Sierra Foothills

There was that Laremy Tunsil trade by master strategist Bill O'Brien: O'Brien gave up a 2020 first-round pick (which ended up being 26th overall), a 2021 first-round pick, a 2021 second-round pick, safety Johnson Bademosi and offensive tackle Julie'n Daveport in exchange for Tunsil, wide receiver Kenny Stills, a 2020 fourth-round pick and a 2021 sixth-round pick. More problematic than the exorbitant trade compensation was O'Brien neglecting to sign Tunsil to a new deal when acquiring him. The Texans might as well as have given Tunsil a blank contract and let him fill out it in when trying to extend him, given the leverage handed to the tackle through the lack of a new contract and the trade compensation, which was essentially two first-round picks and a second-round pick. Tunsil made O'Brien pay dearly for his mistake by exploiting his tremendous contract leverage although he was acting as his own agent. He significantly raised the salary bar for offensive linemen, becoming the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history at $22 million per year on a three-year extension. His deal averages 22.2 percent more than the four-year extension Lane Johnson signed with the Eagles during the middle of last season for $18 million per year. Tunsil has an offensive lineman record of $40 million fully guaranteed at signing. His $50 million in overall guarantees are tied for second among offensive linemen with Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan. Agree about the Chargers AND their QB. Didn't Justin Herbert get more votes for the Pro Bowl last year than Josh Allen?

Agreed. Ditto with Bradley Chubb. If I'm a GM these young, talented pass rushers are the kind of players I'm trying to acquire, not trade away. All 3 of these players are young enough to be foundational pieces in a rebuild situation. It's hard enough finding pass rushers without trading them away.

Great topic and I can't recall laughing so much reading through the replies. How do feel about that Taylor Heinicke-Sam Ehlinger battle? 😆😆😆 Confidence only goes so far when your QB is Zach Wilson. Neither? As far as the teams, the Jets are one of the few franchises the Bills have a winning heads-up record against. Also our all-time winning percentage is higher than theirs. Because of those two things I've more felt sorry for them than hated them. I probably hated them the most during the New York Sack Exchange days. On the other hand I HATE New/England/Belichick/Brady and want to see them/him lose every time it's possible and even when it's not. Miami, the Jets, and New England are going to spend the rest of the season in a Three Stooges-type pie fight for the basement. The result of this New Jersey-Cheatriots*** game won't matter.

To the first bolded, you'd put Diggs at slot if he was uncoverable. To the second bolded you think of Ed McCaffrey as a slot receiver? I remember that he was big and galloped like Gabriel Davis and got open deep down the sidelines a lot. Can't remember where he was always lining up. On the subject of "classic" slot receivers, the player who would have been great is Steve Tasker. I wish Marv had given him more opportunities on offense. Tasker only got that chance towards the end of his career and he excelled at it, both catching and running the ball.

Thank you!

Disagree. Matt Ryan would still be starting if he were playing well and the Colts were winning. It was Ryan's poor play that made the injury risk intolerable.

Interesting that Von Miller and Marcel Dareus came up in this topic. Those players went 2 and 3 in the 2011 NFL Draft. Other D-linemen taken in that same draft were Aldon Smith (7), JJ Watt (11), Nick Fairley (13), Robert Quinn (14), Ryan Kerrigan (16), Corey Liuget (18), Adrian Clayborn (20), Phil Taylor (21), Cam Jordan (24), Muhammad Wilkerson (30), and Cam Heyward (31). Other highly-regarded D-lineman taken in that draft were Jabaal Sheard (37), Da'Quan Bowers (51) and Jurrell Casey (77) making this is one of the greatest D-line drafts in NFL history. The Bills have an excellent roster. They have to execute but they also have to avoid injury. Of course trading for depth would make them a bit more immune to injury.

Good point. Randall Cunningham too and maybe guys like Steve Grogan (12 rushing TDs in 1976), David Woodley and Bobby Douglass who played at 6'4" 225 pounds and ran for 968 yards in 14 games as the Chicago Bears starting quarterback in 1972. Very true. For these guys it is important to have an effective running game in order to setup the play action throws. And this is the thought process which caused the Niners to invest heavily to move up and draft Trey Lance... they were essentially trying to replicate what the Bills did to get Josh Allen.

I agree that it seems that injury lists are longer this year than normal. I wonder if (counter-intuitively) the reduction in team drills has had an unintended effect on the occurrence of injuries.

Amazing story... 3 cancers in 2 years plus 20 surgeries, plus his Mom getting cancer. Good thing he's such a tough son of a gun. Prayers to you Sam in your fight. Glad you're cancer free.

How valuable is he really? "Archaeologists believe that hides provided an important source of clothing and shelter for all prehistoric humans and their use continued among non-agricultural societies into modern times." I'd say that's pretty damned important. He probably works in conjunction with the equipment manager. All trades are subject to the player(s) passing a physical so while I don't recall a specific instance I'm pretty sure it's happened and if it hasn't, it could based on the contingencies.

I know you're being mostly facetious with the Gus Frerotte stuff but yes QBs do hit the wall... and in some cases they plateau which is slightly different. Sometimes (I believe this applies to Wentz) the player has been solved for by the league and simply can't rise above the fact that there's a book on him... he's being game planned for and doesn't have the answers. So in the case of plateauing it's different than the loss of physical skills which we often see in aging QBs who've hit the wall. Anyways that Frerotte incident was comic/tragic. He never seemed like the same player after that self-inflicted injury.

