Sierra Foothills

BillsVet, with all due respect PFT is a blog and they don't oversell themselves. As poor as the writing is (and it's terrible), Florio does have a lot of sources and gets things like contract details and internal NFL memos very quickly. In that regard he is fairly journalistic. He does have an annoying habit of stirring up shyt but that's the nature of the biz... provoking comments and traffic. For what they are PFT is good... a one-stop shop/central clearing house for all NFL news. And occasionally they break a big story so that's an added bonus. Wasn't Zolak a character on the original Star Trek? No one came out of that video looking good. Missed tackles, dropped INT...

There's no question an argument could be made for taking a different position at pick 27 BUT OT is a sneaky need and a great value as it's one of the premium positions. For the sake of discussion they draft Wright. Now he competes with Brown... the position will probably be improved over last year regardless of who wins. The loser of the competition is now our swing tackle. Getting reps at LOT is never a bad thing especially with possible injuries and Dawkins' possible departure after 2024. OR, the loser cross trains at guard. There's a possibility that the loser of Wright vs Brown will be a better guard than anyone else we have. Regardless of how the puzzle pieces fall, the idea of Josh Allen having an excellent O-line is one almost probably scenario of drafting Wright.

Yes, don't watch highlights. They tell you nothing. Watch condensed games or stuff like Tennessee OL vs Alabama Defense and other various breakdowns: Hey! Take off the wire-rimmed glasses and step away from the lectern... or take it to the Arts, Music and Literature forum. I come here to breathe from my mouth and groom my knuckle hairs (by scraping them on the ground). And before that he was destroying opponents on the kick coverage team.

A source told NYUP and Syracuse.com that Buffalo will be hosting Tennessee Volunteers offensive tackle Darnell Wright on a top-30 visit. Wright is considered one of the best tackle prospects in this year’s draft... Wright recently had his pro day at Tennessee and the Bills were in attendance to get an up close look at the prospect. In terms of his athletic traits, Wright has been compared to future Hall of Fame tackle and former Bills tackle Jason Peters. In his career at Tennessee, Wright played in 47 games and recorded 42 starts while recording over 2,700 total offensive snaps. He made 27 starts at right tackle, two starts at right guard and 13 starts at left tackle. In his final 19 games with the Volunteers, Wright went without allowing a sack. Wright earned unanimous first-team All-SEC honors as selected by the Associated Press and coaches this season and continued to raise his stock at the Reese’s Senior Bowl where he was named the American team’s OL Practice Player-of-Week. The award was voted on by his peers on the American defensive line and linebacker groups. “Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson, a likely top-five pick, says that Tennessee’s Darnell Wright is the best OT he faced in college.” Is he out of reach? It seems with these credentials the Bills would have to trade up to get him.

We drafted him in the 2nd round LAST YEAR and he's already fallen to #4 on the depth chart??????

If I didn't know you better I'd swear you were calling me Gaelic.

Homophones are inevitable... not that there's anything wrong with that.

One thing that comes to mind when watching these videos is that I often times find myself seeing things differently than the person creating the video content... and often times disagreeing with them when they're singing the praises of the player. For instance, getting movement on a defender who's already engaged in a double team is not showing great strength at the point of attack. So much of this stuff is subjective... who's he blocking? Which way was the player leaning? Which players are nursing injuries? And so on and so forth. Just watching the first 5 minutes of the first video you can see Harrison seems to have good enough feet to play tackle but it also looks like needs to get a lot stronger both upper and lower body. It also appears that he plays high and bends at the waist and lunges too much and doesn't drop his hips. These are all common flaws at this level and I'm not saying he won't be an excellent player, but rather that he has a lot of improving to do.

I don't have a pitchfork... can I go with you guys if I bring a garden spade or a good sturdy rake?

Spector is slow? You sure about that?

What is McBeane's track record regarding compensatory picks?

My gut feeling is that Hamlin will not play for the Bills again. Thanks to both you guys for consistently raising the level of discussion and adding value with every post. There's a few others who do the same and it's those good posters that make wading through all the detritus worth it.

By the way, why does everyone just assume that play calling duties decrease the effectiveness of a Head Coach in the area of game management? Couldn't it be just as easily argued that the focus required for play calling (down, distance, time remaining, etc) would make a Head Coach better at game management? As long as he has someone in his ear helping with times out, replay challenges, etc it shouldn't be a problem. Also it's often been stated that play calling for offense is more difficult that play calling for defense... the offensive play calls are much longer.

