dave mcbride

Disagree with the bolded. The NFL is a game that causes countless small muscle tears for virtually all players constantly, and HGH accelerates the healing of muscle tears dramatically. It's why the NFL doesn't really police HGH closely -- if they did and suspended violators, they'd have rosters of 35 players vs 35 players on many Sundays.

The Bills have to pay Cooper only $1 million or so, and even if the Chiefs get TN to eat some of the salary, they're still going to have pay a portion of the remaining $8 million that will be larger than what the Bills are paying Cooper (significantly so, probably).

Again, he had a good season last year. I think he's been on the trading block the last couple of weeks and that the Titans were protecting their asset.

He had a legit good season as recently as last year!

Huh? He played all 17 games last year and had 1,057 yards / 7 TDs / 14.1 ypr. He remains a very good player still but has been stuck in a terrible offense in TN. It always wows me when Bills fans rip on a manifestly productive player who gets traded to a team they don't like. If he had been traded to the Bills instead of KC, the hosannas here would be loud. He was on a trading-block snap count this past Sunday.

I wasn't countering anything - just saying that Rivera had a down year (for him). Why even introduce that given that I was clearly not making a comp? Should I bring up David Cone's 4-14 record and 6.91 ERA on 155 innings? Also, it was the worst winning percentage EVER - and by a lot - for Yankees WS team in a non-strike season. And it was an even worse winning percentage than the 59-48 strike season team. Lots of teams have down years in historic runs. They don't get mulligans because the team was better the year before and the year after. Yeah, I get that they were definitely worse in the second half of the season, but they still had not only the best record in the AL but tied the Dodgers for the best Pythagorean record in baseball (96-66). So I guess I don't quite get the argument outside of frustration-based recency bias that comes with watching a reprise of the 2022 regular season stretch run?

Worse than the 2000 Yankees, a team that lost 15 of their last 18 games (mostly in humiliating, blowout fashion - 8 losses by 8+ runs and 2 by 4 runs) and ended up going 87-74 with an 85-76 Pythagorean record? They almost blew the division that year despite a huge lead in early September. Even Rivera had a down year (for him) -- 2.85 ERA that season.

Dan Morgan didn't trade a boatload of picks for the opportunity to draft Bryce Young. He walked into the worst roster situation in the league this season (his first as GM). What's he supposed to do?

Re Martin, he's had to kick in two high wind games (AZ and TN) and had punts of 27 yards and 34 yards into the wind. No other punter has to regularly deal with the windiest stadium in the league. That should be factored in. In Houston - a controlled environment - he punted 8 times and averaged 50.1 yards per kick.

D-line is kinda never a bad investment, IMHO. Obviously, the players have to be good for it to work.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2024/passing.htm#passing::pass_rating QBs drafted in the first round in 2018 are currently 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th in QB rating this season. Pretty remarkable.

Good, but I'd add Reid and Mahomes, both of whom are stone-cold HOF locks. Reid also had McNabb, who had a very good career overall.

There are a lot worse than Jones out there. Mind you, I don't think he's "good," but rather -- to quote Bill Walsh -- "good enough to get you fired." Jones is basically the platonic ideal of that aphorism (although it was originally applied to Steve DeBerg).

Yeah, but the pickings in 2023 at slot #24 just weren’t good. It’s easy to say “draft a blue chip qb,” but there weren’t any that were realistic.

They failed because I'm pretty certain those throws to Keon afterward was basically Josh saying, I'm going to get you some yards here.

Can't disagree.

If you look at the available QB landscape in 2023 plus the fact that they were drafting 24th, there weren't a lot of options. Maybe you let him play out the option, I guess. In retrospect, that would have been the smart move, but they can easily get out of that contract after this season. It was basically a two-year deal with an out.

Good point. What do you think they could have gotten for Jones if they traded him after 2022, factoring in that the Bills got the 63rd pick for Tyrod before the 2018 draft? The issue is that with their 24th pick plus whatever they would have gotten for Jones (I can't imagine better than a 3rd), they certainly wouldn't have had the ammo to move up for Stroud, and the only guy drafted near their slot was Levis, who doesn't appear to be very good despite physical talent. So it was one of those things where Jones was better than the alternatives that were available. I know, but they keep losing nonetheless and now the wheels are coming off. Losing their LT is a killer for them.

My understanding is that they tried very hard to trade up.

No, just giving credit where credit is due. He's been wrong about his fair share of things. Taking Barkley over Allen, Lamar, and Darnold (who I believe would have been fine in a non-dysfunctional organization, which is what the Jets were and are) was one of the worst draft decisions in recent times. I realize that predated Daboll/Schoen by a long ways. Lawrence is fantastic. But why would the Giants trade an elite cornerstone player at an important position who has three years left on his contract?

People are focusing on Barkley carving the Giants up yesterday, but my god is their offense terrible. I know they lost their starting LT (Thomas), but 119 yards vs the Eagles D is just unacceptable. Before the season I thought that their d-line would make them a playoff contender (Thibadoux, Lawrence, Burns), and while the d-line has played well (and the defense overall has been pretty good), they look like a 4-13 team. I now think both Daboll and Schoen will be gone at the end of the season. I've long defended Daboll, who I think is a creative play caller (at least with the Bills), and I've excused his poor offenses because the QBs he has rolled out there before Josh Allen were all really bad. But while Daniel Jones isn't good, he's hardly Brady Quinn level. I see him as slightly to moderately below league average, but the team is now 30th in points, 27th in yards, and 29th in passing ypa. And they have a stud in Nabers, who is frankly more valuable already than Barkley would have been. I have to hand it to @BADOLBILZ for his resolute contempt for Daboll. Aside from his years with Allen and one OK season in 2022 with the Giants (and even in that season the passing offense was bad - 26th in yards, 24th in TDs, and 27th in ypa), the offenses he's overseen have been depressingly unproductive (https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/DaboBr0.htm). I still give him leeway given the terrible QBs he's had to field, but again, I really don't think Jones is that bad and the results aren't getting any better. And he and Schoen chose to pay Jones, which says something too. This will certainly be Jones's last season starting for NY, but I can see him having a decent career as a backup. Reminds me a little bit Trubisky in terms of total productivity and career trajectory.

The Rams have been competitive in every game except AZ, and they're going to have both Nacua and Kupp back for the Miami game, which is a home game for the Rams. I definitely like the Rams in that one.

I think if they started calling IGs on screens (and those dirtings by QBs happen all the time), I think it might end up eliminating the screen pass game for many teams. IGs are terrible penalties to suffer and screens are very high-risk throws if a defense has sniffed it out. You're throwing into mass of aware defenders on such plays, so turnovers are a threat, and it'll also result in a big loss if caught.

In a way, it's kinda what Dion Dawkins said about them last season when he attacked their defensive players.

There's no emoji that covers both "laugh" and "agree."