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I'm surprised they brought him in after what I've read/heard about him. Takes plays off, not the greatest teammate, etc. But, I'm assuming they're offering a one-year deal with plans to have him chip in over the last half of the season here and then move on in 2019. He hasn't gotten many looks elsewhere so this might be his only option.

Are they? I'm not sure if I've ever made that connection. Rex has always been more of a blowhard type of guy to me while Hue seems to always come across like he's clueless.Some guys peak with a coordinator position and maybe Hue gets a chance to be an OC somewhere else but who knows. And Rex was a good DC back in the day, his defense has long since been figured out and doesn't confuse opponents the way it used to and that friggin' meathead is too stubborn to ever adjust cause, "Mah daddy won a Super Bowl with this defense!" Yeah? That's cool but it's not 1986 anymore, dinkus.

Welp, that answers the question posed in the "Who gets fired first?" thread. Adios, Hue. 3-36-1 in his two and a half seasons with the Browns. Woof. The rumor has always been that Hue was the guy Whaley wanted before they hired Rex. At the time, I thought Hue would've been the better hire. Many people felt he did a lot with a bad Raiders team in 2011 and his skills as an OC have always been respected. But now that we've seen what he did when given time... I guess maybe Rex was the better choice? Check that... I still think I would've gone with Hue because word had it was that when he interviewed he said he would keep Jim Schwartz and focus on offense. Ah well, hindsight. Wonder where he'll end up...

Yeah, I like Barkley and I understood their reasoning in taking him and hanging onto Eli. At least with the Bills, they more or less said this season would be a tough one as they bring along the youth movement and get those guys experience. The Giants though, I feel for that fan-base because management essentially sent out the message that they were ready to win now and Barkley was that missing link to finally get them over the hump. And now that the season has turned into a disaster, they're backpedaling and starting to gut the roster as they prepare for a full-on rebuild next season. So, while this Bills season has been rough, at least we knew that going into it. The Giants tried to sell hope and the "we can win now" BS. Contrary to popular belief, there are some teams out there that are just as much of a mess as the Bills, what's more, some of those teams did not start this season with plans on rebuilding and now they're scrambling. At least we know the Bills have a direction and a plan... just gonna have to wait it out to see how well they can execute it.

I don't think this will be anything like the 56-10 debacle that happened in '07. Against Indy, they were trying a number of different things on defense, I'm not sure exactly what their end goal was, maybe to see how certain players played in certain spots with certain calls, I dunno. But, this defense usually bounces back after a rough outing. Every time they "get back to basics" or do whatever they gotta do, the defense usually shows up. The problem though, is that the offense is gonna be poop on a stick and the defense will be out there most of the night. Hopefully not, though. New England's defense isn't the best right now and I think a rascally old vet like Anderson can lead a few scoring drives. Hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. What they can't do is have another major blowout. Those are demoralizing to a team and like McDermott said last week, he wants the team to feel the losses, not just get used to them and subsequently tune out for the remainder of the season. Another blowout and guys are gonna start to do just that, they'll tune out, start playing safe in order to stay healthy, especially guys in contract years. I don't care if they lose, just show me some competitiveness, score some friggin' points, get some turnovers, etc. They need to have some splash plays just to get their confidence up and who better to get a pick or a turnover from than ol' Timmy. Again, I don't care if they lose, this season isn't really about the wins. Just don't lose so terribly. Ya know, I bet they give us one of those "gotcha" games where they actually play a really tight game all around, they mostly shut down Brady, get a few turnovers, convert them to points, head into the 4th quarter with a 17-6 lead and then watch it dwindle away as the Pats score early in the 4th to make it 17-13 and then they score again in the final minute to put the game away 20-17, lol.

Right you are. It's just such a different style they play in college, offensively anyway. And it affects numerous teams. I watched a bunch of different games yesterday and there were OL breakdowns all over the place, especially if the OL had more younger players than veterans. Teams like the Rams, Pats, Packers, etc. all have OLs comprised of mainly veteran players which is why they're usually successful. Most teams have a mix of vets and younger guys and it just takes time to gel and become a unit that's all on the same page.

Dirk Koetter in Tampa Bay. Giants are said to be considering a full rebuild so Shurmur might stick around if they want him to lead the way.

Yikes. That's the exact combination one has to use to unlock Fitzmagic.

Makes no sense when I see people calling for trades on the good players this team has. Just because they're in a rebuild doesn't mean they're going to get rid of every single veteran on the team. There are a number of veteran guys that are firmly locked in for their future plans and Hughes is one of them. DL is one of the groups that's rounding out into a really good unit. They've built that. Why remove a cornerstone of it? I dunno, I understand people get frustrated and wanna "blow it all up" but there is a plan in place despite things looking like chaos at the moment. Injuries and some underachievers have derailed things a bit but that stuff happens. Hitting "reset" in the middle of a reset just guarantees a longer time until they're competitive again. They finally decided to tear it all down and run a true rebuild, which so many have wanted, here we are halfway through the year and so many people wanna throw in the towel. Not gonna happen. Pegulas trust these guys and they all knew 2018 would be a rough one. But they've said they're mostly done with trimming the roster, now it's about adding to where they need to upgrade whether that's through trade, FA or the draft and developing things. Obviously they'll still sign and cut players as usual but I'm pretty sure they have their foundation and now they wanna start building the house.

Was Jameis stinkin' up the joint or is it because they're down by 18 and don't wanna risk the starter getting hurt?

