SectionC3

Believe it or not, yes, I do. But what their GC’s office does is up to Russ Brandon’s brother and his staff. Also, you can save your condescension for the other board. I’m sorry that you’re out of your element on this particular issue. But it’s not a reason to be rude. I don’t know if pederson fits the culture here for a variety of reasons. PSE has had enough problems with sexual misconduct, and isn’t Peterson a guy who had an affair with a subordinate at a previous stop? not sure I want to get away from EP, either. But if he can run EP, and if they can live with a guy of pederson’s background, I am all for a hire like this one.

You give way, way too much credit to the lawyers these teams hire. The people the bills have have are far from the cream of the crop. And, re the first paragraph, this isn’t about making anyone sign. It’s about making sure that, when someone does sign (like Dorsey did several yards ago, when he had little leverage), that the team is protected in a situation such as this one. bottom line here: some rando on an internet message board came up with a plan to avoid the mess in which the bills now find themselves. They’d be wise to try to implement the tool in the future.

Actually I do think someone could mess this up. Remember the jags canning their assistant coaches several years ago, then discovering they had to pay an extra year of salary because of how the contract was written, and then firing their GC? I do. Your view on the NFL rejecting the contract out of hand is similarly misguided. Ever hear of a savings clause? What about a clause that allows for promotion as of right upon Rooney satisfaction ? And, because the Bills seek the right to promote against one’s will doesn’t mean they would exercise that right. Ergo, your Rooney problem is feigned. Frankly, in my view, the whole idea of insulating against a situation like this makes perfect sense. Wanna be Josh’s QB coach? Gotta potentially sacrifice some marketability as insulation in case the guy above you leaves and we then wish to explore continuity.

Again, you’re missing the point. The bills and Dorsey can contract for whatever they want. It’s private law between the parties. So what should have happened here is that the Bills put language in the contract that gave them the right to make Dorsey the OC, whether he wants to be or not. As soon as he’s the OC, he and the giants (in this instance) can’t do this dance. your point about Rooney is separate. That’s between the bills and the NFL. If the bills, say, promoted Dorsey without Rooney compliance, then the bills have to answer to the NFL. So what easily could and should have happened is that daboll left, the bills interview Kelly skipper or whomever to meet Rooney, and THEN they exercise what should have been the “promotion ad of right” clause in dorsey’s contract. It’s not that complicated.

I think you’re missing the point. The contract should have given the Bills the right to promote, irrespective of Dorsey’s consent, Dorsey to OC. The Rooney issue is separate. Of course the bills would have to satisfy that rule prior to promotion. But under my approach, they could have satisfied Rooney by now, promoted Dorsey afterwards, and blocked Dorsey from considering the giants based on the NFLs lateral move preclusion. It’s kind of simple, really, and it’s a shame that nobody thought of doing this with a guy who needed us more than we needed him when he came here.

Depends on how it’s structured. An automatic promotion would (for Dorsey). A right to promote vested with the team would not (so long as team first met Rooney). You’re right about belichick. He didn’t want it. But the jets, if IIRC, could do it. Hence his resignation (as opposed to a declination). That’s the concept that I think should have been built in for Dorsey here. General counsel dropped the ball.

That’s the point. That’s what the contract should have said. Like the Jets did with Belichick. Also, on the BOB thing. I’m all for considering the idea. But I wonder what Brian Gaine has to say about BOB.

Gotta wonder why the contract w Dorsey wasn’t written to give the Bills the right to promote upon vacancy. Maybe it’s against league rules. But it’s one way to handle a situation like this one. Quickly satisfy Rooney, promote, and block.

I’m getting to the point where if Dorsey doesn’t want to be here or if he has cold feet that we cal Josh see how he feels about option #2 and move in with our lives. I don’t like getting jerked around on this by a guy who has never been a coordinator. Everyone is replaceable. I suspect the bills will match the money if they like him enough. The “scared” thing makes sense to me, too. I keep coming back to the idea that, as a Cali/Miami guy, he doesn’t want to live in Buffalo in February and March.

I wonder if Dorsey hates living in Buffalo. It might be that simple. Because, football wise, his departure makes sense only if he thinks he can’t match what Daboll did and will be stained by a year over year drop in production.

Why spend that draft capital for a backup to Gabe Davis?

“Finisher” is the perfect word here. Absolutely perfect. To me that’s been the issue for awhile. I think we miss Jordan Phillips a lot more than we realized. Oliver was really good this year, and I get that Phillips isn’t a closer on the edge, which is probably what you’re getting at. But he was so disruptive against that pass that I feel like he made guys like Hughs better because he took away the option to step up in the pocket. I completely agree with having a more physical corner next year. The biggest thing to me, though, is getting a pass rusher who can close the deal. We need it desperately.

Sorry. I can’t go there. We should have closed the door. We blew a 16-0 halftime lead (IIRC). I get the Duke drop at the end of the first half, and the bogus call on the kickoff to start the second half, and that those things should have put it away. But the D should have bagged that thing. And it didn’t.

I'll condense all of this. He's blown two of four road playoff games. Games that we should have won but that we screwed up. There we have it.

