TigerJ

To be honest, there probably is not enough time in the day for a person to be both a great parent and a good head football coach, if you want to sleep, that is. If you're going to be a head football coach, you should either not have kids, or marry a woman whose passion is staying at home and being a great parent. That said, Andy Reid has proven he's a solid football coach. I guess you can't say he's an elite coach until he makes a habit of winning Super Bowls, but he's built some solid football teams over the years. I did not listen to the KC sports guy's rant, but I assume the parenting part of it relates back to the fact that Reid's kid had a drug problem and lost his life. Maybe there were things Reid could have done as a father to help his son put his life in a different direction, but good parents can have kids that are messed up. My wife and I have four grown kids. One of them is adopted. The three bio kids are all solid people. One is a husband and father who struggles financially because he had a learning disability in school, couldn't make a go of college, and lives in an economically depressed area. We have two daughters who are both professionals and college grads. One was the President's Award winner at Roberts Wesleyan (essentially valedictorian) or her graduating class and has a masters degree. The other is a registered nurse and happily married with a baby on the way. Our adopted kid is about as messed up as you can imagine despite the fact that we worked harder at parenting with her than we did our own kids. She was our foster daughter before we adopted her, and had so many problems before she even came into our home that it would have been a miracle had she turned out to be happy and well adjusted. But there are also parents who did just about everything right with their own kids, and they're still messed up. Unless the KC sports guy knows the whole story (which I seriously doubt), he should keep his mouth shut.

Hard to comment on it without knowing more detail (yes - I looked at the article). I would say, considering Buffalo is a small market team, 19th is not too bad.

Yeah, it kind of goes both ways with a new head coach. There's no game film so Sean McDermott and Les Frazier are going to have to do some guessing about what they will do. However, that is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Adam Gase is an offensive minded guy andwas in our division for the last several years. Whoever the offensive coordinator is, the Jets will be running the Adam Gase offense, and McDermott knows that. It will be somewhat different with different personnel than Gase had in Miami, but it's not going to be brand new. Likewise, on defense, Gregg Williams is a known commodity around the league. The personnel will be new, but Greg Williams will do what Gregg Williams does everywhere. So, yes, there will be some guesswork in preparing for them in that first game of the season, but it's not going to be guesswork in a total vacuum.

Rob Ryan's problem is that he made no cents while he was out of a job.

I don't disagree with any of that. NFL teams pay their scouts to figure out who has the best odds of producing an a professional level. Unless they're completely incompetent ,(which I don't buy for a second) they will have a handle on players whose combination of physical talent and mental aptitude give them the best odds for success. As you say, when a prospect is picked high in the draft, he's given every opportunity to prove the scouts right. However, scouts can't know all the intangibles about a player. Some players who don't quite measure up in the ways that scouts can observe have an inner drive sometimes that enables them to overcome the shortcomings that everybody thought they had.

When a player is a high draft pick, the odds that he will gain success in the NFL are naturally higher than if you are a UDFA, but if you find your way on to a team, by any means, your odds for eventual success are not zero. The continued success of players like Levi Wallace and Robert Foster prove that.

I think they are, but part of being a good coach is putting your players in a position to succeed.

I'm just looking at the number of players, either free agents from other teams, draft picks and UDFAs who have outplayed expectations that observers outside of Buffalo have had for them: Hyde, Poyer, Milano, Zo, Levi Wallace, Taron Johnson. Even a first round pick like Tre White has been as productive as a couple CBs picked ahead of him. We haven't seen so much of that out of the line, but maybe there's something about the scheme that helps the LBs and DBs look better at the expense of the line. I do think having a difference maker like Ed Oliver could do some real interesting things for the defense this year

Hyde was kind of a utility DB for the packers. He played some safety and some slot CB as well as special teams. Green Bay liked their safeties, I guess, so Hyde never got a shot to start for them. Poyer was a depth safety for the Browns. McDermott surmised he had the talent to start and took a chance. Both were great signings for Buffalo, but I'm getting the impression that one advantage of McDermott's defensive scheme is that it tends to get the most out of players who might be marginal for other teams.

I definitely like him better as a FORMER New England Patriot.

