Mango

Totally. But I think the one caveat is that it is not any of your business until you find out about it. And if your lead salesmen, engineer, attorney, shows up in the Niagara Falls police blotter or the Buffalo News, now you know.

As somebody who grew up in an abusive household that isn't shocking to me. "Look at you. Crying on the floor. You are so sad and weak. You stupid (insert bad word)" is a pretty common phrasing from abusers in the moment. Other victims (women/children) I have met over the years have said something similar. Part of being an abuser is that those people think their partner is somehow deserving of it. So it isn't a huge leap to me that in almost 2024, somebody who is physically abusive would also record it. Because ultimately they view it as justified anyways.

At the risk of reading too deeply into the tea leaves.... I think the way McD is handling the Von situation vs Bean is interesting. Bean explicitly said "These allegations are out of character". McD has danced around it and said "You spoke to Brandon. These are very serious allegations that I take very seriously".

My tinfoil hat says the litmus test will be if the recording from the incident sees the light of day. The red herring for me was when Bean said "I think this will stay open for a long time". As long as the case is open that recording is no longer subject to FOIL. If/When this gets tossed that likely means they likely found a way to not release it/make it disappear.

There also seems to be some confusion of what is required of the general public vs the legal system. My employer is not a court of law. My neighbor is not the legal system. If I make the Buffalo News for assaulting my wife, my neighbor has no moral or legal obligation to invite me over for their 4th of July BBQ. And my employer isn't required to wait for a jury to let out to keep me employed. Asking people on a message board to wait for due process is not how the world works today, yesterday, or the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. Von is not in jail. Von will continue to get paid. People are forming all sorts of their own public opinions. Everything is working as designed.

I think providing a loophole for teams to get out of contracts for players with DV is tough, I am torn. On one hand, we should make it easy to remove these guys from the league. On the other hand, if players with DV charges are easy to move on from there is something advantageous about keeping them around. If an issue arises they have an easy exit.

Re: Araiza, McBean sat at the podium and said they were finding out about this live with the rest of the public and told everybody that Araiza didn't tell the team about the investigation. For that reason alone cutting Araiza is A-OK in my book. This is Von's 3rd incident regarding DV. They have text messages, with Von's words about the mother of his child in writing. To say this is out of character of the person they know isn't true. This is where I have the issue.

To put my tinfoil hat on, their wording about whether the Bills or the League are reaching out to officials in Dallas was wonky. I believe it was something like "we have people, but we rely on the league". Similar wording around if anybody has spoken to the woman. If the recording never gets released via FOIL I am coming back to this statement, that both the league and an NFL franchise were in contact with local officials. I always find this wonky. I have worked at a few mulit-billion dollar global corporations, if these charges came to me or anybody above me in the C-Suite, there is no way my local offices in the NE or Global HQ would be able to have conversations with the police about an ongoing investigation for DV. Also, interesting wording around "I think this case will be open for a while". Which gives the team and the league some protection against FOIL's before they close or move forward.

I am a little taken aback by the "this isn't the Von we have known for the last 1.5 years" and "this is clearly out of character". They have those terrible texts to the same woman. This isn't his first DV charge. I feel a bit dirty about the teams response in this presser. Edit: There is "We are taking the lead from the NFL and following league procedure" and then there is standing behind Von's character and taking a side.

Getting under and managing the cap well are two different things. New Orleans is projected to be $87M over the cap for 2024. They’re continuously kicking the can down the road and they still suck. They’ve been in this loop of trying to keep the party going with old players and expensive contracts forever. For me NO is a great case study on what not to do. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/2024/

Restructuring Diggs is a really bad idea. What are we gonna do, pay him $40M at 34 years old? That’s bonkers. I also don’t love restructuring Allen again right now. He’s $48M against the cap for 2024. I’d actually extend him out 2-3 years before I restructure. Neither of those restructures are no brainers by any means. The Bills need to start shuffling out the old guard over the next year or two. You don’t do that by kicking the can down the road with bad restructures. The cap isn’t real…until it is. Having an owner with deep pockets is an advantage. But the bill always comes do.

I agree with just about all of it. Could not agree more that skill and development are impeded by the CBA. Take away almost all the padded practices for all I care. But these guys need to be in the facilities more. They need consistent coaching, S&C work, film review, route running, hand work for lineman, etc. There is no reason why these guys can’t be back in the building in shorts on May or June 1 for 30-40 hours per week. The 3 20 minute OTA’s are dumb. At the risk of splitting hairs, I do think that there is some responsibility from the league to remove dangerous plays. But I also think players have to protect themselves first. Just quibbling where we draw the line.

I get all of that. The kicker isn’t the arrest. It’s the bail. Granted I’m just a guy on the internet, but I am not sure you can be released on bail if you aren’t charged with a crime.

Right? It’s not like this is your mom talking about Zach Wilson? Amirite?

I think you’re over complicating this one. The Bills can certainly send him home with pay while he “sorts this one out” if we want to stay out keep out of that rabbit hole. You keep saying he hasn’t been charged with anything. But I’m unsure the police can require one to post bail to be released if there is no charge. My tinfoil hat says that the “there is no official charge” rhetoric is coming from Vons team and/or people in the peripheral of the NFL’s C-Suite as they work to make this whole thing go away….as they do. My guess is that the additional layer of this being done in a “no drop” state creates some additional wrinkles. But again, that all brings me back to the fact that I could not be held with bail without having been charged with a crime.

Don't mind me, it is the start of my work week too. Between this team, the Sabres, and how early it is getting dark, things have been pretty depressing. EDIT: But also WTF has nobody actually met with the media yet.

Super unsure what you are complaining about? You made a comment about McD giving them last week off and was getting them back on track this week. Like it was some inherently laxidazical approach specific to the Bills. I made reference to the fact that the CBA mandates that that is the way teams are required to approach the bye week. I am fairly certain they were in the building today. Unsure about yesterday. Tuesday is generally the start of the week for nearly all NFL teams/players.

It just feels like the loudest silence. It’s been a long 10 or so days since anybody in the org has been in front of a mic or camera. A lot to discuss: - the playoff picture overall - what happened in Philly. - @KC is always circled on everybody's cameras. - the abusive elephant in the room, Von Miller. All that, and no media days. An eventful bye week. I assume this is a joke. The CBA doesn’t allow any franchise to do anything other than what you laid out.

Way to tie this weeks threads together. Haha. But given the playoff implications and all the Von news, it’s been a long time since anybody has been in front of a mic.

When is the next media day for the team? They should be back in the building today, right?

You have certainly provided more value than I ever could, but that is my take as well. The game is more complex than we give it credit for. Most routes have some variability based on coverage and leverage. Maybe we have more, I don't know. By my eye test it doesn't seem like we have a full standard deviation more.

One thing to note about the percentages on the NYT tool is that when you select the Bills to win out, it only calculates odds for those results. It isn't "smart" in that it doesn't assume any data you don't give it. So if you have the Bills win out they have 11 wins to everybody else in the leagues 10 or less. Once you start mapping the other games the Bills playoff chances start to drop drastically.

He shouldn't be allowed in the building. He is going to be inactive, sure. But he should be told to just stay home at this point.

The team can suspend him and I hope they do. No need to have him in the building.

If you aren’t calling that holding the other 4.5 quarters you can’t call that holding at that point in the game.