WhitewalkerInPhilly

Move Rapp to linebacker. I'm not even joking. With Milano and Bernard out for an unforseen amount of time, and TJ still in recovery tell me other player the Bills have that A) Hits like a Mack truck B) know coverage schemes C) is faster than a D lineman I also have zero issues with rolling out thick nickel and dime

I'm going to look at some of the long term cap impact once there is more detail but even if Tua is back in 2025 (I don't think he should) they were already leveraged close to Max with those extensions. Now those players will get close to impossible to get off the books. If Tua is done, they will need to crater nearly everything else to pay aging stars they can't win with. I have come to respect his ingenuity as an OC. His HC decisions are what sinks him

I mean the Dolphins were scummy enough to do him dirty in 2020. And, not to beleabor the point I don't know how they afford even $100 million in cap hit over 2025 and 26

I mean not even the "on film" part. Legitimate question: when has Josh had a run game this dominant? In the second half when the Dolphins KNEW the Bills were milking the clock they couldn't stop it You keep doing something that works until teams stop you. If opposing defenses are giving Josh 8 man boxes, look out!

Same.

FWIW I think it depends. IIRC in theory the dead cap hit is the money actually paid out which so far would be the roster or signing bonuses. In theory the only dead cap would be the signing bonus and the Dolphins could try to sue for it back. However, that would be a bad look. To take away the bag of the guy you said was a franchise player because you continuously put him in harms way? It would be a PR nightmare. And then there's whether any seasons has salary guaranteed for injury which I hope his agent did purely on the basis of professional competence. On the field? It's ghoulish to gloat but purely thinking of ramifications (like I do with is losing Milano and Bernard) but even best case scenario they will need to wait a few weeks. I will not put it past the Dolphins to wheel him out to die so I hope Tua at least has the sense to stay on IR and get a real independent neurologist. I think any common sense from Tua will have him out for the year. If he retires? The Dolphins spent *big* on extensions. If they are starting from zero on a QB the 2025 might be in the tank too. Unless they are willing to tank they look to be in QB Draft purgatory: too good to get a top 10 pick, too bad to crack the playoffs. Of course I was crowing the demise of the Jets and here they are...

Watching the Post game. There are fans chanting "MVP MVP MVP" for Josh. Injuries on both sides mar the moment, but hot damn did the Bills come to play

Fuuuuuuu

Hill to the locker room?

Ok I did not have James Cook having 3 TDs. Time to bet on 4?

Poyer keeps giving gifts. Late post I know but heeeey

Fitz knows where it's at

Doh!!! In other news the activated Bishop at S.

Van De Mark seems to be a true C. Fantastic to have in a year or two, needs seasoning. Not bad in a later round pick

Any word on the ground about Bills fans in stadium?

Predictions time: Brady makes up for the lack of TE yardage by using Kincaid in Knox in the middle of the field and uses a balanced run & screen mix to try to wear out Miami's front knowing they don't have our depth. McDermott tries the standard "attack up the middle on pass rush", plays shell coverage. We will be infuriated by the defense bending and Hill/Waddle get some shots but Tua will hit a dry spell. 34-31 Bills Speaking of Dline rotation

Brawndo! It's got what plants crave

It's wish casting a bit, but boy did I love watching the Dolphins have their stadium taken over by Bills fans Week 18 last year. I would love seeing them have to go with silent count at their own stadium

Children woke me up early. I'm going to be a miserable cuss today unless the Bills win 😝

