Albany,n.y.

I used to buy a hard copy every year after The Sporting News stopped publishing their Pro Football Guide, but now it's only available electronically. For anyone interested, here's a link to download this NFL publication. https://static.www.nfl.com/league/apps/league-site/media-guides/2020/2020_NFL_Record_and_Fact_Book

Over a year ago I wrote why I believed the NFL GMs had already concluded Rosen was a bust, here's what I wrote on another board: Posted July 30, 2019 Here's something I posted elsewhere that summarizes my feeling Rosen is a bust: 1st round QBs, especially top 10 picks are considered gold. They don't get traded or released after 1 season. In the 50+ years since the merger, the only 1st round QB traded a year after he was picked other than Rosen was Kelly Stouffer and the only reason he was traded was because he refused to sign with the Cardinals & sat out his rookie year. Stouffer (6th overall pick of 1987 draft) was traded for a 5th in 1988 & a 1st & 5th in 1989. Rosen was traded for pick 62 of the 2019 draft & a 2020 5th, basically pennies on the dollar for the 10th pick the prior year. If Arizona thought Rosen had any long term future they 1) Wouldn't have hired a coach who wanted nothing to do with Rosen & knew he could have his pick of any QB in the 2019 draft & 2) Wouldn't have been willing to trade him for so little. Also the fact that Arizona didn't get more shows there wasn't a lot of interest in Rosen around the league. Clearly the NYG, Washington & Denver all thought that choosing a rookie QB was a better choice than a Rosen trade. Arizona may have helped devalue Rosen by tipping their hand on Murray, but most of his devaluation was caused by what the rest of the league saw on film. If Rosen pans out for Miami, what it will say is Miami outsmarted the rest of the NFL. As I've said in the past when the Bills picked up guys who if they worked out, the Bills would have outsmarted some of the best GMs in the NFL now applies to the Dolphins: They're not good enough to be considered the smartest guys in the room. At least Buddy Nix admitted as much in a press conference. Then: Here's the problem beyond just the 3 teams (NYG, WAS, DEN) that took rookies over Rosen before pick 62: NE, who, like it or not, may be the smartest guys in the room made no attempt to deal for Rosen even after a 1st rounder was off the table. You would think picking up a QB who was a top 10 pick a year before and has 3 more years left on a pretty cheap contract would be good insurance for a 40 something Tom Brady. They passed. They later took a flyer on QB Jarrett Stidham in the 4th round (pick 133). The Raiders may or may not think Carr is their long term future, but they preferred Nate Peterman & Mike Glennon on the roster than any thoughts of trading for Rosen-NATE PETERMAN !!!! Who did the LA Chargers pick to back up Rivers? Not trading for the young prospect who was a top 10 pick who would be insurance against an aging Rivers, but Tyrod Taylor on his 3rd team in 3 seasons. They later took a flyer on QB Easton Stick in the 5th (166). That raises the number to 6 teams, including the smartest guys in the room, who saw enough to not bite on using a 2nd round pick on Rosen. 5 of those teams drafted QBs, 3 before & 2 after. Teams that also picked QBs, beside those 6 were Carolina (3, 100), Cincinnati (4, 104), Philadelphia (5, 167), Jacksonville (6, 178) & Baltimore (6, 197). All those teams thinking of backup QBs and none thought enough to outbid Miami's low offer for a former top 10 pick. Even Arizona didn't want Rosen around unlike when SD drafted Rivers (actually traded Eli at #1 for Rivers at #4 plus extra picks) and kept Drew Brees for a couple of seasons. Arizona couldn't have been more transparent unless they put the word BUST over Rosen's photo on their website prior to the trade. The Dolphins didn't outsmart anyone, no matter how incompetent the guys in Arizona are. All the guys in Arizona proved is their own incompetence as they wasted picks 15, 79 & 152 of the 2018 draft for 1 year of Rosen, pick 62 in 2019 & a 5th in 2020. I guess the way they felt about Rosen they feel lucky that they got pick 62 & next year's 5th.

Green Bay practice squad

He's a bust-just couldn't make it at the next level. No reason to add him to the mix when he's no better than Davis Webb, who already knows the offense. Rosen is a prime example of fans who "saw him play in college" and expected big things. The problem is the NFL is so much faster than college that until the guy actually shows he can play it doesn't matter what he did in college. It's so difficult to determine the bust factor on a lot of QBs because the players they face in college are not NFL caliber & until they face the real thing, you just never know. From the reports, Rosen's biggest problem is his inability to read NFL D's. As a result, he'll never be anyone who can push a starter and for our team to waste their time on him is totally unnecessary. Now if Beane wants to put him on the practice squad over Fromm, I wouldn't object, but he has no business anywhere near the active roster.

