thurst44

You really feel like Shady is a dime-a-dozen?!?! Also, I'll never get this "it's a passing league, so we need to pass" logic. That it's a passing league means you need to have a good pass rush and disruptive front 4 or 5 (check) and a solid secondary (less so, but we'll see). However, an argument can be made that having a ground game is the smart move in the current NFL. Modern defenses are built towards stopping the passing game in such a league, plus it keeps their D on the field and yours off it. You could further argue we only won 7 games because we had a porous, sloppy defense and a coach, who while (hopefully) well-meaning, forgot how to use things as basic as times out and challenges (we may have lost two games b/c he didn't call a time out fast enough against a yippy kicker, and he didn't "realize" you could challenge a call that would have changed the dynamic of another game). New Orleans only won 7 games the last three years with Brees throwing for around 5000 yards and 30-plus touchdowns. Should they trade him? Finally, in all my years as mostly a lurker, yours is one of my favorite screennames ever, fwiw

I don't get that mentality at all. This team still has McCoy, Glenn, Incognito, Wood (who metrics and peers say is much better than most here think), Miller (ok, if they play Ducasse, I'll lose a bit of faith), Matthews, Dareus, K. Williams, Hughes, Lorax, Shaq, Hyde. All our rookies are looking solid in camp and pre-season (hard to tell with Dawkins). Plus, we have a new coach. Sorry to keep going off on this, it's just the relentless negativity is exhausting. I get that it's been 17 years, yet I still manage to get excited for the season. I just don't see how this is a particularly bad team. To me, it feels like a hard-to-gauge team who could get mewed up by the schedule, or catch lightning in a bottle like many teams before them. How many people predicted the Dolphins to win 1-3 games last season? There's a few teams like that every season (and i don't even see this as a particularly bad team, just somewhere in the middle).

None for 3 years. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a Luck. But they are few and far between, and there's no guarantee that Darnauld will be Luck, and just getting a QB does not promise that, and a high pick could turn out to be Griffin or Bortles. Rodgers was a late 1st round pick and the Packers built up the rest of their team, so even if he's hurt they still have a shot. This is the rare year I'm not against picking a QB in the first round (especially if we keep both picks), and I like Tyrod. However, waiting for the mythical "franchise QB" might as well be waiting for Godot. It's fools' gold. McCoy still looks dominant, and sometimes running backs last well past their supposed freshness date. Why don't we root for the best season this year with the knowledge that we already have six, and possibly seven, picks on the first two days of the draft next year. And root against the Chiefs and Rams .

Why? How are they appreciably worse than they were last year. Gilmore and Darby were inconsistent. Watkins barely played. Plus, the removal of the Ryan Bros might be a plus. I'm not saying they might not be awful whatever they do (it's quite possible), but to say there is "virtually no chance they'll be good or even decent this season" feels way hyperbolic. There's still our running game and the defense is looking really good so far and still has a ton of talent. It just feels like any of the last few seasons where there's a large segment of the board saying there's no way we'll do better than 5-11 and we wind up somewhere around .500.

No no no no no! Even if I believed in tanking, this is the absolute WORST year in which to do it. 4-12 could very well put you behind the Jets, Bears, Rams, 49ers, Browns, you never can tell just what the Jaguars are going to do, and probably some surprise team not even on our radar. Unless the Boldin move is b/c he heard something, we are not tanking, and this is hardly the awful team some are making it out to be, even based on the lousy, sloppy pre-season games (where we ran at will and the first-team defense looked stout). Yes, like when the Colts fell apart and drafted Luck and have been to how many Super Bowls with him?

It's disheartening, but I wouldn't call it part of nya clown show. This is something that happens all the time, and even happened to the Patriots twice in the last three years, as a poster mentioned in another thread.

Not necessarily. Holmes has seemed just awful in camp, and after Jones and Matthews, the receivers seem pretty interchangeable. Could easily see them going: Matthews, Jones, Streater (if healthy), Philly Brown, Tate, Shorts or Reilly. Plus, considering how this team is constructed, they might not keep all that many wide receivers, in favor of running backs, fullbacks, and tight ends. Also, I suspect we might be closer to the comp picks than we think. Nobody really knows what the formula is, and if memory serves, the experts (who will readily admit they aren't certain) listed Justin Hunter as the first guy who did not qualify and EJ pretty close. Both those players might already count, plus if EJ is a back-up and Hunter has a solid season, that would likely play into the formula. Now, if they don't cut Ducasse, that'd be frustrating (sorry Vlad). If he's starting (barring injury to Miller), I'd even start turning a bit negative on this team.

