When They're too Bad for Us...

[Jan Reimers]

They're just right for them. Hogan and Branch lead the Pats, while Gronk, a future Hall of Famer who was selected right AFTER we took Torrel Troup, looks on. Ross Cockrell starts for the Steelers. Our personnel moves are astounding.

After 17 stinking years of this, where would you rather be than not here, not now?

[Novacane]

I got so sick of hearing 7-11 since Hogan never did much here. Apparently he was always open. We just didn't have a QB

[WagonCircler]

The saddest thing of all was watching all four QBs this weekend, throwing lasers, all day long.

A Bills QB makes one or two of those throws and homers proclaim "See! He's got a HUGE ceiling! Tyrod/EJ/Cardale is going to be a star in this league!!!"

These were real NFL QBs we saw. Pocket passers who can move more than well enough to escape danger in the pocket and pick up first downs. And in the case of Rodgers and Ryan, they move exceptionally well, but their first instinct isn't to tuck it and run.

These guys make throws all over the field, they improvise, they sense pass rushers who aren't in their lines of sight, they have internal clocks in the pocket, and they throw accurate passes in small windows.

They play chess, while Whaley's idiots play checkers.

[Joe Fo Sho]

There are dozens of receivers that could have done what Hogan did yesterday. He's not special.

[HHURRICANE]

I think we need to not panic here as Brady would make my 50 year old ass look like a pro bowler.

As for the QB position, until we get something better than Tyrod we need to not go backwards by saying he's not good enough and bring in someone worse.

[Bill Cody]

I think we need to not panic here

You go ahead and not panic. I've hit the red button. Try and stop me.


As for the QB position, until we get something better than Tyrod we need to not go backwards by saying he's not good enough and bring in someone worse.

This is in the "how to be a Bills fan" manual right?

[kingJofNYC]

Branch was good for 2 seasons, signed an extension, and completely mailed it in. Came in out of shape, was unfit to play, we shouldn't reward these players by keeping them around. What we should take note of is how often this happens. This season we had Karlos Williams and Dareus, no one holds these guys accountable. Our org is weak as ****. If Branch pulled the same **** with the Pats they'd cut him just like we did, problem is that happens more to the Bills than it does to the Pats.

[SpikedLemonade]

The saddest thing of all was watching all four QBs this weekend, throwing lasers, all day long.

A Bills QB makes one or two of those throws and homers proclaim "See! He's got a HUGE ceiling! Tyrod/EJ/Cardale is going to be a star in this league!!!"

These were real NFL QBs we saw. Pocket passers who can move more than well enough to escape danger in the pocket and pick up first downs. And in the case of Rodgers and Ryan, they move exceptionally well, but their first instinct isn't to tuck it and run.

These guys make throws all over the field, they improvise, they sense pass rushers who aren't in their lines of sight, they have internal clocks in the pocket, and they throw accurate passes in small windows.

They play chess, while Whaley's idiots play checkers.

Chinese Checkers to be specific.

[Night Train]

They're just right for them. Hogan and Branch lead the Pats, while Gronk, a future Hall of Famer who was selected right AFTER we took Torrel Troup, looks on. Ross Cockrell starts for the Steelers. Our personnel moves are astounding.
After 17 stinking years of this, where would you rather be than not here, not now?

Awesome Jan, as always.

[DynaPaul]

I liked Hogan, we could have kept him cheap.

[daryls61]

Why are people obsessing over Hogan? HIs numbers this year were similar to his numbers last year with us so how is he worth a 3 year $15 mil contract?

[swiper]

They're just right for them. Hogan and Branch lead the Pats, while Gronk, a future Hall of Famer who was selected right AFTER we took Torrel Troup, looks on. Ross Cockrell starts for the Steelers. Our personnel moves are astounding.

After 17 stinking years of this, where would you rather be than not here, not now?

Cockrell is not that good.

[TacklingDummy]

Who's Andy Levitre play for now?

[jpdex12]

They're just right for them. Hogan and Branch lead the Pats, while Gronk, a future Hall of Famer who was selected right AFTER we took Torrel Troup, looks on. Ross Cockrell starts for the Steelers. Our personnel moves are astounding.

After 17 stinking years of this, where would you rather be than not here, not now?Beautiful play on the words of Marv...thanks for the laugh and very witty post. Couldn't be more truthful!

