Shaw66

Got you. Glad we clarified it.

I wouldn't call it petty at all. JW said those who think this issue isn't important don't listen and instead say "lalalalala." Not wanting to argue the point, but wanting to be clear that I was one of those who doesn't think the issue is important, I simply repeated JW's words. It was just a way to say which side I was on. Remember, JW's original complaint about what I said wasn't about the importance of COVID, it was about some things I said about how journalism. Until I posted by lala, I hadn't entered the fray on the question of how important reporting on COVID is.

Thanks. What's unlike me? That I have a point of view? Do you find that difficult to accept? I ALWAYS have a point of view. My point of view is that the NFL will have rules about COVID, the teams and the players will follow them or not, and they'll all live with the consequences. I don't need to hear any discussion whatsoever in July about those rules. When I show up at the stadium on opening day, the Bills and the Steelers will play a football game. 65,000 people will make a lot of noise. One team will win, the other will lose. The game will be all about the 106 players on the two teams, and their coaches. Some players we might have expected to be in that game won't be in it, because of injury, arrest, personal matters, or COVID. I don't really care. I, and the 65,000 other people, and the coaches, will be focused completely on the 106 who are there, and no one will be worrying about who isn't there or why. When the Bills took the field to start the 2020 season, we watched the players and what they did. We didn't moan and groan because Star wasn't there. 40 guys who came to training camp weren't there, either. I'm a football fan. I see no point in my football life in getting excited about COVID. If you have a point of view that's different, fine. I get it. But dismissing my point of view because you disagree with it is ignorant. So, lalalalalala.

lalalalalala

Am I'm with you on Mayfield. Mayfield was my choice, and I can see why the Browns went that way. And I give the Browns a pass because apparently it was a close call for them, Mayfield or Allen. And frankly, I can understand liking Darnold, too. What I really can't understand is New York and Denver, both with obvious QB needs on the near horizon, leaving Allen on the table. (Denver took Bradley Chubb, not the Browns.)

There's a theory I hadn't heard before. That would have been one of the all-time great draft moves! There's always uncertainty, but I don't think the Bills had any greater uncertainty with Allen than teams have with any top-10 pick. The leap of faith is what it looked like from our perspective, because all we had to go on was some highlights, some lowlights, a mediocre record, etc. My point is that the Bills knew a lot more about him than we did, and what they knew meant they weren't taking the leap of faith that we saw. We had a big information gap; Beane closed that gap with careful scouting and interviewing.

And you did your usual excellent job. Taught me some things.

They've said as much. They talk about the first time they met him, and they were a little puzzled about him. It was 15 minutes or something, and it didn't go particularly well. I don't recall, but I think it was because Josh didn't know how to handle the encounter. Then they had dinner with him that night, and that's when they realized how great his intangibles were. Josh relaxed, and the more they heard, the more they knew that his intangibles matched his outstanding physical abilities. From there, they kept doing all the usual digging to be sure that what they thought they saw at dinner was the real Josh. As they talked to more people and to Josh again, they realized he was the real deal. Then it was a matter of Josh falling the Beane figuring out how to move up. On draft night, you could tell that McDermott and Beane were sure they got it right. They could see it. What still gets me is that the teams ahead of the Bills didn't see it. They were interviewing him and taking him out to dinner, and yet they liked Mayfield and Darnold and Barkley and Chubb better.

JW - Thanks for responding. I appreciate it. I do apologize for my tone. It was unfair to you.

Solid. I agree. Not dominant, which we'd all like, but solid. I don't know, but I'd guess that McDermott is designing a defense that stops the pass effectively and stops the run well enough to get by. I think McDermott believes that if he acquires and commits the kind of resources necessary to be a top-three run-stopping defense, then he's not going to be able to stop the pass the way he wants. The Bills gave up 120 yards a game rushing last season. Top 20. They had three bad games. McD probably would be happy if he could shave 10 yards off that by bringing those three bad games down into the 150s or so. And McDermott probably thinks he can do that with scheme and matchups. He is not willing to bulk up the defensive line, because the bulk will hurt the pass rush he's trying to build.

