Beck Water

I won't be watching. But Sunday at 2 pm I'll be either visiting my kiddo, or driving home. She doesn't have either antenna or cable TV and I never could persuade her to like football.

I don't know a source of week-by-week league wide receiving stats, so I can't confirm or deny. I have a vague memory of looking at stats and seeing Diggs leading or close to the top, not in receptions, but in targets and thinking "huh that's weird". It looked more like forcing the ball. If Diggs was leading the league in receptions at one point (anyone got those cumulative stats after each week?), I don't see how it can possibly have been until Dorsey was fired (after Denver). Diggs receiving numbers fell off a cliff after the Giants game (NWE loss and on). His games against NWE and DEN were kinda pitiful, receptions and receiving yards. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/D/DiggSt00/gamelog/2023/ Brady took over after Denver game

Yes, he made it pretty clear he was going for the $$. But we'll see what his market is.

I mean, what are the choices? You either hire a guy who has no previous HC experience, or you hire a retread who wasn't able win enough in his previous gig. To the latter, you can then say, The Bills better not go the route of some retread who is a proven loser, same reason.

I mean, the Bills have been winning. Their record under McDermott is 73-41 (0.640). Harbaugh with the Ravens over the same time frame is 75-40 (0.652). Boy Genius McVay is 70-45 (0.609). The Cowboys under McCarthy are 42-25 (0.627). Who are these coaches who are "building the culture that's necessary to win" if McDermott isn't among them? The problem is, getting over the hump and winning those last 2-3 games.

It's not just Josh Allen. The Eagles, the Chiefs, and the Ravens all ate them for din-din, with an "honorary mention" to giving up 28 points to the Titans and taking the L. Fangio's D clamped down on teams like the Jets, Commanders, Giants, Raiders and Panthers

While copying the entire article is against copyright, copying some key excerpts for discussion purposes should be OK. Since it's a paywalled article, folks can't read without subscription.

I said the same thing at the time. I don't think Hines would have won a grievance (his injury was clearly not football or football-training related, and arguably involved hazardous activities prohibited under contract language). But a grievance and appeal would have tied up cap $$ the Bills needed, so they worked a deal. Unless he can't perform or totally flubs on the "skill" thing, he'll be a Bill The Bills could 100% restructure Hines to create space. He's got a cap hit of $5.4M next year, of which $4M is salary. His salary could be lowered to vet min and the rest converted to signing bonus and amortized. That said --- this is a move the Bills really should reserve for players whose long-term futures with the team they have confidence in. They don't do this. As @HoofHearted pointed out, at times when we see receivers in the same area at the end of the play, its when the play has been extended and there are "scramble rules " in place. Ideally, scramble rules would be Mouse Davis style "secondary route concepts" - Beasley excelled at this, and I do think there was a drop off here when Beasley then Daboll left: I think the secondary route concepts became simplified "scramble rules". But the point is, after the receivers run their routes there has to be a lot decision making allowed to them under scramble rules and more reliance on field vision/individual read of the D and situational awareness. There are also times when 2 receivers are in the same area, it's by design to create confliction or obstruction ("pick") for defenders

Not good enough for all-pro team either

Yeah, I think Lamar Jackson's performance in a couple of games that the Ravens won ices the deal for him.

Exactly.

He helped the Dolphins defense improve from 24th overall, to 22nd overall I will grant that Fangio dealt with significant injuries to major players on defense towards the end of the season. But for contrast, the Bills dealt with significant injuries at all levels of defense starting Game 4, and the defense dropped from #2 to #4

From what's come out, I'm not sure I'd want to be a defensive coach for Brian Daboll either. But the reality is there are only 32 of these jobs in the world, so guys seem to talk themselves into accepting opportunities that are not ideal (Pettine with the Cleveland Browns etc)

I was just thinking this. I would tend to believe there would be a "positive" to an offer to stay here as DC - don't relocate the kids, don't start over with new people - but McDermott better choose quickly I looked it up, and I don't think we do. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/nfl-compensatory-picks-for-minority-coaches-and-executives-explained

I threw up a little in my mouth at your 2nd tier. But IMHO we need to be all-in in the draft AND sign a reasonable vet.

I think Diggs is getting the crap beaten out of him because by the middle of the season it's clear that the Bills offense is primarily Diggs and Josh Allen.

The thigh bone connected to the knee bone It's hard to get to Mahomes if he's got easy shots available.

Thank you for clarifying this.

It's easy to hindsight someone, which is what Warner is doing here. There are no questions Josh makes dumb decisions sometimes. Throwing late and back across his body to the middle of the field to a double-covered player is a dumb decision. There are times Warner's criticisms of Josh are justified, no question. Throwing a deep shot to our best WR in search of a "game changer" when there was something short open, is not necessarily a "dumb move". If he makes it, no one is going to be saying "damned, that was a high risk dumb throw!".

You won't. Among other reasons, the team has no business publicizing personal medical information outside the requirements laid down by the NFL during the season. When these sort of things come out, it's usually a friend/teammate or "insider" who "spills the tea". Like when Fitz was playing with broken ribs and Stevie Johnson couldn't stand the criticism Fitz was taking, and revealed the injury after the season. Graded out by whom?

I'm actually a (not so) secret Larry Bird addict. When I'm feeling "down" I like to look up an old Larry Bird highlight reel on Youtube and feast my eyeballs. Which is a little weird since I'm not really an NBA fan at all. But do what you gotta do to keep yourself positive! Bird was unquestionably a great player. If I'm not mistaken, Bird spent 3 years as an NBA coach and took a team that had been vacillating between losing the EC finals and losing in the 1st round, to....losing the EC finals twice and losing the finals once. After which they went back to vacillating between losing the EC finals and losing in the first round. Guess I'm not sure why one would look to Larry Bird as an authority on how to manage a championship Football team?

The point is, McDermott never did to Frazier what the post we're responding to by @NeverOutNick suggested: "I don’t understand how at the very least we couldn’t have told Sean McDermott hey we’re going to explore other options at head coach in the next few weeks. We are not firing you unless we find someone we think will maximize Josh Allens talents and get us to a Super Bowl more than you can." As @WhoTom pointed out, that would be a disaster in a romantic relationship. "Hi Sugarlips! I have full confidence in you as the (man, woman, whatever) who can rock my world and light up my life, so I'm not breaking up with you - but I'm going to explore other options, and if I think I've found someone better, YOU'RE GONE!" A romantic partner with any self respect would "Nope!" out of there so fast they'd leave skidmarks, and rightfully so. Pretty much the same for a high-profile job like McDermott. Support him....or fire him. There is no "we'll look around and upgrade if we can, otherwise we have full confidence in your abilities to lead the team" option. And McDermott never did anything like that to Frazier.

Meaning no offense, but I'm asking Bull. Diggs was literally 48th, 67th, and 72nd in several categories some regard as important. He was also tied for 6th in a category most would prefer to see lower.

Interacting with the press is actually a requirement for NFL players - remember "I'm just here so I don't get fined?" It is literally part of a player's job to deal with the press. They don't have to do it all the time or any time, but it's literally part of the job Diggs gets paid an average annual salary of $24M to do. I can write the same about Bass - "There is nothing to say. The kick went wide right. Would have liked to make the kick." Or Josh - "There is nothing to say. The pass to Shakir was short. Would have liked to make the pass." They're leaders on the team, they know it's part of the job and expected, they Cowboyed up and talked to the press as their job requires.

Please define "near the top of the league" - top 10? top 15? 67th? 48th? 72nd? Which I guess raises the question "what do you mean by everything"?