Beck Water

True Dat, but it's maybe a $3k pair of sunglasses and a $14-18k piece of jewelry. With career earnings of reportedly $24.8M, that's like 0.08% of what he's earned. It's kind of like one of us buying a pair of Nikes. Now I get your point, it's more reflective of a mindset and $20k here, $60k there, $600k somewhere else and pretty soon you're Vince Young, you've filed bankruptcy, and you're shilling for your former university as an $100k "Assistant to the Athletic Director".

Who has the biggest calves on the team? 1) Dion Dawkins 2) somebody else Dion all the way, the man is huge.

I think it just goes with the territory of being a rookie. He probably thought he was getting in peak physical condition, and he probably was - only it wasn't peak NFL starter physical condition. Wait what? I don't think that's Hyde. Hyde only 2 inches shorter than Bishop.

It's not just a mental hurdle, though that was undoubtedly there. Lay people who haven't gone through it don't realize what an immense insult to the overall physiology heart stoppage followed by CPR/time on a ventilator really is. Hamlin's ribs were undoubtedly damaged. Cracked ribs and cartilage take months to heal. His lungs had the equivalent of severe, life-threatening pneumonia. In this antibiotic age, we've lost touch with how long it used to take people who lived to recover from severe pneumonia - it took months, and that's months to just return to normal physical activity, not to restore peak athletic ability. And he spent months last off season where he was severely limited physically in what he could do leading to de-conditioning of muscle. We "get it" mostly that an athlete returning from an ACL usually needs until his 2nd season post-injury to return to whatever his best form was. Same for Hamlin.

I mean, what do you want him to say? Douglas and Benford did very well as our starting CB last season. They've earned the chance to return as starters until and unless Elam shows he can outplay one of them. Historically, McDermott and Beane have emphasized that they tell the rookies "you got to put the work in and come into camp in shape" and every year one or more of the rookies thinks he's done that thing, but he really hasn't

It's not crazy. It goes with McDermott's philosophy of "iron sharpens iron". Cook was by far the best back last year with no serious competition. The hope is that 1) Ray Davis throws down the gauntlet that he runs hard AND can make those "gotta have 'em" grabs 2) Cook looks across the RB room at Davis (and maybe Gore Jr) and ratchets up his level of concentration to make them himself Either way is good for the Bills

Oh, Crap, I hope you kick back at them both Real Soon. Enjoy your doxycycline cocktails! Evvybody send their Permethrin-soaked clothing to Simon to use going forward Or next thing you know he'll get alpha-Gal and it'll be Soyburgers for Life for our boy

A moderator isn't needed to rename. The thread starter @Donuts and Doritos can rename it. Just edit the OP post, a window will open, change the tame to something like '2024 Training Camp Opens and Day 1: July 24"

It didn't help, but I think he more checked out upstairs. Same as Fat Kelvin Benjamin; he could probably have rehabbed and returned from the injuries, but he made his bag and checked out.

This is totally fair and goes with the "past performance predicts future results" and "if someone shows you who they are, believe them" strategies. Claypool was such a locker room meltdown mess that he got slung off of, not one, but two different teams in successive years. That screams "player in crying need of a critical Attitude Adjustment". The contraindicating data are that after he got slung off to the Dolphins in exchange for a 2025 6th round pick (the ultimate low-investment trade), he played roughly 40% of the ST snaps. ST, the phase of the team where unsung players go to grind without fanfare; and, for the cost of a 2025 6th rounder the Dolphins surely wouldn't have hesitated to sling him out the door at the first hint of "locker room cold", let alone letting it progress to "locker room cancer". The Bills signed him to a VSB contract May 1, so there clearly was little to no other market for his services. (VSB: Vet salary benefit, system where player gets signed to a inimum salary contract (with a signing bonus less than $165k) and the club is allowed to count him as a 2nd year player's salary against the cap (the idea is to encourage clubs to sign veteran players). Claypool got a signing bonus of $25k. That ought to be the ultimate ego check: the former 2nd round pick who was highly regarded his first 2 years, now getting paid less than career journeymen like Isaiah McKenzie (and, oh yeah, less than half the cap hit and 1/20th the signing bonus of vet journeyman Mack Hollins). One of two things is possible: 1) people are WYSIWYG, they usually can't manage significant change, and you're Right On 2) Claypool has looked at his career trajectory, decided he doesn't want to leave the game of football like that, and gotten his head on straight, in which case your comment about his ability is relevant. I would put his odds a bit higher - say 20 or 30% - but that's for no particularly great reason other than his ability to finish out the 2023 season grinding ST for the Dolphins, without causing any ripples that got into the media. If he hadn't managed that, I'd put the odds lower than you.

