Beck Water

Thank you for being Exhibit A illustrating my point: to a large extent, media today cover what people are interested in and avoid covering what people aren't interested in, even if one can make a case that what people aren't interested in is actually significant and they ought to at least know about/understand why it might matter.... ....original context being @Straight Hucklebuck's plaint that the media asks McDermott a lot of Q that are folksy and not football relevant, instead of hitting hard on things that matter to the team's success like specifics of injuries and the timeline of player return

No, sorry, can't agree on that. It was a catch Davis could have made, but Gardner was fighting with him, Gabe was holding him off, and Gardner had a hold of Davis R arm before the ball got there. Davis got his hand free and could have made the catch, but it woulda been a tough contested catch. IOW it's a ball a top-tier clutch WR makes for his QB and his team, but it's no way "just a drop"

That's great! And, we finally got to meet Squirrel Winters!

OK, sure, if McDermott has not been asked "what's the timeline for Jordan Phillips return from this shoulder injury?" that's 100% fair game. They'd probably hear "day to day" or something like that, but you never know, could hear actual information.

You state feelings I have about many "news" programs these days. I tune in and they're talking about Tom Brady's divorce or something instead of pressing world issues. Here's the thing though: it must be remembered that like news programs today, all of these reporters are there to draw readership and listeners and clicks. Just because you and I could not care less about McDermott's dog eating his donut and would like instead to know medical specifics of Jordan Phillips shoulder injury, the reporters and their editors/managers may have data showing that the majority of readers not only care about the dog and the donut, they want to know the breed of the dog, the flavor of the donut, and if the donut was chocolate did McD call the vet? Same thing with Tom Brady's divorce. If the watchers care about Tom Brady's divorce more than the state of the power grid in Ukraine, that's what we'll get. Medical information is private. If Dawkins chooses to disclose he's got a high ankle sprain, that's his biz. But McDermott really shouldn't disclose Dion's medical information further than NFL injury reporting rules require, where "ankle" suffices. As far as disclosing tactical info about the team, McDermott isn't there for that or to provide you with insight. He's just "there so he doesn't get fined" so to speak.

I totally agree with you about what he's shown to date - lacking that "best ability, availability", and what we have seen of him at WR doesn't look promising. It just seems that the Bills have not given up on him. That old "Can't Coach Speed" thing. My inner *****-stirrer prompts me to point out: the move leaves #11 available.

This Take Aged Well.

Yes, the 3Q was a snoozefest. The 4Q was "what the hell did I just even see?" Can't blame you, but yeah, mistake.

Based on this, I don't want the guy here. Practice during the regular season - especially in Allen's situation where he's said he has to be careful how many reps he gives his elbow during the week - is a "zero sum game". Only so many reps to go around. If you're not playing but you're at practice and taking "good on good" reps, you're taking the reps that could be difference makers for completion or not from a receiver who is playing and trying to help us win so we can GET to the playoffs. If you're not playing and you're not taking reps, how are you getting yourself into "game shape" and building timing and getting on the same mental page with your QB, especially a QB like Allen where thinking the same way on a scramble drill or secondary route concept is important? How are you getting the timing down to block on screens or downfield? If Beckham wants to be given a locker and a hat and paid to take reps from guys who are busting their asses to get us to the playoffs, so he can walk in and "save the day" in the playoffs and get lots of kudos, ***** him and the hoss he rode in on. I don't think that's helpful to the locker room chemistry. Beane doesn't even have to do that. He's got a well-established pattern of keeping contract negotiations "in house". All he has to do is say "it didn't work out" or "we came to a point where we realized we wouldn't be able to reach an agreement"

Thank you. It makes me feel a bit better that I'm not the only one "left out" by that and even more obscure Bills Social Media productions. I'm sure to the relevant target demographic, they're killing it.

Fair enough. Regardless, I think yesterday showed that Boy Genius (McVay) really is a solid, solid coach. He must have been able to quickly pull out of Mayfield what concepts he's most comfortable with, mapped them onto plays the Rams already had installed, and built a game plan around them. Then Baker held up his end by doing whatever he had to do to memorize the verbiage. I did appreciate Baker's reaction to Fitz asking him what's up with the #17 and teasing him "it looks good on you". He didn't like that At All.

