Shaw66

That may not be sportsmanlike, but it doesn't mean Brady isnt an intense competitor. Words actually have meaning. You can't just change what a word means because you dont like Brsdy.

You're talking personality. You're correct. Jordan didn't whine. I was talking competitiveness. Both of them were off the charts in that category.

I agree. I have to admit that as the years have gone by the memory of just how impactful he was has faded a bit. And what an enormous star he was. Everyone DID want to be like Mike. The show gives a great look inside his life during those years. The amount of pressure he was under to be Mike whenever he left the house or the locker room was incredible. And through it all he was patient, smiling, and then still able to perform on the floor in unbelievable ways. But what impressed me the most, and what got me thinking about what I wrote, was the level of emotional intensity the whole team brought to the game. They worked so hard, every day, because they couldn't stand losing, and they couldn't stand it because Jordan made them that way. 60 Minutes did a show on him once, and they covered his fantasy camp. Forty-something wannabes playing ball for three or four days, with Jordan and others coaching drills. Every camper was guaranteed at least one three-on-three game with Jordan on his team. The report said no matter what happened, Jordan never lost. Never. He hates to lose. He admits it. He admits it isn't always pretty. It's just the way he is.

You're absolutely correct. And if you thought I was comparing Jordan and McDermott, you more or less missed the point. I had written enough, so I didn't want to confuse the point by talking about Brady. Brady IS Jordan, in terms of competitiveness. But when I watched the Patriots it was clear that Brady couldn't demand the kind of performance from all of his teammates that Jordan could with his team. The nature of personal dynamics is such that no one can drive the performance of 30 or 40 individuals the way a basketball player can drive eight or ten. When Jordan was doing his job, he was on the floor, side by side with his teammates. Their play together is in a significant measure personal - Jordan's looking you in the eye expecting you to be here or there, expecting the ball to arrive here or there. It's a one-on-one relationship. A quarterback may have that kind of relationship with his offensive players, but there's no such relationship with his defensive players. Just can't be done. Brady went as far as he could down that road, and it helped drive the team, but he never had anything like the impact that Jordan had. The point is that in football, the individual players have to bring the intensity themselves, because it isn't possible for anyone, including a Brady, to get all the players to be committed at the necessary level. It just isn't possible. And that's why in looking for players, McDermott and Beane aren't interested in any guy who doesn't have the natural competitiveness, intense natural competitiveness, of a Jordan or a Bird.

I don't really no the new players, but "vocal and got there the hard way" is what we're talking about here. McDermott would have loved Fred Jackson.

I disagree on both of these points. McDermott is intensely competitive. He works every day to improve particular skills that he and his staff have identified for him to work on. He's going to improve as a coach, year after year, for the next 20 years. He doesn't know any other way. He is nowhere near his best coaching abilities. Hughes doesn't have anything like the intensity that Murphy has. Murphy has white-hot intensity, and McDermott wanted him on the team because of it. Murphy's problem is that intensity alone isn't enough, so he's at risk of losing his job every season.

Excellent point. Wish I'd thought of it. And that's why Trent Murphy is on the team. You see it in the youngsters, too. You see it in how Singletary and Moss run. Knox has it. Fromm has it. McDermott wants intense guys who also will commit to the team.

