Shaw66

$14.00 to Stef's foundation. I'm in. https://www.givesignup.org/DonationWebsite/TheStefonDiggsFoundation/Donate

True. There always are visiting team fans around me in Orchard Park, and they celebrate wins there just like we do on the road.

Many Seahawks jerseys are same color blue. There were more blue Hawks jerseys than Bills jerseys. A lot of the blue jerseys are 12th man jerseys with the number 12. I kept thinking they were Kelly jerseys. No. There also were more than a few Kelly 12 jerseys.

I think the 5th year option is valuable if you don't want to extend him, like Edmunds. If you want to extend, it will get done in the 4th year either way.

I agree about the vision, at least as compared to Cook. But he attacks holes with a good burst and some power. He is an effective runner but less of a break-away threat.

And Atlanta.

I thought the same thing. Cook accelerates better - instant speed

Yes! OJ always wore short sleeves. He said he could feel tacklers better that way, even before contact.

I think someone pulled him aside and showed him how easy it would be to get injured doing that. Contract time is coming, and an injury could cost him millions.

I was noticing yesterday how patient Cook has become. He gets behind the line and waits. And waits. When he sees the opening, he has a remarkable burst of speed and takes off to the hole. That burst, together with his ability to change direction quickly, has made him really effective running between the tackles. His speed at the edge is obvious. He has also been impressive getting the last yard or two in his runs. He is by no means a power back, but he keeps working th extra yard, especially around the goal line. For most of his rookie season, he couldn't win the starting job, but the Bills knew what they had.

In his press conference after the game, Geno Smith gave credit to the Bills fans in the stadium. He said sometimes it sounded like he was playing on the road. I was sitting pretty far up in the lower bowl on the Seahawk sideline, and there was a lot of noise coming from all the Bills fans from goal line to goal line on the Bills sideline. Great job.

I heard it exactly the other way around. I went to those games, but I certainly was no expert in defensive line play (then or now), so I can't say one way or the other. Either way, that defense was stifling.

Actually, I heard it said that Dunaway was the best player on that defense and that Sestak was able to make the plays he did - which were great - because Dunaway drew double teams on almost every play. Not worth arguing about. Jacobs was outstanding, and Tracey and Stratton were very good. Edgerson and Byrd were an outstanding pair at cornerback, and I loved Saimes. The Bills had trouble controlling McDole's weight. There was story that one year he came to camp substantially overweight, and the Bills put him on a strict diet. After a couple of weeks of dieting, McDole hadn't lost a pound. The Bills were baffled. They decided to put his room under surveillance. That's when they discovered that McDole was sneaking out of room late at night and going to a nearby McDonald's, where he pounded down multiple double cheeseburgers. He was a character.

Yes, maybe Fitzgerald was better than Cooper. The fact that he may be top five in one separate category of skills is really irrelevant. I just took a look back, and I think Cooper has been in the top 10 in receiving yards three times since he came into the league in 2015. As I've said, I think he's a good fit for the Bills. He's better, clearly better than any receiver on the roster (only Coleman has the talent to even hope to become what Cooper has been). He's a good fit because he fits what the Bills are trying to do generally, which is to have a collection of receivers who can run the entire route tree from many different formations. He's made a career of doing that. And he's important because in critical situations, the defense takes a big risk if they don't double him. That's exactly what the Bills need, because Shakir, Coleman, and Kincaid all are good enough to take advantage when the defense is focusing on Cooper.

I think you seriously misunderstand Beane, McDermott, and the Bills. Yes, Beane may think that this team isn't as talented as next year's team may be, but McBeane think they are competing for a Lombardi this season. They've thought that since the Bills lost to the Chiefs in the playoffs, and they've thought that whether they got Cooper or not. They know, and I think most Bills fans know, that with McDermott and Allen, the Bills are in the hunt every season.

Top 50 may be harsh, but I basically agree with you. I wasn't dissing Cooper, or didn't intend to. I agree that he's top 15 (or thereabouts), and that's great for the Bills. Cooper isn't Lamb, isn't Jefferson, isn't even Mike Evans. I'd compare him to Larry Fitzgerald - a guy whom I wouldn't call explosive, but I guy I definitely want on my team. What I like about him, and what I liked about Fitzgerald, is that he knows his role and he does his job, and he's able to do it at a very high level. As I said in my earlier post, he's a perfect guy for McDermott - and unless Cooper hits a wall this season, I fully expect that he'll be back next season.

