Hapless Bills Fan

Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips say "Hi"

No, but they hadn't completely reshuffled the deck. They were playing the line they had been playing, not 3 different guys out of position. So I haven't followed every move, Zero. What does the KC starting OL look like to be at this point?

Since that game the Chiefs cut both of their starting OTs (Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz). Neither of them played in the SB where Tampa abused Mahomes

OTC has Matakevich restructure and Sanders void year, but seems to be missing Isaiah McKenzie, Efe Obada, and Matt Breida (that I noticed - and I think I'm missing a couple that they're missing) 'Course those 3 signings will push 3 guys out of the top 51 so it's only the difference between the $0.815M, $0.786M etc currently at 49,50,51 that comes off the cap....

What's interesting about the whole "will someone trade for Watson?" scenario WRT the Patriots, is that they have a pretty long track history of making various court actions disappear...the only one they couldn't "fix" was Hernandez, and that was like his 2nd or 3rd murder or attempted murder I think? So anything less, they may view it as "fixable"

Wasn't really different from my first dose here. Sore arm for a couple days, felt really draggy the next day. Pfizer. I did drive 400 miles/6 hrs RT for the jab, so that may have been part of the next-day fatigue though normally not that tired from a drive.

It was like Jessica Rabbit. He made her laugh.

Worked to help John Brown get a decent contract with the Bills, which helped him get a decent contract with the Raiders so ?? It's true. So maybe it's a Career Revival Move for him to return to the OC where he had his best season. OTOH I tend to think that season was BF (before foot) and that Sammy's career can be divided into BF and AF (before foot and after foot)

Fair OTOH I wouldn't have heard about Watson if not for this site. The intervention was reported on a bunch of major networks (ESPN, CBS, USAToday, Yahoo, iheart, CNN, as well as local Boston and Arizona affiliates). Didn't see national FOX, could be there and I just didn't see it.

Yeah I actually looked for a punting chart analogous to the distance/direction/completion percentage charts on Nextgen, or at least an "X" showing where they landed. My perception is that Bojo was very much a "boom or bust" guy, he could boom punts 65 yards (but that meant he was kicking into the endzone a lot if we punted near midfield) or he could shank them/kick out of bounds. I think the Bills would have kept him if they could have signed him to a reasonable 3 year deal, but I think they also may see signing a punter who is more of a "steady Eddie" as an upgrade in some sense. But that's my perception and sometimes when I see data my perceptions don't match reality, so I'd like to see data

They're saying there's a "Spring tide" with 18" variation expected Monday so they're hoping maybe then

Nah, just in his highly filtered and selective view He's also conflating attention with discussion. The controversy quotient matters to discussion levels, and it's just not here. I mean, what's controversial about two guys stopping the sexual assault of a 71 year old former teacher in an open meadow of a public park in broad daylight? Everyone is glad he did it, even if he is a Patriot*** football player. Everyone is shocked that the assault was so brazen - you can suggest that perhaps an elderly person should not be perambulating a public park at 4 am or 11 pm, but 11 am on a sunny day is unexceptionable. The story has all the feels and non of the controversy, so aside from a few jokes about Bill cutting an honest and courageous man, what's to discuss?

Yes to tides. Were apparently hoping that high tide today would do the trick:

Agree on the creates instability Not at all questioning you, but wondering if you could explain in more detail why you see what he's doing as very very dangerous?

Actually I think the decision to pull Bates after 1 drive at C and move Feliciano over, then keep him there for the next several games, had more to do with Jon's injury status recovering from the torn pec than with Bates vs Mongo at center. McDermott said after the game that they'd planned to have Feliciano on a snap count, not playing the whole game. Feliciano said it was easier for him to play center because he had help on both sides and admitted that his pec was not 100%. I think the sequence went something like this: Morse injured -> Bates in while concussion evaluation -> yep, concussion, Morse out for the game ->OhShit! ->can we get a whole game out of Jon? -> Bates out, Feliciano to center, Boettger in at LG Note that in this hypothetical decision sequence, the Bills pretty clearly think Boettger > Bates at LG and Winters > Bates at RG They may or may not think Feliciano > Bates at C but they clearly think OL with recovering-from-injured Feliciano somewhere > OL with uninjured Bates The general fan opinion seemed to be that Winters kind of sucked at RG but PFF (for what it's worth) actually had him graded higher than Feliciano IIRC (Erik Turner had a turn-up with some folks on Twitter where he brought up a bunch of PFF line evaluation stats) 🤷‍♂️ That's clearly not how the Bills coaches saw it

