dave mcbride

https://wapo.st/3OZ8zLj i strongly recommend reading this Washingon Post piece, which features an interview with Michael Lewis. It may change views on this whole situation.

I literally read this when I woke up this a.m. some good stuff here. That South Carolina WR sounds like a total freak. So does Marvin Harrison Jr.

Good piece by Mike Axisa, who used to run the River Ave Blues website: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/how-missteps-by-yankees-ownership-brian-cashman-have-led-to-new-yorks-shocking-decline-since-2017/

I think the issue with guys like Fields, Stroud, Mac Jones, Bryce Young, and Tua is that it's so hard to assess how good they really are given that they are surrounded by massive talent at OSU and Alabama. As a totality, the receivers, o-linemen, and RBs at both of those schools in the last decade have been ridiculously more talented than the competition. Every once in a while, another school puts it together--Clemson and LSU--but they don't sustain the dominance. Georgia looks to be another one, though. They made Stetson Bennett look amazing. But I don't think he'll ever do much. Christ, we wasted a draft pick on Jake Fromm, who obviously can't play. As for Fields, I was down on him in college -- slow eyes and a pronounced hitch in his throw. I thought he'd get sacked a ton in the NFL, and he has. I wouldn't want him. That said, I was very down on Jalen Hurts early on his career (partly based on his play at Philly and partly based on how he played at Alabama), but look at him now. He's a terrific player and borderline elite. He'll likely have a long and good career. So who knows? One thing to consider: Ohio State QBs universally suck in the NFL. It's kind of an iron law. Maybe Stroud ends the law; he looks like he could be good. But again, the receivers he's been throwing to the past couple of years have been absolute studs.

I dunno. While Chicago's metro area is a bit bigger (8.9 million), it's not that much bigger (Houston's is 7.3 million). And last I heard football is pretty big in Texas. Mac Jones has been objectively better than Fields (factor in that Fields was absolutely abysmal in his rookie season while Jones was modestly competent), even though Jones is not very good. You realize that Fields was sacked 55 times in only 15 games last season? It takes a certain kind of talent to be sacked that often. You thought Derek Carr was worse than EJ Manuel, which has stuck with me over the years.

Except that they just traded up in the first round for a player that every evaluator thinks is an elite pass catcher who can stretch the field. The fact that he's labeled "tight end" is neither her nor there. What matters is that he's a highly graded passing game weapon.

If you knew anything about me, you’d know this to be wildly untrue. I’ll leave it at that.

Who knows? They were .500 last year and have some very good talent. I have no idea how they'll do. I won't be shocked if they go 5-11 and I won't be shocked if they go 10-7.

I wouldn't make any judgments yet. The proof will be in the pudding. What they had before certainly wasn't working. Maybe this will.

Oh please. I know a lot of people who went to Berkeley. None care. I think they’re reasonably representative too.

Cal is by most measures one of the five best research universities in the world (as is Stanford). They don't need a name-brand football conference to thrive. I doubt they care that much. Sports isn't something that Berkeley lives or dies by.

Absolutely, it's about the four game separated shoulder type-injury stretch, and these guys are really terrible. You want a guy like Charlie Batch in the veteran stage of his career. He wasn't very good, but he could manage a game. The Steelers went 6-3 in the games he started between 2005 and 2012. If Allen were to go down early for the full season, though, I'd almost prefer that they ended up with a top five draft pick so that they could take whichever version of Jamarr Chase is available in the subsequent year's draft. Agree about Davis Mills. He gives off serious competent backup vet QB vibes.

Yeah, saw that. He paints a very positive portrait of Rousseau and says he's grown into his frame. Didn't realize that he just turned 23.

