Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

That's what I thought, but also seemed to recall paying him more then his performance tanked, guess I was just thinking of Fitz.

In my opinion what really murders franchises is huge 2nd QB contacts to marginal type players that can't elevate the team on their own and need good to great players around them to consistently win. When you give the big 2nd contract to someone like a Tannerhill in Miami (though he's not looking so marginal now in Tenn) you can't sign enough good players to make the team good. Didn't we give both Fitz and T Edwards second contracts? But there's been plenty of these huge contracts given for marginal players. On the other hand doubt Brady, Brees, Rodgers or Manning's contract don't hurt the franchise as they can carry the team on their own for the most part.

Tough question! Hard to answer without being inside an NFL locker room. Are little aches and nicks and bruises typically never discussed as you don't want to appear soft. Obviously this is much worse, but maybe he didn't think so at the time. While I'm extremely far from a professional athlete, I still recall times when I was a kid even in 20's, jammed a finger, turned an ankle, no big deal, six months later found out the finger/ankle had been actually been broken(ankle was a small crack) Often you think it's just a minor little thing. While the league tell and requires the players to report every little thing, easy to see that it doesn't often happen. Don't know what the laws are in Florida, but in New York he'd be in trouble with Workmans Comp for not reporting a work related injury within 24 hours. I'm sure the NFL is required to abide by those rules as well.

LOL Technically I don't think I should count playing eachother in the discussion

I think NE has an easier schedule than we do for the rest of the season as they've played a tougher part already. The only two really tought games left for them is Baltimore and the Rams in LA I believe. We have Seattle, San Fran, Pitt, at Arizona To the OP, so you're only figuring this out now WRT the KC and Tenn games??

From what I recall Dockery, Walker, etc were signed to big $$ contracts and failed. And when one failed one year they'd sign another to replace him just as bad and for just as much money. Here we have individually relatively small contract, together adds up to a lot of money. Was mentioned in another thread yesterday by a couple of us in a somewhat unrelated thread, but the issue may be: The year prior Beane did a similar thing with with the O line, signed mid level, excluding Morse, no name with players and it worked out pretty well. This year not so well, what's been different, no off season/pre-season to get the new players together to jell. In hindsight if Beane had to do it over again AND if he knew there wasn't going to be much of an off season, maybe he would have instead resigned Lawson and Phillips. Throw in Star opting out, certainly didn't help the continuity any there either. One of the things thought would help the team this year with a very limited off season was the fact that we brought back so many players from last season, not much change. However most of our new players are all concentrated in one position group, the D line! Will be interesting to see if as they continue to play together, will there be improvement there by season end?

So lets assume you don't resign Murphy and cut at least two of them. You'll still have at least $3mil in dead cap, and a smaller cap and little free money. You'll have Star coming back at 32 after a full season off and while his contract is better if you were to cut him a pretty big hit there. So what three players at a minimum are you going to sign with limited money and likely not drafting until at least the upper teens if not lower that is going to actually improve things?

I live in NC, originally when the schedule came out thought there'd be a good chance game would be shown locally, that is until Pitt Balt game got rescheduled, now getting that instead. Kind of surprised they didn't try to flex the game to Sunday night, though Dallas and Philly do have a large viewing base.

That's all true, but regardless they did seem to get these mid level FA to play better than they had prior. This year no time for that. Add to they seemed to have led the league in opt outs too.

Was reading an article in the Athletic today that said a big part of the Pats issue this year is due to no off season work outs, pre-season etc. While the article stated every team was affected the same way, it went on to talk about how the "Pats way" is to sign these mid level cheap FA's but then get them on board with the "Pat's way" i.e. better understanding of every other players role on every play, not just their own or the guy next to him among other things, Without all the time together, they've struggled more. There are many players over the years who they sign and then play better than they ever have prior. Then their contract runs out and because of the elevated play, some other team offers them a bigger contract, they bolt, and then crash back to earth again. Meanwhile Belichick signed another cheap replacement and repeats the same thing. Actually the Bills have followed somewhat of a similar path too on both lines in particular. Last year the O lineman signed all worked out, this year everyone was excited about the D linemen signed, (everyone stating we will be stronger than last year) so far have struggled to some level. Maybe for the same reasons?? Will see if second half shows improvement??

So who got AFC special Teams player of the week? While Bass missed two, making six field goals is still pretty impressive, thought he had a shot at that one too. I'll guess the KC player who returned a kick for the TD??

