SoTier

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.

Drafting defense for at least 2 of the Bills first 3 picks hardly seems to be a "playing not to lose" strategy. Tempering going BPA with team needs is a sound strategy for a team that, contrary to the repeated claims of some posters on TSW, is not so devoid of talent that almost any player taken in the first or second round will be better than what is currently on the team. This draft is supposed to be really deep with defensive talent, so the Bills may be able to get much better defensive players, especially in the first and/or second rounds, than they would in other drafts. Moreover, the Bills have several defensive positions that could be upgraded with early round rookies, namely DT, DE, and CB, so they're not locked into a single position. Conversely, it's not likely that a prime offensive prospect could fall far enough down in the first round that the Bills could take him. FYI -- The Bills currently do have decent OLers behind their starters, including SVP whom they selected in the 2024 draft. Because the Bills starting OLers have been so healthy the last 2 seasons, we haven't seen much of them. That doesn't preclude the Bills from drafting another OLer later in the draft as a development project.

JJ McCarthy says "Hi". There is no guarantee that any draft pick is going to play in his rookie season. Lots of CBs, including Tre White, have gone in bottom third of the first round and played well their entire rookie seasons. In a draft rich in defensive talent, the Bills can probably find a DLer at #30 or even a 2nd rounder, who can start playing decently some time in his rookie season, especially since the Bills use a DL rotation. I think you are making too big a deal of Bills rookies, most of whom are likely to be taken at the end of each round, making significant contributions. The Bills are not going to miss the playoffs because the rookies they draft aren't ready to start on Opening Day. That said, if the Bills were to trade up into the top half of the first round, I would expect that rookie to be good enough to play well as a rookie.

I don't think he will. If he does, he doesn't get paid at all for those games. If he holds out long enough, 2025 doesn't count, so he'd be exactly where he is now next season. Moreover, he risks Davis developing into a reliable three down, workhorse back who can be a reliable receiver out of the backfield and taking over the starting RB position while he's sitting out.

The QB class in this draft is simply not good enough to push Carter out of the top 5, much less close to #10. There's only Ward and Sanders even being discussed as likely first rounders. In the 2024 draft, 6 QBs went 1-2-3-8-10-12 which pushed the heralded WRs like Harrison, Nabers, and Odunze down to 4-6-9. TE Brock Bowers dropped to 13 and DE Jared Verse to 19 because of the all the teams chasing the QBs.

This is my position, too. I hope he agrees to a reasonable contract because I would love to see him stay with the Bills, but not at an inflated price. He's not an every down RB because he doesn't block all that well. He's also not a workhorse back like Barkley. I don't know where that puts his value to the Bills, but it's not close to Barkley territory. As for his "talk" on social media, I don't think that's going to influence the Bills FO one way or the other which seems to be something that the OP was hinting at when he started this thread.

Unless Epenesa and Knox are better than the guys the Titans already have on their roster, why would they want them?

I don't disagree that they drafted poorly. I just see their poor drafting as a symptom of what was wrong with the Bills in the last 2 decades of Ralph Wilson's ownership. They lost 2 excellent talent evaluators in Polian and Butler (3 if you include AJ Smith who left with Butler and became the Chargers GM after Butler died). I think some of their best scouts may have followed Butler west because the quality of the Bills draft picks, even high ones, dropped off. After Donahoe was fired, and Russ Brandon became the Bills de-facto GM (although Marv Levy held that title for a couple of years), Brandon and Jauron made personnel decisions. The quality of Bills drafts dropped even more. Lots of the Bills rosters between 2006 and 2010 were filled with UDFAs and waiver wire refugees. It improved somewhat under Nix and then Whaley, but the team's philosophy of maximizing profits lasted until Terry Pegula bought the team and hired Rex. Winfield wasn't re-signed during the Drought era. That's why I included him.

I think that one of Ralph's daughters was married to a guy who worked in the Bills finance department. He was probably the head of it, being the owner's SIL. I think maybe his name was Litman or something like that.

