Shaw66

This. McDermott likes to practice all aspects of the game experience, including the pregame locker room routine, on field warmups, coin toss, everything. So, he'll put the starters on the field for the last preseason game, with the exception of anyone who's nursing an injury.

I found myself wondering what an average Bills fan is like. I don’t consider myself average. When I was a teenager in the 60s, I was a serious fan. I knew everything about the Bills. Then I left Buffalo and ended up in Connecticut. Got married, got a job, had kids, so by the 80s, I was in Bills blackout. There was no quality coverage of the Bills easily available, they weren’t on TV very often, no internet, and I was busy with other things. There were, I’m sure, plenty of weekends where I didn’t know if the Bills had won or lost until I read the Monday morning paper. I got more serious in the 90s, of course, watching the Bills every time they were on TV. The Kelly years forced me back into more serious fandom. I continued that way until about 2004, when I discovered fan forums on the internet. I realized that I could stay current with the Bills even from Connecticut. Then, in 2005, I went to a game. I hadn’t been to the Stadium in 20 years. One game, and I was seriously hooked. A year or two later, I had season tickets. Sometime around then, the Rockpile Review started. I’d call myself a serious fan. My simple measure of a serious fan is someone who can name all the starters, can name at least some of the balance of the roster, and knows the back story of many of the players. That is, a serious fan knows more about Josh than he grew up on a farm in California. Maybe a better measure of a serious fan is someone who doesn’t go more than a few days without checking in to see what’s happening with the team, and that means in March, in June, 365. There aren’t a lot of Bills fans in Connecticut, there isn’t a good Bills bar for the few to gather and watch the games. When I run into a Bills fan, more often than not, they’re a serious fan like me. So, I hang out on this forum, and I get to talk to a lot of other serious Bills fans, some who know a lot more about the team than I do, but even those who may know less that I know still know a lot. I think of us and others like us as the hard core. I’m guessing there are plenty of average Bills fans in Buffalo, people who care a lot about the team and care whether they win, people who watch most of the games, but they will miss a game here or there because the wife wants to shop for furniture. People who don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the details. People who can’t name the entire offensive line, let alone the backups. People who if pressed can name only a half dozen players on the team. My guess is that there are more than a few season ticket holders who don’t think about the Bills in depth like people on this forum. My guess is that there are plenty of people who go to the games faithfully, people who are thrilled when Allen goes deep to Diggs, but people who are stumped if you ask them who starts at defensive tackle. So, I’m asking you if you know average fans. What are they like? Maybe more importantly, what’s wrong with them?

What are we talking here? Drag racing? Drugs? Wrestling?

Good stuff. It's fun to root for Bills players in this era. They all really have their acts together.

People talk about not wanting to pay for content but man, The Athletic does some good stuff consistently. This article is excellent. It gives a good feel for what Daboll is trying to do, and what Beane is trying to do. Thanks Yolo.

I suspect that's true, but what he said publicly was about the grind and the opportunity to head off in a different direction. I remember being surprised that almost immediately he recreated the same column. And you're absolutely right about his in-season column. It is the best national coverage you can find. During the season, if he watches the games and the highlights, and he does, he gives good insights into what he saw and what he learned from a few contacts he called. I can watch a game and write multiple paragraphs about it - actually, I do. He, to his credit, watches multiple games and highlights and writes a lot of paragraphs. It's good stuff. I'm not going to do that. It's hard work. The point is that every Sunday, he and you and I start in the same place, with the same material - we watch the game. I was commenting on his camp reports, which are different. It's more or less impossible to watch a training camp session and write something meaningful about the team. You have to interview people and find out what's been going on. He did very little of that with the Bills, so it was difficult to write much that is meaningful about the Bills. I suspect he does very little in other cities, as well. It's just too hard to do it. I know enough to write a meaningful camp review, but I know it from having listened to a lot of press conferences and interviews, having read good things that people write here, and having watched video. In other words, I have dozens of hours invested in the process to understand where the team is today. King can't invest dozens of hours in 32 teams.

