Dion Dawkins “not close to where he needs to be to help us”

[eball]

Good lord you people like to speculate and make presumptions about stuff you know nothing about. 
 

Oh wait, that happens all the time around here. Never mind. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

7 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

I would guess the opposite 

I don't know. 

 

It's just odd for him to say Dawkins can't help us because he's not where he needs to be. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Buffalo_Stampede

[Hapless Bills Fan]

7 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

The wording makes me think Dawkins is overweight. 

 

Well....he appears heavier than the Bills, perhaps, would like him.

But he came to OTAs heavier and did full practices and no comments were made about him "being a long way from where he can play and help us", so....

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 minute ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Well....he appears heavier than the Bills, perhaps, would like him.

But he came to OTAs heavier and did full practices and no comments were made about him "being a long way from where he can play and help us", so....

Probably because it was OTA. 

[DieselUSMC0451]

7 hours ago, MasterStrategist said:

If he's fully recovered, which seems to be the case (hence activated), no reason Dion can't get his conditioning level back to normal in 2 weeks.  Put us at August 29th and plenty of time for week 1.

A lot of long term issues with this Virus, the severity and length is Unique to each person. My wife’s mother died last September from COVID, being perfectly healthy and never been in the hospital ever before this. 
 

I was training for the MURPH for a fundraiser with the Navy Seal vets in Florida. Was running 7 min miles with the 20 lbs vest. Got covid pretty bad. A month after being “cleared” I still couldn’t even finish a .25 of a mile, running very slow and no vest. 3 weeks after that I was back in the hospital with inflammation of the heart. This thing is no joke.

 

Could be very possible that he’s out for an extended period of time or could be back soon, just depends on how the virus effected him. 

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, MJS said:

We don't know how sick he was or wasn't. It's all conjecture to this point. Having symptoms could mean a lot of different things.

 

 

We have some indicators. He's missed two weeks. That's more than most have missed.

 

It's been announced that he's not ready or even close now. Most who've come back from COVID have not had that kind of announcement. That's not proof but it certainly is evidentiary that he had a bit more serious case than many have had. Not that surprising now that the Delta variant is out there now, while last year guys didn't have to deal with that.

 

 

6 hours ago, Sundancer said:

 

If he had lingering Covid stuff, McD would not have called him out.. 

 

If he came in fat and out of shape, McD calls him out. 

 

It's the later. Guaranteed. 

 

 

Guesses and guarantees are not the same thing.

 

As many have said here, not being vaccinated could very easily have McD sending messages. We don't know for sure who's vaccinated and who's not, but the team likely knows. Messages here might make an awful lot of sense even if he came in in great shape before getting sick.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Thurman#1

[Buffalo_Stampede]

58 minutes ago, eball said:

Good lord you people like to speculate and make presumptions about stuff you know nothing about. 
 

Oh wait, that happens all the time around here. Never mind. 

Quote

 

"He’s not close to where he needs to be to play and help us," McDermott said Sunday. "He’s got a long road here. He’s going to control what he can control and so are we. He's going to continue to work hard to get himself back. This is Week 4 of training camp, so he’s missed a lot of time."

 

"That’s the benefit of Dion not being here and Spencer getting the reps," McDermott said. "Those reps are valuable. I thought Spencer did a really good job in the game the other day."

 

 

These comments are insensitive from McDermott. The guy just returned from Covid and he's like Dawkins can control what he can control and so can we. He can't help us now but it was good for his backup to get reps. 

 

I don't even think Belichick would be that cold. 

 

Unless he's disappointed he didn't get vaccinated or whatever. I don't know. But he's obviously telling Dawkins basically the show goes on with or without you. 

[Thurman#1]

6 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

We are in Deep Kim Chee without Dawkins.

 

 

 

Yeah. Hart appeared to be brought in as the security blanket for potential problems like this. Turns out I don't feel all that secure.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 hours ago, MJS said:

And none of that necessarily applies to Dawkins. Using three or four examples is far from statistically significant. They are just anecdotes. For every one of those there are others who had mild symptoms and were able to get back to football quickly. Or who were completely asymptomatic.

