hondo in seattle

Agreed. I moved from the beautiful Pacific NW (Seattle) to the Midwest (KC) but quickly regretted it. I missed the forests, mountains, ocean, diversity, foodie culture, and more. Moving back West (NorCal) next month. But I hope you like Cleveland better than I like Kansas City.

I'm sincerely sorry to learn that. Yeah, I hope he's somewhere in the afterlife still cheering the Bills on. We're at the beginning of an exciting multi-year ride.

When you become a new HC, the first staff you build will be suboptimal. Most the best coaches will be under contract and unavailable. And some coaches may be reluctant to take a job with a first time HC in a rebuilding situation. And, of course, the new HC is bound to make hiring mistakes based on bad recommendations or whatever. Given the challenges, I think McD has done a commendable job building his team of coaches.

What happened to Senator and his 16-0 predictions?

A couple centuries ago when I play HS football, our varsity squad scrimmaged against the JV one day. Both squads used the same playbook so we knew each other's plays intimately. At some point during the scrimmage, the varsity coaches started yelling the plays out before we ran them. Despite knowing the calls, the JV defense still couldn't stop our varsity offense. We were bigger, faster, and more talented. Belichick understands the Bills O. Heck, he more or less designed it and taught it to Daboll during his days there. But last year, BB didn't have the advantage of knowing the play-calls. Nor did he have players who could execute at the same level as Josh, Diggs, and company. For anyone who still wants to argue the point, what did Hodgins say that you think would be revelatory to Belichick? The guy has been breaking down film since he did it with his dad before the U.S. first sent troops to Vietnam. He's probably the world's foremost expert on the E-P offensive system. While some of Hodgin's comments helped me understand things better, I really don't think he told other teams anything they wouldn't easily figure out on their own. If you believe otherwise, I suggest you are underestimating the deep expertise of NFL coaches. But, to the broader point: Yeah, there needs to be some clearly articulated limits governing what players disclose.

Dorsey is using Daboll's offense. It's a variation of the Ernhardt-Perkins system with some spread concepts mixed in. Daboll learned this offense from Belichick in New England. Any tweaks Daboll added, or Dorsey adds, BB and other knowledgeable coaches will identify quickly because of their immense familiarity with E-P.

Big Tree Inn is where the 90s Bills used to hang out and there are some interesting stories about the happenings there. The place has history. But if the 38-foot TV is still there, though, I'd go to the old 716 sports bar - whatever it's called now. Besides the tv and Pegula connection, Canalside is a nice place to hang out.

Just for the record, I did watch the video. And I did learn things I didn't know. But I'm just some random fan. If BB watched this, I think he would conclude it was a waste of time. The Bills are not reinventing the wheel. They are not employing uniquely novel concepts BB doesn't already thoroughly understand. When you've immersed yourself in this stuff seven days a week for 20, 30, 40 years, your comprehension goes beyond "educated assumptions." I'd even go so far as to say BB understands the Bills offense better than anybody in that video. But understanding it doesn't mean he can stop it. He doesn't know each play-call ahead of time nor does he have the talent to match up with us. But I get what you're saying. I'm a former army officer, so I value OPSEC - operations security. The Bills should - and probably do - give their employees instructions on what they can, and can't, reveal publicly. And when you draw that boundary, you need to err on the side of caution.

Every team has coaches - if not players - with virtual Ph.D.'s in scheme, player tendencies, and all that. I don't think BB, for example, would learn anything from this show that he didn't already know.

I'm neither conservative nor liberal on this issue... I'm solidly, independently in the middle. It was not a great play. A faster, more fluid back with better vision would have gotten to the left more quickly and gracefully. Still, he deserves credit for getting there eventually and picking up some yards.

I remember feeling bad years ago for the players who didn't make the Bills final 53 or practice squad. Often that meant they were entirely out of football. If you couldn't make the Bills, you were unlikely to make it anywhere. In fact, some of our "final" 53 guys ended up out of football because we'd sign some of the guys cut by other teams who were good enough to bump someone off our weak roster. Now, it's very different. Some of the guys we cut are going to make the roster of other teams. Beane, overall, hasn't just improved the quality of the starting 22. We now have depth guys who are pretty good. I think a couple of the wideouts we cut loose will find new NFL homes pretty quickly.

