BarleyNY

Exactly correct.

that’s a fair point. as the topic is in favor of McDermott being considered for COTY I thought you were arguing in that direction.

You think that COTY voters specifically consider playoff history? In what way? I certainly don’t see evidence of playoff success helping a HC win COTY. Andy Reid won the last two Super Bowls and is tied for 8th place with McD and LaFleur at +2500 odds. As I’ve already said, they consider expectations versus actual performance. A HC with a team that performed well in the playoffs obviously has a tougher time winning COTY. That makes it unlikely that Reid, McD, etc. will win it. But there isn’t more to it than that.

That would probably do it. But McD is not in a great position to win it. It is an award that usually goes to a HC that overachieves with his roster or situation. The Bills have been the 2nd, 3rd or 4th best AFC team for last four seasons. They’ll probably finish the regular season there again. Notably they have had a top 5 QB every one of those seasons and easily so this season. Voters are going to look at McD and the Bills and say “He probably has the best QB in the league (or very close) and his team earned the 2nd (or 3rd) seed in the AFC. As a HC he is doing a good job, but there is nothing that comes close to making me think it is the best HC performance in the league.”

COTY is a regular season award. It’s voted on before the playoffs start.

I watched with three other people and we all audibly reacted in a negative way to that kick. We all either thought he missed it or thought it was likely he missed it.

Cooper has always been a pro. I don't think he's the kind of person who would sandbag. As for him needing to be on the field, that is particularly true in the playoffs. If he has to take off this Sunday and rest through the bye week so he can get healthy, then that's a lot better than him playing, getting hurt worse and going on IR. Or if it is just a matter of his ability to perform, then it's a question of whether he'd be helping or hurting the team by taking the field. None of us know what the situation is and assuming the worst of Cooper is pretty sad.

Playing poorly is the worst thing a pending FA can do (next to having a catastrophic injury). Not playing isn’t great, but it’s not nearly as bad. But we don’t even know whether or not he’s going to play. There are a lot of people here that are getting ahead of themselves on that. If I was McDermott I would want to keep KC guessing on whether or not he is going to play. Cooper’s impact on the defensive play calling is huge. No need to tell KC how to game plan for us.

Has to be one of: Anthony Munoz Trent Williams Jonathan Ogden Honorable mentions: Orlando Pace Walter Jones Joe Thomas

Guessing Benford is looking at a four year extension this offseason at about $17M-$18M per. He is still under contract in 2025 at $1M. It’d be smart of him to get his money a year early. And the Bills would get him a little cheaper too.

Some perspective on this. We’re talking about a bottom of roster WR who is 31 and making $2.6M. Through 10 games he’s got 16 receptions for 197 yards. 39 of those were YAC. He big and savvy, but he’s not otherwise physically gifted for a NFL WR. Teams do not have to worry about him ripping off a big gain. But he can get open in the EZ and for first downs- and he holds onto the ball when it’s thrown to him. Do I want to see him on the field for the Bills? Not really. I want someone more talented out there. But I don’t know many WR 5 or 6s I wouldn’t say the same thing about. Could it be worse? Yeah, a lot worse. When called upon he is contributing to the best of his ability and making a positive impact on this team - and that has helped us win some games. When I see Mack Hollins on the field I am a little bummed. But that’s because it means that starters are missing time and because it limits the offense. But it’s simply a matter of those starters missing time, not him specifically. Again, he’s making a positive impact to his ability - and that is far from a given for a depth WR. https://www.footballdb.com/players/mack-hollins-hollima02

The funny things is that I agree that it would be best for the Cowboys if JJ did fire himself. But he’s a billionaire playing fantasy football for real. He’s not giving that up until he has to for health reasons. I’m not sure if I would either.

Jerry Jones is the Owner, President and General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys.

That is true in a sense because Jerry Jones is the GM.

I haven’t voted yet because it is a tough question. Both are in a bad position. I come back to which team has the best shot at finding a FQB since that’s the most important thing in football. The Browns have more surrounding talent than the Saints, but that will probably make it tougher for them to find that FQB. Deion already said he won’t let his son play for the Browns or Panthers so cross him off their list of possibilities. Not that I’m sold on him or that whole dynamic, but it still takes an option off of their board. Guess I’m voting Browns.