Big whiff by Beane. He’s going to have meaningful dead money next year if they release him. (About $1m, IIRC.). It’s not huge money, but every penny counts when we’re against the cap. Probably looking at a minimum wage punter next year. The more I think about this, the more aggravating it gets. What did they expect in hiring a hangtime/positional punter? It’s windy here. This isn’t Miami or Phoenix. The weather this year was horrible, and we got what we deserved. What a surprise.

I’m not on the fire Frazier train, but these are really, really good points. You may have convinced me. I’ll add that if McD/Beane feels as you do, we won’t see Frazier moved until after all of the head coaching jobs for which Frazier has interviewed have been filled. No reason to nuke him before we know whether we can get a couple of bonus picks for his departure.

We’re going to get them. Look. Both coaching staffs screwed up royally at the end of a game for the ages. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t hurt, and I’m not saying that we don’t have a number of areas in which to improve. But they do, too. The margin is thin. We just have to be better next time. And I’m confident that we will get there. I’d say the same thing if the field goal at the end of regulation hit an upright and bounced out, or if the last sequence of regulation was handled properly. It’s literally a game of inches, and it sucks that several months of preparation was wasted by something eminently controllable at the end. We just have to keep on grinding and good things will happen.

Agreed. It’s going to happen. I read Barnwell’s thesis that the Bills may have blown their best shot to reach the Super Bowl. Give me a break. Allen will have a long career, and I get that he’s at the tail of his rookie deal. But things will happen to other teams, too. Injuries, flukes, mutual assured destruction (e.g., Burrow takes out Herbert or Mahomes for us next year), etc. We just need to keep grinding and to keep getting better.

That’s even worse because I believe Pringle returned the kick. EDIT: was positioned to receive the kick.

I don’t discount anything you say. If the call was pooch, it’s simply inexcusable that it wasn’t communicated to Bass. I totally agree with you, too: in warm weather, Bass runs to the sideline, gets the tee, and huddles. I’m going to guess he stopped at the heater here because of the cold. And, if that’s the case, it explains the FUBAR communication. No matter what happened, it’s inexcusable.

Go to the games. The specialists hang together. Bass probably was by the propane heater/warming up at the time of the huddle. ST should have grabbed him on the way out to tell him what to do.

The recent Schoen quote makes me wonder if the Giants will look away from Daboll. “Proven track record of developing young players” is a lot different from “proven track record of developing quarterbacks.” This isn’t to say that Daboll hasn’t developed other young players—he probably deserves credit for Gabe Davis. But, at this point, if Daniel Jones isn’t the answer, and Trubisky isn’t to the Giants’ liking (Schoen saw him all year in practice), then I question whether the Giants will want to develop a young QB this year. At this point there’s no such QB warranting such faith in the draft, and seemingly nobody of that character available for trade/FA/whatever. (Jordan Love doesn’t count no matter what GB does.) That is, they may work on the rest of the team first and plug in the QB later. Kind of like what the Chargers did with the Flutie bridge and what we did here to an extent with Tyrod until we found Josh. If that’s what they’re thinking, Flores looks like a much stronger candidate. And, he might give them a better shot at Watson to the extent there’s mutual interest. That division is ripe for the taking (sorry, Dallas), and putting Watson in there gives them a shot at the playoffs every year. It’s a very, very interesting idea.

Starting to wonder if maybe daboll loses NYG job Flores. Is Flores/Watson preferable to Daboll/Trubisky?

I agree with the point about Hill. I think his speed freaked them out. Which, of course, is why it would have been a good plan to simple tackle him on the final offensive play of regulation. Take the 5 and roll the dice on a jump ball in the end zone. Which, of course, didn’t go so well once last year. But whatever. We agree that we played scared in the last sequence of regulation.

It sort of does to me, too. I think McDermott would be a lousy poker player because one can tell a lot from his eyes. He gets wide-eyed when he’s frazzled or harried. First game against KC? In the zone. Same thing for Patriots rounds 2 and 3. Didn’t look that way at the end against KC. And not calling timeout when the defense was gassed before the goal line sequence in OT? Silly. Stupid. Inexcusable. But, and I should know this well, we called timeout before at least the first play of the last sequence in regulation, right? So the idea that we were in a state of discombobulation at the time of the snap (we had a chance for a breather that should have allowed for a cooling of heads) doesn’t make sense to me. Then again, having Addison or whomever simply stand there to spy doesn’t make a ton of sense either. Sort of the same idea as rushing four in that situation. Whatever. In any event, I took the McD speak to mean that he wasn’t going to toss anyone under “the bus” but that something was screwed up. (I kind of wondered if Milano blew it by shading so far away from Kelce on the last offensive play of regulation.) Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some element of truth to all of this, and if Farwell gets cut loose. ST blunders permeated this season—first and last games had obvious issues, and the punt return game was a white knuckle affair beginning with the Dolphins home game. Levi typically plays an off-ball role. So there’s that. But jamming Kelce would not have been the worst idea in the world. I was all about tackling him and Hill on one of the last two plays. So there’s that. I took the text message to say that Farwell will resign under duress to protect his reputation. That is, Farwell is being fired.