SoTier

I think that if there's a push for an international team, it will be Mexico City rather than London simply for logistical reasons.

After decades of being on the receiving end of manure from Pats, Fins, and Jests fans because this franchise was so hopeless for so long, I revel in knowing that we have one of the very best organizations in the NFL that found a generational talent at QB. I don't get my jollies rubbing other teams' proverbial noses in poop on a MB. The Bills kicking butt during the season and playoffs is sweet enough revenge. Totally agree. IMO, Belichick wanted Jones because he thinks he can coach him into a facsimile of Brady. Maybe he can but he probably won't, but certainly Brady and Brees are examples of guys without rocket arms who are going to Canton on the first ballot. Unfortunately, QBs like Rodgers or Mahomes or Allen don't come along that often. That's why they're "generational talents". Mostly, the best a team can realistically hope for is getting a Russell Wilson or a Ben Roethlisberger or Drew Brees. They're great QBs but a team that finds a Rodgers, Mahomes or Allen has a horseshoe up its butt. For a team to get into the position to draft a top QB prospect when it needs one usually means having several circumstances to fall their way. The best QB in a draft class may very well not be the #1 overall pick. Rodgers (#24), Mahomes(#10) or Allen(#7) weren't the first QBs taken in their draft classes.

This "conversation" is simply a poor attempt to dump on Jones (and the Pats) and pretend it's not by making generalized statements about physical traits being supreme. That's nonsense. What makes Allen an elite NFL QB isn't his arm strength but all his "intangibles", especially his drive, his processing ability, his decision making. He came with the drive but he's had to work on his mechanics to improve his accuracy, he had to learn to read/recognize defenses, and he had to improve his decision making based on his experience. Guess what, most QBs who have come into the NFL with great arms have never improved nearly as much as Allen has, which is, again, why he's special. If Jones has as much drive and other intangibles as Allen, based off of his rookie season, Jones may very well become a successful NFL QB if he continues to work on his game. He won't be in Allen's level but there aren't many QBs who are.

Physical tools don't mean much without the ability to process information quickly and make good decisions. The history of the NFL is filled with highly drafted QBs with "elite physical tools" who crashed and burned on their inability to master the mental nuances of the pro game. Conversely, there are QBs with lesser tools who have successful careers because their ability to make plays because they make good decisions. Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, and Jimmy Garappolo are all examples of not the greatest physical tools that have been successful. If elite physical tools were so "huge", so many QBs with elite arms wouldn't fail in the NFL.

Agree with both main thoughts here. Jones reminds me of Brady as a first year starter in 2001. He wasn't that impressive except that he tended to make good decisions, especially for a QB with such limited experience (the game after Bledsoe got injured was his first NFL start). For several years after 2001, there were always debates on the old BBMB over whether Brady was a "system QB" or "a franchise QB". I guess we all found out he was for real. It wasn't Brady's arm strength that made him the GOAT any more than it's lack of arm strength that has sent Carson Wentz from Philly to Indy to Washington, DC. It's a combination of traits, but more than anything, it's decision making -- knowing when and where to throw the ball. Mahomes and Allen have shown they're truly special. Mahomes has shown that since his first game in 2017. Allen took a couple of years to develop because he was so raw when he came into the league. I think that the most likely candidates to join them on the podium are Watson, Herbert and Burrow although it's likely that not all of them -- or possibly none of them -- actually achieve the same status.

The premise of this thread is silly. Arm strength is only one factor that contributes to making a great QB just like speed is only one factor that makes a great WR. If arm strength was the most important thing, Jeff George would be in the HOF just as if speed was the key to making a great WR, none of the track stars drafted into the NFL over the last two decades would have crashed and burned instead of being rarities.

IMO, the posts related to this particular topic are a runaway April Fool's Day joke. That's why I didn't respond to the original post on Friday and I'm not responding to Poleshifter's preposterous postings in this thread since.

My point was simply that rising crime isn't unique to NYC as some posters seem to be claiming but a growing problem all over the country, and certainly violence isn't restricted to large cities or metros.

