Hapless Bills Fan

Considering that McDermott and Daboll and Josh have all been heaping praise on Morse as having his best season this year and so forth, moving on from Morse doesn’t seem likely to be on the menu. And no, Feliciano is not a better center than Morse.

Yeah, as the Demotivator says: “Consistency. It’s only a virtue if you’re Not a screwup”

“You Can’t Fire Me…I Quit!”

I think AB has to always be a “legend in his own mind” and sulks if his ego isn’t stroked the right way. I also think he’s paranoid and when he wasn’t getting targeted as much as he wanted, it was a plot to deprive him of his rightful due and not Brady taking what he could get. I would also bet money that this isn’t the first or the third or the 10th time Arians has had to manage AB and his ego during a game and he’d had enough.

Am I the only one who never heard the term “todger “ before? Never say TBD isn’t educational.

That seems like as reasonable a take as any, but it almost sounds too logical, calculated, and rational for AB

I take your point that the Bills have been bad at TE for a long time, but I’m not sure it argues against mine - the point of a TE, a Kelce or Kittle or even a Hunter Henry type, is to be that big outlet who is “open when covered”. If Knox isn’t “that guy” then we still need an upgrade at TE. I don’t follow your last sentence. My point is that Daboll *is* giving Allen “easy completions”, but that if they’re to targets Josh is unwilling to trust for some reason, then he needs to give Josh different “easy completions”. That’s not on Daboll; it’s on Josh for being unwilling to take what Daboll is scheming up for him, and possibly onl both for not communicating

I think it’s ok here, you have all been very careful keeping it general about whether politics is in sport or not. If you want to discuss specific politics maybe start a ppp thread or if you do really want I’ll move it there- we try not to do that with existing threads for (reasons)

That would be unfortunate

I don’t see that. Fitz stuck around the league because of his “emotional intelligence” - not fond of that lingo, I mean his ability to get along with everyone on the team and build relationships with all: WR, OL, coaches, assistants - as Lee Smith said “if you tell me you don’t like Ryan Fitzpatrick I’m telling you you’re lying” - and then because of his mental ability to learn new playbooks and read Ds and good film study habits. I could be mistaken, but I see Mayfield as too much of a “drama llama” to fill that role

I know, but I’m never telling

WTF is he thinking!?????

I don’t like the Manny Sands DNP thing. I think he’s resting himself for the playoffs. I hope if Davis and McKenzie continue to take reps for him and play well, they keep those reps when he comes back in the playoffs. And if Beasley keeps up with the stopping on the route I hope McKenzie gets more airplay. Bates practicing is a hopeful sign - I think 😅😅😜

Good point, that partially compensates for the higher # of INTs

I personally think their legal department/FO wanted to collect relevant information from all parties - anyone who was present and overheard all or part of the sideline altercation - and also needed to give Brown the opportunity to follow their process for getting a medical opinion documenting the condition of his foot after the game. A team can’t waive an injured player; he has to be waived/injured and go on IR if he’s not claimed. Since Brown is claiming he was injured, they have a process to follow. According to Schefter, Brown refused to keep a medical appointment the Bucs arranged for him in NYC, where he was at the time, and has not complied with requests to provide the team with the test results and notes from the visits he did have. I assume their counsel advised them that constitutes a “good faith” effort to have Brown examined by a physician of their choosing and to obtain results of his “second opinion” visit, so they are now clear to “send the Turk” and free up a roster spot. In his statement, he specifically references being in pain and saying the “trigger” to his jersey-dumping, shirt-and-gloves tossing exit was “someone telling me I’m not allowed to feel pain”

He does? I kind of feel like he creates his own drama and then finger-points at others for it. He carries grudges against the press - who was that one reporter he had a public spat with a couple years ago? And as Cabot reported, Mayfield refused to make himself available for the required media press conference after the Lions win. That ain’t a brave guy who “tells you like it is and doesn’t pull punches”, that’s a guy who doesn’t want to face the music of tough press questions, even when it’s music he’s contractually obligated to face. Not that the media doesn’t put out flimsy stories at times, but (see above) my impression is that Cabot in general is a careful and credible reporter, and telling her “he’s not her puppet” IMHO implies that he legitimately provided some of the material in the story and didn’t like the way she “spun” it, not that she didn’t have legit sources.

