eball

I'm glad you pointed this out because there are too many fans who don't give Beane credit for the preparation and think he just "got lucky" the pick fell into his lap. You can bet he had a sense of what Oakland and the Giants were going to do.

Star is/was a piece of the transition puzzle -- a McD guy who would reinforce the culture. I'm sure they expected more out of him, but I won't call the signing a "swing and miss" because the Bills' D was actually pretty good. As others have noted, 10-14M/season isn't an exorbitant deal under the current cap. If Star only plays half the snaps this season and is gone after 2019 the Bills won't be in bad shape. So my point, at the end of the day, is why are we so concerned about Star's contract?

I'm not a reader of the books so I couldn't care less about them, but I've watched the entire series three times through. That episode and the way they ended the NK arc was perfectly satisfying -- to me. To each his own.

So is this the 2019 version of this thread?

Good stuff, guys -- those free agents next year will want to join a team looking to win back-to-back SBs.

I'm typically cautiously optimistic -- sometimes unreasonably so -- as I look for things to bounce the Bills' way. This year I'm extremely optimistic. Josh is a year into the system, the OL has been overhauled, ST should have renewed vigor with the new coach, and the D should be even better than last season. This is an 8-12 win team (and I'll be disappointed with 8 or 9).

Zero sacks given up all season and 250 rushing yards per game.

He sounds pretty damned motivated. Which is a good thing.

I agree. The Bills are not "sexy" for them to talk about so they will wait until they can't ignore it. But when that day comes (i.e., 5-1 or something like that) they'll ramble on about "how much better the league is when the Bills are relevant."

Except that's not at all what the "real" story is about. My opinion? It was an epic battle in impossible conditions -- it felt "real" because they focused upon individuals rather than just large, unending battle scenes, they resolved the NK story in a fulfilling way (i.e., the culmination of Arya's training and Melisandre's prophecy), and they left enough major characters intact (while still killing memorable ones) to now address the "true" culmination of GoT -- the quest for the Iron Throne. It wasn't perfect, but it was damn good.

Any insight as to why AJ "wanted no part of Buffalo?"

I expect the pre-snap penalties on offense to diminish significantly with Josh in his second year in the system, a potential all-pro at C, along with proven vets (Brown/Beasley) at WR.

Is this what we do now? Worry about how many draft picks the Pats*** have?

Yeah, watched it again tonight. Even better the second time. I’m not sure I understand why some of you are so disappointed.

I thought it was the clap.

Yeah, and you'd be completely wrong. That was pretty refreshing (and unexpected) to see Kiper go off like that, defending the Bills and Josh Allen. Wow!

The check is in the mail.

I'm surprised how little play Jorah's death is receiving. He was a major character completely devoted to Dany. Along with Theon, we saw two of the biggest redemption stories of the entire series meet their ends in heroic ways. But "not enough major characters died." Umm, ok.

I've had a couple of people reach out. Fingers crossed.

@Logic yeah, agreeing to disagree is cool. No emotional attachment to losing Jorah? Or Beric? I mean, Jorah has been around since the beginning. I'm just not as tied to the "mystery" of the NK. He was created by the children to kill men, and it got out of hand. He wasn't a complex character, which is why I wasn't left wanting for more of an explanation. He was a human killing machine.

@Logic yeah, man, I just have to disagree with almost all of that. You really want more "development" of a character who doesn't speak? We learned of his origin and his quest for the ultimate revenge. As for ending the NK and WW with three episodes to go -- the battle for Westeros (Iron Throne) has been every bit as large a part of the story as the battle against the WW. Probably more so -- it's just that they had to address the WW before they can get to that. If seeing Theon redeem himself and Arya kill the NK wasn't enough of a "payoff" for you that's really too bad.

Of everything you've written about last night's episode, finally something I can agree with. Yeah, I agree with this. It was an extremely tense episode.

Yeah, kind of sucks for Sam that his family sword saved his father's and brother's murderer.

Yeah, but I guess my point is whether the "long" winters were because of the NK and his army. I mean, why would any particular season last "years?"

So with the NK destroyed does that mean winter ends?