Beck Water

You can't leave us hanging there Yolo you rascal! What did he say?

FWIW, Cooper's own explanation was that he hurt his tailbone. And if he needed time to rest and recover, the optimal place would be One Bills Drive. There would be no need to make any announcement about a "personal matter"; just put him on the injury report and let him stay in Buffalo to rehab as other players with injuries have done this year.

No, we can't talk to a player under contract, that includes pending UFAs. As a courtesy, a team can release a healthy player and he can be signed to the PS or the 53 man roster. I'm actually fuzzy on how the waiver process works at this point of the season though.

Late to the fair here and butting in. Good thing Coleman wasn't a first round pick then?? Pickens is at 57.3% this year His first 2 years were 61.9% and 59.4%. I think he may be a good wide receiver with a bad attitude (which seems to be endemic in Steelerland, but I digress). I think his problem this season is he doesn't believe in Santa Claus Russ Wilson anymore For whatever it's worth, Coleman was at 61% catch rate before his arm got Poyered. And yeah if he wants to be The Man he better get with Moulds like Shakir did, in the off-season. Gabe Davis averaged 54.5% with not much variance during his 4 years in Buffalo. Davis was at 47.6% this past season in Jax. In case you need it said, you're correct that none of the preceding are good for a WR I honestly think Josh Allen is both a blessing and a curse to WR. On the one hand, he will extend plays, find receivers, and throw to them where other QB would not, giving them more opportunities. Blessing. On the other hand, he throws with such velocity that receivers legit struggle to hold onto those Allen piss-missiles, especially when the weather is wet and their glovies don't work or it's cold and their fingers are numb. Curse.

I "get" what you're seeing in that from the perspective of gaining separation, this season features arguably the worst WR corps Allen has had since 2018. I'm going to disagree with you that it's the or one of the most Allen-centric seasons ever because of two factors: 1. first time since 2017 that the Bills have had a plausible run game that didn't go through Josh Allen. literally, Josh at a career low for rush attempts per game 2. only season of Allen's career where YAC have exceeded CAY, meaning the receivers are all contributing after the catch with their legs far more than previous years. I've actually been kind of stoked about both of these observations. But I also worked on a version of "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" where "Hippopotamus" is replaced with "good receiver corps" (try it - it scans). I plan to record it and send it to Brandon Beane. You can question me all you like tho

Something to be said for that viewpoint on causality.

Rudolph and Dobbs were drafted 3 (2018) and 4 (2017) years before Roethlisberger hung up his cleats (2021). It seems pretty standard to use a mid round pick or two on a QB a team can develop as a backup, while they still have a starter in place. Pickett was drafted in 2022, which is when they brought in Trubisky. Again, it seems pretty standard to bring in a veteran guy you think can be a "bridge" QB for the rookie you're developing. Bringing in Fields and Russell Wilson seemed like grasping at straws to me. I can't speak to the knowledge of "any casual fan", I defer to you there.

Yeah, I do say "nonsense". Bass has not been "Bass O Matic" this season and has missed 5 out of 64 extra points.

As far as what I've written, I think we've lost the plot; I wasn't trying to "deny the superiority of his peers". If that's how you interpreted what I wrote, I apologize for not writing with greater clarity. If I have to say it explicitly, Thomas (and other WR drafted in the 1st) have been better WR than Coleman to date. I was responding to a guy who was all "stupid Bills should have drafted Thomas". My point to him was, Thomas was not practically available to the Bills without the use of draft capital they lacked going into the draft (2024 3rd round traded for Douglas in 2023). (to you) I was not trying to say Coleman is better than Thomas. Thomas obviously had a good rookie year. I'm not really down to argue whether Nabors with 109 receptions or Brock Bowers with 112 receptions were better. I wouldn't even argue if you want to say Thomas had a great rookie year because definitions, semantics. Good on you for recognizing talent pre-draft.

I'm glad you're having fun. Let me know if you actually want to talk about something.

Gunner, and I mean this in the kindest way: a man has to know his limitations. Seriously. If you find yourself declaiming that a former all-pro center turned media commentator is wrong, you really need to reflect a minute. What you have to say about how Coleman runs routes, has validity. He was drafted for his ceiling, not for who he is right now. At the same time, Allen was connecting with Coleman at a 61% rate before Coleman's injury. Part of that is because as they build familiarity, the QB knows how the WR is going to run the route, and puts the ball in the place the WR needs it to be *as he is actually running the route*, so he can catch it. That is why Trubisky's comment was something to the effect that if he'd had more time to work with the receivers they would have made a couple of those work.

