Beck Water

I appreciate and in fact agree with your POV that Beane has found talent, but is short on elite talent. But mentioning Josh Allen and Taron Johnson as 2nd team all-pros just illustrates the shortcomings of using All-Pro designations as a metric for elite talent. It may have been once, but it is no longer. Dawkins has been playing at an elite level as LT; Spencer Brown seems to be moving into the "elite level" category if he stays healthy. We'll see on Bernard, but if he can have a DL who keeps the LB clean I think he'll prove elite. Cook could be elite. I think the biggest place where Beane has not shown the ability to acquire/develop elite talent is at receiver (WR and TE).

Buffalo Joe for reals. It's sounding as though they're leaning towards "shake the rust off Hamlin"?? McDermott has flat out said Hyde will not be called up for this game "you can see him on the sideline". Your wish for Van Pran Granger is likely to be satisfied, but I didn't get the impression that McDermott intends to expose 2 practice squad players to waivers. So the PS callups may be limited to 2 guys who can automatically revert.

I don't know if this would work for you, but for me, I honestly went into the season feeling this was a rebuilding year and while, with Allen, there is always a good chance, we just didn't have the "hosses" on Defense and at Offensive Skill Positions to make it work. And the guys I felt the best about (Samuel, then Cooper) haven't been the major contributors I'd hoped. I've been delighted to be wrong on the W/L record, but I'm trying to remember that I didn't go into the season saying "Superbowl, Baby!" I went into the season saying "I hope we can be competitive in most games"

So Drake Maye will play, injured hand and all? (Limited on Wednesday) Mayo says "I've never been a part of a team as a player or as a coach going into a game not wanting to win. That's not going to change today. ... My message to the guys was we want to finish off the season strong." Mcdermott says Winning is our #1 Priority and Mitch Trubisky will play most of the game <-----does not compute #2 priority is coming out of the game healthy Soooooooo I'm starting to think that coach speak at this time of year is like listening to general managers during the pre-draft process LOL

So is this the actual pro bowl roster? https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1874818120805990725/photo/1 https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1874818120805990725/photo/2 Because if so it actually makes some sense (Allen, Dawkins, Ja'mar Chase, Derrick Henry, Patrick Ricard etc)

Oh Ya and it's not just the Bills. Crazy to have Patrick Ricard at fullback - he plays like 40% of the snaps - #5 in the pro bowl voting behind Carson Steele of the Chiefs (16% snaps) and Alex Ingold of the Dolphins (34% of the snaps). The Ravens have the #2 rushing game in the league, and clearly Ricard is a big part of that. The Dolphins have the 24th run game in the league and the Chiefs 16th. It's like bandwagon fans and "Oh, he's on my team, must be great!"

A little bit gauche to follow up my own post, but I was just reading a Joe B article in the Athletic that confirmed what I deduced: Rather than playing 4-3, what the Bills were doing was pulling Milano on 3rd and longs and bringing in Cam Lewis as a dime back.

I don't know about "normal in the NFL", but if a team wants to win it all in the post season they better have quality backups at some key positions. And MLB is one of them. We started the season with Spector as Bernard's backup, and it was pretty clear there was a substantial drop off. Now we're down to ?3rd string at MLB and Bernard nursing a quad injury We kind of need a prayer wheel for Bernard's good health, because him going down from (if I recall correctly) 'friendly fire' from Rapp, led to us playing AJ Klein (hot off the sofa) at MLB against KC. It would not be fair to pin the loss on Klein at all, but playing what one chap here referred to as "The Little Sisters of the Poor" at LB was certainly one factor in KC's victory

I'm not sure whether we fundamentally disagree or whether this is a nit Josh's success is a direct reflection of Josh's athletic talent, combined with an incredibly competitive drive to win AND a willingness to self-reflect and strive for improvement. Beane, McDermott, and the offensive coaches stumbled out of the gate with Josh - crap OL and poor WR in 2018, no experienced vet QB on the roster who could show Josh the ropes for game prep - but they recovered and did a good job keeping Josh in a consistent offensive system and putting talent in front of him and around him to enable his success. This isn't entirely serendipity - Beane has talked about how, in the lead up to the 2018 draft, they talked about how more QB talent is ruined than is developed in the NFL. We agree that without the success and stability of a HC, an offensive system, and a positive culture, you get NYJ Sam Darnold and Cleveland Baker Mayfield as well as the Bears blowing multiple high picks - though I'm uncertain some of the Bears QBs would have succeeded anywhere. But Josh is "1 of 1" as far as talent, competitive drive, and willingness to improve himself.

But wait, there's more. Let's take out Allen's rookie season (when the Bills had him as 3rd string QB all summer but then started him 'cuz Peterdude still sucked) and let's include 2022 and 2023 (but not this year yet. 11.6 wins/year Improvement of 3.35 wins/year Meanwhile for several of those years (2022, 2023) guys who know something about football like Chris Simms were pounding their table that the Bills offense was far too dependent on Josh Allen, without enough run game or enough talent at WR and TE.

Commas save lives Let's eat grandma! Let's eat, grandma! He's telling his coaches he's coming for their jobs!

At any point of the year where they were all active, we could state with certainty that our best 3 LBs are Bernard, Milano, and Williams...that's why they're the starters Yes, with Spector on IR (and not playing well for the 2 games he was off it) our depth at LB is once again looking might-t thin. Buffalo Joe has promise, but is a rookie; Morrow is 32, has only had a couple of cameo appearances and the fact that he's been behind Spector and Buffalo Joe on the depth chart is telling; Ulofoshio is a rookie and has only played ST. We don't have any linebackers on the practice squad, either. I have to think the key question for Brandon Beane is whether he's extremely and extraordinarily nervous about the lack of quality LB depth, or only very nervous.

