JGMcD2

Thanks! I’m the idiot though... it was a bad analogy. I’m aware of how it all works... I work with players and have an office in the locker room during the season. The team can deny credentials or revoke them... I’m pretty sure people were all up in arms about the Bills failing to give the guy from Cover 2 a press pass. Privilege...

Except it is a privilege to have access to the team. Whether it be in the locker room, practice, on the field. It can be revoked at any time... therefore it is indeed a privilege. Let me change my analogy to another entertainment business... are reporters given access to the filming of movies? Behind the scenes? Are they allowed to go out and tell the general public everything that happens in the movie and spoil the details before the movie is released?

He did go off on him.... but this was not the first instance of Fairburn overstepping his boundaries. There are consequences for your actions. Folks in media are constantly worried about their next story, breaking news, etc. that they don’t really think of the bigger picture. Believe me. Tons of friends who work in the news, an ex-girlfriend, and people I’ve interacted with professionally. All they’re worried about is content and a deadline. They forget about what they wrote shortly after they publish it.

I don’t know guys... I understand reporters are supposed to report but there are unwritten rules for how you’re supposed to handle things when interacting with players and in a locker room. I work in professional sports and spend a lot of time in the locker room. Reporters come in all the time... that’s ok. The good ones are pleasant and ask a lot of questions... and typically ask permission or for an ok to discuss certain topics. There is a veil over these areas for a reason... what goes on in there tends to be important. You have to build up respect and earn the trust of the staff and players. Just like anything in life... but we live in a society today that doesn’t place value on those things. It seems to me Fairburn messed up twice. The bulletin board material should not have been discussed... I know journalists who come into the locker room and there are notices and information posted everywhere... THEY ASK before they say anything about it. Otherwise you’re going to get singled out real quick. I’ve seen players and staff change their mood very quickly when someone oversteps their boundaries. This is the Bills place of work... the media has the PRIVILEGE of being able to observe. You don’t see reporters walking around an office complex and sitting in on shareholders meetings reporting on a Fortune 500 companies upcoming plans, financials, hires/fires.

Hey look, I’m not arguing that the Jerry Hughes touchdown that was called a fumble on the field and was overturned wasn’t a forward pass. It was clearly a shuttle pass or whatever you’d like to call it. I was in the stands at the game and after celebrating like a mad man knew immediately it would be overturned. We could have stopped them on that drive and won the game regardless... so by no means am I blaming the refs for our loss... they made the right call. Anyway... I came across this today and it made me go ballistic. I’m not absolving the team of the fact they shouldn’t have put themselves in the position they were in. Offense, defense, special teams and coaches contributed to the loss. All I ask for is consistency... from our coaches, our players, our fans, the league office and the refs. There is no standard in the NFL for the refs... no accountability.

I’m in the belief that the media AND the league favor large market teams. I’d love to be able to do a study on market size and calls that go in favor of teams (both missed and calls that shouldn’t have been made... think Patriots “just give it to them” or Pats seemingly getting more PI calls than anyone else). Media is pretty easy to see. If you’ve got a big star or you’re in a big market with more fans and money $$ then they’re going to talk about you so you tune it

Hey All, Getting WAY too ahead of myself but figured I’d get some ideas ahead of time. My roommate from college and I are heading to the Bills game in Miami in November. Trying to plan ahead with some things and could use all the help we can get....we prefer to be around as much crazy as possible. Location of best Bills Tailgates Best Bills Bars Anything else fun to do Thanks!

For sure, it's a process (no pun intended). I work with professional athletes... looking at tape or watching on TV and seeing things from a bird's eye view is vastly different than being out there and having to react to all of the moving pieces.

Guys, you can't have a roster full of 53 Pro Bowl players. Sure they made mistakes... but find me a guy on the street that plays better... the guys on the street are there for a reason. There is only so much talent to go around.

It's funny people wanted to move on from Tremaine following last week's game and said he'd be a liability this week. Gotta love the folks that watch weekly highlights and believe they're qualified to be an NFL Head Coach.

Yes, it’s all so amazing. Our GM and Coach are building a football team. Imagine that, every player on a team has a role. Why? Because not everyone can score a touchdown on every play. Not everyone can record a pick or a sack on every play. There’s more to a successful team than the stat sheet.

$$$ It changes players... I've seen it first hand.

Yes. That's a big no-no.

A friend of mine has ties to a player on the Browns offense. They hangout quite a bit... he said Baker doesn't know the playbook, doesn't study it and shows up late to offensive meetings with no clue. Seems to be a culture issue... but as we know that doesn't actually mean anything...

It's amazing to me the people who have never worked with athletes a day in their life and either pound the table or diminish the guy based on things like; An article they read The school the player went to The NFL.com draft report on that player The player's stats on a given day The player's favorite color The player's jersey number The player's favorite food It's insane.

I hate that we’re 11th in points because of the pick six. Defense only gave up 8 points yesterday.

Henry Anderson and Harrison Phillips overlapped 1 year at Stanford in 2014. Phillips has to know him... I wonder if someone can get his take on Twitter.....

