JESSEFEFFER

I just watched his highlights to compare to Christian Watson who has a similar build. From the small sample size I saw, he was aggressively attacking under thrown balls. Not a good look from Ridder. It's like the thing Pierce does best. But, it makes me wonder if he can track a ball over his shoulder, adjust to it and get the YAC. Certainly had the defender beat on most of those which is a good thing. There are 11 catches by my count where he turned to face the ball rather than track over his shoulder. Good trait for back shoulder and endzone jump ball throws. Definitely has an advantage in those situations. Alec Pierce

Too much to sort through but. my suggestion is the winner of toss likely does not "defer," they choose an End Zone to defend. Thus they get benefit of knowing if they must use 4th downs to extend a TD matching drive and any wind advantage. I'd make the team scoring a TD on a 1st OT possession kick xp. Second team must follow with 2 PT try assuming the kick was made. Two matching FGs put the game into sudden death (an advantage for team with the 1st possession of OT.)

OK. I found this Youtube video which was posted a couple of days ago. Over 30 minutes of Josh Allen runs to 1) make you smile or laugh and 2) demonstraate how few times he takes a big hit on a run play. He seems most likely to take on defenders on QB draws and zone reads. He is really quite flexible but my sense is this most vulnerable area is his legs being so tall and with defenders dragging him down. Josh Allen running. Not too many there that end with big hits.

QB power runs rarely end with a bad hit. The worst I remember was in OT of the playoffs vs. the Texans when Knox ran by his block and Josh had no time to react as he got blasted in the chin. It should have been a game winning play. The QB zone reads end badly most often when Josh misreads and can't beat the first defender. The worst I can remember was vs. LAC when Bosa twisted him down. I thought that was close to a leg injury. The hit (late, imo) that cost him 4 starts was in the pocket and a shot to his extended arm well after the ball was released. I also remember an awkward horse collar tackle while he was in the pocket (which is legal.) I think of Favre's problem with pain killers and Luck retiring due to being mentally no longer willing to deal with the constant pain of injury and rehab. Josh seems bullet proof by comparison. Let's not kid ourselves, there are all sorts of ways to get injured and many of them are in the pocket. Broken thumb on a hit to a helmet, lower body injuries from a stumbling, rolling defender or being landed on by an illegal, full body weight tackle (left shoulder injury vs. the Raiders.) I say the zone read runs have been some of the least productive and most risky plays so I'd be ok with them going away.

The PSU punter, Stout, has much better stats involving fair catches, punts inside the 20 and touchbacks. So, it appears he has more control of his kicks which is a big deal.

I was reading the thread on the mock drafts and the majority have the Bills drafting Araiza. So I came back here to see the range of opinions on where we were willing to take him. I think you are right about the round. If he is as good as advertised I say he's gone before the start of the 4th round. If the Bills get an IOL, WR and CB in some combination with their 1st 3 picks, I'd be ok with trading back into the bottom of the 3rd, ahead of the comp picks, to get him. There is a clear opportunity to make the 2022 team better and getting Andersen and Wildgoose poached from the practice squad is a lesson learned about the reality of what having an elite, deep roster is. He'll have lots of time to work with Ferguson and T Bass on holding skills.

We have seen Matt Barkley start only one time with the 1st team offense and a full week of practice and he was shockingly good in that game. In that 4th quarter vs. NE (the last Josh horrendous game, imo) I remember a pass from Matt to Zay Jones in the EZ for the lead that Zay did not make a good play on. On one of Josh's 3 ints earlier in that game Zay had a similar poor reaction to the ball. He was traded shortly thereafter.

I am getting old and I like historical context which means I feel like I know more stuff and feel the need to share it. Maybe it was pointed out already and I missed it but here is a classic Ralph move that makes a point................ Ralph's Protest of Modell Moving the Browns

I think Watson will find it different playing home games outdoors on the shore of Lake Erie in the AFC North division vs a domed stadium in the AFC South.

I sense that there is a gig coming up for an endorsement of a certain type of cash crop in which Josh has heavily invested.

I think that Austin Tx was mentioned as an NFL worthy site by some spokesperson from the Jerry Jones connected stadium consulting firm hired by PSE to help with new stadium negotiations. I don't think it played well and Terry and Kim never seemed to embrace that strategy.

Ran 4.68 40 and covers his own punts with enthusiasm. Probably needs to develop a variety of alternate kick skills but I'd be OK with the Bills drafting an elite leg with plus athletic ability. There may still be an obvious roster spot for him come draft time and Anderson and Wildgoose are examples of what happens to talent that has no place on the roster. Might be a chance he could be a big upgrade ala T Bass. PFF takes a look at a punters' value.

This is how the Tweet ended. Literally no one has said what is "Here's what happened....." details. I don't know if it's worth buying or not. Details and context matter to me and I choose to not make judgements without them. The assumption was always that Coach McDermott was withholding any public trashing of a player or coach to save their reputation while taking a "the buck stops here" public mantra. But, it could have been a situation where he was more directly responsible for what happened. I'd believe it if Bass was never told and Milano lined up wrong or did not react correctly at the snap. He is not in any position to help on Kelce and is looking in the wrong direction. That seems like a mistake to me and I doubt they teach it that way.