Beane and McDermott report directly to the Pegulas and communicate with them regularly. The Pegulas are giving them room to do their work and giving the green light on the decisions these guys wanna make. They trust them. And if you're referring to when they first took over as owners, they spoke with Bill Polian who says an offer was made (Pegulas say there was not) and then later moved on from the idea. I'm sure they've shifted some personnel around internally to replace Brandon.

He hasn't really played much better or different, for that matter. He's experiencing a lot of the same issues Allen is, difficulty/inexperience reading/adjusting to coverages, spotty OL play leading to sacks or bailing on the pocket, inaccurate throws, etc. He's having a rough go of it as well. And your assessment that the WRs are better and the TEs are a push is off... I'd say the receivers can be a push when Jets have their main guys healthy and Clay is better than Seferian-Jenkins.

The Jets. Worse WR group, worse RB group, no TEs...yeah, they're in rough shape. A lot of these teams with young QBs have a lot of building today.

Nice, thanks

I keep trying to find the throws the kid made in the Texans game. He looked like he was making some progress on that game in terms of getting rid of it on time and accurately. On the play he was injured he zipped one into a tight window to KB. I think he also had a very nice on time throw to Clay. There was also that improvised play where he hit KB for what would've been a 45 yard gain had it not been for a illegal frickin' procedure penalty. I'm sure I could find this stuff thru the All 22 videos but I'm not trying to pay a subscription fee just to see a few throws. And I know of @YardsPerPass on Twitter, he does a lot of play by play breakdowns on his feed but hasn't been active in a few weeks. Cover1 is another dude I follow but I didn't see anything on his blog. Just wondering if anyone can point me in that direction. Go Bills.

Exactly. And even as of late I've seen people saying they should've kept Brown and drafted an offensive player over Edmunds. I think Brown is a decent LB but he doesn't have the athleticism to regularly run with RBs or TEs which is something McDermott's system asks for from the linebackers. I think they definitely see a "do it all" player in Edmunds.

Loaded question, no win scenario. Take Ridley and everyone shifts gears to, "OMG, they neglected the linebackers AGAIN! This team is gonna get gashed for billions of run yards this season! Milano was a fluke, Alexander is ancient, fire McBeane!!!" Take Edmunds and we get what we got now, "This team neglected the receiver group!" Can't fix it all in one draft or one off-season. The path to success is never a straight line. And yes, this kid is gonna be a good one. Aside from typical rookie mistakes he's made, all the talk on him from coaches to teammates has been overwhelmingly positive. "He doesn't make the same mistake twice," "He's a Hall of Famer," (obviously it's a bit early to be calling that but one of his teammates, I think Tre' White actually, was that psyched about him) etc. etc. I think he's only gonna get better. He's leading in tackles, he's forced two or three fumbles, broke up a few passes. He pops up in some fashion during every game, soon hopefully those flashes will be big time plays like sacks and picks.

Yep. He definitely fits the description of "grizzled vet."

Don't expect a turn-around this season, but long-term, yeah, I have confidence these guys can do it. Gotta give them time. Everyone wants to dog this regime and kick them out while they're in the middle of the exact thing another new regime would be doing. We wanna quit on this rebuild so another regime can come in and do a rebuild of the rebuild? Perpetually hiring a new staff every other year is a surefire way to stay in the basement for the foreseeable future.

"I'll be right with you guys," then he grabbed the remaining items in his locker and walked out. Hasn't been heard from since lol.

No doubt, I agree with your take on Tate. He would definitely be helpful but I just don't know if Beane would wanna spend big money (he'd demand a solid contract, as he should, he's earned it) on a guy that doesn't figure into their long-term plans. But perhaps they might feel the same as you and think it's worth it to bring him in for the things the WR group can learn from him. They're gonna need to look at guys who are really good at adjusting to oddly-placed throws. It's gonna take Allen some time to dial in that accuracy and that was one reason a lot of people felt Tanner Gentry would've been a decent pick up as one of his standout traits in college was his ability to adjust on the fly to an inaccurate throw from Allen. Tyrell Williams would be nice, big and fast. He keeps balling out like he did last week, though, and he's gonna have teams in a bidding war for him. The list of FA's as it is now is gonna look a lot different by the time FA actually starts, though. Not only will we see players receive extensions to stay with the same team, but we'll also see cap casualties and other cuts. Definitely should be one of the more active off-seasons for this team.

The dude is quite the weasel-turd, IMO. Given your nickname for him, I imagine you feel the same.

So I wanna see Jerry Hughes not get a lifetime ban, man!

Yarp. I truly think that McD got a recommendation straight from Reid on Culley. That's the only reason I can see as to why the guy is here coaching the kid they believe is their franchise guy. He must be good at something considering Reid kept him on his staff in Philly for 12 seasons and then brought him on board in KC for four more. I admit though, I'm not a big fan. I think this is one area where they needed to be looking at younger assistant coaches that are digging into the future of football. I woulda been going after the DeFilippo guy. He turned Wentz into a beast and is doing good things with Cousins right now. Of course he would've taken an OC job over a QB coach job, though. I dunno, maybe in the off-season they should try to pluck someone off of McVay's staff or something. I understand what McDermott wants the foundation of this team to be, strong defense, solid run game, a QB who can make a big play now and that's fine, that formula does work. But with the direction the game is headed, I just feel like it'd be really beneficial to have one of these younger, up and coming coaches that have been able to blend elements of the college schemes these QBs know so well while also familiarizing them with pro concepts.

Doh! Called out on the face-planting. Last time I even came close to eating dirt like that was when I got so psyched up seeing Dalton hit Boyd for that TD that sent our boys to the playoffs. Ran up and down my hallway and caught my foot on a rug and almost bit it. I'll take an injury in celebration over an injury in despair any day, though!