Rochesterfan

That might be true, but maybe right now - no one wants to trade for much of anything. The Jags have a few options, but the trade can not happen until he signs. Right now seems to make the most sense for the Jags because you get a 2020 pick and you free up the cash. It also makes sense for other teams as they can get him resigned to a long term contract, but teams are reluctant until after seeing what they can get in the draft. If it drags to the summer - teams will be unable to resign him and you get another Clowney situation. I think ideally Jacksonville would have already made the trade, but reports are many teams are reluctant to trade for the high draft pick because of the draft capital and then the money needed to get a deal done. I also think Jacksonville is not really looking to 2020 and may be more focused on 2021 and they may not mind some extra draft capital next year with Lawerence and most likely a whole new staff.

The franchise tag was designed to allow teams to keep players and sometimes potentially work on contract extensions. There was never any rule designating how or when it could be used. The Bills used this tactic to trade Peerless Price way back in the early 2000’s - as a matter of fact it is a very common usage of the franchise tag. If it was such an issue - why did the players agree to it again. The NFL moved on THC, but the NFLPA left he franchise tag in place. Therefore - don’t blame the Jaguars for protecting their investment - this was part of the CBA and Yannick has choices, but those are bargained for and he is still a Jaguar and not a FA. It is Yannick’s right to walk away, but that involves sitting out a year and he has that choice. Other than that this is no different than any player that is under contract and no longer wants to be on that team.

You would be correct if he was a free agent, but the NFLPA agreed (and left it in he newer agreement) that teams are allowed to designate one player as a franchise player/transitional player and pay them a 1 year salary commiserate with that designation. The team has the option to do that for a couple of years to give them and the player a chance to work things out. If he wants to go (and he has made that clear) then he has limited his own choices at this point. The Jags have said they will move him for fair market value and they have not received that offer. Yannick is now making it harder to reach that - so it becomes less likely the team trades him - which is the point of the twitter battle.

The franchise tag is perfectly fair. If the players wanted it out - they should have negotiated it out of the CBA. The Jaguars are using it exactly as they should - they have an asset they want to keep and have put a tag on that asset. Yannick now has his options. He can sign and be one of he highest paid players or he can hold out. If he wants to be traded - that is fine, but he will have to sign prior to he trade. If he wants to tweet crap about how unfair everything is - then he can do that, but if that makes his trade value drop and the Jaguars decide it is not worth it - then that is on Yannick for causing his own situation.

He is not being held hostage. He is in the NFLPA correct? The league and the NFLPA agreed to the rules. Yannick has options - he is not the hostage. He has the ability to sign the deal and take 20 million this year. He also can not sign and wait it out for no pay and try again next year. He can also wait like some players and sign just prior to the trade. The things he cannot do - sign elsewhere or be traded until he signs the tender. The Jaguars are following what they are allowed to do and are trying to get fair compensation and Yannick wants out. The Khan kid is just saying if you would be quiet it would make things easier. If we do not get fair compensation then Yannick's options are more limited because the Jags do not have to trade him at all. In fact they have the option of doing this for several years - ala Kirk Cousins. This is part of the conditions of employment and Yannick is not a FA - the Jaguars hold his rights via a collective bargained agreement. He is not a hostage - he is sitting with several options all of which pay him well. What the tweet suggests is that if he really wants out - shut your pie hole and we can get a deal done - that includes the Jaguars wanting to offer him a new contract. They will pursue options, but if he tanks his value - there is less chance of a trade and a higher percentage chance he has to sit out some or all of the year. Him being held there because of rules agreed to be the players (and re-agreed to in this last agreement) doesn’t make him a hostage. If he wants to leave - let hem know and shut up so that you can get out. He has not only tanked his value, but limited the number of potential landing spots. Therefore - all he has done so far is increase the likelihood that he will have to dress as a Jaguar this year.

I think this is a huge and misjudged piece to the puzzle. Many teams rush outside guys wide to keep Josh in the pocket - putting them in good position to diagnose screens. They also use LB spy’s on Josh - meaning more guys are looking in the backfield, which helps diagnose screens. Additionally you get some teams like NE playing tight Man coverage that disrupts the screen game as WRs aren’t getting free off the line. The Bills tried to switch some things up by moving to middle screens to combat some of the rush techniques, but the spies worked to blow some of that up as well. The timing also needs to be better, but I think they are hampered by other things as well.