I believe it's a bit of all of these factors... not just one. Another factor I think is a shortage of coaching talent at this level. You see so many college coaches fail in the NFL and each offseason 6-8 teams are changing coaching staffs. Blowing up and replacing an entire coaching staff is generally counter to success. The best teams in the league are generally the most stable with just a few exceptions.

Mahomes and Josh are both way better than Rodgers... and cheaper. Not only does he point the finger at his teammates, he also gives his opponents zero credit. What a guy. There's exactly nothing in Rodgers' past that would be the basis for giving him the benefit of the doubt. He even publicly disses his own family. Really a perfect illustration of the limitations of statistics. It seems like every game this year the Packers have scored on their early scripted drive and then done nothing for the rest of the game. Green Bay is averaging 18.3 points per game. How's that for a statistic? Vague finger pointing is at least as bad as specific finger pointing. By being non-specific he's implicating everyone in his criticisms. It would actually take a lot more backbone to be specific.

I wonder who would win in a footrace between Brady and Bledsoe. Super interesting idea and one I've not heard before. Interesting also that both Brady and Aaron Rodgers have come under considerable criticism for skipping OTAs (Rodgers also skipped mandatory mini camp last year). Rodgers has made passive agressive remarks that the team should "simplify the offense" and that players who blow assignments should be benched. He totally abdicates his responsibilities to the team's corps of very young receivers. What a great leader of men. This is exactly the sort of behavior you will never see from Josh Allen. Brady has missed tons of OTAs and training camp due to his off-field dramas. It's hard to imagine that the piss-poor offenses of these teams aren't connected to their QBs poor attendance. Yes the bar graphs are super interesting. Previous to last night's MNF game Justin Fields ended up scrambling on almost 20% of his pass plays. Daniel Jones of the 6-1 Giants was second at over 12%, Jalen Hurts was at 11% and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were tied at 8% and Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Kyler Murray were tied at 5% of pass plays resulting in scrambles. This means the most effective QBs in the NFL this year (excepting Justin Fields) are those who end up scrambling on pass plays the most.

First of all, if you like good writing, good journalism, and a modern perspective on analytics... but don't like paying for it you should bookmark and regularly visit The Ringer. This is Bill Simmons' newest sports and pop culture website and the successor to the now-defunct "Grantland." As I said, it's free. https://www.theringer.com Today's edition had an excellent article that specifically addressed the Indy/Matt Ryan situation but more broadly addressed the continued ascendency of the mobile NFL quarterback. https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2022/10/25/23422203/indianapolis-colts-sam-ehlinger-matt-ryan-scrambling The Simple Math Behind the Colts’ Decision to Turn to Sam Ehlinger: Benching Matt Ryan isn’t about trying to find a better passer—it’s about trying to find a better runner. Indianapolis looks poised to show us the true value of a quarterback who can escape pressure and scramble. "This is related to, but not completely the same as, the league’s move toward mobile quarterbacks in the past decade. After spending the 2000s chasing cerebral, statuesque quarterbacks in the Peyton Manning–Tom Brady mold, the NFL started to find competitive edges with dual-threat quarterbacks such as Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III, and expanded on those edges with Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and others. In 2022, it’s known that the league’s elite quarterbacks—Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen—can beat you with their arms, no problem. But if you somehow manage to quiet them in the air, they’ll just beat you with their legs instead." . "Consider a quarterback with little to no scramble ability at all. Quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, Davis Mills, and Matt Ryan. When they are pressured, they are almost certainly not going to try to break the pocket. Instead, they’ll throw the ball away or take a sack—or attempt a pass, but one that is far more likely to be inaccurate. No matter what, it’s a win for the defense, and we can see it in the performance of these stationary passers. With pressure, Brady falls from 17th in EPA per dropback to 31st; Garoppolo from third to 32nd. (Houston QB Davis Mills weirdly goes from 33rd in EPA per dropback without pressure to 12th with pressure. Don’t ask me what’s going on there. I have no idea.) But most importantly for our conversation today: Matt Ryan falls from 11th to 33rd." There's some additional discussion of case studies like Jalen Hurts and Daniel Jones and then some analytics thrown in for good measure. It's a pretty good read.

Yes. I'm sure at this point that Fitz is just hoping to avoid hip replacement surgery. And according to Spotrac, Fitzmagic made over $82 million during his 17 NFL seasons. I think he's good with retirement.

I remember Hagy. White dude... safety. He was small but packed a wallop. Good college player, just not quite talented enough for the NFL.

Gene the Anal-Rentetive Chef! One of my all-time fave SNL characters.

Love Foreman and posted here that I wanted the Bills to sign him. Forget what? 😃 He recently complained about his contract. https://brownswire.usatoday.com/lists/kareem-hunt-trade-rumor-contract-demand-browns/ I've heard of him!!!

Dancing on his grave? More like a mausoleum. When JC feels sad he can think about his $40 million guaranteed. i don't get any joy from his misfortune but I'm not feeling sorry for him either.

I also noticed this.

Wait... but you're The Fun Police... 😆

Gene, You said that "QB legacies are judged based on ring count" and then you said "It's not a ring only." You've successfully confused yourself.

And then... I'm being pedantic? A smart ass? You're talking out two sides of you mouth... again.