Thanks. I agree with this. And I agree about King. Writes well, is rarely wrong, gets some really good inside stuff. He's a Boston fan, so he was in his glory all those years with the Pats, because he could write for a national audience about a team he liked. That notwithstanding, the stuff he wrote about Brady and the Pats was interesting insightful stuff. He was a Favre groupie, and a Rodgers groupie, so he does good stuff about them, too. Trying to push out meaningful stuff about 32 teams is more or less impossible. I had the impression that he left SI because he couldn't stand the grind, and then he jumped right back into it. But that just goes to support my original point, which was that these camp reports are shallow and don't really give the serious fan a good look at what's going on with the team. I would guess that the journalist in King would prefer not to do them, because he probably understands that he's just regurgitating stuff and making it look interesting by writing it well. But the capitalist in him knows that he gets paid six figures to produce content that people will click on. You and I may be looking for in-depth stuff, but most of his readers, if they read about the Bills at all, want "Allen, Allen, blah, blah, blah, pass rush, first-round pick, blah, blah, blah." That's what works. An in-depth analysis also would work, but it won't create any more clicks. I used to read him all the time. Now, I rarely do. If the Bills have a lot of success again this season, King will get around to doing some in-depth work on the Bills, someone will post a link here, and I'll go read it. It will be good, interesting, and I'll learn something. But week to week, I'm not interested.

You know more about journalism than I do, but I suspect he does have some advance people. He works for a big-time network, is one of their lead experts, and he's been at the top of his field for a couple of decades. I'd guess that out of his own pocket he could afford to pay someone, but I'd also guess that when he left SI and joined NBC, he negotiated for support in what he does. I don't know any of that, but that's what I would guess. , But more to the point, if that article is all that he has to say about the Bills, then it leads me to conclude that it isn't worth reading what he has to say about the the other teams' training camps, because although it's a lot of words, it's pretty superficial coverage of what's actually going on with the team. I mean, if I were a Seahawks fan and I wanted to know what was going on with the Bills, if you wrote me 800 words or whatever it is that King wrote, I'd know ten times as much about the team as I would get out of what King wrote. You'd give me something about the offensive line - starters returning, developing depth You'd give me something about the wideouts and their depth. You'd tell me something about how the young DEs look and what the Bills need from them, you'd give me something about the running backs. And there's be the obligatory stuff about Allen, but something more than he has to be better in big games. What he wrote is accurate, I'll give him that. But he didn't help fans understand what's going on with the team. And he doesn't need to travel all around the country visiting camps if that's what he's going to produce. The economics of journalism is really a shame. Local papers and media can't earn enough to staff up the way they need to be, and national media do nothing much more than give people what they already know and want to hear. I'm sick of reading about Rodgers, so I didn't read what King wrote about him. That's the kind of stuff that King does really well - the personal dynamics of situations on teams.

First, I'm sure he has people helping him. He isn't just in and out. He has some advance people who should be giving him some nuggets to pursue, Second, he could have written this in February. Bills pass rush has to be better. Allen has to be better in big games. That's not a camp report.

Investment manager at Merrill Lynch?

I never ran, but I didn't start going to games as an adult until I was 60! But I know what you're saying. I drive to Connecticut, so I have two hours left when you're pulling into your driveway. It's all about getting out of the stadium traffic as fast as you can. That's what's so good about my route. Going east on Big Tree is better that way than Southwestern. Up until this year, I'd drive all the way on Sunday night, get home about 11:15 or so. If the Sunday night game is close, I usually walk in the door and catch the last 2-3 minutes. This season, I've vowed to drive just part way, stop by 8, stay over, and drive the last four hours on Monday morning. East Syracuse is looking like my stopover. Take the wifey out for a nice supper, and then snuggle up for the game.

When I was a kid in Amherst, my grandfather would talk about all those towns out there. Now, I drive through them all after Bills games! Elma and Marilla and Alden and Corfu.

I used to park in lot 5, and what you say is correct. Only problem is that if you want a really good spot, you have to get there early, because everyone has figured that out. But if you get there early, you're right. You can park along the middle exit aisle (back in!!!!). Even when you have a good spot, the traffic sometimes used to get backed up, but I think the Bills now have it figured out pretty well, and the cars just pour out onto Southwestern. I think 5 is a little optimistic, but you should be able to get to the airport by 5:30, comfortably. I like my way better, because I get out of the game traffic a lot faster - on Southwestern, it can be pretty heavy for 15 minutes or more. The other point that's maybe obvious is that leaving early helps, but I never leave early. And if the game is a blowout, then a lot of people leave early, and that helps if you stay for the end of the game, because a lot of the traffic is out and moving before you ever get to you car. Finally, if your car and the getaway route are on the other side of the stadium from your seats, I'd suggest staying inside the stadium and walking around to the other side inside the stadium, to the greatest extent possible. If you leave the stadium on the wrong side, you're plowing through the mob of people outside, heading in all different directions. That can add 10 minutes to your walk.

