Richard Noggin

Groy was MUCH worse in the pivot last season. Much worse. The line was an effing mess while he was starting. But yeah, Bodine is not an NFL starter. Well-chosen screen name.

Well-written. Astro's wit connects in this one.

I resemble every part of this post. How dare you.

That's what I expect to hear. Popular, but ultra-high-end Napa stuff. Far Niente is no joke. Refreshing (and rare) when they delve into the old-world, given their disposable (by most reasonable standards) incomes and potential access to solid information (much better values and vintages and interesting wine-making available from Europe compared to the U.S., dollar-for-dollar). Took me some years to understand this. No doubt. I was simply citing the source I'd heard, as inquired by a fellow poster. Personally, I don't think we can learn much about NFL line play from pad-less practices.

Specifics? As someone who pours mucho vino for the PSE organization and teams, I'm always interested in what they (top to bottom) get turned onto for wine. LaFontaine, for example, was a big Bordeaux guy (which made for an interesting dynamic with Terry Pegula, who knows his Left Bank chateaus).

It was definitely mentioned on OBL by Tasker, I think. Maybe they had 'Zo on at the time? I didn't catch Tasker's citation for the observation, if it came from him personally or from talking to others. Paraphrase from memory: The Bills have some big, wide NFL bodies on the interior O-line, and Oliver has had some difficulty getting around them at times. That's where I heard "this talk" earlier today...

You've heard of zone blitzes, yes? Rex Ryan was not really a pioneer of the tactic (I think LeBeau's Pittsburgh defenses utilized it early and often), nor was he really known for it in particular. (Mario carping about it to the media put an undeserved spotlight on it; IIRC our d-linemen weren't asked to drop nearly as often as Mario's complaints suggested. I remember many debates on the BBMB about this issue.)

I have enjoyed Mirbeau's amenities a few times myself. Feels more like Europe than the U.S., no?

You know, so did I, at first. But then I waited on him a bunch, including the night he was doing the hard-sell on his big FA class of 2014. In an overheated 3rd floor dining room with Spikes, Dixon, Graham, and Rivers (who literally signed his contract mid-meal in a storage room) plus their families and the appropriate coaches, Marrone got himself fairly tuned up and went on and on about what a fu$%!ng awesome o-line coach he is because of his success in New Orleans. You know, the whole Saint Doug shtick. It was a real thing. He was somewhat likable from a jock-y perspective, with his downstate accent and bravado and his former o-lineman physical stature. But so damned aloof as coach of the Bills. (I had had a random, previous interaction with him in a Tipp Hill bar in Syracuse (while he was head coach there) that revealed a MUCH more humble and tolerant public persona, for the record. Made an instant fan out of me. But his private demeanor with the Bills was really ego-city).

While Poyer seems to play closer to the ball, and therefore gathers more flash plays/stats, I agree that Hyde is the more valued property (at least from a coaching perspective). He was McD's first big FA acquisition.

This is where it gets interesting, especially in the secondary (as several have already noted). NO WAY do both Hyde AND Poyer get extended (IMO). While their versatility and interchangeability as a safety tandem is special (as highlighted by Belichick, among others), the Bills can't pay two safeties top dollar without making significant compromises elsewhere. Plus, they're both 28 already (2 seasons left for Poyer's deal--at half Hyde's price--and 3 for Hyde). If Poyer isn't extended before next season, then I'll bet he leaves in FA after 2020, gets replaced by a younger, cheaper option, and the Bills look to extend Hyde similar to what they just did with Hughes.

Totally agree. The most effective defenses stop the run (and of course get after the QB, but you can't necessarily get after the QB when the offense is getting after YOU).

Looking at the bolded in particular: over the last decade, Vegas has actually been MOST accurate (in the entire NFL) when predicting the Bills W/L record, according to https://nationalfootballpost.com/win-totals/. Now I know past results do not necessarily predict future outcomes, but we should not so casually dismiss the Vegas predictions. Unlike sports writers and fans, the casinos have quantifiable skin in the game. There are myriad scenarios (injuries, historically inconsistent defensive results from year-to-year, lack of progression from young players, etc.) wherein the Bills fall short of ten wins. Ten wins would mean that nearly every ? on the team becomes a + in 2019. It CAN happen. But it's not statistically likely. That being said, go Bills. Win the bleeping division.

I'll chime in on this one, too. Only way McBeane DOES NOT get another season at the helm is if the team implodes and fields an unwatchable product (see also: September & October 2018 (minus Minnesota) and November 2017). Those stretches of embarrassing ineptitude cannot continue. But short of that kind of failure, I don't see McBeane on the hot seat at all.