[YardRat]

Who's Andy Levitre play for now?

LOL...one play I remember from yesterday was an Atlanta run inside the Red Zone, that got the ball down close to the goal line. One of the announcers was pimping Levitre for getting around the center and picking up a 'key block' at the second level. Unfortunately for both when they showed the replay it certainly showed Andy pulling into the hole, but he completely whiffed on the guy he was supposed to block. The very next play he jumped early and moved the team back five yards.

Good for Andy, I hope he gets a ring. Hell, I might have considered re-signing him also if he was going to take a cut in salary like he got from Atlanta.

[mdcas22]

I liked Hogan, we could have kept him cheap.


New Patriots receiver Chris Hogan on why he wanted out of Buffalo


http://storage.torontosun.com/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297238433435_AUTHOR_PHOTO.jpg?quality=80&stmp=1485222785291&size=35x35
BY JOHN KRYK (http://www.torontosun.com/author/john-kryk), TORONTO SUNFIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016 03:52 PM EDT | UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016 10:56 PM EDT
http://storage.torontosun.com/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297861477263_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=420xPatriots wide receiver Chris Hogan (centre) runs out for a pass during a practice in Foxborough, Mass., on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)
Article
FOXBORO, MASS. - The snicker said it all. But he confirmed it with words.
Chris Hogan really wanted out of Buffalo.
Asked after his first training camp practice with his new NFL team, the New England Patriots, if it was tough to leave the Buffalo Bills, Hogan didn’t exactly shed a tear.
“Naw, I mean this is an ideal place for me. It was a change that I think, personally for myself, that I needed,” Hogan said Thursday, after the Pats’ morning practice concluded on the grass fields adjacent to Gillette Stadium.
“I think I just needed a change. I wanted to get out. I kind of got a little complacent where I was, and this really has kind of (been) a rebirth of me as a football player.”
The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder is a graduate of New Jersey’s Monmouth University. After short, unsuccessful undrafted free-agent stints in 2011 and early 2012 with the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants and Miami Dolphins, Hogan latched on with the Bills during the 2012 season.
In Miami he’d earned the nickname “7-Eleven” because he was always open, like the convenience-store chain.
By 2014, Hogan began to make important catches and occasional big plays in Buffalo. By the end of the 2015 season he’d amassed 87 catches -- six for touchdowns -- for 959 yards, and never missed a game from 2013-15.
Hogan became a restricted free agent in early March. The Bills surprisingly offered him a low tender offer of $1.6 million. The Patriots offered him $12 million over four years, per ESPN, and the Bills declined to match it.
Hogan said he was not upset.
“I want to learn. I want to play for Tom, and I want to play for Jimmy, and I want to play for Bill. I’m having so much fun out here. It’s starting the process of learning a playbook all over for me, and it’s a lot of fun.”
The 27-year-old intimated that there were frustrations for him in Buffalo. Although he did not identify either by name, he couldn’t get past Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods on the depth chart, or priority list.
“It is what it is over there,” he said. “Obviously they have their guys, and that’s who it was. I’m not going to ask for the ball, and all that kind of stuff. I’m a role guy, and I like playing my role.
“Whatever my role is I’m going to play it to the best of my ability, and I think that I can take on a good role here.”
What does he see his role being in New England?
“I think it’s going to be whatever they need me to be,” Hogan said. “There could be weeks where I’m playing a lot of receiver, and there could be weeks I’m playing a lot of special teams. I’m not really limiting my options.
“I want to do everything for this team, just because it’s a new team for me, and I want to prove to these guys that I can be accountable on the field, and they can count on me when I’m out there. That’s what I’m focusing on.”
It’s an NFL receiver’s dream to have passes thrown to him by someone of Tom Brady’s calibre. That’s a substantial reason Hogan is so excited about the move.
Brady, who turns 39 next Wednesday, is renowned for the sure-handedness and route-running precision he demands of his pass catchers. Hogan chuckled when asked if he’d noticed that yet.
“Yeah. I saw it from the second I walked into this building,” he said. “Just being out here throwing with him in the off-season.
“But it’s everybody (who demands precision). It’s Jimmy (Garoppolo, backup quarterback). He’s learning from that from Tom. And it’s Josh (McDaniels, offensive coordinator). He’s very demanding for everything that he wants done. You don’t ever question it. You see it on film and say, ‘OK, this is why they want it done.’ It works this way.”
Hogan still can’t shake his reputation for being, well, a slow white guy. Yet he repeatedly burns NFL cornerbacks on deep passes, as Buffalo QB Tyrod Taylor happily discovered a year ago.
“Yeah, every single year in Buffalo I was always, like, the underdog. ‘Is he going to make the team?’ Or, ‘How is he going to do?’ I don’t even pay attention to (the doubts) anymore. I know where I want to go, and I know what I want to do. I want to be successful. I’m working as hard as I can to be successful.
“I don’t want to really have to worry about all that other stuff anymore. It used to bother me, but at the end of the day my play speaks for itself. I catch the deep balls, I catch everything short -- so I let my play do the talking.”
All this doesn’t mean Hogan was able to turn the career page without the occasional double-take, in jumping from the Bills to the Bills’ arch-enemy.
“It’s kind of funny. It’s like one day you’re marking the Patriots down on the calendar, and the next day you’re scribbling it out and marking the Bills down on the calendar,” Hogan said.
“So, it’s kind of cool. I’ve gone against this team for four years now, and it’s a battle every single time. You respect the way these guys play. I’m excited to be on this team now, and be on the same side of the ball as them.”

