Beck Water

Yes You raise a number of valid concerns that are important to make people aware of. I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing them, but it's also important to me for folks to understand that this is really pretty straightforward to address. I don't want people to feel that it's "whole house generator or bad idea" when it comes to emergency preparedness. Agreed feeding power from a generator into the power panel could be a potential danger to power workers if the mains to the panel are not shut off. That's the whole point of installing an interlock switch and a mains power alarm - the fact that it locks-out the mains switch to prevent that turn-off-mains step from being omitted (or thoughtlessly reversed) while feeding power from the generator, causing backfeed. It's physically impossible to cause backfeed, because the mains are physically locked into the "Off" position while the circuit that powers the panel from the generator is turned on. Either-or, Not Both. The interlock would not be particularly difficult for an electrically knowledgeable person to DIY, but it's an obvious modification to the power panel so IMHO a licensed electrician is 100% the way to go here. You're correct that modern appliances have a lot of electronics that can be potentially damanged by the spikes and surges of a standard generator. Having stable and consistent power is the point of having an inverter generator rather than a standard one. I can tell you know this, but for others, the battery, inverter, and alternator in the inverter generator are designed to produce spike and surge free AC that won't damage appliances. And yes, we started with a spreadsheet with the power draw of everything in the house and decided what we wanted to be able to operate to stay functional when sizing the generators. Being able to power the neighbor's fridges requires careful consideration of what we run. Again, I don't want to minimize your valid concerns. My point is to ensure people who might benefit from emergency power, but who can't or don't want to put out the money for a whole house generator, know these are relatively standard and straightforward to address. Love the username by the way. TRIPLE T! The pain train's coming!

We've joked about that, actually.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/miami-dolphins-ten-things-kellly-column 'sup, Pats Fan, trying to make that 20 -7 loss you sustained to the Fins in the season opener feel better? You're not wrong that we could have lost to them in the playoffs and that it would have been VERY embarrassing, but .....if the Dolphins are indeed such talented team now, why would that embarrassment be true? In fact, it would have been embarrassing because the Bills played a very sloppy game once they got up 17-0, including 2 picks and 4 fumbles (1 lost) and gave up 15 points off turnovers.

You said: " So my question is, if Miami hasn’t shown that they belong in a conversation with Buffalo, what has Buffalo done to belong in a conversation with Kansas City?" The answer is, beaten you at home 38-20 and 24-20 in the last 2 regular season games, and taken the game to 13 seconds and a coin flip in the 2021 AFC Division round. You didn't ask about the Bengals, Championships won, etc. If you don't like that answer, fine, but "we're 2x Superbowl Champions and You're Not, Nah Nah" doesn't seem like much of a response, especially since in fact, the Bengals pretty much embarrassed the Chiefs in the 2021 AFC championship - it wasn't as close as the final score - supporting the idea that the Bills gave the Chiefs everything they could handle and depleted them the prior game. Then there's that 31-9 loss to Tampa in the 2020 Superbowl, wanna brag on that?

So if you want to make a case that Beasley and Brown were brought in as "sure handed veterans Josh knows he can trust" because he didn't trust Davis, McKenzie, and Shakir, you need to be able to show that Beasley and Brown took snaps from those "droppy" guys when they were otherwise healthy. Spoiler: they didn't. McKenzie pulled a hammy in the final NWE game, was inactive vs Miami in the WC round, and had a lower load in the Bengals game - because of the hammy, not because of drops.

Same. Jets D is legit. In a recent interview, Dawkins called out Cowherd when he talked as though he made the assumption the Bills would just be expected to beat the Jets. He praised their defense and said they give us all we can handle. What the Jets lacked, was a QB - and now they have one.

That's why fans think they brought in Smoke and Beas (that order). But it doesn't add up. I think it was, purely and simply, a numbers game. Crowder broke his leg October 8. Hodgins was on the roster. Then, in a "squeeze play" with Tre White needing to be activated but not quite ready to play at the beginning of Nov so we needed to roster an extra CB, we exposed Hodgins to waivers and the G-men pounced. Less than 2 weeks later we put Kumerow on IR. At that point, the Bills had only 4 WR left on the roster - Diggs Davis McKenzie and Shakir!!!! We needed depth! We were elevating Tanner Gentry off the practice squad and using Quintin Morris some as a WR (which actually, is not a bad thing in my view but I digress). If you look at the snap counts, it's pretty clear they were not trusting Brown and Beasley above McKenzie and Shakir. They were trusting them above Tanner Gentry and Keesean Johnson. Also, if Josh didn't trust Davis, he was targeting the hell out of a guy he didn't trust, because Davis target share went up if anything the 2nd half of the season, while Diggs target share dipped at times.

