Shaw66

Maybe. I didn't see much passion in Hardknocks.

Pretty simple. I drive 400 miles, each way, to go to games. I'm 78 years old. Prudence suggests that at some point that travel just isn't a good idea. On top of that, I moved up to Club seats a few years ago, and I'm spoiled. Comparable seats in the new stadium come with a $20,000 seat license. Now, if I thought I'd be going to games for the next ten years or more, I'd probably do it, but there's no way I'm driving to Buffalo ten years from now. So, it's a combination of age and price.

No. I didn't say McDermott will have the right thing to say. McDermott plans everything, including planning to set what he believes is the proper tone to get his team to compete as well as he can. He may fail at it, but he does it. Levy said, essentially, that he didn't think that was his responsibility. He dialed up the Xs and Os, but he expected his players to get themselves ready.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the Bills for the past year. A different kind of thinking. It used to be that one season would end, and then the focus was on building the team for the next season. My thinking was season to season. This year I’ve been thinking more about the history of the Bills, the bigger picture. What is this team in the bigger story about a franchise and where it’s been. As a result, I’ve been less invested in who the free agents actually were and what they might or might not turn out to be. Same with the drafted players. In my mind, everyone is wait and see until the real games happen. Yes, I know there are reasons to expect one thing or another from each, but I just have been very interested in studying all that. Maybe I’ve been thinking about the big picture because it’s the end of my era. I’ve been a Bills fan since 1960, I went to the first game ever at the stadium in 1973, and I plan to be at the last one, sometime deep into January. It will be my last season with season tickets. I’ve been thinking, for example, about what how big this season is for one of the most memorable runs in Bills history, as memorable in many ways as the Kelly-Smith era. This is a team that has accomplished so much, more than any team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl, for sure. The Bills have been good so great by so many measures. If the Bills actually go on to win the Super Bowl in the 2025-26 season, as so many observers think is a good bet, it would be both a climax of a great story and the beginning of what could be a period of true dominance, a Chiefs-like dominance. On the other hand, if the Bills don’t win the AFC Championship, the season will be remarkable because a good team was once again unable to get it done. A good team like in the Kelly-Smith era. So, how do I feel about the Bills as the season is about to begin? Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I know that over the course of training camp and preseason I didn’t see much of anything that said, “this is a great team.” On the other hand, we saw so little of the starters, it was hard to develop much of an impression. I’m concerned about the secondary, with the Bills down for a while to Benford and several guys who present questions as well as answers. I’m hopeful about the front four, because there seems to be real depth from which a few quality guys should emerge. I expect Josh to take it to yet another level. I have stuck in my head the images in Hardknocks that showed the evolution of Josh’s throwing motion. I think the same kind of improvement has happened, still is happening, in his mindset, his game management, his decision making. I think this is the first season when we’re going to see Josh Allen fully in command, the way fans came to see Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, and Mahomes. Josh and Shakir already have a solid connection, thrower to receiver, and it was clear to me that Josh and Coleman worked hard and had serious success getting together this summer. The others will eat. The offensive line is ready, with some decent depth, and I expect more out of Davis this year, giving the Bills a truly versatile three-man committee at running back. It’s a team that could be good. I’d love it. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

You know, that's really funny! It is such a great point. I guarantee that when they get there, McDermott will have something better to say. Guaranteed.

I hate to speak ill of the living, but I've always put it on Levy. Sometime in the aftermath of XXV, Levy was asked something like, "In hindsight, if you had it to do over again, would you have done more to get the team emotionally prepared for the game." He said something like, "these men are professionals, and they don't need me to get them emotionally prepared." I think the Giants were emotionally prepared, because they had Parcells and Belichick. I think the Bills were not prepared like that, because Levy didn't think it was necessary. In the same situation, McDermott certainly will take an active role, be the leader of the team, and have his players prepared in all manners.

Thanks for posting this. Interesting to see these guy in that setting, talking comfortably. Gives a good sense of what they're like together, how they do their jobs. Interesting.

Needed to change the ball to the other hand and use a stiff arm.

In his press conference, they asked Phillips about coming back with Poyer. Reading between the lines, he implied Poyer came back to teach. He said he will teach, but he came back to play.

