JGMcD2

Does he have ties to VA Tech... I’m assuming there is a pay raise associated with it because it was a lateral move... don’t know if a college job is better than a pro job at the same position.

Let’s apply common sense. The Ravens lined up against us at the end of the first half in victory formation. It appeared as if they were going to take a knee. They faked taking a knee and ran a play. Does that mean that Lamar is down because he made the motion as if he was going to take a knee? http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000001085056/Ravens-unveil-sneaky-fake-kneel-down-trick-play-to-end-first-half

Yes, it is! ERFA typically only applies to UDFA. Considering it’s really rare to find players that were drafted or signed to short term deals with less than 2 years of service time. What will most likely happen is we will tender Wallace, Foster and Croom a contract and they will sign almost immediately. There is no reason for them to wait because they cannot play anywhere else... they could sit out but that would make them ERFA the following year as well because no service time would be accrued. The beauty of this as well is that they’ll all be RFA next year... so we can’t match their best offer if we decide to... or gain compensation if we tender them at the requisite level to receive compensation.

Thanks for taking the time putting this post together. I wanted to clarify some stuff on ERFA for you because it seemed like you weren’t really clear on the concept. It happens when a player reaches the end of their contract with less than 3 accrued seasons. The player may only resign with their original team at the league minimum tender (or more if the team chooses to offer more). They’re not allowed to negotiate with other teams, they can only sign with us as long as we tender them a contract. Wallace, Foster and Croom will all be back under contact and most likely will be making the league minimum.

Go away. You sound like you want the reckless approach the Rams put forward... it’s worked out so well for them. A Super Bowl loss, cap problems and no draft picks.

We now have 53 players on our off-season roster, not counting our 3 ERFA (Foster, Croom, Wallace) and 2 RFA (McKeznie, Marlowe). That gets us to 58, plus whoever we resign from our own UFA. It’s amazing to me that we’re going to have roughly 60-65 players on our 90 man roster before free agency and the draft that have all basically been in the organization this season around a playoff team. Not all of them are major contributors but to have roughly 65 players that were already part of a playoff team returning + 9 draft picks + $90M to spend. That type of continuity is fantastic and coupled with the flexibility to improve considerably is amazing to me. That is some amazing roster construction... this is going to be an extremely difficult roster to crack. We’re going to have numerous players traded and cut at the end of training camp that will go on to contribute to other teams in 2020.

Some of the best coaches weren’t great players. That’s typically how it goes... they have to study and understand certain intricacies to get by in their career and it allows them to be better coaches than players.

Thank you. You are so spot on with this response. Anyone who is dismissing the way the rule is written is ridiculous. You can’t just omit words when you find it convenient to fit your narrative, which is pretty much what the NFL did, AND fans are buying it!!! Instead of people actually agreeing the league screwed up and demanding change we just buy into their crap time and time again. The league continues to insult fans intelligence. It’s honestly despicable. There is microscope on everything today... this billion dollar industry called the NFL does a HORRIBLE job when it comes to attention to detail with their literature. Fans keep buying jerseys, hats and t-shirts so it doesn’t matter though. If this were brought to a court of law, the word and would count. Instead we’re in Candy Land where everyone just gets to pick and choose what they want. The word AND is there for a reason... because the second part of that sentence confirms the guy is giving himself up. It’s not that complicated.

I think so too. I was wary about that as well... figured that we would avoid him completely. Apparently that wasn’t the case this past off-season - we went after him. Every team was pretty quiet when it came to Kareem and then all of a sudden the Browns swooped in and media made it seem like that was the only team interested. That wasn’t the case... he had a deal in place with Philadelphia. They have a “hunch” we will be interested again this off-season.

I mentioned it before but we’re going to be in the Kareem Hunt market. John Dorsey was his biggest advocate in Cleveland, with him gone Kareem doesn’t expect them to match an offer he gets. We were interested in signing him last off-season. He actually wants to come to Buffalo. It will either be us or Philadelphia... he a had deal in place with them and was looking at houses there before the Browns jumped in.

