dave mcbride

Are we really sure this is nonfiction? It may be, but to my relatively trained eye, this and her other stories read like someone trying to write a short piece for a literary fiction magazine. To wit: the March 26 entry -- https://www.janine-talley.com/blog/2018/3/26/birthday . People really shouldn't leap to conclusions about this sort of stuff. Read the New Yorker's fiction essays long enough and you'll know what I mean. It may be that she's simply an aspiring writer.

In all seriousness, can we consider temporary suspensions of posters for this sort of stuff? It is seriously out of hand. Sadly, I think that this board is in a state of decline right now regardless of whether people want to admit it or not ...

He's a player who fits every scheme. He's that good.

Weeden had an incredibly strong arm too.

This piece just indicates to me that Cleveland is in all likelihood taking Darnold. They'd be crazy not to - he's the best qb prospect in the draft. I'm pretty sure Cleveland realizes that, and I wish they'd just sign him now so that we can move on to the next phase: the Bills-Giants trade!

I count 5 hits in 1995: Brown, Holocek, Kerner (a very good player when healthy), Ken Irvin (solid starter), and Covington (excellent until he got hurt). I also certainly wouldn't call Brooks a legendary miss. He didn't produce because he had a bad knee injury in his first camp - a camp in which he was lighting it up. The injury destroyed his career (much like Covington's did). He had zero catches because when he finally made a comeback, it was as a DB, not a WR. You gotta account for injuries. Finally, Antowain Smith had 550 rushing yards and 4 TDs in 8 playoff games - which projects to 1100 yards and 8 TDs over 16 games against the toughest competition. He also had two very good Super Bowls: 92 yards rushing against the Rams and 83 yards rushing against Carolina. To me, he was a very good first round pick. Just because he did a lot of his work for another team is meaningless in judging whether he was a good pick or not.

Oh jeez. Prescott was 24-38 for 302 yards, 3 tds, and 1 turnover (pick) for a 103.2 rating. The Cowboys scored 31 points and lost on a miracle play by Rodgers. Prescott did not "lose" the game. People, be better than this. (Also, Yolo: the Cowboys went 13-3, not 12-4.)

The Bills don't have a real qb qnd replaced their average one with a less than average one. That is pretty much all you need to know. They are trying to move up to get a real qb.

Economics isn't a difficult major? What planet are you from? This crusade of yours is so tired. I know your kid went to Alabama, and great. But this is a dumb argument. UCLA is by essentially *every* measure (eg, multiple global ranking systems of universities) a top 15 university in the WORLD, and *as a university* is ranked higer than a number of ivies. For multiple years running it has received the most applications of any university in the US despite not actually being a monster-size university like ohio state et al. Alabama, which is a perfectly fine school, isn't in the same universe, partly because it's a deep south state with a long history of underfunding public education at the k-12 level (recently ranked 50th out of 51 in math scores --http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08/alabamas_schools_ranked_8th_wo.html ). That's ok and more importantly it has no bearing on how any individual will do in life. Lots of smart people graduate from Alabama. In other words, give it a rest. Also, I can pretty much guarantee you that no one wants to hear how an MA in business (FAR easier than econ) and sports management from Kent State in 1975 somehow makes him a good scholar. He is a great football coach who is especially good at recruiting great athletes, most of whom don't giving a flying f**k about school (with a couple of exceptions). Every player the Bills have drafted recently from Alabama has been a moron, and just look at Reuben Foster. As for Clemson, Sammy Watkins and CJ spiller are all I have to say. Neither appears to be above a fourth grade reading level. I'm not saying UCLA is much better, by the way. But the thing you need to realize ist that just about all of them are bad. Big time college football is about as corrup an institution as there can be. If it disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't shed one tear. Btw, the last Bills coach with an MA was Rex Ryan, who has an MA from Eastern Kentucky (an analog of sorts to Kent State) in phys ed. He is not smart. It means nothing.

I think you did a great job, but I don’t think you factor in enough how terrible the talent pool is for a school like Wyoming — middle of nowhere state that is truly far from every populated state but Colorado, smallest population in the country, and almost no minorities. Wyoming was awful in the two years before Allen became the starter. Then they became pretty good for their conference. He was pretty much the only significant change.