I’ve been watching The Last Dance on ESPN. It’s the ten-part documentary about Michael Jordan’s career. It’s a great collection of behind-the-scenes film over Jordan’s years with the Bulls, with plenty of candid comments from Jordan and others about his personality. After watching one of the recent episodes, I could see more clearly one of the central parts of Sean McDermott’s team-building philosophy. Jordan is and was extraordinarily competitive. I’d heard about his competitiveness before, and it’s on full display in the show. He has a burning desire to win. He gambles, he competes in coin-tossing, he plays table tennis, he invents personal affronts to fire himself up. Everything is to win – for Jordan there is no other way to play. Jordan came to understand that for his team to win championships at the highest level, the entire team had to practice and play with the same desire he had, and he made his team do it. Every day in practice, Jordan played hard, and he was in the face of his teammates to play hard, to play like his life depended on it. He demanded intense competitiveness of everyone: Scotty Pippen, Horace Grant, B. J. Armstrong, everyone. Steve Kerr hadn’t been on the team when the Bulls did their first three-peat, and Jordan decided that Kerr didn’t know what it took to be a winner. Jordan began pushing him, harassing him in practice. Finally, Kerr lost it and punched Jordan in the chest, and Jordan punched Kerr in the eye. After practice Jordan admitted to Phil Jackson that he was wrong, and he called Kerr and apologized. After that, they were fine. Jordan was merciless with Scott Burrell, who had enormous talent but wouldn’t, couldn’t play with the fire that would make him a great player. Jordan was merciless. Other players talk about how bad they felt for Burrell. When asked whether he liked Jordan, B.J. Armstrong struggled. In the film, you can see how much fun they all had around each other, laughing and joking. They were great teammates. But in the end, Armstrong admitted that everyone was afraid of Jordan. You didn’t want him to target you. What you can see on the show is that Jordan raised the level of play of the entire team by demanding competitive excellence. He was merciless, but he got away with it because he also was fun to be around and because he held himself to the same standards. There were plenty of times when his teammates thought he was a jerk, but they were willing to put up with it, because they knew he was making them all better. What’s fascinating is to see how fierce competitiveness translated into championships. The Bulls played for years with unmatched intensity and commitment to excellence. They came at you with a killer instinct that Jordan demanded of the team. Watching this display I could see for the first time why it is that Brandon Beane and McDermott value certain personal qualities above all else. To win consistently, an NFL team has to play with the intensity and the competitiveness that the Bulls had in those years. They have to be determined to execute their jobs with ruthless efficiency under just about the most difficult circumstances imaginable, short of being in an actual battle. They have to play with excellence and non-stop ferocity. NFL rosters are too big for one player to will the rest of team to play like that. In the NBA, a Jordan or a Magic or a Bird, by virtue of being the best player and the hardest worker on the team and if they have the right personality, can bring everyone else along with him. In the NFL, that isn’t possible. First, the leader pretty much has to be the QB, but the QB can’t be the most physically intense player on the team. His job is to avoid some of the contact that the other guys need to relish. So, occasional leap over a linebacker notwithstanding, the QB isn’t playing the same game everyone else is. Second, no one has the personality to keep 40 different guys happy and willing to put up with the relentless demands of the lead dog. Third, although the QB may be the leader of the team, it’s hard for him to demand intensity from the defense. He just isn’t around them enough, and he doesn’t really understand the game they’re playing. So, turn the clock back ten or fifteen years. A young Sean McDermott, working with the Eagles and later with the Panthers, is studying how to build a winner. That’s the amazing thing about McDermott – he’s been studying how to be a winner for a couple of decades. He can see that when teams succeed, one characteristic they always have is intense competitiveness. If they aren’t intensely competitive, when the chips are down, they lose. And they lose not just because they don’t have enough fight on the field; they lose because the competitiveness isn’t there every day on the practice field and in the position rooms and at the training table. They lose because they don’t want it bad enough to focus on doing what they need to do every day. McDermott realized that the only way for an NFL team to have that intense competitiveness is to fill the roster with guys who already have it. He knew what that intensity looks and feels like, because it’s the intensity that successful wrestlers have. He has it. He knew from watching his wrestling teammates that the very best didn’t get their intensity from someone else; it’s inside them. And so, McDermott came to understand that a core principle to NFL success is to fill the team with guys who have it. In Beane, McDermott has a GM who understands the same point. And that is why they have told us for three years now that they are looking for players who want to compete, who love to compete, who hate to lose and who are great teammates. They still need leaders, but the leaders can’t do the job on a football team unless the whole team burns with the desire to win, burns so much that they are willing to do what needs to be done, every day, to win on Sundays. Beane and McDermott have now bought together a team full of guys with that fire in them and with the understanding that success comes from working together. These guys look around the locker room and see a bunch of other guys just like themselves. They all want it. They see it in their coach. They see it in their quarterback. It’s powerful. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Bait. Seems like it may be about how great Sammy Watkins is, but I can't really tell.

First, I don't understand why anyone would be concerned about how many prime-time games the Pats have. Are you worried about how many the Titans have? The Broncos? Who cares? So what? Second, the news came out about three weeks ago that the Bills were going to get a lot of prime-time games. The reason was that all the networks wanted the Bills. Why did they want the Bills? Because they think they can get a lot of fans to watch the Bills, a lot of fans equates to a lot of advertisers, and a lot of advertisers equates to a lot of revenue. So, why did the Pats get a lot of prime-time games? Because the networks think they can get a lot of fans to watch the Patriots, a lot of fans equates of advertisers, and a lot of advertisers equates to a lot of revenue. But, you say, the Pats are going to suck and no one will watch them. To which I respond that it's a good bet the networks have a much better idea about what people will watch than you.

