Bleeding Bills Blue

Where do you stand on our own free agents in Phillips and Lawson?

I say maybe in an actual game - but week to week momentum? Not as much in football. Maybe like a lost season feeling creeps in and preparation isn't as good - but this was a pointless week 17 game. No momentum to be lost or gained there.

I wonder if allens just later on the reads on those types of routes so they aren't open when he goes through progressions? Or if Barkleys arm limitations forced them to change things up a bit to make up for it.

8-8... with no QB. I guess thats impressive. If they hadn't lost the last 3 games of the year maybe I'd consider him a coach of the year contender? Still - Denver finished 7-9 with a bunch of scrubs at QB too. Bears went 8-8 with Trubiskey..

He's clearly the starter there - 65% of snaps vs. 30 or below for everyone else and trended up as the season went along. Kroft being healthy helps add a 2nd TE who functions more do-all than someone like smith.

I thought he played pretty well... very active blocker in this game as well. Made some tough catches on the sidelines. He had a bad drop - but foster also had 0 catches on 4 targets. Considering Mckenzie seemed fairly dangerous with both speed and elusiveness on his runs and stuff (minus the drop), i'd probably have foster inactive? I guess it depends on the gameplan, do you want to use roberts in the mckenzie role, williams as a conventional X/Z WR, and carry foster simply as a gunner? Where is the need more important? Jumpstart the O with mckenzie? Or core special teams with foster?

Thats a lot of dough dude... Cooper getting 20m a year seems a bit scary when you remember the drops and inconsistencies. Ngakoue is going to get paid really really well. Armstead i guess it depends what he gets paid - he was a part of a beast D-line so... did the lightswitch go on and make him a double digit sack guy? or is he closer to the 3 from the last 4 years?

I'd probably look to target someone who may not be a FA. Look at some cap casualties and try to trade for them. Allen Robinson, Sammy Watkins (probably not, but i suppose stranger things have happened), Robert Woods (they need cap space to sign ramsay and... anyone else - he's one of the only guys who provides any cap relief), Goodwin (could probably be had for very little), Marvin Jones (They probably don't need the cap space that badly, but their defense is pretty bad and free agents are expensive.. wouldn't surprise me) - might be had for a mid-late round pick. Etc. I know we're likely to go WR in the first this year - but if someone jumps us... it'd be smart to have planned a bit more for it. We started the year with Zay, then Mckenzie/foster/roberts, maybe duke williams here and there. It's a position in need of a major improvement and i don't want the draft to be the sole area where we look at doing it, since FA happens before the draft.

I think he was fine leaving - the contract built in the out and he took it. I think he was under the impression that he'd get the jets or bears jobs that offseason. It worked out with him getting the Jags job - and he even put together a nice season there. But back to back failures with the exact same defense - and him being an offense guy? Time to go.

Right? Russ Brandon! It was what... a year and a half ago? Whaley's press conference? Was that 2 years ago? McBeane have turned this clown show around in a hurry. They're clearly trying to replicate in a way, what teams like GB, Pitt, and NE do year in and year out. They have stabilized this organization in a very short time, its really impressive.

I mean - even a coach who knows what he's doing. I'm not sure kitchens was ever the golden boy that they claimed him to be.

Yeah - i just remember the offseason after rex... it was like - why is whaley hiring anyone? Shouldn't he be gone? Or shouldn't we hire a VP to oversee - the pegula's are in over their heads... why is russ brandon still here?! etc.

They did what everyone thought was right - bring in a VP of football operations. I think he made a few mistakes in building the team (largely forgoing future for present success), but i also think keeping marrone wasn't the right move. They did bring him in as an heir apparent behind bradley after he quit buffalo, but i thought Coughlin would bring a new level of prestige to a coaching search. That whole thing about the NFLPA. He was alienating players and kind of forced ownerships hand. “In the last two years, more than 25% of grievances filed by players in the entire league have been filed against the Jaguars. You as players may want to consider this when you have a chance to select your next club.”

Gotta remember those stats are a bit funky when you factor in how few touches we were giving singletary to start the year. He also missed a few games. Gore was fine to start the year, but im not sure of a few things. He may have lost a bit of gas here at the end of the year, or he simply doesn't work as a change of pace back. He seems to hammer you until you make a mistake and then he makes you pay. His YPC has been atrocious the last few games, and it's got to be one of those things. Snaps are down, and so is his overall effectiveness.

And sometimes you n eed to be able to run out the clock on an opponent. The Falcons unwillingness or inability to do so cost them a championship.

Only essentially a contract for 1 game - plus he wont get paid if hes on the exempt list.

He was huge - but didn't pull down 50/50 balls with any level of consistency. He also developed some really bad habits with regards to work ethic and his hands weren't very good. Perhaps some of those things have creeped into duke's practices - not pulling in 50/50 passes, or dropping passes? If he's not doing those things in practice consistently, he's probably not worth playing since you probably won't call a play trusting him to do it. Yeah - 3 and 7 for a 4th year player with a 5th year option. Could do worse in a trade.

Yeah - thats a good point i guess. Just seems like it'd be easy to get away with taking a couple of pills than blowing lines off the urinal at halftime. I guess it also depends on what results in more success on the field.

Interesting - seems rather expensive too (at least at a non nfl level paygrade). I would think amphetamines used to treat like ADHD (ritalin) would be really helpful for football though. Laser focus, little to no fatigue, and they're engineered to last longer. Not sure the NFL was testing for it at the time, was super easy to get a script for too.

I would think they fine them. I think this happened a while back and there weren't picks forfeited or anything. headphones are so tiny now... this will become an ongoing problem that they'll have to address in the next CBA.

They had pepper johnson - but he only made all-pro once. Harry Carson is in the HOF and he was on that 86 team. This is before my time - so its going to be based off of all-pro and HOFers.

Yeah - but the like jolt of energy you get lasts like 10 minutes. You get a bit of a sustained high, but mostly that just keeps you up all night at a craps table. Honestly, i think you're more alert after smelling salts than coke. I would think amphetamines would be more beneficial to performance since it lasts longer. Germans used them in WW2, and from what i remember it was pretty popular in baseball in the 60s.

Actually a lot of the team's we have played have had solid pass D units. NEx2, Pit, Bal, Cle, Dal, Den - 7 games against the current top 10 pass defense groups from a YPG stand point.

I wouldn't hate if we went with 2 WRs in the first 3 rounds. Especially if there's some success at other positions in free agency. Foster, Duke, McKenzie could all be upgraded.

Yeah i agree - use it to get some valuable reps. I'd probably avoid scrambling too much and be prepared to throw it away a bit more.