Did they actually grant Ty Dunne press access (he'll be at the press conferences, practices, etc) or did he just get "access" in the sense of being granted some interviews? I don't think Joe Marino has media access. Certainly when pressers were virtual never saw him. The Bills have to grant access to members of the media per NFL mandate. I don't think they go any further than the NFL mandates them to go.

TBD endorsement and $24 will get you a case of Budweiser

Anyone who can gift Astro tickets is doing a public service IMHO The Cover1 guys were also begging for tickets Let's not pretend that wasn't a viewpoint stated by multiple members of the media (TBN, Athletic, various TV pundits)

He's slimmer. You can see it in his face.

That is a good article, Thanks! It sounds as though it's been hard on Bernard, missing the game and knowing that he might have made a difference. Tiny nit, Graham makes it sound as though Bernard played every game as a defender his rookie season but had a mediocre impact. Bernard did play all 16 games, but primarily on Special Teams. He started 1 game, and saw significant snaps in 2 others. In the game he started, he racked up 7 tackles; in the game where he played 33% of the defensive snaps, he had 6. So while what Graham says is correct, it's a bit cherry-picked to make it sound as though Bernard played every game on defense and did next to nothing.

Agree again about Toney, but while the duration of his struggles is shorter - when a team drafts a guy in the 1st round and essentially gives up on him after 2 games played in his 2nd season, the steepness of the decline in confidence kind of makes up for the short duration of struggles. But yeah, the Chiefs sent some decent draft capital to the Giants to acquire him.

Fair point. I was more focused on draft resources used in my answer. I think this is Right On. When the Bills extended Diggs they thought he and Josh were a gonna be a solid pairing for 3-4 yrs. Reportedly "Things Fell Apart" the second half of last season, so when Houston made a good offer, the Bills looked at the 6 straight games with minimal contributions from Diggs and said "time to go" But the Bills had no expectation of moving on from Diggs and Davis at the same time.

I think it's clear that overall, I agree with the point that KC has invested more at WR. And they have Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown - who is a disappointment as a 1st round pick, but can legit play NFL WR and may blossom with Mahomes throwing to him. But I think you actually kind of weaken your point with Kadarius Toney. He was exactly the same kind of rifle shot for them that signing Chase Claypool and KJ Hamler was for us.

Oh, I have no argument against that at all - totally valid points. But I was responding to @Mikey152, who was countering @Kirby Jackson's points about the amount of resources KC has expended on WR vs. Buffalo by pointing out that the Bills have a lot of 2nd round picks on the roster. What you say is actually part of my counterpoint - it's not the same thing to spend 3 - 2nd round draft picks on WR, a 1st round pick on a RB, and this year another 1st round pick on a WR (trading up), which is what KC has done over the past 6 seasons vs. What the Bills have done, which is to use 2 - 6th round picks, a 4th, 2- 5ths, and finally this year a 2nd, PLUS bring in a bunch of 2nd round picks hoping to resurrect their careers (or have one). Now it's fair to point out that in this time, the Bills also used a 1st round pick on an TE, as well as a 2nd round and 2 3rd round picks on RB, so it's not as though offensive investment in the top 3 rounds has been AWOL, but until this year, investment in WR certainly was. Counting a TE as a receiver, the Bills have invested a 1st and 2nd at receiver over the past 6 seasons in the first 3 rounds, VS. KC expending a 1st and 3 2nd round picks. It's kind of like double the investment.

