Beck Water

Can't blame ya for trying. Just making it clear I'll be glad to give you your "propers" if you're correct, but I don't bet $ I'm remembering people swearing that Creed Humphrey was a 1st round pick and in fact would be gone before #30, only to see him available at #61. I take the whole draft board/mock draft thing with a healthy salt grinder. Don't get me wrong, it's fun and I admire the work folks like GunnerBill put into it, but year after year, we see that outside the top-10 or so picks in the first round, teams value players quite a bit differently than fans and pundits.

Oh, gee, at this point I'm gonna

I appreciate the invitation, but I don't bet money. Period. Ever. Never even bought a lottery ticket. I'd be happy to make a "NewEra was correct" post if that pleases you.

NoHuddle, most people are complicated. Allen seems different than Jim Kelly, where there was a lot of "smoke" that he was arrogant, not very likeable either to teammates or in the community and so forth early in his career and then after he changed towards teammates, developed PR skills and got married, that he was widely known to be a serial cheater. But someone could, in general, be a high-character genuinely good and nice guy, and still do a moronic thing or three especially under the influence of alcohol. I'm not arguing for or against this being the case, just saying that given how complicated most people are, I don't think being primarily a good character guy who is genuinely caring about sick kids, teammates, friends etc precludes someone from getting drunk and doing something dumb. This is 100% my personal opinion, but if it is true there is a child involved, the child is not placed for adoption, and the whole thing still "never really sees the light of day", then that would mean a man fathered a child and abandoned acting as a father to that child. Which, again my personal opinion, would be a far worse character flaw than maybe having a consensual drunken fling while in a committed relationship (given that the man in question is wealthy and a huge star and likely has women throwing themselves at him regularly). This would actually mean I'd have to respect Tom Brady more than Josh Allen, since Brady is known to act as a father to his side-baby. Which would 😱🥶☠️.

I understand that's sarcasm, but I think the chance that a guy who is being projected as a RT only in the NFL (despite starting a season at LT) and whose draft profile reads like this https://www.nfl.com/prospects/darnell-wright/32005752-4915-3639-216c-bcc7afd9f5d5 has more of a chance to be there at the end of the first round than a guy whose draft profile reads like this https://www.nfl.com/prospects/jalen-carter/32004341-5265-6628-f264-d042e762bc39 I'm aware it's your opinion, I'm disputing the wisdom of an opinion with such absolute nature on a guy like Wright.

I don't mean this as a knock on you, but every year the draft falls differently than all the pundits who spend full time watching it believe it will. So I don't know how one can confidently predict "no chance", or "absolutely".

Oh, OK, sorry. Maybe link your new mock draft in the OP post?

Then they should have been, because they were at times. Your criticism may have been decision making, and decision making is worthy of criticism at times. But for several weeks, Josh was just not taking throws over the middle, and he was missing on throws that he would have made earlier in the season. The UCL thing and its effect on throwing was real, whatever else is or is not real. Josh also talked about needing to move to a more vertical throwing motion instead of his preferred rotational throwing motion that gave him increased accuracy in 2020 forward, after the season.

Rashee Rice over Darnell Wright or Zay Flowers? Huh.

If the baby rumors are true, that's gonna be going on for 18 years or so Personally I woulda thought a partially torn UCL and having to alter his throwing motion in Week 8 would affect his play and be a sufficient explanation. Not of course excluding the possibility that he's actually a moron, socially or relationship-wise, and there were off-field issues as well

Oh I dunno - maybe everyone who took the time to read the thread and post in it?

The Poyer thing is older than that. 2018 off-season. I remember it because Poyer was new here the previous season and I was like "well Boys looks like we got our own Miko Grimes here in the Queen City". But to Poyer's credit, the only thing he contributed publicly was a message about how he looked forward to showing his family he could be a good husband and father for years. It was rumored that Zo Alexander and Micah Hyde had a lot to do with putting things straight for them. It's been 5 years with no further public drama, so I think they deserve a pass on that. Bad guess. Interestingly, Google won't help you much.

No offense, but Efe Obada hasn't been a member of the Bills team since 2021. I'm sure he knows staffers and people still on the team, as well as people in the community, but even on the DL - a lot of the players he played with in 2021 in his position group are gone. Vernon Butler, Star Lotulelei, Harrison Phillips, Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison, Justin Zimmer, all not on the team in 2022. Of course, some players and the staff and the community are still there. Taking the report that he was talking about it at a wedding at face value, it begs the question who is his source and is that source really in the know. It seems possible he could be going off the same rumors as everyone else. And then there's the question of which rumors are true - did this happen at Halloween? Did this happen in January before the playoff game? Are we talking cheating? Cheating plus baby? Massive destruction of property? "I know the neighborhood, and talk is cheaper when the story is good" as REO Speedwagon sings. What seems factual is: 1) Britt was posting pictures of Josh going out to shovel before the Browns game Nov 20, a kissy pic on the field after the Dolphins game, and one of those "so proud of you" consolation messages after the Bengals game. 2) she posted pics of them on a Hawaii vacation in late February/early March So whether all, some, or none of this is true they seem to have been together weeks and months after both the timelines of the alleged problems. A few years back when I had an Instagram account and followed the players and WAGs, it seemed as though Josh sent her on a couple of "girls vacations" every Spring with some of her sorority sisters from college and sometimes friends who are other player's girlfriends (Kyle Allen's fiancee/long time GF Summer Juraszek was a regular). So I don't think Britt posting pics of "girls trips" in the spring while Allen may be off training with Ryan Flaherty or at the Master or something, is exactly conclusive breakup evidence, since she's been doing those (on Josh's dime I assume) for years.

