NFL/NFLPA CBA puts McDermott in tough spot, but the upside is promising

[AKC]

4 minutes ago, SDS said:

 

@Bob Lamb @KRC @AKC

 

Jesus. What multi-dimensional portal did I stumble stumble through!!!

[GG]

1 minute ago, AKC said:

 

I don't see a Lebowski in there

[Kelly the Dog]

Just what we need around here, more bitter, old, over-opinionated white guys!!

 

Welcome back, gents.

 

The CBA does mess with a lot of practice, I agree. Although the blame falls on McBeane. They were dealt a bad hand with the Wood and Richie issues, but they also signed guys virtually everyone said were lousy from the start, hired Castillo who is just terrible, made a huge error in Dennison they are still paying for, traded away Glenn, insist on DuCasse, and didn't spend the money or assets necessary to put together a line that wasn't much good last year. That's some serious messin' up.

[AKC]

19 minutes ago, GG said:

 

I don't see a Lebowski in there

You better take another look.....

4 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Just what we need around here, more bitter, old, over-opinionated white guys!!

 

Welcome back, gents.

 

The CBA does mess with a lot of practice, I agree. Although the blame falls on McBeane. They were dealt a bad hand with the Wood and Richie issues, but they also signed guys virtually everyone said were lousy from the start, hired Castillo who is just terrible, made a huge error in Dennison they are still paying for, traded away Glenn, insist on DuCasse, and didn't spend the money or assets necessary to put together a line that wasn't much good last year. That's some serious messin' up.

I see the silver lining for this season that even with the OL talent drop which is really not in dispute, the other elements re: practice time and the decision to go ahead with a QB competition when it was NOT contemporarily wise mean A) the line should show some visible steps in improvement right away and B) Allen got to play with the guys he will lead onto the field Sunday and had he been left out of the competition that would not be the case.

Edited September 14, 2018 by AKC
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[Pine Barrens Mafia]

52 minutes ago, GG said:

Bob Lamb, AKC, KRC?

 

What is this, Old Timers Week?

 

I'm flashing back, man. like wow.

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, BillsRdue said:

McD/Beaner know the rules and let it play against then.  Wanting to create competition, they took a chance and failed so far. There are good vets out there to sign, there is still cap space , there was time in OTA's and preseason to get things settled and move forward with cohesion. It's If you are steering the Titanic into an iceberg, you can't blame the boat.

 

With that said, it's the NFL and things can look very different week to week. Peterman did us no help. Let's see how we fare with Allen. If we are not competitive this week at home, they better bring in help soon.

 

There are reasons Pat Kirwin and others opined that McD needed to pick a starting QB and go forward before the 1st preseason game.

The number of practices and games is a known factor.  Delaying a decision is a risky idea for that reason.

[Kelly the Dog]

23 minutes ago, AKC said:

You better take another look.....

I see the silver lining for this season that even with the OL talent drop which is really not in dispute, the other elements re: practice time and the decision to go ahead with a QB competition when it was NOT contemporarily wise mean A) the line should show some visible steps in improvement right away and B) Allen got to play with the guys he will lead onto the field Sunday and had he been left out of the competition that would not be the case.

Had he been left out of the competition would have been criminally negligent.

 

I had been harping on here before the debacle last week that he actually won the QB competition because he was the only one out of three that showed he could throw short, medium, and long, left, right and center, run from trouble, escape jailbreaks (half the time) and make defenses back off the LOS so there would be room to run for Shady and others. None of the other two did half of that.

[GG]

18 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Had he been left out of the competition would have been criminally negligent.

 

I had been harping on here before the debacle last week that he actually won the QB competition because he was the only one out of three that showed he could throw short, medium, and long, left, right and center, run from trouble, escape jailbreaks (half the time) and make defenses back off the LOS so there would be room to run for Shady and others. None of the other two did half of that.

 

The silver lining is that Allen looked like a raw rookie against a defense that turned all-world Flacco into a pedestrian. 

 

Of course that should scare the daylights out of us, because it's also a much more troubling sign for our defense.

[Coach Tuesday]

2 minutes ago, GG said:

 

The silver lining is that Allen looked like a raw rookie against a defense that turned all-world Flacco into a pedestrian. 

 

Of course that should scare the daylights out of us, because it's also a much more troubling sign for our defense.

 

The Bengals' front-7 is stacked.  They're going to cause problems for a lot of offenses this year.