He had 1 catch for 13 yards, actually: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AB5stBgf0GINVPUfAORxZWXJPLuYjJ_Xmg:1691422471875&q=Montreal+Alouettes&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLQz9U3yLIoLlzEKuSbn1dSlJqYo-CYk1-aWlKSWgwAdbAgQiEAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_lufc78qAAxXKElkFHTPhBtQQMXoECBsQAg&biw=1920&bih=931&dpr=1#sie=m;/g/11k3_sq8zr;6;/m/0fnw5;tb2;fp;1;;;. Overall, he's having a decent season - 29 catches for 435 yards and 15 ypc through 8 games. Basically, nearly the exact same numbers per game as Gabe Davis last season: https://www.footballdb.com/players/dhaquille-williams-willidh01

I have always said that you want a backup that get an otherwise good team to 2-2 over a four-game stretch. Mitch Trubisky was that guy. For a full season though? If Josh Allen goes down for a full season, the Bills would be well and rightly f**ked. He is like Manning in that sense — he is the offense and literally everything revolves his elite skill set. Also, while I appreciate the the instances of effective substitutions that you mention above, I can’t help but think you’re having an “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” moment. By that I mean you’re missing the argument ender of all argument enders in this domain: a certain Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr. In the year of our lord 2001.

https://twitter.com/PFF_Sam/status/197235934272552960?lang=en

No doubt. I'm just responding to this line: "He batted .000 in that regard in 2021 and 2022."

DaQuon Jones was a helluva player last year. He had the best season of his career judging from PFF, PFR's AV, and the ol' eyeball test.

He absolutely shredded the Pats and Jaguar defenses in the first two games of the 2003 season. I remember those games well, so I'm not simply relying on stats. He was uncoverable.

Disagree, strongly, about the dating here. He struggled to get open after he tore his hamstring early in the 2003 season (at the end of game 5 in OT vs Cincy). At the beginning of that season, he looked the best he ever did. In the first two games of that year he had 11 catches for 214 yards. He had a dud vs Miami in game 3, but so did everyone - the offense got stomped and was held to 118 total yards. Against Philly and Cincy, though, he had 17 catches for 213 yards. He was uncoverable that year through five games: on pace for 99 catches and 1462 yards. It would have been on a par more or less with his 1998 season. Then the hamstring tear happened and he looked like had sand in his joints the rest of his career. As for 2001, the team was so bad and the QBs so bad that he really suffered, stat wise. The Bills only had 18 TD passes that season vs. 20 INTs. The collective passer rating for the team was an abysmal 74.7.

It’d be interesting to compare the advanced stats of Davis with Alvin Harper (and Diggs with Irvin during that same time period) and correcting for the change in rules.

Both players in that trade from last year -- Moss and Hines -- suffered bad injuries very close to each other time-wise.

Um, you gotta root for the defensive players too, you know ...

I'm just pointing out that he got more targets yesterday than on the days before. I'm not judging the player one way or the other.

https://theathletic.com/4733725/2023/07/30/buffalo-bills-training-camp-4/ Davis far more involved Sunday while making a standout play Over the previous two practices, starting receiver Gabe Davis took a backseat on target count during team drills, but on Sunday, he was targeted more often than at any other practice this summer. Davis brought in a pair of passes on four targets from Allen, with Allen attempting only 17 passes during Sunday’s 11-on-11 work. Davis made an outstanding catch over cornerback Tre’Davious White’s head early in practice. White was turned around on the play trying to play the receiver rather than the ball, and Davis timed his jump perfectly to make the grab. Davis also was merely a few inches away from finding the end zone on his other two targets. On the first, Davis was in the back corner of the end zone with separation from Dane Jackson and turned his body toward the ball to stay in bounds. The on-target throw from Allen needed a last-ditch effort from Jackson to knock the ball out of Davis’ hands at the catch point, but the ball fell incomplete. Then to end the practice, Davis uncovered wide open to the left sideline of the end zone, and Allen put the ball on the money. Davis got his first foot in bounds, but the second barely tapped the line during the catch, making it an incomplete pass — regardless of the offense’s celebration. Regardless of the incompletions, it was a good sign for Davis to uncover and find himself in those big play opportunities after being quiet during the previous two practices.