Beck Water

This ought to be right up there with "retatta" and Peter Pan as a TBD classic

My goodness, for a chap who led off with "Firstly I do not wish to debate on this" you sure are rolling along. I've contributed what was said about it at the time, believe it or don't

The point here, was that if Araiza were crlminally charged, that would be considered to be conduct affecting the NFL because it occurred while he was an NFL player under contract. It's not my statements that are the issue, it's the NFL/NFLPA CBA and how it was interpreted at the time, which you didn't recall or research.

That's because you need to look at the initial language in the CBA framing the applicability.

Again, see my post above - according to the terms of the CBA, the NFL could not place him on administrative leave for actions that took place before he signed a contract with the NFL

It would NOT be applicable to the Araiza case. This was discussed and clarified at the time. The NFLPA/NFL CBA specifically PROHIBITS the NFL from disciplining a player for actions that took place prior to his joining the NFL. Once a player signs a contract, the NFL personal conduct policy clearly applies. While a player participates in the pre-draft process (Senior Bowl, Combine, Team Visits etc) it's a grey area - there may be some documents the player signs. But while the player is in college, before he signs a contract and before the pre-draft process, it's unambiguous: the NFL can NOT discipline the player, including placing him on the "Commissioner's Exempt List" aka "Paid Administrative Leave" aka "Leave With Pay" The NFL was very clear with the Bills that they would NOT place Araiza on the commissioner's exempt list and grant the Bills a roster exemption for him, unless he were criminally charged (which would be considered to have occurred during his employment with the NFL, even for actions that took place earlier) Again, this was all discussed at the time. It's growing very wearisome to have all these people making posts about debatable ***** and saying "I do not wish to debate this" The issue isn't the nature of the allegations or the outrage, it's when the alleged behavior took place - during the Fall, well before Araiza became an NFL player and subject to the Personal Conduct Policy

Exactly. If the Chiefs are punting against other teams a lot, especially against the Bills, that's a Good Thing. And if they got a guy who booms it 70 yds every kick and he punts from the 35 yd line and we get a touchback, or he punts it right at our returner, again, Good Things. Bonus if he has trouble holding for FG when it's nasty weather The preseason he was with the Bills, I believe you would class his holding skills as "progressing" Now in his time out of football, it's entirely possible he's developed and improved in all aspects - having "touch" on his punts, directional punting, and holding.

In the NFL, the punter does have to hold for FG, which Araiza didn't do in college Also as I recall, on the Bills, he was crushing it deep. But that's not always what's wanted in the NFL. Sometimes you want a guy who can kick directionally or short. Maybe he's gotten better at that.

I believe the person who referred to it as a "hit piece" was Sean McDermott And yes, a heavily-sourced article can be a "hit piece", surely you know this? It's done by selectively including quotes which support your thesis bracketed by slanted or emotionally loaded writing, omitting or downplaying quotes that don't support it, and choosing your sources.

FireChans: "Josh: “I had to rework my mechanics this off-season because my injuries had me compensating incorrectly and making me a worse player” Beane: “I want Josh to keep that LB mentality and never change” 2024 off-season in a nutshell. Response: points out that Josh was injured in the pocket, not while acting like a linebacker and running downfield hitting people Adds "I'm not Team All-Josh's-Injuries-Are-In-The-Pocket 'cuz it's not true, and also 'cuz bangs and dings and bumps accumulate and your body hands you the bill in your 30s and 40s. But let's not pretend that being a QB who stays behind the LOS precludes injury, because it doesn't." You're precious, you really are

What size and style of hat? Enquiring minds wish to know.

You do realize that Josh injured his UCL in 2022 vs the Jets on a passing play where he stayed behind the LOS and was looking to throw, right? And he injured his shoulder in 2023, again hitting the ground shoulder first after throwing a pass? I'm not Team All-Josh's-Injuries-Are-In-The-Pocket 'cuz it's not true, and also 'cuz bangs and dings and bumps accumulate and your body hands you the bill in your 30s and 40s. But let's not pretend that being a QB who stays behind the LOS precludes injury, because it doesn't.

I want a pony. And an all-inclusive trip to Aruba.

It's a team sport so you certainly can't hang it up to one aspect of one player - even the most important player on the team But Rodgers does seem to be too into himself

1st 2, no latter removes the paywall notification but still stops at 1 page

Yo, @boyst, what are those tools for doing an end-around on paywalls? I've tried a bunch I know of like archive.ph and 12ft.io and Dunne has proofed his paywall against them so far, so it's time to call in the Big Guns. Normally I believe in the right to intellectual property but if ever a guy deserved the end-around that'd be Dunne IMO Surprised Beane talked to him after that hit-piece on McDermott Hopefully Beane (or the PR guys who approved it) consulted with McDermott before agreeing to it

I actually thought penis was on the naughty word list here and would be ******. I mean I can't say s n a t c h here, even in the context of " ***** defeat from the jaws of victory". I was mistaken I guess. The ways of the TBD naughty word filter are opaque.