I think you can be at the airport at 5:30, return the car, and get to your plane. Park in a private lot on Big Tree. Make it a private lot on the south side of Big Tree, not the north side. Someplace around Kings Court, or a little past it toward the stadium. It's about a 15, 20 minute walk to the stadium. Game's over at 4:15. Pray for no overtime. Depending on where your seats are, it will take a half hour to get to the car. You've parked on the south side of Big Tree so that you can turn right out of your lot, heading east. The traffic usually is bumper to bumper, but moving okay. Somebody will always let you into the traffic as you're pulling out. Drive past California, and past 219. Usually past 219 the traffic opens up, moves pretty well. Drive straight through Orchard Park and turn left on 187. That's Transit Road. Take Transit all the way north to Genesee Street. Turn left on Genesee and you're at the airport. Once you're past 219, the traffic lightens up, and that's only a mile from where you parked. There's usually a backup in the center of Orchard Park, and you may have wait for the light to cycle through once or twice. Sometimes I turn right off of Big Tree just past 219, then turn left again, and I can avoid the light. Past the light, it's always smooth sailing. And Transit Road traffic, although it gets a little heavy, is never very bad. Google maps says it's 25 minutes. If you get to your car at 4:30, even if it takes an hour, you'll be there at 5:30. I've parked there for years. I need to get on I-90 to get home, and this route works really well. I stay on Big Tree all the way to East Aurora, and then I start heading north and east on the back roads all the way to Batavia. All open road. I get on 90 there, and by then the traffic is heavy but moving at 65-70 mph.

Can't say I ever get too excited about this kind of stuff, but I appreciate the work others put in thinking about it. I'd just say that Frazier's comments about Johnson sounded to me like he is a lock. We know they love him on special teams - I think because he's an unusual combination of size, speed, and determination for a special teams player. But Frazier's comments also make it sound like they want him on the defensive line. Frazier's comments were about as direct praise for a backup as we've heard from any of these coaches since they've been in Buffalo.

It's probably more than cardio. Strength too. Plus teamwork on the line. He has three weeks to get in shape, then a week to tune up. Doable without bumps in the road. Wouldn't be surprised, if he's back for the opener, to see him get an occasional series off.

Love your insights. I'd guess the coaches agree with you. That's why there's all this talk about a DE, where they are deep, moving inside in passing downs. By narrowing the responsibilities of their no. 2 three tech or one tech, they probably hope to get better play out of them.

People who don't like Beane point to his misses, but he's had some great hits. Allen, Diggs, Bass, Trubisky come to mind. After watching them on Friday, I think teams will be sorry they let Rousseau fall, and Spencer Brown will prove to be a steal in the third. Someone commented on Bass having a solid long-snapper and holder. The Matt Haack acquisition was an outstanding move to shore up the place-kicking and punting game. Like a lot of people, I wanted Bojo gone before last season - a great team just can't have an inconsistent punter or a sloppy holder, and Bojo was both. Haack seems to be the opposite. This season, Farwell is going to do some advanced play design, now that he has a quality directional punter. Last season, Haack was 24th in gross and 20th in net punting. He was four yards shorter in net than Bojo, but he was 6th in punts inside the 20, and Bojo was 25th. Haack had two touchbacks, Bojo had seven. Beane makes the sneaky, unexpected moves that make the team better.

Loved those guys.

That's what I thought, too, but I didn't want to do the research to figure out how to spell it.

Yeah, I was an enormous Jim Brown fan, and it hurts to say it, but I think the Bills defense was stopping everyone that year.

Thanks. Gotta admit I wasn't paying much attention to who was on the line other than Brown. Good point. I appeciate it. Changes my view a bit.

amen.

Here's what the NFL.com scouting report said about Fromm coming out. I think he is exactly as described, and we saw it last night. He was a great college football quarterback, and that was his peak.

That's exactly what I see.