Hapless Bills Fan

Wouldn't you agree that concern for unknown lasting effects of a novel virus ought to at least factor in there to an NFL player, at least equally, to concern for unknown long term effects of a novel vaccine? There's a lot of PR about the vaccine in the media, some of it correct some not. There's not a lot of airplay given to what we're learning about the SARS-COV2 viral infection effects. We continue to learn new things about the side effects even of viruses that have been known and studied for decades. As I said ... if I were a player, an elite athlete whose body is my meal ticket, I would want to collect all the information I could about if covid-19 is really something "I can pretty easily shake off" or whether, for a significant percentage of young healthy people with mild infections, it has lasting effects Joe Sofa Spud might not notice, but that could make a difference to an elite athlete who needs every bit of his cardiac and pulmonary output AND his mental acuity. @Mango posted way back the experience of the Women's Olympic Rowing team, how many of the team caught covid from a trainer and recovered on their own, but then spent months working their way back from "talented HS level" to "elite World Class level" on the objective measure of the Ergometer. Obviously, they "shook it off on their own" but still had lasting effects that would potentially ruin the chance of a young player to make the team. Developing cardiomyopathy and going out for the season didn't exactly help Tommy Sweeney's case. What I think we lack is a cogent data base of these covid-19 effects on the elite performance of top athletes, but there is some stuff out there, and if I were an NFL player making a choice that's the info I'd want to seek out.

I have the impression that McKenzie may be his own worst enemy at times. Diggs seems to be more than willing to mentor and help the other WR. But McKenzie apparently talks a LOT of crap to his teammates, and I have the impression it kind of grates on them sometimes and maybe closes off some channels that could otherwise be open to him. McKenzie has zinged Diggs 3 or 4 times in social media this off-season and at least once Diggs returned fire. What's stopping him? He could be down in FL working with those guys.

General football stuff is appropriate here. Not limited to relevant to the Bills.

I hear ya. I would have liked us to rebuild the interior of the OL completely myself.

I think this is the protocol: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/04/23/new-nfl-protocols-incentivize-players-staff-to-get-vaccinated/ Sounds like life for a vaccinated player will be much simpler. Not exactly: Beane to NFL: "Oh sorry, I didn't explain myself clearly. I meant if two players were under consideration to be released, then I might use vaccination status instead of a coin flip or tossing a dart. Oh, that's still not ok? Then it was the coach's evaluation that drove the decision, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it."

You make an excellent point that for the NFL players, being in optimal physical condition and staying that way is of critical importance. Please excuse me if I'm getting you wrong, but you seem to be implying that the vaccine is a significant unknown risk for the players, while the long-term effects of mild covid-19 disease are completely known and pose no or minimal long term risk for NFL players and their optimal health. Am I misunderstanding you? If I'm understanding you correctly, I think that's simply not true. Several NFL football players who didn't get seriously ill had real, career-impacting effects (Von Miller, Myles Garrett, Tommy Sweeney, probably others we don't know about), lasting at least several months. The NFLPA acknowledges this: potential physical effects or impairment lasting months were cited by several as reason to not participate in OTAs and risk contracting Covid. Now you may not believe they're sincere and think they're really motivated by not wanting to attend OTAs, but that is what they said. It's probably not logical to think we know everything there is to know about Sars-Cov2 and its possible long term risks 1 year after it first showed up, when we're still learning about the serious long term effects of usually mild viral diseases that have been recognized for decades or centuries (measles, epstein-barr, herpes etc) There's a lot of media coverage of vaccines right now. There's not a lot of coverage about the known long term effects of some relatively mild viral illnesses in general, or of covid-19 in particular. Lack of coverage doesn't mean lack of importance. If I were a young healthy NFL player betting my physical health and condition, I would want to do a lot of research into the knowledge that's been built up about long-term effects of covid-19 in particular. I would want to try to get the best objective information I could about long-term effects from every athlete who caught covid - Olympians and in other sports as well as NFL - did their V02 max drop or any other objective measurables? How far for how long? Did they have a drop on mental acuity and memory tests? How much how long? Cardiac effects? And if the answer is, there isn't a lot of data that's been gathered yet, I think the safe choice is to assume the novel virus just may have a few curveballs to throw at that optimally fit young NFL bod and I shouldn't be so hasty to worry about long term vaccine effects while dismissing long term effects of a novel virus.

The reason not to do the same with the players is that they have a union and operate under a CBA, and the negotiated agreement with the union was that the vaccine would not be required for the players. Now as far as I know, there's nothing saying that vaccinated and unvaccinated players can't operate under different rules as a "reasonable accomodation" - in-person vs virtual meetings; weekly vs daily testing; practice and work out without wearing masks vs. have to wear masks. If those differences lead to a performance disadvantage that makes the unvaccinated player at the bottom of the roster more likely to be cut....Oh Well.

I appreciate your desire to avoid jobs that require vaccination and that is 100% your personal choice, but why is it wrong? If my employer is paying me to be available, why should they tolerate me being avoidably unavailable because I'm sick with a preventable illness? And why should they tolerate me potentially transmitting that illness to my coworkers and making them unavailable to do their jobs?

