ngbills

Okwara

Going out on a limb. Over the first 50 picks, there will be 50 players selected on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball. Next Sunday I will post my list of these 50 players and I typically have a 100% success rate.

Could be viewed as a good or a bad. But he looks very much like the guy he is today. Throws with similar mechanics or lack thereof at times. Looks similar running out of the pocket. Difference is he is playing against NFL defenders now so just winging and slinging does not work the same. There is very different than the narrative about how different he was and how much he has grown in both ability and stature. He has always been one of the best athletes on the field. What he needs is to focus on the detail and the game inside his head.

To be fair many teams are doing this but many teams are not. For the record at least the Sharks, Ducks, Blue Jackets, Panthers, Capitals, Stars, and possibly more are not cutting staff. Pegula is one of the wealthiest owners in the NHL. He has the chance to make a statement during this time to show his generosity given how fortunate he has been. But that is his call. As a fan of the team I would be more proud to see him displaying generosity. Look at the Jack Dorsey (Twitter) promising $1B of his wealth (25%) to help causes related to Covid.

Lets see about this: In 2019 Thielen missed week 8-14. Diggs was putting up big number weeks 4-7. He had a few good games while Thielen was out but also 3 games with under 50 yards. So no Diggs was not better when Thielen was out. Thielen did not play a game with Diggs out in 2019. In 2018 Thielen missed no games. Diggs missed one game. Thielen caught 4 for 22 and 1 TD. Nothing special in a 24-9 win in which Vikes threw 22 times. In 2017 Thielen missed no games. Diggs missed weeks 6 and 7. Thielen caught 9 for 96 and 5 for 41. Not a huge drop off. In 2016 Thielen missed no games. DIggs missed week 5, 12 and 17. Thielen caught 7 for 127 and 8 for 53. No drop off. Week 17 was 38-10 blow in final game. So there you have it. No proof of Diggs excelling. Partly because Thielen never missed action. Thielen performed as good with or without Diggs.

Diggs has missed games nearly every season. Cooks has missed less though concussions are a concern. Cooks has played in a pass happy offense. Diggs has played in a run heavy offense primarily. Cooks athletic measurables are better. Diggs route running is better. Cooks stats are better. If you swap the players I still believe Bills fans would be making the argument Cooks is better. So I dont think its as simple as obviously Diggs is by far the better player. Diggs and a second round pick Cooks and a 1st round pick I think if you polled GM's it would be not be 32-0 in either direct. I think it would be closer to 50/50.

If this was the opposite: Say for example the Jets traded a 1st for Diggs; Bills Traded 2nd for Cooks. What would people on this board be saying? My guess is it would be how great Cooks is and what a steal we got vs what the Jets paid for Diggs. We would see all the positive Cooks vs Diggs comparisons that show Cooks putting up better numbers. The Bills desperately needed a WR. Was a 1st for Diggs the best move? Could they have got Hopkins or Cooks for less and also drafted one of the top WR's in the draft? Who knows. In the end it wont matter as long as the team wins. They win no one even talks about Cooks costing a first. But if they do not win, it will be how much they gave up for Diggs, what the WR's in the draft that we could have had do, what Cooks does, etc. Cooks is the same age as Diggs. Diggs at $11-12M is half price? I am sorry what has he done to be a $25M a year receiver? That would make him far and away the highest paid WR in the league.

That is a bit of a reach. The Dow for example is at 23.5K and was under 25K last May, going back to Dec 2018 was under 23K and going back 3 years it was at 20K...so not a "plummet" for the Pegulas. They had well over $5B going back prior to even buying the Bills. Again, they are fine. Yes, lost some money but nothing compared to what many in this country are going through. And yes you can hedge a lot though option strategies which every Billionaire out there utilizes.

Come on now. Now matter how you slice he is one of the richest 1% on this planet. Maybe his $5B has fallen to $4.5B. Dude still has a ton of dough. ANd folks with this kid of money have all kinds of ways to protect their assets when the markets tank. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/04/07/the-worlds-richest-sports-team-owners-2020/#de2535327b5f

You could make that claim every year. There are a number of differences with the biggest being the $ being paid. Teams greatly benefit by having a guy on his rookie deal as you get a number of years of very low $ that can be used elsewhere.

