It's definitely a culture shock around here for the new management to basically clean house. On its face, the Philly trade is fine (JMatthews and a 3rd for Darby), but the Watkins one is a bit of a head scratcher here in Buffalo. Obviously, we know Watkins wasn't going to be re-signed, but ultimately you're making the team not competitive this year. But then you signed Anquan Boldin earlier in the week - now it's looking like that move was more cover to fight back charges of tanking the season.
It's just depressing as a Bills fan because the playoff drought is 17 years, and this new management came in expressing they wanted to win in both the short term and long term, but it seems like they now think they can't win in the short term. It seems like very low incentive to support the team for the next few years as they rebuild and wait for Tom Brady to retire.
Here's what I'll say about the DV thing and Zeke Elliot. I've been a defense lawyer, for both men accused of DV, and battered women who've retaliated back. The DA not bringing charges means absolute shit-all, because DV is almost always a he-said/she-said case, and in this case, the he is a famous NFL player. I'd be surprised if there were criminal charges short of actual video evidence, like the Ray Rice case. Note very well that she isn't being charged with falsifying a police report, either, so for y'all to say "there's this evidence of her making it up!" you have to recognize that the DA also doesn't think there's enough to warrant charging her with that, and it's hypocritical to assume that evidence is real and the actual, physical bruises on her body and her story isn't. From a corporate NFL standpoint: they can't tolerate any hint of DV, after the Ray Rice thing. The NFL has enough shit on its plate right now with the brain injury stuff, they don't need the negative PR of going soft on potential DV. And they don't have a standard of evidence they have to meet. So they can literally do whatever they want, based on the faintest whiff of anything. It seems like all the anger comes from fans of the particular team. As someone who doesn't give a shit about the Cowboys, I say it's better for the NFL to not take the chance, and cover their bases.
So don't go pretending that lack of charges means nothing happened. Money, fame, and the very he-said/she-said nature of the crime are all factors here, and frankly, with all the DV I've seen in my life, I'm not willing to throw away a sworn statement by a woman saying she was beaten, because it's already hard enough for abused women to stand up to their abusers.