Kirby - I don't know how good the Pats will be. I don't pay attention to any team other than the Bills. However, I'll say the same thing I've been saying for years: The NFL game is about coaching and organization much more than it is about players. There is no salary cap on coaches, and there is a salary cap on players. The result is that the best coaches go where they want, but all teams have relatively similar levels of on-field talent. In that environment, having the guy who is unquestionably the greatest coach in the history of the game is a huge advantage. Belichick and his team of coaches win two or three or four games that just about all other coaches lose. So if his player talent is good enough to go 6-10, his team is going to win 8 or 10 games. As a consequence, I'm not declaring the Patriots dead until I see the stake through their heart. And I hope the Bills put it there.

No need to apologize. As I said in response to your post, you save yourself with this: I hope I am wrong but I just don't see this guy as having the goods. We're all just fans, and all we have are opinions. I get kind of argumentative sometimes and in retrospect wish I hadn't. One reason I come here is that I find that in the give and take some information perspectives on the team or players come out, and in the process I learn more. Even though it's in the wrong thread, I love this discussion about who you would trade Allen for.

I would want to watch a lot more film of Wentz before I agreed to that deal. I'd want to watch a lot of film on almost everyone. There are only two guys who, subject to film study, I'd trade even up for: Mahomes and Watson. Darnold is maybe. Mayfield, Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray are nos, subject to some more study. My view about this is that these young guys have 15 seasons ahead of them, and the really great quarterbacks generally don't become really great until 6-7-8 years out. Russell Wilson may be the best exception, but it took Manning and Brady and Rodgers and Brees years to become real masters of the game. So the task with all these youngsters is to try to project them 6-7 years into the future. I can see Mahomes and Watson and Allen as being at that next level. I don't see any of the others there, but admittedly this is real crystal ball stuff.

Great, great coach and man. He will be remembered for a long time.

Yeah, but they're fun if your team drafted the guy. Plus, unless the coach is a jerk, he doesn't lie. People generally don't say things they don't believe. He could have said a lot of nice things about Moss without saying "he was the best running back in the draft." He could have said "he was my favorite running back in the draft." He could have said "he's as good as running back in the draft." He could have said "I like him as much as running back in the draft." All of those perfectly complimentary of his former player, offer a lot of praise. But of all the things he could have said, what he chose to say is that Moss was "the best running back in the draft." So sure, it's all coach-speak and fluff, I get that. Still, the guy's words mean something.

Well, high there. I see that you like to argue. The clear, and I do mean clear, absolutely clear, crystal clear premise to the sentence of mine that you highlighted in bold was that Allen's statistics had gone up in 2020. That's what we're talking about - what will people say if after the 2020 season if Allen's stats have improved. So it is colossally stupid to respond by asking what if Allen throws 30 picks. We aren't talking about what is the narrative if Allen plays worse. Please stop.

First, it's funny how a thread about the receivers inevitably turns into a thread about Allen, but it's to be expected. Second, I disagree with your opinion, but I really like your last sentence. At the end of the day, all each of has is an opinion, and yours is that Allen doesn't have what it takes to be a successful NFL QB. I think you're ignoring too much evidence to the contrary, but all that is is my opinion. There's enough evidence to support your opinion, so I get that you can feel that way. So I assume you also think that Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield don't have the goods, because they have performed demonstrably worse that Allen, and also that Kyler Murray is at least on your watch list, because his first season was not materially different from Allen's second. I think that means you must be in the camp that says if a QB isn't in the top 10 by his second season, he doesn't have the goods. So that would mean you wouldn't want Matt Stafford, Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck or Drew Brees, all of whom took more than two years to emerge. Josh Allen's 2019 passing stats were better than Tom Brady's for each of the first three years that Brady started. He didn't have the goods, either? So what is it, exactly that you think is missing from Allen's game, the thing that will keep him forever from becoming a top 10 quarterback, the thing that Stafford and Ryan and Brees and Brady showed they had in their first few years starting? Many fans fail to recognize that most successful NFL quarterbacks take multiple years, three, four, five years, to learn to compete at a high level in the NFL. They fail to recognize that early success of Mitch Trubisky, Derek Carr, Carson Wentz, RGIII hasn't translated into consistent success. Bottom line for me is that it's too early to tell about Allen. He improved through his rookie season, and he improved through his second season, so there's no good reason to conclude that he's done improving.