To be fair to Diggs, the drop in catch % and yards started before the change to Brady - in fact, arguably with the Giants game where Diggs caught 6 of 10 targets for 100 yds. And the Giants game was the game where Allen sprained his throwing shoulder. So we'd have to look at whether there was another factor - were Allen's targets to Diggs less catchable or uncatchable after the shoulder sprain? That kind of thing. TL;DR there are two parts to catch % and one of them is the QB, who was known to be injured and then struggling with mechanics, which likely impacted his accuracyl

What I think? Well, some guys who actually watch a lot of film and get paid to do it said right out, "Diggs is not going to Houston to be the #1 WR". Houston has Nico Collins, who had 109 targets, 80 receptions, 1297 yds last season. 12 yds per target, 8 TDs, and a mind-blowing 53 1st downs. My guess is that what the Texans are hoping for with Diggs is a situation where they have 2 #1 receivers, or a #1 and a #1B, and teams can't just rotate all the coverage onto Collins. I don't think Diggs will be seeing 160 targets, but I also don't think he'll be seeing the same coverage he saw with the Bills. I would expect Diggs to come out the gate strong, motivated by having been traded, various chatter about him falling off, and also motivated to prove that he's a great teammate and the "noise" isn't true, so he ought to come out ready to "get open and catch the ball" as he did his first 3 years in B'lo. Like Jerry Hughes did when the Bills cut him at age 33 and he jumped from 2 to 9 sacks, from 1 to 10 TFL, from 7 to 10 QBH and doubled his tackles - I expect Diggs to have at least an initial resurgence from the end of last season. I don't expect him to be force-fed 12, 13, 16 targets a game, though. Whether he'll be able to sustain it all season after he gets hit a dozen times a game 6 weeks in a row, can't tell you, but if his targets are down because Collins is in truth the #1, his chances of sustaining and having something left in the tank at the end of the year are better. His chances of being unable to sustain the "I'm a nice guy, I'm a great teammate, My QB Right or Wrong" act will decrease if he's not being fed, though.

Who did we sign or trade for that was drafted in the first round? I musta blinked and missed it Samuel is a 2nd round pick who has performed consistently in his career. So there's that. The thing is, when you take a shot on a 2nd round pick like Claypool who started out well but after his first two years has been kicked around like a playground milk carton, or a 2nd round pick like KJ Hamler who had an OK year as a rookie but has barely been able to play since due to injury - you're really taking a "rifle shot". It's not like the guy is a 2nd round pick who has to prove himself, these are guys who have had 4 years to figure it out and haven't been able to. I will say that the same issues apply to @Kirby Jackson's point that KC "traded for a guy drafted in the 1st last year". When the team that drafted a guy in the 1st is willing to ship him off for a 3rd midway through his 2nd season, that's also a "rifle shot", and Toney lived down to his billing.

How about in Nov - Dec, may we quote you then?

I'm pretty sure there were scenes of Diggs yelling at Cousins on the sideline.

Yeah, it's also kind of weak sauce defense: "He's just misunderstood!" "You say drama, I say passion!" There's no question that Diggs has a PhD in route-running moves. The questions are: 1) has he lost a step as far as speed and game savvy? He was observed breaking his routes short of the sticks and taking a long time to get off the line last season? 2) can he hold up over the course of a season and into the playoffs? Last two years he has started off hot, and cooled off big time. That's not uncommon as "Father Time" takes his inevitable toll, the hard part about a football season for older players is recovery each week, and also healing from nagging injuries Also, the way defenses like KC (twice), PHI, NWE, CINN etc manage to neutralize or limit Diggs effectiveness is by being physical with him all game and holding him as much as the refs will let them get away with. It's great to have all those slick moves Keenum talks about, but they don't mean as much if the CB is allowed to get his hands on you downfield