And you don't think our DL will demolish theirs, or do you only notice the bad? For all the off-season foibles of the offense, the defense has looked terrific so far, and they will be going against McCown, Petty, or Hackenberg who will be throwing to WRs who make ours look like Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate, and about the only thing the offense has going for them is Matt Forte. Also our line will hopefully have Glenn, Miller, and Dawkins going when the season starts. I get it, but we go through this every year. I don't see any particular reason this team will be any worse than last year's. Also, there is a lot more talent on this team than most here will give us credit. Most teams look bad in pre-season. Do I think a 4-12 season is possible? Sure. But we already are building for the future (possibly 7 picks on the first two days next year) and still have enough talent to have a surprise contending team. Remember how terrible the Dolphins were supposed to be last year? Let's not be so definitive that there's zero chance.

Colt Anderson, before the injury, was a well-respected gunner.

Pass protection is bad. The O-Line has been pretty consistently great in the run game. That said, it will be a disaster if the O-Line is playing like they did Thursday when the season starts. The wrongly maligned two fullback thing is actually very logical and addresses a specific need. Last year, the offense was effective (at or near top ten in many categories), but they were atrocious at converting 3rd & short (or 3rd & anything). Tolbert is one of the best in the league at 3rd & short runs, albeit he's heading into his 30s. Ducasse has been terrible, and it's baffling why they would even hint at replacing a young guard, who by almost all accounts was one of the most improved in the league last year, with a guy who has had little success in his career. As depth, I could almost rationalize the signing, but we had the best running game in the league last year by 15 ypg over the next team. Why "fix" what ain't broke?

Tolbert and Boldin, because they were brought in specifically to combat our troubles on 3rd down.

Ryan Davis has been a solid performer in the league, or at the least a great depth player. He had 10 sacks over 2014-15. That said, I'd rather not trade Hughes.

They also were mostly not running or throwing towards him when he was in the game, as far as I could see, and mostly he appeared to be dropping into coverage (and for what it's worth, they weren't picking on him). There was one 20 yard (or so) pass thrown over his coverage, and he had the nifty stop behind the line on a run on 4th & inches. I'm curious to hear what Cover1 and the people who analyze the film say. Interesting thing to keep in mind: the last drive (where the Eagles scored), he was not on the field and it was one of the few changes from the earlier drives.

Wow, a player says nice things about our team and we mock him and tear him apart. I know it's been a rough 17 years (been a fan through both the championships and this drought), and a weird week between the trades and the ugly pre-season game, but this may not be as bad a team as we are saying. I understand negativity with this team, but maybe we can be a bit less toxic in our negativity.

Is a player allowed a bad pre-season game? He actually was playing well at the end of last season. Not saying he should not be criticized, just that maybe we should not be so rash to run a guy out of town who has played as well as any QB we've had since Kelly, save maybe Flutie (admittedly this is a low bar). He played horribly last night, even on the rare plays where he had time, and it should be concerning, but let's see what the next nine days can do about that (and the atrociousness of the pass protection).

This is a fantasy football guy with no apparent ties to the Bills inside thought that I can see. He even says "I expect..." Why are we all acting as if this is gospel as to the thought processes of the Bills? This would not be in line with the trades of last week as those were not tanking moves since there were good players coming back. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but this seems like shellshocked Bills fans (and I'm seeing this on FB too) treating an opinion as fact after a rough, ugly pre-season game.

I've been a Seantrel Henderson advocate (and he deserves better than his treatment of the league), but he may have played himself right off the team last night. It felt like he was getting blown up (or penalized) on more than half the plays. Everyone who played RT didn't look much better either. Run blocking was its usual above average, but pass protection was an absolute disaster. Cordy Glenn can't come back fast enough. I'm also definitely a fan of Tyrod and feel he's done way more than a lot of people recognize, but last night's performance was an abject disaster. Even though he was running for his life, when he did have time he missed receivers, sometimes by an absurd length. The defense, on the other hand, deserves accolades galore. Lorax was everywhere, as is his style, running down people from behind, stripping out the football. Can't say a bad thing about the defensive line. I penciled in Poyer as the potential TBD whipping boy of this defense, but he played well against the run, pass, and had his name called on a bunch of plays. Credit to Ragland (who was stuck going out into coverage on so many plays and was beat at least once) on a nifty stop behind the line on 4th & inches -- also noticed he was out there on ST, which many have noted that his lack of ST play as a reason he will be shipped or cut. What is it with the Bills and penalties? Through roster and coach turnover, they seem to continually have this same problem despite all logic. Hopefully, McD has a plan and similar to the practice of the other day, he's trying to get the passion out then rein in the sloppiness, but man that was hard to watch last night.

