Cash

Any NFL team can beat any other NFL team, even on the road, and even in the playoffs. So yeah, there’s a non-zero chance we lose this game. But I stand by my pre-Week 18 thought: the Bengals were the team I didn’t want to play. Burrow could just get in a zone where he’s scoring every single time, and you know he’s not going to choke if the game is close. I have a lot of respect for Sean Payton, but there’s no sane world where Bo Nix should be anywhere near as scary. Simply put: There are no guarantees in life, but I like our chances. The Bills should win this game, even if it’s close.

Agreed. Hyde was consistently the best "punt catcher" on the team, and also had some return ability. When McD was most concerned about "not effing up" as opposed to "making something happen", Hyde was usually back there.

Interesting! My assumption is that the economics won't work out for that model, except maybe in some niche cases. But it's cool that someone is trying it. As a consumer, I think it's more appealing to me than a full-on subscription.

I was dead wrong on this one.

Not what I expected. Looks like their priority is keeping the lines healthy. Clapp gives them 5 full backups to play at OL, and Toohill gives them 4 backup DEs to rotate, along with the 4 backup DTs they already have.

I don’t know Von at all, but I have watched a moderate amount of his public-facing persona, especially since leaving the Broncos, and extra especially after joining the Bills. I believe he’s spoken openly about his desire to go into media after retiring? (Plz correct if I’m mistaken on that.) I’m very confident that he doesn’t want bad PR if he can help it. I'm also pretty confident that McBeane will want Von to sit for team-first, strategic reasons. If the rubber really hits the road, I imagine they’d hash it out so that Von sits, but the team agrees to pay some of that $1.5 million, or maybe all if Von kicks ass in the playoffs. Either way, I don’t think Von suits up. I agree with this.

Whether fair or unfair, I'm at the point where I'm expecting Lamar to fail in the playoffs until he proves me wrong. He has a pretty robust history of playing worse in the playoffs now, and I have to think there's real psychological factors at play. Doesn't mean that they'll last forever but I'm going to ride the streak till it ends.

Perhaps. I think it would be simpler with a more guaranteed incentive, like # of snaps or just playing in the game. In that scenario, I think they'd sit him anyway, then do a mini-restructure to give him the incentive money in the offseason. I think that's pretty common when a player misses out on an incentive by doing what's best for the team. In this case, where a sack is far from guaranteed even with a full workload, Hypothetical Whiny Von wouldn't have as good a case. (And if Beane wanted to be a dick, he could point out that Von's suspension cost him much more opportunity than getting vet rest.) Ultimately my guess is that Actual Von will care more about the potential for injury and chance to rest for the playoffs than he will about the $1.5 million. If he plays on Sunday, I'll stand corrected.

I still think he sits. He’s made enough money (and cares enough about his image) to not make a stink over $1.5 mil.

What do we think the O & D will look like by the 3rd quarter? I'll take a stab at it: QB: Trubisky RB: Ray Davis, unless Frank Gore gets one of the PS callups FB: Gilliam, and he may play a lot TE: Morris, probably with Gilliam as TE2 WR: Hollins, Coleman, & KJ Hamler (PS callup) LT: Van Demark LG: SVP-G or Anderson C : Whichever doesn't play LG RG: Torrance RT: Grable DE: Solomon & Smoot, with some Epenesa mixed in DT: 4-man rotation of Carter, Johnson, Phillips, and Jefferson LB: Andreessen & Ulofoshio NCB: Ingram CB: Elam & Codrington S: Bishop & PS callup (Jackson or Cine) Feels like I'm off in the secondary - feels like Cam Lewis will be playing. Maybe Ingram plays on the boundary and Cam plays nickel?

If that's the case, I'd be fine with having just Trubisky & Allen. If Mitch gets hurt, Josh can come in and exclusively hand off for the rest of the game. If that means a bunch of 3 and outs, so be it.

Copper should work fine but definitely test with a magnet to be sure.

As others have pointed out, maybe. It's called induction because a magnetic field "induces" heat in the pan itself. If a magnet sticks to your existing cookware, then that cookware should work fine with induction. Some but not all stainless steel works, I think all cast iron works, and anodized aluminum works as well. If you're happy with gas, I'd say stick with it. But if it isn't available, you'll find that induction is the next best thing. Manufacturer: Jenn-Air. We pay about $100/year for a service plan, and that covers any service calls we make. I think every time we've had to make a service call, they've fixed it same day (including other appliances besides the oven/range). I think the part itself would normally cost something like $350 plus labor, but that's from a few years back and it's probably more now. (Also probably going up more if US tariffs go up as proposed - it's the one part of the stove not made in the US.) Durability of the glass surface: Very happy on that front. Haven't done anything to majorly put it to the test, but it's handled normal kitchen wear & tear very well. Currently spotless with no scratches or anything. I forgot to mention the cookware aspect, so thanks to those who did. I would highly recommend using a magnet to test all of your current cookware before deciding to switch.

