Beck Water

I would take Jaylen Warren and George Pickens on the Bills in a heartbeat. Pat Freiremuth. Deontae Johnson is solid.

Why do you think Bills corporate had to know about an article an Independent self-employed journalist who is not credentialed by the Bills and is not working inside the Bills facilities has written?

That’s not too far from where I am. One philosophy is the Rooney family, “hire good people and give them time to figure it out”. There are plenty of examples of teams which have pulled the plug on a coach who was “good but not good enough” and spent seasons regretting it - Denver with Kubiak/Phillips; Philly with Reid etc. Sometimes teams move on for a “hot young name” who sometimes turns out to be “not all that”. On the other hand, especially this season the questionable game management decisions and just general mistakes (12 men on field, etc) have mounted up. If you ask me “do’s I think the Buffalo Bills can win a Super Bowl with Sean McDermott?” Before the end of last season I would have said “yes”, before this article I would have said “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”. I do think that Pegula does not like to be publicly embarrassed and this will not go over well with him.

I don’t think he made stuff up. See post upthread about editing a battle scene filmed from a zillion angles. You can accurately report what is told to you by sources, but the context of who the sources are and whether some of the stories were corroborated (and what stories were used vs omitted) matters.

The Steelers really should upgrade their OL and OC, and see what they have in Pickett. Trubisky seems to be done, stick a fork in him. OK, he threw a nice block on Peppers there. But Hayward would have got more yards if he didn’t have to dig for that.

Yeah, that part.....SMH

You mean, hung him out to dry with the play call Wallace acknowledged he didn't execute correctly? You kind of can't have it both ways here, Freddie.

I actually think it got more attention now. The Bills kind of looked as though they got it together and might be turning it around - thumped the Jets solidly, played last year's NFC Champions very very tough into OT. So they're back in the news as a team "In the Hunt". I don't think the intention is to "hit a man when he's down", I think the intention is to generate views and subscribers and make money.

I mean, he was 30 after 2021, and his "mental disposition of a child" went on to play for a winning team that went to the Superbowl

I can't keep up. I thought our complaint was that McDermott WOULDN'T hang anyone out to dry but just said bland general things about execution.

I don't necessarily struggle with unnamed sources - journalists have to protect their sources at times. Organizations that hold a high standard and require two independent sources to corroborate info before publication, I'm fine with that. I struggle with Ty Dunne's unnamed sources, because his current business model requires him to obtain subscribers to his own work, which intrinsically requires that he generate controversy and bring in views. And I say that as someone who liked Ty Dunne's writing for TBN and BR. In that context, I kind of feel as though 25 unnamed sources are ....I can't think of the name of the film, one of the sub-plots is a historical re-enactment group that's contracted to stage a battle for a film producer, the producer wants them to be totally inaccurate and the re-enactors revolt against him and do the historically accurate battle. Afterwards the producer smiles at the leader and says "we have so many camera angles on that, we can make Any Thing We Want out of it."

Quinton Spain. He went to Cincinnati and played 100% of their postseason snaps in 2021 so, there's that. I would have to agree.

Thanks for the warning. We all know I'm a stats geek and I like analytics - to a point. But there's a place for eyeballs and there's always a need for context around stats.

Oh wait, not "top 5". We have a "god given gift" at QB. I think we need to expect above average with that. Actually, Peter, I have receipts defending Dorsey and pointing to stats on how good the offense was last year under him (overall). But I think you want to re-visit what "non-biased metric" means and the exact definition of a number of the metrics you cite. Let's review: DVOA has its believers, but let's look at what Football Outsiders has to say about it: That's inherently and by design a biased metric. Similarly for EPA/play. "Biased" doesn't mean "bad" in this context; it just means it's not entirely objective - again, by design, for a purpose. "QBR" as a metric has been discussed extensively here and elsewhere. It's not well regarded. Red zone efficiency - I'm actually not sure what stat you're talking about here. If you mean red zone scoring (TD only) after 10 games last season Bills were towards the bottom of the league. Later in the season they improved, but still not great. yds/play and 3rd down conversion % would be examples of actual non-biased metrics, and yes, they're important, but they need context. For example, in the Jax game, the Bills had a decent 3rd down conversion % of 42%. BUT, we only had the ball for 22 minutes vs. 38 for our opponent. We had a pretty strong yards/play, but owing to turnovers and getting a low number of 1st downs overall, it wasn't a good offensive showing at all. Hope this helps!

I'm having trouble parsing that - do you mean "info that came out was true and all happened"? I believe it probably happened, but I also think as you allude there are probably a bunch of positive things that didn't make it into the article. Like I said, Dunne makes his living by publishing controversial takes. A nuanced or balanced take wouldn't gain him subscriptions. I think in this case, it may not have had as good a result since it's gotten so much media airplay that people will roll with that and not go subscribe.

Jaguars: Bills scored 7 points in the first 3Q. Giants: Bills scoreless for first 3Q. Scoreless. Against the #26 defense in the NFL NE: 3 points in 1st half, 10 points in first 3Q - against a 2-5 team Tampa: 24 points in first 3Q against #10 D. Looked good. Bengals: 7 points in 1st half, whole team looked horrid Denver: 8 points in 1st half. I don't think we need a bunch of FrankenStats to tell us that the Offense looked disjointed and often ineffective until far too late in the game for a 6 week stretch.