I believe in South America (and maybe Spain/Italy) that gesture indicates the maker's opinion of the size of the viewer's male organ I believe in South America (and maybe Spain/Italy) that gesture indicates the maker's opinion of the size of the viewer's male organ

Good write up. I'm certainly in "Missouri" mode on our WR ("I'm from Missouri. You have to Show Me.") As far as the shuffling things around, I thought it was useful to ask "why didn't Beane double-dip at WR this draft?" and my answer is, because he thought between last year's 5th round pick Shorter, last year's UDFA signings Shavers and Thompson, and perennially injured 2020 2nd round pick KJ Hamler, Beane thought he had comparable talent to the late round guys already on the roster. That means he has to give them a look in training camp to see if he's right, or if he needs to go beating some bushes extra-hard to turn up more talent

Completely fair take. I think people overlook part of the strategy of trading for Diggs, a quality proven vet WR. Put yourself in the GM's shoes: Josh Allen is going into his 3rd year. In May of his 4th year, the GM has to decide whether or not to pick up his 5th year option, now fully guaranteed at that point. And usually, if a team wants to keep a guy, the off-season of the 4th year is when they start contract negotiations. So Josh Allen's 3rd season was ride-or-die? decision time for Beane. Josh improved between 2018 and 2019, but it was clear the WR corps was not all it needed to be, Beasley and Brown could both be blanketed and taken away by good defenses. What to do? Beane could have brought in a 1st round WR and hoped he'd develop quickly enough to see what Allen could be with a solid room of 3 WR. Or, he could trade for a proven guy and see what happened then. Trading for a vet vs. drafting a top rookie WR was the worse move for the Bills cap situation, but the better move for allowing Beane and his staff to make that critical decision on their QB - and after all, paying top QB dollar to a QB who really isn't The Man, is just about the worst cap sin a GM can commit. Rapp scares the crap out of me. "Friendly fire" isn't. Who was it he took out during the Steelers playoff game, Benford? Bernard? Maybe Benford would have made a couple more plays than Dane Jackson against KC. If it was Bernard, starting Klein vs Bernard against KC was huge. So far this preseason, he's already shaken up Shakir and the pads aren't even on. Guy is a loose cannon.

Exactly. He explicitly said he works out, throws, and tries to maintain his weight. He's talked about reviewing his film from the previous season and getting his mechanics assessed. You have to look at context. "Bussin' with the Boys" has a particular vibe to it. Allen seems to like to present himself as "The Natural", and he'll say stuff about how he doesn't lift weights with his upper body like he's just "country strong". But then there are tidbits about how he works with Ryan Flaherty, who coaches QBs and QB candidates to focus on training and strengthening the small muscles of the shoulder girdle (the 4 rotator cuff muscles, for example), banded workouts, various pushup variations, and NOT bench-press. Allen has talked about working with S&C staff in Cali and the Bills who focus on keeping him flexible. That stuff is year-round or it doesn't work; you can't build flexibility in a few weeks. Except, as he's mentioned, "I still work out and throw some", and the aforementioned work with S&C specialists to strengthen small muscles and develop flexibility. Look, I really don't care what you think about me or what I say. The points were made and the tea leaves read in that thread. My point was and is that Josh has never said "He used to work on his craft more than he did the last couple years. He’s getting back to that." Your stuff about Hess is off. Hess has been on the record that he started working with Josh in March of 2020 (not 2019 as you state above), and Josh has commented in exit interviews that he planned to review his mechanics to make sure things weren't getting off after the 2021 and 2022 seasons (that would be with Chris Hess). I expect he couldn't do much in 2022 due to needing to let his UCL heal. Your implication that he only worked with Hess in 2019 (wrong) and 2020 and now again in 2024 is your interpretation - though it's pretty clear after 2023 season that Josh was in need of more work. Exactly. You got it. Unless we have ahold of Josh's calendar (why do you think it's paper?) none of us outside Josh's inner circle know what he's actually doing or not doing. That's my point.

Same article reports KJ Hamler and Bryan Thompson sightings:

I don't _fault_ Beane in the sense of thinking it was a stupid deal to sign Von Miller. After all, if Miller stayed healthy and we won a championship, we'd all be lauding Beane for it. It was a risky deal because of Miller's age, but statistically apparently muscle injuries are more common in older players while ligament injuries are evenly distributed. So Miller's ACL was rotten luck. On the other hand, you have to judge whether a deal is a good one or a bad one based upon how it works out, right? And the fact is, signing Miller has been a very poor ROI for the Bills and is one of the reasons we're in Cap Purgatory. If Fat Kelvin had returned to his 2016 form and had 63 receptions for 941 yds, we'd judge that 3rd round pick we gave up for him much more kindly. Instead he checked out once he got his 5th year guaranteed pay, so it was a poor ROI.

Yeah, Coleman was a trade - 7th round pick. He just particularly pissed me off because the Bills, in a cap crunch, assumed a $3.5M guaranteed salary for a guy they kept through training camp cut before the regular season. They got a bit of relief when he signed with the Giants, but still - they took on $3M dead cap for a guy who never played a snap. And this was in a year where our WR corps was Zay Jones, Robert Foster, and Kelvin Benjamin; our OL was atrocious; and Beane was pleading "no money" as a reason for not doing better (he acknowledged after the season that he could have done more, at least on OL). There've been articles about McDermott seeking learnings after he was fired as the Eagles DC, and taking to heart the message "you got to make sure players are bought in", especially on DL. McDermott is always talking about how "DT is the most selfless position". It seems like a reasonable connect-the-dots that McDermott became gun-shy about bringing in DLmen who might not "buy in" to his particular "selfless" philosophy of DL usage in a league where pay is performance-driven and statistics are one of the key performance metrics (sacks, TFL, QB knockdowns and hurries). I think Beane has control over the 53 and it's not just on paper, but I think McDermott pushed for preference given to "known quantities" on DL and it took the total disintegration of Lotulelei's effort to persuade McD that he had to let go of that a bit.

I don't wanna make excuses for Rodgers, but apparently he broke the thumb on his throwing hand in Week 5 The team had 7 losses and 1 win Week 5 and following So, did the loss of Adams affect Rodgers, almost certainly. The Packers invested a 3rd round 2022 pick, a 2nd round 2023 pick, and a 5th round 2023 pick at WR, and gave up on the 2022 guy partway through the 2023 season. They didn't sign any FA of note, either. But injuries and deteriorating skill likely played a role as well.