Beck Water

Nah on all points. Freezing drizzle changed to snow, they'll get out of there and head off to Denver. It'll mess with their routine but Reid will spin it into a yarn about how much adversity they must overcome to reach their journey and Glow them Up

Yeah I had a talk with one once. He wouldn't come right out and say it but it was clear what he believed.

https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/lesean_mccoy_makes_the_most_compelling_case_that_might_make_you_believe_tom_brady_patriots_really_were_cheating_all_those_years/s1_17313_41515338 Indication or not? You be the judge

On IR with a calf after he started the NE game for Milano/Williams. (Williams, though injured, came in for him in the 2nd half ) Would be eligible to return if we make the AFCCG but apparently the calf problem he was on IR for recurred and he's aggrevated the other calf too trying to compensate. It's why I've been expressing concern about the Bills depth at LB. You kind of make him sound like a border collie?

Dude. Just stop. You don't get to combine two seasons of stats for a player only when it serves your point (like Cook outgaining Henry last season, which is actually untrue 1167 for Henry 1122 for Cook, true only if you look at Y/Sc which is apples to oranges depending upon the offense and who is throwing to him - Will Leavis?). I have no idea where you get Cooper has 1300 yds and is "top in current receiving yards" - where is "current receiving yards a thing and what does it mean? Cooper has 547 receiving yards on the year, by the way, 250 in 6 games for Cleveland and 297 in 8 games for Buffalo. That's 37 ypg for BUF and 39 overall, by the way, which is 70th in the league. Yes, we have good players on the Bills and no one is "putting them down". The Cold Hard Football Facts is that Henry has been having a superb year as a rusher, 2nd in total yards to Barkley on 40 fewer attempts; they are equivalent in yards per attempt. Saying Saquan is having a more productive year for the Eagles is not putting Henry down; it's a fact. Maybe Henry could have been as productive given 40 more carries, but the fact is - he wasn't, so he isn't. James Cook is 17th for yards and 10th for yards per attempt. He's a very good back. But no one knowledgeable would put him above Henry or even in the same room. Flowers and Shakir are playing somewhat different roles for their respective teams. Flowers is being used more downfield and overall has an average depth of target (10 ish) twice what Shakir's is (5 ish). They are both very good YAC guys, but that's the difference between Flowers 14+ YPT and Shakir's 10+. The difference between contributing 55 and 65 YPG is significant, over the season it's the difference between a top-20 WR and a guy who is barely in the #20-40 range. Again, I'm not trying to dunk on Shakir; as far as I can tell, Shakir has been playing primarily from the slot and 76 receptions and >800 yds is excellent for a slot receiver. It's a level Cole Beasley exceeded twice in his 11 year NFL career, in 2016 with Dallas and in 2020 with Buffalo. And because of how teams were playing us, Beasley got more depth of target then, and had to shake-n-bake fewer YAC. (Zay Flowers also gets more depth of target from the slot because of the run threat Henry poses) Please try to move on from the notion that facts are equivalent to putting players down. Again, I think Cook and Shakir are very good players. But I don't think you'd find many guys who know ball (or gals) who would swap either out for Henry and Flowers at this point. LOL and while I enjoy my arguments with @GoBills808, when we align on something....the person we're disagreeing with really ought to hit "pause"

Why did you see Clapp as predictable? I was thinking Gouraige.

No, he's just an optimist. We had them even during the Drought Years. Now I'm the one who says "Not Enough Wine"** **the optimist says the glass of wine is half full. the pessimist says the glass of wine is half empty. the engineer says "excess glass was used for the wine container". I say "not enough wine in the glass"

I did not see Clapp as the guy they elevated. Wonder if this means they are giving Van Pran Granger the start at C? Cooper seems to keep his private life very private. Detecting it online is above my paygrade; he was one of 4 kids of a single mom and an incarcerated father and very poor as a kid; he may have a long time girlfriend named Destiny Jones who was a graduate student in psychiatry at Alabama State after dancing there as an undergrad, but I can't find out if he has kids. All I can say is he's not in the news for any bad reasons.

Buffalo Joe. We don't have anyone else.

I like your optimistic viewpoint. All of the guys you mention have potential. But Kamara had over 1500 yds from scrimmage 3 of his first 4 years in the league (the year he didn't, he had 1300 yds in 14 games Kincaid may be a future star but this season he has 3.4 receptions and 34.5 ypg, which is currently #20 for TE receiving, well short of "star" territory Coleman may be a possible future Brandon Marshall but right now his 2 receptions and 44 YPG are better than Marshall's rookie year, but well short of what Marshall produced in his prime I could go on, but the point is - while I love your optimism, it doesn't match the reality of how our guys have been producing Meanwhile, the Ravens have a rusher who is actually producing at a 110+ YPG level in Henry, a 1000+ yd 2nd year receiver in Zay Flowers, and near or at the top of the league in receiver separation.

I'm not sure you can say the Giants "fluked in in a bad division". The Eagles were 14-3; the Cowboys were 12-5. Daboll and Mike Kafka clearly got decent play out of Jones that year. The "fluke" was that while Daboll had fired up in a post-game presser about how "a tie won't help us", in the end it did, since they made the playoffs at 9-7-1 ahead of two 9-8 teams that arguably were better teams, at least offensively. I think what may be true here is the aphorism "nothing fails like success" (originally a Chesterton quote "there is nothing that fails like success" but I digress). I think going to playoffs his first year and winning COTY went to Daboll's head and perhaps to some extent Schoen's head as well. Some of the stories that have come out about Daboll are awful - far more of a petulant tantruming toddler and hysterical in a crisis than a "Leader of Men". Either he got worse in his 2nd season having been recognized with the playoffs and COTY thing, or his behavior got old with his assistants and players. I have said since the start of the 2023 season, the Giants have just not looked to me like a well-coached team. Schoen's personnel decisions have also been questionable, like not picking up Daniel Jones 5th year then signing him to a big contract, and not franchising or reaching a long-term contract with Saquon Barkley, even though when the Giants had success in 2022 it was definitely as a strong rushing team with an equal number of passes and handoffs and #4 in the league for rush yards.

