Hapless Bills Fan

Allegedly, she bit a flight attendent, injurying him/her I believe this was Kiko Alonzo and the team took other steps as well such as arranging for him to get a cockpit tour and ride jumpseat so he could build confidence. Allegedly it helped.

What I wonder is how easy it is to "tell" what Big Ben's heel is doing from the viewpoint of a defender during the game? I think Manning pointed out that Josh did something different with his hands during a hard count if it was going to be a play or were just trying to get the other team to jump.

I dunno if Hollister is gonna be a major contributor or not. We seem to run a receiver-centric offense. But if Hollister is the "average run of the mill TE that you can find on any team", isn't it kind of interesting that he's stuck on the 53-man roster for two playoff teams with 11 or more wins and top-10 offenses (NE '17-'18 and SEA '19-'20)?

I don't think "trust" has that much to do with it. The Seahawks had the opportunity to sign Greg Olsen, who (when healthy) is undoubtedly a better player. When you win a competition with other teams to sign a vet, 3x Probowl player, you probably made some commitment to him about playing time and as long as he's playing well you need to keep it. So Olsen got the starts, and Hollister got the ST snaps until Olsen went on IR after week 10.

I think what that shows is that the Bills were doing a good job of taking away Wilson's preferred targets in that game. Hollister lost significant playing time to Olsen last season, and was the Seasnakes #3 TE option (after Olsen and Dissly). He still had 25 targets for 209 yds, which is one more reception on 4 fewer targets than Dawson Knox had as our starting TE

Why? What has Barkley said or done that gives you the impression 1) he wants to coach 2) he would be a good QB coach

He said it: "teams are really not trying to give me a good deal I feel like" Sounds like a guy whose last deal was 2 yr/$17M with $10.5M guaranteed at signing, still coming to terms with the fact that when you're 36 and haven't really played for 3 years (2 years injured, sat out last year), your offers are pretty much gonna be limited to "vet salary benefit" deals I don't think we have a lot of talent at TE, but I think to maximize the potential of the guys we got, we need to focus on them and give them all the reps and coaching. I don't think bringing in a 36 yr old who hasn't played for 3 years is the answer.

How are you getting "second to last in the league in the run game"? You said this also in response to me, but it's not at all justified by the post you were responding to. For example, in order to assess the quality of run blocking based upon run game production, you can't just look at the yards and say "second to last" You would have to look at the YPA, 4.2, where the Bills were 19th in the league (and Allen, with his 4.1 YPA last season, did not alter this)

You're taking one line out of context and seriously distorting my meaning thereby. Frankly, when someone is attempting to address a question YOU asked in a realistic and meaningful way, that's somewhat tacky. I am in response to your question "Is it safe to say this season is a make or break year for the current backfield? Assuming it is Singletary, Moss + Breida, would it be a failure if none of them come close to cracking 1000 yards?" We know Allen and the WR are going to "eat" in the passing game, so the number of rush attempts is unlikely to increase substantially. The point I was making is to address your question quoted above: establish where we were last season, and then look at what would be a realistic improvement goal for rush yards, given that we aren't likely to "change our spots" and become a run-first team - and that our backs are unlikely to become Chubb, Jones, or Henry (top backs in the league for YPA). That was my point: "So where do we want to be? I would say we want to improve to above average: ~2000 yds maybe? which would put us 11th in the league. If we assume that Allen gets comparable rushing yards, that would say we need ~1500 yds from our backs. Last season we had 300 attempts from our backs. With that # of attempts that would be 5 ypa from our backs, which seems unrealistic. But 2019 Singletary had 5.1 ypa, so maybe it's not too unrealistic. Spitball conclusion: I don't think it would be a failure if none of the backs crack 1000 yds, but if it's (say) a 60/40 split, one of them better come pretty close." The point I was trying to make is that unless you hypothesize that one back gets almost 70% of the attempts AND achieves >5 ypa, we're unlikely to see a back with >1000 yds unless the # rush attempts increases substantially - and I don't see that happening. In fact I believe McDermott, Daboll, and Bobby Johnson have all pretty much indicated that change in quality, not quantity, is what If you disagree with this assessment, spell out why - but please don't twist my words and attempt to make my post into an argument about whether the backs or the OL were to blame or some pronouncement on the quality of the OL - that's NOT the point.

