Hapless Bills Fan

Why haven't they practiced or played? Are they holding out of TC?

I"m sure a number of players did "take one for the team" or "take one for their career" (especially younger guys on the fringe) and get vaxxed But whether or not we like it or Beane likes it, the NFLPA and NFL negotiated the covid vaccine is a choice. It may not be logical to you or to me that a player would want to use all the stuff they use, including sometimes unproven therapies and unregulated supplements whose concentrations and ingredients may not be as claimed, then reject a vaccine that has gone through extensive pre-clinical testing, full clinical trials, has tight manufacturing controls and release testing, and now more than 200 million doses served in the US alone, but it Is what it Is. I think from their perspective, they are being good teammates by doing what they believe best for their bodies. I do wish some of them made different choices. But It Is what It Is.

I can't see the Bills paying Addison $8M to retire

Awesome stuff! I had not realized Basham was playing so much inside and taking on double teams. I thought it was Addison/Epenesa on the R and Hughes/Rousseau on the L Yupyup, that's the way the depth chart currently reads, for what little it's worth https://www.buffalobills.com/team/depth-chart

When he said "temperature check" I thought immediately of possible Covid symptoms and who we might lose to Covid protocols 😝

Atlanta....

To be fair, the Bucs just had a huge "wake up call" in the form of their kicker testing positive for Covid-19 and going on Covid-19 reserve after joint practice with the Titans (his former team) where he socialized with a bunch of friends on the Titans. It is possible that the loss of Cole/Davis/Butler/Lotulelei will serve as a similar wakeup call to the Bills and provoke change. Agree "lowest 4 teams in the league" is low. The 85% number has been debunked; please see Yolo's post above. But that doesn't mean the Bills won't still have more restrictions that impact player availability, just in the form of unvaccinated players who currently face more stringent quarantines if exposed or isolations if infected.

I agree with almost everything you said, except that I had noticed Andre Smith and Matekevich really played well on defense when they got the call last season, so I wasn't surprised. Dirty Red logged 7 tackles/assists in 15 defensive snaps against Denver - 1 tackle every other snap is damned impressive. Andre' Smith had a "meh" outing against NE earlier in the season, but looked like a changed man in Miami. I felt that Matakevich had bumped Dodson on the depth chart at the end of the season when Dodson returned from IR, but that's not how the current depth chart reads. Possibly Dodson was still injured? I don't know how many LBs they keep. Last year, they kept 6. They got a log jam at DE and WR to deal with somehow, but I'm not sure LB is the place to shortchange to find an extra roster spot for a DE. LB seems to be a high injury position, and both Smith and Matekevich would be on the field for ST a lot risking injury. I think JGH has earned himself a PS slot if they can keep him.

Oh, GOOD catch! I hope you're right.

The trainer was not unvaccinated. All NFL personnel who have player contact (Tier 1 and Tier 2) are required to be vaccinated. Beane in his presser said that the vaccinated trainer "felt something" (maybe like an allergy-type sniffle) but didn't think he had Covid, "mentioned it to Nate" (Nate Breske, the Bills head trainer and the guy in charge of executing the covid protocols for the Bills), Nate sent him to be tested, and when it was positive he gave a list of his close contacts to the best of his recollection to start off the contact tracing process. Don't make ASSumptions. The staff did all the right things.

Maybe, but I'm not talking about penalties or the like. Those are kind of "lock the barn after the horse left" stuff. I'm talking about changes to the protocols teams were required to follow that help proactively prevent infection and limit the number of contacts, such as: requiring coaches up in the boxes to be masked and limiting their number to allow distancing; testing on Sundays; requiring trainers to wear both a mask and a face shield while providing treatment; limiting numbers in weight rooms. The NFL could change protocols now to accommodate the new "territory" of Delta but my guess is they won't, until one or more teams have an outbreak that is clearly not caused by any failure to follow current protocols.

At first I thought that the team had gotten together and agreed to all keep it private to avoid questions about who is or isn't vaxxed, but after other players started answering questions and some spoke out on SM, I changed my viewpoint and decided that, just like in my neighborhood, it means "I'm not vaxxed and I don't want you to question me about why" My guess is, those teams will not trade for or sign a player who isn't vaxxed. I would love to know how they did it though.

That was something bruited about early on, but my understanding is that the NFL abandoned that in favor of different rules for vaxxed and unvaxxed players. @YoloinOhio, can you help me out here?

Respectfully, I don't think that is true. At least last season, when the NFL interviewing process was explained during an interview with Beane, he explained that the NFL asks questions about the duration of the contact, were they both wearing masks or other protective equipment, how close were they etc etc. It's widely recognized that a contact with someone who is masked and shielded is far less risky than a contact with someone who is not wearing PPE, as you point out: but the NFL seemed to recognize this, at least last year. Or at least that's my recollection of a post-season interview with Beane about the process of ID'ing close contacts. I feel your pain, and I understand the but that would be a function of the protocols your league is following; at least last year I don't think the same was true for the NFL. But even if it does, it's still a point that sitting out 5 days due to close contact for an unvaccinated player, is still less lost time than actually catching the virus and having to follow the protocols for unvaccinated covid-positive players. I hope you are correct, but I would not bet the rent money.

