JESSEFEFFER

Right. That image does persist. I wanted to see an All 22 clip of that play. It seemed like it had huge potential to maybe even score. As for taking the big hit, that play was very unusual in that there was no time for Josh to react to a totally unexpected, whiff of a block so close to him. Knox ran by it and Morse? was there too late. To me that was the biggest "if only" offensive play of the day but it was in no way similar to any other hit he has ever taken before. A hit akin to a sucker punch that Josh ran into.

Back in the olden days of 4 nationally broadcast preseason games and a majority of publically attended practices they managed to keep important info private. Maybe they forgot how to do this and all those new plays that they will run this year that they had not put on tape last year will be exposed because they chose to 100% of their practices in their entirety.

Just practice all the plays they ran last year in the live stream. Practice the new stuff out-of-view. Jets will be like the German army waiting for the real invasion of Europe under Patton's command at the Pas-de-Calais.?

We shouldn't live in a world where the Bills let the Browns do anything better than them........... Bills.

The NBA has a thing about players not wanting to be "posterized." Think of the defenders Josh has posterized. Barr X3, Alonso X?, Ngakoue, Lee, etc. Lots of poor angles in pursuit, some embarrassing stiff arm put downs, broken tackles, broken ankles and the like. My suspicion is that since most defenders are a physically proud bunch and that when a QB beats them physically (it's rare) it earns their respect.

Josh has played only 2 meaningful vs. the Jets. In 2018 the game was one of his worst clutch performances in that he threw a late 4th quarter pick on a rollout to the the right and a cross body heave. To make it even worse, I think it was a first down play, early in the drive, IIRC. Those type of ints largely disappeared after the Patriots game and Josh got better at either picking a legit target or throwing it away but that 2018 Jets game was one of his worst performances in the clutch. The 2019 game was certainly an unimpressive 3 quarters of football but we would tend to want to call most of that due to fluky turnovers. All this is to say is that we generally think of other teams' QBs in terms of how they played against the Bills. How many of us really believe in what Ryan Tannehill did last year and are really concerned about playing him this year? So, I think I can understand some of the Jets' fans view. Dolphins fans know better given the 4 games Josh played against them. As for Josh, I think this is mostly a "futures" sentiment. Most everything is trending up for Josh in 2020: roster and coaching continuity, addition of a premium WR talent, the foundation of a solid 2019 playoff season and his own growth mindset. He owns his deficiencies, balls out, has physically dominated a number of good defenders, never shows up his teammates and maintains a positive public persona all the while dedicating himself toward personal improvement. He is not a prima donna QB and other players around the league respect that, I think.

Good thing the border is closed.

Tickets by Bobbit? Ooh, bad joke.

I think you have to specify a Cam Newton season. His 2014 and 2017 seasons look much like Josh2019. Cam 2013 is better and 2015 is best. Imo, due to their size and the way they play, the thread could be which of Cam Newton's seasons do you think Josh's will most look like in 2020? Then we could argue about that.

All single game ticket sales are now invalid with refunds. When seat availability for the games is determined, season ticket holders who choose to leave their payments on their season ticket holder account have dibs by a system yet to be determined. If you want to see that particular game you should get to know as many season ticket holders as possible and be kind to them.

Fans in Denver and Indy liked him because he brought some passion/intensity to preseason games that usually lack any. Fans at Ole Miss liked him for the same thing, imo, and for beating Alabama, LSU and Auburn in their Sugar Bowl Championship season, which was unprecedented there. His arm is upper echelon, throwing for over 70 yds. as a 15 year old but without any more current numbers. In a really bad run up to the draft, he wrecked his knee in November, got disinvited to the combine (maybe over threatening to use, allegedly, an AK-47 two years prior) and then destroyed his wrist tendon at his pro day. He never got the athletic testing that NFL prospects usually get and any team that drafted him in 2017 knew he would not be ready to play until 2018, thus the Mr. Irrelevant draft status. In my experience, hyper competitive people are often jerks especially when they aren't smart/mature enough to know when to turn it off. But, it doesn't mean that they aren't decent, charitable human beings in other settings. Not fighting the home owners and police after that Halloween party incident was actually a step forward for him. I suspect the conditions the Colts put on him when he was signed involved some sort of counseling and Chad seems to have done well there. Beating out 2020 4th rounder Eason without preseason games will be tough and his NFL future continues to look shaky. If the Colts could trade Brissett, maybe some team suffers a major QB injury before the season starts, they clear ~ $16 million in cap space and it would be good news to both Kelly and Eason. Jim has many nephews currently playing or who have played football at the college level that will never get a whiff of the NFL so it can't be just his last name.