On the current Bills roster, "legitimate starters" have to be pretty good, especially on offense. This regime isn't going to draft a guard -- or WR or CB -- in the first round to be a JAG. They're looking for players, whatever their position, who are better than what they've got on the roster now and have the potential to be among the top players in the league at their position. Maybe there's nobody that's that caliber available when they pick, so they have to make the best of it. What I sure don't want to do is to pass on a super talented guard to take a lesser talented player at a supposed "more important" position. Yeah ... guards seldom actually change games until some gem like Ross Tucker or Bennie Anderson whiffs on a block and your QB leaves on a cart, maybe for the season.

Woodstock, Kingston, Saugerties are about 2 hours from NYC, not "an hour or so". There have always been people commuting to NYC from these areas but probably not as many as there are now. Again, this kind of thing is happening all around the country outside major cities. All of Northern Virginia has become a Washington, DC suburb, out as far as Fredericksburg into the horse country beyond. The outer suburbs of cities like Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, and Chicago stretch out 50-100 miles from these cities. Commutes are even worse in California. Remote work since the pandemic has exacerbated the transition of exurbia into suburbia. Your claim that recently soaring property values have increased taxes for long time property owners is not accurate. In NYS, recent price increases are not going to impact long time residents' tax bills until there's a general property reassessment or unless the owners did remodeling. It's more likely that new home buyers would see their taxes raised because they paid more for their properties than they would have last year. Technically, local assessors in NYS aren't supposed to do that but sometimes they do. An increase in population and demands for new or improved services (example might be establishing a municipal water system to replace private wells or paving more roads) can increase taxes for long time owners, but that's because tax rates increase and it applies to all taxpayers. This is something that happens whenever there's large scale new development in a formerly largely rural area -- from the Catskills to the South Carolina Low Country to small towns outside Nashville. Six people were killed and twelve more were wounded in downtown Sacramento, CA yesterday. Last week, a twelve year old kid in South Carolina shot a classmate. Violence ain't just a NYC problem. Spoken like somebody who thinks he is exempt from having his rights violated by the police or by some government entity just because he's never had his civil rights violated. FYI, it can happen to you even if it's a minor thing and you are the most upstanding citizen.

Stuff that spoils before you use it sure isn't a bargain, even at half the current price! OTOH, it makes sense to buy some extra non-perishable items like paper products or laundry detergent or shampoo when they're on sale, so you don't have to pay full price because you need it. I wasn't really impacted by the toilet paper shortage during the pandemic because I always have an adequate stockpile of essentials, and I was able to restock my supply when it was available.

I grew up on a farm in the Stone Age (1950s) and I lived through the Blizzard of 77, so I always have supplies on hand, including food as well as batteries for flashlights and oil for my oil lamps. If I lived in a rural area and depended upon a well for water, I would have a natural gas generator but I live in a city with public water. If I lived in a tornado prone area, I'd certainly make sure I'd have some kind of basement/safe room/tornado shelter. I think people who have lived through natural disasters like a hurricane or blizzard tend to take reasonable preparedness more seriously than many people. OTOH, the "doomsday preppers" preparing for the "invasion" of whatever menace du jour is disturbing their peace today are simply bat-poop crazy.

In a lot of ways, migration shapes politics rather than vice versa because long term migration trends profoundly change places. Nowhere is this more evident than in North America, and especially the US which has witnessed huge mass migrations over its entire existence, starting with the influx of Europeans displacing Native peoples, but also including: the forced migration of African slaves to the New World; the relentless Westward Movement from the 18th century to the present; the mass immigration of eastern and southern Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th century; the migration from farms to towns and cities because of industrialization since the mid-19th century; the Great Migration of southern Blacks from the South to the North, Midwest and West the began around WW I (concurrent with the"Hillbilly Highway" migration of poor whites out of Appalachia for similar places); the Okie migration to the West Coast because of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s; the migration of Hispanics, especially Mexicans, into the Southwestern US over the last century; the migration of Americans out of central cities into suburban and exurban areas since WW II. The migration of middle class people out of large HCOL metros for places with more moderate costs may be the start of a new mass migration. It may also be one of the first and most easily identified ways that the covid pandemic has changed the country, but it's highly unlikely to be the most profound one.

