Hapless Bills Fan

Ed Oliver has opinions on this point Good for you, Ed, if these lists are putting a little "***** in your grits" Go Get 'Em!

TBH, I think the entire running back room suffered from lack of focus last year, exception of possibly Moss who struggled with injuries. I believe that Singletary was out of shape - I feel like with the improved passing game, he lost focus and basically his head wasn't in it as it should have been when he got his chances. Sure, we all saw that a lot of times there weren't holes, but when there were, he didn't hit them as fast and as hard as he could and his field vision sucked (for example, the time when he had a hole and ran right into his own linemen). He ran demoralized. And yes he danced around too much. But isn't that the kind of thing his position coach should have been able to influence some? I saw pictures of C Wade on Instagram after the season and a couple people responded "wow, you've gained weight!" so I don't think Singletary was the only one.

You know, I do "Bookface" regularly, which my kid regards as "Grandma and Grandpa social media", and don't find it so. I use it to keep up with friends from college and various other times of my life, neighbors, fellow parents from kid's college, and a handful of hobbies. I'm pretty restrictive in who I follow, and pretty quick to unfollow or block. And the groups I'm part of are moderated, and people who veer off the topic or are rude are shown the door, kind of like here. So it works for me.

It's a month away?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31707621/inside-tight-end-university-george-kittle-co-learn-best-country Linked in the shoutbox. Didn't see this up above

Wide Right, my friend. No grandkids (yet) and the Hapling has another year of college, so we'd like to keep it that way a bit longer. The Hapling does do some social media, but isn't so into it as to know how to move stuff from one form to another

Marketing

Doesn't sound like a "Disaster QB Option" but it does sound like a useful WR training tool, especially for the guys at the bottom of the roster who don't get to work with the starter too often.

OK - who are the players you see as upgrades, and why do you see them as such? As for the "possibility of a larger roster", where is this possibility spoken of by the teams or the NFL or someone with inside info of the NFL, that it looks like it might be a real possibility instead of just something fans look at as reasonable?

Credit to @Coach Tuesday, who put this its own thread Chandler locked as duplicative......apparently we can't re-direct the post when it's the OP Posted 4 hours ago · IP Check out this blurb from NFL Analyst Greg Cosell, guest-writing for Peter King in today’s FMIA: “4. I think, speaking of Josh Allen, he is the most physically gifted quarterback in the NFL. That is not a bold, controversial take. It is just a statement of fact. Whether he develops into the best quarterback in the NFL is a different question, one that remains to be answered. Remember, Allen is 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds. Think about that for a moment. I have stood right next to him, and he is a big man. I stood a few feet away watching him throw, and I have never seen a ball come out of the hand of a passer like it does with Allen. It was otherworldly. The name that often comes up, and rightly so, when the talk is of the most physically talented quarterbacks of all time is John Elway. Allen is a much bigger man than Elway. Allen is the most intriguing quarterback I have watched and evaluated in all my years at NFL Films. It would not surprise me at all if we soon call Allen the most physically gifted quarterback the league has ever seen. Stay tuned.” 😲

I think we have the answer here: Dawkins weight gain was NOT intentional or something the team wants him to do and the team wants him to take (at least some of it) off. https://www.instagram.com/stories/jerzeystar/2606094638141954515/ Dawkins is wearing a black jacket with a Bills logo that (I hope not!) looks designed to make you sweat more OR is some kind of cooling or weight vest designed to make you burn more calories. In one of the video clips Dawkins is heard saying "Gotta get that weight off" and "Getitoffgetitoffgetitofshkii!" These are videos posted on his Instagram Story so the link above will stop working after a bit. If anyone knows how to pull videos off instagram stories, please PM me - I find all kinds of interesting stuff there I'd prefer to share as video

Was that someone named something other than Jordan Palmer? Who is a bit over the top about Josh...

Yes

I see your logic now. I was thinking of it as Zimmer is not competing with Star directly, so not clear why Star's return impacts him.

I agree. WAIT! What just happened?