[Mace]

LOL...one play I remember from yesterday was an Atlanta run inside the Red Zone, that got the ball down close to the goal line. One of the announcers was pimping Levitre for getting around the center and picking up a 'key block' at the second level. Unfortunately for both when they showed the replay it certainly showed Andy pulling into the hole, but he completely whiffed on the guy he was supposed to block. The very next play he jumped early and moved the team back five yards.

Good for Andy, I hope he gets a ring. Hell, I might have considered re-signing him also if he was going to take a cut in salary like he got from Atlanta.

In retrospect, the biggest woe wasn't losing Levitre, but losing OL coach Joe D'Allessandris who was in his zone here, getting the best out of Levitre and even Demetress Bell.

[John Doe]

I liked Hogan, we could have kept him cheap.

What makes you say that?

The Pats paid him big - 3 years @ $12 mil. Plus, they had more cap flexibility to structure the deal to effectively swing the deal to exclude the Bills from contention.

Why would he would stay here for less?

http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4791142/creative-structure-of-contract-helped-patriots-snatch-chris-hogan-from-bills
(http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4791142/creative-structure-of-contract-helped-patriots-snatch-chris-hogan-from-bills)

[mush69]

There are dozens of receivers that could have done what Hogan did yesterday. He's not special.

I hate to say it. the guy throwing the ball is....

[GingerP]

What makes you say that?

The Pats paid him big - 3 years @ $12 mil. Plus, they had more cap flexibility to structure the deal to effectively swing the deal to exclude the Bills from contention.

Why would he would stay here for less?

http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4791142/creative-structure-of-contract-helped-patriots-snatch-chris-hogan-from-bills
(http://www.espn.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4791142/creative-structure-of-contract-helped-patriots-snatch-chris-hogan-from-bills)

Because they could have kept him for an additional $400K. They chose to offer him at the original round tender, which means a one-year $1.67M deal. For an additional $400K, they could have offered him the tender that required a 2nd-round comp to sign. Nobody would have given a 2nd round pick on top of a contract to sign him.

So... to save $400K in cap room they lost a player who probably could have helped them this year. They were picking crap up off the waiver wire and playing them this year because they were so thin at WR.

That kind of cap management is why the Bills are where they are.

Hard to blame them for Branch considering he got fat after signing his contract and then had a DUI. He has played very well for NE, though. He was huge for them yesterday, holding the line against a Pro-Bowl interior of Pouncey and DeCastro.

[Historian]

The 27-year-old intimated that there were frustrations for him in Buffalo. Although he did not identify either by name, he couldn’t get past Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods on the depth chart, or priority list.
“It is what it is over there,” he said. “Obviously they have their guys, and that’s who it was.

This says it all about 1BD.

And the irony is, that half the time, Watkins isn't even dressed, lol!

[Bill Cody]

Why are people obsessing over Hogan? HIs numbers this year were similar to his numbers last year with us so how is he worth a 3 year $15 mil contract?

It was 4 years for 12 and this year his YPC went up by almost 50%. Not a lot of receivers in the league averaging 17.9 YPC. NE got their money's worth.