dave mcbride

22-8. Never, ever forget Foxboro.

You are of course completely correct. Also, have you heard of this guy? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RiceJe00.htm Or this guy? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/I/IrviMi00.htm Or this guy? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/H/HoltTo00.htm Brown is definitely a #1 in the sense that he demands coverage by your best cover guy and the fact that he's the qb's first option. Where he was drafted doesn't really matter. After all, TO was a third rounder but an utterly dominant player. Same goes for Steve Smith (4th round) in his prime.

Moulds' 1998 season is the best season by WR in Bills history. He simply dominated the field.

He was pretty good as a runner, but his real forte was always scrambling. That's a sixth-sense sort of thing, and he had it.

The thing about Kelly is that he had a couple of pretty spectacular seasons in the USFL. The USFL wasn't the NFL, obviously, but it had a ton of talent. Over the course of two seasons, he passed for 9,842 yards, 83 TDs, 45 INTs, and a 98.0 rating. I doubt he would have put up those numbers in the NFL, but in terms of physical talent, those were a couple of his peak seasons, and he probably would have been at least pretty good. In his final playoff game in that league, the Gamblers lost 22-20 to the Birmingham Stallions, which featured none other than Joe Cribbs, who ran for 1,467 yards that season (and 70 yards on 16 carries in the playoff game).

Ok - I’ll change it to “Josh Allen [meaningless proper noun].” That appears to be ok these days, right?

Yes, I was joking! I was referring to this. At 3-31 vs. Brady, by any means necessary! (I kid - sorta.)

So he generated some news today by saying Payton Manning was better than Brady. That's not why I'm talking about him though. I was completely unaware that his nickname - which he definitely earned - was "Patriot-Killer." If he's looking for work as an assistant DB coach, I really think McDermott should hire him. 'Beginning in 2008, while Pollard was with the Kansas City Chiefs, a series of events began to take place that would alter the course of four Patriots' seasons. During the first week of the 2008 season, Pollard was knocked to the ground while trying to sack Tom Brady. On the ground, Pollard lunged at Brady’s legs, connecting his red Chiefs helmet to Brady’s left knee and tearing the quarterback’s anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. Brady’s season was prematurely over.[21] In 2009, while Pollard was with the Houston Texans, Brady threw a pass to Wes Welker to the short left side of the field, which he then took up the field. Pollard closed in on Welker fast, forcing the diminutive receiver to cut to his right, possibly faster than he anticipated. His left plant foot slipped and he tore his ACL and MCL, missing the playoffs that year.[21] In the AFC Championship Game following the 2011 season, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski caught a pass of about 20 yards with Pollard in coverage. Pollard wrapped Gronkowski up to take him to the ground. As Gronkowski hit the turf, Pollard’s right thigh forcefully landed on Gronkowski’s left ankle. Gronkowski suffered a high ankle sprain. Gronkowski played in the Super Bowl two weeks later, but the injury helped limit him to just two catches for 26 yards.[21] In the fourth quarter of the 2012 AFC Championship Game, as the Patriots were driving in an attempt to tie the game, Pollard launched a direct helmet-to-helmet hit which concussed running back Stevan Ridley. Ridley immediately lost consciousness and control of the ball, which was scooped up by the Ravens to take over possession, while wide receiver Brandon Lloyd tended to his fallen teammate. This sealed the Ravens' victory, advancing them to Super Bowl XLVII, in which they defeated the San Francisco 49ers. Though Stevan Ridley recovered in time to play in the 2013 NFL season, he was unable to retain his job as a starter, and has been released by five different NFL teams since 2013.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Pollard

That’s not an argument. If the offense throws 2 pick sixes and fumbles twice in their own end, the oppenent may well end up scoring 31 points. But it’s not a reflection AT ALL of the actual defensive performance.

Egad. I was looking at 2018. My apologies. Still, the numbers in 2013 were disadvantageous for the Bill D. The offense was 19th in most turnovers given up, 31st in TOP, and 22nd in plays per drive; the D had the 30th best average starting field position. Opponents also scored 4 return TDs against the Bills (a higher than normal number): 2 INT returns, one fumble return, and one punt return.

Um ... no. The Bills offense was 30th worst in turnovers surrendered (31st in the INT category, meaning only one team threw more), and the Bills defense had the 32nd best defensive field position on average when they trotted out on the field—i.e., dead last. The bills offense was 26th in TOP and 30th in plays run too. All of that has a HUGE impact on the points allowed category. Dig a little deeper rather than simply throw out “points!” as a determinative category.

I honestly don't know, but it being Buffalo, I have a hunch that fans will figure something out. It's not really fear-mongering though, and in any event do you REALLY think that's the purpose of this particular piece? I certainly don't think so, and I've read it a couple of times. As I've said above, it's the first I've read about the stadium money carve-out, and I think it's an interesting issue. He explained it clearly and well, at least in my opinion.

FO begs to differ with you over 2012 and 2013 (and yeah, I know I sound like a broken record): https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef2013 The 2013 defense was 6th in turnovers forced, 2nd in INTs, 3rd in net yards per passing attempt, 5th in plays per drive, and 2nd in yards per drive. It was a good D. Run defense is obviously important, but pass defense in the modern NFL is simply more important.

