HappyDays

I do worry that McDermott is like the proverbial RB that gets you 4 yards when you need 3, and 4 yards when you need 8. His baseline is clearly far better than anything we had in the drought years and he gets all the credit in the world for turning around a moribund franchise. Can he get us over the hump though? Every season that passes, the question grows more pressing. But as others have pointed out he is clearly still ranked too low on this list even from the most cynical perspective of his tenure here.

She actually did not. If you read the allegation to the letter, she accuses his teammates of raping her, not Araiza himself. She says he "threw her onto the bed" but never directly accuses him of participating in the alleged gang rape. Her attorney just used Araiza's name to draw attention to the complaint. But he chose his words very carefully.

He admitted to having sex with her but in California it is defensible if you believed the girl was at the age of consent. She didn't lie about Araiza possibly gang raping her. In fact she didn't even accuse him of that. That is a narrative the media chose to run with because that's the clickbait world we exist in now.

Why are you so keen on rooting for Arazia to be a rapist? That's what I don't understand about people in your camp.

I know he's had weight issues before but is it possibly just the angle and the perspective? He posted this picture from OTAs to his Instagram:

This is a "Josh Allen is newly single" tweet:

Did something maybe happen halfway through the season?

It's established at this point that Hopkins wants to play here. From Beane's public comments I suspect that he would love to have him here too. The issue is we can't afford it unless Arizona agrees to retain most of the salary. I'm hoping that as we approach the trade deadline both sides can figure something out. Jerry Jeudy is another trade deadline candidate to keep an eye on if Denver's season goes downhill quickly like I expect.

The media has access each Tuesday for the next three weeks so we'll get some reports. For Athletic subscribers Joe Buscaglia has a good breakdown of the storylines to watch:

I agree, he was excellent in both matchups that he had against Hill. Even the catches he gave up didn't come easy. It made me wonder why we didn't try more of that at other points in the season, especially against the Bengals. In Elam and Cook we drafted two players with unique (on our roster) skill sets and then barely used those skill sets. It was a rare case of the front office not being in lock step with the coaching staff.

We drafted a press man CB and never played press man. Will that change this year?

That's fair, but what my source told me lines up with the timeline and with every other report about Frazier leaving. If he was stealth fired or given an ultimatum, why the month long wait? Why didn't McDermott interview external candidates? The truth is McDermott was surprised to see Frazier walk away, not blindsided but surprised. Anyways Frazier was just running McDermott's scheme, he wasn't going rogue with his defensive philosophy. I did come out of the season thinking changes to the defense were coming but that would have been true whether Frazier stayed or not. I mean they pretty much HAVE TO change up the defense. So many consecutive failures in the playoffs is unacceptable, I'm sure McDermott knows that. But firing Frazier wasn't ever going to be the solution. The real change starts at the top.

I know for a fact, from a source, that it was entirely Frazier's decision. It was not a stealth firing as some have proposed, and his contract wasn't set to expire. McDermott wanted Frazier to stay, but he thought it over for a month and ultimately decided to take a year off from coaching. It's not unheard of that coaches will take a year off. The year long grind is in some ways even more grueling on the coaches than on the players. My unsourced belief is that if Frazier wanted to get back into the fold next year McDermott would welcome him back. Frazier does not currently have a team affiliation because he is currently not working with the Bills. That doesn't mean he is out forever. It's interesting that McDermott ended up taking over play calling duties and will be the de facto DC. I know that soon after Frazier's decision Bobby Babich Jr. was the front runner for the job. I don't know what changed. Perhaps McDermott decided enough is enough with the defensive crashes in the playoffs and decided he wants full control of the ship.

Beane has said Allen specifically told him he liked Kincaid. When Beane texted Allen right before making the pick to let him know he was taking Kincaid, Allen got so excited he blew up Beane's phone. So yes Allen loved the pick. This makes me especially excited about Kincaid because it shows that Allen will specifically look to throw him the ball. I have said elsewhere I believe Kincaid will immediately take over Beasley's role in this offense and will be fully up to speed by week 1 (he played in a pro offense at Utah). Allen loved using Beasley as his safety valve until his talent fell off a cliff, so much so that he walked into Beane's office and asked him to bring Beasley out of retirement just to give him somebody functional in that role last year. I'm sure he is very excited to have that type of player back in his offense after spending most of 2022 without it.

On young people not choosing football as much, two Bills draft picks from this year alone - Kincaid and Shorter - mentioned in interviews that their mothers forbid them from playing football when they were young, so they were late entrants to the sport. So that is certainly much more common these days. I don't know what the solution is.

I still don't expect Hopkins to be on the Cardinals for the full season. At this point I think he'll be the top trade deadline candidate. By then the Cards will be something like 2-7 with their eye on Caleb Williams. If Gabe Davis still doesn't look the part as the WR2 I could see us making an in-season "over the hump" move like this. That scenario probably makes the most sense for all involved parties to be honest. We save money on Hopkins and get him in time for our brutal stretch run, Arizona gets to save face because no one could blame them for offloading him in the middle of a lost season, Hopkins gets to join a contender as they approach the playoffs. Everybody wins.