Rochesterfan

First of Waaaaaah - I mean you want to give the GM and the scouts that traded up for Watkins in the deepest WR class perhaps in history and the scout and GM that drafted EJ a chance to make a selection of Mahomes - WHY? McDermott knew that Mahomes QB class was suspect and that Allen’s class was considered much better. They knew Mahomes had a ton of issues and most “experts” had him in the middle to bottom third of the round because of his college offense and his TOs. They knew he had a cannon, but he needed a lot of work and the Bills had a QB they wanted to see what he could do. I think you way overvalue Mahomes and your opinion on him and you did not like Allen as a prospect so you equate two totally different players to try and make a point. The Bills may have like Mahomes, but you would have been going completely on a GM and staff that failed on so many picks and McDermott is smarter than that. If you can not see his process which is slow and deliberate, but you question why in 3 short months he would draft a QB that he did not scout and trust a GM that was going out the door, then the fault lies with you. I am not curious at all because it was obvious that last year was about McDermott instilling his ethos on the team and making picks based upon what he wanted in year 1 - nearly every pick was a 4 year starter and team leader - why - because I believe that gave him a chance to draft quality players based upon the scouts the Bills had and the players he knew from Carolina. Year 2 (draft 1 with Beane) was about getting talent because they had established the team identity. Plus he now had a GM that was on the same page and had scouted, talked with, interviewed, and did background checks on the players and could give a similar grade so they could grow together. To me it was easy build a team - get the QB that your long term front office wants. It makes to much sense. Plus how do you think Mahomes would have progressed watching TT run an offense - it would have stunted his growth more. Mahomes got to watch an actual QB have a career year and learn how to use all parts of the field. Mahomes is an easy bust in Buffalo with the staff from last year and TT at QB. Allen has a shot to be special.

Agreed - a lot better

The Bills “Embedded” was a great show and it is nearly impossible not to love this coach and team. They put out a great promotional product that peels back a few layers, but leaves most of the underlying things hidden. For an internally produced production it was done very well - I gave them ??

Dorsey wanted his own guy - I believe he wanted to bring Nagy with him to develop the future #1 pick, but Haslam made a decision that Hue was staying and that was that. I am not sure it was a reward to keep Hue another year - this is going to be very hard on him with that staff.

Agreed and Haley was brought in from outside the organization over and objections of Hue. Hue ran the offense and Dorsey forced an OC in and my belief is they plan on replacing Hue with Haley at the first opportunity.

This is it exactly. Just look for the Hard Knocks press conference from May and it gives a nice breakdown of what is produced and when the Browns see things. Of course because it is NFL related the Hard Knocks crew is going to avoid certain things - they do not want to bite the hand that feeds them, but at the same time their job is to get eyes to HBO to keep their jobs and that means finding and in some cases creating drama - via their editing. Why do you think it has become so hard to get a team to do Hard Knocks? They have not had a voluntary team do it in years and had to creat a set of rules to force teams to be on the show. The NFL loves the exposure - the teams hate doing it.

It was reported leading up to Hard Knocks that the Browns would get to see a copy of the production before it goes live to ensure nothing of a competitive nature (audibles, plays on white board, lists of FA, etc.) is scrubbed, but the Browns have no control over what is picked to be shown or presented. There was a great piece at the initial kick-off about why the Browns were chosen and who had editorial control over what. It it is a documentary taking everything that happens and removing anything that would give away secrets to give others a competitive edge. The team from Hard Knocks has a ton of access and they ask the team to trust they will not show competitive issues, but their job is to drum up interest and in that way they look for drama to highlight. That is incorrect I believe - Cleveland has access to ensure that proprietary info is not released - they do not have access to control the narrative - that is controlled out of the production team. Cleveland sees a copy prior to release, but the work is done -they can just make sure things like whiteboards do not show plays or actual audibles they are installing are sent out.

Steve said it best on One Bills Live today - Embedded is an in-house production to give fans an inside peek at what goes on and the narrative is controlled by the team. Show the positive and the control the narrative. Hard Knocks is run outside of team control and it’s prime function is to find and highlight the drama to make it compelling. The two have totally different goals and that can be seen by the narrative right here on the board- Hue is portrayed as this nice - incompetent guy that has 2 large Type A personalities gunning for his job. That is the narrative and drama that Hard Knocks is playing up. It may or may not be true, but it is the angle they seem to be playing. The Bills are trying to humanize McDermot and show the team as a family. I have no doubts that Frazier and McDermot have had some squabbles probably just as bad as Cleveland, but everyone thinks Cleveland is totally going to lmplode because of internal bickering - while the Bills look like a solid well run family. I don’t think Hard Knocks destroys a team, but I do not think it does a team any favors and to me - if I was a Cleveland fan or if the Bills were on Hard Knocks - I think it would have a definite negative impact on how I feel about the team.