Isn't that the tune for "The Cassions keep Rolling Along"? So much that is delicious if so. First of all, "Jets" and "Sailing" normally just don't mix well" The "Miracle on the Hudson" speaks to that - it was, after all, a Miracle (made possible due to skill and training). Second, while "Cassions" are traditionally horse-drawn ammunition chests, they are also used to carry coffins. Thanks for the smile.

McDermott has unambiguously said that Hyde will not be seen in the game: "you can see him on the sideline" You are right! I dunno. The other question is, if they're in the game, for how long?

I think you may have misread what I wrote and missed a "not". "I would be really surprised NOT to see Shakir as inactive, given...." My point was above other receivers, the Bills likely want to bring Shakir into the playoffs healthy, so unless they want to give him a chance to meet some incentive in his contract, he likely sits. But he's still on his rookie deal, and rookies don't tend to have incentives as far as I know.

Good article. Of course, the whole picture changed when the Bills cut Morrow and signed White to the active roster. I tend to agree with his conclusion that the Bills may want to look at Gouraige and Cine. Since Cine is kind of a tweener between LB and Safety, and is a physically talented guy (former 1st round pick for Minnesota, ran a 4.37 40) the Bills may regard him as a high ceiling/low floor reclamation project and may want to see how he's progressing. Draft profile for anyone interested

I would be really surprised not to see Shakir as inactive, given that he's been the Bills most productive receiver by far and that the Bills offense looked the most impotent in the Houston loss when Shakir was out.

He's over on the Random Talking Head thread a week ago stating that McDermott is a liability in the playoffs in the guise of a question. I looked for ya. He's been here. May have been on "vacation" a couple times since he made cracks about "be careful or you might be Simonized" It likely won't surprise you that his posting peaks have surrounded the Bills losses or close games that were not predicted to be close - 47 posts the week after the Bills loss to Houston; 27 posts the week after the Dolphins game that was tied in the 4Q and won with a FG with 5 seconds left. You might not notice him as much because a lot of posters have him on "ignore" or just know better than to engage with His Trollish Self.

They can only call two players up from the practice squad without having to cut someone from the 53 man roster, and getting the players back through waivers before re-signing them to the PS. And, each player only gets 3 callups; I believe Mike White has had 2.

Fair points. IF Cook can regain trust as a receiver, it would increase his value to the team as a player....and his value on the open market. Problem is, he won't show if he has or has not done this until next season...and at that point, he may be in the "let's test free agency" mode, teams big bargaining chip being "hey, we'll pay you before your contract year which could mean you're taking less, but then you're paid and it's in the bank in case of injury" Fair point on Ty Johnson.

like the title says

I have never seen Cook run the routes that (say) Ty Johnson has run and make the receptions he has made. Cook may have been a good pass catcher in college, but he's kind of had mixed success with the Bills. He has definitely dropped some balls that he could have caught, and if he caught them would have been difference makers in games - to the point where the Bills seem to have maybe moved on from him as a dual threat back? He catches an appropriate RB percent of his targets, but his targets dropped off. It seems as though last year they were having him run routes and that's stopped. I definitely would like to re-sign Cook but it's going to depend on what the market is and his expectations are.

He did. He did well enough to make Poona Ford inactive, and Poona has been starting elsewhere. Oliver also seemed to be playing better next to 1) early season DaQuan, who was a BEAST and 2) later season Linval/Phillips. But I also think he fell off towards the end of the season (he's 36) which is likely why the Bills moved on.

So you might want to take a listen to the Greg Cosell segment on OBL this week They talk about how in the past 5 years, the top 25 players in Y/Sc were WR but this season, 12 of them are RB and Brown wants Cosell's take on why. (this part is about 19:20 in) The gist that I got is that the cyclical nature of the NFL has turned; while a few seasons back, teams were passing all over the place now defenses have evolved to shut that down with playing more 2 high safety looks to take away the seam routes and with more athletic (usually smaller) linebackers and nickel defense to can take away the underneath routes. So now offenses are back to depending more on the run game, which means running backs are getting paid. I'm not sure that translates to "we ought to pay Cook", and I think the fact that he has a big brother now playing for the Cowboys and mouthing off ought to count against him in negotiations (only 1/2 kidding), but the point is...running backs are getting paid That said - the guys who are getting paid north of $12M AAV are the dual-threat guys who can take over a game by themselves: Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Alvin Kamera, Josh Jacobs. They all have multiple 1000+ yd seasons and in the case of McCaffrey multiple 2000+ yd seasons in Y/Sc. The next tier, the $8-10M guys, again, multiple 1000+ yd seasons. Dalvin Cook tweeting about his bro getting $20M/yr - Good Luck with That.

Can't we just wait until we see the path clear to that? Call me supersitious, but the Bills have a long path to go to get to that point.

For some reason I read the "Subject:" line and that old Jay and the Americans song starts playing in my mind: "And I knew, yes I knew, I should leave, when I heard her say: Come a little bit closer you're my kind of man, so big and so strong"