I'll write less when the Bills give me less to write about lol

Offense 👍🧑‍🤝‍🧑🥣 Defense 📉📈 🛫🔜🚛 League scheme Kickoffs 😲 🐬💥

Because the more esteemed writers on the board have better things to do you’re stuck with this schmuck! It’s slightly delayed and on a short week, let’s double up the Ripoff Report! First off, I have a PSA. A great many out of town fans have expressed discontent with how the NFL has been handling Sunday Ticket and I am one of them. $480 to watch 1 and 4 PM games when not on local networks is a bigger ripoff than this article series. However, with my personal life going crazy with a second child arriving just before season start, I decided to get NFL+ Premium, mostly expecting to watch games I missed. However, I learned that it also comes with RedZone and allows me to listen to the radio broadcast that gets cut on the official streams during the broadcast. Set up with the Buffalo Bills Radio Network, Chris Brown and Eric Wood were much more interesting and informative than most broadcasts. For example, Wood pointed out how the cards were using 13 personnel and why and the adjustments that Babich made during halftime (more on that later).Not listening to Collingsworth will be worth the price alone, and other than getting spoiled slightly in advance by RedZone it meant that I got to watch the critical plays close to live. Plus, the subscription lasts a year meaning I can watch games in the doldrums instead of 18 Sundays a year. In the week before the Cardinals game I expressed nervousness. Yes, the Bills were the superior team and the Cardinals were flying across the country for a home opener. But the starters had spent so little time together in preseason would everything mesh. Well, that fear looked to be justified. You could definitely see that all of the cylinders weren’t firing in time. That the team managed to win anyway is a testament to the talent on the roster, especially Josh Allen. I mean, how I can start anywhere without Allen. I know I love to rag on “the media” for diminishing him and the “overrated” comments sting but…I mean, come on. I am hearing talking heads spout about a fumble on a blindside hit while ignoring that Allen has FOUR TIMES as many touchdowns week one to the same number of turnovers as Mahomes and Lamar. More than Stroud. And the scary thing is, I don’t think that was Josh at his best. We have been hearing Everybody Eats as the mantra and, at least for Week One, the Bills lived up to it. NINE players had receptions and that is a statement in and of itself. But to get more granular The throw to Mack Hollins was perfect. I do not think that ball can be better thrown or placed. That is all. As much as I would have loved Coleman to have a massive TD game, what I saw was pretty darn impressive. He was the best rookie WR on the field, and the other option was the #4 overall pick. Now, there is a big difference in the QB getting him the ball and the secondary coverage, but despite the splash that Worthy made, Coleman had the 2nd most receiving yards of any rookie WR. NOT counted on those numbers were two EGREGIOUS penalties that he drew and unlike Worthy, these weren’t manufactured touches, it was just beating his man. But speaking of manufactured touches… Shakir needs more of them. That little tunnel screen shows what happens when you purposefully make him part of the attack if he isn’t getting open on his own. Jesus, he looks like a Madden player with those jukes. He was shrugging off Defensive Lineman hits before rolling over a guy to sneak in a TD. A quiet day for Kincaid, but some of the All 22 breakdowns I’ve seen show why: he is the new Diggs, the focal point that teams make a point to take away. Only unlike Diggs, he’s on a rookie contract. Jokes aside, the strength of the Cardinals D is their LB and Safety play, so it was a bad matchup, but as much as Josh’s other weapons are unsexy picks, so far it seems to be working. For some reason, Jeremy White is unhappy with the amount of running the ball that the Bills did and for the life of me I don’t get it. I might understand if it didn’t work or if the Cardinals had a reputation as a stout run defense team but the forecase on the Cards was a strength in LB and S play and a weaker DL and the Bills racked up 130 rushing yards. That’s…kind of what you do, and if committing to the heavier sets means that you forcing their LBs to play against the run that’s how you make life easier for Allen’s receivers. Cooks hasn’t lost a beat and Ray Davis looks like an excellent change of pace back. Now for the Defense. Oh, the Defense.I think it goes without saying that what we all saw in the first half was subpar. It is not excusable but at the same time it is not inexplicable. There are more things to glean from it than “Bills Defense Bad”. Every defensive scheme has a weakness. That is a reality. 