Beck Water

In that video clip, the receiver before Beasley appears to be wearing #81 Who is #81 on the Bills roster? I had a good ol' look at https://www.buffalobills.com/team/players-roster/ and can't figure that out (Beasley looks sharp)

It's a bit of an advantage when the other team might know all your offensive and defensive playcalls, wouldn't you think? McDermott did sometimes, and so did Poyer. "Is there a question? What is the question?"

OK. How many (relatively impactful) mistakes in a professional context do you think employers should allow?

I'm not entirely sure about this. It depends upon the scope of jobs he's willing to take and where. If he wants to stay in conventional media in the Greater Buffalo/Niagara Falls area I think he was sort of at his last stand already working for the Niagara Gazette etc, so you would be right there. But more globally, there seems to be a market for journalists who want to be pricks and ***** stirrers on podcasts and so forth, and if the Buffalo Bills continue successful I would think he could go that route and successfully market himself there. I'm not sure that's what he wants at this stage in his career though.

Just a comment that I did not say the things quoted and attributed to me in your post. They were said by Einstein. I don't know how they wound up attributed to me, but for courtesy and to avoid confusion, I would be obliged if you could correct the attribution. You could edit your post to delete the quote and paste in this link instead. Thanks.

I'm sure that's true for everyone - likely including Jerry Sullivan. But we're really not talking about the "majority of stupid things" here, are we? Let's not shift the field. For Sullivan, you're lamenting that he lost his job(s) as a result of one stupid thing said in a context that matters to his profession: on video, in a podcast, from a journalist. It's not like he was in a bar with 3 friends and one of them was surreptitiously recording him and putting it out on TikTok. I don't think most successful professionals say that many stupid things in situations relevant to their professional career. And when stupid things are said in situations relevant to their professional career (or high profile to a friendship), consequences are not uncommon.

Am I the only one on this board who is a bit concerned about Justin Zimmer? Not because he's a game-changing player - he's only played 10-20% of the snaps for the Dolphins in the last 3 games, he's now on injury report with a back injury. But because he's said to be a "student of the game" and a very intelligent player who, having been on the Bills practice squad this season and started for them last season, is probably well positioned to give the Dolphins a lot of inside info on play calls, both offensively and defensively. I hope the Bills are planning to change things up as best they can on a short week.

Fixed #2 for ya.

That's beautiful.

Have I said something stupid or tactless in my life? Undoubtedly, including things that were taken differently than I intended them. And, thinking back, those things I said have had consequences - a job I didn't get, a role for which I was passed over, a friendship that withered etc. The point is - actions, including single actions, have consequences. That's life. That's how it is. There are people in prison because of one stupid choice. And, there are people fired because of one stupid choice. Now Sullivan is one of them. As for what Sullivan says here, this is shear "I can't be a misogynist, some of my best friends are women!" stuff. If those stories about women's sports have a readership, they won't go untold. The papers that employed Sullivan will....wait for it....employ someone else to write those stories, maybe a young hardworking reporter who has been waiting for their chance. It's not like there's a shortage of well-trained journalists looking for work. Sullivan lost his job, not his "livelihood". He is free to seek employment with other media outlets, or start a blog/podcasts as Ty Dunne did. If he can not obtain said employment or develop a following of subscribers, I think the chances are pretty good that will be based upon the full body of his work and demeanor, not this one incident. PS would also like to clarify that the stupid or tactless things I have said did not rise nearly to the level of the blanket stereotyping and prejudice of Sully's Bon Mots. And they still had consequences.

I don't think that's it at all. He was on our active roster as the #6 WR, replacing Crowder. We had to cut someone when we traded for Dean Marlowe and activated Tre White, and with Tre White apparently not ready to play and Poyer out for 2 weeks (but not injured enough for IR) it wasn't gonna be a DB. At the time Kumerow was healthy and plays teams, so he stayed and Hodgins went.

I'm trying to figure out the gestalt of this thread, so excuse me if I'm missing the boat. The last 2 games with the Giants, Hodgins has caught 5 and 4 passes for 44 and 38 yds, 2 TDs. 7 yds/r, and 6 yds/r If Hodgins were still with the Bills, wouldn't we be looking at that and saying it's not good enough? Wouldn't we say, he isn't getting any YAC , isn't breaking any tackles? He's only 12 of 22 in the 4Q this season, 54.5% - must not be very clutch. While here, his catch % was only 66.7%, not good enough for us. JK, for real, I was sorry to see Hodgins go. I think the Bills were too, but we ran into a bit of a roster slot pinch when we activated Tre White, but he wasn't ready to play yet, and Poyer was injured - so they had to keep extra DBs on the roster.

Yeah, I'd like to assume that Gentry fills a scout team role as well or better than any of the other WR so he contributes in that way. But he's 27 and has 3 NFL receptions (back in 2017) for 35 yds on 7 targets. He doesn't play ST. Perhaps next year the Bills should focus the PS on stashing and retaining WR who might develop into capable NFL WR and contribute to the team down the stretch when injuries strike.