In what ways are Singletary and Henry similar? Henry is 6’3” 238 and ran a 4.5 40 Motor is 5’7” 203 and ran a 4.66 40 Henry will run right through you and can also run right past you with breakaway speed. Motor is patient and uses his small size and unique cutting ability to churn out consistent 4-5 yard gains and the occasional 10-12 yard run. He isn’t a home run threat nor is he a bruiser.

I was talking about this yesterday... I would honestly be okay with giving Henry a deal akin to Gurley or Zeke. I know it sounds crazy but he’s a size/speed freak that can take over a game. Imagine the contrast of trying to tackle Henry and then Singletary comes out and trying to tackle him and vice versa. Yeldon is still under contract and becomes our passing catching back and suddenly we have a very diverse group of RB.

Thanks for taking the time putting this post together. I wanted to clarify some stuff on ERFA for you because it seemed like you weren’t really clear on the concept. It happens when a player reaches the end of their contract with less than 3 accrued seasons. The player may only resign with their original team at the league minimum tender (or more if the team chooses to offer more). They’re not allowed to negotiate with other teams, they can only sign with us as long as we tender them a contract. Wallace, Foster and Croom will all be back under contact and most likely will be making the league minimum.

This is a fantastic take. I’ve noticed most fans generally are extremely harsh on their QB. I know Steelers fans that hate Roethlisberger, Eagles fans that hate Wentz, Falcons fans that hate Matt Ryan, Cowboys fans that hate Dak, Rams fans that hate Goff, 49ers fans that Garroppolo. Those are all quarterbacks that people pound the table for here, or at least have at one point. They all tend to make similar comments that many on here make about Josh. They always tend to be hypercritical of every decision because they watch every play... meanwhile we look at stat lines, see Red Zone it watch a game here and there and think *insert QB name here* can remedy all of our problems. Everyone is constantly infatuated by what they don’t have and fail to appreciate what they do. It’s human nature... that’s why we’re fans and not making personnel decisions.

The first sentence says it all there... I’m not sure where this snipit is from but it actually supports the argument of the “nutty” Bills fans so I’d like to keep this on the record. Let’s break it down! If the ball reaches the end zone and touches the ground it’s an automatic touchback. That would imply the player catching it and dropping it... BUT if you continue to read it gives more context and clarity! 1) There is no need for the player to even catch the ball if they don’t intend to return it The next portion is critical in interpreting “the ball reaching the end zone and touching the ground it’s an automatic touchback” 2) There’s no need for the player to pick up the ball and kneel the football. This needs to be coupled with the actual rule that once the ball hits the end zone on the kick off... there is no need for the player to pick it up and kneel it because it’s already dead. There is no example of a player catching the football and then dropping it on the ground without signaling fair catch, taking a knee OR both. Your example above is strictly applied to the ball reaching the end zone in the air on the kickoff and then hitting the ground in the end zone... nothing else. It’s detailing that constitutes a dead ball and the player need not touch it to confirm a dead ball.

My grandfather was a big Bills fan, he bought me this plush football when I was a baby, when you threw it or spiked it the shout song played. Unfortunately, he passed away before I turned two years old. I would always spike the thing growing up but never really paid too much attention to the team or games, I just liked the song (this planted the seeds for my fandom lol). My parents are also big Bills fans and passed along the history or their history with the team. They were living in Hawaii for all four Super Bowls but watched every game and every Super Bowl. The story they told me that always stood out was after the first Super Bowl loss when the team came back and the whole city was embracing Scott Norwood.... I remember I saw the video and fell in love. There was something about that whole exchange that made me realize that what Buffalo has is truly special. Now the Bills and I are inseparable. I went to school in Massachusetts and my roommate was a also a Bills fan. So many late night discussions about the team, constantly trying to one up each other with Bills knowledge, news, etc. I went to 6 different games this year, 4 on the road and was there when we clinched in Pittsburgh.

This is probably my favorite post of 2020.

Mario Williams and Marcel Dareus in 2014. Prior to that Brian Moorman in 2005-06 Takeo Spikes 2004 Bruce Smith 1997

Title says it all! Congrats Tre!