I don't really have one. Started watching the Bills with my grandpa in mid-1960s. First game that sticks in my mind was the conf. championship loss in 1966. Been a Bills fan ever since. Moved to Boston in the late 70's/hope of the early '80s. Still a Bills fan. Moved to St Louis while the Bills sucked. The Cardinals sucked too, but I never considered switching fandom anyway. Enjoyed the heck out of the late 80's/early 90s but never considered a switch to the Greatest Show on Turf when they were the local Hot thing Still a Bills fan. It's in my blood I guess. Though I will swear at Bidwell and Kroenke with the best of the locals, just on principal. Bye week

Maybe they don't need to upgrade at WR right now? Unsure. Speed with hands and ball-tracking skills, I guess. I would also love to see the Bills draft a top C prospect who can also play G. Let him understudy Morse and compete to start at G this season, as Eric Wood did. I freely acknowledge having no clue whether there's a talent drop off at that position from R1 to R2 these days. FWIW, Eric Wood was drafted as a C/G at #28 in the 1st round. The NO Saints had 3 1st round picks invested in the OL to protect their Brees-y investment and run well, LG, RG, RT. The Titans are cheaping it at OL and running well anyway with Henry, though they got shut down in the playoffs. The Bucs had 1st rounder Tristan Wirfs at RT. The Chiefs had Eric Fisher, and their OL play went to hell when he went down late in the AFCCG. The Seasnakes have a 1st rounder at LT and LG and Wilson beefs that's not enough. The 49ers had one of their own and 2 of other team's 1st round picks on OL and were "meh" in the run game with a hindered passing attack. Traditionally the Patriots went "bargain basement" on OL, but they had Coach Scar who seemed able to meld just about anyone into a smooth functioning OL machine. Long winded way to say I can see there are different ways winning teams handle the OL, but it seems to me that if you want to be able to both run and pass against the very best DLs in the league, which you gotta be able to do to win championships, maybe it takes an exceptional OL coach or else some investment in the best athletes on OL.

I haven't heard a lot of "talking him up", and he hasn't put a lot of play on the field (lack of preseason games undoubtedly hurt guys like him last season. I take your point that he clearly hasn't put enough out there to win someone's job, my counterpoint is that I see no reason to believe it's a "must break through" season for him. Trivia: I believe I read that Ryan Bates father is, in fact, named Norman. But he doesn't own a motel.

It's an interesting question how they'll go in the draft. From comments in his pressers during the playoffs, I do somewhat think if the offense doesn't get a first round type talent this offseason, Daboll might require sedation. He sounded a bit salty saying something like "we only have 1 first round pick on the offensive side of the ball". ( wasn't counting Diggs as a 1st round pick, which Beane and McDermott certainly will). There's something to be said for the philosophy that @BADOLBILZ and others have expressed that maybe offense (paraphrasing) is our "Fastball" now, and we should keep putting the best talent we can around Allen. I think the playoffs showed that we still have gaps to our offensive game that the best teams can exploit to limit or shut us down, run game (speed)/pass catching threat at RB, and a solid player at TE. OTOH there's also merit to the philosophy that one can find talented players throughout the draft, and we have to look for a good match between team development needs and the best talent available in the vicinity when we pick. He believes he can play across the line - certainly he may be seen as more of a C/G. But is he a true starting talent in the interior? Dunno. I personally tend to believe the Bills are a bit trying to get "Champagne production on a Beer Budget" at OL. If we want an OL that excels at both pass protection and in the run game, maybe we need to invest some draft capital? That's a true questionmark because I don't follow college football or the draft analysis process to understand how the talent falls off at OL.

