Shake_My_Head

Yet another exceptionally useful thread. The Bills gameplan seemed like a smart one to me. Rely on long, time-consuming drives to keep the short-handed defense off the field. Just put the game on the back of your best player and minimize exposure to the backup secondary players And it nearly worked if three miscues don't happen (Josh mishandling a snap at the end of the first half, Josh missing McKenzie for a TD on fourth and 1, and McKenzie running out of bounds on the last play, rather than turning up field to gain extra yards). Also, the Bills likely win that game if the temperature was 10 degrees cooler and so many guys don't go down with heat problems. .

This is a particularly useful thread. Thanks, OP.

I'd rather watch cheerleaders playing flag football than NFL players.

Only one team in the AFC is 3-0. And if the Bills can stay healthy, I have no doubt we'll beat them in the next match, at home, evening the head-to-head W-L record. Injuries are the only thing that can derail the Bills against the rest of the AFC, in my opinion. .

49%!! Good thing the Bills don't blitz much. They play the perfect defense to confuse Jackson, flooding the secondary with bodies and taking away his recognition cues, which is the best way to beat him. Hard to believe the Great Belichick wouldn't see that as well--when you give Lamar a mismatch (by blitzing and leaving holes in the defensive backfield), it makes it easier, not tougher, on him to find a receiver. His movement skills can usually extend the play and avoid the blitz (just like Josh) and then it's just easy pickings for him... .

Pound salt...

Yes. It's why I gave up my tix.

No problem. Josh is so good he'll just throw the ball to himself.

I used to get hyped up, reading every article and MB post leading up to the game. It was an emotional rollercoaster and it'd take me days to recover from a loss. Now, I avoid all the articles and buildup and turn the game on five minutes before kickoff. I'm still emotionally vested, but it seems like I can manage the ups and downs better (I'm talking 'normal' games, not the 13-second variety that take years off of your life).

Personally, I'll wait to hear what Rosie Ruiz has to say.

OJ Bruce Thurman

https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/vikings-training-camp-recap-day-7-zach-davidson-patrick-peterson-greg-joseph Zach Davidson's busy day With no Smith, the top tight ends on the Vikings' depth chart are former L.A. Ram Johnny Mundt and 2021 fifth-round pick Zach Davidson, who spent all of last year on the practice squad. Mundt had a few opportunities on Wednesday, but it was Davidson who benefited most from Smith's absence. The Central Missouri product was all over the place, catching a ton of passes with both the first and second-team offense. It was a good day for Davidson, though not a perfect one. In red zone 7-on-7 action, he ran a beautiful route against Harrison Smith and caught a touchdown pass from Kellen Mond. A couple plays later, though, he had a Mond pass deflect off of his hands and into the arms of Patrick Peterson for an interception. Davidson stayed involved during full-team action. Kirk Cousins looked his way often, hitting him on a number of short throws. After one third-down conversion, Cousins yelled "That's a first down! Hell yeah Zach!" Davidson was also targeted a couple times on the second team's 1-minute drill, catching the first one but failing to come up with a contested grab on fourth down. "I think with Zach, it’s really exciting because I see a lot of ability in him, so you see a high ceiling and a desire to work and get better," Cousins said. "So it’s exciting to work with a guy like that, where you see all this potential down the road, similar to how I felt about Tyler Conklin three or four years ago. You want to see that development happen, and it’s going to." https://heavy.com/sports/minnesota-vikings/zach-davidson-kirk-cousins-nfl-news/ Gigantic TE on the Verge of Breaking Vikings Speed Record Asmall-school prospect coming out of Central Missouri a year ago, Minnesota Vikings tight end Zach Davidson had his work cut out for him. “Raw as sushi,” The Athletic’s Dane Brugler wrote in his pre-draft assessment of Davidson, projecting him to be a “draft-and-stash” player after switching from punter to tight end his sophomore year of college. Davidson just breaking the surface as a route runner, but looking past the 24-year-old’s lanky 6-foot-7 frame is a lethal speed that helped make him the first of only three Division II prospects selected in the 2021 draft. Entering his second NFL training camp, Davidson has been tasked with taking on more first-team reps with Irv Smith Jr. out the remainder of training camp after suffering a thumb injury. Davidson has had his ups and downs, but he’s on the verge of a milestone few of his teammates have achieved. In an August 3 press conference, Kirk Cousins addressed Minnesota’s tight end depth that will need to step up in the absence of Smith. Davidson, whose height ranks in the 93rd percentile and 4.64 40-time ranks 80th among NFL tight ends, per Mockdraftable.com, has a unique size and speed combination at the position — qualities that Cousins sees potential in. The Vikings have trackers on player jerseys that measure their top-end speed. Cousins, who just breached 19 miles per hour last season against the Arizona Cardinals, acknowledged he’ll reach the 21 miles per hour threshold that many of the team’s fastest players are chasing. “You can’t teach 6-foot-7, and talking about his speed… We have a t-shirt we give out in the building if you get to 21 miles per hour, I’m never going to see 21 miles per hour but the fastest guys on the team are going 21. It’s an elite group and Zach’s one of those guys who’s at 20.9, so whenever Zach gets a vertical route I know he’s going to be flying because he wants that tracker at the end of practice to say 21,” Cousins said. “One of these days we’re going to get him his t-shirt but… he’s got a lot of down-the-field speed and his height, that combination, it gives you a lot of potential as a player.” The fastest Vikings player on the roster is currently second-year running back Kene Nwangwu, who clocked an unofficial 4.29 40-time at his pro day, however, Davidson, could be the tallest player to reach that milestone, potentially if he can do so with the ample adrenaline of in-game reps this season.

