dave mcbride

Understood. For the record, I was a huge fan of the Watkins move. In hindsight, it wasn't the best move!

Then what was it? In reading your post, the point seemed to be that your projection acumen regarding Bills' draftees was well-nigh perfect, and that Spiller was a bust. I happen to think his case was more complicated than that simplified assessment.

I wasn't a fan of the Spiller pick, but it is the case that he was one of the best running backs in the league in 2012, averaging a whopping 6 ypc and 11 ypr for over 1700 yards from scrimmage. When you have at least one elite season, it's hard to call someone a bust. He was no Trent Richardson. Like a lot of NFL players, he had injuries that slowed him down, and moreover he was a good fit for Gailey's scheme--and Gailey left. He also wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed either.

I get that, but after that OSU game, Mack didn't do all that much against better competition (relatively speaking!), especially late in the season when a bowl game was on the line or in the bowl game (vs. Bowling Green [a game I watched closely] and SD State). The reason? Opponents built their whole game plan around avoiding him and running plays that didn't allow him to display his talents. Of course he had some tackles, but that's to be expected given his position. Teams do that all the time when they face an elite talent like Oliver or Mack, especially when the supporting cast isn't great. Bear in mind that Oliver was heavily recruited by top programs like Oklahoma but wanted to stay home. It wasn't like he hadn't been identified in HS as an elite player. Remember when Bryant McKinnie absolutely dominated Dwight Freeney in a Miami-Syracuse game in their draft year? There was a host of people on this board saying that we should stay far, far away from Freeney because of that game. Freeney has a good case for making the NFL HOF.

This statement is false. Scroll down to the individual stat lines (@thebandit27- worth your time too). Oklahoma ended up finishing 5th overall that season and 3rd overall in offensive points scored. https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/boxscores/2016-09-03-houston.html. Also: https://houseofhouston.com/2016/09/03/westfields-ed-oliver-makes-mark-oklahoma/.

Do you care if players take HGH (which the league conspicuously does NOT test for, really) given that it's basically a miracle drug for repairing the constant small muscle tears that come with playing in the NFL? Take HGH out of the league, and watch what happens to injury reports. There's a reason it's swept under the rug. Well said.

This is so true.

Awesome piece. I'm loving this whole story.

The horse is the pale horse of death from the Book of Revelation. "I looked, and behold, an pale horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth." My hunch is that Arya's character arc is taking her from to a lust for revenge to a commitment to avenge. ("To avenge is to punish a wrongdoing with the intent of seeing justice done. Revenge is more personal, less concerned with justice and more about retaliation by inflicting harm.") She has always been the vehicle through which we see the world from the perspective of the poor and powerless. I thought this last episode was among the best they've ever done. I thought it was entirely true to Martin's vision and all the foreshadowing in the show that occurred. Stannis's trajectory clearly foreshadows Dany's - someone who believes he's a conquering savior but who ends up putting innocents to the fire. When Varys is burned, it's at the same spot in Dragonstone where Stannis and Melisandre had their barbeques. Martin has no love for messiah types or the messiah narrative. I also thought that the Jamie/Cersei ending was perfect. Like the scorpion said to the frog, returning to Cersei was in his nature. Deep down he's a hateful person, as he said himself.

What injury did he have?

‘Allen only put the ball in the perfect spot 8.6 percent of the time, per PFF. That is 6.5 percentage points less than the league average.’ https://buffalonews.com/2019/05/03/buffalo-bills-josh-allen-quarterback-jim-kubiak-year-two/

I don’t agree with this particular take, but I regard Benoit as one of the 2 or 3 best football writers in the country. They all have to do these stupid grades to genereate views. Don’t judge him on that. All draft grades one week after the draft are by definition moronic, but people eat it up. That’s why they’re published. No, he’s actually really, really good. Read some of his analytical pieces.

I was happy they didn't take Metcalf. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but we're talking about who guy who can probably run as fast as Robocop, but changes direction about as slowly as Robocop. I just don't see guys like him as the answer these days.

Hear, hear!!