Rew

Who still thinks the dolphins look crisper and more prepared? For those trying to compare along the way.... Our 1st drive looked equal or better than their first, and our 2nd looked far easier and cleaner than their 2nd. This is football, both teams make plays and so far it looks like we are making a lot more on O and D.

We're top 10 run defense in almost every stat. Not the 85 bears, but pretty good.

I know I've seen a 3rd challenge awarded. I can't recall ever seeing a team make 3 successful challenges.

That looked like PI. Gilmore lucky it wasn't called.

MVP

Foot is worse imo. Ankle can be a soft injury that you can play on with lots of tape. Foot seems more likely to indicate a fracture.

Tua looks awful if he isn't throwing it <20 yards in the middle of the field. His inaccuracy outside the numbers make for a complete receiving highlight reel every week. He has really picked up good timing in LB windows on seams and slants though.

He threw an 8 yard slant, which was ran for another 60 some odd yards

Jimmy questionable to return with an ankle

There was a crosser that was completed over the middle for 9ish yards where he allowed more separation than his typical. He made a quick tackle on it however. Maybe someone else was supposed to be there and screwed up. Other than that I didn't notice him get beat.

2 yard run on great #50 stop. Slant for 7 with Rhodes in coverage. Fumbled transfer on handoff on 3rd and inches. Punt

This is going to go a lot like the playoffs last year. Everyone is wondering if the pats are close to the bills and we will show they are still a tier behind this season. This feels like bills by 20 midway in 4th, with some garbage time bringing it to 7 or 10

Old John brown... Really?

The dolphins are better than expected, and I have been impressed by the coaching. Coming into the season it seemed like they had a chance at a wildcard, and now it seems they are a definite over .500 team, even against a more challenging schedule. It's ok to acknowledge that they are playing well and recognize that they are on a tier below the chiefs and bills. They could easily end up anywhere from 9-13 wins still. They won't be favored in any more than 3 of their remaining games, 2 if the jets defense keeps up at the same level. I think they push and end up 11-6, with wins against chargers, packers, and patriots. Tua has been about what is expected and what he's shown in previous years. He is physically limited (since his SR year injury), but throws a pretty ball. It he cam keep playing within his capabilities, he'll continue to be in the top half of QB's in the league. He's more than a "game manager", but has enough limits to not be elite. With his receivers playing the way that they are, he can statistically be in the top 10 or 5 depending on schedule.

Did it occur to you that we'll probably be in shotgun most of today due to a backup center in? This is typical for pretty much any team with a backup center that doesn't want bad transfers all day.

We allow 3rd down conversions on a league average 15th (40%) of the time. It sucks that we're not as good as we used to be with the whole defense healthy, but it's nowhere near as dramatic as people pretend.

The teams spend to cap. If all contracts were guaranteed, they would have more money tied up for longer periods of time, meaning that less cap space would be available for new contracts. More contract flexibility allows teams to allocate cap funds to new contracts, meaning more opportunities for free agents and new players. You're missing the union contract. Owners and player have already agreed how much money goes to players. That can't be changed in an individual's negotiation. The dollars just get shifted between the players. Ultimately, in a fully guaranteed model the contracts would be lower dollar value and shorter. Players would, as a whole, and assuming the same size player pool, make exactly the same. The only potential for individuals to make more on average would be if the guaranteed contracts reduce the ability for new talent to get paid and reduce the size of the player pool.

This is a strange case for NFLPA to bring, even if there was a discussion between owners. Anticompetitive collusion typically involves either harm to employees (in the form of lower wages) or harm to customers (in the form of higher prices). It's hard to show either of these. The players have a negotiated salary cap and allocation of funds to them. If owners colluded to uniformly spend under the cap of allocated funds it would be a clear cut case. However, in the typical scenario where most teams are spending up to and beyond the cap the owner doesn't benefit from the result of a contract negotiation. A lower or non guaranteed contract simply leaves more money available to other players. I don't see an easy argument of how the players as a whole would be harmed by a different distribution of the negotiated funds. It's also tough to show how the behavior was anticompetitive in a way that harmed consumers.

Browns will have >150 rushing, but under 300 total.

Groin, evaluating

Who do you see as the 3 wildcards that are clearly going to have a better record than all of the pats, jets, dolphins? The OP's records seem unrealistic, but I think between the 3 teams one of them probably gets a wildcard.

Based on numbers and eye test the Bills had their worst passing defensive performance today. Against a very green rookie with a much maligned offensive coordinator. It's asinine to look at today and not see a significant dropoff from prior weeks. The run defense was not tested much, and not possible to do any comparison between Edmunds and Dotson there. We have a depleted secondary and LB core. The play calling was clearly prevent much more than other games. Its not feasible to attribute today's reduced performance to missing Edmunds, Poyer, gameplan, or just had luck, but it's also unlikely that missing any of them had nothing to do with it.

Not really. There's a chance they overturn, and it's not like Indy will need the timeout if they're short. They lose the challenge, but really no other downside to trying.

You're wrong. In 1st half we had three timeouts and wanted to ensure ravens had no shot with their 1 timeout. The bills calling a timeout there substantially increases the chances of the ravens getting points. More importantly, the clock wasn't really the reason for not calling a timeout. The players that the ravens had on the field combined with play calling left a favorable matchup for us. Calling an unnecessary timeout when you have the potential for a mismatch would have been a coaching mistake. The prior play was a run play. We proceeded to take a shot down the field that the ravens covered well, but the result does not change the correctness of the call. After the incompletion there was still over 30 seconds on the clock with us at the 28 and 3 timeouts. Your armchair coaching is shallow and uninformed. In the 4th quarter we ran plays at 4:07, 3:35, and 2:59. While they could have squeaked a few more seconds out, they were snapping under :10. That's about right for 4 minute drill. The rest of the drive was finished out about as perfect as it can be. Nothing to see here... Thanks for consistently providing some color to line play. I don't know how you see it in real time, but you see a lot that I miss.

Given our current roster and injury situation and the way our offense is built it would make far more sense to pick up a big name receiver than a RB now.