I understand you are stating your personal beliefs, I just want you to understand this is not the way the US or private employers have historically operated. The courts (all the way to the Supreme court) have so far pretty uniformly upheld work related and school related vaccination and PPE requirements, and also upheld local and state vaccine requirements (eg mandatory school vaccination, vaccination during epidemic disease outbreaks), providing exemptions were allowed for legitimate religious or medical reasons. It's discriminatory if it's applied differently to different groups of people working in the same or similar roles. If it applies to everyone, you may not like it but it's not considered discriminatory.

Basically, what I hear is that you wish the Bills had upgraded the interior of the OL by signing Joe Thuney and drafting Creed Humphrey. Me too.

We can always be surprised as we were with Gabe Davis, but I think Marquez Stevenson has a long way to go to compete as WR

Dude, Brown is indeed "Big Spence" at 6'8" "Low man wins" for leverage Know any successful 6'8" guards in the league? This. Also, the Erik Pears experiment in which a 6'8" adequate NFL RT was shoved inside to guard and made both himself and a damned fine NFL center (Eric Wood) look bad (OK, blocking scheme had something to do with it but still, who you play next to matters). Next season, Pears went back to playing RT for the 49ers where he played 100% of the snaps in all 16 games, and Wood went to the pro bowl at C This notion that you can take any capable NFL tackle and pop them inside to guard for good results has got to be put out of its misery

I would LOVE to link the videos, but they're in Instagram Stories, and I don't know how to capture or link 'em. If they're just posted on Instagram I know how to link that. If anyone can provide instructions, I will gladly provide the videos.

Dion Dawkins just posted what looks like a session at the same place - Gabe Davis, Isaiah McKenzie, Brandon Powell all running deep routes. Brandon Powell is fast as ***** but both the videos he posted he outran the ball and body caught it. McKenzie and Davis both adjusted their routes and used hands. Begged the question: who is throwing to them? Didn't look like a Josh pass. PS Isaiah McKenzie tossed some shade: "Tighten up, Stefon Diggs" Ooooooh.

Since they were the St Louis Cardinals when I moved to St Louis (I never converted, not to the Rams either even during Greatest show on turf): On behalf of my adopted home town I must officially say "Ouch". OTOH, I must point out that they did play in a Superbowl in 2008 and play in a conference championship in 2015, both (until last season) more recent than our Bills did either of those things so perhaps we shouldn't yap too much about that "joke of a franchise" thing just yet. Shnowman already called it in the Player's Tribune. They were celebrating like they'd just won the Superbowl. Well, that's great. They beat us on a last minute fluke play, but they got the W, it counts. The Bills went on to win out the season, win two playoff games, and play in the AFCCG. The Cards went on to go 2-5, finish 8-8, and spend Playoff season sitting on the sofa and watching "Hail Murray" reruns. I'll take our finish. Let them tweet.

Not that he's the Word, but I do continually look back at Lance Zierlein's draft profiles and say "yepyep that's what we see" Tommy Doyle: Jack Anderson: Apologies for not also capturing their strengths, can't paste in the whole thing. I translate both of those profiles as "needs to work on technique" but also for Anderson "needs an off season in an NFL level S&C program to build up his core". I don't think Bates is the answer at Center. He's #3 on the depth chart there right now. Beane said some really good things about Boettger - I think they like him, but he still needs to take a step. He's also huge for a guard. Perhaps more telling was Dawkins unsolicited "You say Boettger, I say Stallion". Beane said "he was a comfort to Mitch Morse with the protections" I'm not sure what that means. This is just my opinion, but I'm not sure what folks expected from Morse. He's locked down and stabilized the center position as far as I can tell.

I think (maybe it's hope) that the Bills have learnt their lesson that preseason doesn't always translate to regular season. Unless he gets injured or flat-out gets outplayed, I think Ford gets a chance at LG in the first 2 games of the season. Then, like Spain, if they're not seeing what they want from him he gets pulled. When the Bills penciled Nate Peterman in as the clear starter with no alternatives than Mr Project Rookie, I had a bad case of "OhShitHereweGoAgain" on the coaching staff and FO. They've redeemed themselves, but part of me is always a bit scared of a relapse.

I didn't know you had this in you, Inigo

It’s the NFLonCBS network account Buffalo vs Everyone, Baby At least I got to read a thoughtful response out of it

Thank you for demonstrating his point and mine: that this is a thread about Zach Etta but you just can’t refrain from bringing in and riding your personal hobby horses to exhaustion.

I was talking to New Era.

He's the #2 WR but #3 receiver on the team. He doesn't see a lot of targets because Kelce, because Hill, but he catches 66% of the targets he gets for 13.7 Y/R; seems pretty good to me. Well, I don't know about you, but when I think about what WR I've got on my team, what comes to mind are route running ability, ability to seperate, and ability to make the tough reception - the sideline shoestring, the contested catch, etc. It's pretty ridiculous to just not even have them in a group of 8 teams.

Why give him the clicks? I'm sure it's what he wants.

You left out Star.