All_Pro_Bills

To this point I don't see any indication Eli Manning is contemplating retirement. There's a connection to Jacksonville with Couglin. Buyers should be wary of Foles. My suspicion is that his success with the Eagles is purely situational and whether his game can translate to another team is questionable. And we don't know for sure the Eagles will move him as we don't know what's going on with Wentz as this is his second major injury in two seasons. I don't think the Broncos are satisfied with Keenum so I'd add them to teams looking to upgrade or change. Wonder if Elway regrets passing on Josh Allen or Josh Rosen when both were there for him? Maybe Flacco to Washington? This would eliminate the need to uproot and move as its not a very far drive from Baltimore. I don't see the 49ers trading Mullens as he's a cheap, young back up. Maybe throw in the Raiders as you never know what Gruden is thinking so maybe Carr will be in play too. Other teams that need to start thinking about the future soon. Chargers, Patriots, Lions as Stafford really hasn't done anything for them the past several seasons. What's great is the Bills are not on the list. For the first time in a long time they are set at the QB spot going into the off season with Allen, Barkley, and Anderson. They have some needs to address elsewhere on offense and defense but they are at positions.

Something I wonder about college coaches. Why do they always have state police escorts on and off the field? Are there standing death-threats against them?

He hasn't been perfect by any measure but I don't have any major problems with McDermott over the 2 seasons he's been head coach. I think he's had the team prepared and playing hard and pretty well max'ed out the talent on the roster week-to-week. If anybody thinks this is a playoff or Super Bowl contending roster and they are under performing because of some lack of ability at the head coaching level then they haven't been watching much Bills football. This team simply needs more talent to consistently compete against the better teams. This year's record tells the story. 6-3 against non-playoff teams and 0-7 against teams making the post season. The critical thing will be hitting in the draft and making smart use of all the money available for free agency.

According to statistics the Bills are the #2 defense in the league based on yardage. The Ravens are #1 by about 14 yards per game. Not much difference based on the stats. But based on the 'eye test' the Bills ranking is a statistical illusion. Watching the Ravens defense their front 7 seems to be so much bigger, so much stronger, so much quicker, and overall so much more athletic than the Bills front 7. Addressing the defensive front along with the O-line should be a priority. What I found most frustrating about the game is that the Patriots look very beatable. They're not dominant in any way at this point and I suspect their run as automatic AFCE division winners is over. But from the opening drive I never felt that Bills were going to come out with a win. As usual, there's a lot of work to do in the off season but I believe there are genuine reasons for optimism that we're headed up.

I suspect very few Bills fans share the sentiment of the OP. In fact I question why any true Bills fan would have such thoughts much less post them. My view is that if they wanted to go out on top they should have retired after the miracle comeback against the Falcons. This year's version of the Patriots looks very beatable by every team I foresee being in the playoffs out of the AFC. Like an undefeated heavyweight champ that takes one too many fights I think they stuck around too long. They are done. How does that make me feel? Happy! Next Sunday I hope the Bills give them all they can handle and hurt their chances of getting to the big game in any and all ways possible.

I did notice that too. Plays like that along with his age and taking into account his accomplishments to date leads me to believe this is going to be his last season.

Was it a block in the back? Maybe. Was it a cheap shot on a "defenseless player". Absolutely. Have I seen that called before when a offensive players lays a blind side block on a defender like that? Yes (I recall Benjamin getting called for that). Is a special teams play different to the officials? Seems like it.

Absolutely right. And THE big reason, aside from his own abilities, is that he's had a consistently very good offensive line group throughout his career. Build the line.

Sad to say this is the best long-term scenario at this point. It's more likely they lose the last 3 games. If the Jets, Jags, and Falcons can win 1 more game each we'd drop into the #4 spot. Trading back, assuming they can find a partner, and swapping 1st's along with getting several additional picks. And while it's way too early to think of draft specifics I don't want to see them trading up to get one guy. We need help in too many places for that approach to be in play. In another topic somebody posted that nobody on the Bills offense would start for any other team, maybe with the exception of Dawkins, and that is probably true and really pathetic.

So it would seem this guy didn't get enough choking on the field.

If our TE was Kelce or Ertz would either or both catch that pass?

I've watched the final 4 plays several times. 1st and 10 from the 29, Allen screen to McCoy for 4 yards, 2nd and 6 from the 25, false start, 2nd and 11 from the 30, Allen under pressure throws the ball away to the left sideline. Blow to the helmet of the QB by #50 of Dolphins not called. Should have been 1st and 10 from the 15 on a 15 yard PF. 3rd and 11. Allen pass to Z. Jones to left sideline to the Miami 6 ruled complete. Reviewed and over turned But should have been defensive PI at the 6 for first and goal. You can argue the non-call but the defender has his arms wrapped around the receivers chest prior to the ball arriving. That looks like PI not playing the ball. 4th and 11 Allen scrambles for about 12 seconds and throws the ball across his body to the right while running left/parallel. When he releases the ball Clay is all alone 6 yards deep in the end zone as Miami's defenders had all drifted to the left side. In fact the Bills had 3 receivers in the end zone at that point when they needed 11 yards, not 30. None of them came back to the QB on the scramble. McCoy did follow and run his pattern to the left side but was covered. When the ball was released Clay ran out of the end zone but stumbled and missed the catch. Should Clay have caught that? I think so but the ref's missed two calls, it was a tough pass across the field and the receivers should have worked their way back out of the end zone when the play broke down and Allen started to scramble. My point is this, I do blame Clay for dropping that pass, which a good receiver should come up with, but there were a host of other circumstances that could have changed the outcome. Another, maybe discussed elsewhere how the Bills defense folded right after the Bills took the 17-14 lead.