I really disagree with this assessment because you are using total yards gained which makes no sense. First - as a Rookie this regime has shown that it brings them along slowly to prevent them from hitting a huge rookie wall. Most rookies they platoon time with and allow them more time later in the season as they have adjusted. Second - He missed 4 games out of an abundance of caution - so why are we comparing apples and oranges. Singletary was just fine on a per touch basis and that negates your low production claim. Those numbers will increase as a 2nd year player and they give him more time and more touches. If they do draft a RB again this year - I would expect similar to Singletary- they will use the rookie very sparingly- especially early in the year and he will not put up number much better than what Singletary did last year. This is even more true if the rookie has trouble pass blocking - he will get used very sparingly after first down and people will complain about when and how he was used, but it is forced by design. The Bills built up Singletary’s touches and he had to prove he could pass block to get more third down plays and even then in big moments they preferred the veteran presence for protection.

I don’t disagree, but he is just doing his job - trying to draw attention and viewers. There was never any way this was about a player trade or transaction because he would get scooped if he waited. This was always about the league or Fox was given permission to break as part of FOX Sports. He is not out scooping anyone - which is why I thought it had to be related to a donation or grant of some kind to benefit COVID related issues. Something the league and Fox wanted out before the draft, but not something so pressing that it needed to be broken immediately. The most logical thing that fits that is that the League is doing something like a benefit or donation based on the draft to provide money - probably a nice donation to NYC and New Orleans as they have been ravaged.

This was exactly my thought as well. They will be donating money from the draft to COVID research and first responders/frontline medical staff.

I am thinking 100% the opposite as you. Maybe with a list of 5 FA guys at minimum left - several that will need a physical before we sign - we can wait - draft BPA and if we get a RB great and if not you still have options. Maybe if they get a guy in RD 2 or 3 as BPA - it impacts which FA you want. If you get a power guy like Dillion - maybe you don’t want Hyde or Crowell and Freeman becomes a choice. Maybe you get a speed back or a late 6-7 rd back and therefore you want Hyde. Maybe at each position of the Bills draft the BPA is not a RB and therefore they have to go to FA again. Signing a guy now could actually limit who you draft or keep them from drafting anyone. I think with the number of RBs available in FA still - we are not pigeon holed - it is the exact opposite- they are completely free to draft BPA and then see if a RB is in that group and then if needed pick up a complementary FA RB if needed.

It depends - why is he falling? That is a huge drop - so is he really BPA or just because some pre-draft manuals say he is top 10 talent - maybe the GMs really see him as the 60th best talent. The hardest part about BPA is we do not see how they have things set. If Tua was there at 54 and he was the Bills BPA and they are getting no trade requests - then I would have no issues with the Bills drafting him. More realistically from the QB ranks is the 7th or 8th best QB the BPA as that position is typically over drafted versus the number 7 CB or number 3/4 RB or the #11 WR?

My understanding is that a typical football game production crew is 2-3+ times larger than an NHL crew. Many more camera, sound, and graphics people to get shots and sounds lined up. More people in the truck looking at more feeds and cameras. There is more downtime and more info that has to be constantly updated - down, distance, score, time, quarter, players stats and bios. The amount of info is huge compared to an NHL game. Vince is a smart man and yes the ratings were in line or even above many predictions, but it did not sound like they were high enough that he was going to get a TV deal that paid him money to allow the league to break even or show a profit. He was funding the league at a large expected lost - hoping/planning that the numbers would allow the TV deal to come and cover the costs by year 3. The ratings are why the NHL struggles - the playoffs is where it makes it money. The only reason the NHL has a TV deal to begin with is that allowed the FSN regional channels to have something to broadcast. NBC loses money on the NHL during the regular season. I also expect the XFL to make a comeback - a bit smaller in the future and more likely a few more tweaks because it needs to drive viewers, but I do not think it is going to be a long term viable league unless it gets some support elsewhere with better players.

Yes it was a top ratings gather at a time nothing is on. The issue is production costs versus revenue generated. Does being a top 10 event in February with a 1.1 rating and under a million viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic equate to the networks being able to cover the cost of a huge crew going to these games to produce the product? My understanding is the revenue generated from those ratings are just in line with covering the production cost and although weeks 4 and 5 had settled to a consistent level - the next week was going to be start of March Madness - which would most likely push them even further down since they were on par with the top weekend college basketball games with little on the line. The money bet on March Madness would drive those numbers up and the XFL would fall a bit more. The XFL needed to do better or it was not going to get a money making deal from the networks. As it was - the XFL got a great deal compared to the AAF because Vince sold the rights to the #2 rated show (WWE) to Fox to hasten the XFL deal. I just do not see where the XFL was going to get a deal that made them money and in that case - the league had a 2 year window based on what Vince pulled out of stock. I enjoyed some games, but most games I would watch a few minutes while doing other things it just did not keep me engaged.

