roster. Next up would be Arizona and Philadelphia with 4 and then a group of 7 teams including Carolina with 3 players on the current roster. I understand early on they brought in several Carolina players like Tolbert to fill holes and establish what McDermott wanted, but none of those guys are really left. It is down to 2 back-ups/ non-factors in Marlowe and Anderson, and Star as a rotational player/filler. It does help that Beane and McDermott have a good relationship with Carolina, but the roster, coaching staff, and FO is not filled with guys from Carolina - it is a limited group that have any connections at all.

I guess my counter would be with Dareus in Jacksonville for the full year was their run defense better or worse than our this year? Did they improve from last year or get worse? Did we improve from last year or get worse? The correct answers are the Bills with Star had a better run defense than Jacksonville with Dareus in both yards per game and average. Additionally the Bills rush defense and overall defense got better with Star versus last year - whereas Jacksonville got worse and that was with Buffalo eating a majority of the Dareus contract. Yes it would be nice to pay Star less, but the contract is not prohibitive to do whatever they want and I believe with the bonuses paid - he is not tied to the team for any length - they can move on as they groom replacements.

I don’t know ask Bell and Brown in Pittsburgh.

They shouldn’t care - interview and hire who you want - if they care about optics over hiring the right people then they will be gone anyway. The fact that perception driving by poor logic and no facts would have any impact is just wrong. Name all of the Carolina coaches on this staff hired by McDermott and Beane. Name all of the Carolina players on this team. Name all of the FO staff hired directly from Carolina. You actually do that and you see the numbers are quite small included this new guy as the only Carolina Coach, 2 players, and 1 FO person in Morgan that was only a Carolina connection as a player - not in his current role.

We all understand the national media does almost no homework on the Bills, but the fact remains as far as players in the last game we had 2 players with Carolina connections and only 1 played. The coaching staff at the present had really no Carolina coaches - the only real connection was McDermott and Beane. Did they bring some players in - yes, but that is the case everyone. Is the number large or inordinate- I think not. It is a continuous issue that people make these assumptions and then present as fact with no proof. Again national media is because they do not care - they just speak with no thought because 90% of the readers know nothing about the team, but it should be better on the board where members actually follow the Bills and know the players.

This is so right - people get so blow away over inaccuracies because they believe that all we do is hire ex Carolina players and coaches - when in reality the numbers are small.

Would mind this at the right price.

If this is the case who is the all time lading receiver in Ravens history? Who is the leading receiver in Browns History? Ravens you will find that it is D Mason from 2005-2010 Browns - Ozzie Newsome 1978 - 1990. Try Rushing, Passing, Sacks, Coaching records, anything you want. In the unique case of the Browns the agreement was made for the city of Cleveland to retain all property of the Browns. ”Subsequent legal actions by the city of Cleveland and Browns season ticket holders led the NFL to broker a compromise that saw the Browns history, records, and intellectual property remain in Cleveland. In return, Modell was permitted to move his football organization to Baltimore where he established the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens are officially regarded by the NFL as an expansion team that began play in 1996.” The Browns were unique because the NFL folded instead of fighting for the history. Most other teams move and retain the history in the new location, but not in the Brown/Ravens case. The Ravens were considered an expansion team with no history, but already loaded with players. Now let’s try it again.

Nope - just move it earlier on Sunday - 5 - 6 pm start or play it on Saturday.

Yes the NFL, Browns, and Cleveland reached an agreement because the city and fans sued. This kept the Cleveland history and name intact in Cleveland. I think other cities should attempt the same thing and maintain their history. I could see Oakland losing because they already let the Raider name move to LA with the team, but Houston should have maintained the Oiler name and franchise history. It makes little sense for Houston’s great players to be a part of Tennessee lore. Moving the team to increase the value should be offset by losing the brand and reducing the value - it would cause some additional concerns for ownerships that want to move all the time.

I love this move and the staff he is trying to put together - I think is legit. I just am not sure the QB and the team is the best fit, but I think they will be much better than last year.

I think this is critical - What limited success McVay has had has been with a very aggressive GM getting him a ton of experienced pieces and a DC that was phenomenal last year, but the defense has regressed this year with more talent, but the HC seems to be very hands off. It has cost them games during the season and may end up being their downfall again in the post season. I do not think that will endure long term success. My feeling is KK will be put in an even worse situation because his GM is not even on par with the GM in LA. It is really going to depend upon his staff, but I think this has crash and burn written all over it. Especially as KK has shown no ability to be a HC (an OC or a QB coach yes - not a HC). You are suddenly responsible for so much more and it shows with how poor he did at TT in a highly offensive conference that his offense was just above average, but his defense was non-existent. He does not have to recruit, but he has to be able to bring in FAs going against young QBs in SF and LA. Should be fun to watch.

This is the point I think is key. Rodgers already had the reputation of ignoring an established veteran coach that brought him along. I do not see a young coach as a good fit for the long term for this team. Unless they have a plan to address that - I think they will be exciting out of the gate and by mid season reports of Rodgers doing his own thing as the team falters in 3rd and 4th place in that division. Good Luck to them.

This is not correct - Cleveland sued to keep the history and colors of the Browns. This forced the Baltimore team to get a new name and they have no history of people/players that were in Cleveland before. For example: Belicheck was Cleveland’s Head Coach is is not a Head Coach of record in Baltimore for the Ravens because the team history did not travel. Jim Brown has no history or connection to the Ravens.

