WhitewalkerInPhilly

That's kinda my bone to pick with this bit of media buzz in his favor. I'm not saying he did a *bad* job with Tannehill and Cutler, but I marvel at the idea that someone, Mr. Turnover Sam Darnold is suddenly going to turn into the second coming of Tom Brady.

I mean, I'm not complaining about that. In fact, I think it will lead to the Jets falling well short of expectations, which would be good for us. I just get really annoyed at the fellating that national media guys have started on because it's a NY team and they got one flashy offensive free agent

Yeah, Gase pisses me off. He's being hailed as this masterful QB whisperer, but we saw what he did in his time with Miami. Let's not pretend that Tannehill and Cutler were complete trash. In fact, I remember some eager champing at the bit to trade for Cutler in the late stages of Marrone era. And with the way that the Dolphins front office threw around money on free agents, it's not as if they were trying to do it on the cheap. He's not a terrible coach scheme-wise, but he clearly lost the locker room last year. The Jets were 4-12 last year, and for good reason (and not just Darnold being a rookie) Yeah, they picked up an excellent running back, but I honestly don't see the talent to derserve the kind of hype they are getting.

You know what changes the expectations as to the number of wins? Exceeding them. The Bills make the playoffs, we get to rub it in

Media has rarely looked foolish over the last 20 years by dumping on the Bills. As such, it's easy to have a talking point on how they expect the Bills to be between 4 and 8 wins, as they have been very often right. They have two winning seasons in the last ten years, right? Until the Bills are able to make the playoffs with some regularity, it's going to be an easy narrative to spin. Add on the fact that Josh Allen has also been an easy target to bash, talking heads don't really have to go that far.

Agreed. Things south of South Street are heavily residential which puts the sports complex area in a zone of it's own. And I'll tell people, even in an area that mostly does it right there are still issues. When the Eagles played Sunday Night Football to open the season traffic started getting backed up at 4 PM. There has been standstill traffic on the bridges for Phillies games. And that's with a subway line that runs to the stadiums from a central public transit hub. (FYI if you are in the city for a game that's what I recommend) My only thing to add is that it would be possible to make money tailgating of they chose to monetize it.

The Eagles are kinda my backup team (my wife roots for them as hard as I root for the Bills) so watching the mess Jerry Jones keeps putting himself into is a delight. The problem isn't just that $40 million is a gross overpayment for Dak, it's that the two players who are necessary to make Dak look serviceable are also looking for big paydays and have earned them. Amari Cooper has been fantastic in his first contract and Elliot is arguably the best RB in the league right now. Without them, Dak is...Andy Dalton

In all fairness, Allen is probably never going have Brady like accuracy. But while some people are freaking out, I would like to point out: 1) We are talking about the first *preseason* game. 2) Daboll clearly went out of his way to try to work on the passing game. I think the first 8 straight plays were passes, for a team whose construction is best designed to be a balanced attack. I don't think it's a coincidence that the offense opened up once there were a few runs to let the play action work. 3) Smaller sample size skews data. This is why when you have a WR or RB in for a trick play and they throw one pass for a TD why they aren't considered elite in spite of a perfect QBR. Allen is a dropped Zay Jones pass away from 64% completion rate (and possibly a touchdown pass) instead of the lamented "He had 54%!!!!!"

Honestly, I thought Allen had a really good outing last night. Yes, he had one bad, unforgivable throw, but for the most part I was very pleased at what I saw. I didn't see Allen forcing it into risky spots. He was able to take what the defense would give him, such as hitting Beasley for solid yardage after that penalty. He noticed a coverage breakdown for a huge chunk play. He noticed the huge cushion John Brown was being given and changed the play at the line to take advantage of the mismatch and pick up a first down....and that was why Allen took so many low percentage shots downfield early. Doing that opens up the middle of the field and makes people play with a cushion that makes things happen. All in all, while he didn't look like an MVP I honestly see a lot of progress and he looks miles ahead of where he was before. So I am a little surprised to hear the tale of the tape being "Josh Allen had an up and down night"

It's preseason, and we benched Shady. We are built to run first, this is trying to stretch what we can do

I won't say that it was an easy catch. But an elite WR makes that catch and makes it look easy. Above average WRs make that catch. That tells you what you need to know about Zay. Serious contributors on elite teams make that play, and he just is not that. He might hang around, but he is clearly not worth re-signing.