The Bills certainly went into training camp having Shakir slotted in as the #3 guy, Harty slotted in as the #4 and "gadget" guy, and Sherfield as the #5 "Kumerow" replacement who can play ST. After drafting Kinkaid, the hope is that Kinkaid will become that "go to" outlet/slot receiver for Allen while the expectations on the slot wide receiver role will be reduced. My perception of the situation (given that Kinkaid continues to look like "all that" as the padded practices continue) is that a reduced expectation for slot production sort of puts Shakir into a general pool of "backup WR" where other considerations (how well can they play outside? do they play ST and where?) apply. I would definitely put Shakir below Harty on the overall "depth chart" right now WITH the huge caveat of the injury concern, because Harty is a more proven KR/PR and I believe his speed and elusiveness may make him a more successful outside receiver vs. Shakir. And Sherfield also has that ST edge. Which brings me back to a general concern as to whether the Bills have truly done "enough" at WR.

That might be true if Shakir were only on the field for a handful of snaps. Maybe 60 snaps or something. The point often missed by people who look at those 20 targets, is that Shakir was on the field for 275 snaps - at least 24% of the snaps. Yet he was only targeted on 7.2% of his snaps. So only 3.6% of his snaps led to a known positive result. What was he doing the rest of the time? For comparison, Gabe Davis (who was on the field 797 snaps as a rookie, and targeted a similar percentage - 7.8%) was extolled for his strong blocking abilities. We haven't heard that about Shakir. What we did see was Allen forcing the ball into Gabe Davis a lot, which says to me that Diggs wasn't open and either McKenzie/Shakir weren't, or Josh didn't trust their catching abilities relative to the defense when they were open. It's harsh, but when a guy is down the depth chart, he needs to take advantage of the opportunities he gets. We saw that with McKenzie. And last, you say "not his MO". Well, if 20 targets isn't a credible statistical sample (valid), isn't it true that it isn't a sufficient sample to judge what is his MO?

(click to make it readable) So to your point.....Fangio's big claim to DC fame, I think, are the SF defenses from his stint with the 9'ers 2011-2014. He had the #32 ranked D his previous stint as DC, 2005 in Houston. And SF had some pretty serious D talent in those days, especially at LB and Safety. The 2018 Bears (most recent claim) had a LB corps of Mack, Trevethan, Roquan Smith and Leonard Floyd, along with Akiem Hicks at DE and a couple of very talented DB. I personally thought the Miami D over-achieved under Flores/Josh Boyer. And they've certainly tried to add talent with Jalen Ramsey and Terron Armstead. But it's notable they have been running a 4-3 D and Vic Fangio's notable defenses have all used a 3-4 alignment. The Bills certainly saw a drop in quality when a #4 4-3 D was taken over by a DC whose bread and butter was a 3-4 alignment, and we didn't have the personnel to slot neatly into his wants. So I don't think it's a sure bet that Fangio's D will be the best in the AFC E this year. As for putting him as the best defensive coordinator in the AFCE, I guess that might be true considering his competition as actual DC are no one (Bills), Jeff Ulbrich (Jets, 3 years as DC), and no one (NWE, with Steve Belichick calling the D) By the way, Spotrac (FWIW) says "Ramsey will undergo knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus and is expected to remain out until at least December of the 2023-2024 season."

I believe those 2 teams are allowed to start training camp a week earlier because of it

As far as Diggs drops vs Shakir - here's that "eyeball test". When you're leading the team in receptions and yards as Diggs does, sure, you hate to see a drop. But in context of 150+ targets, 8 drops is relatively insignificant (5.2%). But when you're a rookie trying to prove yourself and earn more playing time as Shakir is, and you've gotten 20 targets, dropping 2 of them (scored drops, not contested or difficult catches of which there were also some "he coulda got that one" examples) is a much bigger deal that deserves its scrutiny. I like Shakir, and want him to succeed, but the cold hard football facts are that WR spots on the 53 man roster are limited, and need to go to a guy who won't drop 10% of his targets if the team wants to go places. So if Shakir wants to be that guy, he needs to fix it. The injury concern with Harty looms large to me. When you have posters whose opinions are often as diametrically opposed as myself and @BADOLBILZ and they both unanimously hone in on same concern on a player, it's probably legit. He's fast, and we have a good training staff, but scar tissue and damage from repeated injuries is a Thing.