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean here with regard to this season, cap and depth chart? As far as the cap, Addison's cap hit this year is almost exactly the same if we keep him, or if we cut him. He has $2M out of $4M salary guaranteed per Overthecap, and $2M of amortized signing bonus which will accelerate into this year if he's cut, to offset the salary savings. Taiwan Jones re-upped for practically vet minimum ($1.1M salary of which $400k is guaranteed, $1.6M cap hit) with $700k dead cap from bonus and guarantees. That's pretty modest. Both of them are at the top of the depth chart for their relative positions until proven otherwise. You may believe that Bam Johnson or Epenesa or Obada or Rousseau can out-play Addison but it has to be proved on the field. "Continuing roster development" I got no argument there. What is this "produce more efficiently commensurate with his salary" bit? I don't think that matters. Addison is going to get paid regardless of whether he's on the roster, or not. The question is who is the more complete, contributing player on the field right now. Since Johnson sat all game vs. Baltimore and saw his snaps cut in the other playoff games, the Bills coaches would appear to feel he still has development needs when it comes to containing the run. Until you see them actually function as gunners, you don't know what you've got. I understand (and actually agree with) your overall point that the Bills need to work towards having more positional abilities in their core special teamers, but even the Superbowl Bills kept a gunner on the roster (what, you don't think they coulda drafted or signed a better WR than Tasker?), but I think it's silly to assume it's a job just anyone can do. It also seems a bit contradictory - you seem to be arguing that Johnson, who was inactive during an entire playoff game, should be given a spot over the guy who was less productive than we hoped but still made some plays because of his ST play - then you're turning around and arguing that Taiwan Jones shouldn't be given a spot because of his ST play. You need to vet your analogies at a shallow level then, because Ducasse was released in early August while Wyatt Teller was traded to the Browns at the end of August, just before roster cutdown. The player who was kept instead of Teller was Spencer Long. In hindsight, with Teller having developed into one of the best guards in the NFL on a power-run team and Mitch Morse starting all 16 games at center in 2019 and playing basically all of 13/15 "meaningfuls", that looks like a dumb decision. But in the context of the decision at the time, the Bills were determined to ensure that Allen had a better center to play with in 2019. Morse was out with a concussion all preseason and it wasn't clear how durable he'd be when he returned. Long had actually played 3 seasons at C with a reasonable level of competence (>> Bodine). He made the roster as the backup C with the positional flexibility to play G. Jon Feliciano had been the backup C in Oakland in '16 and '17 and had started or played significant snaps at RG and LG in a handful of games but never took a gametime snap at C - Hudson was a Machine and played 100% of every snap in those years. So what looks in hindsight like a stupid decision to move on from a promising young OLman, was at the time a prudent decision to ensure that their young 2nd year QB had a solid NFL center to play behind (one way or the other) and to keep the G with higher positional flexibility (RG, LG, backup C). It's not always about the player with the highest potential, sometimes it's about the player with the better match for the needs of the team.

Perhaps you could clarify what you mean here with regard to this season, cap and depth chart? As far as the cap, Addison's cap hit this year is almost exactly the same if we keep him, or if we cut him. He has $2M out of $4M salary guaranteed per Overthecap, and $2M of amortized signing bonus which will accelerate into this year if he's cut, to offset the salary savings. Taiwan Jones re-upped for practically vet minimum ($1.1M salary of which $400k is guaranteed, $1.6M cap hit) with $700k dead cap from bonus and guarantees. That's pretty modest. Both of them are at the top of the depth chart for their relative positions until proven otherwise. You may believe that Bam Johnson or Epenesa or Obada or Rousseau can out-play Addison but it has to be proved on the field. "Continuing roster development" I got no argument there. What is this "produce more efficiently commensurate with his salary" bit? I don't think that matters. Addison is going to get paid regardless of whether he's on the roster, or not. The question is who is the more complete, contributing player on the field right now. Since Johnson sat all game vs. Baltimore and saw his snaps cut in the other playoff games, the Bills coaches would appear to feel he still has development needs when it comes to containing the run. Until you see them actually function as gunners, you don't know what you've got. I understand (and actually agree with) your overall point that the Bills need to work towards having more positional abilities in their core special teamers, but even the Superbowl Bills kept a gunner on the roster (what, you don't think they coulda drafted or signed a better WR than Tasker?), but I think it's silly to assume it's a job just anyone can do. It also seems a bit contradictory - you seem to be arguing that Johnson, who was inactive during an entire playoff game, should be given a spot over the guy who was less productive than we hoped but still made some plays because of his ST play - then you're turning around and arguing that Taiwan Jones shouldn't be given a spot because of his ST play.

Except that's not true. They didn't just substitute a backup swing tackle for Fisher. They moved their RT to LT, their LG to RT, and substituted a backup player at LG. So 3 / 5 of the line playing different positions. It makes a difference.

