SoTier

If "the NFL" -- professionals and fans alike -- don't already know that all these media draft analysts are creating/feeding off hype, they haven't been paying much attention to the draft for a long time, especially when it comes to QBs. The bolded QBs are the bonafide great franchise QBs in recent drafts. The underlined QBs are 2nd tier franchise QBs. The only #1 overall pick who has become a great franchise QB in this group is Joe Burrow. 2016 - #1 Jared Goff, #2 Carson Wentz 2017 - #2 Mitch Trubisky, #10 Patrick Mahomes, #12 Deshaun Watson 2018 - #1 Baker Mayfield, #3 Sam Darnold, #7 Josh Allen, #10 Josh Rosen, #32 Lamar Jackson 2019 - #1 Kyler Murray, #6 Daniel Jones 2020 - #1 Joe Burrow, #5 Tua Tagovailoa, #6 Justin Herbert, #26 Jordan Love, #53 Jalen Hurts 2021 - #1 Trevor Lawrence, #2 Zach Wilson, #3 Trey Lance, #11 Justin Fields, #15 Mac Jones 2022 - #20 Kenny Pickett, #262 Brock Purdy That is the best description of Josh Allen I have ever heard or read!!! Thank you!

Has any other team offered a disgruntled RB a big pay day since then? The few RBs who have gotten big second or third contracts have been the guys who have been "team players" like Barkley.

I looked at the photos, and I wasn't impressed. I would call the house "uninspiring" rather than "stunning". I have no doubt that it's filled with the usual expensive finishes that are popular with buyers with lots of bucks to spend on a house, but it's just an ordinary suburban tract house that could have been built in the last 30 years in Anywhere, USA. Put it in a less upscale subdivision and it's a $500k house. Put it in a less upscale subdivision with less expensive finishes, and it's a $300K house.

Just because the Jests did something stupid doesn't mean that other teams are as stupid. They also traded for a 39-year-old QB a couple of years ago. Bell's big contract done 6 years ago sure isn't going to make teams line up to sign disgruntled RBs for big bucks. If anything, it's a cautionary tale for NOT paying RBs.

I don't think that it will ever come to the Bills "forcing" Cook to play for them. He has a valid contract for 2025, and it's in his best interest to play as well as he can. There is also no deadline for the Bills to extend him until after the 2025 season, so the two sides can keep talking for quite a while. If they don't come to agreement, the Bills can either franchise him (which would be a nice pay day for Cook) or let him walk.

Temperamental WRs get paid, especially when they've amassed multiple 1000-yard receiving seasons because they're hard to find and tend to have pretty long effective careers. They can also be game breakers when paired with good/great QBs, which means that teams need excellent WRs. RBs are not WRs. Most RBs start declining in their late 20s because of the wear and tear on their bodies. It's also not the 1990s when teams absolutely needed great RBs. Cook's also not a great RB like Saquan Barkley or Derrick Henry. He's not even an every down RB. It's unlikely that many teams are going to be willing to pay top dollar for a temperamental RB who's not an every down back. I don't think holding out or playing with a crappy attitude is in Cook's best interest if he and the Bills can't come to terms before the season starts.

Holding out for nearly half the 2025 season or playing with a crappy attitude all season isn't going to encourage other NFL teams to pay him the big bucks he wants in 2026.

What's really funny is that Geno and Darnold have both taken teams to the playoffs while the Jests can't even make the playoffs with a future HOFer playing QB. ^^^ It's not that crazy if the team doesn't think they can get a franchise QB in this draft. Ward, Sanders, and Dart aren't in the same class as Elway, Kelly and Marino or Mayfield, Darnold, Allen as prospects. How excited were we Bills fans in 2017 when we squeaked into the playoffs after 17 years? When you're a fan of a perennial bottom feeder team, making the playoffs is your biggest goal. Ya gotta make the playoffs before ya can win a playoff game.

In the real world of the modern NFL, Day 3 picks (Rounds of 4-7) of any team seldom start many games as rookies, and 37 of the Bills' draft picks between 2017 and 2024 were Day 3 picks. Including all these picks who are highly unlikely to start at all on many teams -- or even make the teams -- makes it appear that McDermott "doesn't like to play rookies", which isn't true at all. More than half of the Bills' 24 Day 1 and Day 2 picks started at least half of the games in their rookie seasons (13 of 24). The most NFL-ready prospects are found in rounds 1 and 2, so those are the rookies most likely to start most of their games during their first season. The Bills had 7 first round draft picks between 2017 and 2024, and 5 of them started more than half their games. Ed Oliver started 7 games and Kaiir Elam started 4 games as a rookie. The Bills had only 2 second round picks, Zach Moss and James Cook, both RBs, who didn't start at least 1 game as rookies. McDermott is more than willing to start rookies if they're good enough to play.

The claim that McDermott doesn't "like" to play rookies simply isn't true. These players all played at least 8 games as rookies: Tre White, 1st rounder, started all 16 games Greg Rousseau, 1st rounder, started all 17 games O'Cyrus Torrence, 2nd rounder, started all 17 games Tremaine Edmunds, 1st rounder, started 15 games Cody Ford, 2nd rounder, started 15 games Keon Coleman, 2nd rounder, started 12 games Dion Dawkins, 2nd rounder, started 11 games Josh Allen, 1st rounder, started 11 games Matt Milano, 5th rounder, started 5 games Dawson Knox, 3rd rounder, started 11 games Gabe Davis, 4th rounder, started 11 games Dalton Kincaid, 1st rounder, started 11 games Zay Jones, 2nd rounder, started 10 games Spencer Brown, 3rd rounder, started 10 games Devin Singletary, 3rd rounder, started 8 games Damar Hamlin and James Cook are the only Bills current starters drafted by the Bills who did not start as rookies.

