dave mcbride

Virtually every offensive player (including qbs like Josh Allen and o-linemen) I've ever read about who have been asked to say who the best defensive player is reply with Donald. Sometimes, the stats don't reveal what the players know from engaging with a player on the ground. Production-wise, he didn't deserve it (missed six games; the team is terrible), but in terms of ability, he remains second to none.

Adams was absolutely spectacular this season, I thought. Uncoverable. Also led the league in TD receptions.

He has built a great defense (best yards-given-up-per-play average in the league this season), but they simply don’t have a qb. Mike White is serviceable but quickly got hurt. You can’t win in the NFL without a qb, and to be honest 7-10 isn’t bad if there is no real qb.

Yes, I think they view him as the best of the best in the technical sense, and basically unblockable. He only played in 11 games for a very bad team, but was still Aaron Donald when he played.

Good point.

That is a good and logical all-pro team. I can’t argue with any of it.

He was elite for the Bills this year. He was basically unblockable in key moments. Talent-wise, it was effing OBVIOUS he was their best pass rusher. I mean, come on.

The Jets game at home and a terrible Bears team probably account for a lot of that differential. I felt like the Bills pressured fields nearly every play and they destroyed Mike White. Also, the Bears' talent is absolutely awful.

The parenthetical numbers are their rankings out of 32. The Bills are second vs. nickel and the Dolphins nickel D is the 25th best nickel D in the league.

One thing to keep in mind is that the cap is likely to go WAY up. Bear in mind that it went down in the covid year and the league has had a banner year revenue wise this year. It's expected to go up by $15 million or so: https://www.nfl.com/news/salary-cap-for-2023-nfl-season-could-exceed-220-million-but-questions-remain .

Monday is a national holiday, so presumably you're good.

Edmunds was one of the two-three best players on the field vs. NE. He was also terrific vs. Chicago.

Enh, it's basically an inflation-adjusted version of the Fred Warner contract. https://www.nfl.com/news/niners-linebacker-fred-warner-s-lucrative-contract-has-a-unique-structure-with-t. The going rate for elite off-ball LBs, basically. Edmunds will likely get something in this neighborhood given his youth (he'll be 25 in May).

They're both very good. Edmunds played at an elite level this year, and it's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league.

Who cares about Lamar. What does Edmunds think?

They beat them in 2020 and SF was devastated by injury. They started Nick Mullins and a ton of guys were out on defense, including Bosa. The Bills won 34-24 but were up 34-17 with less than a minute to go. The Niners scored a garbage time TD in the last minute.

He was playing with a fractured thumb on his throwing hand since week five. One has to factor that in.

They only had 90 yards rushing vs the pats. They also could have had had 100 but resorted to kneel downs at the end. Yes, this idea that the Bills didn’t force a lot of turnovers seems to be the mindset of people who only watch Bills games.

Detroit had one of the better defenses in the league in the second half of the season. Chicago’s D is terrible, but the weather was effing ridiculous.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/info/glossary#:~:text=DVOA stands for Defense-adjusted,this stat is called VOA. DVOA: The main statistic used on Football Outsiders, DVOA breaks down the entire season play-by-play, comparing success on each play to the league average based on a number of variables including down, distance, location on field, current score gap, quarter, and opponent quality. While it can be used as a measure of total team performance, it differs from other power ratings found throughout the Web because it can be broken down to analyze team effectiveness in any number of ways: down, quarter, rushing vs. receiving, location on field, passes to backs vs. passes to receivers, and so on. Read the article METHODS TO THE MADNESS for more information. DVOA stands for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, although we use the same letters to refer to defensive rankings which are adjusted to take into account the quality of offensive opponents. When not adjusted for opponent, this stat is called VOA.

Yes, it does. To believe otherwise suggests that one thinks Eric Dickerson's 2,105 yards in 16 games is the real record rather than the 2,003 OJ ran for in 14 games. OJ averaged nearly 150 yards per game in 1973. You really think he wouldn't have surpassed 2,105 with two more games?

To clarify because people should be aware of this, the Bills had the best point differential in the league on a per game basis. Which is what matters.

Just to expand, the Bills' positive point differential on a per-game basis was 10.5, and the 49ers differential was 10.2. So, Bills win.

And it was a horrible non-call. Stevenson had been driven back three yards and progress had been stopped. Not challengeable, though.

The best point differential in the NFL on a per game basis, actually. SF played one more game than they did.