hondo in seattle

Two titans of tennis... neither had dropped a set after powering through four rounds of the US Open... Jess still hasn't dropped a set. Maybe this is Jess's year.

I feel about the same for roughly the same reasons. I'm just a little more optimistic, predicting 11 wins, and another AFCE crown. I really hope you're right because I think the OL was overrated last year and will be just okay this season. But I get your belief and Kromer and want to be wrong.

I guess the punter threw it underhanded so the defenders downfield would think it was a punt and not fight for the ball. And it worked because they could have made a play but didn't. This wouldn't work in the NFL unless maybe you had a punter who could throw the ball 45 yards downfield underhanded with a great hang time to make it look like an actual punt.

Read the recent Diggs interview. He had problems with Brady and mentioned that his production dropped when Brady became OC. Also said that his mental space with the Bills last season was the worst of his career. Again in hindsight... The big Von contract turned out to be a mistake and the big Diggs contract didn't end well. I wonder if Beane will think twice about handing another FA a big contract.

I gotta say, this is interesting. It bucks the trend of having lots of captains. I wonder who decided just to have two: one for offense and one for defense and screw special teams. Was this a player decision? Coach decision? I get there's going to be a Leadership Council but I'd love to hear more about the rationale of doing things differently this year. Cool to see Bernard taking his place as one of the two captains.

Sure. My point was that OCs have do better later in their career either because their in better circumstances (better QB) or because they learn from experience. But the interesting this about Payton's failure with the Giants is this. With Payton calling the plays in 2022, they averaged 12.7 points per game. It was so poor that Fassel became the play caller and de facto OC. For the rest of the season, the Giants averaged 25.7 ppg. Clearly, Payton was no offensive guru back then. He developed into one later. It's only natural that people learn and grow. After his own stint as OC, Brady got to watch how Daboll and Dorsey ran the offense. I imagine he's studied a bunch of film since then, picked the minds of other coaches, maybe attended seminars, read relevant books and articles... I'm not sure what he's done but I hope he's used his time wisely and is a smarter, better OC then he was in Carolina. Smart enough to transform this imperfect roster into a Top Five offense. I'm with you guys, but only partially. I agree that Brady wasn't particularly good in 2023. But everything I've read and heard leads me to expect a different Brady in 2024. He's modified the scheme, changed the playbook, altered how meetings are run, etc. I don't know if the '24 edition will be any better than the '23 edition but I'm holding out hope.

If not for the Chiefs, the Bills would have won a Lombardi already. And if life was fair, Chiefs or no Chiefs, Josh should have already won a MVP.

I confess to worries. But our TE and RB groups are good. Our OL is okay. Our QB is exceptional. Shakir and Samuel are legit starters though things in the WR room get a little questionable after that. I'm praying Keon proves worthy of his almost-first-round draft status or Barefoot Mack shocks us. Still, overall, I think Brady has enough tools (it starts with Josh) that he can design a productive offense even with some of the roster shortcomings. There have been encouraging anecdotal reports about better communication, scheme modifications, and so on. But will Brady in fact emerge this year as a talented OC and playcaller? I don't know. Hopefull signs don't make for a confirmed reality. We'll see. I'm approaching this season with a ton of anxious curiosity.

I wasn't impressed with Brady at all last season except for the simple fact that we started winning more. Josh's production went down under Brady and Brady only had one good (albeit very good) running game as I recall. But he's supposedly revamped the offense during the offseason so I cling to hope. I disagree a bit about what you said about nickel-and-diming. Josh, Mahomes, and other big-armed QBs are seeing more and more two-high shells and other defenses designed to stop the long ball. We need to be able to nickel-and-dime these teams. A good offense will efficiently and brutally attack whatever weakness the defense presents. They'll fear us as the stand by helplessly as we drive the ball down the field again and again.

I agree. But I worry about our pass rush too. That's the problem.

Daboll failed in his first three stints as a OC and then succeeded with us. In Sean Peyton's first gig as a NFL OC, he ended up having his playcalling duties stripped because his offense was stagnant, averaging a mere 12 points per game after the first seven games of 2002. The offense improved massively when the HC, Jim Fassel, made himself the de facto OC and playcaller. Yet a few years later, people started hailing Payton as an offensive mastermind. Sometimes people do better in better circumstances. And sometimes people learn and grow.

I was torn between 'some concerns' and 'concerned.' Rapp and Hamlin is certainly not the same quality of duo as Poyer and Hyde. Then again Poyer and Hyde weren't Poyer and Hyde last season. I think McD is really good at defensive schemes and coaching up safeties to disguise coverage, communicate, and play together well. But sometimes, individual decision-making and athleticism decide the outcome of the play.

My comment about 'no stars' was purely subjective and not based on stats or formal recognition (All-Pro, etc.). I think there are several above-average players on the roster but I think Josh is the only person that's viewed as a star around the league. He may be the only elite playmaker we have this season. But I certainly don't want to argue this point with you, eball, because I want you to be right. I hope the guys you named play so well, and we win so many games that new stars are crowned.

I can't recall who reported this but someone said Hamlin is playing better than he ever had before. I really hope this is true considering he's starting.