Well a quick search showed that week 7 of last year the late second game of NO/Chi drew 23.1 million viewers for a 13.3 share on Fox. The 2 early Sunday games drew and average of 12 million for a >7.5 share. Heck even college games like LSU/Florida on ESPN on Saturday drew a 6.5 share - so about 10 million viewer - beating things like the MLB post season game 1 of the ALCS on a major network (Fox). So based on my reckoning- a typical Sunday afternoon game draws about 23 times the viewers of the XFL and less important early games draw a minimum of 10X the viewers. The “special” games - Monday, Thursday, and Sunday night all draw similar to the late double header games or slightly less. Hence why the NFL has a huge TV contract and the XFL got nothing from TV. These numbers are why the NFL is king. You see huge numbers of viewers and even competing against MLB playoffs - the NFL blows it out of the water with many Sunday World Series games drawing 2.0 shares versus 13 shares for a regular season Sunday night game.

Agreed - do not want to take away from the other discussion. I will just say in studying the other Coronaviruses - there seem to be a lot of good epitope and target sites, but few that seem to produce strong, long term antibody reactions in humans. The immune response to the various Coronaviruses that cause the cold seems very small, limited, and they don’t last long. Minor mutations allow it to come back year over year and make the same people sick even within the same yearly cycle. This is with lots of live virus invading the body time and time again. I hope they find a vaccine that produces a good, powerful response and provides long lasting immunity - I just think that if the human body has not adapted to this virus to make antibodies in all of the years that the cold has been around and people have been infected and reinfected - the vaccine is going to be limited in its effectiveness also. I think many trials will show some good signs, but like the flu vaccine - it will be very limited in its overall effectiveness and will really be useful to lessen the symptoms and help you feel better sooner - which is not a bad thing, but is not what most people think about with a vaccine. For example in this scenario presented by the OP - my feeling is the vaccine is not going to keep people from getting sick or spreading the virus - it will just make most people recover a bit faster and hopefully prevent what we are seeing in Italy, Spain, and NYC as a high concentration of cases. Therefore, to me the vaccine would have little impact on my decision to attend the game with loads of other people. I also think that a lot more people have been positive than the numbers suggest, but because of a lack of testing early and many more mild forms - they were missed, which is where the Ab testing would be great right about now. Then we can see who has been infected and what kind of levels of ABs people have (which would help greatly with determining the effectiveness of the vaccine) and can tell us whether reinfection is likely and how cyclical this will be. I am so curious from an epidemiological point of view to see this type of info.

The ratings were decent 1 to 1.5 shares - better than most other things on. The problem was always cost associated with producing and filming football games. The articles talking about both the AAF and the XFL talked about needing a minimum of 2.0 shares just to break even. If the XFL was going to get a network contract that paid them money - they needed average network shares of between 2.5 and 3.0. The AAF was even worse because they were covering some of the network costs also. The attendance was good in a few markets (St. Louis and Seattle mainly), but very poor in most other markets and the product suffered from the stadium size and lack of fans. The attendance numbers were not even enough to cover the stadium rental agreements in many cases. Vince supposedly set aside enough money to keep it afloat a minimum of 2 years and maybe a third knowing that he was going to lose huge amounts of money the first 2 years. The hope seemed to be especially after the initial weekend that they could get and maintain enough viewership to renegotiate the deal and make some TV money. The ratings at the end (before March madness took even more viewers) had dropped to levels that were break even for the network - I think Vince knew he was not getting the TV deal anytime soon. Now if they had been smart and opted to have the teams play in towns close together in the Midwest (St. Louis, OKC, Indy, Memphis, Louisville, etc.) - they could of saved on travel, used smaller stadiums, and created more of a college vibe - like you saw in St. Louis, but the TV stations want big markets: LA, NY, Washington and those cities were failures for the most part.

Agreed - the issue then becomes mutations. The Coronavirus is tough to get a good handle on and the shape and nature make it that much harder to produce a vaccine that is both effective and provides longer term benefits.

I agree, but people talk like it will be the MMR vaccine - once immunized you will be safe forever. I think it will be more like the flu where you get benefits from it, but people can still get sick. Coronavirus already causes common repeat infections like the common cold - it will be interesting (and scary) to see where this goes. As I said - it wouldn’t necessarily stop me from going, but I understand why it would stop others. The vaccine is not the thing that would stop me from going or allow me going to a game. The infection rate and where we are nationally would determine my timing to go.

I would attend a game as long as the curve has been flattened enough that we are not going to overwhelm hospital. I am not overly worried as I work Int healthcare and see this and much worse on a daily basis. The fact is the only reason to social distance is just to slow the infection rate and that is working - the problem was always going to be having to many sick at one time. Based on how the common cold hits every year (usually another Coronavirus type) - I do not think a vaccine is going to be as effective as people think - much like how the flu vaccine changes yearly - I think the vaccine will help reduce duration and severity of the illness, but will not be effective at preventing the disease.

