BarleyNY

I agree with all of this. Overpaid for Cooper and Zeke and now looking at doing the same for Dak. I have not had a good read on exactly who Dak is. He has some great stats - 2nd in NFL with over 4,900 passing yards - and he shows well with some advanced metrics. So I had some time this AM and wanted to watch some football. Thanks to the free NFL Game Pass I checked out his playoff win against Seattle from the 2018 season and his loss to the Jets in 2019. I now have my read on him and it makes sense. He’s Russel Wilson without the ability to make that beautiful downfield throw that puts a dagger into the heart of the opposing team. He is very efficient short in spite of the fact that he sees a lot of tight coverage there because the defense knows that’s where he’s going. He is not a top 8 QB, but he’s top 16 and you can win a lot of games with him. The problem with him is that when things go wrong and he has to be more, he can’t. There were 5 dropped passes in the Jets game. That’s not on him, but being efficient short wasn’t going to make up for it. Sometimes the QB has to elevate his team and Dak can’t do that. We saw that last Thanksgiving. Dallas should pump the brakes on this contract. Honestly, I think the right move for them would be to franchise him for one or two seasons while looking for a QB who can be more.

I wonder where the “North of $45M” thing is coming from. If it’s really from Dan’s side or if it’s from the Cowboys’ side to make him look bad.

That was nicely done!

I, for one, would avoid any bet that counts on a slender, running QB for wins over the course of a season. I’m not saying that Jackson will or won’t get injured this year, I’m just saying that I wouldn’t want my money riding on the necessity that he won’t. Even a ding that limits his mobility would dramatically change the dynamics of that offense.

Oh, is it going to be that kind of backyard bar? Then definitely go with “Flaming Table”

WOW! 60 seconds on google. Eye drops, rice hills (which are inert and used in brewing to loosen up thick mashes) and an emulsifier.

I’m not exaggerating anything when I state that Allen was not nearly as far along in his development as most highly drafted QBs, like Trubisky. You’re welcome to your opinion that he was, but I don’t know how you justify it. I’m not saying that every other QB didn’t have work to do, but they could hit a RB in the right flat with a pass. I’m not making any excuses for anyone here either. I didn’t like the Bills drafting such a raw QB so highly. Going into the draft I didn’t like Allen’s chances of success due in part to that - and, truthfully, I still don’t. But I can allow for the possibility that he still might have a shot at developing further. I’ll leave it there.

Trubisky has had good arm mechanics and footwork with a clean pocket. The issues he has had with them happens when he is under pressure. He breaks down in a lot of ways under pressure. That was also the case in college - and it was a big red flag for such a highly drafted prospect. Yes, there is more to being a QB than the two things I mentioned. However I thought they illustrated the differences between a QB prospect as raw as Allen was and one who had a lot less work to do on his fundamentals. Also I thought what I wrote was plenty long enough already.

I was not. But that was largely because the Stiller offense was completely impotent against our defense. Had BR (even a very fat BR) been QBing their offense, it would have been a very different story.

I totally disagree. Trubisky‘s footwork and arm mechanics were excellent coming out of college. He had good accuracy except with the deep ball. That’s pretty much exactly who he still is. He didn’t develop as a pro very well, but his fundamentals were very solid coming out. Personally, I did not like him as a prospect because I saw him as a low ceiling QB. OTOH, Allen’s arm mechanics and footwork - especially his footwork - have been improved greatly. He still falters sometimes, but they’re vastly improved from college. For instance, he could hardly ever complete a pass to the right flat his rookie season. That was due to atrocious footwork. He largely cleaned that up before last season. I breathed a sigh of relief the first time he threw - and completed - that throw last season. It’s not like Trubisky had those kinds of problems. Arm mechanics and footwork take time and effort to fix. Until they become the habit it is easy for any QB to revert to the old habits if they don’t think about them. I watched it happen to EJ Manuel. I think it was year two. He came out looking a lot better. He’d obviously cleaned up a lot in the offseason, but then the pressure got to him and he reverted. It was over. There’s a world of difference between a QB with a solid foundation making the leap to the NFL and one who doesn’t that. The former can focus more on the play, reads, etc. The latter has a much more difficult road and tends to progress more slowly. So three years in, we know who Trubisky is. Allen was still fixing mechanics coming into last season. Sure, I’m sure he’s developing his reads and progressions, but I don’t expect him to be as far along with those as Trubisky was after year 2. It makes sense to me that he might have more room for growth there, though it’s by no means a given. The real problems with drafting such a raw QB so high are just these. One, there’s more hurdles to success. Maybe he can never fix his mechanics/footwork - and even if he can then he still has everything else to figure out. And two, you might not know what you really have by the time you have to pay and commit to him. I’m purposely avoiding predicting Allen’s odds of success or failure. It’s the offseason and he’s the Bills QB. I can give him credit for the progress he’s made and allow for the possibility that he’ll continue to develop.