McDermott's mentor was the late Jim Johnson. From Wiki: "Johnson was a defensive coordinator for nine seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Widely regarded as one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, he was especially known for being a master architect of blitzes, disguising them skillfully and keeping offenses off balance." Johnson on his coaching philosophy: "It was around 1994 or 1995, when I was with the Colts, and we were playing against San Francisco with Steve Young running the West Coast offense, releasing receivers all the time, guys getting by you. The idea was don't let these people dictate to you. You have to put more pressure [on the quarterback], and every year we tried to figure out how to do that." And more: "On January 22, 1999, Eagles head coach Andy Reid targeted and hired Jim Johnson as the Eagles new defensive coordinator. Johnson's tenure in Philadelphia was his most successful, as the Eagles won 5 division titles, each reaping the benefits of his defenses. Because head coach Andy Reid is known more for his acumen on the offensive side of the ball, he handed complete control of the defensive unit of the team to Johnson, allowing Reid to concentrate on running the offense with his offensive coordinators, Brad Childress and later Marty Mornhinweg. Reid repeatedly said he had full confidence in Johnson and the Eagles rewarded him accordingly, as he became one of the highest paid coordinators in the NFL. "As I've said many times, Jim Johnson is the best in the business at what he does", said Reid upon signing his prized defensive coordinator to a lucrative four-year contract extension in 2005. "His defensive units continue to produce at a very high level as he puts a lot of pressure on opposing offenses." From 2000–07, Johnson's units rank tied for first in the NFL with 342 sacks, second in the league in 3rd down efficiency (34.3%) and red zone touchdown percentage (43.0%), and fourth in fewest points allowed (17.6 per game). In 2001, Johnson's unit became the fourth team in NFL history to go all 16 games without allowing more than 21 points. Their streak of allowing 21 or fewer in 34 straight games was second longest in NFL history (Minnesota, 1968–71). In 1999, Johnson's unit forced an NFL-best 46 turnovers, including a team-record 5 interceptions returned for TDs. Eagles defenders were selected for the Pro Bowl 26 times during Johnson's tenure. Former Eagle Brian Dawkins led the way with seven. Other Eagles defenders to go to the Pro Bowl under Johnson include Troy Vincent (five), Jeremiah Trotter (four), Hugh Douglas (three), Lito Sheppard(two), and Trent Cole, Michael Lewis, Asante Samuel, Corey Simon, Bobby Taylor (one each). Current NFL head coaches John Harbaugh (special teams and defensive backs), Ron Rivera (linebackers), and Sean McDermott (defensive backs and linebackers) coached under Johnson with the Eagles. The mistake McDermott made was giving too much trust and autonomy to Frasier. The times McDermott took over the playcalling resulted in a different looking defense that performed better. As was proven as the conversation developed... many more HCs calling plays on both offense and defense. See above. McDermott's mentor was Jim Johnson and McDermott alluded to Johnson's influence when he was hired by the Bills. And as DrDawkinstein added also Dennis Allen and Todd Bowles. Yes, Reid targeted Jim Johnson... to great results. The Bills have 4 former offensive coordinators on the current staff: Aaron Kromer, Joe Brady, Rob Boras, and Mike Shula. There's tons of expertise to help Dorsey... if he has the ability to tap into it and maximize it. That's not really a lava take. Several people in this thread have already stated that McDermott is feeling the heat, and that's what compelled the firing of Frasier and McDermott's decision to take greater responsibility.

We took a vote earlier this week and agreed that his name should be legally changed to "Dijon." Tomorrow someone here is supposed to reach out to the Social Security Administration to get the ball rolling.

He already has a Super Bowl ring. Strongly disagree. That's true but the Bills are the only team in the NFL that uses nickel as their base defense so while it won't happen, it's not much of a stretch either. Yes, don't sleep on Baylon Spector, the uber-athletic LB the Bills plucked from Clemson in the 7th round last year.

My Bills-related unpopular opinion? Peter Pan outfits are a healthy expression of gender identification.

The bolded numbers above need context. Therefore, for my value added contribution of the day I present: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CampCa99.htm After averaging about 80% of snaps in his first 8 seasons, Campbell has averaged about 61% of snaps in his last 3 seasons. Then what happened? According to Pro Football Focus, for the average 8 person defensive line group, there should be 1.7 to 2.3 mentors. So now that the smoke has cleared on the mentor vs teacher discussion, what is the moral of the story?

Agree on Zay Flowers vs Erik Jones... however I'm a bit alarmed by this Simpson guy... especially with Ford Motor Company's recent re-issue of the Bronco nameplate.

What if his name was Erik Jones? What's Simpson's middle name? Sorry, I don't have the restraint of@Dr. Who)

What if they are proven incorrect? Hayden Hurst the tight end? It's true that Andy Reid for many years wore the label of "not being able to win the big one." I am hopeful that McDermott continues to grow. Josh's decision making last year did regress and I put a lot of that on Dorsey. Part of the OCs job is to set clear parameters for play and reign in hero ball tendencies. Daboll did this better than Dorsey, IMO.

Thanks Dave. Yes good breakdowns. I hope they do the same for the Bills remaining free agent class.

When you say "unpopular" do you also mean one that has proven to be incorrect? I'm not fully understanding the question.

LOL. Speaking of which, there are some posters in this thread who need to take a nap. At his press conference last week Beane said that they acquired Harty with the idea that he would be their 4th wideout.