How old are you? Regular season Kelly had a TD/INT ratio of 1.35. I'll just put this here: Kelly had some amazing clutch playoff performances, true. But he also went all picks-o-matic at times and dug us into some deep pits. In Houston, we were leading 16-8 going into the 4th quarter. Way too simple IMHO to tag that as "just bad games for Allen" but I'm not going to dissect it now.

Perhaps? At times, it appeared to me that where Feliciano was getting beaten was with his feet. Of course, if he was being medicated for pain, that could slow down his reaction time I guess - just like Cody Ford went out with a knee injury but it appeared at times he wasn't getting his arm up to the right position to block. I will hope for the best, Jon did say that he didn't feel "right" until this off season

Interesting point. I was surprised when I looked at their stats. I think - and I could be wrong - that CEH may be more "steady Eddie" where he gained yardage consistently when they needed it, while our backs had more negative plays (which are sometimes their fault, and often not) Where's @Zerovoltz or @Billl? Maybe they have some insight here.

So let's spitball numbers a bit on this. Last season, the #1 rushing offense (Ravens) had >3000 yds. #2 (Titans) was 2700. OK, we're a passing offense, that's not where we wanna be. Last season, Bills were bottom-3rd of the league (20th) with 1723 rush yards, and only one of the teams below us (Houston) had a QB who generated significant rushing yards. If we subtract out Allen's 421 rush yards, that would be even worse: 1302 yds which would put us....2nd to last in the league for rush yards (cue sad trombone noise) (above only Houston if you take out Deshaun Watson's rushes) So where do we want to be? I would say we want to improve to above average: ~2000 yds maybe? which would put us 11th in the league. If we assume that Allen gets comparable rushing yards, that would say we need ~1500 yds from our backs. Last season we had 300 attempts from our backs. With that # of attempts that would be 5 ypa from our backs, which seems unrealistic. But 2019 Singletary had 5.1 ypa, so maybe it's not too unrealistic. Spitball conclusion: I don't think it would be a failure if none of the backs crack 1000 yds, but if it's (say) a 60/40 split, one of them better come pretty close.

Had to be humbling on the home front: 😂

Oh, no - put that way, not at all. @Buffalo716 points are germaine that he's not built like a running back, and certainly wouldn't succeed behind our line - he needs time to accelerate. He would put up better numbers, though, if he were trying to develop his career more along a Newton/Jackson "dual threat" trajectory vs. using his legs primarily to extend plays. And more of his rush opportunities than you think may come from designed plays, some of which I wouldn't mind if Daboll put through the shredder. Fair on that last Let's hope Singletary improves this season and Moss returns from injury better and stronger. Addendum: Just looked it up and Josh was 7.4, 6.8, 6.4 A/G his 3 years. Given what you say, would you like to see him back off his attempts?

Well, certainly as a QB it's his job to avoid contact - to get out of bounds or slide, not to run into the LB and take a couple guys with him (even though he's done that on occasion) So I take your point, and also the point that he doesn't have the COG or (for that matter) the fast acceleration of an RB. We may disagree a little bit on what he's like as a downfield runner. He isn't "Cheetah" Hill, but on the other hand, neither is anyone else in the Bills backfield....unless Breida regains his SF form, perhaps.

