Hapless Bills Fan

Thanks for the input, and the example you chose kind of highlights the concern I see - you might know better than I if it's real or not. Kumerow has been a total "lunchpail" guy for the Bills. He plays ST, he blocks (film highlights show he's a capable blocker, even in the backfield). He's got some speed, as well as size, strength and "hands". So if they keep, say, Gentry over Kumerow, would it be seen as a kind of "QB's Pet" move? I think it can be managed, but I also think it has to be. As far as the end of the roster, doesn't Marquez Stevenson get a shot, being as they drafted him for speed? So here's a question, watching Gentry how fast is he? Sal says this is Davis Webb to Gentry, who clearly has to slow up at the end and wait for Webb's ball to arrive

I gotcha, just putting a different perspective on it and trying to make the argument that there's a cause-and-effect thing going on. IMO, as long as McDermott/Frazier insist on a DL rotation as they do, the Bills are kinda gonna be in "DL purgatory", with a huge sunk cost on DL but limited ability to affect the QB because they lack top-flight DL talent. And as we pay more for QB, it's only gonna get worse. Before the neck injury, agree. After, TBD

Probably

I have to wonder if it's a bit of a mistake for the overall team chemistry bringing "his guys" back in for Allen. It's not going to take targets away from Diggs, Beasley, Sanders or Davis - but I'm a bit concerned that bottom of the roster players who have put in the "grind" here like McKenzie, Kumerow, Williams, Gilliam, Becker might feel that they don't have a "fair chance" based on talent because of the prior connection that Allen has with Hollister and Gentry. Make no mistake, Gentry and Allen are tight. Allen was in Tanner's wedding. Allen hosted Gentry at his Orange County house before a big "Wyo friends" get together in the Palm Desert this spring; they refer to each other as "Fam". Meanwhile, people who know more about scouting than I do ( @Buffalo716 ) tell me if we have Gentry and Kumerow as WR options we're in trouble. It's something where the coaches need to be crystal clear on what the evaluation process is at the bottom of the roster and build trust that it's merit-based. Man, Wyo's defense just sucked.

The thing is, we pretty well have "broken the bank" on DL, it's just for more than one player and we haven't gotten the expected ROI in terms of on-field production. According to Spotrac, the Bills currently have $48M invested in DL, 26% of the available cap. Most of that, $17.6M and 9.3% of the cap, is invested in two players at DE: Hughes and Addison. We've got another $18.2M and 9.6% of the cap invested in three DT: Lotulelei, Oliver, and Butler. For reference, we've got the 3rd most team spending on DL, behind the Eagles ($60M) and the Chiefs ($49.5M) Basically, IMHO Beane has hung his hat, so to speak, on some of his draft picks and budget FA acquisitions developing. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/positional/defensive-line/2021/active-cap/ He doesn't need to hit on all of them, but below Hughes, Addison, and Lotulelei, he needs about 1 out of 3 to pan out.

I love the idea of Hunter too, but I think the writing was on the wall when the Bills didn't push harder for one of the available DE free agents. Beane won't tell us everything, but when he says something it usually reflects his beliefs. And he pretty much said, at this point we need to get value from "cheap labor" meaning players we draft and develop.

I think they want them to have a certain target body fat composition. I think Epenesa's problem is that he's still a young man with a young man metabolism, and he went on a NFL-level strength training program without an NFL-level eating program in place to support it - I'm sure they gave him targets and recommendations but it's one thing to be told to eat 8x a day and another to have someone handing you an almond-butter laced smoothie the minute you walk in the door, and the minute you finish your lifting, and another along with a boxed dinner to take home.

LOL poor thing, no wonder you're jaded. It's one thing for the "dog mom" to do it for fun, it's another if you've got a paid employee whose job it is to do it. Wonder if I'd feel different about it if I learned Britt and Josh have "personal assistants" whose job it is to do stuff like that.

Oh that makes sense. I’m sure they want to test them for Covid & get results back. I wonder if Sal & Co have the entrance to OBD staked out

? Minicamp doesn't start until tomorrow?

https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/personal-coach-star-lotulelei-looks-excited-to-come-back-to-the-bills/article_ad07f25a-cc85-11eb-ad54-fb59edc31869.html

After reading a bit more about it, my betting would be on a recessive gene uncovered by inbreeding in the first kennel that publicized them, and that other kennels were seeing the occasional silver lab and kept quiet about it, either culled the puppy (killed it) or quietly gave it away as a pet. Strangely enough that was exactly my reaction to the lone CJ Box book I tried to read

Creates a problem by airing his PERSONAL PROBLEM on social media and then getting all fluffy about the response This guy feeds and waters his own personal Herd of Drama Llamas which he keeps in a custom built Drama Llama Barn

Perhaps you'd like to know that the puppy now has her own Instagram account, @skyallen17, where you may see pictures of Josh Allen feeding his puppy a "pupaccino" at Starbucks Orchard Park, sleeping with a treat between her lips, and playing with a stuffed blue plush Chardonnay bottle - very Cali. https://www.instagram.com/skyallen17/ Judging by the combination of bold, italics, large type, and what looks like an attempt at a full Football 11 of exclamation points, I feel you would also appreciate the links to the photo of the dog with the Chardonnay bottle and of Josh Allen feeding his pup at Starbucks drive through: https://www.instagram.com/p/CP67FNKLhIt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEGpG8hJ9T/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link [It's the off-season, fella, we got threads about "Levon" Bell, Chris Hogan, Logan Thomas, Madrid, and Josina Anderson.]

