Beck Water

Gave Stef a massive Rolex engraved “Slime” on the back last year for Christmas I kind of think there’s some kind of gift planned besides said “juice” but Josh didn’t want to talk about it.

I think that’s a reasonable plan. I’m not sure I’d rather have Rhodes than Benford - have we seen enough from Rhodes to know if he’s still got it? But we have several games where he’ll probably get some snaps, to make that e v a l. Where Kumerow was being heavily used, remember, was on ST. I don’t have a good sense of how much we’re missing him. I do know we’ve had a couple of uncharacteristically good returns against us. I also know I saw McKenzie streaking downfield on one ST kickoff or punt which was like “you’re kidding me!” short handed as we were at receiver. We need Crowder, but color me skeptical he can be close to the same guy this season. Also skeptical at the reports Micah might return. The mental puzzle to me is why the Bills designated Stevenson for return and need to make up their mind by December 7th. If they intend to keep him on IR all year, why even do that?

Not only are cocktail parties still a thing, but they have waiters in this day and age? I am learning so much here.

yeah, Smoke explained. He’s been in touch with Chad Hall and sent him videos of himself working out. The Bills called Smoke on Wednesday and brought him in for a workout on Saturday, along with JJ Nelson and Kawaan Baker. JJ Nelson was drafted a year later than Brown and played with Brown on the Cardinals. He is another “I feel the need, the Need for Speed” guy (4.28 40 time). Bills signed him to their PS briefly last January. Kawaan Baker was drafted by NO this year and spent time on NO and Green Bay PS. 4.43 40 with a 39.5” vertical and 10’9” broad jump - fast, athletic guy. The inference would be Brown still has some speed going on.

Ike for Murray seems reasonable if Ike is truly ready to rumble. If he needs more than 3 weeks of ramp-up to play in Kromer’s scheme, could leave us short-handed I was actually surprised they opened a 21 day window for Stevenson to come back, I kind of thought they would just leave him stashed, so that leads me to believe they must really feel he can contribute. Either that, or they want a fast guy, and they’re putting Brown and Stevenson into the mix to see who seems most able to help.

Are cocktail parties still a thing? I had no idea No idea what Beasley is thinking either, of course. Nate Geary claimed a source in the Bills FO who said any initiative would 100% have to come from Beasley and he didn’t see that happening.

I agree, I just don’t think it’s reasonable he can go from ambulating with a scooter at Halloween to back on the roster & able to play this season That’s why I think he stays parked on IR

It’s plausible because the mini-bye will give him 2 weeks. It’s a matter of either he can play on it with a brace, or he can’t

I think Crowder is a non issue. I didn't list him as one of the 4 guys we gotta make moves for because I think he just stays on IR.

Just a note that the NFL has seen similar massive turnarounds before Example in 2010, the NFC West division winner was the 7-9 Seahawks, followed by the 7-9 Rams. 49ers were 6-10, Cardinals 5-11. 2011, 49ers won it and were 13-3, Cardinals broke even, other two teams losing records. 2012, neck and neck 49ers 11-4-1 and Seahawks 11-5 for the Put a good head coach in there, give him some good players and a functional QB, a team turns around fast. And when 1 or 2 teams in a division are good, the gauntlet is smacked down that the other teams have to level-up or spend playoffs on the sofa. (Which just makes the Bills Drought Years all the sadder, actually)

Sooooo....you be the GM Stevenson was designated for return from IR November 17, meaning he needs to be activated or placed on season-ending IR by next Wednesday, December 7. Ike Boettger's window to return from PUP opened on Sunday, meaning Bills have to make up their mind on him by December 17. Jake Kumerow went on IR 11/17, so is eligible to come off the list after the 12/11 game against the Jets Christian Benford went on IR 11/26. so is eligible to come off the list after the 12/24 game against the Bears. Here's the current Bills roster from Sal Capaccio: Typical gameday roster for the Bills most of this season features 2 QB, 8 OL, 5 RB, 2 TE, 5 WR, 5 Edge, 4 DT, 5 LB, 9 DB, 3 STers. Recent variations have included 6 RB, 4 Edge and 4 Edge, 10 DB. You be the GM. Assuming that Stevenson (who has barely played) is good to go and Boettger is good to go, but neither quite in "game shape", what do you do? If you activate them to the 53 man roster, who do you cut? If you bring back Kumerow from IR, who do you cut? Ditto Benford Points to note: -You can activate a guy from PUP for 24 hrs then put him back on IR for 4 games. -I don't think you can play that game from IR. -Everybody cut from the 53 man roster, veteran or not, must now pass through waivers Go!

Yeah, he's trying to make a Statement or something. What happened to the Jordan Phillips of 2019 who stripteased his jersey to "Hot Outside"?

Good stuff, @Bocephuz. I know you said you didn't do running plays, but worth mentioning the fumbled snap TD. Of course that's gonna get scored to Josh, but might be worth noting that I thought the snap was low for shotgun. Seems as though there was at least one other snap where I thought "goodness, it's a good thing our QB is 6'5". No knock on Bates for as little practice as they had and Josh being limited in what they had, he did well. I do think Brown looks better next to Bates than he did next to Van Roten.