Brees $5M...

Not trying to diminish this. Brees just donated $5M. Pegulas worth over $5 Billion...

White Norman Wallace Hyde Poyer

The majority of improvement on offense is dependent on two things: Allen getting better (accuracy, decision making) OL play (injury free, Spain/Feliciano level of play) On Defense I do think they should be as good if not better. But the D did not cost them games last year. Even if the D is better by a few points per game the O has to score more period.

Hilarious. I have been running a number of successful businesses as well as consult. Been doing this for 20 years in the silicon valley. I am spending hours each day on conference calls discussing these topics with other business owners and executives. Some businesses can succeed and place little value you on employees, but the majority succeed by having loyal and dedicated workers. That starts from the top and is modeled by how owners and key executives treat people. I could tell you countless stories of failed businesses due to bad culture that comes from the top. And obviously I dont have all the details. But I do know unless he is on the verge of bankruptcy there are many tools out there to help avoid immediate layoffs at the current time.

Of course this is based off the reports and what employees have said, what the article says and the fact that termination letters and firings have taken place. Most in my industry have been doing what we can to keep and support employees best we can. Wont be forever, but we are not jumping straight to firing people. Sounds like they were waiting to do this and it gave them a great opportunity to do so.

We can make excuses for him because we like the team. Just bc he owns does the Bills and Sabres doesnt mean he is a good person. It does suck when the owner of the team you support is selfish and heartless. He will rebound from this even if he does have to pay his hourly workers for a time period. He also has options to temporarily lay them off with the promise of a job and continuation of benefits. Seems like he is going the cheapest way possible.

NFL has very short memories on both sides. We start off the season bad and we are right back there.

100%. And its not to be negative about the current team. I like the direction we are headed. I just dont like the false narrative. We have field plenty of teams with some talent just lacked the most important piece. Lets not pretend this team could never sign any free agents - Spikes, Williams, Milloy, and on and on...

As we saw in SF - having a stable with fresh legs and flexible based on your opponent can be a huge asset.

Lots of chatter on Gordon to Buffalo on a one year prove it deal. With Gurley released it only should drive the price for Gordon down.

Last year in playoffs Diggs caught 2 for 19 on 3 targets in one game and 2 for 57 on 4 targets in the other. Just keeping the conversation honest.

Last several super bowl teams. Most common configuration I see is strong TE and strong #1 or balanced #1 and #2. KC: Hill, Watkins, Robinson or Hill, Kelce SF: Sanders, Samuel, Pettis or Sanders/Samuel. Kittle NE: Edelman, Hogan, Gordon/Dorsett or Edelman, Gronk LAR: Woods, Cooks, Cupp or Cooks/Woods, Higbee NE: Cooks, Amendola, Hogan or Cooks, Gronk PHI: Jeffery, Agholor, Smitth or Jeffery, Ertz NE: Edelman, Amendola, Hogan or Edelman, Gronk/Bennett ATL: Jones, Sanu, Gabriel or Jones, Tamme/Hooper DEN: Thomas, Sanders, Norwood or Thomas, Daniels CAR: Ginn, Funchess, Brown or Ginn, Olsen NE: Edelman, Lafell, Amendola or Edelman, Gronk SEA: Baldwin, Kearse, Richardson or Baldwin, Wilson

Maybe he would be the Jordan Love of this draft.

What is more important: A dominant trio, dominant duo or dominant #1? For me I think having a dominant #1 along with a dominant TE is the way to go. Which is why my off-season would have been: Get Hopkins and sign Hooper. Hopkins, Brown, Beasley, Hooper then you still have Knox as TE2 and draft a big WR. And I know many say we could never have gotten Hopkins from bc HOU would not have traded with us. Still fail to believe they would pass on a 1st rounder and other picks just to keep him from us.