Some riveting prime time games coming up this week. Will be losing alot of sleep staying up to the end of those games!

Could see Beane telling every other GM other than Oliver and Johnson, any other D lineman is available, to the best offer. And I'm looking for CB and LB in return. With the extra wild card, there are more teams overall still in the hunt so may be harder all over to find willing trade partners. I could see 10 teams in the AFC still feeling they have a shot and 13 in the NFC. Legit shot maybe not, but are they will to start trading away players??

Probably as you said yourself, there's not room for 10 DL so someone will be traded. Him and Johnson have the most tradeable contracts, maybe Zimmer too. The other two are playing better than Phillips and considering how shaky the line has played I'd be afraid to trade anyone who has helped at all so he may be the odd man out. On the other hand could be they do like him and feel right now he just can't do enough as still recovering from the ACL injury. And as I just said, the line play is shaky but also deep with very little difference in talent between many so can't afford to play an extra guy who's not 100% healthy. But he doesn't get traded, the team could see him being a more bigger contributor next year. The other option would be if they can't trade him, he gets moved to IR for the rest of the year assuming they do really like him. Bottom line is coaches GM, etc are never going to talk ill will about anyone for the most part unless it's to motivate them.

They also lost a couple other strong players in FA too, VanNoy comes to mind and believe there was a second good player too. I do wonder if Newton tweaked the shoulder again as the first couple of weeks he looked very good, lately not so good and I'm being nice about it.

Don't understand how/why Covid would impact it? Regardless when the trade is made there will be a certain waiting period for the player to be cleared. I believe that the timing for a player traded is much shorter than one that was released as a traded player has maintained presence inside a "virtual bubble". Also read something it was actually in regards to one of the Bills players that waiting until after the week 8 games which is next week this time created some type of financial advantages around the cap So could still see the traditional last minute moves between Monday and Tuesday. Having said all that I do think they will try to trade away one D lineman maybe just for picks to create an open roster slot for Feleciano at whatever point he is ready to be activated. You could release an O lineman, but a little risky if Ford is still out hurt too.

I'd swear there was a thread just like this about 3 weeks ago, only difference was in the title replace the name Dane Jackson with Josh Norman. Even three years ago when Wallace came out of nowhere there likely was a thread then promoting him to be the starter. While Jackson did play very well and deserves more playing time, I'm a little reserved yet at this point. But do agree that he looked good out there, certainly didn't appear to lose anything. Jackson's play was also likely helped by the fact we had six sacks too so were getting to the QB. Six sacks I believe is more than we had in the past 3 or 4 games combined.

I'd think if a team is passing almost every play, when they do run the ball would surprise the defense and result in good solid gains, however that doesn't seem to be the case. So if when only running infrequently doesn't work well and passing is working, why run more? I get it normally teams run more, but with the WR group this team has and Allens arm, passing isn't a bad idea. How many defenders that played a fairly large role did Beane let go besides Phillips and Lawson? Lorax retired and Starr and Gaines opted out Am I missing anyone?

For a person who doesn't follow the combine or stats that closely, is that a good or bad time? I'm assuming bad?

The first couple of weeks looked real strong, makes me wonder if the shoulder got re-injured. Or he is completely shot.

The thought that went through my head was I'll take the penalty for the result of that hit causing an incompletion. Was a net yardage gain, and the holding call the next play helped alot too.

Have to believe that is the case. Once the Bills went up 18-10, the next kick off went out of the end zone. So seems to me he can kick it there every time, but is being told to kick it short and high with lots of hang time. For the most part is working, recall at least two of the kickoffs went for only around a 20 yard return. Recall reading once they changed the touch back point to the 25 yard line to encourage kneel downs, instead teams started trying to force returns that would go for less.

Lets see how he can play with a healthy shoulder, likely won't happen though until next season. IMO he'll be needing off season surgery to repair.

At least we have a WR active this week with a number in the 80's!! I mean come on, how many teams in this league don't have an active WR with an 80's number? That could be the missing piece!

H. Phillips being inactive does make me wonder if he's the odd man out about to be traded. One story I read Friday was that Filiciano likely would NOT be activated for this weeks game as to do that someone would need to be released, and that Beane is trying to trade one of the D lineman. Phillips would be a logical choice as he's on a cheap rookie contract as is Johnson, but not as sure the Bills would want to lose him. Often when a player is about to be traded they sit him out to avoid injury.....Unless you're the Jets!