I dont know if they will be good enough to stop the run. What I said is that McBeane tgunk this is the way to go to build an effective line. You may disagree, but you aren't getting your wish. Bulls will be undersized this year, and we will see how that works.

I expect less girth than you do. Except when Wilfork was there, New England often played without big guys in the middle. They played with tough, solid, smart guys who executed. Looking at the personnel the Bills have assembled, I think they're trying to do something similar.

Bojo wasn't good enough. Every player on the team has specific role designed to contribute to the team's success. Moreso than almost any player on the team, the punter has only way to contribute to the team, and that is to kick the ball where the special teams coach wants the ball to be kicked. Sometimes long, sometimes shorter, sometimes to one sideline or the other, sometimes low with roll, sometimes with a reverse bounce. Punters have gotten very good at those skills, and that was not Bojo's strength. Bojo had the ability to kick the ball high and long fairly consistently. He isn't erratic like long punters used to be. But Bojo wasn't very good at doing all those other things consistently. I think last season was Bojo's opportunity to show real development toward being a good control punter while continuing to be able to tap into the power he has. In my opinion, he didn't make very much progress in that direction, so when Bojo said he'd prefer to be on the west coast, the Bills said "okay with us" and began looking for another punter. In the end, I don't think Bojo did consistently enough those things he was asked to do. If he did, the Bills would have worked harder to keep him.

I know what you're saying, and I'm no saying he's a bust. Yes, he still could emerge as special, but I think the chances of that are shrinking. Why? Because a guy who's special usually at least shows some signs of greatness in his first couple of years, and u haven't seen any of those signs in Oliver. Oliver was a top 10 pick and he's played more like a guy taken at the back end of the first. He could play ten seasons in Buffalo and be a solid player throughout, he could be a Jerry Hughes. All I mean is that I think that people expecting him to break through and become a guy who draws a lot of double teams probably will be disappointed. He hasn't shown that kind of ability yet, and that's what people expected of him when he was drafted.

Not so sure the draftees will have that kind if impact, but that is the idea,

Good comparison. I think this defense will be tougher. This defense is going to be a well organized gang.

I agree. I doubt they will ever be known as smashmouth. Just tough and prepared. Never out of position. Not missing tackles. Just solid and intense, always fighting. Scrappy.

I often fall back to what the Patriots did. The Patriots succeeded on defense without a lot of great players. They succeeded by being really smart, really well prepared, and really intense. They'd have a shut-down corner, and maybe a really good linebacker. And for a while they had Wilfork. But that defense was a good year after year, and as the personnel changed, the defense was good. I think McDermott believes he can do something similar. They are going to be smart, determined, and aggressive. We'll see if it works.

To you and Doc. I agree about Roberts. I think we all tend to be stuck on our memories of White Shoes and Deion and DeSean Jackson. I think TD returns are now pretty much things of the past, because all teams are trying to eliminate explosive plays and have gotten good at that. A really good punt returner now is a guy who is a constant threat to get you 20-30 yards, get you out of your end and to midfield or beyond. That's what Roberts could do, consistently. Those 20-30 yards are really important, because it allows the offense to open the whole playbook and not to worry about the occasional negative play. I also am guessing, without any real knowledge, that Stevenson is a bigger threat to make the team, and a threat to McKenzie, than many fans think. Beane has said often that he tends to draft for need in the back end of the draft, so it says something about what he thinks about the return game when he drafts a punt returner. Remember, last season they took Bass in the 6th round when they had a perfectly satisfactory kicker under a reasonable contract. This year they took Stevenson in the 6th when they had a perfectly satisfactory return man under a reasonable contract. As for the rest of the special teams, we know that it is not an area that McDermott and Beane will ignore. I'm sure they have the kinds of players they want on the special teams, and I'm sure they will be coached with the same precision and attention to detail that McDermott demands of the offense and defense. Not likely that the special teams will hurt the Bills this season.

