Hapless Bills Fan

NO DABOLL DON'T DO IT!

To be fair, there was apparently another incident at the Put-in Bay Resort in Ohio, where Hunt punched a fellow guest: https://arrowheadaddict.com/2018/06/06/kareem-hunt-punches-man-ohio-resort-kansas-city-chiefs-report/ No injury, no arrest, but it was 2 incidents within 6 months, and that may have factored into the suspension. Agree. And yeah, the video will surface eventually. "Dead Head" with a lightening bolt. Shows up better in this one: It's not the usual Grateful Dead "deadhead" type logo. Unclear what it's supporting.

am I the only one who blinked and missed this? Eric Weddle retired in 2019 He coached his son's 12 yo Pop Warner team to a championship this fall Now he's playing in the Superbowl. https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/weddle-rams-spark-returning-retirement-82738184 Not only that, he's going to be the defensive signal caller Un. Real.

I think at times, the glimpses of the steel under the soft-speaking exterior come through. Like when he was talking about Levi Wallace and how defenses were "picking" on him and he said "Levi needs to make a play. If he makes a play, then they'll stop picking on him". He was clearly challenging Levi to step up, and he did. I've never gone into an interview without wanting the job. I've sometimes changed my mind during the interview. One time I got a speeding ticket on the way home.

My take, for whatever it's worth: 1) The calls for McDaniel to somehow validate his "Blackness" to the public are out of line. If the league is satisfied he meets the letter of their law, that's enough 2) There's a valid point that the NFL giving out draft picks to the team that "developed" McDaniel as a HC candidate goes against the spirit of the rule. I don't know, but it seems entirely likely that McDaniel has not been subject to the lifelong racism where some people are treated differently because of the dark color of their skin, and struggle to advance (one study that Black assistant coaches are 144x less likely to be promoted than their white counterparts). From that POV, it can be viewed as a "mockery", just as a team satisfying the Rooney Rule by doing a quick in-person interview of an in-house Black assistant before hiring the guy they had in mind all along, is a mockery. It's not serving the purpose of encouraging clubs to give more development opportunities and more consideration to promotion of more Black assistants. The Rooney Rule was modified to force clubs to put a bit more realistic effort into it (two interviews with external candidates plus one in person interview with an external candidate). It wouldn't surprise me if the draft picks rule got modified.

If he doesn't want it, then why would he interview for HC positions?

These are perfectly reasonable statements. We'll see...based on the signs you're thinking he won't be. But you started out far more definitive: "Star is not going to be in the roster this season. I can guarantee you that the Bills will cut him as they look to upgrade at DT." and "This is a done deal. Star is already gone. There is zero chance….zero chance…he’s on the roster in 2022" "Zero chance...done deal...I can guarantee you" is not quite the same as "based on the signs, I think..."

I appreciate your different POV .....but ultimately, when you say Star plays to provide for his family, aren't you saying that Star plays for money? And isn't that consistent with saying "Star doesn't love football...he plays for portraits of dead presidents" (not, I acknowledge your point, because of $$ per se but as a means to provide for his family). The point I am getting at is, when McDermott talks about how you have to have a fire in your belly every week to be the best - I don't think Star has that. I think he gives honest effort, but I don't think he's tirelessly working to be better and more impactful as a player every game. I should note, I don't intend to single out and slam Star here, because I think in this modern football era it's true of a lot of players. They love football as a means to gain generational wealth, and once they get paid or get to a point where their play doesn't impact their pay very much...they relax and lose some edge. And I think Star has continued to put in the work better than many of them (Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips, I'm looking at You). I believe I understand why McDermott brought him in - he was trying to effect rapid cultural change in the DL room, and he had confidence that Star would "buy in" and put in the example of steady grind. But I think we need to move past that. I agree. It's "hit and miss" where it takes some people a longer time to shed all the effects. That would be my guess, though I'm not opposed to the Bills trying to move on, either. I just badly want to see attention to our offensive line and offensive skill players, with two of our WR over 33 y.o., and I know our cap space is limited with lots of FA on the DL. I suppose I'm afraid that with only Oliver and Star and 2 PS DTs under contract, if we cut Star it will mean throwing a lot more of our FA $$ and draft resources into DL 😒 But none of us really know what kind of effort Star is putting in behind the scenes and where his head and heart are. It's up to McDermott and Beane to figure that out.