This is really good but I don't think it's completely correct. What you are correct about is that sometimes when these guys are called on to play, they can be liabilities. Where you're incorrect is when you say the reason those guys get signed is because McDermott and Beane know them, in the sense that they're bringing their buddies back. That is not why these guys get signed. McDermott has things that he values above everything else. Not in any order, but they are teamwork, competitiveness, continuous improvement, growth mindset. He dislikes above almost everything failure to execute a play as designed. Notice that all these people we're talking about are on the defense. That's because McDermott's defensive philosophy is an integrated team philosophy. The defense has to work as a unit, and when it works as a unit, he believes it can be most effective. It's a human machine. Working as a unit means each player does his job and relies on the other 10 to do theirs. When one guy doesn't do his job, when he makes the wrong read, takes the wrong first step, doesn't drop properly into his zone, whatever, then the machine malfunctions. If a guy does his job but simply isn't quick enough to play the position really well, McDermott is okay with that, because the machine is still functioning properly, just not at peak effectiveness. (Notice that the Bills don't do this on offense, at least not at the skill positions. Gabe Davis came in for a talk, but the Bills didn't sign him. What wideouts have to know to fit into the offense is much easier for a stranger to the system to execute, so the Bills didn't value his experience. Davis was like Hyde, White, Poyer, Phillips - a multi-year starter in this system, but that just isn't as important on offense than defense.) It isn't easy for players to learn their roles in this defense and execute them regularly. That's why we see so few rookies start in this defense. Benford got rookie playing time out of necessity. Bernard barely saw the field. Because it isn't easy to execute the defense, when the Bills need a defender on an emergency basis, the best guy available from the Bills' point of view is a guy who's already done it. That's why White and Jackson and Lewis and Phillips and Poyer and others. On top of that, as others have pointed out McBeane want those guys because they can help the young players get up the learning curve faster, which means that a talented guy may be able to get on the field faster. We've heard, and we saw on Hardknocks, that White was spending a lot of time with Hairston at training camp. White understood that if he could actually play, the Bills would be happy about it, but whether he could play or not, he had an important role getting Hairston up to speed. So, yes, McDermott and Beane know these guys they sign, but they don't sign them because they know them. They sign them because the guys they've had on the team before know how McDermott wants them to play and have shown they can do it.

I wasn't talking about guys on the team. I was talking about players who were free agents around the league, guys who had been starters and were clearly better, athletically, than guys the Bills were playing or had on the practice squad. McDermott doesn't want guys who execute their assignments 95% of the time, even if they're superb athletes. Kair Elam was one on the roster and better physically than guys who were playing.

Yes. Every season, McDermott takes another run at proving this point. I didn't watch Poyer at all last season, but so many people around here say that he simply no longer could compete physically. Assuming that's true, then Poyer is the best example ever. Cam Lewis, Levi Wallace, Dane Jackson, Klein - there's a long list of excellent scheme players with limited athleticism who were on the field ahead of better athletes.

One thing is abundantly clear about McDermott: He will take decision-making over athleticism every time. Every time. McDermott wants the guy who reads and reacts correctly on every play. If he's a half-step late getting to where he needs to be, McDermott will live with it.

My oh my.

Well, yes, it is, but that's football. Almost every season with almost every team, there are injuries or other events that disrupt the lineup. It truly is "next man up" and keep going. Happens every season. Also, we tend to think these things are bigger crises than they are. It's a team game, 11 guys on the field, and if one goes down, yes, the substitute isn't as good, but from a team perspective, life goes on. For one thing, the other team is having its own injury events, so matchup-wise, these things even out. More importantly, other than the QB, any particular guy just isn't that important. I've often told the story about hearing Colin Cowherd talking about JJ Watt. One year in his prime, best defensive player in the league, was injured and questionable for the upcoming game. Cowherd asked a Las Vegas odds maker what impact Watt's absence would have on the spread. The answer: One half point. One half point for the defensive player of the year. Bills will survive this.

I wouldn't know it even if I saw the all-22, but that's very much what it looked like. Their qbs could complete the underneath throws over and over. DBs may have looked too deep, but at least they were in the picture. Underneath defenders sometimes weren't even on the screen.

Thanks. I'm sorry to hear that, for White's sake, but glad to hear that I'm not imagining things. My time playing team sports is decades in the past, but one thing I remember is how much I was focused on the game, how much my brain is fully occupied to the actual play. The idea of doing much of anything else was dismissed as impossible. In some ways, it's the height of brain activity, with eyes and ears and your nerves operating at full speed, and your brain processing it and deciding how to respond and then sending messages out to all of the muscles. I think it would be impossible for all of that to happen every play if between each play I slowed my brain down to the point where I was approaching sleep and needed more oxygen just to stay awake. The play itself is a high-adrenalin affair, and sleep is definitely a no-adrenalin state. If he really is that calm between plays, he's not actively preparing for the next play. He's not paying attention to his own body, not paying attention to the body language of his teammates and his opponents, and not actively managing his team. He's listening to his coach on the headset. Essentially what it suggests is that he has to concentrate so hard on receiving the play call and then executing it that he shuts out everything else. I have no idea whether that's where White's head actually is, but that's what the yawn said to me.

