SoTier

This. I could see the Ravens, Steelers, and Browns all making the play offs -- although they might all lower their win totals if they take turns beating one another.

Today there's a tendency to romanticize the Great Depression and find many positives that stemmed from it, but millions of people died from starvation, domestic violence, addiction, suicide, disease, crime, etc. It was a horrific experience for anybody who lived through it, and it scarred them forever. For example, the extreme poverty many people experienced during the Depression turned many survivors into hoarders. My father never, ever threw anything out. My step-mother was just as bad. They even saved used plastic bread bags to wrap things in rather than throwing them out even when they had collected so many that they could never use them all. I don't buy the narrative that surviving the Great Depression enabled the American people to persevere through WW II. It's a nice story but in reality the American people were very reluctant to commit to even helping Great Britain against the Nazi much less to actually going to war because so many were so disillusioned by their experience in WW I. The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized sentiment against Japan, but there wouldn't have been support for war against Germany if Hitler hadn't declared war on the US on December 11, 1941. I suspect that the American people's response to WW II would have been exactly the same if the Great Depression had never occurred. Mental health is more than just death from suicide. As others have mentioned, PTSD is likely to be a permanent part of millions of people's lives because of the pandemic. There's been a significant rise in domestic violence reports and opioid deaths are also manifestations of how the isolation during the pandemic is impacting people's mental health. I expect there probably has been increases in child abuse incidents as well.

A bit "territorial"? Ounce for ounce, nuthatches are bigger bullies than bluejays! They're better behaved these days when they occasionally visit my feeders but when I still had my old ash tree along the driveway (it was suffering from ash die-back and had to be removed), they included both the tree and the feeder station within their "turf" and would fearlessly run off other birds, even some larger than themselves.

How can anybody be arrested for "unlawful carrying a firearm" in Texas? Isn't that one of those states that allow carrying concealed weapons?

Feeding birds in late winter/early spring really helps them because by then most natural food sources are depleted and migrating birds are flying through. Many more -- and frequently many different species --- birds at feeders. Actually, black squirrels aren't that rare, at least in some areas. They are a color variation of gray squirrels, and black generally being dominant over other colors in most mammal species, they can even become the only color in some small areas. The "problem" with black squirrels -- as with white ones, too -- is that they are more vulnerable to predators because they aren't as well camouflaged as grays.

Among several things yet TBD just for 2020 are: a) how many games will the Bills win? b) will the Bills make the playoffs? c) will the Bills win the AFCE? d) will the Bills win their first playoff game since Clinton was POTUS? Also yet TBD is whether Josh Allen is good enough to be a respectable starter much less a franchise QB. Don't be counting your Lombardis before they're won, dude.

I've found that the first thing to do to prevent mice is to clear out all the vegetation right around the foundation of the house/cabin and then seal the access points. Mice can get in through tiny spaces, so seal any crack or space with a sealer like Great Stuff. If you have a basement, check for cracks/spaces/holes from the inside on a sunny day. Windows, doors, and utility entrance points need to be sealed. The cabin at our family camp is set on piers, so it's about 24-30" above the ground. We used corrugated metal roofing panels cut several inches longer than the space between the ground and the wall and then sunk several inches into the ground to mouse proof the cabin.

I live right in the city but I have a pretty large lot and the area is somewhat suburban. My "regulars" are chickadees, cardinals, bluejays, downy woodpeckers, house sparrows, house finches, robins, and starlings. In the winter, I also get dark eyed juncos and both hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers. More intermittent visitors are flickers, rose breasted grosbeaks, gold finches, hummingbirds, and mourning doves. When there were a lot more white and blue spruces in the immediate neighborhood, I also got white breasted nuthatches and tufted titmice. When the choke cherries ripen (I have two trees on the fence line), I get clouds of birds, including catbirds and cedar waxwings. I keep hoping the waxwings will nest in my cedar trees but they apparently just come to get drunk on the cherries!

