Dr. Who

It's a dreadful movie.

He will eventually start simply on the basis of being the seventh pick overall in the draft. Hyperbole or troll talk, I don't know which.

I agree, but McDermott should come out to one of these yawnfests wearing a Clemson helmet just for giggles.

Wr being thrown the ball on a regular basis may cause some initial shock.

If we are going to engage in hermeneutics of suspicion, I wonder if some folks who are "wondering" about the relation of McDermott's faith to football judgements are just disgruntled Rosen supporters looking for yet another reason to justify continued resentment of OBD's preference for Allen. To reiterate what I said earlier in this thread, other than an innocuous phrase and some Christians on the roster, what could possibly invite ten pages of handwringing over McDermott's personal religious faith? Seems to me one is working hard to discover something proto-fascist in utterly ordinary circumstances that generally promote good behavior, not evil. And some have just taken the occasion to indulge in their own bigotry, painting religious folk with a broad brush as inherently oppressive, anti-intellectual dopes that one can hold up to contempt with impunity. Such rants are themselves ignorant, uncivil, and obviously not contributing to insight into the Buffalo Bills.

What I argued was that there was no credible evidence that McDermott was using a religious criteria for building his roster and that short of something more concrete than the presence of Christians on the roster and the alliterative phrase "faith, family, football," it was unethical and rather irrational to use such a phrase to insinuate sinister implications. Further, I specifically stated that cowing religious dissent would be a bad thing. Nonetheless, I think one ought to distinguish that kind of discussion from general questions of religious verity or investigations into what constitutes rationality or an acceptable epistemological criteria. To sweep all that into a discussion of McDermott's locker room is clearly outside the bounds of what this particular forum addresses. I do not believe I have accused you of irrationality, nor have I said anything about Kaepernick. Before the draft, I explicitly stated my concerns with Rosen's durability and I do feel his personality may be an issue. I never argued he should not be chosen because of differences in ideology. Indeed, I abjured such a criteria.

This is not a forum for discussing religion or what constitutes reasonable warrant. If one were to address these issues, one might wish to first of all attempt to discover the best arguments in order to foster genuine dialectic. One might infer certain metaphysical assertions embedded within various perspectives, overtly religious or not. Metaphysics broaches matters of necessity and contingency, for example. Aquinas argued that a rough gesture towards the rationality of belief might begin with a sense that an endless series of contingent causes would never arrive at a necessary source of being. The question why there is something and not nothing remains philosophically legitimate. It is a root question where the answer of religion is at least as reasonable as the ontological faith of the rationalist materialist. How does that have anything to do with the Buffalo Bills? I don't find these issues insignificant or uninteresting, but I surmise most folks on this board would find it off-topic.

You're going to derail discussion into a polemic about epistemology and apologetics with a quote like that . . . faith is not equivalent to fideism, btw, which seems to be the assumption with those who think faith and reason are like oil and water.

So far as I can tell, the foundation for this discussion is the perceived implications of "faith, family, football" and the presence of a number of players that have used rhetoric implying that they are Christians. It seems a stretch to use the alliterative rhetoric of a mantra as a basis for suspicion. Here's a less nefarious interpretation: we value people of integrity and principle. We treat each other first as family, not as an aggregate of contract businessman. Athletic success will derive from good character and comradery. That's a lot to say briefly, so, "faith, family, football." There would have to be some hard evidence before I would take it to be code for exclusionary criteria or selection processes that use some kind of orthodoxy to cow religious dissent. Indeed, without something concrete to anchor such a charge, it would be itself unethical and bordering on tinfoil hat paranoia. Though I take it, to be clear, that the OP intended a relatively benign speculation.

Really? I've been assuming Peterman makes the team. McD seems to genuinely think well of him.

Week 5 at the earliest. If the oline is dreadful, I'd consider a redshirt year.

I do think McDermott has that inclination, but I suspect Beane will be proactive to counterbalance it. I don't think Beane will shortshrift the offense. As you surmise, next offseason will clarify if this is true or not. Good point about Daboll and Allen.

Josh Rosen was probably off their board.

Well, Nelly, I think the other Josh has durability concerns and I surmise some evaluators think he is polished, but near a ceiling they deem rather modest. There's enough smoke that I think the personality thing is real and not simply political as you imply. I'm more of a gambler. I think Josh Allen's floor is Joe Flacco. His ceiling is John Elway. I'm happy OBD took a chance on the kid from Firebaugh.

Just a joke, fella. I hope the young man plays lights out.

Nicely done. Of course, it's possible Zay Jones will do a pretty good impression of a Wyoming wr.

It's a pic of Josh Rosen eating a salad

I think the "great post" comment very insightful . Perhaps a reasonable compromise position would be to consider waiting till Week 5 to start Allen -- that way one avoids the baptism by fire involved in three tough road games at the top of the schedule.

Well, I think the post you are questioning presupposes that a bad offensive line and limited wr weapons likely will lead to whoever is qb getting pummelled by opposing defenses. Do you want Josh Allen to be the next David Carr? That's the worry about starting Allen, in addition to whatever learning curve is involved with regards to a late-blooming player who has not had elite coaching and evidently is not as polished coming out of college as some other top rookie qbs. The counter would be that the value of learning by waiting and watching is overblown or does not pertain to the game today. Peyton Manning suffered through a 3 - 13 first season and threw a ton of picks, but he turned out to be a HOF qb. I rather imagine the naysayers would not be kind to Josh Allen if he had a similar first season. But who cares? What matters is what plan best allows Josh Allen to be the best qb long-term for the Buffalo Bills. I am inclined to slow-roll the Josh Allen train. Start of the season with tough road games does not seem optimum to me for a debut, but none of us know as much as the Bills' coaches who one hopes make a prudential decision.

Yeah, his bias is against presenting credible evaluations apparently.

Is 75 Teller? Looks like he should be wearing a kilt and carrying a Claymore.

I think you are allowing your dislike of ROR to color your evaluation of his talent. He's more than marginally useful, but I agree that it is pretty unlikely you could unload him for anything close to equitable value. If he's truly an irremediable drag on the locker room, then I suppose you have to just get rid of him for a bag of pucks.

You're doing an excellent job of ruining my Dahlin high. I think there is reasonable talent coming to improve the blueline. What do you know of the other Swede defenseman, Pilutin (sp?)? Will Borgan is supposed to have top 4 potential. In a few years, we should be pretty good with even some depth. OTOH, the rest of the team is largely weak tea and question marks. I am confident about Eichel, Samson, Mittelstadt. ROR doesn't seem to fit the future, is too slow, and emo. But how can you possibly deal him for value? Then you have nice, useful parts like Rodrigues, unknowns like Smith, Olafson, and O'Regan, and a bunch of JAGs. Ah, well.

Well, there's no doubt one can chronicle (as you have) a long series of miscalculations. This is a new regime, however. So far, I am generally pleased with what they have done, so I don't feel they are fated to add one more link in the chain of inepititude. I will be surprised if the oline is good this year. I hope they can approach average and address deficiencies with next year's draft and free agency.

Allen will have to shut up the naysayers by playing well. It's pointless, of course, to try and point out that completion percentage without context is hardly an indicator of either accuracy or future success.