dave mcbride

Just looked it up - he ran a 4.58 in the 40 at the combine which is extremely fast for a linebacker. And in his career year with the Bills - 2004 - he had 5 picks and 18 passes defensed, which is just ridiculous for a LB. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SpikTa00.htm. And he had 4 forced fumbles too.

He was extremely fast for a LB … until he tore his achilles. He was never the same after that and was basically a thumper.

There are a lot of not-very-good CBs playing in the NFL. Good ones are very, very hard to find. He’s crafty enough and has enough ball hawking skills to at least be a decent CB2 option. Who else is out there, after all? That’s all I’m saying.

Good signing by the Bucs. They have injury issues on the back end, and he's at least league-average. League-average guys are hard to find at this point given that just about all of them are already on teams.

He's actually 63-74; I give him credit for the game in which Brady went down very early (season opener of 2008) and Cassel played the bulk of the game. It was 0-0 when Cassel came in.

Payne is a beast. He dominated vs. the Bills in 2019.

I’m a little surprised no one is rooting for a host of 6-8-week non-contact soft-tissue injuries on both sides.

Excellent! I did not know unitas went there. I wouldn’t put bridgewater there yet - he’s been decidedly mediocre - but maybe this season he makes the step up.

Agreed about Jones. He will definitely have some ups and downs this season - that goes without saying - and NO’s defense is good. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Along with Cal, Oregon, Alabama, and Stanford, Purdue is the only school with three good-to-excellent QBs since 1960 (see my post above for details). That said, after the 1960s, Purdue seems to go about 15-20 years between good NFL prospects. They haven't had one since Brees, although Orton could actually play in the league. He wasn't great, but he was physically capable and could operate an NFL offense. But really, he's a Steve DeBerg-type QB -- good enough to get a coach fired. My own advice about QBs is to NEVER assume a school is a predictor of anything. To reiterate a point I've made numerous times, it was assumed up until 2001 that Michigan QBs would never be great and would most likely be terrible.

Payne dominated the Bills in 2019.

Good post. He did hit on a high-trajectory bomb to Diggs last week - a play in which Diggs had time to adjust and make the play.

9 home games and 8 road games. What's to complain about?

Parcells hired him. He also hired Coughlin. Part of being a great coach is identifying and hiring great assistants. It’s basically the number one job of a head coach, and Parcells was unparalleled in that area. He also rescued and nurtured Sean Payton. Parcells is one of the greatest ever, in my opinion.

The rules are the rules and they are crystal clear. Easy solution: don’t do it.

In that 2019 Denver game, the difference in ability to handle wind between allen and the denver qbs was stark.

Well, given that we’re facing Washington, it’s worth mentioning that he played well in a quite windy game vs them in 2019. Average 18 mph winds with gusts higher than that, and a passer rating of 110.4 (70 percent completion rate). https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201911030buf.htm He also played well vs Denver in similar conditions. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201911240buf.htm

Lot of drops for Darnold last night. Completion pct should have been significantly higher.

Chicago is without question one of the great American cities.

Oh please. It’s The New York Friggin’ Times, for chrissake. And no, I’m not going to bloviate about its content. Read the story yourself.

Yeah, I knew it was in the same space, but I thought it was basically new ($500 million was a lot in 2000 too). I've been to the old one and not the new one, so you'll know better than me. Yeah, that appears to be right. Lambeau's upgrade made it basically a new stadium.

The new Soldier Field opened in 2002. It's not close to being the oldest stadium.

The argument isn't what he did in the Miami game (although he made a couple of poor plays trying to make stops on outside runs along with fulfilling assignments well), but more on his overall performance last season, which wasn't great and a step backward from 2019. Granted, he played injured for much of it, and that doesn't get mentioned enough. Playing with a bum shoulder as MLB is really rough. Regardless, the guy he was drafted to be -- Luke Kuechly -- made play after play after play after play. Edmunds does not, at least up to this point. Maybe Edmunds gets closer to that level of performance as this season progresses. I am hopeful because of the talent. But it's laughable to suggest he's anywhere close to Kuechly at this point in his career. His postseason performance last season was uneven too -- good against the Ravens, but mostly a JAG-level player against the teams that had strong passing offenses: Indy and KC. He was awful vs. KC, but so was almost everyone else. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/K/KuecLu00.htm https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/E/EdmuTr01.htm

Our defense is predicated on having a MLB who is as instinctive, as good in coverage, and as capable of making big plays as Luke Keuchly. That's who the Bills thought they were trading up for. He is not close to being that player. Badol is right that it's a devalued position, although just as there are elite RBs, there are elite MLBs (all of the ones who fall in that category are guys who can cover, however). The better way to think about it is that inside LBs who are excellent at stopping the run are more or less a dime a dozen relative to DEs, pass rushing OLBs, and CBs. Think Reggie Ragland ad infinitum. Wagner is special just the way that Alvin Kamara is special -- they are excellent in the pass game. Edmunds has the tools to be good in the pass game, but the fact of the matter is that he was a poor pass defender last season. It's too early to tell this season. I'm hoping for the best.