BarleyNY

The NFL is 32 separate businesses with some antitrust exemptions that allow it to act as one entity for certain things. IIRC those things are spelled out in laws that Congress passed that specifically pertain to the NFL, a Supreme Court decision and in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The existence of the NFLPA and a CBA are required for the antitrust exemptions to remain in place. That’s why when CBA negotiations get contentious, the NFLPA threatens to disband.

I’m not really arguing one side or the other. I can see some real downside if the NFL went to all fully guaranteed contracts and why teams don’t want to do that. I can also see why the players think more contracts should be fully guaranteed and why they think there is collusion by owners. I was more just trying to point out what the landscape looks like and discuss that, if proven, it would be a problem for the NFL.

The NFL has a number of antitrust exemptions. It is important to understand that under regular US law, teams would have to operate independently of one another. No draft, no salary cap, no league-wide broadcasting deals, no franchise tag or free agency rules, etc. All would be in violation of antitrust laws. Teams would operate like any other competing companies. I’m not saying that there’s a case in this instance or that there’s not. I have no idea if the NFLPA can prove that owners have colluded to not fully guarantee long term contracts. But if they can, then the NFL would be in real trouble. It would be as illegal as all of the large IT company CEOs getting together to set industry-wide wage scales for programmers. If I had to take a guess, I’d say this is probably a lot like airline ticket pricing. Airlines collude constantly, but good luck proving it.

Good call. I wish I’d have remembered that at the time

The Jest are a QB away from being a formidable team. I don’t see Zach Wilson developing into one so a lot will depend on how long they stick with him.

Dude. It was playing out in front of us. You weren’t having a waking nightmare, you were watching one unfold. If the Brown who almost caught the kick had caught it……….

This was the turning point for me and my opinion on this. People need to consider that he will likely be worked in slowly when he comes back. He can start by playing less meaningful snaps. There was certainly opportunity for that on Sunday.

Diggs. The Browns defensive scheme is trash. Diggs should feast in the dome.

It did not

I couldn’t remember it either. It didn’t seem like something they’d make up, but I thought maybe I heard it wrong. I thought somebody here would remember if it happened.

If cash issues are still a problem for the Raiders (and they probably are), they stem from their time in Oakland when they had the lowest revenues of any team. The move to LV was meant to rectify that - and it will - but it’s possible that they have not been there long enough to build up cash reserves. Paying out Gruden certainly was a hit to them, plus guarantees for Adams, Carr, Jones, etc. Remember that fully guaranteed money in NFL contracts has to be escrowed at time of signing. That was why they could not keep Khalil Mack when they were in Oakland.

Long term this is definitely a concern. Successful OCs will always be in high demand for HC jobs and replacing them will always be more difficult than replacing DCs. As for where the blame for our crunch time struggles lies, it’s both Dorsey and Allen. The combination of the simplistic route trees/combinations and Allen locking into Diggs and Davis at those times is a killer. Defenses know which two receivers to worry about and they have a very good idea what routes they’ll be running. Their job couldn’t be much easier.

Heard a stat on NFL radio about this. They said that it was only the second time in the last 10 years that a QB trying to sneak the ball out of their own EZ fumbled it away for a defensive TD. The crazy thing was that the other time was also Josh Allen. Does anybody else remember that?

To the Bills when they host us in the playoffs 😎

I think that’s a very logical guess. Edmunds makes sense in that regard too (though he hasn’t gone through what Poyer has). He is looking for his payday and hasn’t gotten it while others have.

Can’t really delay the game past Sunday since the Bills play on Thursday. The NFL isn’t moving us and Detroit off of Thanksgiving.

Really dislike this weather forecast for the Bills. The Browns have been on the verge of firing their DC, Woods. He runs an antiquated Cover 3 scheme that is easily abused despite calls from players and staff to change to a more man heavy one. The weather might actually force him out of C-3 and into a better run defense. The good news is that their interior DL is awful. This is the game to run the ball inside. The bummer is that the Bills advantage in the passing game looks like it will be blunted by the weather.

Thanks for posting. I read up on a lot of salary cap and CBA stuff, but did not know about this.

That’s one opinion. I - like many here - would rather have the information. Often times it’s not too difficult to figure out what is happening. A couple very well informed posters here seem to have done that. But I don’t believe a lack of full picture is what is really bothering some people. I think their issue is that a Bills beat writer said that there is a problem with the team. True or not, they don’t want to hear that.

Respecting the people you are connected with keeps you well connected. He probably said all he could at this time without damaging some of those relationships. He gave us what he could when he could.

Agree on all points. Nice list. If this is a bad weather game the good news is that Cleveland is the right team to find your running game against. The bad news is that they’re the wrong team against whom to defend the run. The Bills should win, but they need to take care of the ball.

I think a LB was in the throwing lane.

Agree on both. Peterson had position even if Davis would have flattened the route or tried to come back. The throw had to be high and left so only Davis had a chance. No reason to place it where he did. The correct read was Morris who was wide open. @Reed83HOF mentioned Josh focusing on the two receivers he trusts in crunch time. It makes sense that he only looked for Diggs and Davis and tried to force it to one of them.

Last I heard the police were still dragging their feet and the girl’s lawyer was suing to get their findings released to the public.