Hapless Bills Fan

Doesn't matter why, the point is, it's not required. You're suggesting the teams should penalize players for something that's not required. I don't think the NFLPA would go for penalizing players who don't show up for "voluntary" OTAs or who don't wear "optional" safety equipment either. It's either a job requirement or it's not, and if it's not, the NFL shouldn't be able to penalize players for it.

Beane made it sound like an open question in his pre-draft presser This could just be me, but if you've got a 3 year starter who has been to 2 pro-bowls and you're waiting to see who you draft at #30 before you decide to extend him, you got a problem.

That seems vindictive. It's not required for the players at this point, so how can the NFL or the team penalize them for not doing something that's not required?

I would presume, because that player hates wearing a mask while he works out. Can't blame him.

Someone opens the door, takes a dump on the back seat, smears crap all over the upholstery, pops the hood and slices up the engine hoses, and your insurance company won't pay because you failed to secure the vehicle? I just learned something about myself - I think of myself as PollyAnna, always thinking the best of people. I just learned I have a pessimistic side.

I dunno about "everyone" I know for a fact the advice to continue to wear a mask after getting vaccinated is (one of) the sticking points for at least one Buffalo Bills player.

This. Especially with a QB who is master at manipulating the zone with his eyes....like Mahomes. The key is to affect the QB, pressure him, make him uncomfortable.

Do they leave a fully-paid insurance policy with it? There's nothing saying the car was driven through a fence, or into a lightpost, or anything else that could be described as an accident. What laws do you believe were broken in the described Mercedes abandonment?

You don't give the link, but if it's this https://apnews.com/article/gainesville-health-florida-florida-gators-mens-basketball-coronavirus-pandemic-df3b59e6971da373ac101b7d11e6bd57 which contains your quote word for word as the last paragraph, you seem to have omitted this relevant section: If Keyontae Johnson had a panel of cardiac experts conclude that his collapse was not covid-related, and if he was properly screened (and cleared) from having myocarditis before he returned to play, I don't see why his case relates to whether Tommy Sweeney should play again after developing, and apparently recovering from, covid-related Myocarditis

At a guess, Diggs younger brother, Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs, may have been involved. He seems to live and train with Stefon in the off season. If I were Stefon and my younger bro (or even my friend) called me at 3 ack emma and said "I was out clubbing and ran your G-wagon off the road near the airport, I think the tire is flat, I called a tow truck", I would say "Lil', forget the tow truck, GTFO of there, Now, and we'll send someone after the car in the morning". At that point you're not concerned about $100k car, you're concerned about 1) running into the wrong police officers and having them cause you bodily harm in the process of finding out no, the car isn't stolen 2) having sobriety tests administered at the scene where you were driving a vehicle, and failing them Diggs earned $14.8M last year. His game-day paycheck was >$800k. He could buy like, 5 of them cars (after taxes) from 1 weeks pay.

Oh, c'mon man. First, there are plenty of palm trees in places other than Miami - Florida, Gulf coast, S. Cali, Caribbean, etc. Even Ireland has palm trees FFS! Second, it's pretty well known I think that Diggs trains off-season at House of Athlete or Bommaritos in Miami and Receiver Factory in (I think) Ft Lauderdale. But he flies around in a private jet. He can be pretty much anywhere, any time. He could be in Cabo San Lucas on Sunday nite and Miami on Monday morning. Diggs doesn't need to be not anyplace with palm trees, he doesn't need to be not anyplace in Florida, he just needs to have not been in the car when the abandonment happened. And he only needs that because his representatives said he wasn't in Florida at the time. The flat tire may or may not have occurred or been a problem - I don't see why a Mercedes G wagon wouldn't have run-flat tires - but as someone else astutely observed, there are a bunch of strip clubs and casinos in the vicinity of Miami Airport Station. It seems probable that someone experienced a bit of trouble staying on the road, may or may not have had a flat tire as a cause or as a result of this, may have called for roadside assistance, then realized that the car's position combined with their current state might want 'splainin if law enforcement showed up, so the best thing to do was beat feet outta there by taxi or Uber and sort the situation later.

I mean, there probably was something crazy involved, but whether it involved Stefon Diggs is another question. He's got two brothers, and I think Trevon lives and trains with him in Miami off-season. If Diggs wasn't in town, at a guess, lent the car to his 'lil bro. Or to a friend, who knows? IIRC, plenty of strip clubs and casinos in that vicinity and the roads are kind of confusing in broad daylight

The tow truck might have come, saw no one there at whatever time it was, and left without doing anything. Or maybe it never came. Or maybe it was never called, and the people involved called an UBER or a taxi or a friend and got TF out of there and figured "we'll deal with this in the morning"

Agree, yes - or bringing up all the times you were driving and didn't speed to defend yourself from a speeding ticket

I don't think it "snuck up" on Beane, but I think he had a long-term plan for it that got AFU by the cap situation. And I think he was hoping next year's cap would be higher than he now believes it will. All that said, yes, obviously they could have planned both 5th year options into their re-signings of FA this off-season and they didn't, so you have a point there.

