chongli

This is a really good show where Eric covered a variety of topics in his interview of Brandon Beane in his Centered on Buffalo podcast. My commentary is below. [From the description: Buffalo Bills GM Brandon Bean discusses life after the season ends, the emotional toll of not winning a championship, his belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback, building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl, the reality of salary cap constraints, favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby, favorite wing spot in Buffalo, opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone, how Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long, and predictions for the championship games. 00:00 Life of a GM after the season ends 03:24 The emotional toll of not winning a championship 05:14 Resiliency of the team 07:26 Brandon Bean's belief in Josh Allen as a franchise quarterback 10:49 Building the roster to compete for a Super Bowl 15:12 The reality of salary cap constraints 18:52 Favorite memories from the Kentucky Derby 21:00 Balancing work and downtime as a GM 22:39 Favorite wing spot in Buffalo 24:02 Opinion on the rule of fumbling the ball out of the end zone 27:11 How Eric Ciano keeps his job for so long 29:30 Predictions for the championship games.] My commentary: Josh [10:49]: Josh may have turnovers and may even cost you some games (like the Jets Week 1: 3 INT's and 1 fumble), but he is a playmaker. He makes way more plays than turnovers. He is like an Elway or a Favre. Eric Wood said he played with a lot of QB's who rarely turned the ball over, but they never had 300 yards and did not win games like Josh. He leads the league all time in fewest playoff turnovers. So when it matters, Josh does not turn it over. Eric is tired of defensing Allen in regard to this issue, because it is not true. Josh was in the top 5 in completions two years in a row, which had ever been done. Josh and Patrick have re-written the book on how coaches look at side-arm, difficult-angle throws. Their athleticism is amazing and make defending them very hard. Josh is the type of player who puts the team on his back. He goes out and wins the game for you. You have to live with his occasional mistakes. You can't get mad at him when he makes so many outstanding plays. Salary Cap Constraints [15:12]: Start at the division and build a team to match up against all divisional foes. Then who are the other teams that are consistent contenders in the conference (Baltimore, KC, Cincy). The salary cap is absolutely real. The question is are you paying cash now or putting it on credit debt. They had a plan when they reset the cap in 2018. They added some players in 2019 a 2020, then COVID hit in 2020 and the cap went down from $198 million to $182 million, so that screwed them over and they haven't caught up. It should have gone to $210 or $211 million. They had a lot of big salaries (Josh, White, Dawkins, Milano, Stef) and they have had to put more money little by little each year into debt. They try to do it responsibly, but at the same time, the Pegulas told him they want to win. So it is a fine line. Kentucky Derby [18:52] Beane had a great time at Eric's place. Stayed up to 2 or 2:30 asking who's going to bed first. He was treated to a VIP experience at the Derby itself. Had fun at the Dustin Lynch private concert after. Off-season plan [21:00]: a. Coaches get off next week. They need some downtime. b. Football staff goes to Senior Bowl next week then comes back and does free agent meetings. c. Then college scouts come in and they lock themselves in the building for two straight weeks and go through every player on their board. They try to have their board in a good spot before going to Indy. They call the combine the "underwear Olympics" where players aren't in pads, so it is not the same. d. Week before the Combine is a vacation week for all. Beane's wife is arranging that. It must have a golf course. Brandon Beane's favorite wing spot in Buffalo [22.39]: Bar-Bill, both Cajun and honey barbeque. His wife just picked up some last night in fact. He prefers neither blue cheese nor ranch. Dipping the wing would be insulting it. If he had to, he prefers ranch.

Diggs was named to the Pro Bowl:

Here are two more twitter posts I found:

He hasn't been placed on the list yet, This is from the guy's wife: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ezras-liver-transplant [the liver transplant list stuff is bolded:] "Hi! I’m Karen, Ezra’s mom. I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts and process what is going on. When we were first called about this precious boy, the very little information given included the statement, “…he’ll probably need a liver transplant within the year.” We said yes to him, not knowing how long he’d stay. It’s been ‘easy’ to know he might need a transplant SOMEDAY while not needing a transplant now. His first year with us was eventful, with travel, hospitalizations, and surgeries. We had a solid 3 years of relatively good health, and the ability to focus on other needs he has (speech, PT, sleep). You wouldn’t know he’s sick. He is a ball of charm and energy and is going at 110% at all times. I was given the impression that our trip to NYC for transplant evaluation was “very preliminary” and that there was still the possibility to try other interventions. That this was just to create a chart for him and get baseline information documented with the liver team. That was not the case. I can describe it only as an orientation. We had consults with each individual of the liver transplant team (2 of which know Ezra from his time in NY in 2019 - one is the surgeon that fixed him up then). Surgeons, infectious disease, nutrition, social work, cardiology, ultrasound, bloodwork, echo…it was a long few days for our guy. All this to say, he’s going on the list. His liver has been declining and since the summer he’s had bloodwork, ultrasound, endoscopy, MRI, and biopsy. There’s so much scar tissue (cirrhosis) that blood isn’t filtering through efficiently. This is putting extra pressure on other organs and can ultimately put stress on his heart and lungs. He has an enlarged spleen already. We are still early in the process and his surgeon shared with me the advantages to getting him on the list now - 1) he’s well, not in and out of the hospital, fighting infections, etc. This means that we don’t have to settle for the first liver that comes along. We can be choosy. 2) the longer he’s on the list, even if lower priority at first, the easier it is to get him bumped up based on length of time waiting. 3) we have time to find a living donor match, which may give us more control over preparing, planning, and scheduling. That said, Ezra can accept a living donor and we have a QR code that leads to a questionnaire for anyone that may want to consider donating. So, whether we have the luxury of choosing a date on the calendar, or we get a call at 3am on a Sunday that we gotta go, recovery is going to be a whole journey for our family. We are to expect about a week in the PICU following transplant. He will have follow up visits multiple times weekly for the first month post-op, then weekly for months 2-3, then every other week for months 4-6. He will likely continue to be seen in NYC 1-2 times per year indefinitely. He will be discharged from the hospital on somewhere near a dozen medications. His immune system will be suppressed. If all goes smoothly, we’ll be able to live at the Ronald McDonald House. Yes. Live there. Im worried for this little boy and what he’s about to go through. I’m worried for my kids who really can’t comprehend how our lives are about to change, even if temporarily. I’m worried for the logistics, finances, everyone’s mental and emotional health, and our littlest baby as well. We are going to be trying to put together a plan for when this happens, as well as hoping to have a ‘go plan’ for if things do happen suddenly at any point. We are grateful for our famil. Our support system. Our VILLAGE. We know that we’re going to need you more than ever and we are trusting that God will be calling you to tally around Ezra and our family in all the different ways. Any funds raised will help with travel expenses and supporting our guy through this." ---- second post: Oh, and the fund is now: "$2,782 raised of $100,000 goal"

A little disappointed about the implications here that the reason Thad Lewis will be interviewed is because of the Rooney rule. He will be interviewed because he is one of the best candidates for the job, period. His work elevating Baker Mayfield's game this season was phenomenal. He is a young and upcoming coach who will soon be a coordinator. The same flawed reasoning can be said of sideline reporters, who are part of the three- or four-person broadcasting crew. They are not meant to be "eye candy". They are hired for their phenomenal reporting skills. To say otherwise demeans them.

Bass will be fine, just like Norwood. After Wide right in the SB, Norwood came back next season to kick the eventual winning field goal over Denver in the AFCCG.

WTF and LOL:

I have never heard of this guy, but he was endorsed as a great member of Bills Mafia by King of Phinland. The gofundme was just $120 15 minutes ago and is now over $400.

The Super Bowl is not the end all.

But our D (and ST) has let us down year after year, along with offensive mistakes. Scott Kacsmar makes a good point about our D, which Tyler Dunne re-tweeted:

If you post the full-size screenshot on https://postimages.org/ and then post the url they give you here, it will work.

Not sure. If so, you have one hell of a memory!

BAL-LAC will be in primetime next season. Probably TNF or MNF.

1. Mahomes 2. Jackson 3. Burrow 4. Allen 5. Rodgers 6. Herbert 7. Hurts 8. Stroud 9. Love 10. (tie) Prescott, Lawrence, Stafford

Neither. Trevor Lawrence will be.

Well, ok, if that's the case, then Buffalo won the SB in 2021. It's not Josh's fault 13-sconds occurred. If we had beaten KC, then most agree Buffalo would have beaten Cincy and then the Rams. See how that works?

Lots of great QB's have never won the SB for various reasons. Partly because it's a matter of luck and is a team sport. It's not the end of the world. I think the Bills mafia could get to a healthier place mentally if they stopped focusing on Super Bowls. Focus on being the best team you can be, and not on long-term goals and other teams. Also, where is Dan Fouts on that list?

AFAIK, the Bills here not aware of only 10 men when the play was called. In that respect, it was a bad decision. At the same time, given there were only 10 men, the Bills should have easily converted, as Turk said. I believe the decision was made by McD (it had to be....it would have been too big for Brady or Smiley to make), but the play design and personnel were Smiley's fault. And for that, as well as 12-men, he needs to go. Parcells did this to perfection against the Bills and their high-powered offense in SB 25. And Belichick's defense also played well. Still, the Bills could have won, but we all know what happened.

Josh is a Bills lifer. Just as Jim Kelly was (or Big Ben for Pittsburgh).

Brazil and Germany have been added. RTL in Germany will be broadcasting both games on site. The pre-game show will start live from Baltimore at 20:15 on RTL+ only. RTL starts at 20:55 for the game. The commentators are Patrick Esume and Björn Werner, with studio moderation provided by Jana Wosnitza. For the NFC, the commentators are Jan Stecker, Sebastian Vollmer, and Markus Kuhn RTL's weekly magazine, NFL Sideline, will also be produced from San Francisco this week. DAZN will broadcast both games from Germany, as usual.

Just a quick note: The KC-BAL game was assigned Shawn Smith, as previously noted. It turns out that home teams with him calling the game win only 40% of the time, the worst of all refs. It has been speculated the NFL wants Taylor Swift in the SB.

The NFL tweet is histrionic. He didn't know anything was coming. He just wanted to tell his teammates to be prepared, just in case.

Ok, haha...thanks for finding that. I had never seen it before!

In the 80's there were only five playoff teams per conference, and the three division winners each got a bye.