Billy Claude

3 million is not much considering how much he was paid and that it will be difficult for him to ever get another NFL job.

Would Jared Goff count?

Ryan Tannehill.

Steve Young obviously. Not a new team but a new coach, Alex Smith was a bust until Jim Harbaugh. Geno Smith?

I feel this is basically the strategy the Patriots did during between 2000-2010. They might have had close to as many trade ups as trade downs but almost all the first round trades were trade downs.

I don't believe it is a total crap shoot but it is much more random than most fans, and probably most NFL executives think. The analogy with blackjack is probably more accurate than a lottery. There's a lot of randomness hand to hand but really bad players i.e., Cleveland Browns between 2011-2015, are almost guaranteed to lose.

How was Alex Smith past his prime? He was 27 ot 28 when he was traded to Kansas City, pretty much entering the prime years for a QB. Secondly, it wasn't Andy Reid that worked the miracle with Alex Smith, it was Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh took someone who looked like a all-time bust and made Smith a pretty good QB before he was traded to KC. As for McNabb, he was the #2 pick in his draft year. Andy Reid did a great job with him, but it wasn't like McNabb was a unknown UDFA.

Yes, I over-reacted to the up to 6.5 M. I had expected the guaranteed money to be closer to 3.5M to 4 M similar to the ratio of gauranteed to incentives that Rapp got.

I would be extremely happy and very shocked if Shorter gets anywhere close to Gabe Davis production levels. I don't remember hearing anything good out of him in rookie camp, mini-camp, or training camp and that's the time you usually get stories about how players like Isaiah Hodgins, Brandon Riley, and Austin Poehl might be a poor man's Jerry Rice. People rag on Gabe Davis but he was productive in his role as evident, from the contract he got from the Jaguars.

What's wrong with that? I can understand Beasley being somewhat offended when fans say that it's all Allen and essentially, everyone else is a bum.

I don't bet but are you saying Edey will be drafted in the top 15 or he wont be? I am thinking probably early second round but maybe someone will take a flyer on him and pick him late in the first. See if he can develop into a poor man's Jokic. He just seem to be too slow to be any more than a 10 minute a game guy in todays NBA.

So all those "click-bait" journalist were right after all. Its hard to believe a few photos of Allen and Diggs giving each other pats in the back would be enough for people to believe that there weren't major issues in that relationship. I am just surprised that Diggs was professional enough not to go public during season.

No on the Diggs Jersey. Yes on given the locker room issues, it was better to rip off the bandaid earlier than later.

The difference is that the Pats rarely took huge cap hits doing that, at least until recently.

The point is his 2022 season was not great. It was good to very good. The Bills only lost three regular season games that year. Two of his four missed kicks were in games the Bills lost, both by three points or less. This is not the 1980's NFL. He was the 12th best kicker by percentage in 2022. That is good not great. Bass has never been great.

OK. I guess he could be cut without much pain. I would rather go with him than an unknown. At least, we know Bass has been a good kicker in the past.

Those numbers you quoted are good to very good -- not anywhere close to elite; 87.5% in 2021 would have put Bass 13th in FG percentage out of all kickers who hit 20 or more field goals. 87.1% in 2022 would have put Bass 11th in FG% with the same criteria. The Bills only lost 3 games in 2022. Bass missed field goals in two of those games, both of which the Bills lost by 3 or less points. How clutch is that? Tyler Butker has been in the NFL for 7 seasons. 2022 was the only season his field goal percentage was less than Bass's best season. He was over 90% in three out of the other six seasons. I think Butker gets a pass. No one says to get rid of Bass. The Bills can't get rid of him without pain anyway due to his contract. He at least was a good field goal kicker. That is all the Bills need and it's very risky bringing in someone else. Look at how many kickers the Jets have gone through before they seem to have finally found someone acceptable. Before people say you have to take weather conditions into account, this is true, but opponent field goal kickers have had a better FG% each of the last four years. I don't want to leave the impression that I think Bass is a bum, he is not. I just have never understood the impression from Bills fans that he is an elite kicker. He was perfectly adequate until last year. Edit: as pointed out by ColoradoBills below. He can be cut with little cost.

That's strange. The Graham's story was clearly meant to be sympathetic to Allen, not the other way around. Taken out of context I guess.

It was way more than one kick. He was extremely undependable the last half of the season. Even his kick in the opener against the Jets that sent the game to overtime was a boink off the post.

Edey is listed as 300 lbs on the Purdue website. Shaq claimed he was over 400 lbs during the 2002 season. https://www.si.com/nba/2023/10/29/shaquille-oneal-says-he-weighed-over-400-pounds-during-lakers-2002-title-run

I don't understand people expecting anything from Shorter. Didn't he look pretty meh in camp even before he was injured?

I had assumed you were talking about his short game statistics the two or three seasons where he was pretty much last in YAC. No one is arguing that he didn't improve in all facets of his game from 1998 to 2000. Note that 2000 was also the year that he spent pretty much a whole month in lock down where he did nothing but eat and sleep football.

I am not saying Allen is not a elite QB. He 100% is, I feel he is the second best QB in the league. I can't regard Burrows as second best since he misses a third of the games and is hobbling and ineffective for another third. What I don't understand is the concept of (A) Allen being pretty much perfect as he is (which you are not saying), or (B) somehow, if he tries to improve on the things he is not good it, it would kill his game. I guess I don't know what short game statistics you are talking about. To me, statistically elite in the short game would mean getting the ball out quickly and hitting receivers in stride so that they have good YAC. Both of those have never been Allen's strong points and I see very little evidence that it is getting a lot better, except for a game or two here and there. Ok. maybe qualify it a litte, it did look a litte better under Brady though I would need to see more games before we can say anything.

I have to disagree Not that Allen is not a world class quarterback, that this by itself means he definitely must be watching enough film. I agree that he is probably not watching it at Johnny Manziel level. I hate to always go back to the same point, but teams play Kyler Murray uniquely also. Allen's film watching habits were so poor that his friends in the Bills QB room tease him about it and a very friendly interviewer asks him about it, that must have been pretty noticeable indeed. I am not aware that he is statistically elite in the short game. I have not looked at the data but it doesn't seem like it from the eye-test, which of course could be wrong. I agree that he definitely looked better in the short game after Brady came in and there were some games where the short game really looked very good.

OK, then we partially agree then. I just find his explanations, i.e., excuses, for not watching film cringe-worthy. My test is to put the words into the mouth of Kyler Murray and ask how people would respond to that. Kyler Murray watches film too with his coaches etc.., what Murray was not watching was the stuff they told him to review on his own. If it was that noticeable thatthe others QBs in the Bill's QB room were teasing Allen about it and that McAfee heard about it, Allen must have watched very little film indeed. Hopefully with the ex-gf and Diggs drama gone, it will be easier for Allen to focus. I feel that all those QBs working out with their receivers stuff is just for show anyway. Even if Allen had wanted to, chances are Diggs wouldn't have shown up and all you would get is questions about why Diggs wasn't there.