I guess to some people, the distinction is volitional - lies are deliberately deceptive, where as deception can be unintentional? IDK. As someone who spent education/career working with numbers, statistics require careful context to be meaningful. And, they can be cherry-picked to make a point - which can be a form of lie. On the other hand, the eye test requires context to be meaningful as well as methodical observation from which the observer tries to eliminate personal bias. Professional football scouts train for this. Fans don't. And when you don't, you fall into the natural pattern of human psychology where "one aweshit cancels 10 attaboys" - seeing one mistake or bad angle leads you to say "he can't catch" or "he's never taking the right angle" As far as the Bills defense, they did NOT collapse in the 2021 playoffs. They did a nice job on NWE. A defense will seldom be able to totally shut down a top, juggernaut offense like KC. What they need to do, is stop the offense 4-5 times for FG or punts. The Bills D did that (as KC did to us), until the 13 seconds end (I'm not sure what you'd call that, it was certainly play calls/mistakes/execution lapses but total collapse, no) In 2022, the defense didn't "collapse" in the Miami game. 42 rush yards and 220 pass yards is not a statistical collapse. In fact, they bailed the offense out of a 4 fumble (1 lost), 2 interception effort. Against the Bengals, as far as I can tell, it was a total team collapse in all 3 phases. That speaks to psychology, not defensive scheme. The statistics of that game don't lie, but they have to be put in context. And part of that context is, on top of the pre-existing injuries toward the end of the season (Micah Hyde, Von Miller, Damar Hamlin Out; Jordan Poyer, Ed Oliver playing hurt) we piled on more from Miami. Of our DL starters, DaQuan Jones was out, Jordan Phillips was playing through a shoulder injury in a brace and limited, Tim Settle was playing on a calf injury. Guys like Eli Ankou and Boogie Basham were seeing significant time - and they're 2nd string for a reason. At one point our safeties were Cam Lewis and Jaquan Johnson. It's very observable that it was not the same defensive players that had put up the statistically great season, and when it was, they were obviously injured (wearing linebacker braces etc) What I find someone odd is, seems to me the same people who dismiss statistics as deceptive and prefer to rely on the "eye test" of saying the defense collapsed, don't seem willing or able to note this very basic and readily observable fact of it not being the same players, or them being injured - or dismiss it as an "excuse", when looking at the poor defensive result in the Bengals game. Yet injured/different players should surely be part of an "eye test"

Honest question: why do you feel it's a competition?

It's being attacked as unreasonable because without objective metrics, perceptions can be highly falliable and misleading. Emotions and feelings, when it comes to cold hard football facts, even more so. Ever heard the saying "one awshit wipes out 10 attaboys"? That saying encapsulates the fact that our perceptions and memories of an error, easily overwhelm our perceptions of positive contributions. There's also the point that eyewitness testimony has become recognized as notoriously unreliable. Who is doing this? Do you have a linky? Doesn't seem to be a Joe B production.

I don't think Teller was a Type 1 error. Beane knew he had talent, but considered him a likely backup that season (Cleveland was no different - he didn't start until 8 games into the season, due to injury). He also fell victim to Beane's belief that backup OLmen MUST have positional flexibility, the more the better. Bottom line it was a mistake, but had more to do with positional priorities than with talent evaluation. There's also the point that Teller became an all-pro in a different blocking system, if I'm not mistaken (that brings up a whole different set of questions, but I don't feel like going there too early. Nit: I really hate to do this also because I like Teller, but he was a 2nd team all pro in 2020 and 2021, and a pro-bowler in 2021 and 2022. All worthy honors, but 2nd team not quite the honor that 1st team is. Teller's wiki doesn't clarify this point.

Spector was a healthy scratch for the Vikes game. So he wasn't an option when Edmunds went down. But I don't think they would have played him. Fun fact so was Kaiir Elam, so the starting CBs were Dane Jackson and Christian Benford. Starting safeties were Damar Hamlin and ....I kid you not, Cam Lewis (Jaquan Johnson was available and played ST)

Lavonte David decided he wanted to stay with the Bucs - he's been in that area a minute (12 years) makes sense. Bobby Wagner decided "you can go home again!" and got himself released from the Rams to go back to aweing the Seasnakes in practice. Doesn't sound as though either of them were very interested in changing teams.

Reluctantly, I agree.

He's not specifying who those reps are with. Could be Dodson at MLB with the 1s and Spector with the 2s?

I always thought Feliciano was kind of a bully. The guy who compensates for his lack of skill during the play, by acting tough afterwards. You see it differently? If you search "Dawkins" I think you'll find your feelings are mistaken

When Hackett was in Buffalo, the general feeling was he was a dingleberry to Doug Marrone - that Marrone was the OC in fact while he was the OC in name. If I remember correctly one rumor was that he had a bunch of creative plays drawn up that he wanted to run and Marrone put the kibbosh on it. But was that Hackett, or was that "St Doug" Marrone? Rumor was, with the Bills, Marrone was quite the control freak with his fingers over every aspect. PR, OC, OL....

I think that's what Ed Oliver, Greg Rousseau, etc are saying

Count me among the under-raters. There was a reason why the Bills let Marlowe move on in 2021 FA. There's also a reason why the Lions gave him a 2 yr contract but moved on after a year, And why the Falcons gave him a 1 yr contract in 2022 FA but were willing to trade him in November for a 7th. Marlow is 31. Hamlin is 25. If it's close, Youth Wins It's a very valid point that we don't know how Hamlin will react when it's for-real tackling, or whether he's able to be back to his pre-incident form. I could be totally off the wall but I'm not sure the competition is between Hamlin and Marlowe.