I agree that Allen can be a lot of fun to watch, but he can also be frustrating. His success is a matter of him improving his consistency. That’s it in a nutshell.

I’m going to offer some perspective here. In baseball a player gets about 4 official at bats per game. So if he gets one hit per game he bats .250. in 2018 the league batting average was basically that (.248). If an average batter could improve by one hit every three games then he’d go from 3-for-12 to 4-for-12 and have a .333 BA. Exactly one player broke that mark In 2018. That means one addition al hit per every three games would take a player from dead average to the best hitter (or top 2 or 3) in the league. The difference in pay would be tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars over a career. So the incentive for MLB players to make a jump like that is enormous. Allen is still comfortably in the 20s for metrics that take into account things like drops. An improvement of just a couple better thrown passes per game would make an enormous difference in his ratings. But that’s not an easy task and should not be viewed as such by fans. As I’ve noted many times, Allen came into the league extremely raw and that actually gives me more hope for improvement. Players like Trubisky were a much more finished product. Chicago seems to realize that what they saw in 2019 is pretty much who he’s going to be. I don’t think that Allen is necessarily done developing, but the clock is ticking for him. As the times to make serious financial commitments to him are nearing (5th year option and long term contract), he’s going to have to step up and show.

That’s pretty spot on to my thoughts. This Bills team is a quarterback away from contending for a championship. It’s up to Allen to step up and be that QB. If he does, then we could have some real fun ahead.

I’ve been perusing some Texas DWI lawyer sites for some answers. Texas is an Implied Consent state, which means that consent for testing is given as a condition of acquiring a license. People still don’t have to give consent to any type of test until a valid warrant is issued. Then it can be forcibly taken if needed. Blood tests Include testing for alcohol and a variety of drugs. Obviously some drug metabolites stay in people’s systems beyond when they’d be impaired so that can be a defense. So it’s probably going to be awhile before this plays out.

Not coincidentally there was a committee of three owners that determined Goodell’s compensation packages and recommended them to the full ownership board for approval. Those three were Rooney, Kraft and Mora.

Friend of mine is a lawyer and he said if it ever happens the proper way to handle it is to politely state that you do not believe in the accuracy of breathalyzer tests so you respectfully decline. They’ll take you in and draw your blood. Upon your release immediately go to a place where you can get an independent test taken. Luckily I’ve never been in that position, but it’s good info to have.

When I was at Ohio State there was a dive bar just feet off campus called “The Library” for the same reason. How about “The Folding Table”?

Yeah. I’m thinking he was out riding ATVs with his friends. Maybe some beers and blunts - and then made the mistake of driving. I’d assume that the blood they drew will be tested for drugs as well as alcohol, but maybe someone better informed can verify that.

The article I read said the officer suspected that Oliver’s impairment was due to something other than (or in addition to) alcohol. That’s my guess as to why they did the search.

Naw, man, you do NOT want to leave these guys alone with a babysitter.

Yup. News at a time of year where no news is good news. A DWI and a gun violation in Texas, not an easy two-fer to pull off. Stupid decisions to be sure and this will have an impact on Oliver (and possibly the Bills), but luckily no one was hurt.

Honestly, so what? So Allen seems like a good guy. Okay. I suspect he is, but how many fans really know him? Public events can’t be counted on to show what someone is really like. How many rings would Steelers fans give back for Roethlisberger to have had a much higher character? “Exactly none” would be the answer. It’s nice to think that we’re rooting for a team full of good people - Allen included - but we’re not. Some are, some aren’t. I’d take Aaron Rodgers as my QB in a heartbeat as long as he can still play.

This ESPN Article seems to provide a good synopsis of the press conference. Rodgers seems to have handled it well.

This is pretty important. By what metrics? Circumstances were very much not in Allen’s favor his rookie season and while the offense was competent last season it wasn’t complete. Many here give him a big pass for all of that (and that’s warranted to some degree), but don’t give much thought or credence to how circumstances impacted other QBs. The reality is that this is an enormous season for Allen. The team around him is about as good as it’ll ever get. With the salary cap restrictions it’s just not possible to expect much better overall talent than we have now year to year. That really plays into the question of paying Allen because his next contract would take the place of 2-3 contracts of other impact players. He needs to substantially step up to earn that IMO. I hope he does. He certainly has a ton of raw talent. His splash plays are great, but his consistency is not. I know that at this point the odds of QBs correcting some of the issues he has had aren’t good. But those are overall odds. Allen was so raw coming into the NFL that there’s reason to think that those odds don’t apply as much to him. That since he wasn’t as developed as typical QBs he still has room for improvement in areas where most don’t. What I do know for certain is that the clock is ticking. The first financial decision on him - a fully guaranteed fifth year option - has to be made next off season. I think any real improvement at all and the Bills execute that. What will be more telling will be what he eventually gets paid and whether the Bills are the ones to pay him. A combination of that and advanced metrics will be the best indicator of where he eventually stands.