3-4 relies more on gap coverage more than penetration. Press Man is good for disrupting speedy players and timing routes, but leaves you susceptible to big gains if you ever get beat. This is mostly preaching to the choir but McDermott’s scheme in his tenure with the Bills has mainly been a 4-2-5 nickel based Zone Defense, using speedy players and disguised coverage to disrupt and limit passing plays. It is designed to counter the pass crazy spread offenses that dominated the league in recent history and overall it’s (statistically) worked well but it comes with weaknesses Bills fans have become familiar with: the lighter bodies make it weaker vs the run. As much as you disguise a zone coverage, there is always a place on the field that is uncovered and that is often in the middle of the field. As such, the Bills often have given big days to RBs and TEs. Cover One did a film breakdown in advance and pointed out that the Cardinals have built themselves into what is slowly emerging as the pendulum swinging back: NFL defenses have moved to Cover 2 shells with lighter bodies, like the Bills. The Niners, Lions, and Rams (among others) are moving back to run heavy, condensed formations and it’s the direction Brady has been moving as well. The Cardinals take this to an extreme, rolling our 3 TE formations. Milano and Bernard are maybe two of the best coverage linebackers in the league when healthy, but even then the Cardinals are designed to beat up defenses like the Bills. Now, this is not a free pass. If we as fans knew this, Babich and McDermott had to know it too. Looking now, I think they were hoping that running out TJ would have made up the difference but even before his injury the Cardinals seemed to have a counter for everything. That said, I have to give credit to Babich and McDermott. At halftime they acknowledged that what they were doing wasn’t working and changed things up. In the first half, Babich tried to contain Murray in the pocket and hoped coverage would hold. When it didn’t, he started blitzing more aggressively and the D-line focused on trying to make contact instead of contain. Murray got his scrambles, but hits kept piling up which threw off his timing and led to sacks and turnovers. The defense didn’t suddenly start playing harder in the second half as much as they positioned their efforts better. Do you want to give the coaches grief for not being better prepared? Go ahead. But many coaches would rather bury their heads in the hand than change. Speaking of TJ, Rapp is a liability and should not be on this team. I understand that we are in dire straights at the position but the injuries he racks up are a problem. Groot is going to get All Of the Money. If he keeps have multiple sack games, vaya con dios! God help me, I actually like the dynamic kickoff rules. Yes they are gimmicky but I can’t deny that kickoffs actually had an effect on the game and is better than the “kick the ball through the endzone” challenge that kickoffs had become. There is actual strategy to wind direction and squibbing it and how to pin a team. Moving onto the Dolphins, yes they are a better team than the Cardinals but I am not as worried. For one, they looked awfully shaky vs the Jaguars in the brief snippets I saw. I don’t know how much of their victory was them being good and how much was the Jaguars collapsing as they are wont to do. On the same vein as the Cardinals offense being the natural enemy of the Bills defense is that McDermott’s scheme is what is supposed to stop the shallow crosser motion heavy offense McDaniel brought with him. I don’t think it’s an accident that the Bills are 3-1 against him, with the lone loss coming in a heatstroke filled highly fluky game that was an Isaiah McKenzie-getting-out-of-bounds away from a likely Bills victory. I am keeping a close eye on Achane and Mostert’s injury status. If they are severely banged up, even if they play it would help the Bills stay in Dime to counter Hill and Waddle. I won’t say the Bills victory is inevitable. They can very much lose on Thursday. I am just surprised that the odds are so in the Dolphins favor but I appreciate the underdog. See you all on Thursday. Go Bills!

I'll be watching tomorrow's report with great interest. Like you I try to not root for I injuries but honestly I think losing both Achane and Mostert would hurt them more than losing Taron Johnson hurts the Bills and I don't say that lightly because I respect TJ. The Dolphins needs that run game to prevent selling out vs the pass and teams pinning their ears back on the pass rush

Let's make one thing perfectly clear: Even if the officers were unjustified (not even debating whether they were or not), will they see any consequences such as loss of pay, suspension, termination and blacklisting or criminal or civil charges, for their actions? Would their conduct invalidate any arrest or legal proceedings or anyone else they detained? If the answer is "no", then who really cares what case law says or not, the cops will just keep doing it. I'll stop before I go onto a full PPP soapbox, but that's the kind of argument against qualified immunity. Because we can debate the question of justification but most judges will throw out a suit before it even gets that far. P.S. I think Hill is a scumbag and I do not cry for him. I would love it if he's on an exempt list Thursday. But even scumbags have rights.

Standard MO for them