Beck Water

There are players who are noted for this. Christian Wilkins is one. The idea is if they can get you to lose your focus, their teammate gets the ball. If they can't, they get you mad enough at them you you'll come out of the pile swinging and they get 15 yds. But you know, I thought Detroit left early and should have had a penalty. Am I the only one? Be shocked then. In his 2005 book "Romo My Life on the Edge" Bill Romanowski recounted how he once broke another player's finger while in a scrum pile.

I like the way you think. I'd love the Chiefs to be "exposed" without Mahomes. I don't think it's realistic. Any team is going to fear sitting their QB, and the better the QB, the bigger the fear. Of course, the Chiefs fear sitting Mahomes, why wouldn't they fear sitting their top QB? But the league - the people who dissect film for a living - understand that the Chiefs are less "The Patrick Mahomes Show" this season (and last) than they were earlier in his career, and I wouldn't expect them to fold like a cheap lawn chair if Mahomes can't go. Points: -Andy Reid is one of the best coaches in the business. He got the best play of his career out of Alex Smith. He got good QB play from Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick. If anyone can tool a scheme to succeed with a given QB, even Carson Wentz, Reid is that guy. -Right now, the Chiefs have the #5 D on points and yards given up. Their D has been keeping them in games and winning close games for them. -Their offense is only OK. It's like 12th in the league for points and 14th for yards. They're running on 5.8 NY/A passing, which is 21st in the league, or something like that. They're "meh" for completion percentage and pass yards per game. What they are, is balanced, passing and rushing making about the same contribution. There's definitely more to the Chiefs than Paddy Mahomes. What they will lose if Mahomes sits, is that extra layer of belief in their own invincibility and ability to come from behind - the confidence that if things look grim, Mahomes the Grim Reaper will cut the opponent down to size and pull off the improbable victory. I think This Is True.

So again not Baldy, but if the X's and O's they haunt you, here's Eric Wood breaking down X's and O's on some of the Bills TDs:

According to Brave, you're pretty much right. -Phins need to win out -They need the Chargers to lose twice -They need the Colts to lose once.

? Smoot is currently on the roster?

Wow, people like to narrative. McKenzie's snaps were not reduced. He was playing 50-ish % of the offensive snaps to the end of 2022, until he got hurt and was inactive for the first playoff game. And he started that podcast with Dunne way earlier than that. It was obvious in 2022 that he wasn't able to step up and replace Beasley in the Slot role, and Nyheim Hines in 2022 and Deonte Harty in 2023 were likely signed as upgrades to McKenzie - but as it happens, they weren't. Curtis Samuel was also signed as an upgrade in the slot, and he certainly has a much better track record than any of those 3 players, but so far he hasn't proven to be an upgrade, either. I thought the Phins weren't mathematically eliminated yet? I feel like it would be "revenant" time, but in theory, aren't they still in it?

Factually, as far as Dunne's story goes, McKenzie was speaking up long before he was cut in a podcast with Dunne ("The Isaiah McKenzie Show"). And McKenzie was ON the record quoted by name in Dunne's story, with everything he said being positive. In his podcast, he did say some stuff about the ride home after the 13 seconds game, that it was a pretty bad scene etc. But I don't think you can tag McKenzie as "indicting McDermott's leadership". For the record, I don't think Dunne "made up" his story, but he clearly had his own agenda and his interpretation and editorializing that was a large part of the story. And if you speak to 40 sources or whatever it was and many of them are anonymous, it's impossible for the reader to tell if the most damning quotes are from 1 or 2 people, or from 10 or 20 people. Did you ever see the movie "Sweet Liberty" with Alan Alda? The historical re-enactors rebel against the movie director and do their scene with historical accuracy. Alda's character is talking to the director character afterwards and says something about them doing the scene the way it actually was vs. what he wanted, and the latter says "I filmed it from 40 different angles. I can make it look Any Way I Want." I find it very significant that John Wawrow now known as @Delete This Account , summarized Dunne's article as "former employee has issues with former boss" and said "that's why many of us are going to sit this one out" or something to that effect. I thought it was pretty clear that a lot of the most damning quotes came from either Dorsey or Daboll or both. As far as 13 seconds, I also found it significant that 'Zo Alexander, who was still well connected to the current team because of his work with young players, said "the players know what happened...the players will sort it out". I have my own theory on the Chad Hall and 'Lil Dirty departures, but I don't have to share them unless someone wants to hear.

Makes a lot of sense that McKenzie would want to sign there, he lives in Miami during the off season and has his BBQ restaurant there. The Fish put Blake Ferguson on the reserve/non-football injury or illness list in mid-October. He was predicted to return in 4 weeks and they were elevating a LS they signed to the practice squad, but Ferguson hasn't been back. They had a PS guy, Matt Overton, who cam up off the PS and snapped 3 games for them, then they had this Jake McQuaid guy on PS but it's pretty weird - I went and looked - on their depth chart, the position of LS is currently blank! So evidently they decided Ferguson isn't coming back this season? and they better put McQuaid on the roster before someone snipes him? I don't know, whatever the illness or injury is, I wish Ferguson well.

I think he was this year's Justin Zimmer. Relatively fast and athletic for a DE - saw him catch guys downfield a couple of times. Pretty sure Bills want to put him on the PS if they can.