The draft is literally a crap shoot because highly rated draft picks crash and burn while great players come out of Day 2 or 3 in every draft, and good teams miss just like bad teams. I disagree that the Bills drafting was the reason why the Bills had the playoff drought. It was more a consequence of the team philosophy which always put maximizing profits ahead of winning football games, even during the Glory Years. Bill Polian was fired because he clashed with the finance guys in the 1990s. John Butler (and a significant part of the Bills pro personnel department) left for San Diego because the Chargers offered him more money. During the Drought, the Bills never re-signed their first rounders who did develop into good/great players except for Eric Wood -- most notably, Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements, Willis McGahey, Marshawn Lynch, Stephon Gillmore -- although they did keep some two who became notable busts after signing their second contracts: Mike Williams and Marcell Dareus. Under Tom Donahoe and especially Russ Brandon/Buddy Nix/Doug Whaley regimes, the Bills continually allowed their best players to leave in FA or via trade and used the draft to find replacements. FYI -- Tre White was the first first-round pick who developed into an outstanding player whom the Bills re-signed since the 1990s. He was drafted as a replacement for Stephon Gilmore whom the Bills allowed to hit FA (and helped the Patriots win SBs). I don't judge rookies. Some players who look terrible as rookies develop into good/great players. Others who look like good/great NFLers in their first season never ever play that well again. I'm a believer in giving rookies three years to show who they are, especially if they play a position which has a longer learning curve than some other positions. DT is certainly one of those positions.

Seriously????? Your statements reek of ignorance of history and misogyny. Just because there were laws on the books that made rape a capital offense doesn't mean that those laws were enforced and sentences applied equally. Even today, a woman who accuses a man, especially a wealthy or well-known man, of rape faces far more scrutiny of her "character" than does a woman who accuses a man of some other crime .... your assumptions about rape underscore your bias.

Abdul Carter all day, every day. Unfortunately, the Bills' entire draft (all 10 picks) is only worth 1464 points, which might get the Bills to #7 or #8. Carter will be long gone, even if two QBs go early.

Well said. I will add that it's not uncommon for victims of some kind of physical/psychological trauma to block the memory the trauma. We call it PTSD, and we mostly associate it with soldiers in combat situations, but it can happen to anyone. Sometimes, victims bury the memory of trauma so deep that they don't consciously remember it, but suffer from the hidden memories rattling around in their subconscious for years without even understanding why they're having flashbacks or nightmares or unprovoked fits of rage, etc.

Some fans just don't get this. Some players are simply best suited to play in only one kind of scheme and don't look particularly good in other systems. Sometimes it can also be coaching -- not necessarily how good or bad a particular coach may be but how that coach and player interact. The best example of this is the Eagles LB Zach Baun who was a JAG LB in New Orleans for 4 years. Philly took a chance on him, and something clicked -- maybe scheme, maybe coaching, maybe Philly cheese steaks rather than jambalaya. Whatever it was, Baun became an All Pro and was a finalist for DPOY in 2024.

I'm not sure the reasons are particularly "confounding". It may be as simple as there just aren't FAs available who a) have the skills the Bills need and b) agree to play for what the Bills can afford and c) are willing to play for the Bills in a particular FA period. All three of those conditions have to be met in order for a for a team to acquire a FA like Connor McGovern who works for them. Of course, guards and centers don't command the kind of money in free agency that pass rushers or wide receivers do, so the Bills can afford to sign higher level FA IOLers than they can DLers and WRs, making the chances for success among IOLers more likely than among WRs.