 

We don't know the situation with Dawkins. McDermott could have been speaking purely from a football and conditioning standpoint, not a health standpoint.

He cited examples of a few players who had a tough time coming back. How does that specifically relate to Dawkins? It's a possibility for sure, but nobody knows. Everyone is guessing.

 

Correct.  It's a possibility.  It's not known.  We don't even know when exactly Dawkins tested positive, just that he was placed on the list when the list started, at the beginning of camp.  The point is, these lasting issues do occur sometimes, even for guys who weren't that sick. 

 

And even if he doesn't have an issue he's been unavailable for almost 3 weeks and now longer while he conditions.  3 weeks vs. 5 days is a huge concern, especially with key Bills players making a public issue of being unvaccinated.  It's enough to make a coach pull his hair. (Oh...Wait)

 

I, like you (because you're here), signed on to the agreement to not talk Covid-19 on the main board, so per that agreement Football/Sport relevant anecdotes is what we're going to get.  Put down the statistically significant and step away; given the small number of players who did get Covid last season and given their right to medical privacy, anecdotes from players who personally chose to share medical information is what we have.  Doesn't mean it's smart to discount or ignore it, especially when there may be *ahem* studies of statistically significant numbers out there saying this isn't some fluke.

 

15 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Probably because it was OTA. 

 

Fair.

[BillMafia716ix]

Sounds like too me that means he’s out of shape.

[Saxum]

49 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

We have some indicators. He's missed two weeks. That's more than most have missed.

 

It's been announced that he's not ready or even close now. Most who've come back from COVID have not had that kind of announcement. That's not proof but it certainly is evidentiary that he had a bit more serious case than many have had. Not that surprising now that the Delta variant is out there now, while last year guys didn't have to deal with that.

 

 

Is it possible he is milking this so he does not need to do training camp practices and preseason games.

He went thru season last year without preseason games and may not feel need for them this year.

Also with training camp practices there is only so much practice time and with so many new players on line he may want them to get the time.

Much of medicine is not science but art and doctors get feedback from patents for much of their diagnoses.

 

There are also rules changes requiring penalties for missing training camp absences and preseason games missed but it does not apply to players under medical care.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agents-take-why-holding-out-during-training-camp-is-no-longer-a-bargaining-tool-for-todays-nfl-stars/

[Thurman#1]

29 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Is it possible he is milking this so he does not need to do training camp practices and preseason games.

He went thru season last year without preseason games and may not feel need for them this year.

Also with training camp practices there is only so much practice time and with so many new players on line he may want them to get the time.

Much of medicine is not science but art and doctors get feedback from patents for much of their diagnoses.

 

There are also rules changes requiring penalties for missing training camp absences and preseason games missed but it does not apply to players under medical care.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agents-take-why-holding-out-during-training-camp-is-no-longer-a-bargaining-tool-for-todays-nfl-stars/

 

 

Limeaid, that's a reasonable question, I think. That kind of thing has certainly happened a lot in the NFL and also in Buffalo in the old days. Bruce Smith, certainly, but many others.

 

That said, I think the answer is a clear "no." Dawkins bought into the process as has this team, really, and you can't improve every day when you're not practicing. He's seen in his own career what happens when he doesn't go all in, he saw that during his second year and publicly owned up to it and committed to changing. He's not breaking any rules, but that's not the issue. The issue is whether he's giving it all and whether he believes that's what he needs and wants to do.

 

Bruce's teammates knew he was dogging it. They just didn't care. Today's Bills are behind a different philosophy, and today's training camp isn't comparable to the old days of two-a-days and no rules on padded practices and so on.

 

This group would know or very clearly suspect what Dawkins was doing. This locker room would not accept that kind of behavior the way they did in the old days, as it would essentially mean, "Yeah, you guys need to improve 1% every day, but me, I'm good. I'm there." It's not the way this team rides.

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Thurman#1

[GunnerBill]

8 hours ago, TheBeaneBandit said:

While a solid player there, Williams is strictly a right tackle. He has almost 0 position flexibility.