I am am going to say the Chargers, but for whatever reason they seem to struggle early and often in close games. I think they are the best team in the division, but I think all of them are going to be close right around 0.500 with them beating each other up. I think the Chiefs regress - they have lost talent at QB and on defense. I think the Broncos are improved - but I do not trust that offense to win big games. I think the Raiders are the worst of the teams, but all of that changes if Carr gets right. Therefore I am sticking with Chargers as the most complete team, but still flawed.

It might be worth 2 Kiko Alonzo jerseys at the stadium. ?

I totally agree - double blind studies on donated brains is nearly impossible. That is why it is critical to find markers in the blood or using brain scans that can help identify this in live patients. I think with all of the baseline testing and scans being done now on athletes that this data will begin to help shape the discussion and it is data that can be conducted on healthy people also to see if similar changes occur in non contact athletes and general population. Of of course it is Russ Brandon the devil himself (lol) ?

They are finding more blood markers and in this case evidence from brain scans - where the damage occurs to determine dementia and onset of CTE. This is the third such study that is finding that it is not concussions as much as potentially brain injury combined with other factors that leads to CTE. These studies are much more scientific in nature not just looking at known CTE people, but “healthy” players with no issues. I think long term - concussions will be linked to some of the mood swings and memory loss players experience depending on what part of the brain gets bruised and injuried. It is obvious that getting lit up and suffering a concussion is bad, but it may not be the driver to CTE it was touted to be years ago. I can’t wait to see more studies on this from both sides. More research was always needed.

Not surprising in the least. The issue with most current studies published is that the donated brains were from people suffering from CTE at the time of death. Duh - of course they are going to find CTE - so they naturally assumed that the concussions were the cause. What more and more studies are finding is that it is not concussions that cause the issue - especially as they study more players that had concussions, but are not affected (the majority of players). They also find CTE in people that had did not play sports and had no known history of concussions. So there was always more to the story. That is why the shift about 2 years ago from concussions being the big culprit to repeatedly being struck in the head. Lots of little injuries, but that has not panned out either. I believe they will find something genetic in the end that makes certain players more susceptible (similar to the narrowing of the spinal column that caused paralysis for some players) and that combined with both the physical toll (oxygen depletion- banging of the brain - etc.) increases the risk factors. I will not argue that concussions and repeatedly getting blows to the head are bad for you long term and may have some impact, but I have always thought it stupid that a big deal has been made that in people with suspected CTE that donated their brains and CTE was found - they made assumptions with no control groups, no studies of brains in healthy football players, no studies of CTE brains in non-athletes, nothing to make it scientific and provide real insight.

You missed the biggest change of all: ’17 OC - Dennison - Horizontal/timing passing attack ’18 OC - Daboll - Varied attack week to week - attack multiple levels To me this is what will make all of the rest of the 2018 starters better. The attack Daboll wants to run would not work with last years QB and receivers as well. The change at QB will allow the change at OC to make this a very different and varied offense.

Yeah -Steve has mentioned that a few times on the radio. He went up to see his son practice with Johnny before the trade and spent time with his old coach from Houston. Hoping to have him on to talk some old school football.

Typically depending on the job - you get some training and maybe a mentor for a short period and then you are left on you own and expected to swim. Sounds a lot like Training Camp and Preseason with a veteran around to mentor. Not a great example either way.

I would not hold the yardage as anything great, but he threw for 57 yards basically through the first half. Brissett threw for 69 in the equivalent of 5 quarters. I am not sure the snow protecting you was much help with the wind and cold. He left with the Bills leading and had the only TD up to that point. It was also very windy as they were talking about this morning. Was it a good outing -I don’t know, but he was easily the best QB that played that day - although Webb may have had the best throw.

Having read this thread and thought about it - I think both sides of the argument is just plain wrong - period! You do not ruin a QB by starting him too early - this can be proved by guys like Manning, Aikman, Luck, Wilson, etc. You also have guys that benefit from sitting like Rodgers, Brady, etc. You also have guys that sat for various parts of their rookie season with mixed success - guys like Goff, Rothlisberger, Brees, etc. There is no one right way or one wrong way to develop a QB. It depends upon the individual QB and how the team moves forward that will determine success or failure. Some people (even QBs) learn better/faster and more by playing or doing. These guys need to be immersed in the game to get the most out of it. They learn about the speed and the reactions as they play - something they can not get by watching. Some players can pick up a lot by watching film and practicing and are much more prepared when they get a chance to start, but others would get little out of it. In the end you must understand your QB - you must support the QB - and you must give him time to develop in either process. For some that means tough love and for others that means coddling, but either way it is the coach/QB relationship that must stand whether that QB starts from Week 1, Week 4, Week 15, or Year 3.