They touch on how it’s happened basically everywhere against us. In a dome, in warm weather and more frequently on the road than at New Era Field. There are 8 separate games this season where there has been a missed FG and/or XP against us. Maybe a coincidence but can’t be completely dismissed. That’s half of the season... “There’s technique we practice,” Lotulelei said, “and from there, it’s the attitude that you go into it with. We have desire to block field goals.” “If you have just a little missed execution from the snapper to the holder or the holder to the kicker — and kickers are very anal even about the laces being off — you end up getting in their head, and it carries throughout the game.” - Lorenzo Alexander

The article goes into further detail on how we scheme and practice to put pressure on kickers. Just because they’re not physically blocking the kick doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact on the missed kicked... not much different than a QB feeling pressure from a DE and throwing it away making a risky throw. Although that is what Jerry Hughes’ does and people dismiss that as well... so probably another bad comparison ? We have 2/17 blocked kicks in the NFL this season.

[Edit to add link - I believe the OP is referencing this Tim Graham article from The Athletic. OP, please correct if I'm mistaken https://theathletic.com/1504304/2020/01/02/bills-secret-weapon-in-reaching-the-postseason-a-historic-field-goal-defense/] All across the NFL this year, it felt like kickers were putrid. At one point we even had (maybe still have) some issues with our own Stephen Hauschka. It felt like every game I watched, kicks were being missed left and right, especially in our games. I really didn’t realize the magnitude of it! Here are some excerpts from The Athletic detailing how good we were in this department. I understand many will dismiss it as all luck (yes, it takes some lick) but if the Patriots can get a pat on he back for their punt blocking prowess, why can’t we get some love in this department. “Bills opponents made 61.5 percent of their field-goal attempts and 84 percent of their extra-point attempts, both lowest in the NFL. That parlay hadn’t occurred since the league grew from 28 teams in 1995.” “Across the NFL this year, kickers converted 81.6 percent of their field-goal tries. (For the record, Stephen Hauschka made 78.6 percent. Fairbairn came in at 80 percent.)” ”The Bills’ 20.1-point differential relative to the league average is the greatest disparity since 2001. In that season, NFL kickers connected on 76.3 percent of field goals, but Pittsburgh Steelers opponents made a bewildering 45 percent.“ “The Bills won by a combined margin of 55 points. They watched 34 possible points against them fail to pass between the goal posts.“ Some really interesting stuff... especially consider how much this coaching staff seems to emphasize special teams. I personally believe that Heath Farwell has done a pretty good job this year across the board.

Are you talking about 2x World Series Champion, 4x Manager of the Year, 4th most wins amongst MLB managers and Hall of Famer Bobby Cox?

I haven’t looked in awhile at football specifically but aren’t PF and PA basically the end all be all in terms of correlation to wins? I know PF has a greater correlation than PA but they’re both vastly more significant than any other variable. It is a really intuitive concept that I feel some often overlook. I’m more of a baseball guy and there the entire name of the game is maximizing run prevention and run production. Those concepts are leaking over with football analytics.

I was reading up on some of the 2020 coaching candidates and got to Josh McDaniels. A friend of mine is a Browns fan who is pounding the table for McDaniels... I wanted to have a base of knowledge before I discuss anything because my only impression of him is that he’s a horrible leader (mostly after last year’s debacle with the Colts). My reading on him only strengthened my opinion lol. 2010 was JUST before I really got in to football so I didn’t have any recollection of this but I couldn’t help but laugh. Josh McDaniels was fired by the Broncos in 2010 after the NFL discovered Steve Scarnecchia (former Patriots video employee and son of longtime Patriots coach Dante) video taped 6 minutes of a San Francisco 49ers walkthrough in London. Scarnecchia was let go as well. It was stated that McDaniels didn’t view the video nor did he ask Scarnecchia to do it, we were supposed to believe Scarnecchia acted alone. I find it comical that we are supposed to believe the Patriots incident with the Jets in 2007 was isolated (according to them) and then all of a sudden when two Patriots disciples (with the organization from the beginning of their rise) go off on their own RANDOMLY have an isolated incident of their own in a season that they’re severely struggling to win. I am honestly surprised that this isn’t brought up more!