Beck Water

Actually, Martin got the investigation started by leaving the team. Martin sat down at the OL table for lunch, and the entire OL got up and left the table, leaving him alone. Martin responded by throwing down his tray and leaving the building and staying away. Since Martin was a high 2nd round pick of whom much was expected, that, not unnaturally, had Dolphins brass, Martin's large and successful family, and everyone else wondering "just what's up with that?" And we were off.

Ever hear the phrase "Go along to Get Along"? There's a hierarchy in every workplace. There's also a workplace culture. Take a culture where toxic, verbally and sometimes physically abusive behavior is openly tolerated or even encouraged by management (which, the Wells report concluded, was the case with the Dolphins). Now take someone like an assistant trainer who is near the bottom of the hierarchy, trying to make a living and easily replaced. Of course they're going to either stone-face or laugh off treatment by the Big Shots, the star players. Doesn't mean they don't experience it as humiliating and inappropriate Does mean that if they "read the room" and see management as condoning or even encouraging that kind of behavior, they're not gonna bother reporting it.

One little caveat: I don't agree that being dangerous, per se, means you can not be good. But that really depends upon one's definition of dangerous. I think you are using "dangerous" as a synonym for "violent and unpredictable", and I would agree that "violent and unpredictable" is implausible to coexist with Good. The thing is, the Wells report made clear that this kind of language (and perhaps intimidating physical behavior) was proven to be used against a lowly and physically smaller and weaker assistant trainer (who was working for peanuts relative to the players) and against an unnamed, but possibly way lower on the totem pole offensive lineman (possibly a practice squad guy) who may have an opinion on that. That's CLEARLY bullying behavior. And that's just the behavior the Wells report was able to document. And it wasn't new. Incognito had a history of this kind of stuff stretching back into college at least: Again, Wood can stick up for his poor, wronged "brother" with his "ruined" reputation if he wants to, but the fact is that Incognito had a pattern of bullying behavior and out-of-control behavior that stretched way back prior to the Dolphins, and that was protected by the "culture (that) you don't run and cry to the coaches". Mango is 100% spot on that Incognito ruined Incognito's reputation, and that he stinks as a human being. It's a fact that Incognito had career earnings of $15M prior to being suspended by the Dolphins.  He finished his career with $32M of career earnings - so he MORE THAN DOUBLED his career earnings after having his "reputation ruined". Boo Hoo. Some ruin.

Yes. IMHO, the most damning stuff in the Wells report didn't have to do with how Incognito interacted with Martin or other players. It had to do with how Incognito and his teammates, huge powerful athletes, treated the working guys in the building. From a summary: "We find that the Assistant Trainer repeatedly was targeted with racial slurs and other racially derogatory language." Here you have supposedly grown-ass men, bullying an assistant trainer who is paid peanuts compared to them and is physically smaller and weaker. Martin and his mental problems aside, Incognito was scum. See above. The Incognito that Wood knew had his fangs pulled. He wasn't given a leadership role and allowed to treat people like that in Buffalo. But Wood also pretty strongly implied that the reason Incognito was asked to take a paycut (that touched off his whole bizarroworld downhill slide) was that he wasn't playing up to standard his last year in Buffalo. I believe Incognito even later admitted that he was back to substance abuse and showing up at work drunk/high (Edit: I mean his last year with the Bills) Wood can excuse that out of "brotherly love" if he wants. It's not "good person" behavior to me.

I dunno what part the agent plays in this. I think it's pretty clear players do things all the time without their agents' direction, and sometimes that their agents do damage control for. I wasn't paying attention during Dalvin Cook's contract negotiations 'cuz, not my guy, not my team, but both Cooks do have the same agency. At the time Cook said about the toe injury, "It's getting better. Just improving every day," Cook said after Saturday's practice. "Trying to get it back stronger, and go out there and help the team, like I said, I'm just taking it day by day, treatment, see what, how I feel on Monday." That sounds entirely like a guy who plans to play but knows he might not be able to. He and his agent both know it's a national game, all players like to excel on a national stage. Puffing that into "I could tell what he was all about" as a player or as a negotiator seems like a stretch. The bottom line is, the Bills don't have to negotiate with Cook at all. He's under contract to them for another year. He plays for us or for no one. Um, no. No, he's not the best weapon on offense. That was, is, and remains, Allen. Who by the way, is grossly under-paid by today's market. I want to see Allen keep his playmakers and add to them, sure. But I want to see a better defense on the opposite side of the field, as well. It's not about "protecting billionaires money", it's about a finite salary cap, and about how once you pay one guy substantially over market value, the rest of the team watches and says "where's mine?"