Now That's Funny. Here, let me embed it

I will say this. Pegula has shown in the past that he is sensitive to embarrassment. As a pretty level headed, source-verifying journalist said of the infamous "I was not privy" press conference: prior to that presser, Whaley had a future with the organization. After it, he didn't.

If you'll excuse my saying, your summation is consistent in accuracy and perception with many of your other takes on this board. That is to say, not very. Do with that as you will.

You are correct and I've commented on this several times upthread. The league can, and has, but they usually let the legal process play out and complete their own investigation first - all of which takes time. In the Zeke Elliot case you cite, the league "sat on it"/investigated for more than a year before issuing a suspension. The league has never swept in (that I can think of) and suspended a player at the 'accusations' stage.

Below average, factually.

That's how Ty Dunne makes his living now. Throw someone under the bus, generate clicks and views and hopefully, subscriptions.

Right, bright eyes. You're the prosecutor. The alleged victim is now saying it's all overblown, it's all a mistake, and no one was assaulted. How do you prove that the 911 call is the truth, and what she's saying now is cap? How do you prove that her injuries were, in fact, caused by Von Miller - who was not at the scene when police arrived? The girlfriend's pocket recorded audio. You bring your experts in voice analysis, Von Miller will bring his. Guess who can buy better experts? The point isn't that there was not evidence leading to a judge to decide there was probable cause to issue an arrest warrant. There was, as you note. The point is that in the absence of a victim who is willing to testify, or who now testifies that nothing happened and she was exaggerating on the 911 call (because she became frightened during a consensual BDSM-type scene, say) - what exactly are the facts? What is subject to proof? It's not so simple to sort from a legal basis. Quite possibly. Also quite possibly, she's enmeshed in the typical DV cycle and currently in the "remorse"/pursuit phase.

Back in the days when Ty Dunne was writing for TBN, I loved his work. During his 4 years at Bleacher Report, I frequently enjoyed it. Then, I got to hand it to him for nerve and verve - he decided to go out on his own to support himself by pulling in paid subscribers to an independent long-story 'blog' format, right at the time when bloggers and subscription newsletters seemed to be dying in favor of social media content by advert-supported 'influencers'. But since then - I haven't admired a lot of content he put out. I don't feel that he holds himself to a high standard for verifying sources. He started out relying on disgruntled former Bills FO guys Jim Monos and Doug Whaley, who no one else in the NFL have wanted to hire. He needs to draw in subscribers to make a living, and the way to do that is to generate controversy. If you want to believe his shows, Isaiah McKenzie gets open all the time against zone and Josh Allen just inexplicably refused to throw him the football last season. I don't know who this "former assistant coach" Dunne quotes might be and whether he has an 'ax to grind' on the way out the door. I do know that in the 6 games prior to him being 'relieved of his duties', the Ken Dorsey offense spearheaded by the "gift from the Football Gods", Josh Allen, was averaging 20.6 ppg (a point BELOW league average 21.7 ppg) - this without any major injuries to key offensive personnel - and had given up 13 turnovers (more than 2 TO per game). In the same time period and despite all the turnovers, the injury-depleted defense, missing starters to season-ending IR at 2ndary, LB, and DL and down to the 3rd string at DB and LB on a game to game basis, has held opponents to 21.5 (slightly better than league average). So call me Cray-Cray, but from my seat in a comfy chair, I kind of feel like where we are is the result of the offense not living up to what a "gift from the Football Gods"-led offense should be able to generate. Do with this info what you will. PS I'm pretty sure Sean McDermott has an ego. I don't think anyone becomes a head football coach without having an ego. But for the successful coaches, that's typically tempered by a good leaven of humility and willingness to listen and hear. If McD is such an accountability-free egomaniac - well, it's harder to sustain winning year to year in this league than not. It was said that Daboll wasn't happy working with McDermott. Well, Daboll had a great first year with the Giants but the wheels have fallen off this season and Daboll has been seen screaming in Wink Martindale's face on the sidelines. Do with this info what you will, also.

There's the boilerplate "conduct detrimental to the team" clause. Look, here's the thing. One side of the story is exactly as you say. That's out in the media. [I am personally inclined to believe it because this isn't my first rodeo with seeing this pattern, but my personal beliefs aren't the issue here. No job actions should be based on personal beliefs] The other side of the story is, Miller wasn't there when the police arrived and the girlfriend allegedly now states it's all a big misunderstanding and no one was assaulted etc. So how does one prove that 1) assault occurred, rather than something consensual that maybe went a step far and frightened the woman (or some other exculpatory scenario 2) Miller was the assailant? There is evidence to collect and assemble that might paint a convincing picture supporting one or the other side. From the CBA/NFLPA point of view, that hasn't happened yet, and, as you point out, "anybody can make up anything". Being proven in a court of law to choke your pregnant girlfriend is cause for suspension by the league. But that isn't where we are right now, and from past League and legal timelines for this sort of thing, not likely to be there soon.