I have moonlighted as a high-end server (waiter) for a long time. In Orlando I often interacted with golf and baseball legends. In Dallas I dealt with NBA players all the time (as we were across the street from the hotel visiting teams used). In Buffalo for the past seven years I've had some consistent and incredible access to Bills and Sabres personnel up and down the orgs. A bit off-topic, but in Dallas in the leadup to George Strait's mega-concert to open Jerry World, I had a fifteen-top that included Jason Garrett, Jay Cutler, Kerry Collins, and someone else notable I'm forgetting. Garrett point-blank asked Collins what he thought of Vince Young (they played together on the Titans at the time). Collins gave an interesting but diplomatic answer: "he's an every-now-and-then guy. Every now and then, he'll do something that makes you go "whoa.""

Gosh, that's a reasonable take. How dare you?!

The adult thing to do. I approve. "You eat pieces of **** for breakfast?" It all makes sense now.

This is it right here. Balanced but hopeful.

You're avoiding, overlooking, or unaware of some metrics that show Hughes' 2018 performance in a much more favorable light: "Hughes’ pass-rushing performance was truly among the best in the game in 2018. On 397 pass-rushing snaps, he had the second-highest pass-rushing grade (90.4), the highest pass-rush win rate (23.9%) and the league’s highest pressure rate (19.7%). When there was no blitz or stunt executed by the Buffalo defense, Hughes posted a staggering 25.6% pass-rush win rate — by far the best among edge defenders — but on top of that, Hughes was still at the top when a stunt was indeed executed by Buffalo. His 90.1 pass-rush grade from such plays was the highest among edge defenders, with second-place Demarcus Lawrence far in the rearview mirror, at 85.6." https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-jerry-hughes-is-an-unsung-hero-on-the-buffalo-bills-defense-fully-deserving-of-a-two-year-extension

Your take on Hughes makes some sense. In a best-case scenario kind of way, but still has merit. Your use of "seen" is so wonderfully WNY that I just don't know what to say. I can hear your typed words. Carry on. Regional dialects are a healthy, natural part of linguistics.

I don't really disagree with you. Just pointing out that your OP maybe avoids the advantageous "unknown" of a new coaching staff and scheme that the Jets present to the Bills staff leading up to week one. I still value the Bills players having now a second off-season in the same playbook; don't oversimplify what I'm saying to make it some kind of binary opposition to you. Just don't also overlook competing narratives. There's room for complexity.

Interesting comment, considering that Brown is a slick-enough politician not to ever display actual personality traits in public. (Which is not a terribly complimentary take.) So how is he a "douche"? I don't ask in a partisan way at all. His policies don't define his behavior. And "douche" is such a particular term for people who behave a certain way...

I don't exactly disagree on general terms, except that this particular circumstance tilts the gameplan advantage to the Jets' favor. McD's week one gameplan guessing game is far more hypothetical than Gase's. His coaches have several years of concrete, Buffalo Bills film to base their gameplan on. And hell, Gase has faced McD's Bills first-hand four times over that span. So the current book on Buffalo (their team can evolve, of course) is well-established. The New York Jets, on the other hand, are MUCH more mysterious and difficult to tailor a gameplan to. New schemes and new personnel.

Love the honesty. Of course that's where most fans fall: in this highly subjective place of watching the games live (in-person or on TV either at a business or a private home) and forming (sometimes strong) assessments based upon imperfect, fleeting, and incomplete information (often gathered while we curse, converse, gesticulate, drink, pace about). I thought, in total disagreement, that Lawson made impactful plays, on meaningful downs, deflecting passes (especially as the season wore on). I'm sure stats can prove me right or wrong here. That being said (that fans like me have subjective and/or faulty opinions), I think the decade-plus drought would have been interrupted if Wilson had simply, post-Butler, implemented a crowd-sourced, Bills fan referendum approach to major football decisions. Poll the fans prior to the draft, free agency, and hiring head coaches and coordinators, and execute those majority decisions. It's not a good NFL success plan, but it would have avoided some draft blunders, fo sho.

Which makes it an even more puzzling pick, as I have personally witnessed Doug Whaley doing an unflattering imitation of Trent Richardson taking a handoff and trying to make a cut. He took like thirteen quick stomps forward/backward/sideways before moving forward. It was actually kind of funny. He did this in front of McCoy and a few other players and personnel, if I recall correctly.