No major surprises, though... Earlier in preseason when I saw Damar listed as a starting safety, I thought he was just a place holder until people healed up or until the rookie proved himself worthy. I guess not. When we drafted Pran-Granger, some thought he'd start this year. He's currently third string. Ty Johnson is still ahead of Ray Davis on the depth chart. Did I really predict 11 wins? We have one star player on offense and none on defense - not what a playoff roster is supposed to look like. But this isn't astronomy so who needs stars? I'm sticking with 11 wins.

I think the 2024 version of Joe Brady won't be the same as the 2023 version. He's had the whole off-season to rethink the scheme, retool the playbook, reorganize the meetings, and reset the culture. According to reports, he's done all that. But will his work result in a better product on the field. Who knows? I hope so.

Partly age discrimination. He's 64. And partly a head coaching record of 10-38. But as Reid's defensive sidekick, he excels.

It's called due diligence. The collective intelligence of the entire offensive coaching staff and roster and is more than the individual intelligence of any OC. Reid says he's gotten plays from janitors. You want your OC to seek out knowledge and get players to share insights and observations. And you want the team to feel committed - they'll commit more when they helped build the plan. No one said that Brady is letting the players dictate the game plan. He's asking for their input.

He seems to blame Brady for his drop in production... Last season, Diggs started off the season in Buffalo hot, with more than 100 receiving yards in five of his first six games. But he didn’t go over 100 yards—and he notched only two scores—for the rest of the season. If it didn’t look like Diggs was having fun that’s because, well, he wasn’t. “Last year, I was in the worst mental space I’ve been in since I’ve been in the league,” Diggs says. “If I'm not in a good space, obviously that's not the best for me. So that's when things had to start shaking out...” Later, when our conversation circles back to his time in Buffalo, he has more to say, specifically highlighting the fact his drop in stats coincided with the Bills’s decision to replace their offensive coordinator. “The games looked a lot different,” he says. “You can blame me. I don’t mind blaming me. I got big-ass shoulders. But pay attention, pay real close attention. Watch the game. Of course there’s plenty of plays I want back. But there’s a lot of plays that didn’t go my way... You tell me about the last 10. What changed? Were there changes going on? I just pay attention to what really happened and not what people try to act like happened. Like, for the last 10 games, I forgot how to f***ing play football?”

I'm just as frustrated as you over the playoff losses as you are. But also not being a professional football strategist either, I look at them a little differently. I think McD schemes and calls plays for playoff games for the playoffs much like he does for the regular season. And based on regular season results, he's pretty good at it. Where things go wrong in the playoffs... Injuries. I think injuries to key defensive players, as you mentioned, have been critical the past two seasons. Athleticism. I think there have been games where our defensive scheme was as good as the other team's offensive scheme. They just had better athletes and won the one-on-one battles. Luck. Bass makes most of his field goals. Diggs usually catches well-thrown balls. But sometimes the Gridiron Gods and laws of probability just don't work out in our favor. The ball bounces the other way. The ref makes a borderline judgment call against us. Bass misses. Diggs drops. The Big Three. Few teams in the modern era have been blessed with a HC/DC/QB combo as talented as Reid/Spags/Mahomes. We're cursed to have them around when we have a team that's almost as good as theirs. I think we'd have a Lombardi by now if not for that trio.

This is both interesting and hopeful. There have been studies that show employees are more productive and better committed when they are engaged in the decision making process - even when their opinion doesn't win the day. The opposite to engaging leadership is "command-and-control" when the boss simply tells you what to do you and you go do it. When management authors discuss command-and-control leadership, they often use the military as an example. As a former army officer, I think this is funny. Obviously, when bullets are flying and decisions need to be made NOW otherwise people are going to die, we don't stop for a consultation. But in the planning phases, most leaders I knew were very collaborative. We actively sought out the input of our subordinates. You don't want engagement to devolve into full fledge democracy. That usually doesn't work on the battlefield or, I suspect, the gridiron. But I hope what Brady is doing is soliciting the opinions of his players and respecting them. And getting the opinions of his coaching staff. And combining the input he received with his own insights, experience, and knowledge. Then coming up with a cohesive game plan that effectively blends all that collective wisdom.

When I look at our defensive roster this year, I think, "Yikes! Where are the stars?" Milano is injuried. I'm not confident Von will ever regain his past greatness. Tre, Hyde, and Poyer are all gone. It won't be a dominant D. But I believe McD will mold these comparative no-names into a capable (above-average) group of defenders. And I'm hoping new stars will emerge.

I've never been #6 in my neighborhood at anything. She's currently #6 in the world and has been ranked as high as #3. Impressive. I would love to see her win a Grand Slam event though, especially the US Open, just because I think she feels that would make her career complete. She clearly has the talent. But each Grand Slam invites the 128 best (more or less) tennis players in the world to compete. It's quite a gautlet to get to the trophy. She's got three more matches to go - against players who are all playing great tennis right now. I'm rooting for her.

Pretty much the only sport I watch any more is football. And mostly just the Bills. But because she's a Buffalonian, a Bills fan, the owner's daughter, and seemingly a nice lady - I do watch Jess from time to time.

As someone who likes to try new foods, I'm embarrassed to admit I never had a garbage plate.