I hate to say this, but I think Cooper may be the prototypical Bills player - the kind of guy McDermott loves. He has talent and he does his job, and he doesn't let anything else get in the way. Put another way, his play isn't animated by burning passion; instead, it's animated by excellence at his position. That means he's a guy who is very productive but isn't a big-play star. He isn't Justin Jefferson or Chris Jones. He's like Rousseau - really talented, good size, does his job. It's why the Bills took Coleman instead of Worthy. If I'm right about that, then he's a perfect guy to drop into this receiver group: all-round excellent receiver, better than anyone else in the room, will make everyone around him better. Just the kind of guy McDermott loves. Cooper will make the Bills better, game in, game out, but he isn't necessarily going to make the big play that a guy like DHop does. I "hate to say" it because I think every really successful team needs at least one truly outstanding guy at a key position. Cooper isn't that guy, at least I don't think so.

I will be at the game.

Bills Titans is pretty boring in the stadium.

I commented about this in response to someone else. They take the video output from the cameras and then digitally zoom in to fill the screen with most of the players in the formation. That means that at the snap, you sometimes cannot see all 11 players. That makes it harder to understand what the teams are doing. And their closeups on the players are tighter, too. It creates some visual overload, so far as I'm concerned. I suppose that younger viewers, video game players, are used to these more intense visual presentations. Again, I know I don't like it, and the NFL probably knows I don't like it. But the NFL doesn't care, because I'm no longer in their target demographic.

Maybe we just don't remember accurately, but I do think the game has gotten less interesting. It was simpler, easier to understand in the 80s. Big hits, teams that were known commodities, etc. I really appreciate the comments people have made here. Most importantly, I think it's the old guys like me who are complaining, and the NFL doesn't care about us. We aren't buying beer or cars, just medication. So, the games are being produced to appeal to a different generation. However, I think your point is important. Football has been, by far, the best TV sport ever invented, but I think the same thing may be happening to football as happened to baseball. In baseball, the teams figured out the best way to win games was to hit homers, regardless of how many times players struck out trying. What that meant is that the game evolved to maximize winning, but the evolution went in a direction that made the game a less interesting TV product. I think the NFL may have thie same problem: The thing that coaches are figuring out to maximize winning are making the game less watchable. Add to that the rule changes to reduce injury, like the new hip-drop tackle rule that is necessary, make the game, and officiating the game, baffling. When teams played straight man to man with occasional double teams or straight zone coverage, when they lined up in identifiable ways (3-4 or 4-3 on defense and more standard formations on offense) it was easier to understand what was happening on the field. Thanks to everyone for their comments.

Yes!

Good point about IR. It feels like tams almost welcome a chance to put guys on IR for a break early in the season. Yes!

You misunderstood my point. I was only using the Bills as an example of how teams aren't really put together until October. Up until then, everyone is still assembling their teams. As a result, these early season games feel like preseason games. That's all. I think Beane is great. He says all the time that he is prepared to do anything and everything at any time to make the team better. I think the Cooper move is excellent. Right kind of player to add to the team, both on and off the field. He'll know his role and fit in. He'll be a senior voice on the offense who will back up Allen. support him. Great move to get him without any significant cap hit. Excellent management of draft choices - the second he got for Diggs covers the third he gave up for Cooper. The whole thing strikes me as a solid move by Beane. He's doing his job. The amount of impact Cooper will have is yet to be determined. It's the kind of move Beane should be making, even though not every move works out. If we're talking Beane, I'll admit to being a little concerned that Bishop hasn't flashed much yet. It's early, I know, but not that early. I'll be happy if I see him starting to get more snaps.

Thanks. That's quite interesting, seriously, but wasn't what I was talking about. I'm not a video connoisseur, so I don't notice these things you're talking about. I'm talking primarily about the framing of the picture. Their standard shot of the line of scrimmage presnap is zoomed in a tad, so you feel a little closer to the action. Problem is, the screen feels full of too much stuff, and the action is busier. And other aspects of the visuals are like this - the closeups of players feel more in-my-face. I think both what you're talking about and what I'm talking about are efforts to use the technology to make the broadcasts more entertaining (addictive?). And I was interested that someone else said it's the NFL pushing these changes. They should be the ones controlling the output, because it's their product. Whatever they're doing on Thursday night isn't doing it for me.