Richard Noggin

I'm not sure how much private exposure fans have had to Andre Reed, but from my limited but intimate access, I'm not ready to take his word as anything more than hype / bluster. Not saying he's wrong about OBJ's potential interest in the Bills (Buffalo is a SEXY destination for WRs), but whatever conversation they had was akin to late-night bro-hype over nose beers.

If anyone has an extra ticket to Kids' Day, I'm looking. We have two season tickets, but with me working that day, it will take BOTH my wife and my mother to fill-in and wrangle our 5 year-old daughter at the stadium. I took her last year to that inferno of an afternoon. So we need a third ticket. We're high up in 137 this season, I'm pretty sure. Were 2nd row in 336 last season, so we chose to relocate to the lower bowl just below that.

Those really high end (for working Americans) camp salary rates are typically in addition to much more impactful guaranteed bonuses; even fringy guys often see 5-6 figure signing bonuses and other built-in escalators for sticking around and performing. Remember, even guys who get waived have opportunities elsewhere and on average last for 2-3 years in the league, even if bouncing around. A FRINGE roster guy can easily make a million or more in his first 3 seasons as a practice squad-ish talent. Where's the risk in that? Working hard year round? Join the club. Takes me 10-15 years of INTENSE workload to match 3 years of earnings as an ultra-fringe PS/Street FA guy. And good for the players, don't get me wrong. I love to see wealth transferring to these modern day gladiators. But don't cry for them, either.

Herein lies the rub. With highly-drafted QBs on rookie deals, they either get a top tier AAV extension, or they hit the market (or hit the road via trade). There is no middle class with the team who drafts them. Big money or no money. Does it work the same for a 1st round MLB? Or is there room for a reasonable, mutually beneficial extension? I was pleasantly surprised by Milano's deal, and he has inarguably outperformed Edmunds to date.

While not very imaginative or dynamically different, these unis seem kinda okay to me.

Long line to get in as practice started. They stopped letting people into the primary bleachers area by then, and wouldn't let anyone in for the rest of the day, to many fans' dismay. So the only options were the far side portable bleachers or standing around. Get to practice early if you want to get anywhere near the players. By moving around we got some good views of RBs doing individual drills, and the first 7-on-7 RZ session.

There's social commentary in here about assumptions made based on appearance. I guess on one hand it's a compliment.

I bolded the two predictions that I'd call bold. And saying the Ravens will miss the playoffs really doesn't even feel super bold to me on paper, if we ignore their past record of success under this regime. The other six predictions seem like decent bets depending on the odds. Okay, upon further review, predicting a specific, injured, unsigned WR will catch a TD in the Super Bowl IS bold. Even if that same player did this very thing last season...

This was my first thought. It's bold. Less bold is an '89 Bills kind of season. Maybe not with respect to internal strife, but more so results. Uneven, underachieving. One and done in the playoffs.

Sometimes you eat the bar. Sometimes the bar eats you.

This stat doesn't tell us anything about fandom/allegiance/enthusiasm of those in attendance. At all. The Rams definitely fit LA better than the Chargers, with respect to celebrity status of the orgs (McVay, OBJ, Donald, Ramsey, for starters) and considering this most recent iteration of the NFL in LA was catalyzed by THEIR owner...but these contextless stats don't do much to help us better evaluate the prior poster's point.

Is that you, Solomon (Wilcots)?

Park in your own driveway, is my advice. (But I'm a jerk.)

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There was definitely a point last season when Davis and Allen were not on the same page. I kept interpreting that to mean that the myriad option routes in Daboll's offense were being misread by Davis against looks he hadn't had enough prep for (perhaps due to practice reps lost to injury?). That E-P passing game requires the QB and WR to be in lock-step with reading and reacting to defensive looks and leverages.

The Bills practicing the shovel pass was actually briefly shown in a brief local TV news segment leading up to the game, and I swear I knew that play was going to be featured. By 1994 the Bills offense was becoming a predictable facsimile of its earlier self, and any new wrinkles were not exactly destined for success.

This thread's back-and-forth is primarily predicated upon the repetition of the misleading headline of the linked source in the OP... We should all be able to recognize that Gabriel Davis has in fact NOT gained 17 pounds THIS offseason, and has in fact only continued a slow and steady body recomposition (not actually a word) that includes gaining maybe 4 pounds since last season ended. Anyone who actually reads the linked text should understand this without having to present nonsense red herrings about dramatic weight gain and how that can negatively affect an NFL WR. It's like a bait-and-switch for online drama queens. Published sports content online is not often beholden to journalistic standards of responsibility, and relies upon lazy and/or slanted commentary for impressions. Anyone in this thread concerned about Davis's weight gain is therefore easily duped or dishonest.

David Boston didn't seem to struggle with adding weight...

No league handicaps success like the NFL, and yet no league is as beloved or as successful. The rewards for excellence are still greater than the substantial subsidies for failure/mediocrity. An intriguing microcosm.

I got it from being absolutely wrong, okay. Is that what you want to hear?! Yeah I was completely ignoring the annual extradivisional, INTRAconference (AFC) division rotation.

Respectfully, I truly hate the idea of FURTHER scheduling punishments for being good the year prior. The NFL already has plenty of parity-minded policies, and it's important that opponents are chosen impartially and equitably. Draft order (which is huge) plus 7 out of 17 opponents each season are currently weighted inversely against prior success. No reason to tack on yet another inconsistent and subjective counterweight.

But you're not actually presenting your idea? This is a complaint (one that I share, btw).

I'm also 43 for a few more weeks. Admittedly, sometimes I have to fight the reflexive, cynical, narcissistic urge to dig for clues to what the deceased might have done to accelerate his demise. Like each early passing is some kind of cautionary tail for me to learn from and avoid, rather than a real life tragedy for everyone involved. It's the "Just-World Fallacy/Hypothesis"...we tend to blame other people for what happens to them. Helps us feel better/more in-control. But it's wrong-minded. Our instant access to so much news means we learn about more deaths than we used to, so anyone who dies who had any connection to us or our interests is brought to our attention. It's a lot to manage in a world of increasing entropy and decreasing empathy. I'm sorry for his family and friends.

Agree with Cam as closest physical comp, and on the field with respect to power running tendencies. Cunningham had more freakish speed and arm talent than Cam, but due to a slighter frame was a different style of runner. Amalgamate the two and you've got something very close to Allen's physical traits. Not quite there, but close.