It was likely a directive from above...don't put our contractual obligations at risk. Rex was hired to be the bombastic mouthpiece that grabs attention and so deflect criticism of the inner circle.
Rex's statement re game 3, "Looks like a stupid decision to play him (Taylor)," Ryan said, "because I never expected him to get hit." was ludicrous.
Fiat justitia ruat caelum. Noli timere. Laus Deo.
Historian (08-28-2016)
If Pegula wanted to make money, he'd drill a hole. He loves Buffalo and the sports teams, overpaying for both of them so don't ever think it's all for money. He's a billionaire so he's good there, I just hope he gets the franchises successful. So far, they've both languished under his ownership.
I think the rule changes over the last couple of decades (especially the last 10-15 years) indicate a philosophy that has moved the priority of the league away from parity and toward bigger money, and bigger money comes from marketing. There really isn't parity anymore, for the most part there are a few teams that are hopeless, a few that are the cash cows and have marketable stars and continuosly make the playoffs, and a bunch of teams that are, and will remain, mediocre until they latch on to somebody (like a QB) that the league can make money off of. Sure, there is parity with all of the middlin' team that go 6-10 to 9-7 every year, and I guess the hopeless ones can be included because they manage to grow to mediocre and 'fight' for a wild card until the last couple of weeks, but there is definitely an elite class that has been established that belies any evidence of true parity.
Buffalo fans have been clamoring for a QB for years now, but we don't need one because his skill set is important as much as we need one that can be sold nationwide for a profit.
YardRat Wall of Fame
#56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
Brandon has nothing to do with the football side of the operation. Firing him will not make us better on the field.
As far as this thread in general, can anyone really blame Rex for sitting our starters, given the number of serious injuries we have already suffered?
Should have known, way back in 1960 when we drafted Richie Lucas Number 1, that this would be a long, hard ride. But who could have known it would be THIS bad?
Gees guys I was just really pissed that I purchased NFL Gamepass to watch the "dress rehearsal" and I see a bunch of backups running around missing tackles. Cancel that ****!
I think if we stink it will be tough to prove that it had anything to do with how much the starters did or did not play in preseason. People around here tend to project a lot of things on the team that aren't backed by any kind of seriously rigorous analysis, they just fulfill some sort of emotional need of the poster- which is fine. The stats are out there I wish I had time to run a regression on it. I'd be willing to bet that there is absolutely no correlation between preseason play time and team success.
Do already-good teams play their starters less? I imagine so. Do teams get good by playing their starters more? I imagine not, but I really don't have any stats to back that up unfortunately.
For what it's worth I agree with you and I think he smartly played Tyrod very little this preseason. I'm sure someone will start a thread when were finish 8-8 about how the fact that Tyrod didn't play a lot in preseason made him rusty, backed with no evidence other than "he didn't play a lot in preseason and then we stunk so therefore that is the reason." People forget the days when preseason was not even something that was talked about- it was more practice than something fans hyper-analyzed. That's just the NFL machine tricking us into watching and paying attention to something that in reality has far less value than we think.
Edit: I did find this about correlation between preseason and regular season records http://duelingdata.blogspot.com/2014/09/nfl-preseason-performance-doesnt-matter.html
The Bills have never gone over .500 in preseason since 2004, and each time they went .500 they actually did worse in the regular season!
And this, which I haven't finished reading but actually looks slightly counter to my point http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/p...-has-a-new-qb/
Love this stuff.
Last edited by BuffaloRedleg; 08-28-2016 at 11:46 AM.
Mace (08-28-2016)
BuffaloRedleg (08-28-2016)
Oddly, I read John Harbaugh complaining about preseason games today. And even more oddly I found myself finally agreeing. They really could do the same with controlled scrimmages and maybe only 2 practice games. Article I read Suggs said they really do need a prep game or two.
I'd probably bet that like I said, better teams with better motivated players, better training and conditioning staffs, and more astute coaches will do better with less. One of the best comments I ever read was Carson Palmer commenting on a woeful preseason, said something like preseason is I try what i don't think I can do anyway, take risks and see what happens.
I just really see the preseason as practice games, and it comes back to having to trust the staff on who needs what practice I suppose.
Enjoyed the reads muchly.
BuffaloRedleg (08-29-2016)