The Dominator

Here are my impressions from last night. Hopefully there are a few observations that weren't covered by the media so you aren't reading the same thing over and over again... QBs: Before giving my impressions on this group, I'll start by telling you what I like to see from QBs this year, given the situation. I weigh my impressions favorably to someone who shows the most consistency, with bonus points towards someone who can provide a splash play (or wow play, whatever) while avoiding disaster plays. I also don't take 1 on 1 drills into consideration as those throws don't involve any decision making on the quarterback's part. I only judge quarterbacks in 7v7 and team portions of practice. Basically, consistency is key and splash plays earn brownie points but they aren't the be-all end-all. With that said, my rankings based on last night ALONE are Tyrod, EJ, and then Cassel. Cassel didn't really stand out in the positive category at all, with the vast majority of his completions coming less than 5 yards past the line of scrimmage. When there were opportunities to get more chunk plays 10+ yards downfield, the throw was off the mark. With EJ, his splash plays were just as impressive as Tyrod's last night, but he also had a stint of plays where he underthrew Goodwin by 6 yards on a deep flag route with solid coverage. He shouldn't have attempted the throw in the first place and was lucky it was so underthrown or the corner would have had an easy play on the ball. A few plays later in team portion, he telegraphed a throw on a slant route right into the hands of Graham (could be wrong, but I think it was Corey) who dropped it. With that said, he probably had the best red zone work of the three quarterbacks. Finally, Tyrod provided as many splash plays as EJ but avoided the pitfalls of EJ's practice. My favorite pass of Tyrod's day wasn't covered much by media from what I've read. In team, he had a play where he scanned the left side of the field, couldn't find an open receiver, and looked backside where he completed a 15 yard in route. Media focused on a deep touchdown pass he made (which was a nice play) but I'm more impressed when I see a quarterback go through his progressions and finding his third receiver for a big chunk of yardage. Those plays extend drives. Another thing of note: all of these quarterbacks are getting "sacked" multiple times in practice. The defense is not letting off the gas at all. Cassel probably isn't being sacked as much as he tends to check down faster than the other two. RBs: There were only 2 things of note from this group yesterday which were covered by the media; McCoy was given a rest day in team and Freddy looked like he had fresh legs. It's amazing to think if I didn't know the Bills roster, I would go to a practice and think Freddy is probably 28 years old. On a read option (Tyrod was the QB) Freddy had a great run of about 20+ yards with a small cutback on the left side of the line. Bryce Brown had a huge lane up the middle on an inside carry where he went untouched (credit to the interior o-line on that play). WRs: Everyone has covered Sammy extensively. Robert Woods looks like a vet out there running routes. Justin Brown is not a good route runner. Isn't able to sink his hips or be sudden when running his routes. He simply has size. Tobais Palmer has very good footwork, but can be jammed at the line very easily. Now that I look it up, it makes sense as he only weighs 178 pounds on the website. Easley lacks acceleration and quickness but as long as he continues to be the best gunner on STs it isn't an issue. OL: The o-line struggles protecting the edges in pass blocking. Whether it's from overload blitzes or the quality of the edge defenders rushing, it's hard to tell (I was focusing more on QBs anyways so I can't say exactly what it is). With that said, inside running plays with Freddy carrying the ball seemed to be effective. DL: Again, with focus on the QBs I wasn't able to catch much in the trenches. I specifically remember Mario sacking Tyrod after beating his man on an outside bull rush and Dareus completely blew up an inside run from shotgun which he celebrated with his fellow linemen. DB: Stephon is by far the most physical corner we have while also avoiding contact too far downfield. His aggressiveness seems to be very calculated. Someone else mentioned it somewhere on these boards, but Darby is very good at shutting down everything except underneath and comeback routes. He will give you the 5 yard catches and close in quickly for the tackle and avoid giving up a big play downfield or over the middle. It's a sound way to play while still getting your feet wet at the NFL level.

Just caught up with the discussion happening. I won't inject my thoughts because I am personally torn (thanks to the wonderful arguments being made on both sides of the coin).

I was looking at it from most interceptions to least which admittedly was upside-down. Ok yeah when going from least interceptions to most 500 passing attempts was a good baseline to use.

