PBF81

Couldn't one then reasonably argue that the NFL needs more white players?

They're probably going with a new patented 4-1-6 and going to sell it to us as a game changing paradigm shift. Milano will still play OLB of course, and they'll vacate the middle of the defensive backfield in the hope of bringing our playoff caliber defense into the regular season to sync the two. Maybe that's what the legendary "Process" is in it's final form.

Here's what I don't understand, originally the excavation was to begin towards the end of last season, as posed by the powers that be behind this. Then it was moved to not later than April 1st. The more recently they said June is when the "big digging" (their words contrasting with merely site work) would begin. Now in todays BN piece Raccuia states that parking won't be significantly impacted. Why not? How not? Even a conservative estimate of the space required to "big dig" just the field along with some area around it would eliminate most of what is now Lot 4 and even some of the RV Lot. They're also not going to take the equipment off-site every day, that'd be ridiculous. How can they start the "big digging" but have people still parking where or even next to where it's being dug? Eventually it's going to have to be a lot more than that. BTW, that video is extremely interesting, even outside the context of this conversation. It's well worth a view.

Not true. But you're completely missing the crux of the matter. So let's simply agree to disagree. I'm good with that. BTW, I have no idea how you read all that and watched a 12 minute video in 60 seconds. So I don't even think that you're reading what I wrote. You certainly didn't watch the video.

And I'll say what I originally said, the Buffalo area/WNY, is easily, by a country mile, the smallest financially based team that presently hosts an NFL team. Cincinnati is notably bigger in that regard. It's a fact that if we currently did not have a team, that we would never be on the short-list for getting one, ever. It's a diminishing city and region no matter how it's spun. Yeah, I get it, we all grew up here and love it, but that doesn't matter a hill of beans to the NFL. Who knows what Pegula's interests are other than family wealth and lifestyle uber alles as he/Kim have already made plainly known, but it's not keeping the team in Buffalo over that. He's told us as much. I, as with you, believe that it should revolve around the fans and at reasonable ticket prices. But as others have pointed out, that's not the NFL's model anymore. TV revenues (largely streaming) have long been the big "chunk of change" for the NFL, with cheap seats being second. We're not living in the 80s. Someone on here even provided evidence that the NFL doesn't care who buys the tickets and that a good number of ticket agencies that package up ticket/travel/hotel deals will be buying them (and the associated PSLs) to resell. That's believeable. After TV revenue, and that's largely from streaming, not from local viewing, the luxury seating and corporate accommodations are the next biggest overall driver. It's a similar model in that regard to airline seat economics. It's a very informative video. Again, someone else here pointed out that the new NFL model is to price out the riff-raff in favor of a "white collar" crowd. Also believeable. Who needs, or wants, a bunch of ######ed drunks running around the stadium during games bumping into people and causing problems. This has almost nothing to do with fans willing to pay $100 to see a game. Almost all tickets in the new stadium are going to cost well over $200 if their survey is to be believed, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be. Cheap tix will be maybe $120 for the upper deck corners. Plus PSLs. I calculated the center upper deckss to be $205 (9 home games) and about $230 (8 home games, plus PSLs of course. Even secondary market prices weren't that high for most of the season up there. This has almost nothing to do with the amount of fans willing to go to games if the tickets are reasonably priced. They're not going to be reasonably priced by the statements of many here even. The league wants to sell the luxury seating more than anything. Anyway, if that still doesn't make sense, no worries. I'm tired of discussing this. The NFL has plenty of information out there online in a free google search to let anyone that wants to know what their goals are. It's not what we currenty have in Buffalo. Many consider Bills tailgating videos to be a blight in the NFL's marketing. While we think that some things are funny or merely "in line with Bills Mafia," the NFL and others don't view it the same way. Videos online of two people screwing in the parking lot, dildos thrown onto the field, people getting seriously injured tailgating because they're more stupid and drunk than they are sensible, etc. aren't exactly what the NFL, or even the Bills front office, want to see. That's the exact kind of stuff that the NFL's trying to cut down on. Buffalo isn't flying under their radar. It's all gotten noticed, believe me.

