Richard Noggin

I don't know the last time I began a thread. I didn't see one dedicated to this topic. (But I'm wrong ALL the time.) Running back is a screaming, pulsing, must-have need for the 2020 Bills. Right? I mean, behind Singletary we have Yeldon, who I don't hate as 3rd down-ish receiving back, and what? A rugby guy who I'd love to see take giant moon-leaps towards NFL relevance, but isn't exactly a reliable commodity, and a special teamer who is valuable, but not on offense. So we 100% need a valid, starter-level RB to spell Singletary and potentially fill-in in the unfortunate and often likely case of injury. Or maybe I'm dim. It's nice to have so few glaring weaknesses, but this is one. In my humble estimation. Right?

Sure are a lot of people who don't understand what qualifies a person to have their own opinion on this. I'm not personally qualified, but I do like to read and listen to and watch actual experts offer their perspectives, and trust them to lead the way. And do you (not you personally, jimmy10) know who brings us these qualified perspectives? The dreaded MEDIA...(enter ghostly moaning here)

Thanks for being sensible. The anti-media/data/reality gang have some difficulty seeing the truth between extremes.

Why would this end "next week"? I don't think that's an option, given we're still on the upswing...

I don't know a SINGLE hospitality/service employee who is getting paid not to work right now. Me being one of them. Does that make my owners classless *****? Not really (there are other reasons it might be true, hehe). Restaurants typically run on fine margins, and paying a workforce while bringing in zero revenue is a sure fire way to bankrupt the industry rapidly. I found out on a day I was scheduled to work that I no longer, for a completely undetermined length of time, had a job. That was a bummer. There is an ongoing group text with about 22 participants from our restaurant where we're figuring out how to claim unemployment with very little guidance from above. Luckily for me, I also have a crappy full-time faculty position at a failing local college. So I'm still making half my income. Hopefully it can stretch long enough to keep us afloat. People like to blame, like to throw around judgments, when in reality, it's the economic system that keeps the working class on the brink. Sure, rich people COULD ABSOLUTLEY afford to help out the little idiots like me who work 70-80 a week to support my family. But they're not obligated to do so. And I don't sit around angry at them for not giving me handouts. But I would like my tax dollars to stop being redistributed to corporations and wealthy individuals who have benefited from a rigged system, and to start working for me and the vast majority of Americans like me. But that's a different thread all together. So hang in there, hospitality workers and everyone else whose financial lives have been turned upside down. I have NEVER received PTO from a restaurant as a tipped or hourly employee. Ever. It's the unfortunate reality of the industry.

Right. Self-reflect on that for a wee bit.

Amen. But, don't be a size queen.

Google would have let me down easier.

Uninformed question that Google could answer: is this Corey Dillon's kid?

Ah yes, the provocateur lies to stir up trouble. Part of the conspiratorial playbook. Could smell that from far off. Thanks for doing the legwork.

The conspiracy theorist is strong in this one. And the evidence is nonexistent, at least here.

Yeah, we've all been victimized by it. But am I being a jerk about this in some way that I'm not seeing that's causing this humorless response? I'm playing around with words here and you're defending yourself as though any of this matters. It's cool. Forget I made a joke about you criticizing someone else's "half-with" whatever.

The WGR guys fully recognize and lament the state of the Sabres. No doubt. I'm not sure where you're coming from with this. OBL is a different beast all together. Murph and Tasker are employed by the Bills directly. And broadcast on WGR. It's different than the radio hosts.

I say stupid things all the time. I'm a real Richard that way. But you gotta admit, yours was particularly ironic. Don't ya think?

I like irony.

Reasonable take. One could argue Dawson Knox appears to possess high end athleticism. "Top speed" is not a very holistic assessment of explosiveness or agility (although many of the fast guys are those things as well). But yeah, your conclusion is difficult to dispute.

No doubt Daboll is a Belichick disciple, in that he's been cross-trained on both sides of the ball, and values the schematic flexibility to attack defenses in multiple ways. I wonder if such multiplicity requires, at least for Daboll's offense, a playbook that is voluminous and intricate to a fault. Smoke Brown has admitted it's the most difficult offense he's ever learned. I'll bet other players feel similarly. Does that result in more errors on the field? More thinking and less play-making? Didn't the offense this season seem to hit its stride when they shifted mostly to one personnel package (11-personnel) and a no-huddle approach? You know, when Daboll simplified his gameplans?

My second job, at a local high-end restaurant, virtually guarantees I'm unable to watch anything on Saturdays from 4 pm to about midnight. The generationally-indelible Bengals-vs-Steelers outcome two years ago? Yep, I was working. Kind of ironic given our access to the Bills and Sabres over the years, that we'd miss such historically significant contests due to the job...but I'm mostly convinced the wildcard game will be Saturday at 4:30. Can I afford to quit? THAT'S the question...

"OCCASIONALLY BLURRING the line between fair and dirty play" (emphasis mine). Those first two words are a rhetorical effing ski jump of understatement, in light of the tapes that emerged and the penalties enacted (as mentioned, as though in passing, in the very next sentence).

Oh, to dream...

Funny. I will say that watching him make fun of Trent Richardson's bad footwork was kind of hilarious. I think we'd just signed Shady and Whaley was showing off a bit, ragging on a guy he refused to even look at in the draft and then later when he got traded to/from Indy. The particulars get hazy. Whaley took about a dozen heavy steps back and forth while pantomiming taking a hand-off.

I had some decent access to Brandon and Marrone and Whaley and Rex and that whole futile era of the team (and the corresponding Sabres personnel); McBeane runs a much tighter, less public operation. Definitely overheard some things from coaches, owners, execs, and players throughout the years. I'm hesitant to tell stories out of school, as it's part of my job to treat such high-profile clientele with discretion...

As a server at one of the above mentioned establishments, I can assure you Buffalo athletes are in there all the time. Not as often as when Russ Brandon ran the teams, but still often enough.

Apologies, I didn't realize he got the Zay Jones seal of approval! Enough said. Carry on. But for real, I know he was HIGHLY productive for a decent stretch. Was he doing so as a featured boundary receiver running the full route tree? Did he benefit from scheme and slot alignments? I'm a bit "bearish" on Rams offensive personnel having similar production in different systems.

This. We simply CANNOT know the answer, but we must consider the question. I thought Allen looked fairly dialed in tonight, and that they should have put the game on his shoulders more in the second half. He obviously responded following that chicken-$#!t red zone sequence that resulted in (an admittedly important) field goal. If you want to run to milk the clock, at least do so out of 11-personnel, right? Give the defense something to think about, and the offense an ability to audible/attack if the D over-commits to the run. That predictable, tight-formation approach has not been effective.