Not on you, Giardi said Dawkins was a full participant but he was...confused. Media members there said he didn't practice, and he's listed as DNP on injury report.

From now on, artichokes and saurkraut for the team meals. That's how to get the opposing DBs to back off in coverage!

“Steel sharpens steel”

No regression for Dawkins, he hasn’t practiced all week

Mystery Illness Will the flight to Foxboro be called the “Magical Mystery Tour”? Step right this way

Weren't there complaints about the orange slices served at halftime last season? Maybe they stopped serving them to prevent emergency floss use on the sideline.

On the theme of "speaking it into existence", I wish Cover1 @Cover 1 or someone would do a detailed film breakdown on what happened to the Bills route trees? Yeah, they've talked about it some but it's on the "this is what I see" level, not the methodical breakdown (if I'm wrong, someone please point me there). I'm in the same place, I've seen little glimpses on film and I have an impression but I can not claim to have methodically sat down and watched all-22 since NFL+ broke that *****. (If there's a way for an American to get decent all-22 with the ability to select individual plays and slo mo, LMK please). Hines, just got here, learning how to be a running back for the Bills. He's had like 5 practices with the team since he stepped off the plane. Too soon. Here's some of what I think I see, with the caveat this is highly subjective and not based on systematic study: -Early games - say, up through week 4 - targets distributed pretty evenly across the field. Week 4 is when we lost Crowder and had McKenzie knocked out. -Someone ( @HoofHearted?) commented that the Pittsburgh game was the worst thing that could have happened to Josh, or words to that effect - because the Bills dominated with Josh playing "Bombs Away!" taking deep shots all day. He reined it in next week for KC - I'm sure he knew and the coaches emphasized that he had to play a disciplined effective game for them to have a shot of winning, and he did. But..... -Week 8 and on, it looks as though someone took a lawn mower and mowed those 5-15 yd pass attempts right out of our game plan, especially over the middle of the field. -Knox looks as though he's always diving out of bounds on his catches because most of the time when he has been targeted, it's been as an outlet, along the sideline. A lot of times he's there as an outlet and Josh chooses to force the throw instead. Here's every Knox reception from the Browns game: https://twitter.com/LowBuffa/status/1595036008051277826?s=20&t=8d-oQDC_8DmcUlHpVWAB7A -Both Knox and Motor are kept in to pass protect a lot. Sometimes both chip and release, sometimes Motor stays in the backfield and leaks out. Knox chips and heads for the sideline. Except for the Browns game, Josh usually doesn't take that. Want better passing game design? Get an OL that doesn't need so much help to protect. It looks as though KC has 5 targets running all over the field on every play? That's because they do. We don't. They have a better OL. That's why. -Gabe Davis has been targeted across the middle a fair bit and the results have been Bad. Either Josh's throw is on target/catchable but Gabe fails to secure it, or it's behind him and gets picked. or he runs the route in a way that lets it be jumped. I don't wanna dunk on a guy whose won us some games with incredible clutch play, but you gotta "make the bunnies" Gabe. Maybe it's something with Josh's arm where he doesn't trust himself to pinpoint those right now. -I have not seen McKenzie running many routes across the middle as Beasley did from the slot - and, as you point out, when he does, Josh doesn't usually take him. The substitute to put a receiver there seems to be Motor leaking out, or running an option route (sometimes Cook recently). It's been shorter depth than the Bills ran with Beasley and for whatever reason (maybe lack of passing lanes/concern for tips, maybe no pocket so Josh has already flushed out to the side), Josh doesn't take this. -Last several games, it seems as though routes and throws over the middle have just vanished from the Bills passing vocabulary. And when they've been there, it's been bad I get it, Josh wants to win, go for the jugular, dominate, but some times hitting the short to intermediate stuff and moving the chains will loosen up those deep shots.

It's been a point though that sometimes he seems to want it and get it done, and sometimes he seems to vanish, even to people who are watching film. There was a point a month-ish ago where his fellow DLmen were calling out Phillips for impact play but not Ed. Reason for that.

Yeah, I missed that the first time through, but Giardi was just plain wrong about Dawkins.

Significant point Giardi has wrong there is that Dawkins was NOT a full participant yesterday. He was in fact a DNP Sunday (when the Bills practiced but did not issue an injury report) and Monday, and won't practice today as well per McD. Was notable last season that when Dawkins was out, the Bills bounced Williams out wide and moved Spencer Brown to LT, but in-game last week they brought Quessenberry in at LT and left Brown at RT.

This is literally yesterday's news. There were 8 players missing with illness on Sunday (when the Bills practiced, equivalent to Weds in a normal week). 4 returned and one further went out on Monday. Today only Quinton Morris was missing and per McDermott, Of course, missing practice or being less than 100% is always a game impact, but hopefully the guys were able to video in to meetings and I'm sure they're all getting their Myers cocktails