This and the fact that nobody respects the Bills passing game so defenses are bringing extra defenders into the box and daring the Bills to throw the ball. And with the exception of the Jets game the Bills pass offense has been terrible. As noted this was McCoy's best game statistically. No coincidence. Ivory's running style is better suited for the offense at this point in time because of his battering ram style.

When your winning this trash talk sounds brash and shows some swagger. When your team is losing you sound stupid. Hey Jalen, don't sound stupid!

You're on to something here. How many of these offensive geniuses are doing it without a competent QB, a solid offensive line, and a group of good to great RB/WR/TE's? Which of these offensive guys would turn the current Bills offensive roster into a 34 point a game offensive machine? And take last night's KC/LA game for example. You transport the Chiefs or Rams offense onto the Bills roster without the offensive genius coach and all of a sudden those offenses won't be able to score because McDermott is their head coach? The genius needs to be the guy finding and getting the players.

I don't recall him and the Bio states he also played for Miami and Seattle but of course the story has him pictured in a Bills uniform. And maybe its me but whenever I see player career highlights from the past the networks always show somebody either throwing, running, or catching a pass for a TD or big play against the Bills.

Well said. The NFL is not like some little league team where your dad is the coach so you get to pitch. These players are paid professionals that are the best of the best at their sport. I rooted for Tyrod too. I thought he was a stand-up guy who came to work every day and gave it his best. But his game has some obvious limitations. I think the problem with Kap is that he's just not that good vs. other options at the position when weighed against the drama that would come with him.

Generally I believe that most national writers and sportscasters do not watch any Bills games in whole or in part.

Whenever I see a Mahomes reference I recall how a lot of posters were moaning and groaning about how the Bills passed on Dak Prescott.

You are right about this. So the real question is given the potential veteran FA QB's available at the time did they make an error in judgement by signing McCarron and being put into a position where trading him for a 5th and taking a $2.1M dead cap hit was the best option? Given the drafting of Allen was an older veteran 'mentor' (e.g. D. Anderson) a better option from the start of the season? My view, they screwed the pooch with their handling of the QB position from the start but maybe, just maybe they stepped in it with Barkley. But with just one game against the Jets the jury is still out on that.

Take a knee three times and punt using the 'Waterboy' strategy!

From an opportunity perspective the NFL has a lot of rules in place to drive competition, the salary cap, free agency, the draft order, revenue sharing, roster and practice squad limits, etc. But that can't control the decisions and approaches taken by ownership, front offices, and coaching staffs. Not to pick on the Bills but look at the series of decisions made by ownership regarding GM and HC decisions and how those management teams made decisions on players drafted, and players signed as free agents. Then compare that to teams that have been consistently successful at winning on the field. Why are the Bills near the bottom? Currently they have almost $59M in dead cap space representing 45 players. 45! Each one of those represents a 'bad' personnel decision. The Patriots have $7.3, Steelers $6.3, Saints $19.5, Ravens $13.1. Looks at the Bills draft history. Although the last 2 under the current regime look to be breaking the trend the overall performance of the teams scouting and draft process has been awful. The Bills offense is bad. Well the three highest paid players Clay, McCoy, and Benjamin and the team neglected to address certain areas of need in the off season. Bad teams are bad because they consistently make bad decisions and good teams are good because they consistently make good decisions. You can change as many rules as you like but short of the league regulating and ruling on teams front office and coaching hiring decisions, vetoing trades and free agent signings there's not much they can do to stop teams from making poor decisions and choices.

Jets coaching staff has instructed defensive backs to drop all interceptions.

When you run into some situation where you don't know what you're doing you have some choices to make. Keep doing it your way and fail, get somebody else to do it, or do some learning and develop the needed expertise. So to me we need to see if he's smart enough to take a look at his performance and learn from his mistakes. Based on behavior and tendencies from year 1 to year 2 right now the answer seems to be 'No'. But the light might go on and coaches can develop just like players. Bill Belichik was fired from his first head coaching gig but now he's arguably one of the best coaches of all-time (sure getting TB helped). Will McDermott follow that path or cling to his 'process' in season 3? Some dreadful personnel decisions on the offensive side of the ball doomed this group before the season started. From botching the QB situation, to doing nothing about offensive line and retirements, and settling for poor receiving group this dumpster fire of an offense was lit before the season. That's my gripe more than in-game decisions or tendencies. It was obvious this offense was a disaster in the making. Obvious to everyone but the guys in the front office and the coaching staff that could do something about it. If McDermott truly has that much control over personnel decisions then he's his own worst enemy here and better step back, focus on coaching, and let the front office do the player evaluations and personnel decisions. Otherwise he'll be out the door end of year 3 and we'll be back to the start of this time loop the Bills are stuck in for forever.

Well, we can agree to disagree. Stranger things have happened (and if you're old enough like me!) like when the Pats gave up on Jim Plunkett, because he sucked and threw 87 INT's over 5 seasons, but he pulled it together later in his career and lead the Raiders to the SB XV. Any confidence Peterman had is shot and his stats and play show he shouldn't see the field again in a Bills uniform. I don't think even a HOF QB could lead this sorry offense to the end zone. This offense is a joke and with Peterman just to a higher level. Like the joke, how do you keep the Bills offense out of your front yard? Draw a goal line..