It's not about STHs, that part of it anyway. Not sure how you picked that up.

Not even close in impact. Neither does Canada's financial base factor in.

Not to burst your bubble, but given that Green Bay draws from Milwaukee, Buffalo has by a country mile the worst financial market/base of any NFL team. That's what you need to look at and consider. It's also a diminishing market. As I've pointed out numerous times, if Buffalo didn't already have a team, no owner looking to relocate would even consider Buffalo, and we'd have zero chance of getting an expansion team if even one were offered. We wouldn't even make the short-list for consideration. We're lucky to have a team still. The one wild-card is TV revenues. The financial model for the NFL has changed over the past many years and TV revenues are driving things more than anything. To your last point. I don't know how all that works. There are some complicated things in the NFL's revenue sharing model, and now with streaming it's changing the game there, no pun intended. Let's see, hopefully those of us expressing concerns are doing so for nothing.

Those are reasonable, and it's funny that support for one of our players would be unpopular. Strange. LOL Having said that, your statement about Oliver is relative. He's easily the best DL-man, but that's not saying much. He also posts a game that makes you say "wow," but then disappears for three or four games making you wonder whether he was even on the field. As to Allen's postseason play, agreed, but which of our players did step up? A couple did, literally, as in a couple, but almost none. Coaching didn't show up either for that matter. We squeaked by a Skylar Thompson-led Miami which beefed up the offensive post-season stats only, but it was far from impressive and there's no way that they should even have been in that game in the 2nd half. Just sayin', I agree with you generally speaking.

Cook has never proven to be anything but a role/situational player, I have no idea why we drafted him they with so many other needs. There's a lot of implicit criticism of McD in this thread. IMO this Draft is going to make or break both Beane & McD, maybe not immediately, but re: their next contacts anyway if Pegula can't pull the plug. Here's the thing, besides Allen, they don't have a single pick that has even approached consistently stepping up come playoff time. Not one. That's a huge problem. Davis is the biggest one, and even some of McBeane's most ardent supporters are ready to throw him overboard. The division is tightening up, all it's going to take for a barrage of criticism to befall McD & Beane is a 2nd place finish in the division, or getting booted from the playoffs again in the Wild Card or D rounds. I'd take a 9-8 finish with a wild-card berth and a Super Bowl win over 17-0 season and a Divisional round loss anytime. We seem to be overly focused on regular season performance regardless of playoff outcomes. The playoff performances of our drafted DL players in particular is heavily problematic.

We did, but keep in mind that that was no secret. Von Miller's acquisition was a high-risk high-reward move that was made because Beane's draft picks weren't getting the job done, so had to pay more for it via FAcy. The more unpopular opinion re: that is that Beane should be held accountable for it and the damage that signing has done, considering that the risk was realized, not the benefit. When you make moves like that, you shouldn't get away with the consequences should they go awry. Again, the unpopular opinion. The majority opinion seems to be that Beane should be vindicated on poor drafting for four straight years. Just sayin'

