fergie's ire

As a kid in the 70s I had two favorite QB/WR pairs on different teams. I loved Fred Billitnikoff and Ken Stabler on the Oilers (loved the untucked, long hair, stickum anti-establishment vibe) and I liked Dan Pastorini and Billy White Shoes Johnson. Pastorini because he would just get destroyed but would keep playing and Johnson because he was so much fun. Of course, one of the reason I was watching the Raiders was because they also had a favorite former Bill, Bobby Chandler.

I wonder how much of Josh Allen's inability to read defenses is on Ken Dorsey and I am curious if we see a leap in that area once Allen has an offseason with Brady. I thought he was getting really good at reading defenses toward the end of Daboll's tenure. When Josh made the controversial comment about not watching much tape he followed it by saying he doesn't worry about what the defense is doing because if the Bills offense can do anything it wants and it's up to the defense to adjust to them. I've long suspected those were Dorsey's words being filtered through Josh because it seemed to be one of the key differences between Dorsey and Brady. I'm hoping that's the case and that Josh starts reading and abusing defenses again.

The way they were constructing a team they reminded me a lot of the Bills under McBeane. The big difference is that the Bills drafted Allen and the Jets drafted Wilson.

Benford. I like him but to me he has always been a "good for a 6th round pick guy" and it seems we are counting on him to be flat out good. He seems like a spot starter, high quality backup kind of player...like Dane Jackson...but is he a good starting corner? Not sure. It will help if Douglas continues to play the way he did last year and Elam follows through on the way he looked in OTAs. I just worry that we will need to count on him to be a #2 or even #1 corner and I'm not sure he's that.

I feel that developing Teller was a luxury the Bills couldn't afford at the time. He was aggressive but the knock on him was that sometimes his aggression got him in trouble. He would get off balance and whiff. Having a lineman in the middle whiff on a rusher is the last thing you want with a young QB who you hope to be your franchise player. At the time, Beane had signed a ton of journeyman linemen who were competent but unspectacular. I think he wanted a bunch of low ceiling, high floor guys who would just help keep Allen from getting killed.

Thank those fat thumbs for me. I am really enjoying the mental image.

Funny typo. I'd love to see a 1/12 sack. Everybody on the field and one guy off the bench run over and jump the quarterback.

Who is from Duke? Davis went to Kentucky (and Vanderbilt...and Temple). Cook went to Georgia.

Actually, I am hoping this drop is him practicing whatever drop program Shakir was working last year. If you remember the concern in training camp last year regarding Shakir was his tendency to drop passes. Then he had a lot of drops of easy passes in OTAs and training camp. Then the season starts and he ends up having the lowest drop rate in the league. Maybe these drops are part of the patented Shakir process.

When he did the quarterback draft with Mina Kimes, Nate Tice made a comment about some of Josh Allen's turnovers make him crazy for a few seconds and he thinks "why would you even attempt that throw," but then when he thinks about it he realizes, "Oh yeah, I've seen him complete that pass like six times in a row." (Btw, both he and Kimes said they had Allen as the clear number 2 QB in the league.) So, part of the issue is what other sports might call usage rate. Allen is involved in so many of the plays that, of course, he is going to have more turnovers. However, the other issue is that he attempts throws nobody else should because he completes passes nobody else can on the regular.

I just came here to say LeBron is the GOAT, not Jordan. End of discussion.

Reid may not have had Allen or Mahomes, and Alex Smith is not a hall of famer. Still, go back and actually look at some of those earlier Reid playoff games. There was some absolute coaching malpractice. Down two scores to the Patriots and they go on a long time consuming drive and look like they are trying to run out the clock, and blowing an 18 point lead against the Titans. Reid had a reputation as a terrible playoff coach and we would be losing our minds if McDermott made some of the decisions that he did earlier in his career.

The Kentucky Wildcats BB had an insane amount of talent on their teams from 2015 to 2020 or so. It's amazing they didn't win more championships. Devin Booker, Karl Anthony Towns, Malik Monk, Bam Adebayo, De'Aaron Fox, Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Tyler Herro, Tyrese Maxey, Jamal Murray, Immanuel Quickley, PJ Washington. Julius Randal and Anthony Davis were just before this period.

No, but I remember the reports of all the interceptions that Mahomes kid was throwing after Kansas City wasted picks to move up and get him.

Dean Smith...the only man who could keep Jordan under 20 a game.

Yeah, he may be slow but seems to have really fast hands. Snatches the ball out of the air. Wasn't he the drummer for The Police?

Played at U OF Miami. Miami U is in Ohio.

Peterman?

And there is not only culturally based intelligence but, as I think you are suggesting, there is football smarts which is its own thing. Jim Kelly got a 15 on the Wonderlic. At the time, my impression of him was that he was not a very bright guy. However, I heard a teammate talk about him and say that they were able to run the K-Gun the way they did because Kelly was super smart. He wasn't book smart...or probably even street smart...but football smart is its own thing.

I don't know the drill...and don't really watch combine stuff. However, I think I understand what the poster's concern is about not jogging and running out of bounds. It would be the equivalent to timing baseball players to see how fast they could steal second. They would be clocked from 1st to 2nd. Most would slide or slow up before getting to second so they don't go past the bag. If one player just ran full out and blew by the bag, he would have the fastest time, but he did the drill wrong. It's supposed to simulate stealing a base and if you just run past it, you'd be out in a game. The poster is saying that in the drill Coleman ran the point is to not go out of bounds (so players slow up to prevent from doing so) but by Coleman blowing past the sidelines he gets a faster time but does not accomplish the goal of the drill.

Ah, that is different. Might be too steep a price.

Until recently, I had been in the "take who's there or even move back and increase chances of a hit by picking multiple receivers." However, I am starting to come around on the swing for the fences idea. Next year's first and second sounds like a lot, but here's what is making it an easier pill for me to swallow. If you think, as I do, that Minnesota is gonna stink this year, you can hang on to their second and give away ours. That means that if you factor in what we got for Diggs, we are only moving back a few spots. Also, because we have taken on Diggs' cap hit this year, it should free up some money to use to fill a hole or two next year (like signing a center or safety). I think we'd be okay giving up those high picks. Number 60 is tough though, particularly considering we got hosed by the NFL on what we thought was going to be a third round comp pick.

Yeah, he clearly seemed off. His will to grab contested balls just wasn't there in the second half of the season. I had thought there was something physically wrong with him but maybe it was mentally checked out. I'm actually one who really liked Diggs...and makes me wonder exactly what went wrong between him and the team.

And actually, in the long term I think it makes it easier for GMs because they will have more tape on players. Fewer underclassmen coming out this year means more seniors coming out next, and they should be easier to evaluate. The real reason the NBA put in the one and done rule, requiring players to play at least one year in college, was to save GMs jobs. It wasn't to help the high school/college kids. GMs kept drafting guys like Kwame Brown and getting fired and they wanted to make sure they could have tape of them playing against better competition.

I heard a great story about a high school DB who was highly recruited. He shows up on campus and in practice they having covering this white guy with average speed...and the guy torched him. It shook his confidence so much that he couldn't even cover that guy that he ended up quitting the team and football. The guy he was trying to cover? Steve Largent.