hondo in seattle

I never say Beane sucks. Just the opposite: I think he's a good GM. I'm not worried about Beane's big signings: I'm just happy he's made the roster better. And I know a six-year contract is not necessarily a six-year contract. And I will absolutely love seeing Von Miller in a Bills uni later this year. Despite all that, I still question this deal. Bruce still produced at a good - not great - level in his mid 30s. Maybe Von will too. I hope so. But I think we'll end up paying Von $1+ million per sack over the next 3-4 years. And I wonder if that money would have been better spent elsewhere.

I hate to be Eeyore - that's not usually the role I play - but I don't like this signing. Look at the production of pass rushers post 33yo. Von Miller is still a great player but the decline is inevitable. And then there's the opportunity cost. What players will we pass up because so much money is tied up in Von? That's my worry. But, as others have pointed out, the devil is in the (contract) details. If VM averages 10 sacks for the next few years and the real deal is 4 years at 17mill/year.... maybe Von is almost worth his price.

Some folks wonder why we're signing another average RB when we have enough average RBs of our own. But like some others, I see this differently. We're adding an underneath threat to a team that needs an underneath threat. Defenses like to go into a shell against us. We need to be able to nickel-and-dime teams when the deeper stuff is well-covered by 5/6 DBs. JD's is another weapon in the arsenal that we can pull out to add stress to the opposing defense. But please note that when I call JD a "weapon," I'm not talking big artillery like a Thurman Thomas. He's a small caliber weapon - but still very useful in the certain situations.

Didn't he make the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career last year?

Not just the NFL... It's business. You use all the leverage you have to get the result you want.

Call Gabe "#2" or whatever... It doesn't matter. As Nucci says (more or less), the Bills need four good wideouts to stretch opposing defenses beyond their capabilities.

On the one hand, I think Daboll just might be Dorsey's most influential mentor to date. Daboll built a prolific NFL offense that's well suited to Allen's skills. And if it's not broke, don't fix it. On the other hand, by all accounts Dorsey is a smart, thoughtful guy. I'm sure there were times when he disagreed with Daboll. Now he can make the changes he wanted. It's hard to know what those might be. But then, as Logic points out, Brady and Kromer are on staff now. They're going to bring in fresh ideas. An NFL offense is a collaborative creation with input from various sources - including, to a greater or lesser extent, the QB. With two new offensive coaches, and a new guy running the show, the 2022 offense will be somewhat different. Brady, via Sean Payton, might bring us more underneath/West Coast type stuff. With Kromer on staff, I expect more runs by actual running backs and better blocking by the offensive line.

It's sad how Cumulus took advantage of these young woman. But I don't think it's right that the Bills have to pay $3.5 million. The Jills worked for Cumulus. It was Cumulus's responsibility to classify and pay them right. If I pay a plumbing company to fix my leaky pipes, it's not my fault if the company underpays their employees.

I was surprised to read Griese was in the league for 10 years. I didn't think it was that long. He had a lot of exposure to the game and what QB coaches do - or did back then. But he was never a coach before and has been out of the league for 14 years now. I wonder how much he remembers and how much he understands about modern QB coaching methodology, current offense and defensive schemes, and all that. It seems like it'll be a steep learning curve.

53 players, 53 opinions. And McD publicly takes accountability for everything. I've never heard him deflect and say, "It's not me. I'm doing a great job. It's my stupid players and idiot assistants who cost us the game." He might not have publicly said he screwed up the call. And maybe he didn't. We just don't know because nobody's really talking about it. But he has always taken accountability for the final score of every game.

You are absolutely right. RBs are not hard to find. High school and colleges are full of them. But RBs who can make big plays in the NFL are not a dime a dozen. Put Jim Brown or OJ on this offense, draft a couple of All-Pro linemen, and this offense become legendary. Barkley is not in that league - but he does (if healthy) make our O a bit more productive.

Do you have a nice house??? I might take you up on this!

Without Brady... Without Montana... You take away a GM's best player - if it's a QB - and you can always make that argument. Our D, while imperfect, was #1 in the NFL last year. My eyes aren't as good as they once were but I don't recall seeing #17 lining up next to Milano. Beane - like every successful GM - has some hits and misses. But he has enough hits that we're becoming a perennial contender.

How many of those OG posters are still around?

For me, the video is enough. But I don't think your take is unreasonable. I disagree with the people who say it's all about winning and football players are not choir boys. If I was a coach or GM, I wouldn't be looking for saints. But I would want folks with some minimal level of character. I think the chances of building the right culture get better when you make character one of the prerequisites for being part of this special team we're building.

We don't need a court indictment or a jury's verdict. We all saw with our own eyes what he did.

The bolded ones are mine. I even read Collision Low Crossers - the book about the Jets - and put the book down thinking Rex was much smarter and wiser than his buffoonish reputation. I was wrong. Too few people willing to own up to that one!

I hope you're right. I remember watching his college highlights and thinking that he was a little raw and needed to get better & stronger in order to excel in the NFL. Having only played 14 or 15 games in college, it just wasn't likely he'd be a starter - let alone a star - in his rookie year. That doesn't mean he was a bad pick - just that it's too soon to say. That's a good thing about the Bills. Beane isn't forced to pick guys who will make an immediate impact. He has the luxury to choose players who might need a year to develop.

Since we drafted #30, being ranked #25 means we over-performed by 5. Hats off to Beane.

I'm not a huge fan of PFF but to call it useless is pretty harsh. It offers something somewhat useful. There's a reason all 32 teams subscribe to it. And agents find it useful when PFF rates their clients highly.

Roughly 85% of playoff teams since 1997 have more passing yards/attempt than they allow. Roughly 57% of playoff teams since 1997 have more rush yards/attempt than they allow. Passing is more important than running in the NFL. To become a winning team, you have to be good at passing and stopping the pass. Belichick knew this a long time ago. That's why he lined up in a 2-3-6 against the Bills in our first Super Bowl. He actually told his D to let Thurman run for over 100 yards. He knew they'd win if they stopped Kelly. Everything about our D says McD and Frazier also understand this truth about the importance of passing. We run a 4-2 nickel defense - what would have been called "pass prevent" in the old days. Neither of our LBs are Dick Butkus types. They're both coverage guys who are okay-ish at tackling. Milano excels at the very thing McD wants him to excel at.

Let's say it's actually $3 million per year. That's roughly 1.4% of our cap. That's not a bad deal for a good ST-er who's also a backup DB.

I don't follow college football so I can't name names but here's what I want positionally: Round 1: OL Round 2: OL Round 3: OL Okay, I jest... but only a little. When Allen has a 'bad' game, it's either because of bad weather (and we're throwing anyway because we can't run), or because Josh is running for his life. In either case, we need better linemen.

If I were FA WR, I'd look for a few things when choosing a team. * Does the team win? Is it playoff caliber? * Do they throw a lot? * Is the QB any good? * What role do they want me to play? Will I be featured or forgotten? * How much are they willing to pay? We check most of the boxes though not all. I think it's possible that the pros outweigh the cons.

You're right, Doc, he's not an MLB. Thank God, we don't typically have an MLB on the field because we don't run a 4-3 or 3-4. We run a 4-2 with no LB playing on the outside. In the old days, MLBs were thumpers and Edmunds is no thumper. But in the passing game of today, LBs are more coverage guys and Edmunds is decent at that.