Waxing moon this week, Check. Bison range, locally available although possibly hard to dig right now, Check The wolf whiskers have me stymied. Are there any acceptable substitutes? I'm wondering if instead of breaking it or burying it, I should fill it with sage and burn the sage, in a petition to the spirit of the Bills former greats to enter and inspire this team.

Ooooh. Living in St Louis, it would be hard to find a Flutie vs. Johnson argument. For that matter, it's hard to find Labatts and Canadians. I see your point about the honest and honorable breakage, though.

I think those are reasonable and likely valid points. In the case of Roethlisberger, though, I suspect he was a bit of a 1700 lb Polar Bear (where does it sit? anywhere it wants). Roethlisburger predated Tomlin as HC by 3 years and won a Superbowl before Tomlin arrived. So while the points you make I'm sure are valid regarding Tomlin's voice in who the Steelers draft and the type of players they value, I would guess that Tomlin, and even Colbert, had their influence on a QB succession plan outweighed by the Rooney family - who may have felt that Big Ben had earned the right to be "done" when he decided he was "done", and not rushed out the door.

Totally fair point of view. I hadn't thought of the perspective "don't lower the trade value", but that's totally valid. I wonder if one reason Beane and McDermott met with Dunne at the Senior Bowl etc was to offer access in exchange for Dunne agreeing to keep a lid on anything he'd heard about Diggs or the Allen/Diggs stuff while they were actively trying to trade him.

It's not impossible. But it seemed pretty clear that Dunne had a narrative - possibly shaped by his own fan frustrations - and focused on info from people that supported said narrative. He either didn't have (but could have had), or didn't include, a whole bunch of info that has come out in different ways. One example is Diggs problematic behaviors and how WR coach Chad Hall wasn't willing or able to hold Diggs accountable and shut that ***** down in 2022 - which may be why McDermott's heart was quite reasonably not warmed by the touching scene of the WR coach being gifted a new truck by his receivers in 2020 - maybe he'd seen a version of that movie before and knew how it ends. From the number of people he talked to and quoted by name, he very likely had access to info that would contradict and disprove some of the quotes he used, but he didn't include it. And yes, since it needs to be said, I read the entirety of the original article. I have not read the recent one.

You really got egged here, and you did it to yourself. This epitomizes the phrase assume makes an ASS of U and Me. U more than me, but whatever. First, you know next to nothing about my background to know about my familiarity (or lack of familiarity) with Kaizen outside a message board. I could be a 6 sigma black belt for all you know (I'm not, but I did serve my time in the corporate world and I certainly don't need the internet to define Kaizen) Second of all, several of McDermott's players in the past - Hyde for one - have actually spoken in interviews about McDermott's committment to Kaizen. McDermott actually uses that word and its definitions with the team to the point where players have talked about it in interviews. This isn't something I made up, it's factual. If you cared enough to google "McDermott" and "Kaizen", which I just did for you, you would find proof: https://www.leanblog.org/2021/01/will-kaizen-get-the-buffalo-bills-to-next-years-super-bowl/ https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/sean-mcdermott-bills-use-kaizen-strategy-to-stress-constant-improvement/article_167722f2-23e0-575a-99ee-297fef2d7781.html Here's a clip of Poyer on PMS talking about Kaizen: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=769575967628494 I also remember an interview with Hyde talking about Kaizen but can't find it on the quick search that's all I'm giving this. So, Facts: 1) I don't need to rip a definition of Kaizen off the internet. 2) It's a fact that Sean McDermott embraces Kaizen and has used and applied it to his organization. It's documented. The Bills do make changes that are clear in information made available to the public. 3 low hanging fruit as easy examples: -they used to give certain veterans "vet rest days" during the week, sometimes different days. This season, that hasn't been happening regularly but every Wednesday has an asterisk "the Bills held a walk through practice on Weds" so more rest for all -they now have a players only offensive meeting on Fri where players talk about what plays they think will work and like, and Allen takes the info to Brady -on the field, they have more than doubled the amount of 4th down conversions they attempt from 2020 (22 vs 10) I'll go out on a limb and say you really have no idea what changes the Bills have made to the details of coverages they use and plays they call. I think you just see McD came in running a 4-2-5 nickel base and he's still using it so he should CHANGE DAMMIT 'cuz BillsVet sez so.

