TigerJ

Shady McCoy is a playmaker both in the run game and the passing game. If the OC lets the offense become predictable with Shady on the field, that's on the OC, not Shady. Regarding Josh Allen, last year at Wyoming he had no running game (along with very poor protection from his oline). That set of circumstances appeared to do his development no favors, and I expect the same would be true with the Bills, even assuming Allen starts this year. The latter is far from certain. On the flip side, while Shady showed no signs of slowing down last season, he is 30 years old, and many running backs find it tough to stay healthy and productive after they hit 30. While losing Shady this season would be an unquestioned negative factor for the upcoming season, age alone suggests he might not be in their long term plans.

That might be the thinking of the Bills right now, with the players they have on their roster, but training camp and preseason could have aprofound effect on any decision the Bills make.

Yeah, until then it's basically McCoy's word against Delicia's, or whatever her name is. The only other thing that could move the case forward would be cell phone records of conversations between McCoy and the hired thug, but I don't know that prosecuter's can access that kind of information solely on the basis of one person's allegations.

I think the practices that require tickets are in the evening. The Bills probably do that because of the number of people who could go to practices in the evening but work during the day. They may be concerned that the number of people who might attend an evening practice could overwhelm their abililty to manage the crowd if they didn't require tickets. I would guess that they let out a finite number of tickets. When they're gone, that's it. Nobody else gets into the practice.

I went back and checked his predictions for a year ago. He had New England at 14-2 and winning the division. They went 13-3 and won the division. Not bad, but a lot of people predicted the Patirots would win not only the division but the Super Bowl. He had Miami at 9-7. Miami went 6-10. Oops! He had Buffalo at 7-9. Not too far off, but instead of finishing in third place in the division, Buffalo finished 2nd and went to the playoffs. He had the Jets pulling a Cleveland and going 0-16. The Jets finished last in the division, but won 5 games, looking rather competent at times. Cowherd is not terrible at making predictions, but he's not spot on many times either. I don't think there is any particular reason to give up on hoping for more than one win in the first half of the season just because Colin says they won't.

It would not surprise me in the least to learn that Shady is a hothead, but there is a world of difference between getting involved in a bar fight and hiring a thug to beat up his girlfriend to get back some jewelry. That's not to say he's guilty of the latter, but that is essentially the allegation.

At this point, I think Eddie Lacy is a rough equivalent of Mike Tolbert, which is to say, no thanks. Yes, he's younger, but he's consistently shown he's not willing to do what it takes to be a quality running back. Since he plays out of condition, while he still has some power, (just because he's big) he lacks any elusiveness or speed, and wears down both in games and through the season. While there are not great options left in free agency, there are better alternatives than Eddie Lacy.

I'm ruling out Adrian Peterson - too many miles. Demarco Murray is a possibility as a bridge player, but he has quite a few miles himself. I would give Orleans Darkwa serious consideration, and I might take a flier on Corey Grant. Grant lacks some things as a runner, but is blazing fast. He's not real big, but he's not a smurf either.

I doubt Martayveus Carter will get drafted. If he is not, I think it might make sense to try and sign him. Should Shady become unavailable because of the accusations made about his ex-girlfriend, the Bills RB situation is wide open. A young free agent RB could not ask for a more inviting situation.

I'd kick the tires on Branden Oliver. He played at UB and he's younger than the over the hill Peterson or Murray. The question on Oliver is whether or not he can completely recover from an achilles injury. That is the worst injury a RB can have, but when the 2018 season starts, he will have had 2 years to recover. At 27, he's a little younger than most of the FAs that are available. He's short, reportedly measuring anywhere from 5'7" to 5'8" but he's strong and carries 208 lbs. When healthy, he has some explosiveness.

At this point, nobody is accusing Shady of personally beating his girlfriend/ex-girlfriend. The accusation is that he hired it done. So Incognito is making an irrelevant point. This is going to be drawn out for quite a while, I fear. The authorities will be looking for the man who actually administered the beating. Until then it will be difficult to try and connect dots between him and McCoy. If they catch the guy and he points the finger at McCoy, then he's in deep doo doo. If he says he acted on his own, then Shady gets off.

So far, it appears we have an accusation made by an alleged friend of McCoy's alleged girlfriend about multiple abuse issues: his GF, his dog and his kid. We have McCoy's denial of the same, and we have an acknowledgement that the Bills are aware of it and are investigative. Sounds like a prudent course of action would be to relax until we get more info. Personally, I was dealing with the boredom of the slowest period of the year for football just fine. I didn't need to hear this.