Here is Cam Newton in 2013, the EJ's rookie year game included. I think Josh can match this but I am hoping for more. It looks much like the Josh's 2019 road stats extended over a 16 schedule that I posted earlier. ▼ W L T Cmp Att Inc Cmp% Yds TD Int Rate Sk Yds Y/A AY/A A/G Y/G Att Yds Y/A TD A/G Y/G TD Pts Fmb FL FF FR Yds TD 16 12 4 0 292 473 181 61.73 3379 24 13 88.8 43 336 7.14 6.92 29.6 211.2 111 585 5.27 6 6.9 36.6 6 36 3 1 0 0 -8 0

I thought he looked ok in the FST video. This is solid news for him.

Three worst home games were probably Pats, Eagles and Ravens, only the latter two would have logically been wind affected and all three are pretty good/great defenses. The Bills defense had a comp% against of 59 at home and 66 on the road. The same 7% differential that Josh had for whatever reason(s.) I think all the QBs who play the majority of their games outside will have lower completion % than their Brees, Ryan, Stafford, Watson, Cousins, Wilson, etc. counterparts. Unless the city is like Miami, LA/LV or San Diego.

His completion % will never be near the top. Drops (his passes are inherently tougher to catch) depth of target/lack of checkdown throws, escapablity (extended plays resulting in tougher throws on the move or throwaways) and FOR CRYING OUT LOUD HE DOESN"T PLAY HOME GAMES IN A DOME! Rich/Ralph/New Era/? may be one of the worst outdoor venues to support a passing offense in the entire league. Eagles, Broncos and Ravens games had 20+ mph winds. The Eagles game had gusts over 40 mph and one flame ejecting prop blew over during the pregame. They had them anchored with sandbags the rest of the home games. If you believe that a QB is largely what his stats say he is, then tell me what you make of his road/home split stats for 2019 because it mirrors the Jekyll and Hyde story. The stats say he was a champ on the road, Cam Newton 2015 MVP type numbers. At home he was a chump say the stats. G W L T Cmp Att Inc Cmp% Yds TD Int Rate Sk Yds Y/A AY/A A/G Y/G Att Yds Y/A TD A/G Y/G 2PM TD Pts Fmb FL FF FR Yds TD Home 8 4 4 0 117 213 96 54.93 1263 9 5 76.9 20 121 5.93 5.72 26.6 157.9 45 226 5.02 2 5.6 28.3 1 2 14 10 2 0 3 0 0 Road 8 6 2 0 154 248 94 62.1 1826 11 4 92.6 18 116 7.36 7.52 31 228.3 64 284 4.44 7 8 35.5 7 42 4 2 0 1 -1 0 I'd take 12 and 4 with 36 total TDs, 62% completions, 3652 passing yards, a 7.5 AY/A, 568 rushing yards with 8 ints and 2 fumbles lost.

I would add that he had a cycle of success/screwup/success.......... that earned him another look. Red Lion/St. Joe's/Clemson/EMCC-Ol' Miss/Denver/Indy(?) He had some real nice runs against SEC defenses (a TD against Georgia comes to mind) so he can scoot. Without a combine or Pro Day numbers his athletic testing is off the grid but it would have been pretty high for a QB, imo. He was throwing over 70 yards as a 15 year old. The QB situation in Indy will be tough for him with Eason picked in the 4th and without preseason games to show well in. Camp observers did not think he was beating out Lynch or Walker in the practices but on the field in actual game conditions he played very well.