Did just hear this on 550 regarding the match up. The most flag happy ref crew in the NFL has this game. Ravens are league worst in penalty differential. Bengals are 3rd best in penalties.

That’s fair and I’d like to see Allen and the Bills with more possessions too. But would a riskier and aggressive defense that yields more variance in opposing offenses actually help against the best offenses in the league? It certainly could - especially if utilized correctly. The other top QBs/offenses seem to be able to effectively dink and dunk their way to points too. Those QBs often seem too comfortable doing that so taking them out of that rhythm is important. I think it’s largely a moot point though. McDermott is not wired that way at all. The glaring example is the crapfest that was the Bengals playoff game. Without Miller the Bills had no pass rush, so what was McD’s solution? He half-assed the aggressive defense by blitzing, but still having DBs play 10 yards off the LOS. It didn’t help that the blitzing didn’t really work, but Burrow was going to eat that kind of defense up regardless. McD wants to get pressure with 4 and take explosives away. That’s not a bad overall strategy. Where he could improve is with his change ups to that. We have heard talk of that and, honestly, I haven’t really looked much at it this season. But I will now. I was almost solely focused on how our offense would beat man coverage and blitzes without a viable outside threat. Hopefully Cooper will be that threat. KC is coming up and that’ll be a good one to look at.

Incentivizing offenses to run the ball and limiting explosive pass plays have been an analytics pillars for some time now. Creating turnovers and negative plays are others. It’s pushed most defenses into shell coverages like Cover 2 and 4, which are easier to run on than 1 or 3. They make offenses work their way downfield with runs and short passes. When dinking and running a single negative play or holding penalty can result in an offense punting on that drive. There are some team building things to consider. CBs playing zone are cheaper than those that can play man well. DTs still have to be competent and one that can rush the passer is important. A couple seasons ago the Browns went with cheap, third tier DTs to encourage teams to run on them. That part worked in a way because teams ran on them at will. But it was too much and teams rolled them by running. It also got a bunch of their LBs and DBs injured since the DTs couldn’t slow any OLmen down. They’ve since changed to a counter-culture D that plays a lot of man and blitzes to try to create negative plays and TOs. As for the Bills, I think it’s the smart way to play defense when you have Allen at QB. The defense just needs to keep it close and Allen can be the difference in most games - as long as his supporting cast is good enough to keep defenses honest. There are so many games that are close where Allen makes 2 or 3 plays that few (if any) other QB could make. Those points wind up netting the Bills an extra 7 or 10 points and that changes an L to a W. We are incredibly lucky to have him.

Jerry got robbed. But he can afford it and the Cowboys aren’t winning anything anytime soon anyway.

Teams usually prefer to trade out of the conference if all else is equal. I do not know how much that factored into this trade. The part about Z preferring to go to Detroit comes from someone who speaks with the players and agents. I posted that info about a week ago.

Z wanted to go to Detroit to play against his former team (Vikings). The Browns may not have a QB, but they've got plenty at DE. Z is under contract next season, but was not likely in the Browns plans due to his contract and the other DE talent they have. They sent him where he wanted to go and got something for him. I know they were looking for a 4th. A late 5th and future 6th with a future 7th back equals a very late 4th to very early 5th. The Lions get a good DE and have the option for him to stick around next season while Hutch gets back to form - and they didn't overpay. So a pretty fair trade for both sides.

Bass really needed that. Happy for him and the team. Hope this gives him confidence and puts him on a good path forward.

BB has turned off the teams he’s interviewed with. His insistence on complete control of everything football is one big issue, but there seems to be more than that going on. I don’t think he coaches again.

I’d expect that the Browns are open for business on everyone except a select few players. This last loss effectively ended any outside hope of a playoff run. Reminder that the deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5th at 4 PM.

Trouble usually stems from focusing too closely on short term financial gains at the expense of long term ones. TNF is a great example. Extra revenue from an additional prime time game during the week. But the TNF product is relatively poor and it can cannibalize the viewership of other games. The lower quality of product can also have other negative impacts such as hurting the overall brand. It was a good short term play, but I think the jury is out on whether it is a good longer-term one.