I would actually assume they have not had their contract talk because Beane has historically made it clear that he handles FA, then the draft, then extensions. The agent may have called and said "my guy wants an extension this off season, let's talk" and Beane said "absolutely, I'm open to talking". I'm with you on the snap %. I posted about that previously, where I don't get what arguments Cook and his agents have for making him the 2nd highest paid RB in the league in AAV. The top RBs in the league last year carry a heavier workload (Henry, Barkley, Robinson, Taylor, Jacobs) - all over 300 snaps to Cook's 200 snaps. , He doesn't have the pass-catching chops of McCaffrey or Kamara - in fact, he saw his pass targets drop considerably in part because he had hella drops in 2023. He's a fine player. But Barkley had 14 games where he gained more than 100 yds last season, including 2 in the playoffs. He had 2 200 yd games, including one in the playoffs! Henry had 10 games where he gained more than 100 yards, including 186 yds in the playoffs. The 49ers aren't getting their ROI overall from McCaffrey, but when he's healthy, like in 2023 he gained >2000 yds from scrimmage. Cook hasn't shown he can carry that kind of workload and give that kind of gameday impact to a team. He had 5 games >100 yds and 2 games >80 and no games with more than 30 yds receiving. He's a fine back and he had a monster game in the playoffs vs. Denver. Give him his propers. But don't give him $15M a year.

Yes, that's what you typed previously. I assume you're talking about the Week 6 Jets game, where Cook DNP Weds and Thurs and was limited on Fri with the dreaded "turf toe" injury. I have no idea how that lets you know "what he was all about", do you care to explain?

?? huh ??

I've certainly been vocal about our D not being good enough this season. But it's not uncommon for the margin of error to be small when you're playing the best teams, because...they're the best teams.

@Alphadawg7, regarding the refs, I'm just gonna quote James Cook on that" Yes, the refs flipped the game with those calls. It's gonna happen though. If the Bills want to win, they have to leave no doubt. I don't think you can say Josh shifted the protection to the wrong side. There were looks on film and a play earlier in the game where the KC D showed that R side overlook and then blitzed off the left. So the Bills saw the same look and shifted the protection the same way. It was a great play design by Spags. Whether there were some subtle "tells" that Tom Brady would have picked up, telling him this play was different, can't tell you, but the point is, Josh didn't shift the protections to slide left for no good reasons. But again - the defense gets paid too, and in the biggest games, you're typically facing the best. So broken plays will happen, and if the margin of error is small, wins depend on having that clutch guy.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. I don't think the Chiefs would have worried a bit about Duke Williams, and I don't think he'd have managed to haul in the TD pass that made it 34-0. I don't think the Chiefs would have worried a bit about some JAG substitute for AJ Brown, either. I used the term "receivers" not "wide receivers" advisedly. I'm referring to Dalton Kincaid and Keon Coleman. Don't get me wrong, I haven't given up - they've both shown flashes - but they have GOT to take a big step next year for us to have what we need, both of them.

That's very true, but Mostert is 32. His breakout year with SFO was his 5th year in the league. The Bills could likely pay Cook on a 4 year contract and he would still be within his shelf life at the end. That said, as I posted elsewhere - Cook didn't carry the load in rush attempts that the rush leaders in the NFL did - Henry, Barkley, Robinson, Taylor, Gibbs, Jacobs, Kyren Williams. Of those 7, only Gibbs had fewer than 300 rush attempts while Cook had 207. He was 5th in Y/A, but he hasn't shown he can carry the load that those other top backs carry. And he doesn't make up for it in contributions to the pass game - the Bills cut his workload in the passing game in favor of Ray Davis and Ty Johnson. So it's very unclear to me what exactly are Cook's agents' arguments to pay him more than any RB but Christian McCaffery, who is a one-man wrecking crew when he's healthy.