Disagree. Preseason isn't about winning. It's about evaluating players.

I was just a little kid when Lamonica was a Bill and don't remember him much. But I do remember my best friend's father was very loudly angry when he was traded.

Mahomes has a better OL.

I don't know how McD can coach up Benford's speed... the biggest knock on him as an NFL prospect.

When the Bills line up, we typically see two interior linemen, two edge rushes, two LBs, two safeties and THREE CBs. Beside arguably being the most important position on the defense, it's also the most numerous. You need to get them in free agency (expensive) or the draft. So I'm onboard with drafting CBs early and often. As for Benford, I do worry about his speed - or lack of it - in man coverage. He can be good as a CB in zone.

I agree - to a point. Josh has shown that he can - sometimes - put points on the board even when the OL leaks like a sieve. And, yes, our inability to stop Mahomes ruined two playoff runs. But here's where I disagree: I still think upgrading the OL is a priority. While we didn't lose to the Chiefs due to OL woes, we have lost other games. And watching edge rushers sprint unimpeded at Josh scares me. As elusive and tough as Allen is, someday he's going to get badly hurt if we don't protect him better.

Am I wrong not to care?

I also thought Doug Martin was semi-original "Muscle Hamster." In any case, if I was McKenzie, I'd probably choose "Lil Muscle Hamster" over "Lil Dirty."

Why do you lump them all together? The have 32+ different personalities and characters.

I'm sorry... I'm still waiting for this part.

I think Dabs had a lot to do with Allen's maturation as a QB. But I also think, where Allen is now, he'll be fine with Dorsey.

In the business world, valuations are often based on EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). Valuations are multiples of EBITDA. So, for example, if you want to buy a group of Burger Kings, you can expect to pay something like 6x EBITDA. But if you want to buy a group of Taco Bells, you might need to pay 8x EBITDA. The market decided what the multiple is. The brand's history, success rate, current organizational strength, future outlook, and so on will all influence where the market fixes the multiple. But the NFL is a strange beast. Buying a football team is rarely purely a business acquisition and valuations are influenced by non-financial calculus. While I'm sure the Pegulas carefully examined the team's financials, their bid on the Bills was more emotional than financial. As Terry famously observed, if he wanted to make more money, he'd dig another well. And as one team owner told Sportico, "EBITDA, at the end of the day, is less a driver of football value than people think." Sportico says they used team-specific multipliers rather than a standard multiplier for all teams when estimating valuations. "The team-specific multipliers were based on numerous factors, including: historical sales, market (size, saturation and interest by prospective owners), strength of brand, on-field performance (historical and recent), terms of facility lease, debt burden, and expected future team and league economics. These ranges varied from 6 times revenue (i.e., Cincinnati Bengals) to 9.5 times revenue (i.e., Chicago Bears). In 2018, the Carolina Panthers sold for nearly 6 times revenue. The Denver Broncos sale is for roughly 9 times 2021 revenue." It sounds like good-enough methodology. But, in the world of the NFL, you can never really guess what the next team will sell for. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and value in the eye of the buyer. www.sportico.com/feature/most-valuable-nfl-franchises-chart-1234684186/

15 minutes for every alleged assault. Clearly prosecutors are having problems with the allegations because so far they've declined to press charges. I'm not trying to defend the indefensible. I have daughters and despise sexual predators. If even one allegation is true, I want to see Watson do jail time. And if I had to guess, I'd guess that at least one of the allegations is true. But there's got to be some issues with the testimony because neither the legal system nor the NFL is coming down hard on Watson.

I don't think the NFL is scummy. I think it's a business trying to negotiate its challenges as best it can. Watson may not be a good guy. But a grand jury declined to indict, and he certainly hasn't been convicted of anything so far. Isn't the presumption of innocence an American value? Many companies let the legal system - and the experts who run it - judge personal-time behavior. In other words, if there's no conviction, there are no consequences at work. I applaud the NFL for going further but I wonder how much further they should go in cases like this. I'm torn on this one. I'm really not sure what the right response should have been so I'm not going to criticize Robinson's or Goodell's. In fact, I have to give them some credit. While the legal system didn't punish Watson at all, the NFL will.