Yeah, the Silver labs apparently carry the "dilute" gene that lightens the brown coat of a chocolate lab. The question is whether they got that gene by having an existing gene that was uncovered by inbreeding, or by having a little Weimaraner ancestry? On the other hand, this guy who is one of the first Silver Lab breeding kennels, describes the first as the produce of a Chocolate/Chocolate cross in a 1/4 Silver:3/4 Chocolate or Yellow which is what you'd expect if two dogs carrying a recessive dilute gene were bred. The AKC admits it can't prove Weimaraner ancestry, but nonetheless says that Silver is not an allowed color for labs. https://www.thelabradorsite.com/silver-labradors/#dilute Silver labs still exist and have been around since the '80s.

I didn’t think of that, but Big Sky Country is Montana, not Wyoming. So I think they just like the name. As opposed to those of us who just clutter up other threads with the same stuff

His girlfriend may have the same question She’s been attending a lot of bridal showers for her friends. Josh’s brother just got married. Two other Bills QB are about to get married (Trubes and Fromm).

Aaaaaaaaannnnd the pup now has her own Instagram account, "skyallen17"

Edit your OP post (the one that started the thread). Look at the top. You'll see two tabs with choices, "Content" is one, and "Poll" is the other. Click on Poll and the changes you want are Your Oyster.

I'm sure you're correct about why Spain was released. At the point where Spain got pulled out of the starting lineup in favor of Ford, it was very clear that the Bills had transformed into a pass-first team, with 60% pass attempts to 40% run attempts in the Mia and LA games. Why drive starting OL decisions by the "redheaded stepchild" of your offense?

I'm wondering about that. D-dawk just posted a video of a bike ride with EJ Manuel and another guy who seems to be a health and fitness trainer in Miami. Both of them are shirtless, but Dawkins is wearing a black jacket that looks sweat-inducing. Now it could be a cooling jacket designed to help him stay cool, or it could be a jacket designed to help him sweat some weight off so he "makes weight" and doesn't get fined on Tuesday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBw63hrzBu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Haven't seen any photos of Britt kissing Josh on camera like that, that's all I got to say. Might be a new "pecking order" in the Allen household. (the pup is saying "yeah yeah, where are my treats, where is my toy")

Sometimes big-ego not-very-nice guys get a "gut check" and change state. Reportedly Jim Kelly was not a very likeable guy his first years in Buffalo, and reportedly didn't show accountability privately and threw his teammates under the bus publicly. In 1989, the "Bickering Bills" year, Thurman Thomas famously returned fire. He was asked in a TV interview what positions the Bills could improve on, and said "Quarterback". Kelly got the message (presumably from others as well), and now all these years later that whole core group of players are still best friends. I like to see good football, and we're located so we either get Indy or KC on TV a lot. I'd just as soon watch a good game as a bad one, so I have no particular desire for Wentz to fall on his face unless he's playing the Bills. But it's going to be interesting to see how the Colts first-year OC fares with Wentz. HA! I've been thinking Fitz is too old for like the last 6 years, and yet, there he is running the "Ryan Fitzpatrick Cycle" with Yet Another Team. IIRC, Buddy Nix cited Fitz age (30 at the time) as one reason to move on the spring the Bills cut him. It's like Fitz subsequent career has been one giant middle finger to Nix for that. TBH Fitz arm looked better last year and the year before than I'd seen it, and his pick % was down. I think he may have been working on his passing mechanics and working harder on his physical condition. Back when he was with the Bills, he used to show up with a pronounced "Dad Bod" and a nice coating of fat over his fitness.

You know that Ducasse and Miller weren't kept in preference to Teller, right? In 2018, Teller displaced Ducasse at LG while Ducasse displaced Miller at RG, which is probably the right order of skill, though Ducasse was still bad. The person Vlad had compromising pics of was apparently "Teflon Juan" Castillo (no, seriously, he was brought in with Castillo, to teach his blocking style, so he was kinda "Coach's pet"). When Bobby Johnson replaced Castillo as OL coach, all that changed. Miller was a FA in spring 2019, having played out his rookie contract in B'lo and not retained (signed with Cincy) Ducasse was released August 11, 2019 when it was clear he was way down the depth chart. Teller was an end-of-preseason (August 29) trade to Cincy. In retrospect, it would have been better to keep and develop Teller vs. Spencer Long, but the Bills were determined to keep a quality OL in front of Allen that year. Morse was out with a concussion until late in training camp. The Bills succumbed to the siren song of "positional flexibility" and kept the vet(s) who had demonstrated ability to play both sides of the line and center in Feliciano and Long, over Teller. The following season Long was out of the league That's how it goes sometimes, but if you go back to late that August where the Bills were determined that Allen would play the season with a better center than Russ Bodine or Ryan Groy, the decision isn't a head-scratcher, it makes logistical sense in that context and I can't say it was wrong.

I mean, he didn't look so great in Detroit in 2019 either. But maybe Matt Patricia developed him? Some guys do take a while to develop. On the other hand, Washington did not exactly have a plethora of receiving options last year - Terry McLaurin and ?Who? Logan Thomas, that's who. Question remains as to what Thomas would have contributed on a team with 4 receiving options ahead of him, or on a team with a better passing attack. Washington was #9 for passing attempts and #25 for passing yards.