dave mcbride

Your whole premise is that 10-6 isn't 4th best in the league, but rather a middling result (i.e., decent and nothing more). As it happens, among QBs who have played for the past four years, Prescott's winning percentage - 62.5 percent -- sits only behind three other QBs: Brady, Brees, and Roethlisberger. He is tied with Russell Wilson for fourth best. Only Brady has more wins than Prescott's 40 given the injuries suffered by Brees (39 wins) and Roethlisberger (31 wins). Wilson has the same number of victories as Prescott. Aaron Rodgers' winning percentage is 61 percent. Deshaun Watson, Mahomes, and Lamar Jackson all have higher winning percentages, but Watson has played slightly more than two seasons (due to injury), Mahomes has played for slightly less than two (again, due to injury), and Jackson has played for roughly 1.6 seasons. You can be sure that most and possibly all of this trio of QBs will have a regression season at some point (with Houston, quite possibly this year). For the second time, I am not talking about one season, but about a much longer duration (in this case, four seasons). In that longer duration, slumps, injuries, and occasional team upheaval tend to even things out.

Not asking you! I know you'd know the answer. But I also don't think you're unwise enough to think that playing CB for the Giants or the Cowboys really raises your profile much. If the team is good and you're elite, people will know about you. The Bills have a top-shelf defense and a good team overall. Plus they are a good story. Hence more people are aware of White than the guys playing on the back end of defense for the most valuable franchise in the world.

It's actually 101.3-60.7. My mistake. As you can see, I am not talking about one season, but 64 games, which is a much, much larger sample size than 16.

??? The Cowboys D has finished in the top of the league each of the past 6 years in terms of points allowed and has twice been in the top 6. They were 8th in net yards per passing attempt - the key stat for passing - last season and in 2017. I didn't ask you; I asked Dopey - who by his response to me showed me that he didn't know the answer. I expect many people here would know; there are a lot of smart, knowledgeable fans here.

He did it on his own and knows the business, which is not nothing. Regardless, he's easy to slag, I guess, but this is a damn good interview. Yep. Spot-on comments.

He is a straight-up jackass. I will root for him to fail. Would he be? Like, say, Eli Apple? The Giants are bad, and one CB wouldn't have made them good. Quick: name the last few cornerbacks who started for the Cowboys without looking it up.

It would be highly ironic if Ramsey's star declines in LA because the team struggles, and we'll all look back at his Jax years as his "star" years. It is actually a plausible scenario.

Favre's first year in Minnesota was the best season of his career!

I'm nearly 100 percent certain I've had it - I started having a very dry and persistent cough (which I never, ever get) 20 days ago and it still persists. That was followed a couple of days later by a daylong bout of diarrhea and, after that, about five days of fever spikes (with one evening in the middle of it being particularly nasty). My 23-year old daughter had symptoms too, including the inability to taste anything for a week, a cough, and very mild fever spikes. Despite the nagging cough, which is finally diminishing, I'm fine now. Basically 100 percent. Neither of us are sick enough to get tested given the situation in Brooklyn.

Also NYC related: https://gothamist.com/news/surge-number-new-yorkers-dying-home-officials-suspect-undercount-covid-19-related-deaths [Thanks for posting - seemed inappropriate for me to "like" tho. ? This is pretty common in an epidemic situation. Very likely happened in China and is happening in Italy/Spain and elsewhere too. When the dust settles, statisticians look at seasonal deaths from previous years and calculate an "excess death rate" which may be attributed to the disease]

The better argument about Gore is noting that his three most productive seasons (yards from scrimmage; ypa) occurred in the previous decade! https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GoreFr00.htm

Why would he retire? He'd have to surrender money. He's never, ever going to play again, but from a financial perspective it's far better to not retire and let the team either cut you, IR you, or reach an injury settlement with you. If you retire, the team doesn't have to do anything.

Not sure why you're arguing this point. All good baseball players have tons of bad games. For even the best class of hitters, it's a sport pretty much defined by probable failure.

Mike Trout had more than 30 statistically terrible games in each of the last five seasons. No player is perfect every game.

I do. He tailed off in the last 2-3 games back to normal, but in the first 13, he was as lockdown as lockdown can get.

I think prescott is a good player but not the best qb in the league. The production numbers at every level back that up, as does the eyeball test. He is playoff caliber. Elliott in my opinion is overrated vis a vis that team’s success. Prescott is way more important. Anyway, they are about to experience a measurable decline in o-line quality with the retirement of Frederick, so we’ll see how important that o-line is to his production.

Fair point.

The Cowboys are 40-24 in games Prescott has started. In baseball terms, that’s a 102-60 season. Seriously, try to avoid being a dumb Bills fan. This site has been really good at chasing the morons off, or at least shaming them. Be better.

He was *literally* voted the NFL defensive player of the year for 2019, and this after a great 2018 season and a phenomenal SB vs the Rams (forced fumble and key INT). Just stop, guys. I think more highly of Watkins than most here, but I’ll agree that it’s arguable. His postseason performances the last couple of years have played a big role in shaping my opinion.

The hate here for two very good NFL players Who happened to also be good players for the Bills is freaking hilarious. Jeezus.

Actually, in his rookie season, the bills went 9-7 - their first winning season in a decade. He was the team’s best offensive player too. And they were over .500 the next two seasons when Taylor started.

And Bruce’s best season was 1996, two years after this time comparison.

You do realize that Belichick is currently engineering the cancellation of the 2020 season via his pandemic unleashing skills, right? He planned for this.

Um, have you looked at the next two years after this one - 2021 and 2022? https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/ They clearly have a plan.

Fair enough. As a UCLA alum (grad school, not undergrad), Rosen (who I know you were high on) was the sort of guy who checks all of the boxes, but left me absolutely cold. When I was in grad school at UCLA, Rob Johnson (the ultimate talent, but teams NFL didn't like him, which mystified all the draftniks) helmed a team for three seasons in which his LT was Tony Boselli and his receivers were, in, succeeding years, Curtis Conway, Johnny Morton, and Keyshawn Johnson (bear in mind that couples of them would be on the same squad in those years). The defense was absolutely loaded too. Against ND and UCLA in those three years, SC (arguably the most talented team in the country) went 0-5-1, and it was the QB who was the problem despite the gaudy overall-season stats. The Sun Bowl was their destination in those seasons, but it should have been the national championship game. My point is, Gunnar - and I say this with all due respect, because I think you're one of the best posters on the board - is that I think you're a little too in love with the robo QB model. To quote Clausewitz, the fog of war changes the battlefield immediately. To wit: Rob Johnson could literally do it all on the practice field and was one of the greatest prospects of the 1990s. Moreover, his brother, Bret Johnson, who had a ridiculous arm and even more accurate than RJ (who was really accurate in ideal settings), was the #1 recruit in the country -- even more highly recruited than RJ -- and went to UCLA. He couldn't win the job and - after one season at UCLA - transferred to Michigan State (my wife's alma mater) and never won the job. Say what you will about Tyrod Taylor, but he did it the hard way and is an NFL survivor. He'll play into his mid-30s.