I saw the title and thought this would be a thread about the defense - Lean and mean, or no? In fact, I think that IS the question about the defense. It's a defense, physically and in terms of style, that's designed be tough to pin down - really quick off the ball, attacking in multi-faceted ways, and quick to the ball. To play that way, they will be short on bulk. They aren't going have many immovable objects on the field. The question is whether they'll be mean enough. Whether they come out every weekend with enough fight in them to over come what might be size and strength disadvantages at certain matchups. They'll be smart and well coached. Will they be scrappy?

Correct about this. I'm partial to the written word, and not having Carucci's words is a loss for me. He's done a seriously good job for a long time. Congratulations to him.

Not in a hurry. Fix it by November, December at the latest. Earlier is nice but not necessary.

A different way of saying what I said. Pile of humanity is a great description. The line will be better. More experience, better depth, Ford back, and maybe one or two of those big rookies wins a starting role.

I think 2021 improvement in the running is almost a given. First, it would be hard not to get at least a little better, because it was pretty awful in 2020. Awful in the sense that the running game wasn't anywhere close to being a dependable offensive option. I think it will improve significantly, for two reasons: offensive line and coaching. Everyone is working to improve the running game, but other than learning to make the best judgments behind the line of scrimmage - the right first cut, the backs have the least room for improvement. They aren't going to get faster, stronger, quicker, any of that. But what we have from Singletary and Moss in their rookie seasons was solid ability to get into and out of the hole, when the hole is there. They aren't game breakers in that situation, but they both are very good at hitting the hole and creating some yardage - 3-5-8-12 yards. If they're healthy, the run game will improve if the offensive line creates the opportunities. And, yes, Breida is the wildcard in the whole situation. If the breakout Breida reemerges, he could have a big season. It's about the determination of the offensive line to win their battles, whether with strictly speed and muscle or with teamwork and scheme. It will be some of both, of course. They will belong a new level of ferocity to how they play, because they know they need to do that. And they will work together better than a season ago, because they have that experience together and because they want to. And if one or another of the rookies breaks into the starting lineup, that would mean there has been a serious talent upgrade - someone has to be a seriously good lineman to win a starting job as a rookie. It's about the coaching because it's the coaches' job to put the players in situations where they can win. They have to design and run plays where the linemen can play to their strengths, whatever they are, plays where players' weaknesses aren't exposed and easy to attack. Needless to say, McDermott has been saying this to Daboll and his crew since last season ended. And they didn't need to be told - they know it. So they're working on the running game, for sure, and they will execute better, for sure. I expect the running game to be much improved.

There have been a couple of comments about Oliver. I've pretty much given up hope that Oliver is going to be something special, and I'll be delighted if he proves me wrong. I think we all talked ourselves into believing that Oliver was the next Aaron Donald, and he isn't. If he were, we would have seen some of it by now. Yes, he played all last season without Star beside him, and that probably limited his production a bit. But a great player doesn't need teammates for him to at least show flashes of his greatness. I have to admit that I've transferred my hopes for greatness to Rousseau, and those hopes are probably unfounded, as well. At least Oliver was a consensus top 10 draft pick, so there was some reason to hope he'd be special. Rousseau is a unique guy, and maybe he'll surprise everyone, but no team in the draft saw him as a potential Jadeveon Clowney (to name an apparent superstar who wasn't), let alone an Aaron Donald. I think that expectations for the D line should be different. My expectation is that they will make plays across the whole line, with no one standing out. If Star can anchor the middle with help from Phillips, then Oliver, Hughes, Basham, Epenesa, Addison, and Rousseau each should make their share of plays. They'll be running stunts and games all day. If Addison or Hughes ends up in a reduced role because Epenesa and/or one of the rookies emerges quickly, then we're looking at great, great depth in the rotation. And I don't have a sense of what the other names on the roster might contribute. I'm not looking for a star to emerge on the d line, but I expect solid improvement across the line.