Really interesting post, Gunner. Thank you for putting this together. This is actually a very valid point. In addition to playing against Belichick 2x a year, we are also playing his disciple Brian Flores 2x a year, and Flores is giving every indication of prioritizing ST as an "equalizer" as well. In our first meeting with the Fins last season, we started drives on our own 3 (booming 63 yd punt downed by their gunner) and our own 6 (51 yd punt, also downed by their gunner). Although we scored a TD on the 1st drive and a FG on the 2nd, those drive starts undoubtedly limit the offensive playcalling and force mistake-free football for fear of a fumble or int becoming 7 points. Then there's the Tennessee game last season with Belichick disciple Meathead - I mean Mike Vrabel. Tennessee has made playoffs the last 2 seasons, and played for the conference championship in 2019; they think they're a playoff-caliber team and have no plans to go away. While last year's Tenn game had other issues, it's hard to dispute that Tennessee's 40 yd return of a 57-yd punt from our own 13 yd line, giving Tennessee a drive start on the Buffalo 30 yd line at a point where the game was tied 7-7, was a morale-buster and maybe a turning point in the game - coming as it did right after the Bills had a drive-start on our own 9 yd line after a -1 yd return by Andre Roberts. Robert's fumble in the 4Q merely helped turn a convincing win into a beat-down rout. Anyway, whatever argument one may advance for the limited importance of ST now a days, I think it's a fair argument "look what division you're in, look who you're playing" I also think it's a fair point to ask, have the Bills really gotten the ROI one would expect for keeping essentially a full lineup of ST starters on the roster (3 specialists plus 8 additional core ST players)? Agreed. I didn't name him because I believe the bills view his primary role as backup safety, especially with Dean Marlowe gone. Agreed. One question for you though, with your better knowledge of rugby than most of us here .....do you see a possible path to the roster for Christian Wade as either the KR or PR, if not both? Here's the problem I see with Kumerow as a possible gunner, instead of Taiwan Jones: Speed Kills. We all know Pajama Speed isn't Football Speed, but Jones clocked a 4.33 40 yd dash Back in Da Day and he's still freaky fast. Kumerow - well, you can say he's fast for a 6'4", 210 lb guy and he may have trained for speed and gotten faster since college - but he ain't Taiwan Jones fast. Know who is, though? Matt Breida. 4.38 40. So I looked it up, and he put in a good % of ST snaps back in 2017 with SFO, falling off in 2018 and 2019 as he got more offensive snaps. He took 16%-52% of the ST snaps with Miami last season. Anyone know what his role was with them? Because he can actually rush and catch, so having him as a ST player would mean, like Lil' Dirty, keeping a guy who can contribute on offense as well. A point in favor of anyone who replies "That's Crazy Talk" - his injury history, he seemlingly struggles to stay intact which is NOT something you can worry about when playing gunner. OK another possibility to throw out there....do you see a possible path to the roster for Christian Wade as the gunner? He was clocked as 4.53 at the International Pro Day but when I've seen him on the field, I would say he plays faster than that. Didn't they play Kumerow here at times last year? Really good post. Thanks again.

Yolo made a reasonable request here: "I’m not posting this to discuss his post, the vaccine, or anything along those lines. please refrain from any comments like that because the thread will get locked and we won’t be able to discuss Cole on the field. Rather, stick to the realistic possibility on the field and the football consequences of not having Cole either this season, or ever again." Unfortunately, the last bunch of posts indicate unwillingness to respect this and I lack the patience or time to clean up after y'all and play "Hall Monitor"

It has to be recognized that one of the reasons Allen was able to throw TD's to so many different players was BECAUSE the defense had to focus on covering players like Beasley and Diggs. That gave other players opportunities as the defense lost track of them. It doesn't mean the star, hard to cover players are expendable.

When you're Right, you're Right, Chand! And yet....the impact of the decision to vaccinate or not, given the NFL/NFLPA's decision to continue with covid-19 testing, isolation, and quarantine ..... is likely to have a significant impact on NFL football this Fall, including our beloved Bills. So one would really like to think we could discuss it in that context without going off into the weeds of conspiracy theories, religion, general questions about vaccines and testing, etc etc etc. The answer is clearly a resounding "Can't" though!

Studies suggest that with regard to the original Covid-19 strain and Alpha ("UK" strain, the mRNA vaccines are 90% effective at preventing any infection, including asymptomatic infection. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0607-mrna-reduce-risks.html This means that if 100 unvaccinated people are infected with Covid, you would predict 10 equally-exposed vaccinated people would be infected with Covid (a tenfold reduction in relative risk of any infection, including asymptomatic infection). On the other hand, against the more contagious Delta ("Indian") variant (see post above), recent data from UK Health suggest that the mRNA vaccines are 80% effective at preventing infection. This means that if 100 unvaccinated people are infected with Covid, you would predict 20 equally-exposed vaccinated people would be infected with Covid (a 5-fold reduction in relative risk of any infection, including asymptomatic infection). Applied to the 13 infected members of the NC State "Cinderella" team, these data suggest 1 or 2 of the infected players could have been vaccinated.

So how do you "plan accordingly" for having a number of your star players choose not to be vaccinated, and also choose to either openly declare they will not follow the NFL's infection control protocols for nonvaccinated players, or just be loosey-Goosey about it?