Goddammit, WEO, you made me spit out some of my after-dinner TAB (tasty adult beverage)

Levi Island doesn't exist. He and Dane Jackson are strictly zone guys.

Pretty early on in this thread, several folks who seem to know their stuff commented that they would not rely upon Wigdor to represent the client's best interest: In addition to this, another member commented on the strategy of specifying that the Broncos interviewers were "drunk" at the interview: Maybe. Or maybe he went with the law firm that promised him what he wanted ("absolutely, Mr Flores, you have a strong claim") when he wanted it (right now), and who would agree to try the case in the press. Maybe there were other law firms he contacted who advised him to take some time to consider before filing, and to be careful to dot 'i's and cross 't's and not make any defamatory claims that would be hard to substantiate, and he didn't like that advice.

I could be misinterpreting, but I think the idea is that Houston felt pressure AGAINST hiring the coach they were said to be planning to hire - Josh McCown, who has no coaching experience in the NFL at any level. The Flores lawsuit put pressure on them that they had to hire a more qualified coach, so they chose their internal candidate, Lovie Smith (last year's DC). I'm not sure they felt pressured to hire a Black coach per se - they might have - but I think they want to get McCown in the door as some form of coaching assistant, and Lovie Smith might be the only candidate who would put up with that. Why they're so passionate about Josh McCown I have no idea. Easterby must have prayed about him.

"Mormon" and "immigrant" are races? Huh, Who Knew?

Yep, I believe you disagree with the Beanemeister. Might also disagree with McDermott and Frazier, since Lotulelei saw his snap count fall when he returned from Covid. 53% before, 37% after, and that includes 53% his first game back, and a big drop afterwards presumably based on film. Might have been his best season as a Bill but from some people's assessment that's a low bar. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "cookie cutter scheme"? I assume McDermott hasn't fired Frazier yet because he's very plugged into the defense, and during the time outs was aware of and bought into the defensive playcalls that were made. I felt the Bills D was far more aggressive during the Week 5 game and don't understand why we didn't defend with the same aggression in the playoffs unless they felt that we simply physically couldn't, without Tre' White and our fastest DT Zimmer in the lineup, and with the "shine" out of Star (and Rousseau) Ohhhhh....funny you mention gambling to that particular poster (Agree that "reading between the lines" = guesswork; could be right, could be wrong, nothing absolute or guaranteed about it).

Oh, I dunno. Having a Tongan immigrant father who's a CPA and has a PhD from BYU might have something to do with it 🤷‍♂️ And married with a child at the point where he was drafted And choosing to live in a house near his parents As well as being a Mormon (a religion that drums family and fiscal responsibility into its Priests aka men) (all the above matters of public record) All totally random factors, lacking any correlation with a player being a fella who plans for financial future instead of throwing his money around. Just an extreme guess. Cheers!

This is what you said: "What does Cole Beasely have to do with McKenzie producing when on the field? Cole Beasely being good doesn't mean that McKenzie has to be bad. That's not how this works. McKenzie can be used in different ways and there's room for both on the roster if the cap allows" I was responding to what you said in the post I quoted, not to something you said several posts back. What do you think the rules are, you get to keep adding discussion, but folks talking with you are performing some sort of annoying lambada if they don't stay back?

I could be wrong but I think they drafted Stevenson to be that speedy deep threat WR we lacked after we parted from John Brown. The problem I have with Stevenson in the return game is that he seemed to lack field vision and cutting ability, which is something you can show in any aspect of the game. Guy without field vision or cutting ability is not a guy who's gonna play in the slot. Miles to go there. The guy you draft in the 6th is typically a guy who doesn't have a complete game and who is expected to need a couple years of development, so I'm sure he'll come into camp.