Nope because part of the deal when the team left Cleveland was that all team history and name was left behind in Cleveland. Baltimore even though they were the same players as in Cleveland started out as a new team and a new identity in Baltimore. I wish more moves were legally forced to do this.

I think you you are missing the results of the poll or are trolling bad. Looks like most of us is - you can’t be mad at that.

So you really believe no one wanted Allen from pre draft evaluations? Even though there was much talk of him going #1 to Cleveland and that pick being between Mayfield and Allen. The Jets wanted Darnold all along, but then both Buffalo and Arizona were higher on Allen than Rosen. The scouts around the league had Allen ranked pretty high and the guys that hated him were the pure analytic guys that could not justify the draft position with the numbers. Allen just blew all of their analytical work up by being successful as a rookie and showing talent and athleticism they could not quantify. The other things that the analytical guys missed was leadership and heart - Allen has shown an abundance of both, but they struggle to quantify that with things like completion percentage. Yes some fans hated the pick - just as some fans are down on McDermott and call him conservative without recognizing the changes he made through the season as Allen grew. Just like most other things people build a judgement and then continue to argue a false narrative to justify their position in the face of alternative facts to what they are seeing. For example people argue argue that all they do is bring in ex-Carolina players and that they refuse to go get talent - when by the end of the season there was 1 ex-Carolina player on the entire active roster and 1 in Anderson sitting on the bench, but the narrative continues. Another is that McDermott is super conservative- when in reality the Bills were upper 1/3 of the league in 4th down attempts and as Allen progressed and showed athleticism they went for more and more late in the season. He was more conservative early on because the defense was the better part of the team both this year and last and a defensive coach with a better defense should be more conservative. As the offense got better you saw him make changes to allow more aggression and we will see but it appears to me he is right in the middle - not super aggressive and not super conservative.

You don’t think they have a plan in place? My guess based solely on how organized and detailed they are - they already have an idea of what they are looking for and then based upon the now fired HCs have a list of candidates. I do not think anything done right now is not planned out as much as you can. You do not always get the exact result you want - as happened with the Dennison decision as he had another guy in mind that chose another position instead, but you plan for as many contingencies as possible.

Why does the order matter at all. Maybe they sat with the offensive staff first and reviewed each position. The nice thing is they are reviewing and going over every aspect of the team and are trying to improve.

Nope - practice time is the biggest issue. Better to have a specific LS and then them practice and just use someone as an emergency- so you don’t waste limited practice time.

I believe this was discussed in an earlier thread on punters, but it really started as the new CBA kicked in limiting practice time. Prior to that after the main practice was complete the back-up QB, kicker, and special teams unit would work on kicks and punts. As the time was reduced - it was much more effective to allow the long snapper, punter, and kicker to go and work by themselves for 90% of practice getting in more kicks and then only bringing the entire units together for limited plays. I believe this has led to much sloppier special teams in general around the league. Therefore you now keep the back-up QB with the team doing regular drills and the punters and kickers can get in their work. Most teams still have an emergency holder (either back-up QB or WR) in case of injury, but they get very limited snaps. I do believe the change in punter had a major impact on his kicking, along with the injury, and the number of practice kicks to get the new punters ready to go. It also seemed there were some very difficult wind conditions- for example at home against Miami the last week - one way the kick offs for both teams going into the wind were coming up at the 15-25 yard line. Going the other way the ball was getting into the end zone. Punts and the FG were also coming up short that way, while punts the other way were much better. There were other games like this where he seemed to come up short kicking into the wind.

Agreed - I voted indifferent because it does not overly bother me or make me excited. I do prefer the older make some noise methods. I also agree that they overuse it and that does make it worse.

You seem to be arguing against yourself. Read through everything I have written. I would not pay the 5th year option - I have repeatedly said that. If you can lock him up at 5 million per season - you are not getting much better for a rotational DE. Heck looking at Spotrac and guys stats - he is not a bad rotational player. His stats compare favorably to Quinn, Wake, and Branch in Miami and they all are close or above 10 million a season. Go To the Rams and guys like Fowler and Brockers have fewer sacks and passes defended again at way more money and with Donald and Suh as DTs. Try Dallas with Crawford with less tackles, sacks, passes defended and forced fumbles, but making 3 times as much money. Even some peers like Leonard Williams In NY - started 16 games and is a full time player and his numbers are on par with Lawson’s and Lawson plays less snaps. Williams has 42 tackles, 5 sacks, 2 passes defended and no forced fumbles - 16 games started and played. Lawson has 30 tackles, 4 sacks, 6 passes defended, and 2 forced fumbles in 2 less games and several games where he was the rotational guy just filling in. So again if you can get him to sign off on a longer term extension right now I would do it. I would not exercise the 5th year option unless I have to because that exceeds his value as a rotational DE.

He is a depth DE that can give you starts if needed. What exactly are you looking for out of him? If you are looking for JJ Watt type numbers then yes you will be disappointed, but if you are looking for a player that can give you some nice early down plays both against the run game and the pass game then there is nothing wrong with him. In 14 games - 30 tackles, 4 sacks, 6 passes knocked down, and 2 forced fumbles for a rotation DE. If you lock him up at 5 million a season or so and expect similar numbers you are not embracing suck - you are maintaining depth at a valuable position. If you sign him to a 10-12 million contract and expect him to start and be your primary DE and put up bigger numbers - then you may have an argument, but that is not what they have expected in his 2 years under McDermott - he is a hard working complimentary piece.