Sierra Foothills

Kudos to you looking up no QB playing QB coaches. That had to have taken a bit of time. Interestingly (at least to me), the two people considered the most brilliant offensive minds in the NFL, Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan didn't play QB either. Reid was an O-lineman and Shanahan was a wide receiver.

For me it really has nothing to do with who he's related to, Not that I always succeed but I've been trying to get out of the business of judging others. Besides, what's the worst thing Chad Kelly's ever done? On a related topic have you see the recent stories about Pacman Jones? Do his recent actions change the way you feel towards him?

Giving a fully-guaranteed $230 million contract to a PR nightmare who hadn't played football in a year was surely weird move.

I never met the guy and being the nephew of a sports celebrity probably has its downsides... I wonder how he was raised. He's certainly made some bad decisions but I can't judge him.

That's why I said, "It will be interesting to see his play in this defense."

This was a good laugh. I actually like Jarrett Stidham quite a bit and wouldn't be surprised if he started some games for the Broncos. The times I saw Davis Webb play QB he was always in reverse... moving away from the line of scrimmage. He never learned to climb the pocket but it looks like he's climbing the coaching ladder. Little-known fact... Davis Webb is the brother of touring pro Ty Webb.

Has he committed some unforgivable sin that makes you prefer to dislike him forever? Not one for redemption stories?

As you suggest it's hard for any linebacker to show well behind a poor defensive line. Kirksey has played nearly his entire NFL career on poor defenses behind poor defensive lines. The best lineman he's ever played with is probably Myles Garrett who isn't the type of space eater who makes a LBs job easier. By and large Kirksey has played on bad defenses behind bad defensive lines. It will be interesting to see his play in this defense.

I was giving a synopsis of the article... not sure what you're getting at.

I have not seen people around here giving McDermott a free pass. Most of the comments have been that the Bills defensive failings in key playoff situations is on him... accentuated by the fact of him calling strategic time outs to poor results. The only credit I see people giving McDermott is that he's doing the right thing by taking over the defensive helm and graphically taking responsibility for that side of the ball... removing any separation between himself and accountability.

Here's an excerpted/shortened version of Dorsey's weekly regimen based on the Buffalo News article linked below: Sunday: After the game Dorsey walks over to his office and watches the All 22 to do a post mortem of the game just completed. He takes notes of course. Monday: In the office by 6:45 am. Offensive Coaches meeting at 8 am where his assistants present their player grades from yesterday's game. "Later" Monday is a full offensive meeting with players and coaches. Dorsey goes over the good and the bad. Afterwards he "pops into" the positional group meetings spending most of his time in the QB meeting. After that he attends a team meeting run by McDermott. After this meeting the entire staff is now focused on the upcoming opponent. Dorsey then has his weekly media availability at 3 pm. "Monday night" the staff is working on 1st and 2nd downs and which base run and pass plays might work. Dorsey oversees the pass game and OL Coach Aaron Kromer oversees the run game. Early in the week: Dorsey receives analytics reports from senior director of football research Dennis Lock, and talks game situations with assistant quarterbacks/game management coach Marc Lubick. Completes watching every game the upcoming opponent has played this season. Tuesday: Most of the players are off but the coaches and quarterbacks are at the facility. Dorsey spends time talking with McDermott to get a defensive perspective on the opponents D and also with Josh Allen about what plays they like and dislike for the week's opponent. He also has conversations with his coaches about what they feel will work. By mid-afternoon 1st and 2nd down play calls are finalized and the staff turns its focus to 3rd down planning. Wednesday: 8 am coaches meeting to finalize points of emphasis for upcoming practices and review the practice script of plays with the emphasis on red-zone plays. The opponents personnel and general schemes are presented. The meeting breaks and positional group meetings commence. This is followed by an on-field "walk-through period" and then another meeting, and then a 12:30 practice, another coach’s meeting, another full-offense meeting and then individual position meetings. Afterwards the coaches watch the practice video together to finalize the playlist. The players are excused in the late afternoon but the coaches continue by reviewing “What if?” scenarios – if the opponent does this, how will the Bills block it, where will Allen go with the football, how will the receivers and tight ends adjust their routes? They call them their “rules.” Next up is the red zone. Says Dorsey “There is the element of never feeling like there is enough time in the day.” Thursday: In the 90 minutes before the 8 am offensive staff meeting, Dorsey double-checks the Thursday practice script to make sure the right things are being emphasized during individual drills, and uses highlighters to mark plays already practiced and those still on the docket. Then there is an offensive team meeting focusing on blitzes, and then another meeting devoted to the red-zone package. From late afternoon into the night, the coaches script the Friday practice, make sure the red-zone plan is finished and go over two- and four-minute drills, short-yardage, goal-line, and back-up-to-their-own-end-zone situations. Late Thursday night, Dorsey is back in his office organizing his play-call sheets for the game: which first-and-10 play he prefers in the red zone, go-to calls on second-and-long, the plays in third-and-short, -medium and-long. Friday: The team has a morning walk-through before staying on the field and starting practice at 11 a.m. The aforementioned specialized situations are installed and practiced. Post-practice, there are no meetings with the players. The coaches do meet and "you’re trying to subtract plays (from the game plan), instead of adding plays because there are no more practices to work on it.” Dorsey tries to leave the facility by 6 p.m. Friday and spend time with his wife and two daughters. Saturday: Dorsey starts with another offensive staff meeting in the morning to go over the play-calling script. He continues to stress collaboration. The Bills usually have an 11 a.m. walk-through that Dorsey said centers on “true situational stuff,” like two-minute and short-yardage. After the walk-through, if it’s a home game, the players are off for several hours until reporting to their team hotel. The position coaches use Saturday afternoon to work ahead on the next opponent, and Dorsey will take one last look at how he constructed his game-calling sheets for “final touches on the plan.” https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/ken-dorsey-buffalo-bills-game-preparations-nfl/article_73640ee6-444f-11ee-bb15-5b2c7e37403b.html