[TigerJ]

The OP makes an excellent point.  Yes, everybody has the same rules, but not everybody lost as many starters from their offensive line.  The trade of Cordy Glenn didn't have much impact since Dawkins started most of the games in 2017 anyway, but losing both Eric Wood and Richie Incognito had a huge effect.  I don't think the point of the OP had anything to do with fairness.  Rules are necessary to keep a level playing field.  It's just that the circumstances combined with the rules had the effect of making it just about impossible for the Bills to develop any cohesion and chemistry on the offensive line.

[MAJBobby]

3 hours ago, AKC said:

The Effect:

McDermott and his staff took the 2018 preseason and juggled multiple QB/OC/OL combos in an attempt to create an environment where all 3 QBs would get some balanced shot at showing their own readiness. The result entering the regular season was that there is no cohesion along our OLine. In today’s NFL many teams do limited experimentation with their #1 OL during the preseason, trying to give some time to work in a new FA or younger player but wholesale change is rare. We just didn’t have the luxury with the loss of two of our top 3 starters and the strategy of evaluating the auditioning Linemen including most importantly at OC. The Bodine/Groy switches all preseason will remain for at least few more games the root cause of flying flags on offense. The 2018 Bills OL is a mix of moving parts and with our questions at QB overriding cohesion at OL we were left entering the regular season opener at about the quality of OLine cohesion most teams were at entering their  preseason game 1.

The Cause:

 

The current CBA has limited the time and intensity of practice and player/coach time to a degree that hurts some units more than others. OLine is arguably the most affected by the limits agreed to in the CBA since there are 5-7 parts (including TEs) that need to work together in some ways like a choreographed dance troupe. The preseason limits on contact and practice days are crippling for teams trying to repair major changes in their OLine from one season to another. Our QB Competition and line juggling to play a large part in our situation this year, but the CBA practice limits hurt everybody on both sides of the CBA and damage the quality of the product on the field for every team in the league.

The Cure:

 

The League and the NFL Players Union pick their wins and losses in the CBA for their respective sides- on the one side the owners and the other side the players. Both sides make some dubious choices- for instance the owners feel those 4 preseason games are a big win. The Players Union pitches the limited practice to the players as a win, but it’s really no win for any but some star players and even then mostly those in skill position roles. The much larger body of players, and especially those on units like the OL, would be exceedingly better off if they had more time with their coaches and unit teammates. It’s probably safe to assume most of those fighting for line spots would much rather have added opportunity to practice yet that opportunity is taken away by a stupid concession that owners make to the Players Union in the CBA. The fix seems simple- allow players to individually negotiate any practice limits in their own contracts instead of having them decided by the NFL and the Players Union in the CBA. Sure the marquis RBs and WRs would seek less practice time but most of the NFL Hoi Polloi would surely join all the serious QBs in seeking as much time as possible with their teams and units. Now that I’ve solved that problem I want to mention Big Bob asked me if I’d stop by here since he’ll be at Hammer’s Sunday for the TBD Opener Tailgate for the first time in a long time. You all be gentle with the Big Guy, he got awful soft during his “stay” out here on the West Coast ?

 

I should also mention the upside if it's not obvious- as a result of the decision to try to offer a QB competition Josh Allen got better reps this preseason than he otherwise might have. God luck Sunday kid!

 

Same rules for Every Team. 

 

Now every team also doesnr have the savant Teflon Juan

[tumaro02]

I would argue that Allen as the #7 pick overall was disrespected, treated like a kid, forced to get 3s reps vs 3s D most of the off season. While good to learn the playbook (after AJ and Nate had a whole 2 weeks headstart (lol) which gave McD grounds to keep that "plan" going right through training camp, in the end all of those reps from a supposed "open competition" are lost forever. How short sighted. Now here we are going into Week 2 and those hundreds of reps 1s vs 1 given to McCarron are GONE. All of those reps given  to Nate are on the bench. Now Allen will learn "speed of the game"  by trial of fire on his own. My hope is that he rises above all and the decisions of his HC and saves his butt from further ridicule and proves to be the franchise QB we all want. No thanks to our HC who had to dust off an old dusty  "notebook" from 20 years ago to inform his practice about when to play Allen.

[El Guapo]

I think it was Pat Kirwan, co-host of Moving the Chains on NFL XM, that said it takes three years of practice under today CBA to equal what you used to get in a single year. That’s a lot of development and repetition that is lost, especially for the lines. 