It worked for Merlin Olsen. Coaches work way too many hours and by contrast, a TV gig is hardly a full time job. He can still be a checked in dad and husband and maybe make more money than he did playing QB. Just my thoughts.

The OT rule as per me. Team A scores a TD on first OT possession and must kick their XP. Team B gets the ball and must score a TD and if so they must go for 2 pt conversion assuming Team A made their kick. If Team A missed their XP then Team B has the option to kick for the win. Would the team winning the coin toss elect to play defense first? I think so because the second team to possess the ball has the advantage of knowing what they need and the availability of 4th downs to sustain their drive. All other scoring rules stay the same. If there is a weather effect on the game that favors one direction over the other, then there is an additional bonus to playing defense first. In the case of matching FGs by each team, next score wins the game. Team A gets the advantage of winning the game on their 2nd possession with a score of any kind. B does not get a second chance. Now what does the winner of the coin toss do? I still think they would play defense and choose the EZ they defend.

I mention this every chance I get because I am trying to speak it into existence. Fitz can do what Aikman and Romo have done and be better at it. He's funnier, smarter, has a more engaging personality than any other person connected to the NFL that I have witnessed. He has played for 9 different NFL franchises and likely has connections to more owners, FOs, players and coaches than any other person in the league.

The CFL rule seems good to me. No fair catch allowed. No coverage allowed within 5 yards of the returner. Give the returner a chance to see the coverage and force it to slow down. Gone is the play where the returner gets blown up just as he made the catch. Gone is the need to judge how much time and space he needs to protect himself as he is concentrating on catching the ball. Should be more yards to be gained on returns and less benefit to punting. All of a sudden, playmaking returners become more valuable. Or the safe play becomes to make the catch and get to the ground. I might add that the returning team can no longer double team the gunner. Let them beat the block and get down field to the 5 yard away position, ready to make a play on the returner.

I get the sense that Murray does not handle criticism well. When your team struggles on or off the field, it's great to have leaders that are accountable and can rally their team. If one of those leaders is not their QB then that's a problem. QBs that stand up and take the heat whether it was truly their fault or not, buy more team wide credibility. It is wise to do it. Fitz did that. Josh does that. Kyler?

There was a story a couple of years ago about how McDermott had gotten in Matt Fairburn's face about his reporting on the pregame messages he'd seen posted around the Bills facility and about the Bills practicing a fake punt. The story was presented in a way that made McDermott look like a jerk. It did not come from Fairburn as he probably did not want to make it a big deal which would make it even worse. At the time, I thought that is the way McDermott is. He is the anti-Rex in that way and that's what I think a team needs from their head coach. Someone obsessed over details because you can never know which detail will get you beat. The whole "for want of a nail the kingdom was lost" thinking. People obsessed with details can come off looking like jerks to the rest of the unobsessed world. Given that, Sean has to be sick about some of the losses the Bills took this last season starting with the blocked punt vs, the Steelers and ending with the 13 second meltdown. He has to see it as a stain to his record and the way he sees as his way of leading the team. I bet he will make some changes to the way he does his business as a result.

3rd and 14. Punt into end zone = the int. Gave his guy a chance to make a play.

Seemed like the only contact on Chase was before the catch was made. Should have been more yards?

I think the delayed cheering reaction of the gallery seems to indicate that they eventually saw the ball land and stick on the green. But, I'd like to know for sure, too.

I accidentally saw an all 22 from the endzone behind Mahomes and it looked to me like Milano got caught looking to the trips formation to the defensive left and missed the snap of the ball. Thus, he was late to react to seam route by Kelce. It's like they wanted them to throw the seam and Milano was supposed to buzz that route at the snap to either break it up or make the tackle without any YAC. His eyes were in the wrong place and he got a slow start. That's what I thought I saw but I can't watch any more at this time to confirm. Too much wallowing in disappointment and I have no stomach at present.

Numbers are nice to talk about and I like data more than most. But any metric of QB performance that doesn't attempt to quantify the effect of weather, most specifically wind, is a flawed metric. And, as far as I know, none of them do, thus they are all biased towards QBs in domes or otherwise great weather. I think the Bills offense will try to incorporate more YAC opportunities and his numbers could go up as a result.

The other weird thing Kurt criticizes is Josh's footwork on those sidearm throws he makes. That's the whole point is to quickly hit a window before it closes and to not waste time resetting his feet. It's the kind of throw a second baseman might make to start a double play. Quick, accurate sidearm release without resetting his feet. Josh does this very well. The classic is the goal line throw to John Brown vs. the Raiders. Brown is doubled and approaching the sideline. Time and space are compressed and Josh just sidearms it to the spot faster than any other QB can match. Should have been ruled a TD.