That's my position on the draft too. Whether to go CB or DT or WR in the first round depends upon who's available. Don't pass on a better CB prospect to take a lesser DT prospect ... or vice versa.

I think a big difference between first round CBs and Day 2 or 3 CBs is that the first rounders tend to be bigger. Obviously speed counts, too, but it's more common to find smaller, speedy CBs in the middle rounds with excellent instincts who go on to become good/excellent starters than at many other positions ... and many of these players become starters right out of the gate. I totally disagree. No draft pick comes with a guarantee, even a first round DT ... and FTR, McDermott's first pick in 2017 was Tre White who started every game as a rookie and became an All Pro CB before injuries wrecked his career.

I think finding another vertical threat via the draft is probably the best strategy, too. I take issue with the poster who claimed that Beane and McDermott have some kind of psychological issue with speedy receivers. There's no evidence of that. You claimed that Beane and McDermott have a "deep seated distrust of burner receivers". In what universe was Kelvin Benjamin ever a "burner receiver"?

What proof do you have that this is true?

Except when there isn't a franchise QB to be had. This is not the draft to be in need of a franchise QB, maybe not even a backup.

In single elimination playoffs where the teams are fairly evenly matched, luck is a much bigger factor than pure talent. Anybody can make a mistake that changes the course of the game, ie the Minneapolis Miracle. Anybody can get hurt in a game, ie Dre Greenlaw's Achilles injury in the Super Bowl. Anybody can have a bad day, ie Andy Reid n the last Super Bowl. A roster filled with big stars (and supposedly elite players) doesn't even guarantee a playoff berth much less a playoff win, ie the Dallas Cowboys for the last 20 years. A team has to have all its ducks -- from things it can control to random events -- line up in a row in order to win a Super Bowl.

I wouldn't object to the Bills trading for a big name WR and extending him ... if he's truly a difference maker not just a big name. I don't think that's Metcalf. That he's better than any of the Bills WRs doesn't mean that the Bills should have traded for him when acquiring Garrett or Crosby became a moot point. Metcalf isn't the same level of WR that either Garrett or Crosby are pass rushers. I was on the fence about trading for Hendrickson because I don't think he's on the same level as Garrett or Crosby, either.

I don't think that DK Metcalf would make the Bills "great" because I don't think he's really a "difference maker". I have never particularly like Metcalf, even when he had Wilson throwing moon balls to him. I'd prefer that the Bills extend Benford (which they have done) and Cook rather than shell out a 2nd rounder plus $132 million for Metcalf.

The Miami Open is on the Tennis Channel at 3 pm. It's channel 406 on Spectrum.

I had to do a double take, too!

The official is Dr. Zahi Hawass. He is an icon of Egyptian archeology. I looked up the "Kahfre Project" which is supposed to be the project/organization that the 2 scientists, Corrado Malaga and Fillippo Biondi, are associated with. I couldn't find much on line about the project (like its goal and/or its sponsors) or either of the two scientists except that both are Italian, both are researchers associated with universities: Malaga with the University of Pisa in Italy and Biondi with the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Their expertise appears to be in Synthetic Aperture Radar tomography, which is a technology capable of creating 3-d maps of landscapes. Biondi has invented proprietary software that enabled the SAR tomography to map underground. In order to prove the Kahfre Project's claims to finding a huge network of rooms, stairways, and columns under Kahfre's pyramid, they have to excavate under the pyramid. That means that they have to get permission from the Egyptian authorities, which doesn't seem very likely. Without excavations to prove that the SAR tomography as intrepreted by Malaga and Biondi using Biondi's software is correct, their claims remain unproven.

IMO, that's exactly why the Patriots signed him. The same with Hollins. They're giving Maye 2 reliable WRs who are going to be where they're supposed to be so that their young QB gains confidence and experience. I can definitely seeing the Pats winning 8 or 9 games this season, and finishing second to the Bills. I expect that they'll go OT at #4 and maybe add another OLer later in the draft.

My mistake.

If you don't care, why did you bother to post???? It seems that maybe you do care. Miller played really well for 11 games until he was hurt.

The accomplishments of early humans are truly awe inspiring because the things they created or learned to do had never been done by anyone ever before. Every step had to be created out of nothing. Early humans learned to make tools not just use whatever tools they had at hand which numerous other animals could do. They also learned to make fire and use it for lighting the darkness and then cooking food. They developed complex languages based on ideas, not just the simple calls/grunts/whistles that other animals used as alarm or locating calls. They developed visual and musical art. They domesticated wolves and then herd animals like sheep, goats, cattle and eventually horses. They learned how to grow food. That's all before they became "civilized" enough to develop cities, astronomy, calendars, writing, religion, etc. The Vikings likely used celestial science to cross the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland about 400 years before other Europeans learned to use the magnetic compass and astrolabe to navigate the oceans. Like the ancient Polynesians, the Viking culture was strongly associated with seafaring.