These guys really stood out. Bishop. I wasn't just the touchdown; it was on one or two earlier plays, too. Off the ball, late to react, no closing speed. He is no place close to ready. Moore. Oh, I've been so hoping he'd make an impact, waiting for him to show something special. Instead, he looked like just another joe, and then the drop. I'm ready to let him go and put Shavers on the 53. White. Maybe it was the camera angle, or some other quirk in how the picture looked to me, but I could sworn that while he was on the field, the actual quarterback on the field, White yawned between plays. Whether he did or not, that summed up how a feel about White. Total lack of energy. He seems to be working so hard to be steady, no highs and lows, that he's actually numb to what's going on out there. He seems to think executing is knowing what to do and then going through the motions to do it. Trubisky has some passion and some brains. He's my guy now. Van Demark. Sorry, the false starts were just unbelievable. Two or three years on the team (whatever) and he doesn't know how to get off on a silent count? I watched only the first half. Best thing I saw, by far, was Dorian Williams playing like he was on fire. Everyone else seemed to be sleepwalking, and Williams was playing with passion.

Love these! Thanks!

This is funny to the old timers, but it's been so long it isn't surprising that people never learned the historic terminology, or forget. FL is for flanker. The history helps make it clear. In the 30s, I believe, most teams ran a single wing offense, with seven men lined up tight - essentially two tight ends. Those guys on the outside of the tackle were called ends. In the backfield there were four backs in some formation, and the guy who received the snap was in a short shot-gun formation. It was a running offense, with the ball carry following a convoy of three backs blocking ahead of him. Both ends were what we would call tight ends. They never were wide. Then in the 40s, somebody invented the T formation, with the QB under center and three running backs, a fullback and two half backs. They began throwing more regularly to the ends out of that formation. Eventually, someone figured out that it would be easier for the end to get open if he split away from the tackle - that is, to get wider but still on the line. Initially, both ends were still called ends on the roster, but if one split wide, then in that formation he was called a split end. They never split two ends, just one, I think because they always wanted the sixth man blocking on the line. Then someone realized that if one guy could open by being out wide, another guy out wide on the other side would be that much better. But they wanted to keep one end in, so they took one of the halfbacks and split him wide. He couldn't line up on the line because that would cover the end and make him ineligible. So, they said the halfback was "on the flank," meaning he was at the outside of the formation. Hence, a "flanker." A lot of times, the flanker was just one of the two halfbacks lined up wide. You had guys like Lenny Moore, who was a devastating ball carrier, and he was probably better when he lined up as the flanker. That is, you had more guys like Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey. But eventually, the flankers became more specialized as just receivers, and they were generally a speedster. Why? Because coaches still wanted the end to line up tight sometimes to support the run. So, split ends generally were bigger and tougher and slower than flankers. So, the routes they ran were different. Over time, of course, the split ends and flankers became interchangeable in the offense, sometimes even lining up with the split end wide and the flanker in the slot. That was revolutionary. But as they became interchangeable, they dropped their historic titles of end and flanker and both became simply wideouts. WR is a position like Edge. After a while, nobody cared whether a guy was technically a flanker or a split end, just like nobody cares much now whether in the guy is a defensive end or a linebacker. When Lionel Taylor was playing, it was unusual that he played both split end and flanker. That alone denotes that he was an exceptional player. In the fifties, most every team was splitting an end to one side and flanker to the other, so that end changed on the roster to a "split end." In those days, the split end would line up on the same side every play, and flanker would line up every time on the other side.

I noticed this quote from the article about the Bills on the Bills website; Now, of course the Bills wrote it to promote certain ideas. Who knows if those are exactly his words? But even discounting for the fact that the Bills have presented whatever he said in the best possible late, it's still an important statement about the Bills culture. We've heard it before, of course, but McDermott intentionally built a culture that is powerful, a team-first culture. There seem to be differing views about whether the Bills overpaid, but even if they did, they got Cook for less than the highest bidder would have paid, and for less than Cook wanted. In that sense, there was a hometown discount. And the other guys who extended earlier this year all took less than they likely would have gotten in the market. Beane keeps signing quality players at discounts, so what does he do with the savings? He generally tries to get other guys at discounts, guys like Bosa and Hoecht and others. He doesn't bundle it to buy the really high-priced talent, the top ten receiver or edge. It's just not their style. The question is whether the team mentality that Cook is talking about creates an advantage in big games, the kind of advantage that an all-pro skill position guy gives his team.

But he had a great debut as a Bill. The Bills scored 20 points in the fourth quarter to beat the Jets 20 to 17, and Powell had two TD receptions.

And then Otis Taylor showed up. Some special guys.

Great video! The speed and power of those athletes is amazing. And as someone said, Lofton running with them. Great stuff.

The old timers remember Lionel Taylor. Dead at 89. Awesome receiver for the Broncos in the AFL. First receiver in history with 100 receptions in a season, a number that was almost inconceivable in that era. He was as close to unstoppable as you can get. There was a story about him that may or may not be true, but at the time he was about the only receiver in pro football who could have done it. Story was that in one AFL game, on each play when he came to the line of scrimmage, he told the DB across from him what route he was running. Caught something like 11 passes in the game! He just abused defenders. RIP