UKBillFan

Sticking to what I said a few minutes ago - think we'll cut him on Tuesday as part of finalising the roster, and try and bury his departure as much as we can.

I expect he'll be cut with the rest on Tuesday, if at all. Firstly, it means it won't get as much focus as if they did it today, tomorrow or Monday as everyone will be declaring their rosters; secondly it gives three days to run further checks and assess the situation as it stands.

I think John Wawrow said yesterday that some teams were aware and others weren't. The Bills were apparently unaware.

No, it wasn't his residence IIRC. Depends what his full defence is, of course, and seemingly other friends of hers were present who he may have thought would look out for her. And this is just one side of what happened; obviously the allegations paint a very different picture.

If it was Araiza who was dishonest and, instead, he had told Beane who hadn't relayed the information to McDermott, of course. Releasing the statement whilst the Bills were playing but McDermott being unaware it was going to happen is another sign of a split between the team and Araiza too IMO. Just feels like a matter of time before he is cut.

On 1, as I understand it, he says his 'choice' was he went to a party, had consensual sex with a girl who was 21, led her to a room to rest when she asked him to do so, then left the house with witnesses agreeing this is the case. Based on his defence, he did not make 'bad' choices. If every 21 year old was imprisoned for doing this there wouldn't be enough room. Of course, there is a counter allegation which says very different from above but a lot of posters seem desperate to believe either the allegations or the defence rather than allowing it to play out.

And, in this case, we could do it arguing impact on business.

I agree. Suspend him, put him on the practice squad, no issue with that. I wouldn't have had an issue if we had released him on Tuesday as a 'footballing' decision (even if it wasn't the reason). Now we've painted ourselves into a corner we need to extract ourselves from, where cutting will imply guilt and keeping him implies innocence.

Not sure if it’s different in the US, but in the U.K. you cannot automatically sack someone on the basis of an allegation. Suspend on full pay, yes, but not sack.

The Bills have helped cause the circus though. If they had cut him on Tuesday - no circus. If they had announced he would not play until this was sorted - no circus. If they hadn’t released that statement claiming they had carried out a thorough investigation - fewer awkward questions asked. Arguably McDermott should have said he would not be addressing the Araiza issue last night and focused on the game. The Bills are adding to the frenzy rather than dousing the fire.

Since when has guilty until proven innocent been a thing?

Which bit is enough to cut him?

Nothing changes from what I said in my edit above. We’re making the decision on the basis of the prosecution alone.

If we do cut, I presume it will be on Tuesday when we name the 53 man squad, so it isn’t separate or stands out from the rest? And then pick up someone on waivers, possibly whoever Tennessee decides to release.

Was this something in the lawsuit? ETA - You mean the telephone call? Don’t think there is anything in there which is bad enough to suggest being cut without hearing the defence first.

Fair point, but I think the Bills chose that by their cut selection on Tuesday.

How’s that a confession of wrongdoing? Surely, if anything, it suggests he thought there was nothing to answer until the Times published their article?

Yep, who gives a damn eh? Guilty before proven innocent and all that. I have to admit, I am all over the place with this. Think my feeling is we should have cut him on ‘experience’ grounds over Haack but, as we stood by him then, we should continue to do so on grounds that he has not yet been charged or found guilty UNLESS something has been revealed which was deliberately kept from us, has been proven to be true, and is detrimental to Araiza’s case. In that case we should cut and move on.

We have a worrying drop off of quality at Tight End after Knox

At this rate Josh will be doing everything.

The post is clearly referring to the potential charge of statutory rape - nothing more than that.

Apologies, didn’t realise he kicked off. Suppose they didn’t want him at risk of getting challenged/injured during a field goal attempt or a punt? If yesterday was a league game I presume he would have punted as the emergency option?

I was wondering that, as he has a record of a 60 yard field goal so can get distance. I assume we either didn’t want to dress him up or have him practice with a different holder to the one he’ll be playing with across the season.

I think there is tension between Beane and McDermott on how to deal with the situation. Beane is of the mind to back the support the internal investigation, back Araiza on the basis of innocent until proven guilty and let him play on on that basis. McDermott believes the internal investigation missed/was unable to pick up some key points and/or one or more people have been holding back information from him, is uncomfortable with the allegations and wants to cut Araiza and move on.

The best solution for the Bills and Araiza himself would be Matt asks to be cut out of respect for the franchise and with the understanding that it does not represent a belief of guilt. The Bills have painted themselves into a corner - if they released him on Tuesday instead of Haack they could have dressed it up as based on experience and, whilst there would have been a debate about once the news leaked, the Bills wouldn’t have had to get involved or stuck to that reason. Instead they cut Haack, release a statement which basically backs Araiza, and then let the weight of the situation fall on top of them. And then we have a situation where there appears to have been information held back from McDermott, either by Araiza, his attorney and/or the front office. McDermott make it clear by refusing to answer the question put to him that he feels lied to by one or more people. Cutting him now is the easy way out but is also too late. It might be the Bills are trying to find out a way of doing so without Araiza or his attorney claiming that he has been tried and found guilty by the Bills, which could either cause problems with the NFL PA or possibly some of the players - something which may have been suggested before, as I haven’t read every page, but what if the dressing room leaders have spoken to Araiza about the situation and back him? It’s a messy situation and shouldn’t have been allowed, from a front office point of view, to get this far. I appreciate supporting those accused as it should always be a case of innocent before proven guilty. But the statement painted them into a corner where they now have little room to manoeuvre.