Regardless of Lawson's asking price, I think the Bills will be looking for a defensive end in the top two rounds of next year's draft. If they don't get one in the first, they will try for one in the second. They want an upgrade. If Trent Murphy is and can stay healthy, They'll use him on one side. I think Jerry Hughes is still under contract for 2021, isn't he? He could still start in 2021. He;s getting pretty old, but he's been pretty durable, and he's still effective when the Bills can get pressure from other linemen too. I don't think the Bills will be looking to pay Lawson a big time contract.

I don't pay attention to that stuff my self, but that's a reasonable possibility.

I assume they've already checked out the bar scene on their own.

Well, he is an extreme long shot to make the 53 man roster. I do agree he's got a decent shot at the PS. He does have some ability, but he really needs to spend some time in an NFL strength and conditioning program. He's way too skinny to avoid being pushed around in the NFL. DBs are never going to let him get a clean release from the LOS. Could the Pats claim him from the Bills' PS? It's possible, I guess, but he's not going to be anything more than a fringe player as a rookie. In the future? Who knows? There were a ton of big receivers in the 2019 draft, many with better athleticism and strength than Sills.

The problem is little league football doesn't pay their coaches.

Players routinely come back from ACL injuries in less than a year and are fairly productive soon after they hit the field. There are some exceptions. Tod Gurley has developed an arthritic knee as a consequence of a college ACL. It's probably going to affect him the rest of his career. An ACL in conjunction with an MCL is a different animal. I can see where recover would be longer and prone to more bumps in the road. Let's hope he's past that point now.

Yeah. Bush is competent, but nothing special. I think the Bills think Neal has more upside, not to mention he's a youngster on his rookie deal.

I proposed at a 4th of July fireworks display. I figure that way, not only would my girl associate our romance with fireworks, but I would never forget the date I proposed. It worked!

It's good that our safeties are both on the same page.

I do think there is probably a significant difference between the way Sean McDermott defines culture and the way Gregg Williams defines it.

A "bare bones" protestant wedding takes about 10 minutes if you do all the parts. I like it when it takes a half hour or more with the addition of music, Bible readings, a brief homily etc. I imagine that it could be done so parts of it took place outside of the stadium before the game, and then you just did the vows at half time. You can do the vows in about 2 minutes.

If you are chosen as the happy couple, I'll be happy to officiate. Yes, I am an ordained clergy person in a prominent denomination. You wedding will be fully legitimate.

For some time, left tackle was considered more important than right tackle for one simple reason. Most QBs are right handed. That, of course means that when they pass, their left foot is going to be forward, and their right foot further from the line of scrimmage. It is natural for their field of vision to be the right side of the field. The left tackle protects his blind side. The traditional thinking by defenses was that if the blind side of the QB was more vulnerable, they wanted to attack it by putting their most disruptive pass rushers on that side. Well, teams in the NFL are always adjusting to what other teams are doing. If the most disruptive pass rusher was on that side, you'd better have your best pass blocker on that side. But then some defensive gurus figured, if the best pass blocker is going to be on that side, maybe we can put our best pass rusher on the other side to give ourselves an advantage against poorer pass blocking on our left (offense's right) side. I still think there are more disruptive right defensive ends than there are left defensive ends, but the bottom line is if you leave yourself too vulnerable in any place on your offense, defenses are going to try and figure out how to take advantage, and more often than not, they will succeed. You don't want to be stuck with Jordan Mills as your right offensive tackle.

Well, it is a no brainer that Allen has to show significant improvement in order to have a better career than Tannehill or Bortles. That does not negate the OP's observation about his talent. For myself, I have been hopeful for some time now that Josh Allen might be the long awaited answer at QB for Buffalo. He has some characteristics that can't be coached, and I'm not just talking about his physical talent. From all accounts that we've heard, he has more than the usual drive to be great. He wants it. He has natural leadership ability according to multiple observations from his teammates, and he has an excellent head on his shoulders for learning and understanding the mental aspect of the game: studying film, reading defenses and making decisions. There is still stuff he has to do on the field, butthere is ample reason to be optimistic until the final verdict is in.

I think the notion of getting even was what got OJ in trouble in the first place.