Here's my take - he beat guys around the edge constantly all season, but lost out on a ton of sacks because the center of our line was so bad at pushing the pocket back that QBs were able to step up all year and avoid his mitts (the final Dolphins game was typical). Basically, he destroyed guys via outside moves all season. With a motivated a Dareus and a younger Kyle in there, he'd have had a double digit sack season. LUtuleilei is that guy who can push the pocket and make it hard to step up, so I expect more sacks next season.

Agree 100 percent.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/nfl/players/jerry-hughes/5556 and note #13 here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2751016-nfl1000-ranking-the-top-4-3-defensive-ends-from-2017-season and http://buffalonews.com/2018/01/02/advanced-stats-jerry-hughes-erupts-for-bills-against-backup-left-tackle-vs-dolphins/ Are folks also aware that Hughes' strip sack against Atlanta basically won the game for the Bills - a game they had no business winning?

You do realize that he was rated a top-15 DE this past season and had 45 pressures, right? It was one of his best seasons. Oh come on. He had a very, very good season last year. He actually was if you do the research.

Great job! Your rep is on the line with Allen!!

I think it is a known fact that African American men who can choose between a professional football and basketball career choose the latter almost every time. As Badolbilz wrote in a different context, the best basketball players among current NFL players would be backups at best in the Turkish pro basketball league. Interestingly, Nick Foles said after the NFC championship game that he was finally getting back on track because he was finally dispensing with all of the overcoaching (e.g., Jeff Fisher's classic pro-style Coryell system) he had received in the previous 2-3 years and getting back to how he had played in college and earlier in his NFL career: as a point guard. I watched him play in the SB with that in mind, and it was uncanny (side note: I'd trade our #12 pick for him in a second). My point is that there is a ton of overlap between point guard and qb, and if a player is good at the former, he is more likely to go that route. He may not make the pros, but if he plays at a high level in HS and even college, he ain't playing football--ever. The OP's argument is a little foggy, but he's onto something.

+100.

A couple of things - football scheming (offense and defense) is a lot more complex now than in 1984, and more is asked of qbs than ever (that is, it's more of a passing league than a running league now than it was then). Secondly, people of privilege -- and in this i include ALL draftable qbs who play at big time schools and get invited to the combine -- get far more prep on this sort of thing than in the past. I really don't think people took these sorts of tests as seriously in the early 1980s as they do now. Hence I don't think invoking marino/kelly tells us anything about about the present. That's why such a low score scares me. (And for the record, kelly was a great player, but he ran a really simple scheme that relied heavily on talent (great o-line, receivers, and rb). Bottom line: it's less easy to get through life in the nfl as a meathead qb than it was 30-40 years ago. I firmly believe that.

yes, i know. All of those FSU QBs were "accurate" using completion percentage as a measure because someone was literally WIDE OPEN on almost every play. Those teams were loaded. Over a four-year period between 2012 and 2015, 33 FSU players were drafted, and 13 in the first two rounds.

He's glacially slow and can't beat CBs over the top. He's not a true #1.

Manuel wasn't actually that accurate in college. Those Florida State teams were LOADED (eg., Devonte Freeman, Kelvin Benjamin, Nick O'Leary), and given that opponents (almost all markedly inferior in terms of talent) pretty much always played zone against them, someone was wide open on pretty much every play. Christian Ponder was pretty accurate in his final two seasons, and Winston was at 66 percent in both of his seasons too. When Manuel had to play against real defenses in the NFL, the lack of accuracy became apparent.

Interestingly, Jameis Winston only hit 55 mph at the combine, but his fastball sat in the 93-94 mph range when he was a pitcher for Florida State.

Didn't he basically cost Carolina a victory vs NO in their playoff game this year? http://larrybrownsports.com/football/kaelin-clay-drops-touchdown-video/420171 also: http://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/utah-kaelin-clay-celebrates-touchdown-video/246789

See immediately above!

More, and from a Buffalo scout in 2005 no less: "Marc Ross, Buffalo: "[Aaron Rodgers] is a little short. The thing you worry about is those (Jeff) Tedford guys. They don't do anything for a couple years and then they have a good year or two. Who of his quarterbacks has done what they're supposed to do? None of them. Is he just working magic with great college quarterbacks or just manufacturing guys?" http://archive.jsonline.com/sports/packers/203116571.html/