He is using Buffalo as a hypothetical case, and it's actually a good hypothetical given the circumstances in Buffalo (big questions about a new stadium in a context of low current stadium revenue and a low-valued franchise) and the nature of the issue itself. Florio is hardly bashing the Bills or mendaciously trying to "generate clicks." The CBA is arguably THE off-the-field issue going forward for the next few years. He is the first person I know of in the media to write about the stadium money carve-out (which I was completely unaware of), and it's genuinely interesting (at least to me). I for one applaud him for raising the issue. Fwiw, I don't think the Bills are going anywhere because of who the owners are, but I also expect that there will be a new domed stadium built before too long. The current stadium situation isn't really viable given the revenue problems associated with it. As for New Era, the renovation that occurred there (under $150 million) was paltry compared to Arrowhead, which underwent an $850 million renovation (effectively making it a new stadium). The NFL has been clearing out of bad stadiums lately - SD , Oakland, St. Louis (the LA Colosseum doesn't really count) - and the Bills and Jax have probably the worst stadium revenue situations at the moment (and I won't be surprised if Jax eventually moves; I think they probably should).

See my post above. That’s not what Florio said AT ALL.

It’s truly like Shakes the Clown meets Taxi Driver.

No, it's not suggesting that at all.It's a hypothetical scenario in which the NFLPA decides it wants a say in this issue because the money involved is pretty huge and - if this were to happen - would not be available to them even though it's technically league revenue. Florio does not have any animus toward Buffalo, but since Buffalo's stadium situation has been in the news lately AND since they have one of the league's oldest stadiums (Arrowhead is a year older) not counting Alamada Colosseum and the LA Colosseum (both Soldier Field and Lambeau were basically completely rebuilt), the Bills are an obvious hypothetical example. Plus the team has been bad for a long time and stadium-based revenue generation is meager compared to the rest of the league. People are aware that the Bills rank dead last in terms of franchise value, right? https://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/list/#tab:overall

Ha ha! Definitely a low entry barrier.

Anyone who says he's the odd man out and then says immediately afterward that he's their best receiver (and, implicitly, cheap to boot) is a straight-up moron.

The board wasn’t around for those two. It was around for F v. J. That’s what I’m referring to.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200301050pit.htm https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201211110min.htm Point being, even bad QBs have the occasional good game. Johnson was terrible overall, straight up. Please don’t defend him. Championing that SD-Buffalo game is like finding a passable slice of Bocce’s pepperoni pizza in a deep dumpster dive. In the two seasons where he was the man - 2000 and 2001 - he crapped the bed.

Yeah, Flutie v. Johnson is the reducto ad absurdum of all-over-the-map discussions like this. This tends to be where it always ends up if the thread goes on long enough.

All I know is that I watched Johnson choke repeatedly in college while I was at UCLA and was never a supporter. That was my take from the get-go. There was a reason he was drafted in the fourth round, and it had nothing to do with physical talent (his talent was fantastic). I was at UCLA when his brother Bret Johnson, the frickin' #1 high school QB recruit in the country, metaphorically picked up his marbles and went home after failing to win the starting job. He then transferred to Michigan State (my wife's alma mater), where he stunk. The lesson for me: be skeptical of raw-talent guys who don't produce despite being surrounded by incredible talent - which Rob Johnson was at USC. He had a few good games for the Bills, but doesn't every bad qb have the occasional good game? He was bad, Badol, and the numbers, from college to the NFL, back that up. Again: the most sacked qb ever in terms of sack rate. PS - we all expected the Bills to win??? Please. We all HOPED the Bills would win. They were playing on the road against the number one defense in the NFL and against one of the best coaches of that era.

?? Phillips all but SAID he wanted Flutie in the years after. Wilson ordered it. From the horse's mouth (in a 2017 piece co-written by Phillips and Vic Carucci in the News): "The next day, our owner, Ralph Wilson, called our GM, John Butler, to tell him he wanted Rob to start our wild card playoff game at Tennessee." Also, what are you taking about re: AZ? The Bills controlled that game throughout and won 31-21. They beat NE in OT because a) the weather was basically a nor'easter and b) Jonathan Linton not only lost two fumbles (once inside the red zone), but got stoned on a 4th and 1 play. The Bills completely dominated the yardage stats in that game. Re the 1998 Bills offense, my do memories fade. They were 11th in yards, 16th in points, and 7th in offensive DVOA. My strong recollection from that season is that everyone leaped on Flutie after the Baltimore game, but as it became clear over the next 16 months, that defense was arguably the greatest unit in NFL history. They finished first in DVOA that season and the next. Most importantly, I am skeptical of anyone who argues that Johnson/Flutie was six of one/half dozen of the other. Johnson stunk, pure and simple. Outside of throwing a very nice ball when the pressure wasn't there and running reasonably well in the open field, he was bad in every other aspect of the game (especially the mental part).

You know as well as i that he lit up the number 1 defense (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef1998) in the league like a Christmas tree in that game, and while he made some mistakes, he moved the ball up and down the field all day. Johnson did the opposite against a significantly worse pass defense. I'm not saying Flutie was without flaws, but he was a clear shot better than the QB who represented probably the biggest mistake in franchise history. The Bills spent the #9 overall pick plus a fourth for a qb who went 0-5-1 against ND and UCLA despite having, in succession, Curtis Conway, Johnny Morton, and Keyshawn Johnson as his #1s and Tony Boselli as his LT. He choked in every one of those games (I watched them). Badol is a great poster and always worth reading, but even he will confess that he was a massive booster of the disaster that was Rob Johnson when that whole thing went down. All of us make mistakes, of course.