I've thought about this often since Diggs arrived. I think there will be two predominant narratives. One is that the receivers will be said to be carrying Allen. The other will be that Allen has made this miraculous leap. Both will be wrong. The correct narrative almost certainly will be that Allen has been making steady progress since he arrived in Buffalo and his third season simply demonstrates the cumulative effect of all of the progress he's made. Diggs will help, no doubt, but Allen's continuing progress will make people think something miraculous has happened. Unrelated topic, but the other narrative that I've seen developing is that Fromm's football smarts will benefit and push Allen. The unstated assumption in this newly developing narrative is that Allen isn't smart enough to play the position, that he is an out-of-control guy who needs someone to reign him in. We're going into year three of the media making up stuff to justify their continuing conclusion that Allen isn't good enough. It's an extension of the running narrative that the Bills suck and always will suck. Eventually, these narratives will change, because Allen will consistently be one of the best QBs in the league, and then the narrative will be "who would have thought that this out-of-control gunslinger ever would have evolved into this?" The truth is that Allen is a smart, hard-working, intensely competitive young man, team oriented and a great natural leader. On top of that he's blessed with great pure physical skills. The people promoting these narratives will be surprised at his success, but the people who have been paying attention to who he actually is aren't going to be surprised at all.

I'm all on board with the notion that Allen needs to get better, but to say it's all on Allen is simply wrong. Allen has shown very good ability to hit open receivers, particularly if he's in rhythm in the pocket. He hasn't been consistent enough, to be sure, but he's thrown a lot of beautiful, catchable balls to a lot of open receivers. The percentage of plays where Allen has an open receiver is going up, because in addition to the guys he had to throw to last season, he now has Diggs, who actually is better at getting separation than any other receiver on the team. So Allen is going to have more open receivers, and more open receivers in their primary patterns. Allen is going to have many more opportunities to throw in rhythm to guys who are open. If Allen is exactly the same as he was last season, his completion percentage will go up, his yards will go up and his touchdowns will go up. Why? Because his throwaways will go down and his throws to covered receivers, that is, the number of 50-50 balls he's forced to throw, will go down. So by all means, Josh, get better. Be better at every aspect of the game. But if you just do what you did last season, this offense is going to be noticeably better. And, by the way, when Singletary goes to the sideline, Josh, you'll still have someone you can hand the ball to. Yes, and Brown and Beasley will be taking catches away from McKenzie, Foster and Duke. And the Bills will throw more.

Every player gets a number grade. 0.0 to 8.0, I believe. Their board is listed in order of the grades. Guys are removed from the board as they are taken, by any team. The guy whose name is on the top is the bpa. I've seen a few discussions of the grading system. 8.0 is Hall of Fame lock, or so.ething like that. Based on that system, it's quite likely that AJ wfsb on the top of the board when the Bill's picked. Moss, too. From certainly.

Right. And in this case, most everyone has moved on. That's what the data is.

The guy being interviewed, who certainly sounds like he knows his stuff, says he has tape of just the throw you want. He says Jake doesn't have a great arm, but he has an nfl arm. I don't think he's taking Josh's job, bit he could be a great backup for three years or so. The guy compares him to Case Keenum. I will take Case all day as a backup.

Zactly.

Actually, it's not incorrect. The use of either singular or plural verb is correct, and it seems that modern style manuals prefer the singular. There slightly different connotations depending on whether the singular or plural is chosen.

all of this is just CBS looking for something to write about. Since the new CBA, it's been clear that compensation was going to go up. It happens every time the salary cap goes up, and it happens every time there's a new CBA. It has very little to do with the fact that two teams traded for big names who happened to be in their contract years. You can be sure that Beane has a very well defined idea of where salaries are going and how much Dawkins and White are worth to the Bills and how much their worth on the open market. Beane's going to do what he believes is in the team's best interests, and that's what is going to determine whether those guys stay in Buffalo or not. Those two contracts don't change anything.