The Bills were playing strong football at that point of the season, and if you want to wholly dismiss Brissett, look at what he did to playoff-bound Houston the week before. No one is saying that teams with great cultures don't lose games, even to lesser teams.

Ok, I'm a big fan of Watkins (and vocally advocated drafting both he and Darby before the Bills even had them), but they didn't just get draft picks in these trades. Essentially, they got two guys of approximate same age and experience who have accomplished similar results in the league, and now have as many as seven picks next year in the first 100 in what some have contended to be the best draft class in years. Are the ceilings of Watkins and Darby higher than Matthews and Gaines? Almost certainly. That's the chance you take in a trade like this. Could it blow up in the Bills' faces? yes, I agree. If they win at least 9 games this year (which is way more possible than people on this board think, IMO) and acquire good players with the picks, then I don't care what Watkins and Darby do. In fact, I like both players, so I wish them well. Maybe it's not visionary, but it's definitely intriguing, and feels like the sort of trade the Pats would have made.

(1) No injuries (2) Tyrod driving the offense down the field with ease on at least one drive. (3) Reggie Ragland playing like he did most of the last game (once he got going) and hopefully dispelling these rumors of his Bills demise (4) A couple dominant stops (3-and-out or close) from starting D (5) A sack from Shaq Lawson would be fun to see

I had a dream a couple nights ago that I missed the Super Bowl and it was Bills-Cardinals, so I'll go with that one.

Let's say it's 23 tds to 7 ints with 600 rushing yards (and 7 tds) and a 105.0 qb rating? That would be an extension of his final five games into a full season. It's not spectacular, but he would be one of the highest rated qbs (for what that's worth), and if the offense is playing well (we made the playoffs and even won a game in the original proposed scenario), why would you want to change it for a shot at a rookie qb who based on recent high picks will likely not be any better, would more likely be worse, and would probably set us back? Why not use the bevy of picks to continue to bulk up the team? Bill Barnwell is right: criminally underrated.

He played mostly in the third quarter. From some of the McD comments, I suspect the coach was trying to build up his confidence as he comes back from injury and learns a new system. We gave up 90 yards rushing in the game. How is that getting "gashed"? That would have been good for 6th in the league last year over 16 games. They had 3.1 ypc if my calculations are correct. Are you just basing it on that one edge run where RR took a bad angle? Dude's allowed one bad angle in the first pre-season game of his career. Man, when we have the knives out for a player, we're kind of relentless.

Um, did BronxBomber write a title then forget about it and write a completely different post. I was excited by what I thought the premise of this post would be: predict the BN headlines for the day after game 16. However, it's a praise Matthews post -- not a particularly bad one and reasonably argued (although i'm guessing against the standards of a new post). My thoughts are that Matthews might only get 600-700 yards, but still be very useful based on the offense we are going to be running. That said, I'm posting based on what I thought this was about. 1-1-2018 Headline: "Bills Fall To Dolphins in Meaningless Game As Most Starters Rest For Playoffs" Less Optimistic: "Bills Rout Miami To Climb To .500 As Countdown To The Draft Begins"

Can we please, please, please stop this revisionism. Maybe you have a point against Ragland, but this one is not it. He was not simply a Rex guy, nor was he even anything remotely resembling a stretch. Maybe it's not you, but someone here has repeatedly talked about him as a 6th round talent. For crying out loud, there was not ONE mock draft that I saw that did not have him in the first round. http://www.nfl.com/draft/2016/profiles/reggie-ragland http://walterfootball.com/scoutingreport2016rragland.php https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/draft-pff-scouting-report-reggie-ragland-lb-alabama http://draftwire.usatoday.com/2015/12/30/everything-you-need-to-know-about-2016-nfl-draft-prospect-reggie-ragland/ Those were the first 4 scouting profiles that came up, pulling out a Buffalo blogger as that could be biased knowing he was a likely pick for us, and the worst one of the bunch points out in the first couple sentences that he could play in both the 4-3 and the 3-4. He might not make it (look at Aaron Curry for a higher pick LB who couldn't miss and did zero), and while it's unlikely, weird things are afoot and he may be a surprise cut. However, your repeated argument is just plainly not true.