I'll join you on your crusade. I'll add to what you said. Everyone's perfectly willing to give Beane & McD years to get things done despite minimal evidence that they know what they're even doing from a big-picture perspective, and players on our D and team elsewhere we're told need time, but Davis has one off season and they're willing to throw him overboard. And let's keep in mind that to date absolutely no one has defined what "The Process" actually is or how it works. Yet, we're willing to wait unforetold years to find out. LOL Meanwhile, in the playoffs, Diggs goes MIA in the biggest games that this team has, even to the extent that Davis outplays him in the last game vs. Cinci and KC each, and not a word about how maybe our $96M WR should be doing more than averaging 3 catches for 40 yards while being held scoreless in those games. I'm not saying ditch Diggs, but the discrepancy between how the two are treated is remarkable. In Diggs' first three NFL seasons he put up 2,472 Yards on 12.4 YPR and 15 TDs. Davis in his first three NFL seasons has put up 1,984 Yards on 16.8 YPR and 20 TDs. So yeah, let's get rid of him, he sucks. Diggs' in his first three seasons of playoffs put up 309 Yards on 22 catches for 14.0 YPR and 2 TDs. Davis in his first three seasons of playoffs put up 474 Yards on the same 22 catches for 21.6 YPR and 6 TDs. Yeah, he'll never amount to anything. Meanwhile, of all the WRs drafted along with Davis in '20, only one has scored more TDs, Jefferson. Hmmmm.... Only one drafted after him has caught for more yards, a marginal 65 yards/season, but with half the TDs, only 10. Mooney, in Chicago. Davis has caught more passes than 8 WRs drafted before him, has logged more Yards than 9 WRs drafted before him, and has more TDs than 14 (all but one) WR drafted before him. Yeah, he's hot garbage. LOL The irony is that IMO Beane hasn't done anything even average much less better in terms of his Drafts. But Davis was actually his best pick in his last four Drafts. Who's been better since 2019? Oliver? Debatable, but considering that Davis was 128th overall at the end of the 3th round contrasted with Oliver at 9th overall, top-10, there's no comparison.

The point wasn't about Beasley, you made it about Beasley. My statement about Beasley was a relative one. If you want to argue that McKenzie and Crowder were better, which is implicitly what you're doing, great, I'll quietly note that. It's a valid opinion although I do believe that the data is still on my side, whether Beasley is washed up or not. Thanks on the second sentence part. My primary point, so we agree there. As to your third part, thanks for sharing that. Unlike many other posters here I didn't watch every game that Harty played in. LOL In fact, I don't recall one, so I'm limited to data and youtube videos, which are typically highlights sans lowlights. We'll see what happens, but for five years now, also part of my original point implicitly, we've been treated to all kinds of statements by the team as to how the WRs that Beane has acquired were going to be the answer. None have other than Diggs, and Diggs has largely come up empty come playoff time, particularly against KC and Cinci despite playing 90% of the offensive snaps. (13 for 119, 0 TDs, 9.2 YPR) Avg. of 4 catches for 40 yards/game. If Harty is that WR, then Beane will have hit on a first.

OK, so back to my original point that you didn't like, go ahead them and name the slot WRs brought on by Beane then which we're good, which was the point. Since Beasley apparently was the worst, which were better? Don't go off on a tangent about Beasley. I'm all ears.

He's bordering on it. He did have a decent end of the season, and did better than any other slot WR we had, but you missed the overall point. Otherwise, on a per-snap basis he was about what Diggs and Davis were. Speaking of Diggs, he's been horrible in the playoffs other than for the Miami game. The thread is about unpopular opinions. I provided one. Not sure your point besides ad hominem. But I'll tell you what, bookmark it, next January throw it back out. Let's see where we stand. I can change it, ... Super Bowl here we come Baby!!! LOL

Yeah, sorry, I meant Crowder. My bad. Make the swap, point remains. Don't leapfrog it. We can do this same exercise for many positions. Addison & Murphy. Who knows WTH they were doing at DT. Beasley wasn't that washed, and they kicked him to the curb regardless. They could have negotiated him down at some point, they didn't even try until it became absurdly desperate. And funny how "Beasley's washed" but so many want OBJ. LOL Anyway, we'll see how Harty does. I'm not holding my breath that he'll move the needle.

The number of receivers we've brought on that were the answer is mindboggling. For slot only, McKenzie and Kumerow, now both unceremoniously gone. Meanwhile we kicked the best slot receiver we've had in years, and one of Allen's favorites, Beasley, to the curb. Now it's Harty.

At the same time next season, the majority opinion here will be that McD and Beane need to go. That's my unpopular opnion.