Like many very large cities, I think that New York City is a great place to live if you're very wealthy and can afford to take advantage of the all the city has to offer. I think the quality of life declines quickly for NYC residents as income levels approach middle income, much more so than for residents of other major cities. Long before housing prices in the rest of the country went berserk, NYC suffered from an affordable housing shortage even for people earning six figure incomes. It's worse now, but many people who embrace the city willingly sacrifice a lot to live there. When I lived in Albany, I would visit NYC for work a couple of times of a year. I share with others the idea that NYC is a great place to visit but wouldn't want to live there. I'm good with living in an overgrown small town of 30k where the local dining choices are Olive Garden or the Lakewood Rod and the big event of the summer is the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival.

That's simply untrue. In 20 drafts between 2000 and 2019, 5 guards were taken in the top 10 and 1 was drafted to be an OT. 2 were Pro Bowl and All Pro caliber. In 20 drafts between 2000 and 2019, 11 guards were taken between #21-#32. 5 were Pro Bowlers and 2 were All Pros. The bottom of the first round frequently does yield stud guards. Guards taken in the first round since 2000: 2001 - 17 - Steve Hutchinson - 7 PBs, 5 All Pros 2002 - 20 - Kendall Simmons 2004 - 19 - Vernon Carey - started 107 games for Miami between 2004 and 2011 2005 - 32 - Logan Mankins - 7 PBs, 1 All Pro 2006 - 23 - Davin Joseph - 2 PBs 2007 - 29 - Ben Grubbs - 2 PBs 2008 - 15 - Branden Albert - converted to LT, made 2 PBs at LT 2010 - 17 - Mike Iupati - 4 PBs, 1 All Pro 2011 - 15 - Mike Pouncey - 4 PBs 2011 - 23 - Danny Watkins 2012 - 24 - Dave DeCastro - 6 PBs, 2 All Pros 2012 - 27 - Kevin Zeitler - started 151 games between 2012 and 2021 2013 - 7 - Jonathan Cooper 2013 - 10 - Chance Warmack 2013 - 20 - Kyle Long - 3 PBs 2015 - 5 - Brandon Scherff - 5 PBs, 1 All Pro 2015 - 9 - Ereck Flowers - converted to OT and then went back to G 2015 - 28 - Laken Tomlinson - 1 PB 2016 - 28 - Joshua Garnett 2016 - 31 - Germain Ifedi 2018 - 6 - Quenton Nelson - 4 PBs, 3 All Pros 2018 - 23 - Isaiah Wynn, starter in NE 2019 - 14 - Chris Lindstrom, starter in ATL Furthermore, where a particular player was drafted becomes irrelevant after he's played in the NFL for a few years. If your #25 guard or your #55 guard or your UDFA guard turns out to be a stud, he'll command stud guard money. If you choose to pay him or not is your choice, but keeping DTs and LBs off your elite QB might be worth something.

Have you tried looking on realtor.com? Those are listings of properties that are actually for sale as opposed to Zillow. I think that prices for bare land within easy commute to the Buffalo suburbs, which would be the towns you mentioned, have soared in recent years. I know that asking prices for bare land in northern Cattaraugus County and in Chautauqua County generally have increased significantly in the last couple of years. The price per acre also depends upon the size of the acreage and the quality of the land. Generally, a 2 acre parcel will cost more per acre than a 10 acre parcel of the same quality land and considerably more than a 100 acre parcel. You can't really judge the quality of the parcel without walking it yourself, though. A large wooded acreage might have valuable hardwoods that are ready to harvest and easy for loggers to access -- or it might have been logged recently and won't produce another harvest for a decade or more. It might be that while it contains valuable hardwoods, they are virtually inaccessible because of a ravine or some other topographic feature. A property might have significant wetlands (several acres) that cannot be disturbed, which might not be a big deal on a 200 acre plot but might be a deal breaker on a 5 acre parcel that you want for building your dream house. A hayfield located on a gently sloping south facing hillside with a view is probably more valuable for somebody looking to build a house than the same sized hayfield sliced with a meandering creek running through it that suggests its vulnerable to flooding.