Why? If someone has half of the attempts but more interceptions then they have a higher INT rate which is good for Tannehill

Inconsistent baselines here. He's tied for 13th in interceptions of all quarterbacks who started so middle of the pack. Like you said, 12th in TDs so outside of the top third and 11th in yards so not bad. At the same time, his ypa is low, showing an inefficiency and needing extra attempts to obtain those yards. EDIT* Forgot to look at comp % as well. It's high, so it shows a tendency for shorter passes when putting it side by side to ypa* Of all the quarterbacks who had 3,500 yards or more (14 quarterbacks), only Jay Cutler had a lower ypa. Overall, I think Tannehill is an above average quarterback who would make Buffalo an instant Super Bowl contender with the pieces we have. Is he worth 77 mil over 4 years? Maybe not, but it's the price you pay in order to avoid the QB situation the Bills or Browns have been in.

Are they accountable? Sure. Should Whaley be fired? Not yet. He had 1 chance to draft a QB in a draft that didn't produce jack you-know-what at the position. And can anyone blame him for not taking a QB with our first pick last year after seeing EJ only play 10 games? It's easy to answer that question now with hindsight. And I'm no EJ apologetic either, I look forward to next year's QB class and hope there are a few quality quarterback prospects to draft in the first round no matter the outcome this season. But just because Whaley is 0-1 at drafting quarterbacks doesn't mean he should be packing his bags. And 9-7 is a very real possibility this season simply based on the quarterback situation. Pulling the chord on a GM too soon is worse than doing so with a HC. I've seen enough good moves from Whaley to believe he deserves more time.

I always wait until the week before week 1 to make my game by game predictions but right now I have the team pegged at 9 or 10 wins. We didn't have a QB last year either. Or an adequate OC. Or a HC with game management skills. Or a running game. I think above everything else, Greg Roman will be the biggest influence on whether the run game (and as a result the offense as a whole) will rebound and be adequate enough to function. With all that said, I have a hard time going any higher than 10 wins because of the QB situation. If we had an O-line equivalent to Dallas' then maybe I push it to 10-11 wins but we don't.

Anyone going to camp tomorrow morning? They won't be in pads yet which is a bummer but it will be a good chance to get a glimpse at the QBs.

Is this % of total population or % of that specific race's population?

Even after withholding my expectations for season 2, I feel like the directors/writers have let down this cast. I just can't feel a connection to these characters besides Ray. Everyone talks with the same tone and everything is done in a depressed manner. There are no ups and downs in emotion and tone, only downs. Season 1 I was holding on to every single word being spoken and the story-line played out much more smoothly and organically. I will finish this season of course because I need to see if/when all these stories tie in together, but this season hasn't been captivating enough overall. Not trying to take over the topic but has anyone watched Ballers or The Brink?

My original post on the entire matter is actually post 12434 where I broke it down by crime committed. I'll copy/paste the specific crimes... 2013 Total arrests (%): White people make up 68.9% of all arrests. African Americans? 28% We can break it down further and look at specific crimes... Murder: White- 45.3% AA- 52.2 Rape: White- 66.2% AA- 31.3 Violent Crime: White- 58.4% AA- 38.7 Fraud: White- 66.1% AA- 31.8 Weapons: White- 58.2% AA- 39.8 Drug Abuse: White- 67.7% AA- 30.4 DUI: White- 84.2% AA- 12.5 Actually, here is the rest of my post so nothing is lost in translation... Of course white people have a higher arrest rate, there's more white people in the US. The latest census estimates that the population is made up of 77.7% white and 13.2% black. Which brings me to my question: Why are incarceration rates so uneven? The number of white people incarcerated per 100,000 white people is 380. The number of black people incarcerated per 100,000 black people is 2,207. Black people are incarcerated 5.8 times more than white people are even though white people commit 69% of all crimes.

Just read a report on it. Absolutely disgusting. I can only imagine being a first responder to the 911 call and not knowing you would walk in on a domestic murder scene. That sort of thing could scar you for life.