A great hobby to start during this pandemic is "backyard birding" which is learning to identify the birds in and around your house and/or neighborhood. It's a great way to get yourself, your kids, your parents and/or grandparents interested in nature and science. It's inexpensive. It's not complicated. You don't even need a yard ... a neighborhood park or a cemetery or even a grassy median (like on Bidwell Parkway in Buffalo) will work. A window overlooking your neighbor's yard might even work. To get started, you need a guide to birds. I like the Audubon Society's Field Guide to North American Birds which I have been using since the 1980s. It's pocket size, comes with a plastic like cover, and has photos, maps, and info about each bird in it. Field Guide to Birds. It's less than $16. If you have a yard, you can buy a bird bath and set it up in a sunny spot that you can see from one or more windows or from a deck or porch. Even a cheap plastic one will work fine. In addition to seeing more birds, you may actually save some by providing water in dry spells. Remember to clean your bird bath regularly as when the birds use it, it will get messy. You can bring more birds into your yard -- and see more birds -- using bird feeders of various types -- and cost. Especially in the spring, migrating birds are towards the end of their travels and need ready sources of food. I feed primarily black oil sunflower seed plus suet cakes but I also feed a fruit/nut mix and peanuts. Don't buy those bird feed mixes sold in grocery stores as they have cheap filler seeds that birds won't eat and scatter all over the ground. Tractor Supply has a nice selection of feeders and bird seed. If you want some guidance, try the Wild Birds Unlimited on McKinley near the mall in Blasdell. There's also a WBU in Amherst ... on Transit I think. I have my tubular sunflower feeders out year around but that's not possible if you live in bear country. Raccoons can also be problems, especially in the summers when young ones go exploring. Many people have luck attracting hummingbirds with feeders or by hanging gaudy fushia pots on their porches. I haven't, probably because as a gardener, my hummers go for the hostas, bee balm, and trumpet vines planted in the yard. I also plant sunflowers -- generally by cleaning up the seeds/hulls from around the feeder poles and depositing that in a sunny spot along my side fence -- which attracts clouds of goldfinches when the sunflowers ripen. The great thing about backyard birding is that it's something you can do for the entire rest of your life, even when you are very old and not very mobile. My late step-mother, who suffered from emphysema, loved sitting on her back porch watching the hummers coming to her fushia plants or sitting at her kitchen table watching the chickadees and cardinals coming to her seed feeders.

I can't see waiving the age requirement being a good thing for young players. They need to develop physically and mentally. As for undrafted players getting their collegiate eligibility back, I think that's determined by the NCAA not the NFL.

This is how I thought it worked, too. If it does work this way, then the salary cap wouldn't be impacted much but individual teams' bottom lines would be severely impacted. That would likely result in a significant drop in what top players can expect in extensions in 2020 or in FA in 2021 because some teams are likely too cash strapped to offer big dollar contracts. OTOH, it might improve the market -- and money -- for more modest FAs. There likely is language that addresses what happens when something prevents all or some games from being played at all but it's unlikely that there's any mention of games played without fans.

I thought that the NFL salary cap and the percentage allocations in the previous and current CBA were/are based on TV money and other league revenue that all goes into a single NFL "pot", such as the money from the NFL's share of official NFL gear licensing. I thought that all or most of attendance revenue went to the individual teams' pots rather than into the general NFL "pot", so that teams with stadiums with lots of very expensive luxury suites and those that sold PSLs generated much larger revenue streams -- and more profits -- than teams with fewer/cheaper luxury boxes and didn't have PSLs. The entire purpose of the salary cap is to give teams that don't generate as much revenue equal access to player personnel as teams that generate significantly more. If my understanding is correct, then I don't think the salary cap will drop significantly for 2021 although NFL teams would likely have to "eat" their 2020 losses.

Absolutely true. The protest movement took a decidedly violent turn after the killings at Kent and Jackson State as various anti-war and civil rights groups splintered into a myriad of smaller groups, some of which advocated violence like bombings and killing the police. Thank you, Richard Nixon. May you roast in hell.

I was 20 and a sophomore at Buff State on May 4, 1970. Kent State and Buff State were similar institutions -- inexpensive state schools with significant percentages of their students being in the first generation of their families to attend college. Neither school was a hot bed of student protest against the Vietnam war until the Nixon administration launched the ill-fated invasion of Cambodia when the US was already engaged in peace talks in Paris with North Vietnam. On May 6, 4 protesters at the UB were shot and wounded by Buffalo police. On May 8, state and local police killed 2 protesters and wounded 12 at Jackson State College, an historically black college located in Natchez, MS.

I think that the GMFB crew discussed what it takes to be a backup QB just last week in reference to Andy Dalton being released. Basically, successsful backup QBs -- Foles, Fitzpatrick, McKown etc -- are capable of checking their egos for the good of the team. A lot of failed QBs, especially first rounders, can't do that because having mucho self confidence is a pretty much a prereq for NFL QBs so they don't make it as backups. I think Trubisky's problem was that he didn't improve and even regressed when team's figured out his tendencies. I think I heard or read somewhere during last season that some of the Bears' coaching staff were concerned that he wasn't "getting it", which seems to suggest, at least to me, that he wasn't getting better at reading defenses or recognizing coverages etc. I think that after Brandon was fired, the Pegulas gave Beane the kind of control of the team that most GMs have -- nobody was hired to replace Brandon in regard to the Bills (don't know about the Sabres). He wasn't subservient to both Brandon and his money guys in the front office and subservient to the HC like Whaley. Beane's emergence as a strategist really began after the end of the 2018 season. Before that, he seemed to be scrambling to fill immediate holes and "make do" with very limited resources just as Whaley had done. Sharing a philosophy for the team with McDermott makes the relationship work even if McDermott is an equal. With a different HC it might not work so well.

