thurst44

Dareus 10 sacks and in the talk for DPOY. People have forgotten that despite his antics (most of which are minor key), when he plays, he is very good. My real one prediction (just thought Dareus deserved some defense, at least for his on-field play): McCoy well over 2000 yards from scrimmage, leading the league (even David Johnson).

I had a dream where this was the score, so I'll go with this one too. We were tied 13-13 early in the 4th until Shareece Wright forced a fumble and ran it in for a TD. Then McCoy, who had been stifled until that point, broke off a 74-yard TD run. I forget how the third score happened. I'll add that how we got the original 13 was a bit ridiculous -- 3 FGs and 2 safeties.

This! And in these days a diversion is needed more than ever. Even if the Bills do turn out to be awful this year, I can spend Sundays being depressed about something that ultimately is, as Promo said, a diversion. If we do wind up 2-14 as I sincerely doubt we will, it'll be frustrating, but then we can get excited about the draft and off-season diversions.

Well, first off, I'm going to still follow for a lot of the similar reasons to what you said. The Bills are a connection to friends and family and a cathartic experience that shakes off the good and bad of the day-to-day. Also, as much as we joke about "the process" with this particular leadership crew, I'm also more interested in the process, the development, the stories. If you tie it all to a championship-or-die mentality, then sheer mathematics say most fans are going to be miserable most decades. That said, I reject the premise that has seemed to balloon in the past couple weeks that this is an especially bad team. There's certainly some chaos and some odd experiments which could easily backfire. While I can see an intriguing logic, I hate losing Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby, and Reggie Ragland -- three players I wanted for the Bills pre-draft. However, all the tanking talk feels like a fundamental misreading of what's happening. From my vantage, they seem to be focusing on the future, while putting together a team that will not fall apart this year. I suspect they might have more faith in Tyrod Taylor than people think, and maybe instead of fawning after potentialities, most of whom are likely to never amount to all that much in the NFL despite the hype (there are more Ryan Leafs than Peyton Mannings), I'd rather root for Taylor to take another step forward so that we enter the draft as a team on the move who has a chance to build a powerhouse through the draft. If he regresses, then we cross that then. However, I really do hope that they do not do any huge trade-up to try to get a QB. Historically, that has been disastrous. Although, even if Taylor has an extraordinary year, I'd love them to pick a QB with one of their two first rounders next year, if one of the promising ones fall next year (and i NEVER want them to pick a qb high if they don't have a top two pick -- but this draft with the extra pick and many prospects).

According to Cover1, Dawkins was one of the better offensive players in the pre-season, but I do agree that it's not a bad idea to let him ease in.

Well, coaches, and people who evaluate this stuff has said he's good on ST. It's the same as the person (may or may not have been you) who said that he's been terrible in limited action at safety. I've never particularly noticed him as bad, and I have to wonder whether that person watched every play of Colt and deduced that, saw him make one bad play and concluded he was bad, or was just conjecturing. My money would be on one of the last two. He was cut b/c he wasn't vital enough to keep when they needed to drop someone. However, as with the people they put on the PS, they apparently did want him back if they could swing it. I have trouble with anyone seeing this as worse than neutral.

1. Tyrod Taylor (while I'm pro-Tyrod -- or at least he's earned his chance with what he's done the past two years, it's not that high a bar to clear) 2. Flutie (last qb to get them to the playoffs) 3. Fitzpatrick (a real best of times, worst of times qb) 4. Bledsoe (he was mediocre-at-best by the time he got to Buffalo) 5. Orton (we're really just getting to default at this point) 6. EJ Manuel (he was really more meh than terrible) 7. Trent Edwards (he had a smattering of good games, even if he ultimately fell completely apart) Beyond this, shrug...

Plus, I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but Matthews has 200 more yards than Watkins over the same amt of time. He may not be a superstar and certainly Watkins has more potential, but to call him ballast is lazy journalism trying to shoehorn the facts into their own narrative.

