dpberr

Trade: Cornelius Bennett. I don't think the Bills get to the Super Bowls without him. He should be on the Wall of Fame. Free Agent: Mario Williams. Lots of excellent choices to choose from but this deal was a rare win-win for both team and player. The Bills went out on a limb and aggressively pursued him despite the league collectively joking it'd never happen, paid top dollar, and he rewarded them with exactly what the Bills signed him for - pass rush and sacks. I fault Rex Ryan more for how his career ended in Buffalo than I do him as a player.

It is amazing that the Jets have just one coach in franchise history with a win percentage of .500 or better - Bill Parcells. (Al Groh technically counts, but he coached just one season.) IMO, the Johnson brothers listen too much to the football "consultant" industry that's greased by the agents for coaches and management. Luis Castillo has the best agent of all time in the NFL. However, Adam Gase is not a good football coach, but his agent rivals Castillo's Rasputin-like ability to get him jobs he shouldn't have any business in getting.

For as much as I admire Mr. Wilson, towards the end, he was hiring just loyalists and friends. I think the Donahoe/Williams era really made him very bitter. If winning happened, great, but it wasn't the top objective in filling positions. Excellent question, btw.

In the churn of election news, ESPN announced it would lay off 300 employees and not fill 200 empty positions. https://apnews.com/article/espn-300-layoffs-amid-virus-8db87b34e7c74585b8920c584b282773 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/sports/espn-layoffs.html

He's ok but as a player, he hasn't evolved much. There is talent there but I don't know how coachable his personality is. I think his decline in production is due in part to that once the league saw what he he could do, he didn't add much to it. That being said, that doesn't mean it's all on him. The Falcons have whiffed on a lot of players recently, and part of that whiff is the organization failing to grow raw talent into skill.

You really see the quality of the player after opposing defenses have a library of film to study. That's why you can light up the league freshman year, slump substantially the next. By the time the BIlls play the Dolphins again, there will be several games to study.

I've long been a critic of the coaching taking their foot off the gas and the predictable game plans against the better coaches in the NFL. Today they kept that foot on the pedal and the defense was buzzing. I was happy to see it. I'm not sure if they simplified the plan or threw in new plays or a bit of both, but the defense looked fast, and the entire team played with purpose.

I'm confident they can get over the playoff hump this year. That'd accomplish an important mission.

Thought "The Hunt for Red October" was his best post-Bond work. I recall a lot of people thought that movie was going to bomb at the box office. It was expensive, Alec Baldwin was an unknown, they had Sean Connery with a beard speaking Russian, and they didn't think audiences would enjoy a cerebral "naval" movie with the US Navy in the news with the Gulf shenanigans at the time.

Speculation of course, but I think there are growing pains with Edmunds being the "caller" on the defense after Alexander's retirement. I think this year is his first year doing it. He's got the speaker in the helmet, and it's not just running what is communicated from the sideline like a robot because the call will dictate the sides, gaps and alignment specifications but the linebacker has to make a split second decision to change the play if he sees something from the offense. I don't think that particular part is going very well. McDermott had Trotter in Philly, Keuchly and Davis in Carolina. Experienced pros with a high aptitude for the game. I'm not saying Edmunds lacks the aptitude, but he's being asked to do a job he certainly didn't do in college or his first couple years as a Bill. It's new for him, with no camp or preseason. He's not a 10-year vet out there who's seen it all and can bark out a blitz or align the corners differently if he sees something. You won't hear coaches discuss this part either because that's the nuts and bolts of the strategy and coaches just feed vanilla to the press. Lorenzo Alexander was a good football player, but he has an elite football intelligence, from the years of playing and natural aptitude for the game. That can't be readily replaced even under ideal circumstances.

I'd agree. Quality talent. My guess is the team is selling before the injury grenade goes off in the enclosed space. He's had biceps and pectoral tears, and already one completely torn ACL. My guess - he's got knee pain in the other one or the repaired one. I think over conditioning, or doing the wrong kind of conditioning in the spring where all these guys were working out in home gyms or whatever, has led to a lot of the knee issues you're seeing around the league.

Happy the Bills are winning games they should against inferior opponents. McDermott, however, doesn't inspire confidence and comfort from this fan's perspective. I do think a lot of the issues are coaching related - going back to the wild card game last year. The coaching staff has no desire to blow teams out, and they are too confident in their collective genius. This makes games far more competitive than they should be. Have to play nasty and keep the foot on the gas.

Can't be beholden to script against BB. Going to lose that way. You'd think that the Bills coaches would know by now that their schemes and scripts are all figured out.

I think BB and TB despise each other, and have for a long time. They stayed together for the reasons any miserable couple does, for mutually selfish reasons. I don't think the Patriots are really trying this year, especially after a couple of their better players decided to pass on playing in 2020. You add in no fan revenue, and the team probably cares more about managing the expenses, not getting an outbreak of virus, getting the games done and just getting out of there. For that franchise, winning a wild card game just to get the doors blown off by the Chiefs or Ravens in the divisional isn't worth it.

That is a problem in Pennsylvania. The state has gotten out of the non-correctional facility inpatient psychiatric care business for the most part. There's nowhere near enough beds and treatment professionals, nor the insurance coverage to pay for the treatment and the lifetime use of medications. The big component too, is that even if you receive treatment, get the medication and have all the insurance in the world to pay for it, you still have to want to take the medication and attend the therapy. Usually when people have a significant event, it's because they stopped doing those two things. That being said, until the toxicology comes back on this guy, I'm not 100% certain this was a manic depressive episode as being claimed. MD is not generally associated with running around with a knife, completely out of control.

On a practical level, if a social worker responds to that scene, he or she is likely stabbed to death. I don't know of any social worker who's going to make a career of entering situations like that unarmed.

I recall a small arthouse film that started off with finding something at Clavius...

They gave Edmunds play calling duties and he's obviously having difficulty. The over pursuit to me, is too much thinking in executing the play, too much try hard and not enough instinct in predicting and reacting to what he's seeing. I'd give the play calling responsibility to someone else and see if that helps. Injury aside, 98% of it is in his head.

This feels like when Jerry Rice signed with the Broncos. You want it to be successful and be a great story, but getting old sucks for everyone.

Run up the score or die trying. When BB hears a coach speak of "character" wins, he spots an easy mark.

Glad to see some creative blitz today. A healthy John Brown appears to be a key to keeping the offense humming along like it was.

Neither. The core Democrats and all Republicans fear a Harris presidency. Nobody really wants it - she polled at 2% even among Democrats. It will be four years of aggressive behind the scenes keep away. There will be a cold war in that White House from Day #1 between the Biden and Harris camps.

Interesting. I'd enjoy watching that. Hopefully the advice also included "after halftime, even with a big lead, keep them running, keep them shooting."

The Eagles won that game but that team has a lot of flashing red lights signaling it's rebuild and reload time. That team is stuck in a vortex of Super Bowl nostalgia, filled with old, slow and often injured fan favorites.

Kyle Rudolph, TE, Vikings Not a blockbuster, but it'd shore up that position. Without a running game, the Bills need that TE position to be a realistic threat for the opposing defense. Relying on the receivers to do it all is one dimensional.