Mister Defense

Funny, and I wonder how common dislike for him is? I am not a fan either. He reminds me a little of McNab, seemingly much more interested in his commercials, endorsements, than his job, what should be his passion. I think I started disliking him as his awful insurance commercials proliferated. And because the national media seems to worship him. The good thing is that I don't think he will ever be back in a Super Bowl. Personally, he doesn't seem to have the passion or drive to lead a team deep into the playoffs. Favre was a much better representative for the Packers and Green Bay, in my opinion.

Yes, many things are worse. But when it comes to sports talk, nothing is more boring and tedious.

Wow, I would very embarrassed if I was #5, going down so easily. His parents should be equally ashamed. They need to toughen that kid up.

yeah, but I think he was a defensive player in college, at Notre Dame. And the Giants converted him from defensive to offensive tackle. He only started playing offense a few years ago. Thanks. But I wonder if that was for his ability as a defensive player rather than offensive?

But PFF graded Ryan Bates? So stats are available, I assume. So, are those kinds of stats available for all players?

I tried looking up preseason stats but cannot find any (I didn't look too hard).

Same here and I assume many are thinking this. It is because there are so many good players on the team compared to previous years. And because the Bills are viewed as a team on the rise, much improved, and we all want to see them take a big step forward this year. The right or wrong move now could make a big difference. I think this year the 4th preseason game may be significant. I know I am looking forward to it, which is not often the case.

It would need to be an all time blaze for that to happen. Too late, even for the practice squad for Sills.

Yes, one of those plays I did not catch because no mention of the block/blocker by either announcer. And it seemed to be the impetus for the touchdown, integral. Great to see and I think the tight ends will be dramatically more productive this year.

Good point and example. So they were not just silent when it came to the specifics of the game, they were inaccurate too. I caught the reference to Williams as well, a first year player. What a shame Green was so unprepared and lazy. Williams was the best receiver in the CFL last year and is now trying to show that he could do great things in the NFL as well. And last night was another step ahead for Williams. What an interesting story and they were sitting right in the middle of it. But neither man knew anything about him. That is really bad preparation. If Gumbel and Green had knowledge like that themselves, they would they have been able to share it with the audience and engage them more. More importantly, that kind of knowledge could have made both of them more interested and engaged in the game.

Just checked, and surprised that Gumbel is 73! But that is no excuse. Even if he has lost it a bit, he could easily have information in front of him to guide him. And the things we are talking about in this thread don't require a lot of mental acumen. I agree with those that say his voice sounds good, easy to listen to. But it was clear had done almost no work, just sat down and (and extremely poorly) did the play by play in the broadest sense of that. But ditto for Green as well. And the director and producer as well.

I agree, with both Williams and McKenzie making the team. Look at the off season focus on offense. Hard to imagine the Bills risk losing 1-2 receivers who could make a difference this year as these two might. Nice to see the Bills this year having to make so many of these tough decisions on their final roster, a good sign of a much improved front office and organization.

Yes, once he got going McCoy looked pretty good, like an NFL running back again. I hope this continues.

No, it was not overkill. THREE to FOUR mentions of who made the defensive plays in the entire second half when the Bills were on defense! 3-4! And almost zero mention of ANY preseason Bills information. Those are abysmal statistics.

Yes. I always wondered why he and Simms stopped working together. But now it seems likely a football guy like Simms couldn't work with someone who seems to know and care so little. I have never heard of this, but will see if this is possible on my tv. A great idea, as during the year I can do that and listen to the Bills radio broadcasts when weak and careless broadcasters are doing on TV.

Yes, I think after last night, Williams may be on the roster. He offers the size and physicality that are not apparent often in other Bills receivers. If it is a decent throw and near Williams, he will grab it. He will also make the catch on most contested catches. His production in the CFL is just more evidence that the Bills will use to decide that Williams is needed.

This was possibly the worst performance by a network broadcasting team of an NFL game that I have ever seen. Like many Bills fans I was watching the Bills/Lions game to see how individual players performed. But good luck doing so last night! Lazy, unprepared Gumbel almost never mentioned the Bills defensive players who made the plays. This became increasingly clear to me as I watched the tape of the game late last night. So in the second half I started keeping track of how often he did this. By late in the fourth quarter Gumbel, paid millions to be a play by play broadcaster, had stated the name of the Bills defensive players 3-4 times in the entire second half!, mainly for sacks or almost sacks--almost nothing else. Without a current roster with me, and almost no replays of the defensive plays, I had no idea who was involved--on almost every play. And Green was no better, almost never even commenting on the play after. Not on the player, not on the play call, just general BS from him. Immensely unprepared. The same lack of detail, lack of preparedness and professionalism, was apparent in all aspects of this very lazy broadcast. They almost never looked beyond the VERY broad outcome of the play on either defense or offense, almost never getting close to the details of what actually happened on the plays. This lack of preparation and competence was just as clear in their complete lack of knowledge of almost all that has happened in training camp on either team--almost zero on the individual players, their stories, and how things have progressed. Or how they may turn out. I think Tasker and Catalano have been doing a pretty solid job on the preseason broadcasts, especially in the Panthers game. So I was shocked at how awful Gumbel and Green did last night. This is their job, what they should be doing all week to prepare, but clearly Gumbel and Green did almost no prep work, and worse, seemed to care almost nothing about this important 3rd preseason game. They, and their producer/director, should all be held accountable. Did others notice these same things from this dynamic duo?

Strange to me that so many want Jason Peterman to fail. While I am glad he is not in a Bills uniform, it would be a great story if he could stick with a team and be a solid contributor. I am not betting on that happening, but why trash a guy who seemed to work hard while here, was a good teammate, and seemed to have good overall character? The guy became a bit of a national joke, so it would be great for him to redeem himself and make a living in the NFL for a while..

Well said; looks like an excellent draft. The last time I can remember that the Bills had drafted so well as the Bills have over the last few years was when Polian was here. And this seems like the best coaching staff since then too. Great signs for success this year and long term.

But I think One Bills Drive with Murphy and Tasker is a good show, with good analysis, objectivity, and good guests. They struggle a little to fill 3 hours every day, which makes sense to me, especially in preseason, but it is a good show, podcasts. I just started to listen to Bills' podcasts more regularly and found most of them were awful outside of the professional radio. Even worse about Schopp is how unprepared he seems to be, how little legwork he clearly does to get ready for his show. Tons of filler and useless information there to go with his lack of objectivity.

I think may end up being the line. Seems like the 5 best lineman and lineup. I hope this is the case. There will likely be some tinkering, changing during the year.

The more I think about this, the more I think that Prescott has really embarrassed himself. He wants to be the highest payed player in the NFL! There is no legitimacy to his salary goal, a complete pipe dream.And Prescott turned down a new 30 million a year contract! It makes him look arrogant and ignorant. He is making a fool of himself.

Thirty million a year for Prescott would be too much--and he turned that down!! The problem in Dallas is that Jones pumps the team up with so much hot air that the star players think they are hall of famers early in their careers. I hope they give him a huge salary! That, and a poor (duh) head coach in Jason Garrett would mean one less team to compete against for championships. How 'bout them Cowboys?

What a poorly written article--I was surprised that this was from an actual sports writer (?). It adds nothing to the conversation at all. When something is that poorly written it should set off warning bells that the article's content is usually a joke too.

Thanks for the daily updates, Astro!