I think independent writers and content creators try to make a one month subscription small enough that a person might do it for one article? and then hope we're too lazy to cancel or find enough of interest. I subscribed to one Patreon that's $3/month. I likely don't get my money's worth but I keep forgetting to cancel. or until @GoBills808 or someone else who subscribed gets groused enough at those of us commenting without reading the whole thing that they just post it LOL

Isn't building the roster, and making a succession plan to the most important player, the job of the GM? I'm not aware of any info or even hints that Tomlin has takes a share of the GM's duties or controls decisions about who to draft or sign, are you? In this case, Kevin Colbert, who was VP and GM for the Steelers, probably gets the (dis)credit for failing to craft a succession plan to Big Ben beyond drafting a 4th round QB in 2017, a 3rd rounder in 2018, and Kenny Pickett in the 1st round 2022 (after which he retired). The problem of course, is that PIttsburgh failed to put a decent OL in front of him. They did draft OL in round 1 the last 2 years and round 2 last year, but Too Little Too Late. I think their new GM Omar Khan should get the blame for the failed Russell Wilson adventure with a side of Justin Fields. But, to be fair, what exactly is a good succession plan to a franchise QB? If you draft one too soon (Love), you may not have them under contract long enough to see how they actually play. If you draft one when you actually need one, they may not be any good and you have to throw them back and pick another. Let's be real, there's a huge element of luck here.

YES! Oops! Who would want to interview the Jets DC right now?

In the fall of 2021, my neighbor went to the HOF in Canton and returned with the gift of a mug with all the Bills HOFers on it, which I thought very nice of said neighbor. I can't help noticing that prior to receiving that mug, the Bills advanced to the AFCCG but after receiving the mug, it's been 3 straight division losses. What should I do with the mug? The neighbor in question is NOT a Chiefs fan.

It's only an aspersion if you imply he's insensitive, like saying "it would be insensitive of McDermott to say "I hope so" if the personal issue is someone close to Cooper died, but that would be in character for McDermott from all the rumors I've heard" A serious health crisis in someone close to Cooper would fit the circumstances and perhaps the health crisis is not yet resolved, but seems to be resolving - thus "I hope so" and "taking it day by day". Shakir had 9 receptions on 10 targets vs. Seattle and 7 receptions on 7 targets vs. Tenn, Good Job Samuel and better luck next time!

I'd like to point to Khalil Shakir as an example of this. As a rookie, he had trouble seeing the field and no it wasn't because McDermott had some inexplicable hatred of him. He had a 50% catch % and 2 scored drops on 20 targets. Over the summer, between his first and second season, he trained with .....funny you should mention him, Eric Moulds! Moulds had him do things like catch balls without gloves to force him to focus. The Shakir we saw in year 2 was a huge improvement who caught almost everything thrown near him, 39 receptions on 45 targets or 87%, and that hasn't fallen much as his targets have more than doubled. There's no reason Coleman can't improve in a similar fashion if he wants to and he puts in the work. He's got the athleticism and the body control and the eye judgement. And then he won't be asked to take 97% of the snaps in a meaningless game and take crap for it on twitter (which I didn't see because I don't visit the twitters except to look at specific people I follow, like Bills media.

I'm not sure if this is a point of disagreement or a semantic issue. I don't toss around words like "great" lightly or quickly. He had a good year. We've seen a number of rookies who have a good year, or a couple of good years, then fade for one or another reason (maybe no fault of their own). If you want to call Thomas great because he had a rookie year with a lot of yards and receptions that's fine. It's not how I use the word. My point was also to look at context. Jax had little run game (26 in the league), a good passing QB, and after injuries, basically Thomas or who? at receiver. So naturally he got a lot of targets. I don't want to take away from the guy, like I said I think he's good, but he had a team situation that favored his receiving production and the development of chemistry with Lawrence (who had Thomas or who? to throw to). If he weren't good, he couldn't have taken advantage of his favorable situation, but I'm not down with calling him great because he was in a favorable situation. If that isn't clear, consider an example of Zay Flowers. I think he's a good WR. His rookie year, he had 77 receptions on 108 targets for 858 yds, 71% of everything thrown at him. He was also on a team that was #30 for passing attempts and #1 for rushing attempts. He's followed it up with a better year, with more receptions, over 1000 receiving yards, more yards/reception - but he's still on a team which is 31st in the league for passing attempts and 2nd for rushing attempts. So that limits his production.

I see no lies. People were not talking about how he looked terrible when he went up for that jump shot TD against the Jets. Or when he made a neat over the shoulder catch for a TD against Jax. Or when he had a 125 yd game against Seattle. The guy was asked to soldier for 97% of the snaps in a meaningless game with a not-very-good and a bad QB he's had little practice with, throwing to him. He did what he was asked. Prior to having his right arm slammed into by Poyer's helmet and suffering some type of lingering injury that took him out 5 weeks (4 games), he had a 61% catch %