dave mcbride

How does a list of the top 50 free agents not project anyone signing with the Patriots? The Patriots have a TON of cap space and have a fairly strong record of impact signings over the course of the Belichick era: Gilmore, Revis, Rodney Harrison, Seau, Adalius Thomas, and Roosevelt Colvin (plus others like Shawn Springs). $5 million for a better-than-average backup isn't that crazy at all. That's what Newton is at this point. He's more likely to win you a game than, say, Matt Barkley.

The Browns made good defensive plays because they were prepared against a predictable qb. Turnovers usually aren't flukes. Some are, but in that game, outside of the first one the others weren't. The better team won.

I suspect it’s in Australia.

Yeah, but don’t teams with really good won-loss records sacrifice plays because they grind out the clock late? The chargers had a good offense AND usually lost, so they’re the perfect example of a team overdetermined to have a high offensive play count. 7 of the top 9 teams failed to have winning records. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/nfl-team-with-the-most-offensive-plays-per-game-this-season

I’ve heard of this guy named Reggie White ... Seriously, you gotta think that event is looming over the conversations in GB.

By “under control” I mean he’s a guy for which the Bills have the final say and for which the system allocates a relatively small salary. I did not say that he was under contract. (It’s akin to MLB’s rules regarding players’ first six years in an organization — they are considered “under control” regardless of contract status). They do not have final say on players not under team control unless they want to franchise them. Fwiw, I regard $3 million—if it comes to that— for a decent starter a bargain. Of course, the Bills have to believe he’s worth that. But $2 million? Sure, sign me up for that. PS - as I think about it, if the Bills think he’s truly starting quality, I believe they should probably consider offering him a 3-4 year contract now. It won’t be that much, relatively speaking. Again, the caveat is the Bills’ opinion of him. That I don’t know, but if PFF is any guide, he grades out as a solid starter.

It seems like the Bills got serious value because he was injured (achilles) for his final season at Iowa. I was unaware. He seems to have evolved into a reasonably solid NFL starter, and he is both cheap and under control. https://nflmocks.com/2018/05/10/buffalo-bills-get-udfa-steal-ot-ike-boettger-iowa/

Wisconsin overall is colder than Buffalo. Milwaukee, which is a good bit south of GB, is the second coldest major city in the US (after Minneapolis). Buffalo is 4th.

I agree with you generally speaking, but Brady was actually very, very good in college. His situation was unique because Michigan successfully recruited Drew Henson, who was regarded as the best qb prospect in many a year. He was good from the get go in the pros too. He played EXTREMELY well overall in 2001 given the situation.

Daboll was TE coach for NE during Gronk’s prime. He certainly knows how to both use and feature a TE. But he needs horses to do it properly. I also feel like they have bent over backwards to get Knox involved. It hasn’t worked yet, but perhaps that’s because he’s young and still learning. He was a qb in HS.

The Watt double team numbers this season were eye-opening to me. Proves once again you can't just rely on the top-line stats for making assessments. Unlike a lot of people in this thread (it seems!), I don't know the guy personally and am going to withhold judgment on his character.

Coming off of a second serious, season-ending leg injury, though ...

Dude, cool your jets with the hostile snark. Jeez. Allen played in all of two inclement weather games this season - KC and Baltimore. The offense scored 17 and 10 points. As for Watson, he threw 49, not 45 (http://insidethepylon.com/nfl/2019-nfl-draft/2019/03/10/ball-velocity-is-bunk/ and https://nflcombineresults.com/playerpage.php?i=22529), but the real takeaway is that the number was wildly non-predictive of performance -- just like Allen's completion percentage in college was non-predictive. Why people have to trash one player as part of praising another player is beyond me. They're both good players.

This is awesome. Thanks for posting.

I'm fine with all three. They're equally important/valuable.

I agree, but I have an iron rule about this: you simply cannot worry about sunk costs. If you don't think your RBs (or whatever position it might be) are good enough, the the fact that you expended draft capital on the position in previous seasons is immaterial when it comes to making the team better.

I have no problem at all with taking a very good corner if he's there at #30. We need another one.

Who is the better route runner and better at getting open so that there's a clear window for the QB? That's who I want. Davonta looks more like Diggs than Waddle does, and he seems plenty fast enough. Of course, he'll be long gone by the time the Bills pick. This is helpful on Smith: https://www.nfl.com/news/scouting-devonta-smith-alabama-wr-reminiscent-of-marvin-harrison

It has been said consistently that Darrell Green recorded a time of 4.09 at the Washington Redskins’ training camp in 1986. Bo Jackson claimed to have run a 40-yard dash with a time of 4.13 s,[5][6] and there were also reports of Jackson running a 4.12 at the 1986 combine.[7][8] Texas Tech's Jakeem Grant was hand-timed by a New Orleans Saints scout as running a 4.10 in 2016, potentially beating Jackson's record.[9] In the early 1980s, Baylor's Gerald McNeil ran a 4.19-second 40-yard dash before being signed to the United States Football League (USFL).[10] Deion Sanders ran a 4.27-second 40-yard dash in 1989.[11] In 2013, Carlin Isles recorded a time of 4.22 at a Detroit Lions facility during a workout.[12] In 2017, Olympic sprinter Christian Coleman ran a time of 4.12 seconds on turf in response to claims that NFL players are as fast as Usain Bolt.[13] A year and a half after he retired from active competition, Usain Bolt ran a 4.22 in running shoes and a tracksuit at a promotional event for the Superbowl in Atlanta, Georgia on February 2, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40-yard_dash

You know far more than I do about Bama, but in the bits I've seen of Harris, he looks a little ... slow. Am I wrong about that?

Did you see that Sammy came in late? Pringle and Hardiman were clearly running crappy routes early on. Watkins replaced them and is a much better route runner. I mean, he shouldn't say anything, but he's not wrong.

This ^^^. Wilson's sack rate has ALWAYS been high. It was 9.8 percent in 2013, the year they won the SB, and they had a good line that season. It's a product of the way he plays. If you're going to complete those bombs on plays that have broken down, you've got to wait a bit before throwing. Sometimes you get it off and get a 50 yard TD; sometimes you get sacked. He gets sacked a lot because of this, but it's worth the price because he's so damn good. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WilsRu00.htm.

It could have been a magnum! (I kid.)

Apparently, Vegas odds give the Raiders the best chance of landing him! It would be an ultimate irony, right? The league made the decision to make the NFL all about the QB (they have succeeded), and this is what they get!

For the people harping on the precedent Watson would set by forcing his way out, Russell Wilson appears to be doing the very same right now in Seattle. And I suspect he'll succeed. With regard to a small number of superstar QBs, this is the direction the NFL is headed, like it or not. I know most in this thread hate the thought of this, but in this case, a tired cliche applies: it is what it is.