I'm kind of turning that first statement over in my mind. (Don't forget Andre Holmes and Charles Clay at TE) On the one hand, it's true that the Bills WR corps in 2018 was weak-sauce. So was our OL, which was porous against the pass rush and solid when holes were needed in the run game. On the other hand, I think Allen and his "camp" would be the first to admit that he needed serious upgrades to every aspect of his NFL QB game. He needed better ability to read defenses, to know where the open WR would be given the defense, better knowledge of our pass protections, ability to throw with anticipation which he did not do, improved accuracy at the "bunnies" and in the 10-20 yd range - and so forth. And I think Allen's development needs were shown pretty clearly when Derek Anderson threw for 313 yds in his 2nd game with this motley crew then Barkley threw for 247 in his first start 2 weeks later (Foster had 105 yds and Jones 93). Was the rest of the offense good enough, No - but you got a glimpse that they could be better than they'd shown themselves to be with a very raw rookie. What we saw with Allen his rookie season of course, was that intense competitive fire - that "I'll do anything to win, I'll jump over guys, I'll run through guys" mentality. And then by the end of the season you saw glimpses that he could develop into something as a passing QB. Anyway. On the one hand, Darnold was supposed to be by far the more polished and proficient QB when he was drafted at #3 overall, and it's pretty clear they Jets did him no favors with "churn" at Head Coach and OC. But in 2019 anyway, before the season, Bell at RB and a WR room of Crowder, Robby Anderson, and Demaryius Thomas as the savvy vet was supposed to be a pretty good season. I think Darnold needs a "fresh start", but it's not beyond belief to me that the Jets might draft a QB high, AND keep Darnold as a "don't throw the rookie into the fire if he needs a development year" hedge.

So as for hard....overall the success rate (not the "difference making star" rate, just a guy who can consistently crack the starting lineup) is about 50% at the top of the 1st round, 30% at the bottom of the 1st round and top of the 2nd, slides to about 20% in the 3rd and 4th round and 10% in the 5th round and later. Those are spitball numbers that will change by 5% depending on the "success rate" criteria used by the guy in question

I wonder if the NFLPA or NFL have any restrictions on this kind of deal? It seems like an intriguing option

Considering he was undrafted and traded for by the Bills in 2019, people can have been predicting this for at most 🙄 2 years now. OLmen who are drafted in the first couple rounds are pretty much expected to start immediately or crack the starting lineup after a year It's not uncommon for late-round or UDFA guys to take 3-4 years to crack the starting lineup. Feliciano (4th round) started 4 games in 3 years before starting 4 games his 4th year then getting a chance to start in Buffalo. Boettger took 3 years. Bates has shown he can play in limited action. Competent OL play is in short enough supply that there's no "has to make it happen" for Bates. The Bills have shown they value depth and versatility on OL. If Bates doesn't crack the starting lineup this season it will be easier for the Bills to keep him around as depth if they like him. There's an example of the class "journeyman OL" on the Bills right now in the form of 7 year veteran Jordan Devey. He's played on 6 teams, including starting 6 games for NE during a Superbowl run, and 7 games for the Chiefs in 2018 befor IR'ing with a torn pec. I'm not sure the Bills love Bates at C since they re-up'd Feliciano, who says he'll do whatever the team needs but who also says he prefers to play C. But for sure, the Bills want to have 2 guys active who can fill in at T capably. They were actually playing 2 backup T in one game - I think it was Seattle. The announcers commented in surprise just after commenting on the Seahawks struggles to protect Wilson. The Bills were "perambulating the football down the field", Allen had adequate time to throw, and they were "oh, the Bills have 3 backup OLmen playing right now". Course then at another point in the game they sacked Allen 7 times, but he took that on himself for holding the ball too long. A lot of babble to say if they don't like how Adams is coming along, I expect them to bring in a couple of vet tackles so they can keep 2 guys who can play tackle on the roster. Unless of course they really think Bates or Mongo could fill in at tackle, but....

I dunno about draining his bank account, but I found this: https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawk-jarran-reed-suspended-for-six-games-for-violation-of-nfls-personal-conduct-policy/ Happened in 2017, they acted in 2019