I’ve had induction for about 8 years now. Compared to old school electric, it’s not even close. Induction blows it away. Compared to gas, it’s fairly close, with a small edge to gas. Rapid heating: My induction is great at this, and performs as well as gas. And one nice feature of induction is that the range surface doesn’t get that hot, which helps avoid major cleaning hassles if something does boil over. You can even put a paper or dish towel under the pot as extra protection. Temperture control: Good, but gas has an advantage here in being analog. Mine has temperature levels from 1-9, plus a “boost” mode for boiling water and such. Occasionally something will need to be toggled between two numbers while cooking, but that’s pretty rare. For me personally, I actually prefer this aspect to gas, because I can write down what level worked best. Reliability: We bought from a local place that does service, and we’ve needed it twice. Both times a motherboard in the control panel had overheated and needed to be replaced. Other than that, zero performance or reliability issues.

Didn't surprise me FWIW - I was pretty confident that we’d still win the division even if I was off by 1 on the low end (meaning we went 10-7). My thought process: -Patriots’ ceiling is maybe 6-8 wins. -Jets are being hyped up by media for $$ reasons. Rodgers is too old, coming off a major injury that usually takes 2 years to fully recover from, and is an egomaniacal nutjob. Even if nothing blows up and Rodgers hits his best case scenario, they’re probably topping out at 9-10 wins. -Dolphins lost more talent than we did due to cap reasons, they were paper tigers even before then, and Allen/McD completely own them. A sweep is all but guaranteed, meaning we get any tiebreaker. Similar to the Jets, I saw their best case as around 9-10 wins. All of these went significantly under their best case scenario, true. But even if one or more hit, I still think a 10-7 Bills team is 4-2 or 5-1 in the division and wins outright or via tiebreaker.

First time I can think of that I was off by more than 1, and I’m thrilled about it! To be fair to me, I think I would’ve picked at least a game higher if I’d known we’d have Cooper by the trade deadline.

Hot fire 🔥

Or honestly just laughed out of here. This is the internet and trolls are gonna troll, but that one would be incredibly weak sauce.

He’s also probably not in game shape yet.

My Dad told me he had Mickey Mantle in the front wheel and Roger Maris in the back, whoops. Then again, if no one had been doing that, those cards would never have gotten scarce and would never have been worth anything.

I've watched a medium amount of Maye this year. My highly amateur scouting report: He’s got big-time tools. Big frame, big arm, good wheels. Can make plays out of structure. He is currently a bad QB but is a gamer to some extent. Unlike Jac Mones, I could see Maye developing into a legit NFL QB someday. But right now, he’s part of the reason they’re losing. I’m expecting either our defense to confuse the heck out of him, or my boy AVP to come out with a crazy simplified game plan that takes all decision making out of his hands. Either way, Bills by a billion!

Correct. Again, maybe he’s gone up a level since leaving the Saints. I haven’t been watching him on the Bengals. But the guy I saw a ton of on the Saints was not on a different level than this year’s Greg Rousseau. I’m sorry if that upsets you. I don’t disagree with this take. I’m from Rochester originally, and I’ve long felt like it’s roughly on the border between Northeast and Midwest. I think Buffalo is still kind of in that border, but closer to Midwest.

Agreed on those 2, so we're up to 6 active players plus 1 on IR. Per BearNorth's post above, we can add Josh Hines-Allen to get us to 7 active/8 total. I guess we could include Trey Hendrickson as well, but I'm reluctant to do that. I haven't watched any Bengals games this year, so maybe Hendrickson has massively stepped up his game this year. But I watched him a lot when he was on the Saints, and IMO he's not on a different tier than Groot as a pass rusher. And here's your original point: You're welcome to change them out once you get the GM job, but it seems like you think it's simple to find multiple DEs that scare other teams and wreck the opponent's game plan. I submit that those guys might be the 2nd-hardest to find in the NFL after franchise QBs. You're welcome to prove me wrong, but where are all these other acceptably-good DEs? Beane has been throwing a lot of resources at the D-line; some of it has paid off, a good chunk of it hasn't. But I don't think it's as simple as "get rid of these guys and bring in better guys."

Are there really “many”? What does that mean - do most teams have one? I’m skeptical on this front. I would bet that if you sat down and went through rosters, you’d be hard pressed to find more than 10 pass rushers who fit the standard you’re asking for. 1. Parsons 2. Watt 3. Bosa 1 4. Bosa 2 5. Garrett That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Who am I missing?

I like this phrasing. There is no such thing as a risk-free decision in the NFL. The risk they took signing Miller didn’t exactly pan out. But it was a calculated decision on their part, weighing the upside against the risk. And given how good Miller looked pre-injury - particularly his clutch performances in big games - I can’t kill the decision making. Best case scenario would be Miller salvaging some major value with a clutch sack or two in playoff victories. Im not expecting it but I don’t think it’s crazy. I’ve been watching him a lot of defense all year. I was pretty encouraged by his play early in the year, but IMO he hasn’t looked the same the last few weeks. I don’t think he’s looked awful, just a lot less impressed than I was early on. My hope is that he’s taking it easy by his standards, either because he’s only got so much left in the tank, and he’s trying to save it for the playoffs. It's also possible that Miller’s faced some tough matchups the last few weeks and has been getting beat.