And it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel....is just a freight train coming your way

McDermott said he expects Buffalo Joe to play a lot on Sunday. Where he is relative to Spector on the depth chart isn't relevant, since Spector went on IR prior to the Jets game. I guess Spector would be eligible to return from IR if the Bills make it to the AFC Championship game? but barring emergencies if we make it that far without him I can't see the Bills dusting him off and throwing him out there.

I don't have the game film to review, but Dorian Williams was only on the field 40% of the snaps, not enough to fill in for the 44% of the snaps Milano was off the field for,. Buffalo Joe took over for Bernard, and no other LB played snaps on defense. Rapp and Bishop played 100%, and Ingram and Codrington took over for Benford and Douglas. Cam Lewis, on the other hand, was on the field more than the 40% needed to back up Taron Johnson. Rather than playing 4-3 base, I think the Bills were actually playing a "big nickel" variant (sorta dime?) where they took out a linebacker and brought in Cam Lewis. Along with that, they may have used Quinton Jefferson or Greg Rousseau as a "joker" on the DL ("heavy LB or hybrid DL/DE"). I believe they used to do this sort of set with Lorenzo Alexander and I believe it was how they hoped to use Jefferson when they initially brought him in back in 2020. Only then Lotulelei "opted out" on the season, and the Bills were left scrambling to fill the 1T position, so much for that.

I came here to link this article. Buscaglia points out that everyone else on the field was sold on the misdirection; Milano was the only one who was able to read and react fast enough to get a hand on Adams. And, that's Davante Adams; even in his prime, I'm not sure Milano would have been able to hang with him. Maybe enough to get two hands on his shoestrings. Key point, Milano has been shedding rust rapidly game to game and quarter to quarter. On the Lions game: Conclusion:

We're good on cookware. Primary set is Le Creuset enameled cast iron, cast iron dutch oven. We needed to replace our ceramic coated aluminum pan this summer and chose to do so with stainless steel that said it was induction ready. Inherited two cast iron frying pans we electrolyzed and re-seasoned, and a stainless steel Cuisinart saucepan. I am a bit worried about my copper-bottom stainless steel stockpot but the copper is just a coating over the stainless steel so if a paper towel under the stainless steel pot works, copper below the stainless steel should work? Only thing I'll for sure have to replace is my two burner non-stick aluminum griddle. We may choose not to do so since I have an electric griddle, but I'll probably keep my eyes open for a cast iron rescue baby. I gotta say the $100/yr for a service plan would grinch me out at the price point we're looking at. We have had to replace the oven igniter in our range (which was a matter of picking up the part and swapping it in), but other than that it's been a Beast. I'm pretty happy with gas, but I do have respiratory problems so in addition to the "adopt technology while still flexible enough to master it" thing, I do think the air quality concerns are real. My kid made a point that she could really tell the difference in the air quality of our kitchen vs. her no-window, poorly ventilated kitchen because of our gas range (vs. her electric).

Eh. We eat out fairly regularly regardless because for *reasons* I start wanting to have polite young people bring me tasty food. We own a small propane grill, an Instant Pot, a microwave, and a variety of camp stoves so range or no range, there's no reason for us to eat takeout unless we want to. Give me a 5.5 oz V8 can, a couple ounces of ethanol, and a pot and I'll be cooking soup, tea, coffee etc What I meant by "loving it, except for technology" is even my decade(+)-old gas range has various circuit boards to control the oven features (delay start, time bake, convection etc). There's also some kind of "dead man switch" that cuts off the gas flow when electrical power goes out, most irksome. So we could find ourselves waiting for a replacement circuit board with our current gas (!!!) range and probably waiting longer, since the age means they're likely to be more scarce (if available)

Thanks for the response! Do you mind me asking how much the motherboard repairs cost and what mfr your stove is? I'm concerned about the durability of the glass surface. Any input there? I do love my gas range and make notes of which burner/approx analog setting I used to cook various dishes. Being able to put a paper towel under the pot on an induction range is wild, as is @f0neguy's story of his son's steel plate. Like I said, we figure we should make the change before we lose the mental flexibility to really adopt.

They say Sam Darnold has a Conference Championship ring

Thigh Doctor is incorrect about "most LB snaps last week of starters". First of all that's an odd way of putting it because there are only 2 starting LBs on the Bills. Second, Milano factually played fewer snaps (35 snaps) than Bernard (37 snaps)

Sounds to me like Thad Brown is *****-stirring by making up this "definitely in some doubt for playoffs" schtick. If a guy is "week to week" with an injury that didn't force him to leave the game, give him 2 weeks and he likely plays. Seriously?

No. "The injury occurred during the game with the Jets" Bernard came out 1 snap before Taron Johnson and 3 snaps before Benford and Douglas Maybe someone who has the all-22 can look and see if there's anything at that time of the game that looks like a possible injury? Taron Johnson came out after the Jets 3rd drive of the 3rd Q with 5:13 left Of course it's always possible he injured it earlier, and toughed it out until the Bills went up 26 to 0 He looked good. Of course, by that time the Jets were looking for the bus, so there's that.

I would guess that they would dress Mike White. If the intent is to start Josh Allen but then pull him quickly, they won't want to put Allen back in if Trubisky gets injured, so they need Plan C

"Knocks against" Tua I see what you did there!