A counterpoint is that while Cook's contributions have been solid for an RB as a receiver (84% catch rate, 8 Y/R), his use in the passing game really dropped off last year in favor of Ty Johnson and Ray Davis. He had 54 targets last season, 38 this past season - with 44 targets going to Ty Johnson and Ray Davis. This probably reflects Cook having a drop % of 9.4 his rookie year and 11.1% this past year. The Bills seemed like they took some of the routes they were using Cook on in 2022 and 2023 out of his playbook and gave them to Ty Johnson and Ray Davis. Cook is not built to be the physical beast that Henry and Barkley are. He isn't carrying the rush attempt load that they, or Josh Jacobs or Jonathan Taylor are. In fact, he literally has only 2/3 of the rush attempts those guys do - they're all >300 rush attempts to Cook's 207. And it's not clear he'd physically hold up to that kind of workload. So he's not carrying the rush attempt workload of the top backs, he's not adding in the passing contribution that other RBs make. I think the Bills are open to paying him, but I'm honestly puzzled in his "$15M a year" unless it's all bluster.

The quiet part of this is: WR in general is a position that tends to Diva a bit. Not sure why, maybe the guys on here who have played at least in college at WR or CB can give some insight. Maybe because the WR and CB are often alone 1 on 1 with all eyes on them, so they're positions where guys have to have a lot of self-confidence and a short memory for bad plays? Maybe because they're getting punished hard on almost every play hitting or being hit? So when you pay a WR top $$, his inner Diva seems to blossom, and he seems to feel he's "The Man", the Star, and he should get the ball whenever there's a possibility he's open. I don't think the Bills should go out and pay a guy $30M. But I do think the Bills need better WR than they had this year.

So just for giggles I decided to look at the Iggles and the Chiffs. Iggles 1069 run + pass plays. 621 rush plays or 58% rush plays. Of their 42% or 448 pass plays, 261 targeted WR thus 58% of their pass plays targeted WR (so less overall plays targeting WR than the Bills 295, but a higher % since they had fewer pass plays) Overall, 24% of their offensive plays targeted a WR Chiffs 1050 run plus pass plays. 450 rush plays or 43% rush plays. Of their 57% or 600 pass plays, 283 targeted WR thus 47% of their pass plays targeted WR. Overall, 27% of their offensive plays targeted a WR Yes.

I'm late to the show here so need to catch up on what point is trying to be supported with the various stats? Correct on the WR target pass plays. Bills had 520 passing attempts, so that would be 295/520 or 57% of their pass plays targeting a WR The Bills are listed in pro.football.reference as having 1025 plays: the sum of their pass attempts and rush attempts is 1011. That makes them 49% rush, 51% pass. Overall 29% of the Bills offensive plays targeted a WR. Close - see above, 29%. I expect the Bills might have liked to have more pass plays targeting a WR, but their WR weren't up to the job, which is why we saw Ty Johnson getting critical targets in critical games.

