BarleyNY

Likely this is what the Bears were trying to accomplish - to show JJ what his MV is. No 5/$100M Denzel Ward deal for him.

It is what you hope to see, but it doesn't always happen that way.

The Bills took a gamble with with Elam because they painted themselves into a corner with that one glaring need and KC jumped us for the guy we wanted - Trent McDuffie (at least I am convinced of that). While Elam was considered a 1st round prospect by some (a minority), many others had him rated lower or much lower. For every plus in his game there was a negative or question. Sticky in man, but very grabby. Physical with WRs, but a reluctant/soft tackler. Good length and a fast 40, but doesn't show that speed on the field and lacks lateral agility. Even the best GMs miss on 1st round picks, but I hated seeing us locked into that position going into the draft. That was an avoidable mistake.

I think the only thing this is about his agent trying to get him the best contract possible. Effectively “Give us what we want or trade the player to a team that will.” Nothing more, nothing less. If the Bears move on the extension, then it gets signed and everyone loves each other again. Just negotiating tactics.

This brings up an important point. There’s some real risk here as a trade and contract extension could be coming at a “buying high” point. This is probably why the Bears and his agent aren’t able to get a deal done. The agent wants paid on this season while the Bears are looking at the whole body of work. My best guess is that nothing happens with him today and a deal gets done with the Bears at some point.

That isn’t realistic in this case. If that is all that is offered then he won’t be traded. Instead the Bears will tag him if they can’t sign him to an extension before the deadline.

He’s on the last year of his rookie deal, not some 32 year old vet looking for a ring. Zero chance he is traded without a contract extension in place. *The first plus assumes a pick expected to be at the end of the first round. A team expected to draft early or mid-round would be a different story.

Like the Stefon Diggs trade. I’d be on board if the cap dollars can work and the contract isn’t in Denzel Ward territory 5/$100M. We will still have to account for Tre at $10.4M (though that could be spread over two seasons). If the contract is more in the $13M-$15M AAV range, then I am a lot more interested. They will have to restructure Allen as well as others regardless. The impact of a contract like this would be felt somewhere. Not everywhere, but somewhere. The more I look at the numbers the more I see how it is workable. But the Bills are at a point where they are making budget constrained decisions. CB is very good place to spend so I can see them choosing to do so.

It’s the extension that’s the issue. The MV Spotrac shows obviously does not account for his play this season. He’s gotten better every year and will get a deal in the top 10 CBs.

I agree in principle. A replacement for Tre is needed ASAP. He isn’t going to get back to the player he was and I don’t think we will see him in a Bills uniform again. The Bills might be able to work a trade - and let’s face it, even first round CBs don’t always work out (obviously). So it’s not about the draft capital so much as it is about the contract. I don’t know how the Bills manage to add a top of market CB contract at this point.

No team is going to trade for him without a new contract in place.

He will fetch a first plus, if traded at this point. Plus a very big contract. I don’t see the Bills doing that.

I have NFL+ so I can watch condensed games and Red Zone. The most games I watched in a week this season was 10. This week just 3 plus a Sunday with a lot of Red Zone.

If?

For the player, yes. But his contract only runs through this season so that drags down his value. It’s more than I’d have wanted Beane to give up. I think this signals that the Giants are going to be in the QB market. Seattle is leading their division and pushing some extra chips in.

I think you have to consider the possibility that TB was finally adjusting to the Bills offensive game plan and was defending it better.

Agreed. I’m a firm believer that analytics and statistics should inform decisions, not dictate them. Details and nuances often are not accounted for in them and I think we saw a good situational coaching job last night that considered those nuances.

I agree. Plus with Allen’s shoulder dinged up I don’t like running him so that would take another option off of the table.

The 4th & 2 was certainly a closer call, but I still think punting was the correct one in this case. But the risk-reward was not there IMO. With 10 min left the upside if we would make it is gaining another set of downs and running down the clock another couple minutes. The downside of not making it is giving the Bucs great field position and a morale boost. They’d have a real opportunity to score quickly and have plenty of time to get the ball back and make a longer drive. With TB unable (to that point) to sustain a long drive, punting was the way to go. The best outcome for TB was what they got - a long TD drive that burned a ton of clock. It wasn’t the sexy call, but it was the prudent one.

In more cases than not I’d agree with you that going for it would be the correct call, but not in this game in the situation they were in. TB had not been able to move the ball on us and pinning them deep had worked well. I called for the punt both times before we did it. IMO it was good situational coaching.

Buttermilk is underutilized as a chicken marinade. It might be the one thing the South got right. I used it for Chicken Parmesan (gasp!) recently and it was the best I’ve ever made. Ditto as a marinade for wings a few months back. I am now of the opinion that any chicken not marinaded in buttermilk is a waste.

Are you close friends with Josh Allen? If so, how close?

According to the article I posted that wasn’t the only flag that got picked up. Also there were a multitude of issues with the refs. Just curious why you are harping ad nauseam on just that specific situation. If one was to objectively wonder about the refereeing in the game there’s plenty to discuss.

It was a truly awful draft, but it would be nice to see some additional context- like how many years they all played in the league. Sheldon Richardson was a very good player for like 9 or 10 seasons. Not many make it to an 11th.

Whatever they’re serving in the luxury box my wife scored tickets for! 💪