Mango

Huh, this is a wild take.....I partake in the herb on occasion, worked from home pre-pandemic (so no change for me), and don't get tested for pot. It has literally never been an issue. Also from the pro-athlete perspective, I lived at the Olympic Training Center for a few years. Pot is only a banned substance in competition, so again, there are just a few weeks per year where you need to test clean. It was literally never an issue for anybody, and yes a very large portion of Olympians smoke, vape, eat edibles, etc. regularly during the year. This is the way it works for a huge portion of the population, professional athlete or not. I have experience in both. For example, Phelps was suspended from competition for 3 months by USA Swimming not FINA for "Code of Conduct Policy". Not for breaking any FINA, WADA, or USADA rules. Just don't have it end up on social media, ,and there is no rules broken or detriment to training. If it were some alternate on the US squash team there probably would not have even been a suspension. Then again, no 20 year old college kid would have taken that video and had it gone viral either.

This is a good point, why commit yourself financially if you don't have to. Again, I think Allen gets 5 years on the roster to prove he either is or is not the guy. I have been critical of his passing, but he has shown enough improvement currently to get that year. Even if he only shows incremental improvements over the next two years, they will give him part or all of his 5th year to take a huge step as a passer. And if that happens, there will be somebody on the bench ready to step in if he doesn't at that point. But probably not before then. In regards to the difference between a 5th year and Transition tag, I believe the Transition tag is similar to being an RFA. Where the Bills have the right of first refusal. Just an example, Jacksonville in 2 years offers Allen 3 years at 30M/Y, because they still blow and their new HC thinks they can make something work. Buffalo can match or decline and lose him. Which they probably would in the above scenario because they are waiting for him to "prove it". Where as the 5th year option, he has to be a Buffalo Bill in year 5 baring a trade or cut. After that both can re sign or walk away without an issue.

He’s a top 10 pick, the 5th year option is the same as the transition tag. Why use one and not the other? It’s about $24M. He’ll have to go full Trubisky/Bortles to not get his 5th year option with this FO. Right or wrong, I think they are all in on 5 years with the kid even if he flat lines or shows incremental improvement. Which is fine with me because he has shown he can get better. And I say that as a guy who also thinks the current version of Josh Allen is a pretty bad passer of the football. Edit: Let me rephrase. He’ll get 5 years in a Bills uniform. I can’t see them not taking it after this year barring catastrophic failure. They may head into year 5 with a fail safe and Allen could get yanked.

Add Lofton and that roster has 5 HoFers in it. I think Bruce and Thurman translate best to today’s game.l and would be absolute studs in 2018. Andre is a close 3rd. QB/Kelly is a tough one because of how the position is played these days, could go either way. Now Marino. He’d be an absolute stud in 2020. The only guys on the 2020 roster who might even consider projecting in the hall right now are probably Tre and Diggs. I’ll take 91 all day.

I was more responding to the question as to how could the pats secondary be rated higher. The Bills are a very good unit without a lot of very good individuals. Based on the “metrics” of the rankings. It’s basically starting 5 with plus flex player. The Pats are loaded in the secondary. The Bills have one great CB, a very good safety tandem, and the rest are meh-ish. It makes them a high level unit but not really close to be ranked over NE. Who had 6 players in the top 50 for all DB’s regardless of position in the backfield. Simply, I would rate NE’s secondary well above Buffalo’s right now based on both top end talent and depth. I’m not arguing that as a unit they are bad.

I think Allen has to fall off a cliff to not get his 5th year, as he probably should. I say that as a guy who has been critical of him at times. That said, if Allen doesn’t show another large leap in his consistency and effectiveness from the pocket, the staff will find somebody else to give it a go. It isn’t one year, it is two. Allen is headed into his third season. Buffalo will have to make the decision before he starts his 4th.

The Bills as an overall team had the 5th lowest QBR in the league defensively. But to @thebandit27 point below. Only 1 other player not on the Patriots from the AFCE make the top 40, and you get to 48 before you find Maulett from the NYJ. The Bills lack db depth. Wallace has been inconsistant, Johnson needs to stay healthy. Gaines needs to stay healthy. Norman needs to return to form. If they all end up on the positive side of "what if" then they will be a great unit. If they don't they will still be a single star player and a bunch of meh enhanced by a solid DC/HC combo.