You and a couple others here might be better plugged-in, but my impression of Mary Kay Cabot is that she’s generally well respected and “plugged in” with Browns sources. The story she wrote is here: https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2022/01/browns-qb-baker-mayfield-must-resolve-his-differences-with-kevin-stefanski-soon-in-case-they-need-to-co-exist-next-season-mary-kay-cabot.html (It’s subscriber-only but one can log in for 1 free story) She gives quotes from Baker on 2 occasions and from Stefanski to bolster the contention that they aren’t on the same page. I’ve never heard Allen say anything like that. He’s always “I need to find a few more completions….I can’t put the ball in harm’s way like that” - it’s only very recently in a couple of pressers that I’ve heard him say “we”….and it’s followed with “and that starts with me.” Likewise I’ve never heard McDermott or Daboll say anything like this about Josh Allen: It’s always “I have full confidence in Josh” or “I believe in Josh, that’ll never change” after the Falcons game with the two tipped picks “he’s going to have days like that” It’s hard to know what her sources were for some of the other stuff, like “Mayfield’s issues with Stefanski bubbled below the surface most of the season, with Mayfield feeling like Stefanski’s playcalling didn’t always put him in position to succeed or play to his strengths, sources told cleveland.com” or “If Mayfield doesn’t get reassurance that things will change next season, he’ll consider asking to be traded. He’s under contract for $18.858 million in his fifth-year option year” but Mayfield specifically saying “I’m not your puppet” seems to imply that he or someone close to him in fact said stuff to Cabot, but doesn’t agree with how it was interpreted or the way the story was put together - maybe he thinks the context was misrepresented or something. But it seemed pretty straightforward that Mayfield did very well with the play-action bootlegs that were a mainstay last year, and didn’t seem as comfortable with some of the playcalling this season, and he has said some stuff publicly which Cabot quoted. It doesn’t seem like a “fair call” to say she has no sources or facts.

He had an OK 2nd year. 18 TD to 17 INTs, 200-ish ypg, 6.2 ypa.

I have some thoughts on this. First of all, Allen throws hard sometimes because he needs the ball to knife through the wind. His receivers need to be able to adjust, and the staff need to adjust practice conditions so that they can adjust. If they’re indoors, get a little chest freezer in the field house and keep the balls in it or something. But I think there may be something else going on. Allen has talked about how he previously couldn’t adjust to “take a little off” and still be accurate, and that to be able to throw more accurately and with more touch, he needed to adjust the sequencing of his throwing motion so his hips fire first then his arms etc. I think it’s possible that in the cold and slick conditions, his throwing sequence may revert and he’s back to needing to throw fastballs in order to be accurate, and also not trusting his short “check down” throws because those were his Achilles heel pre-draft. Again, this is something Josh and his off-season partners and the Bills QB staff need to figure out conditions to practice it if that’s the case. There are summer “tubing hills” where the astroturf is kept slick with a misting system, something like that.

For some reason I find Arians more credible than Antonio Brown here. I’d prefer to side with the player, but I don’t expect Arians is saying this in public if people who were nearby didn’t hear him. And Brown’s whole demeanor leaving the field was just not consistent with a guy too injured to keep playing. Brown has been playing football for 11 years. Arians is correct, there is a protocol for injuries during the game, involving reporting to the trainer and/or doctor and being examined and if need be, sent or transported to the locker room for more tests/treatment. Brown well knows this. If his ankle was not allowing him to perform as a WR, he needs to go to the trainer/physician and get examined and ruled out. Then they tell the coach “Brown is being examined” “Brown is out”. It came out that Brown asked the Bucs to guarantee his remaining contract incentives last week and they declined. That would be consistent with AB being upset because he wasn’t getting targeted. Reportedly the incentives were up to $2M. I’m not sure how Brown “not telling anyone on the Bucs medical staff about his ankle bothering him on gameday before the game” squares with Brown receiving a painkilling injection. Something inconsistent there. Either the people giving the injections aren’t considered “part of the medical staff” and there isn’t sufficient communication, or Brown didn’t, in fact, get the injection.

Geeze, when did you give (*bleep*) or (*bleep*) your password? You can usually punctuate

Absolutely Cleveland should have sat Baker when it was clear he wasn’t functioning properly as a QB. Why else bring in Keenum? He is proven successful in just this sort of system that Stefanski runs. To be fair to Washington, they felt they were bringing in an alternative when they traded for Alex Smith. He had just had a career year in KC and historically was tougher than boot leather. That broken leg was just hella bad luck.

I dunno about massive lawsuit, but it surely explains why the Bucs have not yet cut AB - you can not cut an injured player. And what looked at first like an AB temper tantrum and clear “conduct detrimental” that would justify cutting AB and him forfeiting his remaining salary and pro-rated signing bonus, now looks like at best, an NFLPA grievance over treatment of an injury, where the coach knew that the player felt he was too injured to play, talked him into playing that morning, and didn’t want to listen when the player said “I tried, I can’t”. Definitely a muddy picture where you can understand why the team is “yeah, we need to sort this out, Coach, we can’t just cut the guy.” The NFLPA is now advising against it and I don’t know how this year has gone, but Toradol injections pregame have been a Thing in the NFL for years, as have been draining fluid out of joints and injecting corticosteroids into them