Oh yes, but I can immediately hear the cries of "he'll never do that again" or "he used up all his gas" Granted, I am not the biggest fan of overpaying a running back on the wrong side of 30, and I suspect that Beane isn't going to overpay to keep Shady. I think that, all things being equal, he would prefer to go back to Philly so I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the last year of Shady being in a Bills uniform.

For some people 2000 yards wouldn't be enough.

I sincerely hope so. He often bounces back from down years and he has abundant motivation to play his heart out. Right now, he is likely playing for the last contract of his career. I am sure he would love to go home to Philadelphia, but to get one last payday, he is going to have to show that he hasn't slown down.

Which is the point of practice, right? At this time of the year the simple installation of the system is done. Now is the perfect time to practice things that have given Allen problems in the past. And they are trying to hard code in that running is the last ditch option

Regarding people freaking out with Morse, I was under the impression that concussion recovery time was within a few weeks. Am I missing something?

I don't think anyone here talking about parking and traffic flow issues is saying it because they hate the idea of having a stadium closer to the city. Personally, I would love it if between canalside and three sports complexes we make it a place to be 12 months out of the year. The problem is that it's the one with the most logistical issues (traffic among them), infrastructure (power grid, plumbing, road construction, land issues (possible public domain or the city ceding land) before we even get to the part where most major league teams ask the city to kick in for the stadium. That's a hard sell to the state government. Now, if Paladino has a group of investors lined up and champing at the bit to fork over money, hey, great for him. But knowing him, he's looking for a pump and dump payday to drive up his real estate value, sell, and flounce away as other people have to make what he sold a reality.

Fully agree. I would honestly think that the necessary infrastructure upgrades would probably be a bigger return on investment than the stadium itself. But that's not something the Pegulas or the NFL can or should pony up for. That means requiring the state or county to likely sink hundreds of millions of dollars never mind the other issues that go into stadium wrangling. In a perfect world, that would be the best option. We are not in a perfect world. Unless Poloncarz is bringing in investors that would handle all stadium costs themselves he should shut up.

Does anyone here really think that Allen is going to be a fully polished player by the end of year two? I say this as a fan of his and I honestly think we've seen improvement this training camp, but I don't think we are going to see his best this year.

I'm not against the idea in theory. I would love it if we could remake the waterfront into a gorgeous piece of sports arena work. However, I am aware of the following: A) The argument that downtown stadiums bring in tons of revenue to local establishments tends to be B.S. Very few people want to go right around the stadium while a game is happening unless they are going to the game already. During the games, and when there are no events, it is wasted space. B) how bad is traffic on the night of a Sabres game when it lets out? Imagine that, with extreme lowball figures, to be three times worse on an NFL gameday. Fixing that alone would be a massive infrastructure and public transportation upgrade. While I do think that might benefit the city as a whole, that's a buttload of money before we even consider the stadium construction costs.

From what I hear, it's the wrong comparison. I am hearing John Randle!

The standing still and waiting to bat the ball is what would let Josh run it in for a TD, were it not for the fact that they are working on his passing. I also think there's also something to the fact that they were running heavy Red Zone drills. It's the time that the D gets to shrink the field and put its biggest bodies up the middle. If the play and some of the throws that we say were the "off" day, I feel pretty good about seeing what he can do vs the Jets.

I honestly don't think I can remember I time when our secondary has been deeper, and in this modern NFL, that's become where you need it in abundance.

To elaborate on what JfR is saying, I think that's why Allen and Beasley have been spending so much time working on timing routes. Beasley's bread and butter is the 8-15 yard routes that are the big weakness of the Cover 2. With Shady and Gore in the backfield vs a 7 man front, and if Beasley can reliably tear apart zone coverage for chunk plays, teams will be forced to abandon Cover 2 pretty fast.

I am glad to hear about that last one. Beasley could be the safety valve that keeps the offense running.