 

Yea he tried left tackle in Carolina and it was not a success.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

6 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

Is it possible he is milking this so he does not need to do training camp practices and preseason games.

unlikely imo

[DCofNC]

15 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

I think it's all cardio and won't be surprised if he misses week 1.

Anybody laughing at this hasn’t dealt w Covid.  It took me 3 weeks to be able to get my normal lung capacity back after the rest of the symptoms went away.  I had a mild symptom case, but it was a slow road to full recovery.  I was just trying to get back to my normal gym routine, not compete against the most elite athletes in the world.

[fergie's ire]

7 hours ago, DieselUSMC0451 said:

A lot of long term issues with this Virus, the severity and length is Unique to each person. My wife’s mother died last September from COVID, being perfectly healthy and never been in the hospital ever before this. 
 

I was training for the MURPH for a fundraiser with the Navy Seal vets in Florida. Was running 7 min miles with the 20 lbs vest. Got covid pretty bad. A month after being “cleared” I still couldn’t even finish a .25 of a mile, running very slow and no vest. 3 weeks after that I was back in the hospital with inflammation of the heart. This thing is no joke.

 

Could be very possible that he’s out for an extended period of time or could be back soon, just depends on how the virus effected him. 

My wife had it over a year ago and is entering a respiratory rehab program next week because her lungs never got back to normal.  Yeah, many do have long term effects so lets hope Snowman is not one of those.

[BarleyNY]

13 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That's not long-haul and not going to explain the diff. here,

 

But yes, he probably does have some lingering effects.   For example Myles Garrett said he had lasting pulmonary symptoms and needed to work with a pulmonologist and was still getting out of breath for months; Von Miller (who caught during off-season) said it took him a while to get his conditioning back and was rough for a while.  Dawson Knox said he was really winded the first week+ or so back.  Some top athletes (Olympic rowers) who had Covid said it dropped them back to the ergometer level of a talented HS student for about a month. 

 

Not all that many NFL players had Covid during the season.  The NFL did a really good job last year.  And of course if recovery takes a while during the off-season, we don't know.

 

 

Covid only knocked Garrett out of action for two games, but he looked like a shell of himself the rest the season.  As mentioned above it took him a whole offseason with specialists and a ton of hard work to get himself all the way back to where he was pre-Covid.

 

Obviously we don’t know if Dawkins is in a similar situation or not, but it’s my concern that he is.  And reading what McDermott said about where he is right now does not alleviate any of that concern. 

Edited August 16, 2021 by BarleyNY

[DCofNC]

5 minutes ago, BarleyNY said:

Covid only knocked Garrett out of action for two games, but he looked like a shell of himself the rest the season.  As mentioned above it took him a whole offseason with specialists and a ton of hard work to get himself all the way back to what he was.  Obviously we don’t know if Dawkins is in a similar situation or not, but it’s my concern that he is.  And reading what McDermott said about where he is right now does not alleviate any of that concern. 

This was my point, I’m FAR from an athlete of their level and I struggled to just get back to “normal”.  Covid is real, regardless of your views about it, ideas on the vax etc.  , it is miserable crap.  I couldn’t believe it took some of these athletes so long to return to action, then I got it and yeah, I get it now.  It’s not as simple as the flu, it can linger for what seems like forever.

[Locomark]

Let’s just hope Dion isn’t going to need months to get his wind back because this team will need to trade a serious asset to bring in a real tackle should he not be ready for the season’s first month. 

[GunnerBill]

30 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

This was my point, I’m FAR from an athlete of their level and I struggled to just get back to “normal”.  Covid is real, regardless of your views about it, ideas on the vax etc.  , it is miserable crap.  I couldn’t believe it took some of these athletes so long to return to action, then I got it and yeah, I get it now.  It’s not as simple as the flu, it can linger for what seems like forever.

 

Hope you are back to something like yourself DC. I know my mother (who came pretty close to losing her life to it) still feels 18 months on that she is not back to 100%. It has had some really strange effects like she now can't stand the taste of red wine where before she would drink plenty of the stuff, but it also still disrupts her sleep (which they have put down to PTSD from the ventilator) and has left her with some scarring on the lungs which cause occasional discomfort.