Yeah when it comes to habitual offenders, you might need to widen the scope (environment, family situation, etc. etc. etc.) and that would open up a huge can of worms that I could never properly address. I'm glad we found some sort of middle ground though. Good discussion

Answer to question 1: the FBI breaks it down further into American Indian or Alaskan Native (they make up 1.6% of all arrests), Asian (1.2%), and finally Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (0.1%). Answer to question 2: It never occurred to me that African Americans commit more crimes because they don't. Period. Look at the numbers again and your question will be answered for you. It really isn't a discussion, Caucasians are involved in almost 7 out of every 10 arrests yet the number of white people incarcerated per 100,000 white people is 380. The number of black people incarcerated per 100,000 black people is 2,207. This never was a discussion about the rate of crime committed, it was a discussion of inequality. Numbers show unequivocally that the rate of white people being jailed is a fraction compared to the rate of African Americans even though Caucasians commit the vast majority of crimes. Not much to discuss there. We can discuss what the nation should do about this (unless you don't want to do anything about it) but there's no argument to be made that incarceration inequality based on race doesn't exist because it does.

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

Lets try this again shall we? 2013 Total arrests (%): White people make up 68.9% of all arrests. African Americans? 28% The latest census estimates that the population is made up of 77.7% white and 13.2% black. The number of white people incarcerated per 100,000 white people is 380. The number of black people incarcerated per 100,000 black people is 2,207. Black people are incarcerated 5.8 times more than white people are even though white people commit 69% of all crimes.

Love the bolded. And I can say that for all of the issues my generation has, we can proudly look to my generation as one that is very open-minded and forward thinking in regards to topics such as this. From my own experiences growing up, the racial divide (individually, not structural) is not nearly what it used to be. Structural racism is a whole other animal to tame, but there's something to be said for individuals looking at other humans and not making erroneous assumptions or remarks. Especially in college, which may correlate with the idea of educating those who are indeed racist in hopes of them changing their ways.

You also can't sweep it under the rug and ignore it. It's a problem, and when you address a problem it can be solved. It's like the first step in Alcoholic's Anonymous... Please stand up and introduce yourself "Hi everyone, my name is America and I have a racial inequality problem."

Awesome, another brewery I can try out

Top 5 Bills talents (based purely on talent alone): 1. Marcell Dareus 2. Sammy Watkins (I think he really is that good when given the chance, he has every single tool to be great) 3. Mario Williams 4. LeSean McCoy 5a. Stephon Gilmore 5b. Jerry Hughes

You and me both. Let's look at the FBI's Table 43 shall we? 2013 Total arrests (%): White people make up 68.9% of all arrests. African Americans? 28% We can break it down further and look at specific crimes... Murder: White- 45.3% AA- 52.2 Rape: White- 66.2% AA- 31.3 Violent Crime: White- 58.4% AA- 38.7 Fraud: White- 66.1% AA- 31.8 Weapons: White- 58.2% AA- 39.8 Drug Abuse: White- 67.7% AA- 30.4 DUI: White- 84.2% AA- 12.5 Well, these are all raw numbers which need context. Of course white people have a higher arrest rate, there's more of us. The latest census estimates that the population is made up of 77.7% white and 13.2% black. Which brings me to my question: Why are incarceration rates so uneven? The number of white people incarcerated per 100,000 white people is 380. The number of black people incarcerated per 100,000 black people is 2,207. Black people are incarcerated 5.8 times more than white people are even though white people commit 69% of all crimes. Some people obviously need their eyes opened, but I don't think it's the people who argue that white privilege exists...

I've always avoided Southern Tier as I am not an IPA fan. So their porter/ales/stouts etc. are good?

If anything, the invite takes away any chance this party turns into something it shouldn't. Would it be better if he invited anyone and possibly did something he regretted with someone who doesn't have their whits about them? Or is it better to be straight-up from the get-go about the point of the party and what his expectations are when everyone is sober and able to make their own decisions with ample time to change their mind? Is the invite a turn-off for a lot of people? Yes. And it is supposed to be. That way, anyone who is uncomfortable with the party won't end up there in the first place. Crude? Probably. But misleading? Definitely not, and there's something to be said for that.

This is a good point. The connotation is completely different when re-worded in that manner. Instead of drivers thinking: I drive 5 mph over the limit (fast) I should be in the left lane. They would instead be thinking: I'm going to drive exclusively in the right lane unless I approach a car that I can pass. The 2nd line of thinking is what the 2/3/4 lane system was built to do but the current signage doesn't always infer that.

And this is exactly why I hate the 2 party system. "Fall in line or go to the other side. You are either one of us or one of them." We need candidates who stand on their own platform and say what they believe in without worrying about how it clashes with the ideals of a party. Very few people agree with every little stance a party holds, so why can't a system be in place where they take a stand for their own beliefs and see how many people follow them?