One can only hope... If you have a subscription, here's the link: Yes, the only thing that jumped out of the article for me was this: “If you get to game day and haven’t slept, you’re no good to anybody.” There's definitely a point of diminishing returns as far as all the hours that these coaches put in. At some point it's counter-productive.

Not to mention the rest of society. On the other hand you never know what might grow when a seed germinates.

It's noon somewhere... or 5 o'clock somewhere... (raising a glass of beer) "to the cosmic time-space continuum!" (hiccup)

“It’s just incredibly generous what he’s done with these guys. Bill has loaned out $4 million to 20 players that played for him, who come to him in this financial crisis. Bill knows when they come to him it’s a last resort,” Myers said. “I said to him, ‘Bill, you know, $4 million, you don’t expect anybody to pay you back. Why are you doing that?’ “And he said, ‘These guys have sacrificed so much for me with their bodies and their commitment.’ ”

I'm having a hard time believing that Buechele said that... really? Bill Murray's net worth is around $200 million... I can't believe he's padding his wealth by playing NFL football. Seems a bit greedy if you ask me. That's a funny way of looking at the Gabriel Davis situation. I'm thinking you've evolved on this. Listing Terrell Bernard and Kaiir Elam as starters is a bit generous. Inaccurate really. I'd love to see it but it hasn't happened yet.

Breech always makes me laugh.

Whatever you say.

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but IMO there's some really good young talent in this position group. One more good offseason and this unit could become a team strength. Specifically I think some of the backups have starting potential. Then what happened? 🙃 So since the inception of this topic: Quess was signed by Minnesota... guess we'll never know if the Bills would have offered him a spot on the practice squad. Germain Ifedi was signed by the Bills. Pretty solid pickup... based solely on credentials lateral or better than Brandon Shell. Nick Broeker was signed by Houston. Lots of people here (myself included) liked Broeker and I believe the Bills did too. There were just too many good young talents ahead of him like Torrence, Edwards, Van Demark, and Alec Anderson. I'm liking this offensive line but still holding my breath that Dawkins and Brown don't let us down.

Sounds like a distinction without a difference. It all falls under the broader category of "financial aid."

Good post. I believe that they thought Edmunds might be a transcendent player (meaning transcending his positional value) and along with the prior experience with Luke Kuechly caused McBeane to depart from their value chart and draft Edmunds highly. He proved not to be a trandscendent player. Actually hope is often a plan. Every team has roster holes and every team has a position or two where they pin their hopes on a player(s) rising to the occasion and growing into the job. In this case the Bills pinned their hopes on 3 young veterans (Dodson, Bernard, and Spector). It didn't work out partly due to 2 of the players getting injured. Exactly... a transcendent player... a unicorn. Agreed. Excellent post. I agree with all of this except I believe the Bills (my guess) will slowly cross train him at MLB as he becomes more familiar with the scheme. You want your best players on the field as much as possible and it won't be long before Williams is the second best LB on the Bills, IMO.

He was drafted by McBeane so there's that... Is he still elite?

This reminds me of an old Vince Lombardi-Paul Hornung story. After a bad loss in which the Packers were outplayed in every phase, an angry Lombardi was intent on denigrating his team. Lombardi: (Holding up a football) "Gentlemen, this is a football." Hornung: "Hey coach, can you slow down a bit?"

Prepare the celebration! Invite the prettiest girls from the village!!!

Jack Handey, is that you? So... he changed... his last name?