The vast majority of these XFL players are worse than UDFAs. You can not even begin to compare the XFL to the USFL or even NFL Europe! The USFL was actual NFL competition- so they signed many star level players - so of course when they folded there were many players that were NFL caliber and ready to start. NFL Europe was designed by the NFL before the PS and it was filled with NFL players that were young or developing - so again it made sense that many more would come out of that. The XFL was filled with guys that were below practice squad level players - it is more comparable to the Old Arena League that would occasionally have a player make it. The only way an off time league is going to be successful (as the AAF figured out) is if they are associated with the NFLPA and can bring in back-up and PS level players to grow and that they are funded by NFL pockets. If not the level of players is just not going to be good enough to make a dent. There was several good things about an innovative 2nd league, but without NFL support it is not going to be a success. I enjoyed a few games and love talking about the players, but many of the stars were guys that could not even stick as PS level NFL players.

How do you figure? Before the shutdown they were losing viewership week over week. The league was never going to survive without getting a paying TV contract and the stations were barely breaking even on the coverage. He realized after part of a season that this was a money losing proposition. Especially if he was going to need to pay more to get any talent back. The only reason it lasted longer than the AAFL was Vince got the big time coverage from FOX at the start for the rights to WWE. The fact that The stations were covering the XFL without charging Vince was a huge advantage the AAFL did not have and even with that advantage the XFL was hemorrhaging money because of travel and cost of venues. Vince said he was prepared to pay up for 2 seasons of loses, but the loses - along with other losses in WWE revenue- was more than he was willing to chance. I am not convinced there would have been a season 2 even if the pandemic had not happened. They had not yet lost viewership to the NCAA March madness or to things like the Masters. Agreed - I feel for the employees and staffers there and across the country. I enjoyed watching a few of the games - wish I could get my time back on a few others. Wish for the best for the employees.

The big reason I would disagree is the money Cooks gets. Now I know that LA paid a bunch, but man this guys is overpayed big time for what he provides. He is going to be a cut candidate shortly to get his salary back in line and now he is your cut candidate. In this draft - I would rather have a cost controlled 2nd round rookie that might need time to develop over a highly paid veteran than has not lived up to his hype in 3 other cities.

Come on @Chandler#81 - you know that Barkley has the strongest arm on the team - you just need to qualify it a bit. Barkley has the strongest arm on the Bills for a guy named Matt, that played at USC and on at least 5 other NFL teams, born on 9/8/90, drafted in the 4th round, and has a career TD to Int ratio of 1:2. Even then he just barely wins, but it proves he has the strongest arm - so we need to cut him some slack. ???

I don’t disagree Doc, but look at JuJu this year as a number 1 similar to what Zay was forced to do. Juju had little offensive help, bad QB play, and his numbers dropped to right Zay Jones 2018 levels. Yes he was injured a couple of games, but his averages per game were only slightly better than Zay’s. I look at JuJu last year and think that is what he would have been for the Bills if drafted instead of Zay. He would not have been the dynamic WR2 we saw in 2017 + 2018. It is harder to say with Kupp and Godwin because both are parts of WR corps that have at other top end WRs and in some cases multiple top options - allowing them to be more free. I tend to believe if like JuJu they were the lone WR threat - always drawing the #1 CB and potential double coverage and the QB was TT level - there numbers would drop just as JuJu’s did and people would look at these same guys differently. For example - let’s say that the Bills drafted JuJu and for the 3 years he put up numbers like last year on the Steelers (pretty reasonable for what he showed as a #1). He averages 40 catches and around 600 yards and 3 TDs. Then you compare that to Kupp and Godwin and everyone is complaining about how we missed on JuJu. In fact there is already discussion in Pittsburgh about trading and/or allowing JuJu to walk after this season because he is not a true number 1 WR. Of course the backside of that is what would Zay Jones have looked like if he had been drafted into any of those other teams. As a number 2 in Pittsburgh or TB with little pressure - could he have been a better player. I think the ultimate fit would have been Zay in LA rather than Kupp. Zay learning under Woods and getting to run routes out of the slot as a #3 option. I think his career would be different - not Kupp good, but better than we saw.

I can and with the bad QB play - lack of offensive talent - and lack of teaching at that position the first year or 2 - I can see us all standing here complaining about them being busts and wishing we had drafted the other guys still. Kupp, JuJu, and even Godwin went to teams where they were expected to be 2s and 3s with established veterans WRs, coaches that were open in the passing game, and QBs to deliver the ball. In Buffalo, they would have been on a team with TT throwing the ball and they would have been the #1 WR. Then a rookie QB drafted with a terrible o-line. They may have been better Zay, but I do not believe any of them are even half as good as they are on their current team. Situation matters and no WR in that draft was coming to Buffalo and succeeding- the offense was still 3 years away from developing.