Agreed. Buffalo could turn out to be just as good or better. But there are a lot of "what ifs". Tre is great, but who knows what we get from Gordon. Does Gaines stay healthy and return to form? Wallace has been up and down at times. Johnson needs to stay healthy. Outside of Tre, there are a lot of questions that could rightfully make us very good or very mediocre.

It wouldn’t have increased any return but it would have helped our dead cap situation.

Star does have everything to do with it because the trade itself was terrible cap management and largely responsible for our “cap he’ll. Waiting 16 games would have halved our dead cap space. But we traded MD and needed a replacement. So we were then in the whole for more than if we just kept Dareus and probably got less production that year. It’s the entire reason I disliked the trade. Darby’s 2 years in was better than Harry has played. And that’s not a knock on Harry at all. Unfortunately RD’s time was injury plagued in Philly. Hopefully he bounces back, we shall see. Largely he was traded because he was a man to man corner and McD loves to play zone.

I didn’t hate the trade as much as I hated the timing of it. The Dareus trade plus Star signing was a huge part of our “cap he’ll”. Had they waited until the end of the season we could have cut his dead money in half. Instead we traded him away and signed Star to an inflated contract. We ended up having a larger cap hit with dead money + Star than if we would have just kept him one more season. Dareus seems to continue to regress but I think we also get more out of MD that year than we got out of Star. I also didn’t like the Darby trade. Jordan Matthews was a dud. We all like Harry (picked with the 3rd in the trade) but we really don’t have any idea what his career will be like at this point, and so far is off to a lesser start than Darby did. Even pre draft we weren’t sure if we would take a CB in the first 2 days because we are lacking depth and a ton of question marks around Norman having much tread in the tires. Still chasing his replacement.

This is homer-ism at its finest. Even most national pundits are expecting improved things from the Bills. But to answer your question, yes. Even this year Cam Newton is trashed all the time. Trubinsky is on his last leg in Chicago. Chad Kelly gets pooped on. Everybody thought Ryan Mallet was on meth Ryan Leaf...woof. Even in his own draft class, Baker Mayfield creates a crap storm around him. JOSH ALLEN IS NOT A MARTYR Edit: add Alex Smith and Kirk Cousins to the list.

Not that Tannehill is some elite QB, but part of that is because of Mariota. Tannehil went 7-3 once he took over as the starter. Even against the MM led Titans, the Bills won 7-14 after a called back TEN TD (Actually 2 called back, but it was on the same drive) and 4 missed FGs. Most teams don't miss putting up 19 points like that. Sure the occasional missed field goal or called back TD, but 19 points is a ton. If we flip that game (which isn't crazy) we are talking about the "barely made the playoffs Bills" and the "clinched the playoffs with a month to go Titans". The teams are not that different from each other. Titans are coming off the hot hand so they get the edge in a tightly grouped pack in the 3-6 range in the AFC. Part of the reason the Titans could not clinch earlier was 2 games in the final 3 weeks against what turned out to be the 10-6, division winning, Houston Texans. A lot of theirs and Houston's and standings depended on those games. Additionally 4 of 6 were against their division, where any combination of Indy, Houston, and Tennessee could have made the playoffs.

For starters they made it to the AFC Championship game? The Bills are still listed as the 6 seed. They are banking on Rivers taking Indy to the next level. We shall see, they might be wrong, but it isn't a crazy idea. Pitt returns their POS HoF QB. Then there are the Chiefs and Ravens, who until they prove otherwise, should be ranked about the Bills. I think 4, 5, and 6 could be interchangeable. If Rivers has some gas left in the tank, they will probably be closer the the Chiefs/Ravens class than the Pitt, Buffalo, Tenn, class in the AFC. I mean, they averaged about 25k per game which isn't too bad when you realize the ENTIRE state of Wyoming has about 570k people in it. They draw like 5% of everybody who lives there which is kind of wild.