Drafting solely for need in the first yields gems like John McCargo, Aaron Maybin, and EJ Manuel.

I think "contrarian" offenses result from teams making do with decent but not great QBs rather than intentionally trying to "swim against the current". I think that currrently includes SF, Indy, and Pitt among some others. That seems probably how Miami intends to get the most from Tua before they decide whether to move on from him or not.

I migrated from DirectTV/ATT to Spectrum cable/internet and Spectrum mobile several years ago because of cost. I stream through ROKU to three TVs (one time cost of about $90 for 3 boxes) and have a cable box on the fourth. I have the Spectrum cable silver option which includes HBO and SHOWTIME along with "Spectrum On Demand" shows and movies (steaming) plus all the standard cable channels. Streaming via Spectrum, Amazon, and PBS is fine. During the football season, I subscribe to Red Zone for $5 a month -- about $25 for the season. It takes a phone call to turn it on and turn it off. I pay about $200/month for cable and internet. I have Spectrum mobile for my phone, one line for $45 with unlimited talk, text, data. I will probably need a new phone soon, which will add between $25-50 to my bill depending upon the phone. Total for TV, internet and phone is < $250 a month, including Red Zone when I want it. Lots of people who aren't current Spectrum customers complain about Spectrum customer service but I have not had any issues. There have only been a few outages of cable/internet or mobile. I'm quite satisfied, including the fact that I don't lose my TV signal during heavy rain and that I don't have to try to clean off the satellite dish from heavy snow. If you call customer service with a problem, you get directed to an appropriate slot, which may include a general message when there's an area outage. When the call volume is high, you can choose to have a rep call you back when your slot comes up. I've found the techs to be very pleasant and knowledgeable, even a couple of times when I've called with really stupid problems caused I messed up my preference settings with my ten unruly digits on the remote.

So, you think that the Bills should have traded Allen rather than extending him? Right. In case you didn't notice, great/good QBs don't come along nearly as frequently as great/good RBs come along. The Jests haven't had an elite QB since Joe Namath retired more than 40 years ago, and it's not for not using resources to find one. The Bears haven't had a QB better than average in decades. The Bills went almost 20 years without having even a good QB. The problem with your plan is that if your current QB on his rookie contract isn't so obviously good that you absolutely want to keep him no matter what the price, why would some other team be willing to give you a proverbial "boat load of picks" for him? The Jests didn't get a boatload of picks for Darnold. The Browns aren't going to get a boatload of picks for Mayfield. FTR, teams seldom trade their RBs coming off their rookie contracts. They simply let them walk in free agency if they aren't willing to re-sign at reasonable prices. The Bills strategy prior to the firing of Russ Brandon in 2018 was to maximize profits rather than winning football games, so they hardly present a blueprint for how to build a winning football team. Even so, they drafted first round QBs in 2004 and in 2013 and again in 2018.

I agree. I think that the key to the success of a "contrarian" offense would still be having a good QB just not an elite one. Lamar Jackson would be a good example of the kind of QB needed: he's smart and a great leader even if he's not a great passer. He is so good, however, that he will probably command top QB money. The advantage that Baltimore has, however, is that they have their QB and can build around his unusual skill set. I think that SF under Garappolo is another good example. Garappolo had the lowest percentage of downfield throws of all NFL QBs in 2021. SF's biggest problem has been that Garappolo can't stay healthy. Mike McDaniel, former SF assistant, seems to be trying to build a similar short pass/heavy run offense in Miami with Tua. Both Pittsburgh and Indianapolis are going to try contrarian offenses this coming season. The Steelers made the playoffs with Roethlisberger barely able to throw. Now they've added Trubisky who might be good enough to actually give them some playoff success. Matt Ryan isn't in his prime any more, but he seems capable of doing what Wentz failed to do: get the Colts into the playoffs. He's not going to make the stupid plays that lost the Colts games that Wentz did in 2021, allowing the Colts' runners and defenders to carry the load. The biggest drawback for contrarian offenses finding success, IMO, is juggling all the moving pieces. These teams need to have a strong running game, which also means a strong OL, to control the ball and make the most of their possessions. They also need to have strong defenses to limit higher powered offenses' ability to move the ball and score. Even then, they may have a hard time going toe-to-toe with the Bills or Chiefs when Allen or Mahomes are on their games.