Ever since I listened to a podcast with Eric Wood where he was talking about PFF OL grades and how they differ from the internal grades because PFF doesn't know what the assignment was, I consider PFF line grades with a large helping of skepticism. I do think the Bills did a good job building the OL, but I think it was better than 21st last season, and probably deserves to be worse than 10th this season taking into account the run blocking. Williams was either on the practice squad or inactive for all of the playoff games.

Well, I don't think that's right. I think a 5th year option is just extending the current rookie contract. Like any contract, the player can renegotiate and sign a new contract with different terms that then supercedes the previous contract. Let's look at Tre White. Last May, the Bills picked up his 5th year option for 2021 at a cost of $10M Then he signed a new deal last summer. Let's look at his current cap hit: $6.72M is clearly less than $10M, and his $990M salary is clearly less than the $10M salary of the 5th year option. OK let's do another example: Myles Garrett. The Browns picked up his 5th year option for 2021 last May slating him to earn $15M in 2021. His current cap hit per Spotrac is $9.4M, with a salary of $1M, which is clearly less than $15M. Basically I believe you to be mistaken on this point.

Yes, I have had that very thought. Hopefully his coaches address this with him.

Yeah, I have a hard time separating out appropriate concern for the clients (if they were subjected to inappropriate or coercive behavior) and for Watson (who deserves the benefit of doubt until all the evidence is made available) from my total disdain for BOTH lawyers as sleaze buckets. Is Buzbee trying the case in public? Yes. Is Hardin handling that well by complaining of it, while attempting his own "try it in public" fest? IMO no.

Just to this point....what I think would be difficult for the Bills to squeeze in would be Allen + Edmund's 5th year option. $35M guaranteed. I think if the Bills exercise Allen's 5th year option THEN get a deal done this summer, they could probably manage franchise tagging Edmunds next year if they feel he merits that. It would be less than Allen's 5th year option assuming they structure his contract in a way that the biggest hits come down the road. But maybe my calculus is wrong. I agree with your point that we fans just don't know enough about how the Bills value Edmunds, how he values himself, and so forth. I suppose I object to the idea of drafting an "Edmunds replacement" and moving on because I feel that draft - let walk - draft to fill holes is how the old Bills operated, and it limits improvement. I know many here feel just about anyone at MLB would be an improvement, but I tend to feel that's not realistic. Edmunds isn't Bobby Wagner or Lavonte David but he isn't chopped liver, either.

Interesting points. A small nit corrected above. I don't think we can draw conclusions about "have not outright picked up the option", because options are not required to be picked up until May 3rd after the draft. It's widely believed the Bills will pick up Josh Allen's option, but they haven't yet. As far as any extension of Edmunds, I could be wrong but I thought Beane was asked about that in his post-season presser (or maybe on one of the shows) and said that they wanted to work out Allen's contract first. He mentioned the option during this week's presser, saying that if they can't work out a long term deal it might be difficult for the team to be locked into two 5th year options if the cap is as he expects. Again, good points.

The problem with keeping Smith is that he counted (IIRC) $2.5M against the cap. So in a tight cap year, that would be $2.5M reasons to move on from Smith. Sweeney has shown more ability in the passing game (Smith will catch accurately thrown balls that would count as drops if he didn't catch them; Sweeney will dive, jump, and one-hand balls that come near him). Sweeney is signed for $874k, and will probably not even count in the top 51 against the cap even before the draft (Spotrac shows him as #50 currently, with information on Obada and Lamp's contracts still pending.) I read that Sweeney was considered the best blocking TE in the 2019 draft class. No question Smith would be a better blocker at this point, but they also need to balance against overall utility/threat I don't know who's there in the 5th round of the draft, but I don't see it as a "given" that a 5th round pick pushes Sweeney off the roster. He could, but he'd have to really master the playbook and show something in training camp.

I don't know why this thread got resurrected, but a one-line post "very relevant I was looking for this" doesn't seem like enough reason. If there's more to be said, PM me and I'll consider re-opening

So thank you very much, and I find that list very helpful. One approach, I think, is to say "who are the 5 best middle linebackers in the league right now"? Probably we all have a bit different list, but Bobby Wagner, LaVonte David, Demario Davis, Deion Jones, maybe Darius Leonard, come to mind. So when I look at them, I see 7, 8, 7, 7, and 10 tackles/snap. So it kind of looks to me like Tremaine Edmunds, with 8 tackles/snap, is right in line with some pretty fine players 🤷‍♂️