I didn't love the trade either, but Matthews has been more productive in the league, and don't look now, but Gaines was the best CB in pre-season. They didn't just get picks. Also, to imply (as the article does) that they are going to be 5 games or so worse b/c of loss of a player who had less than 500 yards last year, and with whom they were 2-6 when he played, seems a bit strange. Where for the better? I'd say coaching is the main thing, but I would also argue the talent level didn't get particularly worse. Their safeties were terrible last year. Hyde and Poyer look great. The only change in the running game is back-up and it has seemed whoever you plug in once TT and McCoy have worn the D out will get their yards. The D-Line is still deep, the O-Line could be better then we think (especially if Glenn is back and Dawkins and Groy get significant playing time). Cornerback is hard to tell as Gilmore was feast-or-famine last year and Darby was a sophomore-slumping trainwreck. White looks like a find and there's a lot of solid role players. As for WRs, by week three last year we were picking people off the scrapheap anyway. Matthews has produced more than Watkins since coming in the league (even if it won't likely end that way when careers are through), Zay Jones looks good, and really, I suspect we will hardly be using more than one or two of them any game. Heck, if we're able to stop the run this year (and the results looked good for that all pre-season, but then that's pre-season), that should be worth a few games this year.

This same weird thing has happened in past years where the national press just decides to keep topping themselves as to how bad the Bills will be, and there's no real logic to it. Maybe they will be 31st, but to say definitively that this team is going to be worse than all but one of the Jets, Rams, Bears, 49ers, and Jags (and i could also see the Bengals, Colts, Saints, and Chargers being pretty bad) is just ludicrous. I just don't see this as a historically bad team, but then again, this happened three years ago and that was about as close as they got to the playoffs.

My least favorite opener is recent, and it's simply because I went to the game on opponent's turf -- the one the Jets won 48-28. It was actually mostly fun as the Jets fans were a bit disarmed by our group of self-deprecating Bills fans, but still a pretty dreadful game of the worst sort. Beyond being so damn sloppy and Fitz having one of the worst games of his career, there was the brief tease that they would come back. Also, the decision to walk drunk along the ugly rt. 120 corridor after a loss to get to the nearest civilization was not all that joyful of a choice. The opening day loss, also to the Jets, after the four Super Bowls was also pretty dreadful. Watched the game at some Tonawanda bar and remember on one of the first plays yelling about grounding, and someone behind me, with viciousness, yelling that "oh, he was in the pocket you idiot." And then we lost 23-3. My favorite win is pretty easy, and has been mentioned. It's hard to beat (at least as it happened) the 31-0, Lawyer Milloy Shares His Secrets game. I watched it at McFadden's, the Bills Backer bar in NYC, and it felt like an exorcism. We were headed back to prominence and the New England dominance was done. Sigh. That season's ender has to be the worst of a bad bunch. It's almost as if Bill purposely ran the score to 31-0 to show how completely that early start had been erased. May next Sunday be just as boring!

I'm gonna say the same thing I say when people moan about how clearly terrible our schedule is going to be. You never can tell how bad it is until the season starts. Also, we might think their schedule is easier by the same logic that makes us think ours is harder than it is (we'll tend to posit that every team that was good last year is going to stay good, that every usually good team that had an off-year is going to rebound, and most teams that were terrible just got good draft picks and this is the year the Jags/Browns are going to break through).

Don't you mean one pick . Ours is gonna be 32!

They were labeled the Bickering Bills the one year between 1988 and 1994 that they made an early exit from the playoffs. They had enough chemistry the rest of the time that many still live in the area and they seem to still hang out together on the reg almost 30 years later.

The point is more that there's zero confirmation that this story is true. It's run about the same path as mccoy-to-be-traded story. Yet, we Eeyore-y Bills fans are running with it and just buying it wholesale. If it's true, then he's a true jerk for claiming he's leaving inspired by a noble cause. That does not sound like Boldin to me. This sounds like a Pats reporter patting themselves on the back for being great and taking a swipe at the Bills. Maybe it's an inside scoop. I've definitely been wrong in the past. However, I would be very disappointed in Boldin both for the crassness of the lie and the bandwagon-jumping.

I don't get this move either, but it has nothing to do with winning this year (if it hurts them, it's as much down the road as it does now). Hopefully the OP is right in his Banyard love. He'll be easy to root for. And it's not like we haven't had luck with older seemingly-journeyman running backs in the past.

Keeping Jones has nothing to do with running backs. They like him at gunner. That one makes sense. We get bent out of shape about them keeping players for ST abilities (at least some here do), but when we have bad special teams, that's no fun. While I like Banyard, I don't get keeping him over Jonathan Williams. Letting Gillislee go made sense b/c you had a young player ready to move into a spot that has been historically plug-and-play, and grooming Williams for McCoy's spot should he slow down made sense. I'm wondering if maybe there's a running back who got cut elsewhere that McDermott has his eye on. Or, I guess, they'll be taking an RB with one of their hundred picks next year. All that said, I'm pretty close to my tipping point too. John Miller being cut or traded, which seems almost likely now, would make me feel like this whole roster churn had more to do with a near-obsession with getting rid of recent picks that were not his. I've been denying this up til now, but this move is just peculiar....doesn't really hurt the team next year that much, but seems out-of-line with the other moves.