That might be a reasonable philosophy when a team is selecting in the top third of the first round. It's not reasonable for the bottom third of the first round where the remaining prospects at the more "valuable" positions can be significantly less impressive at their positions than the prospects available at supposedly less "valuable" positions. A Pro Bowl quality guard or center is worth a whole lot more than a mediocre or bust OT or WR or DT. That you hate the 2009 draft because the Bills "wasted" a late first round and two second round picks on a center, guard, and safety but don't have a problem with the Bills wasting the #9 pick on a bust DE is disingenuous because that draft is the perfect example of what happens when your philosophy meets reality. FTR, the Bills drafted Maybin, an undersized DE with a questionable collegiate resume, over LBs like Brian Orapko and Clay Mathews who were both excellent collegiate players. Wood, Levitre and Byrd were infinitely more valuable than Aaron Maybin because they were solid NFL players for several years while Maybin started exactly 1 game in 4 seasons.

Not all OL positions are created equal. OTs tend to go high in the draft because they have significantly more demanding skill sets and physical requirements than do guards and centers. Many highly drafted OTs who fail as OTs become decent OGs. It's common for OTs to be drafted in the top half of the first round. Jake Long was drafted #1 overall in 2008 by the Fins. OTOH, it's not uncommon for the best OGs or Cs in the draft -- often guys destined to become Pro Bowlers/All Pros -- to fall to the bottom third of the first round. The Bills' drought wasn't the result of mediocre drafting. It was primarily the result of maximizing profits at the expense of winning. After Polian left and the salary cap was instituted, the Bills seldom re-signed their own top players. They didn't get anywhere because they kept second rate talents while allowing All Pros and Pro Bowlers like Antoine Winfield, Ruben Brown, Jason Peters, Marshawn Lynch and Stephon Gilmore all leave. They hired mediocre HCs and frequently less than mediocre assistants. That philosophy of winning football games being relegated to a poor second to profits didn't end until Russ Brandon was fired in 2018 and Beane and McDermott gained the power to run the team with winning as a priority. The Indianapolis Colts drafted guard Quentin Nelson with the #6 overall pick a few drafts ago. He's a generational talent. Nick Mangold and Maurkise Pouncey, both All Pro centers, were taken late in the first round. Dave DeCastro has been and is an All Pro/Pro Bowl with the Steelers for his entire career. You don't draft "decent" players in the first round to fill holes. You draft players whom you think can be great players at their positions, including interior OL, even if their need isn't urgent. After the Bills cut Brown because they claimed he was "washed up", he went on to the Bears where he played for several years. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 2006 when the Bears last made the Super Bowl. Exactly this. Before Dave DeCastro was guarding Roethlisberger, Alan Faneca, another late first rounder by Pitt, guarded Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox, and Ben Roethlisberger. A top quality guard is a worthwhile investment in providing for the longevity of a superstar QB.

The Bills drafted QBs with the 16th pick in the 2013 draft and with the 22nd pick in the 2004 draft. Both "didn't work out very well". By your reasoning, the Bills shouldn't have drafted a QB with the 7th pick in the 2018 draft, either.

Late in the first round is the perfect spot to pick a quality interior OL (guard or center) as well as a DB or a TE. If you had included Center in your research, you'd have more evidence. Both Nick Mangold and Maurkise Pouncey, former multiple All Pro centers, were late first round picks as was the Bills former center, Eric Wood. I'd be happy with a guard or center or cornerback in the first.