I think the players have a good bit of input. For one thing, as "he I shall not name" once said, "it's the players choice to take a pain injection or not". The NFLPA has come out against the use of Toradol for "anticipated pain" and against Toradol injections vs. the pill form, so the players do have the union behind them if the team tries to push them into it. For another thing, they go through physical ability evaluations with the head trainer, sometimes pre-game, and they can influence what they show based on their personal pain tolerance and grit and how much adrenaline they have going on about wanting to play. Sometimes I think it works against them and against the team - Milano played a game when he couldn't lift his arm to tackle partway through. I'm sure he managed to show the head trainer a lifted arm pre-game but he probably only had so many arm lifts he could manage with that partially torn pec. For a third thing, several here have told stories about doing some work in a player's house, or being invited to a gathering as the friend of a friend, and seeing a player who was just injured NOT doing common sense things to take care of a known injury. I think in one anecdote, the guy was playing video games and it wasn't until his wife came home that she brought him a bag of ice and a footstool to elevate his ankle. So how seriously and carefully the player follows what they're told to do by the trainers and physicians probably has a big influence as well. I know we got my daughter recovered from a Grade II ankle sprain and able to play volleyball in under a week though she lost some height on her blocks for more like 2-3. The trainers said they'd never seen a sprain clear so fast, but it was really Hell for her - cold bath for 20 minutes once an hour is uncomfortable and eventually painful to the skin, the rest of the stuff like elevation, compression, arnica massage disrupted her preferred routine. It wasn't a Fun Time at all for her to stick to that routine for 48 hrs post injury. But it clearly made a difference to recovery vs. another player who might not have stuck it out.

That brings me to the question "how much did Stefanski actually take from Kubiak?" Far as I know, Kubiak went to the Vikes in 2019 Stefanski left the Vikes to take on the HC gig with the Browns in 2020 So they overlapped 1 year, during which Stefanski was promoted from QB coach to OC and Kubiak was "assistant to the HC" or some such I would think Stefanski installed the offense he was already working with; it's not like Stefanski was a Kubiak disciple What makes Stefanski a "Kubiak guy"? As far as I can tell, Stefanski and Kubiak worked together for 1 year. Stefanski was newly promoted from QB coach to OC. Kubiak was brought in as "assistant to the KC and offensive advisor" Stefanski left the next season It would kind of be like calling Ken Dorsey a "Joe Brady guy" because they've worked together on offense this year. I'm sure Brady has input, but I'm also sure the terminology and structure of the offense are from Dorsey.

When was Stefanski a Shanahan guy? Thought he spent his (coaching) life with the Vikes* until the Browns hired him. *which is actually pretty impressive considering he stuck on the staff through 3 different HCs

This. Same for the 49ers

Amazing game by Mayfield on 2 days, but Man! Did the Raiders play stupid on D and give them chance after chance. Isn’t that sort of the story of Mayfield, though? Can play brilliantly, then somehow can’t play within a system? It’ll be interesting to see what McVay gets out of him for the next 4 weeks

Someone will take a chance on him Robert Foster got 3 years and 2 teams ”Can’t Coach Speed”

Do you think McDaniels has actually performed and hired coordinators who have performed in a way that’s earned him the cred to strip down the roster and throw Carr out of town?

Wow, just for kicks - I listened to Chris Simms and Mike Florio predict Raiders at Rams Link Gives a different perspective on their predictive abilities LOL Essentially thought it was idiocy to have Mayfield play after 2 days, and were predicting a Rams meltdown on the sidelines Thought the Carr-Adams connection was humming and the Raiders were cruising to victory

Lol Baker sounded like he couldn’t wait to take that number off.

LOL Thursday nite crew understandably critical of Las Vegas Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham Fitz: “Their defensive coordinator went to Yale” (Pretty standard Harvard guy dunk) I looked it up. Patrick Graham did, in fact, attend Yale University. I’m actually pretty impressed that Fitz knew that (or looked it up quickly) Richard Sherman was pretty animated about the coverage LV played at the end of the game

I wanna give Baker his propers, and that was for reals an exciting finish - but Man, the Raiders choked