Beck Water

So it's interesting. It's been announced that the Rams are starting Wentz vs. San Francisco on Sunday. I don't quite know what to make of that. It is a different situation than the Bills at Dolphins though. I think it's kind of a "desperation play", like when the 9-7 Giants, already in the playoffs, started Davis Webb against the Eagles. Sort of "OK, we lost, but we weren't bringing our A game". Since 2019, the 49ers and Rams have played 10x and the Rams only win was the 2021 Conf. Championship.

I gotta love the use of the word "egregious" 😍 And we are "at one" that I've seen a bit too much of Von Miller at the microphone when I'd rather have seen players who were actually out there grinding and making stuff happen, like Big Ed and Epenesa. One thing I just noticed: reading the Spotrac fine print, Von Miller has $10.7M of 2024 salary already guaranteed (guaranteed at signing). His remaining $6.44M guarantees near the start of the League new year, in March 2024. Usually in these circs, the remaining money is "injury guaranteed now", meaning if Von Miller plays and is hurt, the Bills are 'on the hook' for the whole thing. It's possible that the Bills, in a quieter and less publicity-ridden way, are doing the same thing the Broncos did in benching Russell Wilson for their final games - keeping some of their 2024 cap options open. The cynic in me says that we're waiting for the NFL to finish counting the indignant emails and notes they got asking why Drew Ogletree, a 2022 6th round Colts TE of no particular pedigree and 9 NFL receptions, is on the commissioner's exempt list for DV while Von Miller is standing in front of a microphone saying it's all a terrible misunderstanding while free to practice and play. I think they have a measuring stick, and if the pile is over a certain height, on the Exempt list he goes.

So one of the follow-ups to Kyle's tweet says "potentially helps explain having his worst passing day of the year" , to which Trimble responds "Considering it was early in the day, that would help reinforce that idea". Except that Q by Q here were Allen's stats 1Q: 2 for 11 for 5 yards 2Q: 5 for 9 for 41 yards, 1 INT 3Q: 3 for 4 for 84 yards 4Q: 5 for 6 for 36 So since this happened late in the 1st, Allen was having a bad day passing before it happened, and was able to "get it together" the rest of the game This gives me hope that the finger injury is not too serious -- 🤞

But so were we

Let's try this. Here is a table listing the contributions of every WR and TE drafted in the first and second round of 2023 sorted by number of receptions. On your honor, without looking up their stats, please indicate which are WR and which are TE using the number in the first column (eg, TE = #, #, #, #) Extra credit: indicate which players were selected in the first and which in the second round. Thanks. If a decent WR will put up better numbers than a TE, should be cinchy.

https://news.yahoo.com/damar-hamlin-effect-cpr-training-043721494.html

Others have made the same observation:

So who are the NFL QB you view as perfectly consistent players? Whups, sorry. I know that well - brain lapse

Thanks!

For lay persons, these days breaths are no longer recommended. I love your sentiment, and I'm sorry to break in with this.

I was more thinking of this one: Marcel L-J says everyone safe

I just want to say it's been a pleasure to have some positive exchange with you, and realize that whatever the differences, we're both Bills fans under the skin. There are a number of realistic and valid criticisms to be made. I make 'em myself at times! Just realize that when they're met with a lot of resistance, it might not be that criticism per se is met with resistance here - a bunch of us critique all the time. It's more when they're seen as unbalanced or over the top that they're met with more resistance. I've been a Bills fan since the mid-'60s. I was "just one before my Grandfather dies" and then he passed and it was "just one before I die". So I get that.

CJ Caggiano? Nah, he's not a sports journalist, he's just a "guy who knows a guy". I'm confused a bit here, is that what Josh said in his post game interview?

Well, @HappyDays , who has some sources, says this guy has broken some good info later confirmed. The shoulder injury is not some top-secret ooga booga. Josh has been on the injury report up until this past week. At the time of the injury, Josh acknowledged it and injury spotters/analysts like Kyle Trimble (Banged Up Bills) said the mechanism was consistent with an AC joint sprain. It's lingered past the point where a Grade 1 sprain is likely so it's likely Grade 2 (more tearing). The only new info is the implication that there's something going on besides an AC joint sprain, which someone else in the twitter thread threw out a suggestion about (and his abbreviation doesn't line up, but the general idea is a secondary inflammatory process). But the fact that Josh was actually throwing OK right after the injury and has since plummeted in completion percentage and passing attempts per game, is entirely consistent with playing through the original injury leading to a secondary problem. And yeah, @Alphadawg7 is completely on-the-mark in my opinion that the guy is a total tool for his schtick of "telling everyone Josh has a shoulder injury but then saying well I won't say exactly what it is until after the season because I was told to keep it confidential" (but I'll say it's an AC joint injury but more than just an AC injury).