Someone said he was posting stuff about training with Palmer, but when I had an Insta account Josh basically just did endorsements and reposts

Josh posted on his Instagram? He almost never uses SM just retweets a few things or does endorsements Anyway Josh was out in Cali the week of the pro bowl for the Pebble Beach Pro Am

Yeah plus there was something about a big blowup /baby/sonogram/ domestic disturbance at Halloween. Then the same story but this time supposedly before the Bengals game. It’s the same schtuff just shifted 3 months sounds like the small town stuff where you sneeze at 9 am; by noon the town is saying you have a cold and by dinner time you’re being admitted to the ICU with pneumonia meanwhile you’re sitting at home with a beer

When a team drafts a guy in the 5th round, they generally hope he can develop into a good player, but they aren't counting on it. I don't think the Bills "suddenly lost faith" in Shakir. I think they looked at him as a 5th round player - a guy with a lot of potential, who had played at a low level of competition, and who was gonna need time to develop. He did some good stuff last season - made some excellent downfield catches - and he had some struggles. He had some early inactive games and some early chances at significant playing time, and what he showed didn't bump him up the depth chart. He started getting more playing time towards the end of the season, but I don't think he ever got to a point where they were like "Yeah, he's Da Man" at slot. I would absolutely support drafting OL early, but I think we've drafted enough late-round WR and we really need to make an early round investment. Among other things, I did an assessment a while back of, if a player became a solid starter in the NFL, how long did it take? Of course individuals varied, but overall players who were drafted in the 1st-2nd round were usually starting by their 2nd season if they were going to start. But, starting players drafted in the 4th round or later could take 3+ years to earn a starting shot.

Well, hopefully the baby (if any) and its mama gets appropriately supported. If all this was going on last fall around Halloween/Nov as the Reddit tealeaves claim, baby should be showing up in the next couple months (late May-June) I'm not condoning cheating. I do remember an interview with a famous woman singer who had a relationship with a star musician for a while. She said "one thing I never expected was fidelity; they get so many opportunities". I mean there's Josh flying home at 2 am and there's a young woman holding up a sign "Josh Allen Will You CreamPie Me?" FWIW Williams was still posting pics of them after the playoff win vs. Miami and posting messages after the Bengals loss. https://people.com/sports/who-is-brittany-williams-josh-allen/ On the other hand, I seem to remember in his interview the next day, one of the reporters asked if he planned to train with Jordan Palmer and Allen said something about "I don't know if I'll be going to California" which I thought at the time was kind of weird since he has a house out there.

Maybe I stuck my foot in a thread where everyone is stumping for a 1st round pick at RT. I dunno that I am, and I dunno enough about Darnell Wright. If a guy is strictly a RT, I would agree with you, that's not a hugely valuable trade chip. But there are several recent instances of guys who were playing RT for one team, got their shot to show what they could do at LT, and then demanded a trade to keep playing LT (Orlando Brown of course being one).

I don't think this can be over-emphasized. The worst thing that happens if we have a promising rookie and Spencer Brown starts pass protecting like his jock's on fire and blocking impeccably will put it out, is we have a very valuable trade piece. It did not go unnoticed to me that in 2021, Dion Dawkins kinda sucked at the start of the season after recovering from Covid. Then he missed a game week 15, Spencer Brown started ahead of him at LT in Week 16 then got hurt. Dawkins came in and played extremely well, leaving no doubt who the Big Dawg at LT was. Competition is good

It's the reason continued success from a team is not to be taken for granted Look at the Houston Texans. In 2019, they beat us in a playoff game. Made our #2 overall defense fold like a cheap lawn chair to squander a 16-0 lead in the 3rd Q, and shut down our offense. They were even beating the Chiefs, in Kansas City, 24-0 in the second Q. Next year they went 4-12 despite Watson playing out of his mind, passing for 4823 yds with 33 TD and 7 INTs. And they haven't had more than 4 wins since. That's how fast it can all fall apart.

That’s really not an apt analogy at all, but carry on

It's a valid point that his effort in planning said shredding session may be "call my personal assistant, give him a budget and tell him 'make it so' in which case, sure, it's a recreational activity equivalent to any night out. It's also a valid point that given two people of roughly equal talent, the one who is most obsessed with putting in the work will tend to go further, while the "part timer" may slide And I really do dislike when people do the straw man "you think..." projection thing. Given that I actually wrote "it is just OTAs, I suppose you can't live and breathe them 24/7", this seems lamer than the usual. Doesn't have to be against the Chiefs for me.

I could see him being able to craft a story that would be relatable and very inspiring

I personally kinda feel he should concentrate on being the best player for the Bills he can be - it was great that Christian Wade was a fine drummer but would have rather seen him be a fine American football player. But maybe that's my inner Grinch talking....I know there are a fair number of guys on the Bills who are interested in music - Tim Settle I believe has a recording studio in his basement etc - and it is just OTAs, I suppose you can't live and breathe them 24/7