Mr. WEO

can I post a different score here than in the other thread? I think everyone should use this thread as a hedge against their first prediction over there. It's best to wait until Thursday and then post here in case of any late breaking news!

does anyone feel uncomfortable with all this national expectation? express yourself in a new thread...

I'm not an expert in bulls---t medicine. Despite Kelly's "conditioning program" they stunk the last 2 of his 3 seasons. But somehow, 2 years after he was gone, this magical conditioning was the reason for the Eagles to win a SB without the aid of their Future Hall Of Fame LT? lol come on....you are redefining "muscle memory"... If penalties made it "illegal" to do anything but form tackle the QB, you would have seen a huge increase in called penalties immediately after the rule changes. Not so. As far as the changes--they predate "2010" by over a decade: 1995 was when the "throwing down/full weight" on the QB rule started. 2002 was when the no helmet to helmet on the QB started. 2006 was when the "low hit on the QB" came into play. The "reinterpretation in 2010" did not result in a jump in penalties called--there were 100, compared with 121 in 2005. So you're way off with you claim. The "great" players are so because they last a lot longer than the "good" ones? They are going to have to kick a lot of guys out the HOF then.... Yes, Peters lasted a long time---racking up Pro Bowl nods/padding his resume on mediocre Offenses for 6 of the past 7 years. The one exception is where they became a top 3 in scoring and won a SB with him off the active roster. You are making a very powerful case lol.

Possible. But many if not most colleges screen athletes for this. Plus, one would think that this is something a family would want to warn others about to increase awareness.

The other thread is 295 pages. This thread has many miles to go...

That's a green light for a third thread on this same WBEN article...

Kelly's conditioning program was despised in Philly. There's no chance it's affect was felt 2 years later with a different coaching staff/methods. Bills didn't lose SBs because Bruce was neutralized by a LT. Of course good line play is essential for team success. Great line play by one guy is not. The Browns Offense would have been better with AP than Thomas---simply because they could not have been any worse than they were with Thomas. They needed playmakers. LT isn't a playmaker. When your Defense sucks, you need to score points. AP was a generational talent. The NFL has seen such RBs succeed behind bad O-lines. Cleveland's O-line was bad even with a "future HOFer" on it, by the way. All this talk about "rule changes"...no rules have prevented later/dirty/cheap shot hits. They still happen all the time--only we complain when we disagree with the call. In the past 20 years, despite several rule changes, the number of roughing the passer penalties hasn't changed much. There were 107 called in 2003, a whopping 128 in 2004, same in 2005---yielding a rate of around 0.5 per game. By 2009, it had dropped down to a mid 1990's level of 0.26. It didn't get above .45 again until 2018 (all of this encompassed Thomas's entire career, obviously). This isn't about all the bad decisions of the Bills in the past. This is about one that wasn't bad. When the cupboard is bare, you take the best of what you have and offer it for sale to restock.

"tangible" in a literal sense, as in "look what Jim/Thurman/Bruce just did to alter the outcome of this game!" The Eagles had a "winning culture" before Peters showed up. They had made the playoffs 7 of the previous 9 seasons and had won the division 5 times. Peters wasn't just "out of that SB game"---he was out of every game after week 7. But now your saying his absence wasn't an absence at all---but in fact a "dominant force" as some sort of shadow coach that made it possible for him to be quickly and effectively be replaced by a second year backup who hadn't played the position before. lol ...I'll give you that I guess, lol. That SB they won with their former Pro Bowl QB--who was actually an MVP (in that SB), not a "MVP type". And what happened to that hardened, deep and talented team the next year, upon the return of their future HOF LT? Return to mediocrity on Offense. And Chipp Kelly was fired 2 years before the 2017 season SB. His training methods departed with him.

"If...Pac-12 champ is the No.1 seed".......lol

Heinecke played well as a legit backup last year. Howell was the 6th QB taken (behind guys like Matt Corral and Bailey Zappe) in a draft that, to put it kindly, wasn't loaded with great players at the position. But If he stays in shape and works hard in the off seasons, I can see him as a Tyrod Taylor kind of guy.

Not sure what you're basing that on. 2 guys would have to be injured on his current team (a bad one) for him to start.

this has the smell of a RunJoshRun Productions bit....

Another guy who peaked in his freshman year and steadily declined. He will struggle to see playing time, as the #3 on that roster.

who was the last one....Magic Mitch? His stats at Auburn were just awful. Best year was Freshman---and 0nly 16 TDs!

With the QB lineup taht followed his departure--how would one o-lineman make such a measurable difference on a bad team? The Bills absolutely made the right move to trade. When the best player on your team is not your QB, but an O-lineman another team may covet, you unload him for picks. I would argue Wood had more of an impact on that Offense in his tenure than Peters would have. The Eagles had top 10 scoring Offenses with and without him. They were bottom half with and without him. Then, when he was gone for over half the season, he was easily replaced and the team reached a level they could not before or after he went out. During Petersons tenure there, there Offensive performance was all over the place--none of it related to the LT--this should be obvious. Makes the entire Offense better? Not in Philly (Reid made them better, Kelly did for 2 seasons, Pederson did for 1). Not in Chicago--they led the league in sacks allowed. Not in Buffalo--except for his rookie season (where he played in only 5 games--and yet the Offense was ranked 7th in points), the Bills Offense was uniformly awful with Peters at LT. No different after he left. I guess we can always repeat the old bromides like "an elite LT makes the whole Offense better"--certainly Munoz, Walter Jones and Orlando Pace played on some great Offenses. But in Peters's case the claim doesn't ring true. The more perfect example is Joe Thomas--the "anchor" of innumerable horrible Offenses his entire career. They had 10 wins his rookie year and over the next 10 years, they would win more than 5 games 1 time (7, in 2014). "One of the best LT of all time"----zero impact. In fact, one could argue he had a negative impact as they picked him over Adrian Peterson (who immediately made the Vikings offense better). He would have done the same in Cleveland.

Tough day for Clarence lol

I guess, but he's had 5 years to rewrite the script. Time runs out on a fringe player.

P-F-R is where i get my stats as well. He really has not been an all the way threat returning kicks. His speed and vision haven't worked out that way for him on ST. It just hasn't happened.

solid CB too

Wow, Oregon sucks in every aspect. Bo Nix is still awful. Why would they take him?

mouthwash

I've said it for years here--it's folly. How many QBS suffered a season or career ending "crippling hit" from the blindside protected by a non-elite LT? Is a crippling hit from the blind side more crippling than form the other side? Lots of GMs making dumb decisions doesn't make the decision less dumb. Philly (forgetting for a minute your laughable claim they had the most talented roster in the league) is a perfect example of this. Peters disappeared and the team never noticed. Won their only SB without him. The Bills absolutely would have been no better (W/L) paying for Peters. It makes no sense to believe so. Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who had never played on the blind side, was just as useful as future HOFer Jason Peters. Maybe he will get into the HOF as well....?

He's really not though. Last year he had one long one of 75 and that was it. In 2020 it was 27 with a really bad average of 16 per. In 2019 his long was only 24 on an average of 21. He's not much of a threat back there.

Many were simply following McD's lead.

The only one of those many who mattered was McD.....