So Diggs had a 4 yr, $96M salary of which $70M was guaranteed. The money that was guaranteed was: 1) signing bonus of $21.5 - this is paid to the player up-front 2) 2022 and 2023 salary guaranteed at signing 3) I don't remember if there was an option bonus built into the contract, or if the Bills converted a bunch of Diggs salary to bonus and amortized it. 3) 2024 salary of $19M guaranteed on the 4th day of the 2024 league new year 4) he had some guaranteed salary in 2025, think it was $3 or $3.5M So the $31M of cap hit for Diggs on the Bills books, was amortized bonus already paid to Diggs that accelerated onto the current league year when the Bills traded him. The Texans became liable for Diggs 2024 salary of $19M and 2025 guarantee of $3 or $3.5M. What they did, was tack the 2025 guarantee onto his 2024 salary, then convert a lot of it to signing bonus and amortize it. I'm not sure what you mean by "some money did change hands" but the above is a fairly accurate picture.

Right. Turf toe injuries just linger like the scent of a dead woodchuck under the porch.

I think there are football players and football guys, and all football players aren't necessarily football guys. I think it was more Diggs and Davis weren't adequately replaced, which - c'mon, that was a common viewpoint here as well. Poyer and Hyde, yeah, they were no longer playing at their former all-pro level. It wasn't just "we were still winning" with Brady turning away from Diggs; it was that we were a totally meh team, 5-5 and maybe out of the playoffs, when Dorsey got "relieved of his duties". Then under Brady, 6-1 with that one loss in OT to the Eagles. So it was like "not only can we survive when we stop featuring Diggs, we can THRIVE. I was surprised at how much they thought the loss of Mitch Morse would impact Allen. I'm not sure Morse was calling the protections for Allen, but there was also the point that there were 7-8 games where Feliciano and then Bates took over at C for Morse and it was pretty seamless. Like 5 W 2 L seamless, but the 2 L had nothing whatsever to do with Morse not being at C

Not Baldy and not a breakdown, but this is an enjoyable watch: Good thing we fans ain't got no stinkin' 48 hr rule!

That is true, but is number of passing TDs in a game really the metric of a great QB? I haven't looked, but passing yards aren't correlated with winning, so I dunno if passing TDs are. I mean, Goff just threw 5 passing TDs vs the Bills, and .... lost? Josh threw 3 vs the Rams and.... lost?

The guy who's predicting the Implosion of Allen because he Lost the Only Center he Ever Had is former AZ Cardinals backup C in 2015 (and starter in 2016 and 2017) AQ Shipley. He ought to know something about changing centers and having the team go from 13-3 to 7-8-1 (low blow?) The others are journeyman backup QB Colt McCoy (who tells the story of Brian Daboll screaming in his helmet and verbally abusing him during practice when he was in CLE) and 10 year NFL guard Justin Pugh. So they know a lot more ball than 3 random dudes slamming longnecks in a bar, but it's also pretty clear Gruden has forgotten more ball than they jointly ever knew.

This is precious. Love watching Gruden's face while the other three are pontificating about how the Bills will go 8-9 after all the players they let go and Allen is getting the big bucks so he needs to step up and make plays. Who are those other 3 guys anyway, one of them mentioned playing for AZ in 2015 and put an outsize importance on the loss of Mitch Morse at C - so was he an OLman for AZ in 2015? EDIT: it's AQ Shipley, the AZ Cards backup C in 2015, who started the next 2 years. The others are Colt McCoy and Justin Pugh. I do have to admit I was concerned about replacing Mitch Morse with Conner McGovern, not because of replacing Mitch Morse per se but because McGovern had basically not shown he could play C in the NFL and he had an injury history. But it was also clear Morse had limitations for the sort of run game the Bills wanted to run. I'm also still concerned with the quality of our WR corps and worry that Beane won't invest in upgrades because we're managing with what we've got and the D line seems so pitiful.

That is wild. How could they make that mistake? Yes, January 15th 2022 vs NWE in a 47-17 playoff game. 84% completion for 308 yds, 5 passing TDs, 0 INT, and 6 rushes for 66 yds. Do the Ravens think it doesn't count because it was in the playoffs against a 10-7 team coached by Bill Belicheck, instead of against a 2-12 Giants team that jettisoned their former 1st round QB a few weeks back and is visibly tanking? Did someone tell them? Edit: I messaged the Ravens on Facebook. Wonder if they'll get back to me.

Allen and the quality of his O-line are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he extends plays and that's hard on an O-line vs. a Purdy type who gets the ball out quickly and in rhythm. It can make a decent O-line look bad. On the other hand, Allen has become an absolute magician at avoiding defenders, with a gift for making them run into each other instead of him. So he avoids many sacks, and that makes the O-line look better. But they have to have an almost otherworldly awareness of where he is and how to interfere with defenders in order to help him escape without getting called for the block in the back or the hold.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had that thought. Yucccckkkkk-o

Maybe, but Josh is a runner at that point and that's the name of the game

I'm with Simon. No "might", it makes you sound insane. Leaving aside any questions about whether Diggs has decided to shut up and catch the ball and be a good teammate now - and I say "when someone tells you who he is, Believe Him" - he'd be coming back off an ACL. We've all seen that a player's first year back off an ACL, they tend to be tentative and aren't able to plant and change direction like they could before. And that was Diggs bread-and-butter, the ability to juke defenders out of their shorts.

I just want to know did Allen go over to congratulate Goff and instead B word about greatness being called back? Imma guess "No"

You do know the Lions have one of the top defenses in football (3rd I think before this week) and we just hung 48 points of offense on them?

Right, but that doesn't answer why was it Spector and not Dorian Williams? To my eyes Williams has played well.

Nah that's for making small things look bigger. I think what we need here is a wide-angle lens, to bring larger things into the frame of the picture.