Hapless Bills Fan

That last is my opinion as well - not just the crossers, but the rub plays that get people open, the creative use of pre-snap and post-snap motion to create flow, etc etc. I don't know the reasons or who it's "on". It could be correlation with Dorsey's promotion, and not causation. But it's not a positive sign that the pass game has evolved positively IMO

In your viewpoint, has the design of the passing game this season vs. last season improved, stayed the same, or regressed?

I understand that, although the NFL could address this by being transparent: handing the decision over to an independent panel of medical experts/epidemiologists, and explaining what the basis is. The fact that the NFL did NOT choose to be transparent about why they did what they did in the Denver situation (and it came out through "sources" after the season), casts doubt on their willingness for any sort of transparency.

Thank you so much for finding and sharing this! On a generally sucky, not to mention grey and rainy day, this truly makes me happy to hear. Clearly Aikman and Joe Buck are highly scripted, but that producer would be an ass then. Fox should have experts on standby who could tell them that a "Fencing Reaction" is a known reaction to a concussion.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/sports/2021/12/17/allen-set-to-start-sunday-against-panthers?cid=share_clip On Dawkins: Star @#$%@#$^^!!!! 🤐

https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/12/17/donald-parham-injury-concussion-fencing-response

"Find A Way"

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/12/16/nfl-should-immediately-return-to-daily-testing-for-all-players/ https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32876158/nflpa-again-pushes-nfl-reinstitute-daily-testing-covid-19 The NFL's rationale was that vaccinated players (data from preseason) were 7x less likely to get Covid, and that everyone with symptoms would test and almost all players with Covid had symptoms of some sort (again, data from preseason). Now there's a new variant, and it appears both those assumptions are no longer valid.

This actually isn't the most stupid idea I've ever heard. It would have the charm of novelty. And the general reaction to Brown's level of play was for the fanbase to say "No Dawkins, No Allen!" in preseason games.

Heh. It came out after the season why the NFL was "heartless" regarding making Denver play without a QB, and why they were all declared "close contacts" and out too late to make any other arrangement, like signing a guy off practice squad etc. Basically the Denver QB removed their contact tracking devices and put them in the four corners of the meeting room so it looked like they were too distant to be close contacts. When the NFL reviewed the facility video on Saturday, they discovered that the QBs were in fact sitting close together at a table watching film together and had "cheated" the system. https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2021/09/07/broncos-kendall-hinton-covid-protocols/ And they lied about it: So the NFL said "Nope, Denver, you made your damned bed, you lied about it, now you lie in the bed you made" https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/washington-football-team-puts-3-more-players-covid-list

I actually didn't think Brown looked good at LT in the preseason. But Williams and Hart looked worse, so....

As promised, I'll try to explain why it's not possible that being vaccinated with a vaccine approved in the US** will give you a positive PCR test for Covid. I can't find something not behind a paywall that explains it as clearly as I like, so I'm going to have to piece it together. First, the PCR test for Covid. Here's a decent explanation of how PCR works: https://www.genome.gov/es/node/83066 The first thing that is not well explained: -RNA is very unstable and easily degraded. We all have an enzyme that degrades RNA on our skin, in our sweat, in saliva, etc. (RNase) -The RNA genome in the virus isn't eaten by the RNAse in your nose because it's all packaged up in a virus particle. -The first step in the PCR test for virus is to extract the RNA from the virus particle, wearing gloves and a clean labcoat and haircover and using specially treated labware, water and buffers that are certified free from RNAse contamination -So then you get the viral RNA, and the RT-PCR reaction reverse transcribes it to DNA, then amplify it using primers that match two (or more) different viral genes. The key point to remember is that RNA does not safely bop around the body on its own. It needs to be carefully packaged up to protect it from being degraded. mRNA, the instructions used to translate a protein, is even less stable and its normal life in a cell is minutes to hours. Your body uses this feature to "turn on" or "turn off" expression of different genes. Second, the mRNA vaccine: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/vaccines/COVID-19-mRNA-infographic_G_508.pdf It only contains information to make one of the Sars-Cov2 proteins, the Spike protein. The second thing that is not well explained: -mRNA in the cell has a one-way ticket from the cell nucleus to the cytoplasm. It doesn't exit the cell, and it can't get back into the nucleus and become part of the cell's genome. If the cell is lysed (broken up), any RNA released is immediately degraded by RNAse outside the cell. The mRNA from the vaccine gets into the cell cytoplasm and stays there. -It has been stabilized, but still has a lifetime of days. Here's a paper which followed where mRNA in an mRNA vaccine went: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5475249/ It mostly stays in the lymph nodes right in the arm where you got your shot, but a bit of it traveled to more distant lymph nodes. (See Table 1). The longest half-life was 28 hrs, meaning in a12 days at most, it's down to 0.1% of the original level (0.001 of original level) -so even if you get vaccinated, and then get tested for Covid the next day when you still have vaccine mRNA in your cells, there isn't going to be Covid RNA hanging out in your nose waiting to be swabbed up -even if it were, the vaccine only contains the information to make one protein, the spike protein. The PCR test amplifies several different genes. PM me if questions, I'll do my best. **there are vaccines in use in other countries that use actual Covid virus that has been chemically inactivated. It is theoretically possible this could cause a positive covid test, although highly unlikely.

I can go with that

Agreed What Daily Testing? What did I miss?

?? Did you mean "one negative test" now?

That was said last season, based upon contact tracing of positive tests and viral genome sequencing which is a very accurate way of pinpointing the source of the virus for places (like the NFL) that have the pocketbook to do it. However, there is of yet no evidence one way or another regarding in-game spread with the new variant Omicron.

I don't particularly like Baker, but he's absolutely correct that this is bogus, and if the concern is player safety every player on every freakin' team should be tested, like Now. We ask folks to avoid general discussion here. The answer is "No", I will explain in the Covid thread in OTW. Edit: The probable reason the vaccinated players are testing positive is that they are infected with Omicron variant. The normal PCR test has a distinctive pattern when the infection is Omicron, which can then be confirmed by sequencing isolated virus.

Do you really think Dawkins has been our best OLman this year? Because I think he's kind of sucked, most of the time.

No, not at all. If two players got infected from different sources outside the facility, and there is no evidence of spread within the facility, that's very different than having several players become infected from contacts inside the facility (which is what Dr Allen Sills comments appear to infer is a concern)

With all respect, That was Then This is Now. Previous learnings about spread patterns in brief contacts or during games may no longer apply. I believe most if not all of the infected Browns players are fully vaccinated.

They can't

"put in a body bag by...." . Appreciate all suggestions as to better wording

Yeah, when there were pictures of Dawkins showing up for OTAs a bunch of us were like "if the Bills didn't ask him to gain all that - Sheesh!". Then there's Feliciano who went in the opposite direction and "got skinny" (apparently also without requests to do so from the Bills) Now we learn Spencer Brown can lose 7 pounds overnight and needs to wake up at 2 am to drink calorie shakes to avoid this. Our OL is like freakin' Jack Sprat and his Wife from the children's rhyme

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/joe-buck-makes-one-of-the-worst-calls-in-sports-history-regarding-donald-parham-jr-s-serious-injury/ar-AARV5pJ

LOL