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We have only have ourselves to blame. If we weren’t such voracious consumers of their product, advertisers wouldn’t be seeking to maximize primetime viewers like they do. Also, as i said earlier, it’s the price we have to pay as Bills fans for having a good team with an entertaining elite QB.

I hope it’s in deference to his older age and more NHL experience, because I certainly don’t think it’s in deference to him being a better goalie than Levi.

Tuch with two goals in the opening win against host Finland.

Another Canadian national team refusing to play Levi. I hope this tourney doesn’t prove to be a waste of his talents.

The price of having a good team with an elite QB.

True that there are a number of egregious plays. But the AP slash on LD occurred like a week after LD relinquished the puck. There may be worse penalties that guys get away with, but I doubt many are as obviously dirty.

This McDavid fella, I don’t think he’s just a flash in the pan. Kid’s gotta future in this league.

Innocent until proven guilty is strictly a legal construct. And for good reason.

Surprised we haven’t heard from the accuser’s attorney yet because previously he couldn't shut up about his civil case. I wonder if he will drop it given all the exculpatory evidence just furnished by the prosecutors for the defense attorneys to use at trial.

Hi, Sheryl.

There’s just something screwy about comparing defensemen and forwards relative defensive and offensive stats to each other when they are two completely different animals playing completely different roles in the game.

Yep. It’s always been an ignorant, empty saying. Those who CAN see the value in teaching others so they CAN, too.

Per the bold, if that’s the case, then I fear for our future as a society. Especially today, when that crazy bastard in the Kremlin wants to reconstitute the CCCP.

Yeah, I know that. I threw that in to further my point about how GMs and scouts ignored the “60%” crap because they were able to do a deep dive analysis on every pass he threw. While you may not be one of those who incessantly cited that talking head narrative at the time, it was that one stat alone that convinced the draftnik followers to crown him “Wrong Josh.” They may have more time than you, but nothing close to the time and resources necessary to properly vet a QB prospect, which have always been the most difficult prospects to evaluate. But if you enjoy their content, that’s great. It’s often insightful and fun to read.

Feel free to keep taking the the word of whomever you like. Just keep a dump truck of salt nearby when you do. Seriously though, there are several very good talking head evaluators out there, but they don’t come close to possessing the sheer amount of intelligence gathered about prospects compared to the league. All scouts and GMs get it wrong at times, but not nearly as often as those not intimately involved in the process on a regular basis. The pundits and draftniks just don’t have the time and resources necessary, simple as that. Regarding Allen, the 60% completion rate narrative was as ignorant as it gets, but people bought it hook, line, and sinker at the time and so he became “wrong Josh” as a result. Story after story about how no QB with a comparable completion percentage ever made it. NONE of that mattered to the GMs and scouts because their deep dives into Allen enabled them go give EVERY play of his the proper context for evaluation. And when I say every play of his, I mean EVERY play. Broken down several times. With input from his college coaches to boot. 60% is an arbitrary number anyway. A completely made up benchmark. Hell, it took John Elway, the highest rated prospect in history, 10 seasons before he achieved that bullcrap milestone. 😂

The moral of the Josh Allen story is don’t take the word of talking head pundits, draftniks, and analytic geeks who can’t see beyond raw numbers. They simply don’t possess the insight and context necessary to make predictions before a prospect has even played a down in the league. The old axiom usually holds true: you can’t fairly judge a QB prospect until he has 1,000 snaps under his belt. You may see glimpses of a bust, glimpses of greatness, and glimpses of everything in between as those snaps accumulate in the meantime.

I don’t disagree with anything here, but I’m not sure what it has to do with the point I was refuting, which was that Josh Allen was a “swing for the fences” draft pick when the NFL community never considered him as such. Highly rated prospects, which he was, just don’t qualify as that type of draft selection. Your point about what teams players go to is an important one. There are countless examples of good prospects going to teams that end up ruining them. If Mahomes went to the Jets or Browns he wouldn’t be sitting with two SB rings.

Yep. They all play like their coach, who was a huge pain in the ass to play against. Just a total buy-in by every guy on the team to emulate Brind’Amour’s style if play.

Believe what you will, I really don’t care at this point. But the “would have gone 1.1” logic is flawed as Allen wasn’t the only QB prospect in the draft considered a can’t miss prospect. I never said the GMs and scouts I spoke to rated him the the best QB prospect nor did they say he was flawless. I merely pointed out he wasn’t considered the “swing for the fences” pick you claimed he was as he cemented himself as a top 10 prospect after his 2016 college season and that never changed. As for the Walter Football report, they were right about the concern over Allen’s lack of experience at the position. He didn’t attend elite QB camps since middle school like most top prospects, nor did he have anywhere near the experience playing the position. He was more than raw in that regard. But he satisfied those concerns because he demonstrated off the charts aptitude for the position during the draft process, not only as it relates to schematics but also leadership and personality traits. Like I mentioned earlier, Daboll said he’d never seen anyone like him. The only “demonstrably false” aspects regarding Josh Allen as a prospect, are the uninformed takes by the talking head pundits who predicted his failure.

I’ll say it one last time and then let it go: “unpolished” or not, the NFL GM and scouting community rated him a can’t miss prospect. All opinions to the contrary were based on a sub 60% completion rate in college and put forth by talking heads who had little other pertinent information to go on. He was never gonna fall out of a top 10 draft position. And that status was in spite of his lack of experience and polish at the position. As for that prototypical size and arm strength, while certainly an advantage, they weren’t what the personnel gurus were most impressed by, either. Rather it was his demonstrated aptitude for the position during his week at the Senior Bowl and subsequent interviews with teams during the draft process that convinced NFL gurus he was the real deal. Like I said earlier, Daboll said he never saw anyone like him before. I also heard that from staffs with the Falcons, Jaguars, and Chargers as well. Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge as the GMs and scouts were proven correct in their assessment. Those talking head pundits who cited poor completion percentage in college and predicted him to be a bust? Not so much.

Allen was never considered anything less than a blue chip prospect by those who get paid to make those evaluations for the teams around the league. Indeed, he may have been the first overall pick in the draft had he come out in 2017. The narrative that he was boom or bust didn’t take off until after his last college season and it was fomented by talking head pundits who cited his completion percentage as the reason he was such a risk and once they settled on that narrative, they weren’t capable of backing off that position. Even today, there are those talking heads that are intractable on the subject. I think that narrative has been accepted by many fans which is why they think he was a swing for the fences in retrospect. But again, that was never the position taken by those in the league that make personnel decisions. His physical traits and aptitude for the game as it pertained to his interviews, white board breakdowns, and play analysis were off the charts. Several coaches, Daboll included, said they’d never seen anyone like that previously.

Allen wasn't a big swing for the fences at all. He was always considered a top 10 pick in the draft by league scouts and other evaluators. He had considered coming out early the year before as some had him projected to be the first QB selected.

We might wanna temper expectations. He was a 5th rounder for a reason. For all his positive physical traits, he isn’t an elite athlete and had a problem with drops in college. Some scouts think he should lose a few pounds, too. Not because he’s got a weight control issue, but because it may improve his athleticism. Intriguing prospect none the less.