Warren Moon played in a different era -- outside of the last twenty years -- when the prejudice against black QBs was the norm which resulted in him going to the CFL to prove himself and before FA and the salary cap created player movement and made it easier for teams to improve quickly. It took Moon a few years in the NFL to start putting up big numbers but that was because the Houston organization was so poor when he arrived. Once Warner got the opportunity to play in the NFL, he went on a tear, making the Pro Bowl for three straight seasons starting in his second NFL season, his first as a starter. Warner is unique because after being relegated to back up status on the Rams and then the Giants, he went to Arizona and resurrected his career with the Cards. I am very skeptical of Garoppolo myself, but he hasn't put together three mediocre seasons at the beginning of his career. He's benefited from being the GOAT's understudy or injured so that he's only had a handful of starts -- 10 actually -- early on before 2019. It's the typical small sample size dilemma. He's actually has started fewer games than Trubisky -- 26 to 41 -- despite being in the league for 3 more years. Both Tannehill and Bridgewater were decent early on. Tannehill put up decent passing stats during his first three years on mediocre Fins teams. Bridgewater was a Pro Bowler as a sophomore before his catastrophic injury. Both were also willing to serve as backups to stay in the game and both lucked out to get opportunities to raise their personal stock.

Brees was not a mediocre starter for three years in San Diego. He was decent as a first year starter and miserable second starting season, but came back in 2004 to make the Pro Bowl in his third season as a starter.

Trubisky played poorly as a rookie, improved over his rookie season in 2018, but took a major step backward in his third season. That's 3 mediocre seasons despite being on a team good enough to win 12 games in 2018. He simply hasn't progressed enough to be considered a top NFL QB after 41 starts, and no QB has gone that long and suddenly became significantly better. None of the QBs you mentioned were mediocre QBs for three straight seasons even if they didn't put up big stats because of the teams they played on. - Brees had a single poor season in his second year. - Smith, Cousins, and Stafford all were considered good QBs by the beginning of their fourth seasons as starters despite playing on crappy teams. Smith and Stafford were extended at least once by the teams that drafted them. Cousins was franchised at least twice by the Redskins.

I think that all of the 2018 first rounders except for Jackson, who improved spectacularly from his rookie year, and Rosen, who is already considered a bust, are in their "prove it" seasons. Mayfield regressed last season. Allen improved significantly from his rookie season but his passing and decision making remain relatively poor compared to bonafide franchise QBs. Darnold missed time with illness, but he's about equal with Allen. His passing is better but his decision making is worse. Time for all three to show their stuff.

When a team gives up on a QB they drafted in the first round, that QB is finished as a starter. Teams simply won't give him a real shot. Minnesota gave up on Bridgewater because his severe knee injury appeared to very likely have ended his career, so he's a very special case. I suspect that Trubisky vs Watson was likely the reason that Whaley was fired. The Bills didn't intend to fire Whaley early on ... or they would have done so when they cleaned house after Ryan rather than leave Whaley as a lame duck. The Bills ran FA much as they always did, too. The early FA signees, Poyer and Hyde, were typical Whaley guys -- talented players for a reasonable price who fit the HC's scheme well. They were significantly better than any of the veterans the Bills brought in after the draft and through 2018, so I'm thinking it was while creating the draft board that Whaley ran afoul of one or both of Brandon and Pegula. I don't think that McDermott, as a newly hired defensive minded HC would have had the clout to get Brandon's pal fired. I don't think that "it could be the year the excuses for Allen stop". I think that Beane has moved to prevent excuses even being raised. Keep in mind that the Bills very quietly added several more FA and UDFA OLers to their roster during FA and since the draft. That suggests that they're still looking to upgrade the OL if only from a depth standpoint. It's Allen year to step up big.

This only works if there's a QB they like that they can acquire. If not, then they likely have Allen and Fromm compete next year -- or maybe they bring in a veteran starter who's been displaced like Dalton, and hope there's a young stud QB they like -- and is attainable -- in the next draft. It's easier to say "draft a QB next year" than it is to actually do it especially for teams that are playoff caliber but need a QB upgrade. IMO, the Packers' decision to draft Love in the first round this year was partly influenced by the struggles by the Vikings and Bears to find their franchise QBs. They don't want to be a QB short of a Super Bowl contender.

