dave mcbride

It's amazing to me how much people make out of the occasional drop. There's not a receiver in the league who doesn't have drops. Robert Foster had a catch percentage last season of 61.4 percent, which is ridiculously high for a guy averaging 20 yards per reception. Come on.

Absolutely right. I strongly recall listening to many a Bills game on the radio in the 1970s where Van Miller's most memorable line (to me at least!) was "Ferguson ... back to pass ... throws to Gant ... and it is ... dropped." McKeller was actually genuinely talented and by far and away the best TE in team history, but simply couldn't stay on the field. He's the only mid-to-late round flyer they've had success with. Metzelaars, who was just OK (slow as molasses) but a pretty good blocker, was a 3rd round pick by Seattle.

Um ... sometimes before they retire!! https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/24/adrian-peterson-nfl-debt-washington

I gather you're not into the whole brevity thing.

On of my favorites over the years. Very sad.

Not great this year, but “spiritual retread” is a GREAT line. I like McDermott, more or less, but there is definitely a little truth to it ....

You have no wiggle room with rookie contracts anymore - they’re slated. He has vastly outperformed the contract.

Consider this, though: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-09-17-1993260192-story.html That happened right after the Cowboys lost to the Bills in Dallas.

The Jets one was great.

I can’t stand murray hill bars, and i work in that area. I have the ticket, so i watch at home (in brooklyn) anyways ...

Thought you might like this based on your response re: WAR. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ezekiel-elliott-is-not-worth-the-money-he-wants/ @MAJBobby , @BADOLBILZ, @YoloinOhio, @Kirby Jackson, @thebandit27 - interesting piece above. Curious to know what you think.

Why would you say that? They are 32-16 when he starts, and his career passer rating is 96.0 (95.7 in the postseason across three games) with 7.4 ypa and a 66 percent completion rate. He's also had 6 rushing TDs in all three seasons he's played in. He's young, but he has clearly produced at a fairly high level ever since he arrived in the league.

The crucial issue (at least with regard to Elliott) that you don't seem to be factoring in is that Dallas minus Elliott will be more likely to lose its games and hence its chances to win the elusive fourth Super Bowl that Jones craves. This is not about money for Jones. He will be 77 in a couple of months and is desperate to win another SB.

Zeke definitely has leverage. Jerry Jones wants to win another SB *badly* and he ain't getting any younger.

Good stuff from Albert Breer on Elliott vs. Gordon: https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/07/22/dan-quinn-atlanta-falcons-tyreek-hill-melvin-gordon-cba-negotiations-nfl-training "I asked some scouts this week about the state of the position, and what the league is getting from its feeder system. It’s clear that the NFL has a smaller top tier at the position than it does at other positions, and a much, much larger second tier. That brings us to the new mold for the elite NFL back, which is a 225-pound (or so) bruiser who can play on all three downs. That’s Elliott. It’s also Todd Gurley and Saquon Barkley and was, and may be again, Le’Veon Bell. David Johnson, for a time, probably was in this category too. “Those four are all from the same mold—they’re 220 pounds, they can play all three downs, they’re rare,” said one NFC personnel man, who evaluated all of them coming out. “Maybe they become less rare in time, but they’re unicorns now. And to replace one, you need three guys – two first- and second-down runners, and then a third-down guy.” They also give a team something it can’t get from a combination of players: a queen-on-the-chess-board dynamic facilitated by their versatility, which is brought to life in how defenses aren’t getting a tell on what the offense is doing when they’re on the field. So where does that leave a player like Gordon? His problem isn’t that he’s really good. He is. His issue is that there are too many good players at his position, which makes backs who aren’t in the aforementioned “unicorn” category replaceable (and even those unicorns at the position can be approximated to a degree, as C.J. Anderson and James Conner showed last year). And proof of it is how Justin Jackson and Austin Ekeler kept the Chargers rolling in Gordon’s stead last year. There’s also a third category here, encompassing players like Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara with outrageous versatility that can play all over the formation. And the value of that type was shown in how Jerick McKinnon, a lesser player than McCaffrey or Kamara, got paid last year by the Niners. This is all why my guess now would be that the Chargers, based on their own history and the state of the position, sit tight and wait for Gordon to show up. And it’s why I think that Dallas has to pay Elliott, who is both their offense’s engine and a big piece of the equation in how they’ve developed their young quarterback (like Gurley was with Jared Goff). I asked two scouts that work, and have worked, for teams that never pay backs whether or not they’d pay Elliott if they were Dallas. One quickly said yes. The other came around, after about 15 seconds of consternation. “I’d be nervous,” said this AFC exec. “You have the injury question, you see what happened with Gurley, and you have to take care of Dak and Amari (Cooper). But would I pay Zeke? I probably would. He’s that good.”

Good point. In the final five games of that season, he had 446 yards, 5.2 ypc, 89 ypg, 27 receptions for 205 yards (7.6 ypr) and 5 TDs. That prorates over 16 games to 1427 rushing yards, 86 receptions for 656 yards, 2083 yards from scrimmage, and 16 TDs. Anyway, for a season and third, he performed like a truly elite player. It all went downhill when Marrone and Hackett put him in an offense that minimized his manifest skill set.

He may have had a disappointing career overall, but his 2012 season has arguably been the best season by a Bills RB since 1992. 6 ypc, 10.3 ypr, over 1700 yards from scrimmage. Let’s not forget that.

Indeed, but trouble always seemed to swirl around him.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/07/20/shawne-merriman-sued-for-wrongful-death/

Look at what happened IMMEDIATELY to the Cowboys offense in week 10 of the 2017 season, which is when his suspension began. They had been a very good offense, but in three straight games without him they scored under 10 points. He is, without question, a difference maker. I compare RBs with LBs (their positional mirrors), who are similarly viewed as mostly interchangeable. But a player like Kuechly is NOT interchangeable. Same goes for Elliott.

That's such a garbage stat. Newton's playoff performance is in line with his regular season performance - an 87.7 rating. Bledsoe's?? His postseason rating is 54.9, and in his three "wins," the offense put up 228, 234, and 346 yards. In that game where they put 346 yards, it was mostly rushing - Bledsoe was 14-24 for 164 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, and a 58.3 rating. They won both of those games that season because of Belichick, who was the d coordinator by that point of the 1996 season. Not because of Bledsoe *by any stretch*. (I watched those games and remember them quite well.)

My view that Bledsoe was mediocre rests on the fact that he was a terrible QB when facing winning teams. I can't scare up his record against winning teams at the moment, but it was scary bad -- much worse than one would expect -- and much commented on at the time when he was playing.

Raw yardage is a sucker stat. Focus on it too much, and you'll begin to think that Drew Bledsoe was better than mediocre. Newton had 35 TDs to 10 INTs (notably better than any Bills QB in team history) and averaged a strong 7.8 yards per attempt. He led the league in TD percentage per pass thrown too. You do realize that he threw for fewer yards in 2015 because they almost always had the lead, don't you?? The Panthers led the league in scoring that year, for chrissake, but guess what: they were 27th in pass attempts! As for last year, no Bills QB has thrown for more TDs as Newton did since Jim Kelly in 1991. Do better.

Anyone who thinks Newton's best passing season was his rookie season is either a knave or a fool. How could you even contemplate saying that? My god. And comparing him to Taylor? Sheesh. Agreed on this. Wilson is HOF player.

There's probably a lot more to this story than the headline, because I firmly believe that the league REALLY wanted to bring the hammer down on him. Not suspending him is a terrible look for the league, and the league obviously knows this.