First off, this is all conjecture. However, as good a guy as he's been, if he lied in a way that made him look heroic, that's messed up and he made his own bed. I'm with you on getting something from NE, but while maybe not a ridiculous demand, they should get a little more than normal for him for their troubles, maybe up that 6th to a 4th. Again, hopefully, this is just a fake story. Also, can we quit it on the woe-is-us "this is a lost season." This team is not as historically bad as most people are making it out to be. They're likely even not bad. Let's try to enjoy the season.

Felt is the key word there. That still seems like a lot of talent and I don't think it is as underwhelming as you give it credit. These are the players we know: they are our players, so we'll either overestimate them or take them for granted. I doubt if you looked at the Falcons this time last year with all their first and second year players, you would have expected all that much from them. Let's see how the season plays out. I honestly don't get the feeling that this team is particularly any worse than last year's. Also, this whole scenario plays out every year where they get predicted to be awful for no apparent reason and they're usually mediocre. I'm excited for this season and have nothing to lose believing in this team. As for the draft picks, they were players I was hoping they would take, so I like the picks. Then again, I also wanted them to take Darby and Watkins at the time.

No, if this is true, he lied in a ghoulish manner. Why should we help him, while sending them to the rival whose strategy has been to deliberately mess with us. Hopefully, this is yet another dumb rumor.

Again, really?!?! I didn't love the Sammy or Darby trades, but the former was injured most of last year and the latter was awful last year. Gilmore was the TBD whipping boy until he was gone and last year he was lights out in half his games and torched in the rest. I liked Gillislee, but he was more than likely aided by the strong overall run game (Karlos Williams put up almost identical stats and J-Will is looking just fine). I don't really get letting NRC go, but Leonard Johnson/Shareece Wright/EJ Gaines are in the same category. Kevon Seymour was a 7th round rookie who showed flashes, but wasn't exactly irreplaceable. Can you really say last year's safety situation is better, particularly if Poyer's pre-season indicates how he'll play in the regular season...and that reminds me. When listing talent, I forgot: Micah Hyde - on almost every list of best FA acquisitions I saw.

Can we dispense with the hyperbole: Lesean McCoy - Top 3 running back, likely future HoFer Cordy Glenn - Above average LT Richie Incognito - Perennial pro bowl guard Eric Wood - Severely underrated here Tyrod Taylor - Say what you want about him, but analytic sites call him vastly underrated, 47 tds to 15 ints (how many better have we had since Kelly, really) Marcell Dareus - Sure he's got off-field issues, but when active he's one of the best DTs in the league Kyle Williams - Ok, he's 34, but has the perennial pro bowler slowed down? Jerry Hughes - Has had off years, but inarguably talented Shaq Lawson - Considered by many to go as high as 11th last year in draft Lorenzo Alexander - A ton of tackles, and third in the league in sacks Tre'Davious White - Extremely promising rookie Zay Jones - All-time NCAA Div I season and career leader in receptions I'd also argue that Preston Brown is looking as he did in his rookie season, John Miller was PFF's most improved, Dion Dawkins had a hell of a spring, and Jordan Matthews has 200 more yards than Sammy in the same amount of time (is he the same potential talent, not by a longshot, but on a run-first team that led the league in rushing by 15 ypg, he's not nothing), and Charles Clay, while underwhelming so far, is not untalented. Could this team have a disastrous year? Sure, but I don't really get this sudden rush to declare them one of the worst in a sea of truly awful teams this year. On paper, this looks like a team that should hover around the same .500 they do every year, and who could have an influx of talent in the upcoming years. Sometimes these teams catch lightning in a bottle, or something clicks. I mostly love what McDermott's been doing (save Ducasse-Miller battle) and am going into the season with an open mind. However, to call this a low talent team is simply absurd.

No, I'll never get over Macho Grande.

Good! He's a great depth pick who had 10 sacks over the course of 2014/15 before an off-season with Dallas, and looked solid in pre-season from what I watched. And I suspect we don't have to release 3 players to get the comp pick. That logic is going off of a construct that has Justin Hunter as the last person to not count and EJ Manuel also close but not counting. There's a decent chance both qualify (unless Hunter, as is quite possible, is released today) as even the people at Sportrac and other similar endeavors will tell you it's an inexact science, especially when you get down to the 7th rounders, plus supposedly their play during the season can have an effect.

Chances are we haven't noticed him because he's been doing his job.