In the thread on his firing, some people were claiming Martindale's defensive style is outdated in the modern NFL (I think that might have been Gunner; @GunnerBill, was that you?). The Ravens have had the #2 or #3 defense 3 out of 4 years that Martindale was DC, and Daboll's offense particularly seemed to struggle against them. This past season, they were uncharacteristically poor, but their offense went from 9th to 25th on turnovers given up (may have something to do with it) and I believe they had a ***** ton of injuries as well as losing Judon. The Broncos had the #32 defense in the league the year Martindale was DC under Josh McDaniels. Guess we'll see. I think it's a good choice for Daboll in that Martindale has good experience as DC on a perennial contending organization, so Daboll should be able to sketch a general outline of what he wants as far as game management and turn him loose. Daboll has hired a smart but inexperienced OC so hiring Martindale should free him to focus more on the offense. It's an interesting choice because normally HC's tend to hire OCs and DCs they've worked with but I can't find any prior connection between Martindale and Daboll. Kafka was a PS QB with the Pats in 2013 when Daboll was TE coach, all I can find there. 19th. Not up to their usual standard, but not worst, either. Yes, they hired Mike Kafka, the QB coach and passing game coordinator for the Chiefs. If it weakens the Chiefs I'm For It!

The point is, McKenzie wants a chance to start in the slot (listen to his podcast with Ty Dunne, he made that clear) and be paid more than vet minimum. His best route to regular offensive playing time is the slot, so if Beasley is on the field in the slot, McKenzie's on the bench. "Room for both on the roster if the Cap allows": Beasley is due $7.2M and is 33 years old. If we keep him, we have to scrimp somewhere else, so we probably need to go low budget at #4 WR on, unless that #4 guy is our PR/KR too. I think it's fair to say McKenzie failed his PR audition, and we'll be looking elsewhere. Whether or not we keep Beasley on the roster, we need to find room to develop his replacement. So if they don't think McKenzie is that guy, we probably need to move on and draft/develop another young player. Please note that I like McKenzie and feel he fills a valuable role on the team, I'm just being pragmatic. If we move on from Beasley, there might be room for him, but if he wants a chance to play from the slot and Beasley is back, chances are he's going to go somewhere else.

We may just have to agree to disagree. The Bills see a ton of zone coverage. Diggs says "Cole Beasley is open on every play" and if you watch all-22, that's true unless they bracket him. McKenzie can beat the jock off of most guys against man and he can now run most of the route tree, but he doesn't break ankles or find the seams in the zone or run option routes where he reads the defense as Beasley does. And he can't track the ball or release from "sticky" coverage well enough to be a deep threat. The question isn't "can he put up 1500 yds and 14 TDs" the question is "can he put up >500 yds and 36 1st downs against zone coverage if he's starting in the slot?" (and note that would be a down year for Beasley who has put up >=700 yds and averaged 40 1D/season here)

This. Listen to the guys who cover these folks in practice. Taron Johnson called Beasley a "cheat code" for improving his slot coverage in zone. When asked about covering McKenzie he said "Isaiah's thing is speed, mostly". We used to do these performance reviews where we would rate our reports skills for job-relevant tasks. I haven't watched as much all-22 as I used to, but based on what I've seen I would rate McKenzie's route-running skills as "progressing" and Beasley's as "shows mastery"

That's just Wrong. His three last years in Dallas, Beasley got 57%, 57%, and 66% of the snaps, and put up 837, 314, and 617 yds (I believe he was injured during the down year). Beasley was salty because he didn't think he got a chance to contribute as much as he could to the offense or wasn't being used right. You were painting a picture of McKenzie as being underutilized by the Bills for no good reason: "Any time he's been used he produces. For whatever reason we don't use him." Yes, every receiver has bad plays, but the point is: when you're trying to work your way onto the field, the positive plays have to outnumber the negative plays by a significant margin. Otherwise the reason the coaches don't play you ahead of other players isn't mysterious, it's because you haven't come through as reliably as you need to do to win playing time away from incumbents.

Good enough, who are they? Go Not intended as snark, but a lot of times folks do come here and say stuff like that and when asked to stand and deliver, it's not thought through. Upthread we have suggestions of Cordarelle Patterson and Crowder. Considering that Spotrac suggests Crowder is in line for a $12M/yr payday and a 4 year contract, that doesn't seem likely; Patterson is given a market value of $9M/2 yrs. Both together seem like air dreaming. (I know this is not what you yourself are suggesting, I'm just making the point that sometimes people don't put a lot of thought into the "lots of options" thing) I think that's a bit forgetful. McKenzie has had a couple amazing games as a WR. He has also had games where he misses catchable balls or fails to get separation. He has had amazing KR/PR many of which were cancelled by stupid-ass penalties. He has also had games where he muffs, and then That Fumble.

Hunt got 8 games for what appears to be substantially less I dunno about where he was taken into custody, but otherwise - yes.