Gray Beard

just think, he'll have his choice of all the safeties in the draft!

It's early in the season. Fitz isn't old and tired yet. Just old and savvy. Rex blew it

Good Summary here. I always look forward to Bill from NYC, and I usually learn something from the amazing research and statistical breakdown of things (analytics?) provided by Hopeful.

+1

I checked. You are correct. My memory failed me (but it was a looooong time ago).

Except Agnew also left office in disgrace. That's how we got Gerald Ford, who never ran for election as President or Vice President. And just to be a jerk, the correct quote is "Nattering Nabobs of Negatism" not Negativity. And to put in a comment that is pertinent to the true meaning of this thread, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the Bills' ability to get to the playoffs this season, but I also believe that such a statement could be made about every team in the league at this time of year.

I was hoping for some OL talent in the middle rounds of the draft. They picked up a few UDFA bodies later in the day on Saturday. Will that be enough to make a difference? If that is what the OP was trying to say, then I understand his concern. Otherwise, I feel that this draft will turn out to be a good one for the Bills.

I assume the teams that drafted 6 or 8 QBs took a lot of late rounders.

I'm too lazy to do the research, but I would like to know in what rounds the QBs were drafted. Taking a 7th round flyer on Levi Brown is not the same vibe as using a first on EJ Manuel, just to give an example (I do not intend for this example to be a referendum on Brown or Manuel or the people who picked them).

I liked him. He had flashes of aptitude. Sorry to see him go.

The baseball all star game determines home field advantage for the world series. Make the pro bowl NFC vs AFC, and the winning conference automatically wins all coin tosses for cross conference games for the next season. That's not really much at stake, and the players still wouldn't risk injury for it, but it's the best idea that I could think of right away. I think a skills competition could be good, but they would have to make the events safe, which might make it boring. If they had a lot of interviews and open-mike banter, it could be entertaining. A little. Once.

Several years ago the televised lead-up to the Pro Bowl included contests, a lot of informal interviews, and plenty of opportunities to see the players just enjoying each other's company. It seems as though they don't do those things anymore. That's too bad, I enjoyed that stuff more than the "game" itself. The contests included obstacle courses, throwing accuracy, catching balls from a Jugs machine, and other such things. My son and I still laugh when we talk about Brian Moorman doing the obstacle course. Rather than push a sled, he ran around it and took a time penalty. He was so quick with all the other obstacles, he ended up with one of the best scores in spite of the penalty.

My season would have been over if the Patriots won. Since, they lost, I will let my season continue and root for the AFC to win it all.

I think the whole point of moving it back was to create a scenario such as this. I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm just saying that was why they did it.

If you think the Pepsi commercial is good, check out Marshawn playing video games with Conan O'Brien and Rob Gronkowski. This video makes Marshawn come off as pretty cool, and Gronk is just a meathead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNpkSyryQz4

Based on the news articles (some good ones at syracuse.com) it seems as though this position is largely focused on film study, and recording observations and statistics. Does it matter if the person watching the film is male or female? Does it matter if the person has on-field experience? I don't think so. I bet many people on this forum think we could do that, and many of us have very little recent on-field experience. I believe that one reason why some teams are better than others has a lot to do with people in positions such as this. I'm sure that many players study film for hours on their own time, but I could be easily convinced that many other players do not. If a person can edit the film so that some specific observations can be made easier for players to grasp, then those players will be better prepared in the game. If somebody can point out that certain players, either on the Bills or on the opposing team, have tendencies that can be used against them, then that person is valuable to the team. If the coaching staff believes that this person is well suited for that responsibility and may be an upgrade compared to people with this job in the past, then as fans we should just hope the coaches are right and move along. The only way we will know if this is a good promotion is to see how the team does in the future, and even then it will be difficult to assign credit or blame to a low level assistant. Rex is known as a person who is loyal to his friends, so he will not remove her from this position unless something happens that forces his hand, which I would doubt.

http://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBills/ http://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2016/01/buffalo_bills_hire_kathryn_smith_as_first_full-time_female_assistant_in_nfl.html#incart_river_home

I have made peace with the fact that Brady is probably one of the best QBs ever. Their coaches seem to know how to adjust the scheme to fit the players (a novel concept). They foster an atmosphere of excellence. I don't have any knowledge, but I bet their facilities, trainers, assistants, assistants to the assistants, interns, etc. are all among the best in the league. It can't last forever, eventually other teams will figure out a way to duplicate their success. I will never hope they win. Their smug fans with a decade of excellence are annoying. I hope to live to see them become mediocre, so that I can see what happens to their fanbase. Brady and his smurf receivers are in my nightmares. I like to see Brady on the field, because he can't get broken in half unless he is on the field.

roughing the passer - against the chefs - multiple times he took one step sideways, so obviously he was outside of the tackle box

It all depends on whether or not the mobile QB gets hurt. Flutie somehow managed not to get significantly hurt. RG3 got hurt. TT has been hurt scrambling. EJ has been hurt scrambling. How they come back from getting hurt is important. Some mobile QBs learn to be less mobile and stay in the pocket more often after they get hurt. Cam Newton, Big Ben, and others. Aaron Rodgers does a lot of bootlegs. Does that make him a mobile QB? The option QBs are becoming more common, especially the young ones (Mariota, Bridgewater). Are they mobile QBs? Will TT get hurt again? Will he learn not to run so much? Time will tell.

And why not Marv Levy? He signed those guys.

Oh please let this happen. I am hoping that when one of the DBs gets a boneheaded penalty for taunting or whatever, and they have to come off the field to face the disgusted look on Ed Reed's face, maybe, just maybe, they will wake up and realize what childish idiots they are for getting those penalties.

From some angles it looks like his helmet slid off the facemask (glancing blow), but from other angles it looked like a straight on hit. I think from the ref's perspective, it may have been hard to decide. Based on the replay, I think you are right, it should have been a penalty.

https://cdn.streamable.com/video/mp4/zxha.mp4 Looks like top of the head glanced off the facemask and then into the shoulder. Close call. Could have gone either way.