dave mcbride

Really?? (As an aside, being a snarky d**k in debate just makes you look like a jerk.) I like Dawkins, but he's currently average at best. He has potential, but he ain't there yet. More to the point, with regard to your snark: https://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/joe-b-buffalo-bills-all-22-review-week-1-vs-baltimore-ravens https://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/2017-buffalo-bills-all-22-in-review-guards_centers https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2018/2/25/17032128/2017-buffalo-bills-had-some-salary-cap-bargains-disappointments-jerry-hughes-vlad-ducasse-zay-jones https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/players/dion-dawkins/11818 https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/players/vladimir-ducasse/5586

Judging from his game-one grade and also his grades from the second half of last season, Ducasse is the hands-down best offensive lineman on the team right now. I'm not saying he's good, btw. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Halfway to 98!

I am not actually in favor of starting Allen. I don't think McCarron is all that good at all, but I think he is leagues better than Peterman. He gets you to 5-11 and some close losses; peterman gets you you to what you've seen so far with him. Unfortunately for Nate, not every game can be played in a howling blizzard where qb skills are essentially equalized. That is what I don't get.

Rico: you think this team has any chance to be other than terrible? I mean, i get rebuilding, but truly bottoming out puts you in Lions/Browns territory.

Wow. - Joe B is brutal on Benjamin. And he's not wrong. "The most confusing part is that Benjamin is in a contract year, so you would think he would go all out every snap he's out there." ?? - Why is this confusing? He's an idiot, based upon both his public comments about former teammates and his anti-MENSA Wonderlic score of 7.

I like the Browns and hope they win 8 games. They won't, though; Cincy, Baltimore, and Pitt are a lot better than them. They will win a couple-few games, however. Moreover, Tyrod didn't miss a 42 yd fg that would have ended the game. That's the Browns for you.

Hiw do you justify Peterman at this point?

My mind is open about all the parties involved, but who traded a 3rd round pick last year for an injured and certified moron -- Benjamin -- who got a 7 on his Wonderlic and had the gall to publicly criticize Newton, who won the mvp the year Benjamin was injured??

Benjamin got a 7 on the Wonderlic. That is not a misprint. You have to TRY to get a score that poor -- filling in answers randomly will generally get you a better score.

The Browns couldn't win a game in which they were +5 in tnurnovers. Since the browns re-entered the league in 1999, teams that are +5 in TOs are 132-4-1. Of those 4 losses, 2 are by the Browns. The one tie is of course the Browns too.

I've been saying this for a year -- Benjamin runs a 4.8 on a good day and a 4.9 on a regular day. He is not good. Plus he's not bright.

Dude, the Browns are a TERRIBLE model. They have been basement-level horrible for forever--one of the worst runs in the history of modern US team sports. In Europe, they would have been relegated years ago and never made it back. Never say that again.

The lack of effort there from Benjamin -- just wow.

Here's the list for next season. I focused specifically on WR and o-line (the two positions we need to absolutely address if Allen is to have a chance at succeeding.) https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/

Like I said, we don't really know. We should stop pretending either way that we do. (Also, small point, but the percentage of self-identifying Republicans vis a vis Dems and Independents in national polls has been shrinking, so that should be factored in.) Having said all of this, he will NEVER play for Buffalo. I don't lose sleep over the issue.

Word. The FA pool next year is extremely weak. Smart teams lock up their good players because they understand that the cap really isn't an issue. Beane's recent bloviating about cap jail is the thing that bugs me the most about him; he assumes fans don't understad a cap that goes up by leaps and bounds every couple of years.

You know I repsect your takes, but have you looked at the free agent pool for next year? It is WEAK.

If you really think he's bad for business, you may want to rethink that. The country is changing, and the a-hole who milks the issue the most has very low approval ratings. I'm not saying he's great for business, but I think the idea that he's bad for it is not based on any real evidence.

Vis a vis the weather, good thing for Peterman that he has a lot of late-season games in Buffalo!

Agreed. This aspect of McDermott has always worried me about him.

What I meant by "avuncular" was an easy familiarity in presentation style that conveys that the speaker/writer is both a longtime local known to everyone and an old hand. He may not have been all that kind (although stylistically his presentation style was one of accessibility and familiarity), but I'd argue that stylistically he was genial. I don't "troll," for what it's worth. I agree!

I essentially agree. I think he has a pretty nice avuncular style, and he knows how to weave in pithy punch lines at the appropriate moments. His writing ability is not -- or at least shouldn't be -- the issue.

Sully is a great ambassador for Providence! (Actually, my dad was from Providence and my mom from RI too, so I kinda respect that.) Also, while this is sorta off topic, Vic C has been pretty strong of late. (Yes, I know he's not a columnist.)

Felser really wasn't that good. Heresy, I know. I don't think he provided any more insight than Sullivan, partly because he didn't work sources like the good columnists do (read some Tyler Kepner and you'll know what I mean). I'm old enough to remember Felser getting fired fairly quickly after getting promoted to overseeing AFC coverage for The Sporting News (he had been their Bills guy), which was a big deal back in the day given TSN's cache among harder-core sports fans. He just did a lousy job there. Both Sullivan and Felser before him wrote like tribunes of the people, assuming that their role was to be an articulate mouthpiece of the proverbial passionate-yet-reasonably-educated fan. The good columnists always did that but also worked sources and brought new empirical information to the table (e.g., Will McDonogh, Joel Sherman, Don Banks, Bill Plaschke way back when). They were also VERY educated about the games they covered. Sullivan, who was clearly more of a basketball and baseball fan, just doesn't know that much, and Felser, who probably knew a little more, really didn't bring much insight because his takes were fairly lazy. What no one is mentioning is that Sullivan (and Felser before him) did bring one thing to the table that disappeared when the Pegulas took over: he had access to Ralph -- the best access at the newspaper, in fact. When Ralph died, he no longer had that attribute, and the new owners were clearly not going to give it back to him. Without that, how much did he really offer?