Joe made 2020 season superlative projections in his podcast today. For the "Under the Radar" problem/possible improvement he picked the Bills poor tackling in 2018 and 2019 which is an interesting topic. While the defense has been near the top in fewest points per drive (ppd) they are also #3 in missed tackles in 2019 and they actually had more in 2018. Normally, good defense correlates with good tackling. So there is something different about how the Bills play defense in that regard. The numbers he cited were 132 missed for the Bills @ #2 and and only 66 for the Pats at #1 in ppd. The only team in the top 10 of ppd but top 16 in missed tackles were the Titans at 10th/13th. He cites average as around 110. Some thoughts without really having any data to back it up it might be that: -Good hustling, rally to the ball defenders cover for missed tackles to thereby mitigate the damage. -Missed tackles by the front 7 are covered up by a good tackling secondary. A poor tackling secondary would have to lead to more points, right? -Milano and Edmunds are undersized and/or young and many are missed due to poor pursuit angles that allow runners to rip through arm tackles. -This has to be a big part of why the RZ defense struggled. So we can add this to reasons why defensive regression is less probable. They were not historically great at sacks or takeaways (which makes regression to mean likely as it was for the 2018 Jags and 2019 Bears) not much turnover in personnel/coaching and now add that missed tackles are hopefully going to go down. Or maybe due to lack of preseason games the Bills might only just get better relative to the rest of the league.

But, but that lateral........now that was a sign. I know that seeing Josh run for 20 yards or so to get to + territory with a minute or so to go, spit that ball in the air and then watch it bound around on the turf was the closest I have come to cardiac arrest. Good thing it lasted all of 2 seconds or so. If I had died I'd consider it a definite sign of Josh having plateaued. On a serious note, watch Knox on that play. He hangs near the boundary and lags behind without attempting to get ahead to make a block. It looks to me like that pitch was a poorly executed but planned, likely practiced play. Josh put it where he thought Dawson was but Knox had closed much closer while Josh was being tackled. Even Josh's pitches are over thrown. Hah! Just my hot take.

The defenses they played were not overall weak. The offenses were more so.

Which draft was subpar? The 2020 draft where they traded their #1 to acquire Diggs and the rest of their picks got mostly positive grades? The roster and front office are graded highly but their drafting is below average? Josh's 2019 was a mirage due to QBR? We all watched every play last year and I think the majority of us know what kind of year he had and are expecting/hopeful that he will show more progress in 2020. 400+ points or bust. Maybe the playoff game left a negative impression but I saw a bunch of their roster miss plays that game and generally think that's a good thing for 2020. They can all own a part of that loss.

There are many outside observers whose knee jerk, go to opinion is that the drops the Bills suffered were due to Josh throwing it too hard or having poor ball placement. I do not think we who watched every play of the season would say either of those were a big part of the problem. I tend to give Knox a lot of slack since he was so under targeted as a collegian. When he knows where the defenders are he can make difficult catches. When he does not his concentration lapsed. I think he will get this fixed in year 2. a

Last preseason it seemed all the fringe roster guys looked good, including Cam. It's how they managed to be 4 and 0. They will need many reliable players outside the 53 to navigate this season.

I fear it's going to be Next Man Up this year like it has never been before. These roster bubble guys have to be ready.

This picture is much the point. Josh is ready to launch and the left hand is distant from the torso and the left shoulder is much higher than the the right. If I read the Cover1 story and Jordan Palmer interviews correctly, he should look much different making this type of throw this year. This and Diggs should make a big difference in scoring. 400+ points or bust.

Heard something about a realtor who had copyrighted many Washington nicknames and that it was possibly why a name had not yet been chosen. I say ditch the Washington name and use the initials. "D.C." sounds way cooler and assuming the copyrights were missed all names become available. DC Defenders. DC Redtails. DC Whatevers.