Monos and Dunne are buddies and Dunne got his "Go Long" start by dredging up Monos and Doug Whaley for "dirt" on the Bills organization and critique about how they would do it differently. Well buddies, you had your chance and right now Beane and his crew are exceeding anything you ever did, so a lot of what Monos says kind of looks like sour grapes and "armchair QBing". My opinion. It isn't in question that Beane and the Bills have gotten poor ROI for their 1st and 2nd round picks. Beane has had 13 1st round picks. Out of that, he's had 1 Superstar (Allen), 2 pro-bowlers (Tremaine Edmunds and Cook), 4 decent to good football players (Oliver, Epenesa, Rousseau, and Torrence), 4 duds (Ford, Basham, Elam), and 3 guys who have shown flashes, but the jury is still out on whether they'll make it (Kincaid, Bishop, Coleman). When we throw in that in two of those cases, the Bills traded a 4th round pick to move up a few slots in the 1st, thus giving them fewer shots on goal in the draft, the ROI looks worse. I'll be somewhat contrarian and say, that isn't the real problem with the Bills Rd 1-3 draft picks. The real problem has been that even with the players who eventually become good players or pro-bowlers, it seems to take them 3 years to really contribute. It's kind of canonical that teams should expect immediate production from their Day 1 and Day 2 picks, and many teams get this, but this has been relatively rare for the Bills. AJ Epenesa took 3 years to really start looking like he could play football. Rousseau and Cook took 2. Beane does have a pattern of going for high ceiling/low floor guys who are gonna take longer to develop and who have a higher probability of just busting. That begs the question: what is the hit rate and how quickly do players develop for other GMs around the league? If you go look at the Eagles over the same time period, what do you see? They moved on from their 2019 1st round tackle Andre Dillard after 3 years. Jalen Reagor after 2. So that's at least 2 duds. Cam Jurgens is playing now but took 3 years to come on. Nolan Smith and Jalen Carter are playing now but took 2 years to come on. It kind of looks like a better hit rate, but there's also the fact that 3 of those years, the Eagles were drafting considerably higher at 10, 13, and 9, so it could just be the price of consistent success for the Bills. But drafting at pick 22 last season, the Eagles did bring in 2 players who were starters and strong contributors on their defense. So yeah, overall, if the Bills are to take a step, Beane has to do better in the draft.

Really good post, but you gotta fix that typo Other than that, I gotta point out that clutch WR play did seem to play a key role in winning that Superbowl for Davonta Smith - who was able to make some of those key receptions because the Chiefs were busy trying to smother AJ Brown. I think your assessment means it's even more critical to identify WR talent that can contribute immediately in the draft - and so far the Bills are 0 for 2 in getting immediate contributions from their 1st and 2nd round receiver picks.

Ciano isn't the strength coach, though, right? I gotta say there's less info on the staff to be found on the Buffalo Bills webpage than there used to be, unless I am missing something.

Just want to interject that until Cook broke 1000 yds in 2023, the Bills had not had a 1000+ yd rusher since Shady McCoy in 2017 - despite using 2 3rd round, 1 2nd round, and 1 4th round pick at RB. So it might not be that easy. Now of course, one can point to confounding factors and say that 2nd half of last year and this year, we built the scheme and the OL to be more run-friendly, with 50+ more rush attempts over the season. And there would be some truth to that. But neither of the RBs we moved on from (Moss, Singletary) lit it up with new teams, either. I'm not saying Cook should get $15M a year but I think it's possible it's a bit harder to draft a Cook-level guy than you might thing. I'm personally not in favor of moving on from any of the good players on offense, because we need more playmakers there, not less.

Did NOT see that coming. Thought the Bills S&C were highly regarded. The Bills were keeping some guys on the roster instead of IRing them, who wound up missing 4 or more games. Wonder if that had something to do with it? If they bring in someone better I have no problem with it. Where did you read this? Please share!

You can edit the title, dude. Just edit your OP post, and it makes the title editable for you.

Even better hilarity - Geno Smith Semi-seriously, I don't see the ingredients that allowed Darnold to be successful with the Vikings as present with the Jets: 1) good run game with Aaron Jones 2) decent OL in pass protect and run game 3) top-notch WR talent with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and TJ Hockinson

But there's a reason Brady never saw that much pressure. He was the master of making his reads quickly, moving subtly in the pocket to find himself space, and getting the ball out quickly, accurately, and in rhythm to guys like Welker and Pedelman or Gronkowski, who made YAC for him.

Gaaaah! No! One of Elam's flaws is his unwillingness to lay himself out and thump in tackling. It's one reason why he's inactive, instead of playing teams. That's the very essence of what the Bills need from a safety, and Elam is missing it.