I should probably let this go but... You were responding to this post: You posted this: The full context is relevant, because when you look at the entirety of the NFL's blurb, we see this: So @johndhall1 has a point that if (a) through (e) aren't true, it isn't true that the injury MUST be reported. He is incorrect about treatment being the deciding factor though. it's missing a game or part of a game, or missing a practice or part of a practice. Then we get to the "weasel words" section, in which, even if (a) through (e) aren't true That's simply not true. We have "may be" and we have "the possibility" and "given the fact that he is a key player". There are lots of weasel words. Now - any injury to the QB, or to the key RB on a run-is-our-bread-n-butter team, and it would be very hard for the club to argue that he isn't a key player. I'm pretty sure I could draft your response to this, and it won't be to understand or acknowledge the point that the NFL's injury report policy is a lot less cut and dried and has a lot more room for interpretation than you seem to think it does. So one philosophy is "why bother?" but it seems worth clarifying in case anyone else is interested. As pointed out in the Khalil Shakir thread, Jerry Hughes appeared on the injury report as "vet rest" during a year when he later had ligament surgery and revealed he'd been playing with torn ligaments most of the season, and the NFL concluded that the Bills had done nothing wrong. I can't comment about the Falcons and other fine issues you allude to because I haven't been following them. But it's not automatic.

The stinger supposedly occurred on the last play before he left the game and Kyle Allen came in. I dunno, but when I've injured a hand and when my daughter has broken fingers, shaking her hand has been the last thing she wants to do.

I'd like to 'like" this post as a token of appreciation for how you do this every week, but I can't "like" the information it contains so... ...take this as thanks

Gaaaaaaah! So Buffalo Bills Injury report just came out Allen is on the injury report for "Neck" and "Right finger" Finger on his throwing hand Please remove sharp objects from my vicinity

To your point: Diggs appeared on the Bills injury report Week 10 with an injury "back" after a collision with a security guard when he ran OOB Wk 9. In a rare move for him, he was limited in practice all that week. Gardner decided to pick him up and supplex him after the whistle Wk 11. He was penalized and fined 10k, to which he responded ambiguously "pain" I don't think one has to be a tin-hat conspiracy theorist to think that maybe Gardner knew Diggs had been on the injury report for a back injury the previous week, and maybe causing him some "pain" could aggravate it and knock him out. It's a fact that teams follow their opponents injury report and players go after known injured body parts with extra vigor. It's also a fact that Diggs big drop in productivity followed his Week 9, 6 reception on 7 target 86 yd game against Cincy - after which he showed up on the injury report.

Exactly. There is ample precedent for players, after the season, to report on actual surgery-requiring injuries (Hughes) or that the injury reported bluntly as "ribs" was actually multiple broken bones (Fitzpatrick, Beasley). These may or may not have appeared on the injury report, and if they did appear on the injury report, they may have disappeared more promptly than the typical course of healing for such an injury would suggest. I believe you're one of the guys who has pointed out that Diggs gets assaulted on almost every play. Opponents "accidentally" kick or knee or elbow his head, often while he's down, with no repercussions from the ref. It's why on some "mic'd up" segments you can see other players racing over after he's tackled yelling as they go "HEY HEY HEY HEY I'M HERE I'M HERE I'M HERE!" (Davis in one mic'd up segment). We all saw "Sauce" Gardner viciously supplex Diggs during the Nov. 19 Jets game. It's not hard to believe that at the least, that caused a massive contusion, even if the team (and Diggs) don't consider it significant enough to report.

Right. I pointed this out elsewhere, but it's worth re-stating here. In early 2020, Jerry Hughes posted on social media about having surgery to repair torn ligaments in his wrist which he had played through all 2019 season. He appeared on injury report, but only for "Vet Rest". The NFL investigated whether the Bills had violated their injury reporting policy - and concluded that the Bills had done nothing wrong This is for a documented, acknowledged by the player, honest to god "I was playing with torn wrist ligaments all season long" injury. I think McDermott's actual words were "nothing significant" or something like that. So we all need to calibrate that against the learning that apparently playing through actual torn ligaments requiring surgery is "nothing significant" per the Bills, and the NFL actually agreed with them.

Oh, C'mon. With a 53 man roster, practice squad, 32 teams in the league, and a Win-and-In game that's essentially "Win or Go Home", SURELY we can find something?

You should include the full context There's obviously some weasel words. If the Bills felt Allen's shoulder injury no longer affected his performance (taking him off injury report before Week 17), they're allowed to say "that's what we thought based on practice and the report from our head trainer, but whoops". It's also possible that he got a "ding" early in the game that re-aggrevated it and affected him. On the Diggs thing, I believe McDermott's actual words were something like "no significant injuries". By this time in the season, almost all the players have various dings and bruises. So as long as he's taking every rep in practice and there's no question he's going to play, there are all kinds of weaseling. Remember the NFL concluded the Bills did NOT violate their injury policy when they had Jerry Hughes (their best pass rusher) on injury report only for "Vet Rest" then he got post-season tendon surgery on his wrist and revealed he'd been playing all season with torn wrist ligaments.

Apologies, but I'm not going to wade through the thread to find it. It really doesn't depend upon the "extent to which injury has affected his play lately". No NFL player's agent worth his salt is going to acknowledge a falloff in skill on the part of his player when many other things can legit contribute - offensive scheme, quality of pass protection, usage, inaccurate throws from the QB. Diggs is currently a top-10 receiver in the league for receptions. His agents will argue he can't control how he is being used (all those stupid screens that don't work) or the accuracy of his QB's throws. They're not gonna go with "hey, he's being paid like a #5 but producing like a #15 for yards so sure, we'll take a salary cut we don't have to take".

We already gave up a 3rd rounder for Rasul Douglas. I'm not clear on which that was, but if you're talking comp pick for Edmunds, I don't think a comp pick (>96 in the 3rd round) plus a "mid rounder" gets you from wherever we finish (mid-20's?) to top 12.