 

Yes, I understand all teams play by these rules, but think about the development of young players that just doesn’t happen anymore. 

[AKC]

31 minutes ago, TigerJ said:

The OP makes an excellent point.  Yes, everybody has the same rules, but not everybody lost as many starters from their offensive line.  The trade of Cordy Glenn didn't have much impact since Dawkins started most of the games in 2017 anyway, but losing both Eric Wood and Richie Incognito had a huge effect.  I don't think the point of the OP had anything to do with fairness.  Rules are necessary to keep a level playing field.  It's just that the circumstances combined with the rules had the effect of making it just about impossible for the Bills to develop any cohesion and chemistry on the offensive line.

Thanks for reading the whole post. It's not an excuse for anyone but instead a recognition that the dice roll the coaching staff took in a year when we had more OL work than maybe anyone in the game was to exacerbate that by creating some playing field for all the QBs to play with both of the OC candidates and other OLine combinations. In years past there would have been more time to make something like that work but the awful CBA currently in place doesn't even give stable teams much time to sort out OL changes. The owners and Players Association should be moving to backtrack on the practice limits in some manner in the interest of product quality including decreasing injuries and allowing players who want to work more with their team and coaches to do so, not to mention starting seasons with better overall OL play so we don't end up with 39 INTs thrown as we did this year.

Edited September 14, 2018 by AKC
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[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, RyanC883 said:

 

Great post.   I agree with it.  I almost wonder if the only help they would bring in is O-line (so as to not get Allen killed) and let the remainder of the season ride-out.  Lots of appealing FA targets next year that can fill a bunch of other holes.  

 

I'm excited for this weekend.  I think Allen has a good game.  

Right now the only way to prevent this house from burning down is put 100% focus on improving the oline. We don't have the time or luxury for worrying about wr's or defensive players. That will have to come later. 

[SouthNYfan]

51 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Right now the only way to prevent this house from burning down is put 100% focus on improving the oline. We don't have the time or luxury for worrying about wr's or defensive players. That will have to come later. 

 

mediocre WRs and a great OLINE > great WRs and a trash line

[Bob Lamb]

3 hours ago, SDS said:

 

@Bob Lamb @KRC @AKC

 

Jesus. What multi-dimensional portal did I stumble through!!!

 

One where everybody's homework is done

1 hour ago, El Guapo said:

I think it was Pat Kirwan, co-host of Moving the Chains on NFL XM, that said it takes three years of practice under today CBA to equal what you used to get in a single year. That’s a lot of development and repetition that is lost, especially for the lines. 

 

Yes, I understand all teams play by these rules, but think about the development of young players that just doesn’t happen anymore. 

 

Bring back NFL Europe seeing as the powers that be want to combat the Premier League

3 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Just what we need around here, more bitter, old, over-opinionated white guys!!

 

Welcome back, gents.

 

The CBA does mess with a lot of practice, I agree. Although the blame falls on McBeane. They were dealt a bad hand with the Wood and Richie issues, but they also signed guys virtually everyone said were lousy from the start, hired Castillo who is just terrible, made a huge error in Dennison they are still paying for, traded away Glenn, insist on DuCasse, and didn't spend the money or assets necessary to put together a line that wasn't much good last year. That's some serious messin' up.

 

I'm not sure I'm white anymore - waiting on the genome results. The rest is a given

Edited September 14, 2018 by Bob Lamb

[T master]

Wait until they change it to only 2 preseason games it aught to get real good then !! 

[iinii]

On 9/14/2018 at 9:38 AM, BillsRdue said:

McD/Beaner know the rules and let it play against then.  Wanting to create competition, they took a chance and failed so far. There are good vets out there to sign, there is still cap space , there was time in OTA's and preseason to get things settled and move forward with cohesion. It's If you are steering the Titanic into an iceberg, you can't blame the boat.

 

With that said, it's the NFL and things can look very different week to week. Peterman did us no help. Let's see how we fare with Allen. If we are not competitive this week at home, they better bring in help soon.

The Calvary ain’t coming. Good offensive lineman are like hens’ teeth. And finding a “journeyman” that play behind this one will be challenging to put it mildly. 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

All I want to hear is Castillo has been fired. I predict at least 3 new starters will be on this O-Line through FA or the draft. I don't want Castillo contaminating them.