I've described it before, but it was so long ago, I don't remember a lot of the details. Since the subject has come up before, I decided to look it up. The game was Monday October 3, 1983 versus the Jets. The Bills lost 34-10. I don't think the game was as close as the score. The Bills were just terrible, and the crowd, which did a lot of drinking - starting pretty early in the game, and was upset at the terrible game they were watching. By the half, fan reaction was turning ugly with fights all over Rich Stadium. Fans, already drunk, were throwing nearly full cups of beer through the night air. Whether you drank or not, you reaked of beer that night because of the shower from disgruntled fans. Fortuynately I've attended a good number of games that were far better than that one.

I don't really have a horse in this race. I'll watch the competition in training camp with interest, but whoever comes out of it as the starter for the Bills will have my support. There is something to be said for each candidate. McCarron has the most experience, obviously, and will be more of a steadying influence than the other two because of that. Peterman showed the best in OTAs and minicamp, and Josh Allen has the most physical ability and the highest ceiling. While it would ease my mind (and everybody else's) to have a starter going into training camp, I feel is if it's probably good that we have three guys all with a realistic shot at this. It means competition will be tight and that will force all three guys to keep workinng as hard as they can. Iron sharpens iron.

I understand that Troup's problem was not attitude, and that he was poorly handled by the team, but as far as on field production is concerned and considering where he was drafted - the cost was fairly high and the payback just about zero. That's why I suggested him as a candidate. I'm not suggesting he was a bad person.

Of course, everybody needs to remember that Jarvis Landry came out of LSU, and LSU players have no idea what a real QB looks like. He was drafted by Miami, so his only up close look at QBs in practice have beenRyan Tannehill and Jay Cutler. So, we should probably cut him a little slack in his assessment of QBs.

Torell Troup

I've heard it every time the Bills sign a free agent: "Championship!"

Oh when the Saints go marching in, oh when the Saints go marching in. . .

I'd be curious to see an expert opinion about what weaknesses can be coached up in receivers, and what can't (besides the obvious - speed).

Hypothetically, the offense has the ball on fourth down at the ten yard line. That makes for roughly a 27-28 yard field goal attempt. They clear the snow, but that moves the ball back to the 25. Now you've got a 42-43 yard attempt. The problem is the ground is still snow covered at the new spot of the ball. So, can a team plan ahead and clear the ground at the 42-43 yard line area without a penalty, then take a penalty for clearing snow at the 17-18 yard line so they have a clear spot for their long snapper to place the ball after they've been penalized? Or, since there are enough players to do it, perhaps they could clear both spots at the same time, since the NFL only ever enforces one penalty when the same team commits more than one infraction. In any case, this creates all kinds of "interesting" possibilities.

In a civil case, his lawyers only have to show a preponderence of evidence for his contention, rather than having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she made up the accusation. I wouldn't presume to tell him what to do myself without knowing what actually did or didn't happen. I know if I were totally innocent of a rape charge, it would be very difficult to just drop it. On the other hand, if he's expecting a big money settlement, he's probably gonna be disappointed. Tough to get blood out of a turnip as they say.

Patience, my man. In three weeks there will start to be new stuff to talk about. Until then there is almost nothing new to say about anything unless people get real creative. Tyrod performing well in practice situations is fully expected. So is his character, dedication to practice, and leadership. It's game conditions where the lack of anticipation and the excessive caution puts the lid on the ability to move the ball effectively through the air. Tyrod will be good for Cleveland. They are going to win games this year, and that's a step in the right direction. If Cleveland doesn't know it already, they will figure out soon enough that Tyrod's ceilling will limit how good the Browns can become. Then they'll find out if Baker Mayfield has what it takes.

With the legal issues the league is dealing with, every GM in the league needs to be careful what they say about Colin Kaepernick. Maybe Beane's statement is a safe one to make, but I'm not sure I wouln't have engaged in a little "GM speak" in response to questions about Kaepernick.

The kids are, of course, on summer vacation for the most part, so it's parents who are having to try and explain this to their kids. The school has a humongus challenge ahead of them. They have two months to find and hire a principal with a strong enough character to overcome the credibility issues that his predecessor has created, and then they have to figure out how they approach the kids in a way that enables the kids to trust authority.