LOL at your first sentence. It really is. Agree on the rest, and being skepical to begin with, it's enough to make one wonder whether it's actually going to go down. One thing after another, what we're being told and have been told hasn't lined up, we presently have no lease to play in just four months, and some engineering site with info about the project states that work would begin mid-year. Someone here facetiously made a statement about the last "meeting" and approvals of the approvals etc. LOL I'll believe it when I see the heavy excavating equipment doing it's work. I'm sure that someone living around there will post pics once that happens. And where's Pegula on all of this? Sure, we all get it, Kim's in a bad way and that comes first, but it does make one wonder what's going through his mind, particularly since Kim/family does come first. When's the last time he said anything publicly about any of this, what, a year ago? I'm not one of those people that believes that if he were ever to sell the team that it would be bought by someone that would keep it in WNY, I don't care what anyone says about "clauses" and the like. NYS politics ... LOL

Whatever Beane chooses to do, his picks, particularly his 1st & 2nd rounders, need to contribute significantly this season. This would be a first for Beane if it happens.

Not true, others didn't get scorched on a regular ongoing basis like ours did. Cinci held three teams to 50 points total, including the Chiefs to 23 and 357 total yards. KC held Cinci to 20 pts. and 309 total yards, and their D wasn't nearly ranked as highly as ours. Last season the 17th ranked Cinci D held the chiefs to 24 points and 375 total yards to our 552, held the Rams to 23 and 313 total yards, and held their two other playoff opponents to 16 & 19 points. The Chiefs and their 8th ranked D held the Bengals to 27 adn 359 total yards. Disagree as you may, there's an big enough difference straight up, but when you consider all the bloat about us being a #1/#2 D, there's an even bigger discrepancy. And honestly, who on earth is defending our playoff defense? Seriously?

A couple of years ago everyone said the same with the signing of Diggs. As long as our defense keeps giving up around 40 PPG to teams in the D and CC rounds, we're not going anywhere.

Whoever it is, let's make sure that it's someone from Carolina. Their tenacious defense and inspiring playoff performances over the past five seasons is a standard to be brought her to Buffalo.

Well, looks like he's going to be around this season, it's his third, so let's hope he improves significantly. I don't think anyone needs rankings for him, we all saw how not-good he was. The extent to which he sucked can be discussed, but doesn't really matter at this point. On the flip side, after having done some research on Connor McGovern, he actually seems to be a good pick-up. Not sure about the contract relative to what else was there, but if he plays the way that he did last season, the left side, Dawkins, McGovern and Morse should be solid. Having said that, the Cowboys last year also faced a relatively weak schedule in terms of pass-rushing Ds, that will tighten up significantly given our opponents for this season, at least based upon last season's rankings. Nothin' we can do, kind of watching your kids go out and do things, gotta just see how this plays out for Beane. The Draft is what is either going to make or break Beane's future here. If his Draft is more of the same of what he's provided therein the last four years, he's not going to be here much longer. The performance of the team amidst an increasingly strengthening AFC East will be noticeable.

Right there to a T, the top-2 reasons. That cannot possibly be understated. The lack of divisional beating perennially that other teams were not subjected to is huge. The number of different starting QBs that went thru Buffalo, NY, and Miami during that stretch were 29 Buffalo (9), Miami (11), and the Jets (9). Fitzpatrick played for all three teams, he counts three times therefore. Otherwise, the three had 20 different total coaches among them during Brady's tenure. The Jets are the only team that went to the playoffs with any regularity. Miami made it three times but lost in the WC round every time. We only went in '17 and '19, also losing both times in the WC round. We're seeing what Belichick would have been without Brady right now. He's employing the same team-building strategy. It's still on his high end for career coaching w/o Brady, and he's got all that experience from the Brady years too. I don't give him the credit that others do. Had Mo Lewis not knocked Bledsoe into the Twilight Zone, Belichick would have likely continued to ride Bledsoe, who was already 5-13 with him at the time, into the next team as a DC probably. For that reason I hate Mo Lewis.