dave mcbride

Yup, if they go 5-11, that'll be three straight years with that record. No way he survives.

If they go 5-11, things will change. Someone will be fired, that's for sure.

Bledsoe gave the Bills 8 games, and that's it. He was downright bad after the midway point of 2002. Through 8 games that year, he had 16 TDs and 5 INTs. He ended up with 24 TDs and 15 INTs. He was awful the next season.

The one area where I disagree with Dilfer is about the coaching environment. I say that because I do think the Bills' coaching situation is going to be stable for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't say that about the Jets at all. Or the Browns or Broncos. Dilfer's assessment is based on who is currently in these places, and he singles out Jeremy Bates in NY. Will Bates be in NY next year if the Jets have a losing record in 2018? I doubt it, unless he's promoted to HC.

I think we have much better actual NFL evidence to judge Flowers than we did when he was coming out of college. The evidence shows that he is not good. Bad prognostications about players happen all of the time. It is low risk, but there is an opportunity cost in expending the energy on him. Kinda like the Jets with Maybin, the Redskins with Mike Williams, and Jax with Trent Edwards.

Mayock's top 100 posted this a.m.: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000928186/article/mike-mayocks-2018-nfl-draft-top-100-prospect-rankings. Darnold - 7 Allen - 9 Rosen - 21 Mayfield - 22 Jackson - 23 Rudolph - 37

https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/988750300679954437

It actually does explain that outcome pretty well ...

Um ... the Bills were down 34-7 when Edwards did that move.

Bear in mind that 2 of those six picks came in this game, in which Darnold was generally awesome against an elite team: http://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=400935260. He was 21-26 for 316 yards, 4 TDs, and 2 INTs. That's a great game despite the picks. He was even better in the conference championship game against Stanford: 17-24 for 325, 2 TDs, and 0 INTs. Stanford has a well-coached, well-schemed, and talented defense.

Love this outcome ... but I think there is some wishful thinking involved here.

Don't forget Deshaun Watson, who could also end up being really good.

+1,000.

Thought a little bit about this. I guess it comes to down to who you see Foles as: a Doug Williams/Mark Rypien type of player or a Rich Gannon/Jeff Hostetler-type of I think he's the latter based upon his game, but I'd understand if people see him as the former. Regardless, he's going to be an Eagle this year. I just realized this: the former did well for Washington in short bursts and the latter both did well for the Raiders over a sustained period of time. Hostetler was a lot better than people remember, btw.

I think he was "good" -- but not great. He was quite literally a better than average NFL qb from 1998-2000, the years he played for the Bills. His rating-plus number over the three years was 112, 97, and 112. 100 is average. The thing is, even in his down year - 1999 - he did good things: 476 rushing yards (a lot!). The Bills finished 11th in yards that year, so they were at least decent on offense. The game that I always go back to that season was the Baltimore game: he was terrible throughout most of it but pulled the rabbit out of the hat at the end. But what was most interesting about that relatively early-season game is the fact that no one knew how good that Ravens D actually was. They ended up dominating in 1999 (2nd overall) and had arguably the best defense ever the next season.

I'd pay money to see that.

Now that's what I call lowering expectations!!!

He was hardly the greatest player ever, but we shouldn't be holding him to that standard here given that the subject of this thread is ultimately Rob Johnson. In no world was Johnson better than Flutie.

Not for nothing, but that Miami defense was far better than the 1999 Titans' defense in pretty much every category. Flutie had turnovers, yes, but he basically lit the best defense in the league (1st in points allowed; 3rd in yards allowed; 1st i INTs; 3rd in passing TDs allowed; 3rd in net yards per passing attempt allowed) up like a Christmas tree. Tennessee's pass D in 1999 was 25th in passing yards given up and 27th in TD passes allowed. If you prefer Johnson over Flutie you have no observation skills.

necro-crusade is a phenomenal term!

What people forget about Johnson is why he was drafted in the fourth round. It wasn't because of talent, because in terms of being a physical specimen and a thrower, he was the best qb coming out in 1995. He was incredibly talented.The reason he dropped is because of his terrible performances in big games. He faced off against UCLA and ND 6 times, and USC won zero of those games. Why is that important? Because his LT was Tony Boselli and his #1 receivers were, in succession, Curtis Conway, Johnnie Morton, and Keyshawn Johnson. All were first round picks and all had excellent NFL careers (all over 500 receptions lifetime), and Boselli was the best college o-lineman I ever saw. That Trojans' team was LOADED; on D they had Darrell Russell and Willie McGinest. Yet all they got during the Johnson years were a couple of Freedom Bowl appearances and a Cotton Bowl appearance against a sad-sack (6-6) Texas Tech team. It's also worth noting that his brother, Bret Johnson, was the #1 HS recruit in the country and chose UCLA. When he didn't win the job there, he left the program and transferred to Michigan State. He did nothing there either. Believe it when I say that Bret Johnson was HIGHLY touted.

Darnold but I'd be very happy with either.

Ok then. Let's look at all of the Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Miami, Penn State, LSU, and Michigan QBs since 1970 who really made it at the NFL level. They are storied programs, and they all generally produced one great qb max. Where Darnold went to school is MEANINGLESS. It is a truly weak inference.

I thought it was this year's. My bad.