NFL teams usually do not platoon the O-Line either. The O-Line and the QB tend to work more in unison to set blocking and blitz and platooning either will impact that. Could platooning either by series, by quarter or in game time frame, or even by game work? Yeah, but only if you have 2 distinct QBs that neither is good enough by themselves for long term success. The issue becomes if one starts to win or move the ball more consistently- then you look like a fool as a coach for playing the other. Flutie/Johnson could have been a great example of that as Flutie provided a free wheeling, open concept and Johnson a more traditional drop back role. Neither was good enough to hold a long term starting NFL role and both had strengths and weaknesses, but they never would have co-existed long if this had been tried because both wanted to start. I think in the end the competitive nature of these guys would destroy any chance at it working long term. Baltimore will be ok if they limit Lamar’s role to more wildcat style plays, but if they pull Flacco and try to run entire series with Jackson - I think Flacco will flip out and the team will begin to splinter behind different camps.

Even moreso for live sporting events because the people watching live actual may see some commercials - just see the Super Bowl for that fact and the number of sites dedicated to SuperBowl commercials. The top TV shows that are not sports are more and more often being “TIVO’D” and people can skip the commercials, but it happens less with a live event. I will delay the start of a Bills game so I can skip commercials, but eventually I catch up and have some. Even cord ore cutters many times get antennas to watch local games live and therefore add to the revenue potential that other shows can not draw.

Bennett and cohort Bruce Smith formed one of the most feared pass rushing tandems of all time. When one thinks back to the long and illustrious history of the linebacker position at the University of Alabama, a few names always come to mind. There was the tough and gritty, hard-hitting Lee Roy Jordan, one of Bear’s Boys. There was possibly the greatest ‘backer to play the game at any level in the legendary Derrick Thomas. There is a litany of more recent names from the Saban Era such as Dont’a Hightower, C.J. Mosley, Rolando McClain, and Courtney Upshaw. Some have made their marks on the pro ranks, while others remain works in progress. But one former Crimson Tide linebacker who distinguished himself not only during his time at Alabama but as a prolific pro defender in the NFL is Bama’s beloved “Biscuit,” Cornelius Bennett. Bennett was easily one of the most heralded linebackers to play at the Capstone, and he parlayed that potential into a dominant career in the NFL which saw him play for a Super Bowl five times with two different teams. Bennett was a fixture on the Buffalo Bills “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” teams of the late ‘80’s and early ‘90s, when the Bills dominated the AFC but just couldn’t make it over the hump to get a Super Bowl ring. More https://www.rollbamaroll.com/2018/7/13/17565710/the-case-for-cornelius-bennett-pro-football-hall-of-fame-crimson-tide-buffalo-bills-falcons-colts Great player, but not a HOF player. His chances are better than Incognito, but neither should make it.

Eventually the NFL will sell full streaming and makes games available in different packages or through specific companies like Amazon and you will have better and more specific access, but for now - the NFL gets a butt load of money from DirecTV and DirecTV is going to do everything to maintain their control. Once that contract is done - my guess is they will open up a true fully functioning streaming option along with a TV option to try and double dip and get more money. For most of these games the download is based upon the local market you are currently in not where you bought your phone or what number you have. For example when I travel to England - even with my local cell number you lose access to local programming. The phone knows where you are and that controls what access you have. I will not say there aren’t ways around it, but for those of us not so savvy - it works. Just like if if you are local you can stream WGR and the games on the App, but if you are traveling the App would shut off the game on kickoff and say that due to regulations you can not get the game outside your local market.

Based on what I saw - this is right - I do not think based on the preliminary set-up this is a game changer. It can can help a bit, but other streaming methods are better.

The talking heads think we lack talent - not sure if Beane or McDermott agree. I would not be shocked to add a veteran cut at some point or maybe a minor trade, but I think what you see is what they plan.

I agree - the Blitz did not seem like a money winner, but considering the writers were all ready on staff - it was not going to be much of a loser. The issue is if the writers don’t think it will work or is not a model they embrace - it never has much of a chance to take off. I think the loss allowed them to offer the buyouts and they got what they wanted and a bit more. They also stated that although they offered buyouts to everyone - some they accepted and some they denied - that tells me they had no issue letting Bucky and Sully go in this case.