dave mcbride

If the Bills really didn't draft him because he didn't pick up the phone, that is Gomer Pyle-level behavior by Nix. I find it hard to believe that this was the reason he wasn't picked.

I think that's a little unfair. In their first playoff loss to NO he was 29-43 for 380 yards and 3 TDs / 2 INTs (97.0 rating), and the team put up 28 points. Yet the defense gave up 659 yards! And again, he was completely jobbed by the refs in Dallas. They had that game won. The final playoff loss came against Seattle, and in that season (2016) he started off extremely well, playing at an MVP level. Yet in the final 5 games of that year, he was playing with a dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand with torn ligaments in it. His numbers trailed off and he was pretty ineffective the rest of the way. But he had a legit injury that explains the outcome. Anyway, to answer your question, I'd take him in a second. He has pretty much turned a true bottom feeder (the Lions) into a solid team. Put, say, Tyrod on that team, and they're going 4-12 every year.

I think you have to factor in that he came to an O-16 team with terrible talent; they went 2-14 his first season. In the last 7 seasons, the Lions have had 4 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons plus 3 playoff appearances. And you and I both know he should have one playoff win -- that loss to the cowboys was one of the worst reffing displays in NFL history given the stakes involved. The Lions were absolutely robbed.

I'm not sure of your point -- although I suspect the source of your attempted joke lies in the fact that you seem to think that any non-laudatory comment about anyone with a connection to Alabama is in reality a slight against the school, the region, and the Christian Lord above himself (a trait that is -- to be frank -- pretty tiresome). Perhaps I'm being unfair. Anyway, I'm simply stating that Daboll has been involved in the soap opera-level Pats drama for literally years and years, which I find ... interesting.

Most interesting of all: he joined Mangini before the 2007 season, and shortly afterward (September 9, 2007 to be precise) Spygate happened. He also followed Mangini to Cleveland and served under him both years he was there. Yet the Pats took him back. Hmm. The dude's been involved in a lot of soap opera drama over the years. (He was also in NE for deflategate.)

The Washington Post will survive. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/washington-post-still-plays-catch-gaining-times-n833236

It's their first negative quarter in the last 40, which is pretty remarkable given the landscape. The News is known as a well run paper, relatively speaking. The headwinds are just so strong now. I open and read at least one every day (NYT and occasionally others). It remains a better way to read the news (in my opinion) because you are visually more likely to see and read stories that are not in your own personal wheelhouse. I am firmly convinced that I'm a more informed person because of print newspapers. Reading things digitally, is fine, but it's not the same.

Good post. And I am a devout atheist.

I actually think you're onto something unless I'm reading the tea leaves correctly. It does seem to be a thing.

Peterman will absolutely be on the team. He was a good college player and is not devoid of upside long term.

Um ... the Bills were pretty good at scoring points in 2015 and 2016 -- 12th and 7th overall if you exclude the final clown-show game from 2016, when Manuel started. Taylor did almost none of the things you say he did when he had a good receiving corps, which was far too infrequent in his time in Buffalo. He is limited, but he is not by nature a check-down or inaccurate qb. He is not the most accurate qb in the world, but when blessed with good receivers, he's at least a little better than league average. I agree about with you about what he does for a team vis-a-vis mean regression, but he's really not that bad. It'll be interesting to see what he does in Cleveland, which unlike the 2017 Bills is not stuck with an absolutely garbage receiving corps. People forget to mention that issue far too often. If Josh Gordon is on, he is the sort of player who can actually catch up to Taylor's deep throws and beat his man while doing it.

Related, from my favorite Yankees site: http://riveraveblues.com/2018/05/intangibles-17-1-hot-streak-170706/ How much credit does Boone deserve? It’s impossible to say. Do the Yankees go 17-1 in these 18 games with Joe Girardi? Almost certainly not, and I say that only because I believe if you change one little thing, the results would be different, and the Yankees have been so good lately that any change would make the results worse almost by default. Had Clint Frazier been on the roster instead of David Hale, the Yankees probably wouldn’t go 17-1. Remember though, the Yankees hired Aaron Boone because of his communication skills, and because they wanted to create a better clubhouse atmosphere. I don’t think they had a bad clubhouse under Girardi, not at all, but communication was a concern and the Yankees took steps to improve it. Boone seems relaxed — you know as well as I that Girardi would’ve been on edge in the dugout last night — and I think players feed off that. The current manager projects calm. Ultimately, Boone is the manager and the buck stops with him. When the Yankees got off to a slow start, people were already questioning his hire. Now that they’re kicking butt, he’s getting credit. Boone obviously deserves some credit. How much is up for debate. Talent reigns surprise. You can’t win without talent. But is it possible Boone’s clubhouse skills, the clubhouse skills the Yankees invested in, are taking that talent to another level?

I questioned Boone at first, but not now. He seems perfectly fine. No reason to cast suspicion on a guy who is 26-10! I watch most of the games, and nothing really sticks out as a problem.

Murphy had 10 sacks and freaking 55 pressures in 2016, and I expect him to be fully recoverd this season. Hughes was one of the league leaders in pressures this past season too.

Yet you don't adress the fact that he pointedly addresses the collusion issue. Disagree. SI really DOES have some good younger writers at present. NBC? Not so much.

Bandit is one the most informed and insightful posters on this board, and has been for a long time. I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I recommend stopping.

Agreed 100 percent! PFW used to have a good similar column too. I recall a piece late in maybin's first training camp quoting anonymous sources saying that maybin looked like a bust, and a whole bevy of posters here attacked the piece because it was anonymously sourced.

Um ... Brady is more or less beloved or at the least deeply respected by his teammates, and has been forever. I challenge anyone to present *compelling* evidence suggesting otherwise. You will not find it.

It would seem to me that McDermott may have disliked Brandon's penchant for leaking. That may be at the root of this.

That's my concern. The adage "people don't change" is obviously not always true, but it's a popular one for a reason.

Most fans didn't care nearly as much about the draft back then and had a negligible amount of information to analyze compared to what they have now. Heck, teams themselves were relying on Street & Smith guides to take players.

It's both, and elite physical skills help. I'd rather have them than not. I have my concerns about Allen, but one bit of info that I do like is that his release (not the throw itself) is lightning-quick.

Indeed, in baseball, the new analytics fad is ... wait for it ... a measurable athletic skill: exit velocity ( https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/sports/baseball/baseballs-latest-craze-its-like-rocket-science.html ). The same can be said for the ridiculously high demand for bullpen pitchers throwing 95 or above. Josh Allen has one of the (if not the) strongest arms ever in terms of his passes' "exit velo." Will that translate to excellence? Who knows, but I'd rather have the skill than not have it. In sports, athletic ability actually matters. Call me crazy for saying that.

I get all of that and have read the relevant articles, but my point is that he's not simply a RB when it comes to projections. A bell-cow RB who can also be a 75 catch/10 ypc/6 receiving TDs receiver is a rare talent and should not be compared to Leonard Fournette.

I thought it was a pretty fair piece, but I thought he was wrong about one thing: Barkley. Bear in mind that I think that the Giants should have taken Darnold , but Barkley isn't just a RB. He's by all accounts a terrific receiver, with Marshall Faulk being the comparison. If you're gonna write a piece like this, you better look at a guy like Faulk's receiving numbers in his prime (1998-2001). In 1999-2000, he had nearly 2000 receiving yards and 13 TD receptions.