BarleyNY

With no playoff, one loss often eliminated a team. Two losses was an almost certain elimination. And before the BCS a team could even go undefeated and not earn a title. A 12 team playoff is vastly superior to those systems. Let’s also remember that these are kids - even if they are well compensated kids. They should have the opportunity to grow and improve over the course of a season. The current format also makes it a near certainty that two hated rivals from the same conference will meet in the title game. Won’t that be a day?

As a fan of a team that’s won championships (including last night), but who spent the first 33 years of his life without one, I will say this: Getting one doesn’t make you want another one any less, but it eases the pain when you come up short. Having a championship in your pocket is comforting in that way. Ravens fans have had their fair share, they don’t need our pity.

And I’ve been feeling greedy……. Everyone can pay their players now. The SEC’s habit of funneling money to their players through churches isn’t going to win them games anymore.

That was my thought at the time as well. 93 seconds plus we had time outs left. We had plenty of time to score. I wasn’t even worried about it being on a Bass FG. At the start of their drive I predicted they’d get the TD but fail on the 2 pt conversion. They’d already turned the ball over 3x and dropped some passes. It just seemed like the Ravens were going to find a way to lose that game. They were choking and the Bills were cool, calm and collected. Nice to have it be the other team that makes mistakes in a game like this. The Ravens had more talent, but the Bills were the better team yesterday.

He was last with the Ravens on their PS the first week of the 2023 season. He was briefly on the Raiders, Bills (5 days) and Cards PSs this season.

FIFY

The Bills numbers are very good overall, but they are definitely helped immensely by starting the cumulative calculations in 2018 when Allen was drafted. Likewise Baltimore is helped in the same way with Lamar drafted 32 that season. Edited to add: I understand that this is a measurement of Beane’s tenure and that’s why it started in 2017. Not sure why 2024 wasn’t included though. My point is simply that nailing a QB in 2017 - as he did and should get credit for - pumps up the numbers dramatically.

Holtz does. But it’s so obvious and childish, how could he ever think it would work to his advantage? It is much more likely to be bulletin board material for players and result in them playing hard and focusing for their coach. It smacks of desperation.

Sadly, that’s probably accurate. On the Bills I see him as a rotational power end with some upside. So he’d be a backup to Rousseau. We’d probably have to take him with one of our late 2nds if we wanted him. So it would depend on the other options available.

Lou Holtz continues to be one of the most arrogant pr**ks I’ve ever seen. This reminds me of years ago when ND joining the Big 10 was brought up. The question was what ND would do if the B10 would give them an ultimatum of join or none of our teams will ever play ND again. His response was that ND would just schedule Hawaii in Hawaii for the last game of ever season and give their team a vacation there. The assumption that Hawaii was just waiting by the phone for that to happen was so disrespectful and arrogant. He hasn’t ever changed. https://www.si.com/college-football/lou-holtz-swipe-ryan-day-attendance-national-championship-ohio-state-notre-dame Lou Holtz twitter quote: “If Notre Dame doesn’t win, it’s because we want to preserve Ryan Day’s job. I was originally going to be at the game in spirit, but now I’ll be dragging my body along as well.”

Would have hated it. Why create confusion? I doubt the Bills would have allowed it anyway. “I got tickets to the Buffalo Bills game for my birthday! Oh, wait, they’re for a July game. ****!”

Yep. An emotional hedge.

I don’t bet very often - and when I do it is rarely on games with a team I am emotionally tied to. I only bet on the Bills once. I’d gotten a free bet at the casino downtown (concert perk) and won a little money with it so I laid it on a parlay for the next Bills game. It was the heat stroke Miami game. I don’t think I hit a single leg.

the Chargers were favored by 2.5 against the Texans.

So the question at hand is which party or parties do you want to see suffer? $92M is left on the table. If Watson is found to have voided his contract he loses that $92M and the Browns and insurer are off the hook for it. If he isn’t found to have voided his deal, then he gets that money from the Browns and insurer. Probably $47.7M from the Browns and $44.3M from the insurer. So who do you dislike more?

Yup. He’s who I was thinking of.

What does that have to do with anything? Vrabel is an experienced, quality coach. His teams never did much in the playoffs, but that was with the likes of Ryan Tannehill at QB. Maye looks like a good one and Wolf is an experienced GM. They now have a possible path to being a good team. I prefer to see them foundering, but looks like they may be competitive soon. Who mentioned scared?

Excellent hire. intellectually, I am interested to see what Vrabel can do with a real quarterback. Emotionally, I am not happy that it’ll be in the AFCE.

For instance, Lamar has 5 teammates that are first or second team All Pros and Allen has none. So that’s a difference.

I thought Allen probably should have won it last season and probably Lamar this. But if they want to give it to Jackson last season and Allen this, then that’s fine too. Jackson has better stats, but Allen is doing it all with a lot less.

https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/nfl/coach-year-odds/ There are the odds. McD fell off recently, but is still 7th. He was higher earlier. I don’t think it’s difficult to make a case that he’s a good coach. But I don’t see any criteria where he is #1 this season.

What’s your rationale for McD being COY? He’s got a top four QB and is a second seed. Seems pretty much what you’d expect. Coaches like Campbell and O’Connell have done more with less. Reid has the AFC 1 seed and best record, tho he lost to McD. Campbell also has a 1 seed. Even coaches like Payton should be in the mix. He’s done very well with what he has had to work with. There’s a number of coaches who can make a case. What’s so special about what McD did this season?

All player salary/compensation recouped from insurance is deducted from the cap the following season. So the cap hit is the same during the given season, but they get the benefit the following one.

Normally a fully guaranteed contract would preclude an injury settlement. But these are not normal times. I actually believe that there is a small chance of a settlement between Watson, the Browns and the insurer. The necessary component is that Watson’s agent would have to be worried that the latest injury could void Watson’s guarantees. Things aren’t there (yet). I can say with confidence that the Browns are very unhappy about Watson not informing them of the injury until his end of season exit interview. He complained of it hurting at that time and the team had their doctors look at it. They determined that he had re-torn it. While him apparently hiding it from the team is very suspicious, it doesn’t mean that they can prove he did it outside of team approved rehab. If the Browns and insurer can get out of paying him, they’ll do it. If Watson can get his money, he’ll take it. But if all parties are worried they might lose or that it’ll take years to resolve, then a settlement could happen.