thurst44

If Allen works out, then they really did not. They may have got two elite players in addition to their QB. I get the frustration as Mahomes is looking like an MVP and Watson has looked good at times, but as you said, Allen does remain to be seen, but his ceiling is very high, so to say they blew the '17 draft is premature.

You may have answered your own question.

Not necessarily. While I don't like this move as he isn't at the end of his career and feel like the defense should not really be touched right now while it's working, my guess is that they would look to sign a DE in free agency (as the word is that is one of the spots there will be good players), maybe re-sign Murphy if he does well, and evaluate Shaq.

I hate this idea. He could have 3 to 5 more years in him and is playing at the top of his game (and i do get the idea of trading him at high value at 30, but still don't like this). The defense is the functioning unit right now. I also hate the idea of improving a team that is 8-0 and has few real fans.

Check the Bears. Fortunes can change quickly in this league. We have a very good defense (especially considering how much they are on the field), and if Allen makes strides and we improve the line (which has actually played better over the last few weeks), we may not be in the Super Bowl, but could be a winning team.

Let's stop presuming we know what he wants. He's a team captain and might believe he still has a lot of yardage in him and want to help build this team. It's hard to know, and he strikes me as a rather unique guy, for better or for worse, and will not begin to pretend to know what's best for him.

I'm mixed. I hope they don't trade Shady for trading sake, but if they can milk someone for a Day 2 pick, plus, I'm in. Otherwise, with all the cap space we have, I'd rather have him for a possible better season next year and maybe ease in a new guy, than something like a 5th round pick. Meh

And last year they got a middle linebacker who is 20, already a leader, and by all accounts looks like a budding superstar, a DT who has played very well so far, a CB who exceeded expectations, and we'll see what happens with Neal and Teller. That's not even mentioning Allen whose QB story has yet to be written.

Trading Lorax makes zero sense to me. Bc he's 35, you'll get little for him, but bc he's Lorax he just might play til he's 40 and almost certainly would take a favorable contract to play here longer. I don't see any reason to touch this defense right now. It's a similar story for Shaq: what you get will likely be almost nothing. And I doubt Kyle cares to go anywhere. Fire sale-ing for the sake of Fire Sale-ing is dumb. If someone bowls them over for McCoy, sure...and Amari Cooper trade shows you might be able to almost recoup investment in Kelvin.

Taron Johnson has looked very good so far, and Siran Neal and Wyatt Teller still could by later this year or next. The picks can also be traded to move up.

They have almost 100 million in space for next year and 10 draft picks while having high-level young talent in Tra'Davious White, Tremaine Edmunds, Hyde, Poyer, arguably Milano and Dion Dawkins. Harrison Phillips and Taron Johnson already look promising. Shaq's been showing signs of reaching potential, and while Allen may not have been your choice (and he wasn't mine) and is polarizing, while unlikely, he does have the potential to be the best of the 4 -- none of whom are particularly thriving yet -- and fwiw is 2-2 in complete games with this supposedly awful team. Not sure you can definitively say his methods are wrong in Year 2, nor that he would be wrong to draft great athletes and name free agents. I'm not arguing Beane is great, but that I can see a "vision" in what he's trying to do and it's set up to work in the next couple years. Or it could collapse and his "vision" could be wrong. We'll see.

Was actually just talking about this with a student who is a Broncos fan -- he wants Thomas gone as soon as possible, but also said he wanted a 1st round pick ... told him the appropriate-for-educational-situation version of "what are you smokin'" ... but I also said if I were the Bills, I'd be curious about him. Trading at this point of the season and hoping to re-sign is probably the best way to get an experienced WR at this point. Then again, the compensation market (1st for Amari Cooper seemed a bit rich for promising but erratic receiver) might be just as off-kilter as the off-season market ($16m for Watkins and even with the Mahomes/Chiefs juggernaut, he's still under 1000 yards pace this year). If they could get him for a 3rd, I'd listen, for a 4th, I'd likely pull the trigger.

The D hasn't been playing well just one game, they've played well enough in the last 4 1/2 to rise from a deep bottom to 3rd in yards and sacks. This does not seem like a fluke. The one reason I can see that the D balloon deflates today is I finally reluctantly started Bills D in fantasy (over Broncos) and the Broncos suddenly turn it around. Every time I've started the Bills D, they have fallen apart.

I grew up in NYC in the 70s & 80s. My whole family was from Buffalo, and I loved sports from an early age, so I grew to love the Bills. I followed them without knowing what was really going on. I remember Joes Cribbs & Ferguson but not much else. My fandom was cemented in the 2-14 seasons. I was at camp, in the Jersey wilderness (it exists!) on a long hike, listening to sports radio on my Walkman when a news flash cut into an interview with the Jets' Nuu Faaola to announce that Kelly was signed, and I was pretty well hooked from there. I went to UB for the four Super Bowl years, the first game I saw live was 51-3, so there was no going back then. The sense of camaraderie among the fans, the resilience, the fact that you can find Bills bars in most cities (I know of at least 5 alone in the NYC metro area). I also love the fact the stars are so connected to the city, and often choose to stay (even if they publicly mocked it before). I'm also a sucker for an underdog story, so the Bills clearly fit that bill. - Well, 51-3 comes to mind...riding back with my family, hearing Matt Bahr kick the field goal to set up a Super Bowl I was so sure we'd win. - Watching the Comeback at my aunt's in NYC after a last-minute decision to not head back to Buffalo before the game, savoring the victory on ESPN for hours of Chris Berman overexuberance. - Exiting the NYC Bills Bar to the approach of riot police after the 2011 victory over the Pats -- few other teams, if any, could summon a near riot in another NFL city after a regular season win. -

If Anderson starts, Bills 17, Colts 7 If Peterman starts, Colts 31, Bills 3 Not trying to take a shot at Peterman, but something just seems broken wrt him right now in a Knoblaugh/Sax kind of way, and this defense looks truly in the zone to the point that a game manager, even a mediocre one, could keep them in a game.

Yes, or in other words, as Success said, 8-8

And ask a Denver fan how Keenum's working out.

Ha, my memory is that game was illogically one of the rare games on in the NYC market (family from Buffalo, I grew up in NYC) and I remember watching it in my parents basement on an old Trinitron. Don't recall much about it except that it was ugly. (edit: realized of course it was on -- giants -- i'm an idiot sometimes)

His point is that so are Rosen, Darnold, and Mayfield. It may be a dubious claim, but what are these objective measures? Do you have stats or All-22s that show the other three first round QBs adjusting at a faster rate. My unscientific eye/stats test has it at Mayfield, Darnold, Allen, Rosen, but that is certainly subject to dispute. Ok, fair enough, I edited this, b/c I do see you have a posting of someone's All--22 analysis, so that's at least something.

I thought it was also a part of the classic Steve Goodman song "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request," who sadly died at age 36, 14 days before he was scheduled to sing the National Anthem at the Cubs first playoff game (or luckily since they were dispatched of pretty quickly in the playoffs). However, my memory was off, but it still has much of the similar sentiment and style of humor....

I'd hate that b/c it implies you didn't enjoy the Vikings game b/c they did not score. Shaky defense gets on my last nerve, and my nerves are precious and dwindling.

And all our games have been against teams coming off a winning record last year, three were on the road, and the two wins were against 2017-18 playoff teams.

If they lost in first round after lucking into the playoff, they'd likely not be that close to the bottom of the round (21st or 22nd, like us this year)...

You keep writing exactly what I'm about to write! It's a time-saver.

I did just post a soon-to-be HoFer who had a pretty lousy qbr through 4 games...