Are the Bengals "serious contenders"? I don't think they are at this time. The Bengals are a marginal playoff team at best. That they failed to make the playoffs in 2023 is blamed on Burrow being injured, but they were only 5-5 in the 10 games when Burrow played and 4-3 without him. They failed again to make the playoffs, again going 9-8, in 2024 because their defense couldn't stop anybody. Your argument that the Bengals shouldn't "waste" money on modest FAs doesn't make sense. They don't have a few holes that can be stop-gap filled with modest FA signings like the Bills or Ravens or Rams. They have lots of holes on both sides of the ball. Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks, but the Bengals' defense still sucked. They have serious need of better defensive backfield personnel, so even some of the modest DBs available in FA would be upgrades. Burrow was sacked 48 times in 2024, but they re-signed Cody Ford (yes, the same Cody Ford the Bills drafted in Round 2 in 2019 and wasn't good enough to even be a Bills backup). In contrast, Josh Allen was sacked 14 times, Lamar Jackson was sacked 23 times, and Matthew Stafford 28 times in 2024. How is a team supposed to improve its record if its roster is filled with poor players -- and it doesn't go after some modest FAs who are better than the guys currently on their roster?

I don't doubt that you're a Bills fan because I remember you posting on TSW for years. In the past, I think I've probably agreed with you more times than not. That said, your posts repeatedly dissing McDermott and Beane seem to have become a campaign to discredit the Bills organization. To read your comments without knowing the Bills record since 2017, one would think that the Bills were a perpetual bottom feeder team with little hope of making the playoffs. I understand the frustration that not making the SB creates. It's tough to deal with the disappointment. I can't watch or talk football for awhile after the last loss of every recent season. However, if your frustration has blocked out your memory of the seventeen miserable seasons of the Drought Era or you weren't a Bills fan back then, let me remind you that rooting for a bottom feeder team is much more painful than rooting for a winner. The best part of attending Bills games during the Drought was the tail-gating because the Bills discovered new ways to lose. Fans started thinking about the draft in October. It was a continual parade of crappy coaches, good players leaving for better teams, trading for/signing big name veterans who either didn't fit or had no talent around them. When McDermott and later Beane were hired, I was skeptical about both. They have both grown into their positions. Are there better HCs and GMs in the NFL? Probably, but not too many. Neither is going anywhere any time soon. Make your peace with that. Realize that this is probably the best time EVER to be a Bills fan. Get out from under the cloud of anger and frustration that seems to have colored your recent posts. I think that Miami shows what happens when a team loads up on a QB and 2 WRs. When those big cap hits come due, there's little room to improve the rest of the team, even with the cap increasing annually. Remember, too, that KC chose to trade away Tyreek Hill rather than pay him big bucks ... and they won two Super Bowls without him.

It's still all PR. They really didn't want to pay either of them. If they had extended Higgins in 2023 and Chase in 2024, they may very well have had both for around $50 million, but they stalled until Burrow said he really wanted them. I really don't think that Burrow would complain if they let one go and added better OLers. Now, Brown can put the blame for a poor OL, a poor running game, and bad defense on Burrow, especially if they trade Hendrickson.

IMO, these contracts were done to pacify the fan base. They'll be excited by the long passes that will make the Bengals look like a playoff contender even if their record is only around .500. It's the quintessential formula for "putting butts in the seats" by keeping/bringing in big names even if those aren't big name players aren't what the team needs. If Mike Brown was serious about building another Super Bowl contending team, he would have extended Chase last year or right after the season rather than waiting around until the market went north of $40 million. He would have paid Hendrickson early and let Higgins walk. Then he would have had the money to upgrade the OL and the defense.

And Burrow will get the crap beat out of him again because their OL can't protect him ... a combination of not having a great OL and not having a good enough running game to keep defenses from teeing off on the QB. The plan to have a great passer and two great wide outs isn't one that works well unless a team has a great QB still on a rookie contract.

The Eagles were a team built to win with a QB on a rookie QB. Nick Foles went 5-1, including three playoff games. My guess is that the Eagles team carried both QBs more than either QB carried the team. If the Bills win a Super Bowl, whether Allen or somebody else leads them to the win, I will build a shrine to the entire team in my front yard.