Not the worst prediction. Bills were pretty close to 8-8 last year. 2 of the below 3 could have easily flipped. If I had to put my house on the line I would guess 9 or 10 wins this year. If I am playing with fake internet points 11 seems fair. TN- Called back TD (actually two- they were on the same drive) and 4 missed field goals. Win by 1. People always forget about this game. It could have been ugly adding 19 point swing. Pitt- 3rd string QB, Duck Hodges threw 4 INTs. Won by 7. A healthy Big Ben and it probably goes the other way. NYJ 1- Darnold plays with mono. Wins by 1.

I’ve really liked “All or Nothing”. If nobody HS watched it, think hard knocks but during the actual season. Even the Rams season with Jeff Fisher was entertaining since they were in the middle of relocating. He also got fired, so there was some added drama to a pretty bland guy. I really had a hard time with the Cowboys season. Jerry Jones is around way too much and Jason Garrett might be the biggest **** in football. Really just entirely vanilla. Bruce Arians/ Carson Palmer was great. Carolina was decent too.

To be fair, no team in the NFL has probably lost to another QB at the rate Brady has beaten everybody. His win % is like .778. Works out to a career average of 12-4...20 year average. It’s pretty wild. But otherwise I totally agree with you.

No. I doubt TB runs from any sort of challenge. Can we just stop with the bolded because it “feels right” The horse is dead, and died unjustly. Brady’s win % in the AFCE is no better than his win % in any other division. Brady’s win % against Peyton Manning is like 66%. Thats as good or better than Big Ben, Rivers, Rodgers, Brees, Watson...basically everybody else’s entire career. And most of those guys are headed to the HoF. And they play against much worse competition that a Peyton led Colts/Broncos team on a regular basis.

Did I not hear him correctly. He said “here in Omaha” and then said he was a “Buffalo year round guy”. Ha! But seriously I dig the guy. Hopefully his career pans out as a Bill.

They have lost more games than they have won in 4 of their last 8 seasons. Drew Bees is THE ONLY reason they were not a dumpster fire in those years, and the reason why they can go from 7 wins to 13 wins in a single off season. A guy like Wentz has yet to show that kind of ability. I think the only way this works out (and you can probably never count on it) is actually having to pay a QB 30M per year for about 2 years.

They can do it but they'd really be missing some players. Alshon's cap # is $18 mil, cut post-June 1 next year: $5 mil dead cap Desean's cap # is $11 mil, cut post-June 1 next year: $2 mil dead cap Goodwin's cap # is $7 mil, $0 guaranteed Brandon Graham, who will be due $18 mil next year, will be 33, and has a $5 mil dead cap # post-June 1/ Jason Kelce who has talked about retirement each of the past 2 offseasons which would save $8 mil.

I know cap numbers can always be worked and tweaked, but even with accounting for $10M in cap increase and roll over, they are still looking at needing to clear $40M in space. I am not sure I have ever seen anybody over that much. Maybe the Saints at one point? Absolutely wild. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/cap/2021/

I would expand on this and say Allen is not going anywhere until his 5th year option at the earliest. Allen would have to regress quite a bit for them to keep Daboll and move on from Allen before that. That said IF Allen does not show more growth this year or remains flat, the short term move is probably going to be to bring in a new OC for year 4 and 5.

I would add Pitt to this list. Per Winston, Pitt offered him more money than NO. I get the sense that Pitt is not so sure what Ben has left in the tank. The guy has threatened retirement for years now. Coming off a bad elbow injury. Plus looks to be doing his best to win a Matt Patricia look-a-like contest. Cam may be a welcome addition. They had terrible QB play and still won 8 games. 5 loses were a TD or less. Cam puts them in the playoffs last year and gets them 2 more wins minimum.

I don't know what to think of this kid. He has had an inconsistent career in terms of %, has not made anything 50+ since 2018. I was hoping PFR would give an easy breakdown of attempts/converted by distance, but they don't... But then you see stuff like the below, and think, "OK he can do this". Granted he is only kicking against air.