Name a QB in the last twenty years who has been a mediocre starter for three seasons and then morphed into a franchise QB. There isn't anybody. A team doesn't pay $18-20 million a year for a QB who's merely competent. Moreover, if a team has built a good team, they aren't going to waste it by hoping that some QB "falls to them". They go out and try to secure one. As the Eagles did when they traded up to get Wentz. As the Vikings did when they signed Kirk Cousins. As the Chiefs did when they traded up to get Mahomes even though they had a good QB worth $18-20 million already on the roster.

Actually, I think it says a lot more about changes taking place in the NFL than specifically those four teams since there were numerous other teams that also didn't extend their 2017 first rounders. Teams want to see their first rounders get up to speed quickly even if they're supposed to be "projects". If they can't produce as well as their teams think they should in their first three seasons, they aren't getting a big fifth year pay day. I think the Bears not extending Trubisky not only underscores how skeptical the team is of his ability to be a good NFL QB but is likely based on the recent past experience: young QBs who haven't shown themselves to be top QBs after three years of starting aren't likely to have an epiphany and become good/great QBs in their fourth or fifth years. It just doesn't happen. I can't think of a single mediocre three year starter who suddenly "saw the light" and became a top QB in his fourth or fifth season as a starter. In recent years, teams that extended fifth year options to mediocre first round QB wasted both time and money: Jax with Bortles (2014), TB with Winston (2015), and Tennessee with Mariota (2015). A decade ago it was common for teams to not only pick up fifth year options on first round QBs but also to extend them even if their performance wasn't all that good. Both Mark Sanchez and Ryan Tannehill benefited from that policy. I'm sure there were others. That's now morphed into only the outstanding young QBs getting paid big bucks early (Goff, Wentz, likely Mahomes and Watson soon) and the lesser one getting kicked to the curb. Teams have also become quicker to cut their losses with first round QBs who are easily identifiable busts and move on. Paxton Lynch and Josh Rosen are the quintessential examples of this. I think this trend narrows the window Josh Allen has to become a top NFL QB. Lots of Allen fans were willing to give Allen the full five years, but I don't think he gets that unless he absolutely improves this year so that he's among the top dozen or so QBs in the NFL.. Beane has taken away all of Allen's excuses by providing him with a good WR corps, decent protection, and now a pair of young RBs. Beane also drafted a potential replacement/bridge QB if Allen doesn't progress well enough and leaves after 2021.

I agree. Taylor wasn't a very good QB, but in 2017 he had nobody to throw to except for McCoy. The personnel moves in 2017 really soured me on McDermott and Beane, but I think that Beane, at least, has shown himself to be a good GM. I wrote in the thread from last week or the week before about where Beane ranked as a GM that I don't think Beane really had true GM power until some time after Russ Brandon was fired. I think that at least through the 2018 draft, Beane was functioning much as Doug Whaley did: a talent scout/manager subservient to the bean counters in the FO and the HC. The personnel moves made by the Bills in 2017-2018 -- with players and with coaches -- were reminiscent of personnel moves made by the Bills since Brandon took over the team in 2006. That changed in 2019 as the Bills brought in almost an entirely new offensive coaching staff for Daboll, including a well respected and experienced QB coach. They also brought in an entirely new OL and WR corps. This year is much more like 2019 than 2017 or 2018. The Bills traded for their first proven play maker on offense in forever, they made solid if unspectacular FA signings, and they had a solid draft that looks like they have an eye on the future with Day 3 picks like Fromm and Bass. That all suggests an upgraded scouting department along with upgraded coaches and players. For the first time since John Butler and AJ Smith departed for the West Coast, it seems like the Bills FO is focused on winning football games rather than just filling the stadium.

Well said. Some Bills fans forget that he was an All Pro for the Bills. Most NFL players are driven to excel, so I find the idea of a player simply turning off that drive just because he's gotten a big contract the least likely reason for a player's performance to slack off. What frequently happens is that players change teams to get bigger contracts and the new situations aren't as good for them as the ones they left. Sometimes coaching changes impact players' performance adversely, too. They bring in new systems that don't fit the players or their personalities don't mesh well with some incumbent players. Dareus blossomed under Marrone, but then along came Ryan who tried to remake the excellent defense that he inherited, followed shortly by McDermott who brought in his own style of D. We, as fans, assume that McDermott and Dareus didn't get along. Maybe that's true -- or maybe the Bills brass under the money-ball philosophy of Russ Brandon decided he wasn't playing well enough to justify his salary. For myself, I think that Dareus suffered (possibly still does) some emotional/mental issue that impacted his play. When somebody -- anybody not just a pro athlete -- goes from being really great at something for a long time -- since high school at least in the case of NFL players -- and then suddenly starts just "going through the motions", it suggests something's wrong, Personal tragedy -- which Dareus suffered in spades -- as well as bad domestic or employment situations can all wreak havoc on individuals' job performance.