Tyrod is in his 10th year in the NFL and has made millions of dollars-not bad for a 6th round pick, and he has a Super Bowl ring from his days backing up Joe Flacco. He's overachieved his whole career in spite of a limited amount of talent. He must be very well liked among his teammates to last this long. He & Fitz have done more with little than most backups/part time starters. Both are starting opening day-amazing!

I don't see Jake Fromm anywhere on this team, not even the practice squad.

One thing for sure-there are fewer injuries going into opening day since they're not exposing players to injury in preseason games. I think the # of injuries in the early part of the season will be the same.

Frank Gore might be the Jets head coach by the start of the 2nd half.

https://nesn.com/2020/08/nfl-rumors-details-of-patriots-frustration-with-qb-jarrett-stidham/?fbclid=IwAR0KrjWejk9X2dgKXcgAywlhSQHyvOrPor5i9FkzJz9xVNl2vu1ohOoBPqw What did the Patriots expect? They got lucky with a once in a lifetime player in Brady & think they can just dial up his replacement in the middle rounds of the NFL draft. Stidham is what he is, at best a career backup who is likely to be out of the league in a few years. He's their Peterman or C. Jones, a flyer who won't work out.

Poor Duke Williams, no place to go after the Bills cut him.

Real Sports did a feature on him. I can't find a video of the whole segment anywhere but if you're more internet sophisticated please link it.

This should get interesting when there aren't enough tests for all the civilians & the players are getting tested every day.

They flashed "Nixon for President" on the scoreboard opening day at Rich vs Miami after an interception.

Bruce won the game for his team.

Part of celebrity HOF team.

From the AFL Championship game before Super Bowl I "Bills in Super Bowl, Chiefs in soup bowl." If I recall it correctly, it had a drawing of a soup bowl with KC players in it. It's that banner that years later put me on a crusade to show that they called the 1st game the Super Bowl. Here's the proof I found in the Buffalo library:

When I saw this, this is the 1st guy I thought of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timmy_Smith

There's a huge hole in the pie Mrs. Lombardi baked and set down on the table.

The reason for the current IR rules is because certain teams were stashing players on IR rather than exposing them to waivers. The Polian/Levy Bills teams were among the most notorious abusers of IR-they would find a late round pick who they felt needed seasoning, stash him on IR for his rookie season & save a roster spot while maintaining the player. There was an old expression "get a concussion" in the final preseason game so that the team could IR the guy. The league felt it was unfair to the other teams that these players weren't being exposed to waivers, as all practice squad members currently are before landing a PS spot.

If they want to play the season with the virus continuing, they're going to have to treat the virus like an injury, with one change. They will have to change IR rules so that a player can be put on Covid-IR where they can return when healthy & be able to sign a replacement player. It will truly be survival of the fittest, but most NFL seasons come down to that. I see teams losing players to Covid-IR similar to the 2019 Jets season. When Darnold & then Simien went down, their season was shot, but they still had to play their games with whatever QB they could find on the streets. Lots of free agents in & out every week but seriously, as long as there is 100% survival rate among the players & coaches, the season will go on.

I think this is a poor list. A lot of the guys you rate on the top part are much more highly thought of around the league and locally in their teams' cities than how you rate them. To answer your last question: It's pretty obvious they didn't win enough to be retained. Only 2 of the 7 weren't benched in season.

Never in the same day, but I once did a trip where we went to Cleveland for a Bills game on Sunday & a Giants@ Indianapolis game on Monday in 1990. I also traveled to opening day in Buffalo vs Miami in 2010, came home that night & then went to the Baltimore @ Jets game the next evening the weekend that Met-Life Stadium opened.

220 Bills home games 36 Bills road games-most in NJ but multiple games in NE, Baltimore, Philadelphia. Farthest away game in LA (the Peterman game) 4 Bills Super Bowls in neutral sites. Total 260 Bills games attended. Bills record in those games 154-106

But once you translated it into gallons it was significant. I lived in the Riverside area at that time (right over the city line in Town of Tonawanda) and used to go to Canada to gas up. I even bought a Peace Bridge coupon book so I could save more money & I only had a 10.5 gallon tank on my VW Rabbit.

Brent calls the Raiders games on their radio broadcast. I'm guessing he'll stay on since he lives in Las Vegas & was commuting to broadcast the games in Oakland.