While it may be swapping a dollar for a buck, Van Demark's 9.44 RAS score (versus 4.93 for Tenuta) and high IQ (honor roll guy, team captain) are intriguing. His biggest problems appear to be his lack of weight (he was a 230-pound TE in high school and is still bulking up (much like Spencer Brown) and the fact he had such poor coaching at UConn. He seems like the perfect kind of PS developmental OT and I'd suspect he'd be an upgrade over Tenuta who just couldn't move from what I saw in pre-season games. Van Demark's arms are ~3" longer as well (35.5" vs 32.875"). Van Demark looks like a poor man's Spencer Brown:

Van Demark's from New Jersey. Sarcasm is hard in the NFL.

I like it. Anybody that went to The Hun School has to be tough... https://www.nfl.com/prospects/ryan-van-demark/32005641-4e35-8786-8134-e52f551c2fe2 https://www.si.com/nfl/draft/scouting-reports/ryanvandemark-on-location Rated #230 overall in '22 draft by Dane Brugler (The Athletic) [Tenuta was raked #208] 230. Ryan Van Demark, OT, Connecticut (6-7, 307) Van Demark doesn’t labor in his pass slides and uses tight, independent hands to answer pass-rush moves and reset on the move. Though he achieves proper depth in his pass sets, his lower-body bend needs work to better anchor as a pass blocker or roll into contact in the run game. Overall, Van Demark must continue to develop his core strength and pad level concerns, but he has the quickness, handwork and intelligence to earn an NFL roster spot as a swing tackle.

Boom! There are Mancz and Austin. Very quite signings for those two.

So, pretty much everyone the Bills cut passed through waivers and is eligble to resign. Interesting...

https://www.google.com/search?q=offset+language+in+the+contract&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS838US838&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 "Offset language relates to what happens to a player's salary if he's cut during the first four years of his career, while he's still playing on his rookie deal." As a FA, I belive that is off the table. .

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/08/29/broncos-cut-punter-sam-martin-after-he-refuses-pay-cut/

Cross Grand Island's Brett Kern off Bills' punter search, dad says https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/cross-grand-islands-brett-kern-off-bills-punter-search-dad-says/article_72877d24-2933-11ed-a413-ffb9fd836875.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Marquez Stevenson, even if he's IR'd, is a real head scrather to me. IMO, he's not even up to Duke Williams standards. Poor ball tracking, inconsistent hands, doesn't play as fast as he times and can't stay healthy. Welp! I can't come up with anything positive to offset those warts. I'm not ranting because I was a Hodgins fanboy or anything like that. I just don't see him as worthy of even a PS slot....

Nah. Analytics says that punters are passe. We need to have Bass practice dropkicking it.

With all due respect, why anyone still responds to these long-time trolls is beyond me. The sound of silence is the best response, IMO.

I read the Minneapolis Star Tribune every day because my daughter lives there now. Harry has played well in the Vike's TC, although he missed some time with (another) leg injury. They like his veteran leadership, which is probably his greatest strength, as we all saw here. They're playing him at NT in a 3-4 scheme, which frankly seems like a poor fit to me, given his lack of bulk and injury history. I wish him the best of luck but have the nagging sense he won't make it through the season without another leg injury.