Mark Long Beach

Very. Tall.

I tend to root for most ex-bills to do well. More so for ones that resonated with me such as Fitz. Beyond the Bills, I don't have a "back-up" team per se. I'll generally root for the poor "factory of Sadness" Browns. I'll occasionally follow a team that has gets good and has some real life to it such as the Icky Woods Bengals or Superbowl Shuffle Bears. I won't root for the Cowboys or the Raiders ever. And almost never Philly, "City of Brotherly Love" my ***.

I love hearing about our Rookie's during their first taste of NFL action. Probably my favorite part of the NFL offseason. Is this year's camp open to public? Will we be able to get reports of how our rooks look? Anyone going who can help tell us stories?

Thanks! A nice, positive review of technique and skillset from an ex-NFL corner. I think his actual weight and size are smaller (than what he estimates) and really concern teams about his ability to be healthy vs NFL sized players.

I'm an underdog rooter. I like it when an unexpected flower emerges. Hell Yes I rooted for Jasper to make it! But this guy? I've never had any hope. Obviously crippled in a fundamental way that he was unlikely to recover from to take the abuse of an NFL season. Underwhelming tape beforehand to boot. I didn't even want him wasting a practice squad spot. I can't remember another player that I've thought that about. Hopefully he can get healthy enough to live a non-NFL life.

You are always in trouble if your backup has to play. We are in LESS trouble now than we were before. That's a win.

I think the high blitz rate dramatically drove down our defenses overall effectiveness. The primary goal of the scheme is to pressure the QB with the front 4 and play zone with eyes on QB to take advantage of mistakes caused by the pressure. This is why we have one of the most $$ in the NFL devoted to our DL. Having to blitz so often left much bigger holes for the QB to find easier and quicker. This compounded by our crappy run defense = rough defensive season. I figure better practice time and hopefully better addressing the 1 tech (Star + vet?), and better DE play (Epenesa) + new vet, will allow our D to go back to 2019 play and less blitzing.

We did pay Charles Clay $38m over 5 years with like 23m guaranteed. That's still a lot of coin. ...that we didn't get enough production out of.

Obviously, we'll find out later what Williams will get, but I have little doubt that he'll get more than 8m per year. Tackle is still a premier position because it's highly visible and protects the QB. It's not just that Williams had one good year, he was a former All Pro player who struggled coming back from major injury. He clearly showed that he is back to being a highly productive player. I think someone will pay him a fistfull more than us.

Eh. It's only noteworthy because he's first. Once diversity isn't something new it's no longer a story.

I think people underestimate how good a coach Leslie is. He's a very, very good DC and similarly good human being. I really enjoy his listening to his interviews. While I agree that he's not likely to get another shot as HC though for the reasons listed by GunnerBill, It would hurt to lose him more than people think. He's a strong contributor to our locker room character. IIRC, didn't McDermitt get hired late enough that most of his staff hires was from the leftovers? I seem to recall reading articles that his first choices had all been hired elsewhere and he had to settle for assistants more than he wanted.

Last year he just felt "solid". This game he looked dynamic. I really enjoyed his runbacks today.

As a fan who moved away while still a child, my experiences of watching the Bills have been on TV. That's not going to change. I suspect that it'll be harder for the players to get into the same groove as when they have have fans in the stands, but I think they'll get used to it. I'm SUPER excited for the season though. But since I'm a long time Bills fan, I still have this fear that it'll all come crumbling down and that success is still not in reach. I would REALLY like to shake that feeling and go back to expecting to crush my foes everytime and claiming any loss is a fluke.

I really enjoyed her piece. Of course there's a bunch of PR in there. Why wouldn't there be? But I appreciate the open discussion with greater details of people and the ideas and some actions being done. It's not a series of marketing slogans. "Black Lives Matter" is a slogan, but it's only a shortcut for discussions around injustice. I don't just want a slogan, I want action. Creating awareness allows action to be understood, accepted and followed. I like what they've done and their explanations around it. Kim Pegula is an easy target. She's female. A minority. Married into money. In major power position. Replacing men before her that she's both hired and fired. Made multiple mistakes. AND she's in charge of our beloved sports team. Mistakes have made no doubt. Mistakes will always be made when doing new things. But if something isn't working, STOP doing it. You wouldn't believe how many people keep doing the things that don't work. I also want to see success. Constant change from lack of success is bad too. I've seen lots of good things from Kim and to a lesser extent Terry. Important admissions of failure and success with logical thoughts behind it. The goal is long term success and I believe we will have it with the Pegulas, with Kim in particular as an important reason for it.

"So, have you stopped beating your wife?" Simple yes or no question... So go ahead and answer it with only a one word "yes" or "no". There's a lot more carried along in the original question than a simple "yes" or "no" can answer. He answered the question conveying strong support of whatever his players do. That absolutely is an answer and not an avoidance.

Defense only counts for 43% of the grade. So definitely skews towards offensive minded teams.

I also have a subscription and I love it. I'm mostly on for my Bills & Lakers ( I AM in L.A.) but it covers so much else that I can go read about some interesting story in some other sport or team. It's absolutely worth it to me.

Well per the photo of the whiteboard, he was on the board, but it looks like he wasn't in the first round. They were willing to trade up to Den at #5 (for #12, 22 & 53) to get 1> Allen 2> Darnald 3> Mayfield But Rosen was their first runner-up at #4 but not on a tradup to #5. Which of course didn't happen since Denver got their player to fall to them and we had to trade at 7. LAMAR JACKSON was the one not on their board as we had just gotten rid of Tyrod Taylor. #4 Rosen #5 Okl. St. Lamotta? #6 Richmond

Jokes aside... Why let this guy go? After reading the article, I'm even more confused. It's hard to find good hands on people who are also good at running things... Is it conflicts regarding the new stadium?

Hard to know when the cliff hits for an older player. It hit Gore in the middle of the season. Granted our play calling didn't do him a lot of favors, but he's now done. But the first 6 or so games, he was plenty good. Last year, Olsen was more productive than our entire TE staff combined. If we don't go top shelf in FA, I don't mind looking at Olsen. We shouldn't rely only on Knox taking a step or two forward. I worry that he may not take fast enough steps this coming year. I don't have too much faith in Kroft. It's reassuring that McBean don't often rely on just one hope, and that multiple options are brought in.

As best I understand it, the hate is because he was overpaid and underproduced. He worked hard, but never seemed to produce any influential plays. Oh, and probably because we kept him around for a while because we never got anyone better to replace him. So I think that gets held against him.

Short, clear and plausible. Just enough info to mildly convince, which is no easy task. Good Job.

For sure! But spending top dollar on free agents isn't their style. I think they'll do it, but it's not their nature. We've got 5 Days if we want a new TE before making a decision on cutting Kroft. It gets much more expensive after that to release him.

Thanks for the link on Hooper. I am all for having two top end TE's! I want a great two-way TE though, not a slot receiver in disguise. I think that's what we need to make a great and versatile ground and pound game. But top $ free agency acquisitions are risky. Also, they are not inline with the best practices of McBean & Co. They've stated that they'd prefer to draft and resign the best of their own. Since they are still a young franchise, I think they would have to be REALLY sold on this guy (or any other top $ guy). They're still working on building and establishing a culture and set of best practices. That doesn't work if you're regularly breaking the rules.

Thanks for the clarification on Long's contract. I knew we had an out, but it's even better than I remember. But he's still not cheap to KEEP through the year. I'm all for keeping him through camp to see his value to the team. ?