I don't understand your math. Roster is currently at 80 players. If we are just under 80% now as Beane said in his presser, 20% of 80 is 16 players. Now, who are those 16 players? If they are guys who will likely be on the 53-man roster, the % vaccinated will be (53-16)/53 = 69.8%. As @transplantbillsfan said above "If those players are mostly players we're going to cut in final cutdowns it doesn't much matter. But if those players are all guys on the 53, that ....... could have a serious impact." To get to the 90% level, we would need to have only 5 players unvaccinated, so 11 more players would have to decide to be vaccinated.

Tommy Sweeney lifts his hand

To keep this football relevant, I would like to quote Ron Rivera here: The problem is, if the subset of the unlimited information players most trust is misinformation obtained from social media, they're going to make decisions that aren't good decisions. I've actually had DM discussions with two different (starting) Bills players about how to distinguish misinformation or conspiracy stuff from good information on social media. I doubt I persuaded anyone, but they were very polite and respectful discussions and maybe I left a little seed. They are (IMO) smart men who are trying to be informed, but who mistrust "main stream media" and tend to rely on podcasts and youtube and social media for their info, as Ron Rivera said. The problem is once you get away from media that is required to have 2 vetted primary sources for everything and does fact-checking, there is a lot of misleading information or even lies that are cleverly packaged to sound very plausible - unless a person happens to have specific expertise in a relevant field.

That might be harder than one thinks. For example, players who got vaccinated in part because they didn't want to drive to the facility and get a swab stuck in their nose first thing every day, or because they want to be able to walk around the locker room unmasked, may not want to voluntarily revert to last year's rules.

If the Bills do what Arians has said the Bucs will do, and voluntarily follow more stringent team rules vs. the NFL protocols, I agree with you. I don't know if the Bills players and personnel are going to be asked do that, or to agree to do that.

They can not do that. The NFL players are represented by a union, and any change to their conditions of employment must be collectively bargained with the union. That's the way it is. That was Then, this is Now. Behavior of predominant viral variant is different. NFL Protocols are different (and based on data about last year's viral variant) I believe that the NFL will make changes, I'm just unclear that they will do so in a timely fashion vs. AFTER 1-2 teams have outbreaks. They made changes last year, but it was AFTER outbreaks.

We don't know that about Milano and Klein. They are back today. Two people in the Shoutbox today said that in an interview over the summer, Milano said he was vaxxed. Don't know that about Hyde either; he and Poyer are different guys with different wives.

Butler, Lotulelei, Beasley, and Davis are not vaccinated (or not fully vaccinated yet) because they are following the NFL's protocol for unvaccinated players who have close contact with a positive case. I am making a high probability assumption about Poyer because of his wife's outspoken views and also because of a DM exchange I had with him on Instagram (all very polite and civilized disagreement, very nice guy). I am making an inference about Allen and Boettger because usually when someone is asked whether they're jabbed, if they say "I'm going to keep that private", they mean "No"; if they are, they just say so.

I think Beane is beyond alarmed and off into "large cold knot in the pit of his stomach" I don't think they have to go back to the 2020 protocols exactly. Things I would like the Bills to do: 1) Test vaccinated staff and players more often. Daily may not be necessary but every 2-4 days, adapted for risk factors. 2) Everybody masks indoors unless 6 feet away for meals 3) Staff providing close interaction such as therapeutic massage or rehabilitation treatment mask and shield 4) Request that all staff and players ask visiting family to isolate and test first (vaccinated or not) 5) Sauna Yes, hot tub No

Of the thread where it and some other posts wound up yes Now that it's got its own place, No Yes, at least I did the same math that @Big Turk did: -4 teams in the NFL are under 89% -Beane sez the Bills are just over 80% or maybe a little less after the cuts -Therefore the Bills are one of the 4 teams in the NFL that are under 89% It has to be very frustrating for Beane. I thought he kind of looked defeated, in that press conference. Apparently one of the 4 lowest in the league at ~79-80% and going to get lower when we're cut down to 53 It's not just the % it's apparently who that % is: Butler, Lotulelei, Poyer, Boettger, Beasley, Davis, probably Allen - a lot of core starters.

Didn't say we wouldn't trade ANYONE to a division rival. Said we wouldn't trade ADDISON to a division rival. Our OL was pretty durn bad in 2018 and that included the C. Only problem I had with trading him to NE is that NE didn't actually PLAY him, they paid us a 6th for essentially a week's rental.