Hahahaha that’s golden. Thanks for the clarification!

Are we sure it was illegally recorded? California requires both parties to consent to a recorded phone conversation. AB consented and it seems as though Gruden consented as well...

I don't think many people were surprised this offseason when Brandon Beane elected to decline Shaq Lawson's the 5th year rookie option. His name has been popped up in trade rumors consistently since McDermott and Beane have arrived in Buffalo. McBeane haven't been too kind to players left over by the previous regime, so those trade rumors made quite a bit of sense. Drafted by the Rex Ryan regime 19th overall in 2016 out of Clemson, Lawson has failed to live up to expectations that are placed on first round draft picks. Shoulder surgery prior to his rookie season limited him to only 10 games, and he has yet to play a full 16 game slate in his 3 year NFL career. Lawson finished the 2018 season strong and while we're only 1 game in to the 2019 season, he seems to have potentially turned a corner in his young career. I have a feeling that Beane and McDermott are not averse to bringing Shaq back, I just don't think they felt he was worth the $9.5 million the he would have cost the team in 2020 had they picked up his option. A year and a half ago that might not have been true, but he seems to have bought into "The Process". I can only go off of what I've seen on social media but Shaq seems committed to improving, he was featured pretty heavily in Embedded (which isn't much, but Shady was almost non-existent and he was shown the door shortly after) and in that same Embedded series Brandon Beane makes a point about the players that they sign and re-sign for the sake of the locker room. I'm paraphrasing but he says something along the lines of "We need to be careful who we pay, everyone in the locker room is watching who we pay, that's important." This regime has stated that they want to re-sign their own and they have proven it with Matt Barkley, Jordan Phillips, Lorenzo Alexander, Steven Hauschka and Jerry Hughes. Hughes is a holdover from the Rex Ryan regime, somebody that was also mentioned early and often in trade rumors when McBeane came to town. While he has been an impactful player since his arrival in Orchard Park, his buy in to "The Process" was no guarantee. The point of me highlighting Jerry Hughes is to show that McBeane HAVE re-signed a player that wasn't their own acquisition, so they may be willing to do it again, if they are convinced Shaq Lawson truly has turned a corner. Whitney Mercilus Outside Linebacker Houston Texans Mercilus managed to put up consistent sack numbers early in his career. Following a breakout 2015 season (the Texans declined his 5th year player option worth $7.75 million prior to 2015), where he totaled 12 sacks and 32 tackles the Texans locked him up with a four year extension. Whitney Mercilus signed a 4 year, $26,000,000 contract with the Houston Texans, including a $5,250,000 signing bonus, $10,681,012 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $6,500,000. In 2019, Mercilus will earn a base salary of $5,750,000 and a roster bonus of $500,000, while carrying a cap hit of $7,300,000 and a dead cap value of $1,050,000. Henry Anderson Defensive End New York Jets Anderson was a third round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 2015. He played 9, 12, and 9 games in his first three seasons in the league. Primarily as a run stuffing end. He broke out in his fourth year after a trade to the Jets where he recorded 7 sacks and 35 tackles over the course of 16 games. Henry Anderson signed a 3 year, $25,200,000 contract with the New York Jets, including a $4,000,000 signing bonus, $17,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $8,400,000. In 2019, Anderson will earn a base salary of $2,000,000, a signing bonus of $4,000,000, a roster bonus of $4,000,000 and a incentive bonus of $500,000, while carrying a cap hit of $7,833,333 and a dead cap value of $17,000,000. I think these are some pretty realistic comparisons for Shaq here, with the caveat that he actually has to continue to produce in 2019. Mercilus signed his extension in 2016 so the numbers are likely suppressed considering the rising salary cap and larger contracts due to the increasing cap. The Anderson deal represents a more recent instance of an extension for a player coming off of his rookie contract with similar counting stats to Shaq over his first three seasons. It's likely that if Shaq were to continue to produce and then sign an extension with the Bills it would fall somewhere between Mercilus and Anderson in terms of AAV. My projection would be something like a 4 year, $32,000,000 contract with about $14,000,000 guaranteed. This would be an average annual salary of $8,000,000.

But he still went with Manning, so what is the point? He took into account the total package...

I’m not sure... a lot of keyboard warriors here claim to think they know more than everyone because they watch highlight reals and read mock drafts. I’ll take a HOF GM over y’all. Seems like everyone is just bitter that he got to live out their dream. For the record, a good friend of mine was working in Player Personnel for the AAF, we were both finalists for the role. He sat with Bill during every game and scouting session, said he’s still sharp as a tack. Sure, make quips that he’s losing his mind. The funny thing is he’s forgotten more about football than y’all will ever know.

https://buffalonews.com/2018/09/25/from-thrift-shop-to-starter-cb-ryan-lewis-shines-in-first-bills-start/ Ha, I found it!

Lewis started a handful of games for us last year, right? If memory serves me he played pretty well and the disappeared... he got a lot of hype. He was like the Levi Wallace before Levi Wallace last season.

I agree. I meant to note that I pulled the positions off a Spotrac and that is where they have Long listed.