Found this https://vault.si.com/vault/1982/07/12/the-bare-facts-are-hes-a-star

Nothing startling here from Vic Carucci https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/training-camp-question-who-survives-roster-battle-on-the-interior-o-line/article_86b8cb18-de9d-11eb-befc-e33329232a3b.html Bottom line up front from Bobby Johnson, Won't Know 'til after Training Camp: But he does do a good job of framing the situation. Points out that we've got a lot of competition for 4 interior OL spots: Quotes from Bobby Johnson: Carucci views Feliciano as a "lock" on the right side: I'm a little less certain. While it's true Feliciano has a 3 year, $14.4M contract, only $4.4M is guaranteed. He's got a cap hit this year of $3.2M and $1.5M dead cap if cut after this season ($0.75M after June 1). Per Spotrac that slots him in as the #26 highest-paid guard by cap hit this year, which is not "chopped liver" but it's hardly "locked in" money on a team that paid Trent Murphy $7M to sit on the bench last season. IMHO he's being paid for his versatility, that he can play both sides and center capably. But as Carrucci notes (citing PFF), his pass protection was not stellar last season and it's been analyzed by Cover1 and others that at times his run blocking was not what one would like either. I do think the Bills are going to give Cody Ford every chance to succeed during the season, but I'm sure they have questions about him due to his injury history. Beane pointing out that he's played more games injured than healthy is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, he gets a bit of a pass for being a "good soldier" and gritting it out; on the other hand, at the end of the day if he can't stay healthy enough to play at the hoped-for high level, the Bills need to find another way to raise the level of interior OL play. I'm also less certain than Carucci that the Bills regard Dawkins, Williams, and both rookies as "locks" at OT. As Johnson notes, Bates played tackle last year. While not stellar, he played well enough that it took the announcers a while to figure out both OTs were backups. It wouldn't astound me if we wind up going with Dawkins, Williams, Brown, and Bates as the tackles while Doyle develops a mysterious thumb injury that will place him on IR, especially since Bates can also function at C and G. That would give the Bills flexibility to keep, say, Feliciano, Ford, Boettger, and (winner of Training Camp competition) to hedge their bets, just in case injury recovery doesn't return Mongo and Ford to the "form" the Bills want to see. Thoughts?

Didn't seem worth a new thread but a bit of a film clip of Josh throwing with Jordan Palmer. I have the impression he wasn't totally happy with his ball placement on this one. Also can't tell who he's throwing to https://www.instagram.com/stories/jordanpalmer/2613360537884303705/ [Yes, you need an Instagram account to view it. If anyone knows how to capture video out of an Insta timeline and lets me know, I'd be happy to do that]

Last season opened it for debate, but only because Allen used his field vision and ability to make guys miss in the cause of extending the play to pass. Last season, on the other hand, Singletary looked slow and hesitant and did not display good field vision, IMO - he earned his decrease from 5.1 to 4.4 ypa independent of OL problems. Let me put it to you this way - if you're a LB or safety between a runner and the open field, who would you rather have had coming at you last season - Allen, Moss, or Singletary? He can do better and I hope he will, but I think Moss's foot hampered him all season. Motor would dance around until the rest of the D caught him from behind while trying to evade. I don't think anyone in the league was afraid that Singletary or Moss would "Josh Norman" them a la Derrick Henry (or blow by them). Josh Allen, on the other hand, seems pretty widely agreed "you better have a plan to tackle him and bring the lumber" as Von Miller said, and you better have a good angle too because once he gets up to speed he's deceptively fast.

I put Daniel Jones up there mostly as a joke myself - while he was noted coming out of college as having enough scrambling ability to move the chains, he certainly wasn't drafted as a dual-threat QB, but with Saquan Barkley on IR he was 2nd in yards had the most YPA, 6.5, on the G-men last year. Like I said "wasn't supposed to be that way!"

The "best ability is availability". We're talking about last season here. How many games did Barkley play in last season? How many yards did he have? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BarkSa00/gamelog/2020/ Maybe you might want to stow your snark and look into stuff a little before firing off.

@BADOLBILZ, You yourself just typed out "LLB" for Deion Jones. While that isn't "OLB", a moment's reflection would show that Pro Football Reference shows Atlanta running a 4-3 last season, with listings for LLB, MLB, and RLB - in other words LLB = OLB in their terminology. While Lavonte David played inside last two seasons, he also spent most of his career at RLB and is listed as an OLB by pro-football-reference. If you're hanging your hat on the difference between "LLB" or "RLB" and "OLB" when the context is clear one is a form of the other, then using it to call someone a liar, that's 1) sophistry at its finest 2) shows an unflinching focus on semantics to the point where it interferes with productive discussion. 3) ditto for tossing around terms like "bald faced lie" or "just a lie, you never even looked them up" in response - it appears focused on escalating and provoking, not engaging in civil football discussion. In fact it totally overshadows your salient point that where nickle D predominates, the question is really who has the Mike assignment? Productive and civil discussion would also point out that even granting those two still leaves 7 excellent MLB or ILBs in the NFC on your list, which seems to make your point - So why even go there with the insults unless your intent is to be disruptive here by provoking someone to escalate?

First question: does the Bills head coach have a golf game that’s ready for national TV? “I guess we don’t have any choice (but to find out), do we?” he said with a smile. “I just try to keep it short and straight and play stress free golf.”