I actually think the fact that they brought a cut player out of retirement speaks to the fact that we want 5 WR active on game day and we have -2 WR on IR who apparently aren't coming off soon -2 WR who we apparently consider ready to elevate on the practice squad -one has used up all 3 "free" elevations, the other has used 2 of 3 elevations -there are 4 games left in the regular season -we lost our "next man up" WR, Hodgins, to the waiver wire when we cut him -Shakir has not developed as I think the Bills hoped I could be wrong, I was wrong about "Beasley in town" being a kerfluffle. I will say this: if the Bills brought two 32/33 yr old WR out of retirement with the idea they'd be major players instead of hoping they can contribute a few good plays off practice squad and fill in for an injury, it's a pretty valid point that we don't have a championship-caliber offense. There's a lot of stuff in there that says McKenzie contributes a lot more than people think, and maybe last year Beasley was a bit less clutch than people think. But I believe folks have all made up their minds/don't care about data so I'm not gonna bother pulling it out.

Except that it isnt It sheds a pretty sad light on your personal life, though, what you said and what you believe That's on you though

I actually wondered the exact same thing - the Bills in the past have had gains by bringing in a veteran who can elevate the other players' games. Think Diggs (elevated the entire WR room including Brown Beasley Davis and McKenzie); Von Miller (appears to have elevated Rousseau, Epenesa, Basham, and Lawson). It's possible they're hoping Beasley can jump-start Shakir's slot game but also perhaps bridge a gap between how McKenzie is seeing the field/the defense and how Josh is seeing McKenzie's routes, in addition to being available as the #5 WR on gameday. By George I think he's got it. Even if both Kumerow and Crowder do manage to return for the playoffs, the Bills have 4 tough games to play in order to GET to the playoffs. They want to have 5 (reasonably) healthy wide receivers on the active roster for those games.

In the post you're quoting, I provided links to McKenzie's splits for this year (catch % by down and distance) and Beasley's splits for 2021, same. Scroll down to the "advanced splits" part, and knock yourself out!

Indeed. It's one of those things like "roughing the passer". Dion has the capability to finish his blocks by driving the player to the ground. This used to be something that was expected - the Ravens OL coach a few years back was said to grade his players on how often they did that. Now it seems to be being penalized, even when there isn't a hold involved in it - just as roughing the passer seems to be being called when the defender appears to be making a strong effort to hold himself off of the passer and not land on him with his body weight.

Where's DC Tom? The yelling you're hearing is "I love you Josh Allen". It's a Bills tradition started during the 2020 Covid season by Cole Beasley and Jon Feliciano. When they weren't gonna come back, they had a couple other guys promise to keep it up. At the start of the season, they were on twitter chaffing those guys (I think one was Gabe Davis) for not doing it well enough. It has nothing to do with a generalized player "judgement of female fans" as being "unable to understand critical journalism" or "just wanting to be cheerleaders" or generalized player mocking of female fans. Sheesh. I vomit upon your generalizations and summon my neighbor's cats to do likewise. Speak for your own daughter and keep your dumb generalizations off of mine. And while you're at it, don't use your personal experience to disregard all the guys who stick with a gal who's exploiting them because they're emotionally attached and won't face painful reality. Believe me, we've heard some doozy stories from some of the gents here over the years. "Bad romance" and "bad judgement in romantic partners" is not by any means limited to one gender.

And yeah, McKenzie should be having this convo privately with Chad Hall or with Dorsey or with Josh. "Look, I feel I'm open and I could help the team move the chains, what do I need to change to be given a chance?". For whatever reason, he doesn't seem to feel that's something he can do, which may not be "on him" - he may get the vibe that he's too far down the totum pole and little regarded for that avenue to be open to him (or, it may be open to him and it's "on him" he doesn't take it, I don't know) There is this little point that 69.1% of the time (to date this season) when McKenzie has the ball thrown at him, he catches it. Even for those who want to argue that he ought to be credited with a higher number of drops or whatever, that still remains. That's second among the Bills WR. Davis has almost 2x as many targets, but has caught just over half of them, 53.5% - which I really don't feel is Davis fault, I feel Josh is throwing the ball away in his direction or throwing to him when he's very well covered quite a bit. Maybe instead of forcing the ball to a well covered Davis, Josh should, in fact, look at McKenzie more and earlier? TIL: On pro-football-reference, there's a tab that breaks down a WR seasonal splits. If you scroll down to the bottom, it gives splits for down and yards to go etc. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McKeIs00/splits/2022/ I was kind of surprised when I compared 2nd and 10 and 3rd down and whatever splits to Cole Beasley last year: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BeasCo00/splits/2021/ I now return you to your regularly scheduled dis-off. I can't disagree that we need an upgrade at WR and need to invest on offense.

https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/television/jerry-sullivan-fired-by-wivb-and-two-newspapers-for-sexist-podcast-comments/article_44de68be-7b32-11ed-a042-7bff12def66d.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_TheBuffaloNews

Yes. He has been on IR since 11/17, so 4 games counting the Jets. But, he originally injured his ankle (high ankle) in the Miami game. Missed 3 games, came back and played 2 games, then re-injured in the 3rd. I think it's a good bet he's not going to come off IR and that's in large part what's behind the Brown and Beasley PS signings. Josh's buddy Tanner Gentry got a look-see in the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit games, after which the Bills, knowing they want 5 receivers active on game day but only had 4 on the roster, signed Brown. They appear to find Gentry useful enough to keep him on the practice squad, but not enough to use a 53-man roster slot on him.

I'll bump my own take to say I was wrong. I can eat my slice o' crow pie.

We do need people who ask the tough questions sometimes, but I do believe it can be done to better effect in a less adversarial manner.

Imagine a teammate breaking the news to Josh, Poyer, and Micah Hyde that Jerry Sullivan was let go from 2 media outlets and lost his press credentials. I picture a slow smile breaking across all 3 faces followed by something like "Huh. That's a Shame"