thurst44

Love choice 3 there going in a different direction, re-defining "drive."

My real pick would be the Colts drive people have mentioned--that was just a "you can't script it" moment that absolutely changed the momentum of a playoff game. My second pick and I'm surprised no one mentioned it since it's the flip of the Arizona game--our guys get the win after the opposing team took the lead on a dramatic drive that usually would win the game. Although there was 4:30 or so left (just checked: exactly 4:30). I'm talking about the Rams game. One of the announcers: "For the Bills this is not the time you panic, this is the time you win" Start at own 25 with 4:30 left 4th qtr: - (4:30) 1st & 10: Crisp pass up the center to Cole Beasley to own 43 - (3:51) 1st & 10: Allen spins out of the rush, looks like he might have gotten away and that's initial call, but he clearly was down and on challenge, it's a sack and big loss to own 31. - (3:44) 2nd & 22: Another messy play. Allen is running for his life, almost sacked twice, goes for a sideline pass where Gabriel Davis and Cole Beasley crash into each other and neither comes down with it. - (3:21) 3rd & 22: Needed 22, Allen to Beasley gets 23. What a big-time play and exactly why Beasley may have even been underrated last year as he always seems to be in just the right place on these long plays where we desperately need him. We're at Rams 47. - (2:31) 1st & 10: Low, slant pass to McKenzie behind line of scrimmage, he scrambles for 5. Dawkins hurt (but we're in future so we know it was ok). We're at the Rams 42. - Allen tries to get Rams to jump but takes it to 2-minute warning - (2:00) 2nd & 5: Wow, a run. A gutsy scramble by Singletary for 8 to the right for a 1st down. At Rams 34. - (1:37) 1st & 10: Neat pass right down the middle at about the first down marker to Beasley for a gain of 19 and Beas just keeps pushing. In the RZ at Rams 15. - (1:04) 1st & 10: Ugly play. Allen scrambles and throws an iffy but not dangerous lateral(?)/forward pass(?) and it goes out of bounds. Oh well, time off the clock, on to next play. - (0:49) 2nd & 10: Another ugly play. Allen is under attack, he manages to get out of a huge sack loss from about three Rams defenders and throws it out of the end zone. Unfortunately, he's called for a 15-yard face mask penalty. How often do you see that?!?!?! Do we let it get to us? We're all the way back to Rams 30. - (0:36) 2nd & 25: Allen under crazy duress overthrows sideline pass to Singletary into double coverage. It's not looking good, this is going to be a painful loss. - (0:31) 3rd & 25: Allen finally gets a relatively clean if small pocket and fires a perfect pass in the middle of the field to Diggs in double coverage for 17 yards. At Rams 14. - (0:25) 4th & 8: We know this one. Allen overthrows Davis in the end zone, it's over and this one is gonna really hurt. But there's a late flag. Holding on Rams. Was it the right call. Was that interception earlier a bs call?* I'm chalking it up to karma, but sometimes you gotta be a bit lucky and Allen put us in the position to win. I'll take it. Fwiw, Mike Pereira calls it a good call. We're at the Rams 4. - (0:21) 1st & 10: There it is. Line finally comes through. Allen backpedals and throws a high strike to a wide-open Tyler Kroft. TOUCHDOWN! - (0:15) Kick is good! There was surely some luck involved and it definitely wasn't pretty, but it's a lot of why this team will be dominant as long as Allen remains Allen (especially if he's not even at his peak yet). They calmly and collectedly took over 4 of the 4.5 minutes off the clock like a team that knew this wasn't desperation, like a team that knew they were going to get this TD and wanted to make sure they didn't give the Rams another bite of the apple. Allen was darting and diving and under attack the whole drive. There were two great plays at 3rd and 20-plus. Allen delivered a couple of head-scratchers but did not let it get him down. After blowing a 25-point lead in the second half, most teams would have been defeated, but the Bills got right back up and played like a championship team does. *Coda: The phantom interception still irks me and when analysts would say they won on a fluke blown call penalty, I would rage (i need to see someone about that ;)) that they should not have even been in this position if not for a call that made it seem like the refs wanted to make sure L.A. was in a game, but I saw something yesterday which mollifies me a bit. I was watching through the 2017 season in the background while working and in the first game there was a Poyer INT where the receiver caught it and had the ball at the end, but Poyer had got some control of the ball going down. So, at the very least, we had got the benefit of the same ridiculous call in the past. And it was the Jets driving in a position to change the momentum of the game.

You're not wrong, but we were Lorenzo Alexander's sixth team. In any case, he could just be good depth and someone who could play adequately or better should we have the same injury issues at the position as last year.

I don't get this level of negativity about him. I love Edmunds and even I think this is the longest of shots, but he's the sort of player where if he takes another step, he could have at the very least have an insane breakout season. Man, I hope this is sarcasm, because whatever you think of his play, he was the point person on two top-ranked defenses. To call him mentally slow is just ridiculous and unnecessarily mean spirited. Physically slow is wrong too based on what I've watched, but I can get believing that as much as I disagree.

Normally, I hate these sorts of things (even if i do them myself all the time). Both these posts made me laugh and smile!

I could be wrong but I don't imagine they would do this for Allen or Edmunds' extensions b/c those would likely be structured to not change 2021 at all and even lower the 2022 hit (since the high caps will almost certainly be there in '23 and beyond). This might not be for any major moves (although none of Ertz, Nelson, or Sherman would surprise me) and might just be for maneuverablility and for the just-in-case (someone they can't pass on) becomes available today.

I think it has more to do with the idea that he's not making noise about being the 19th highest paid WR (or whatever the actual number is) while it's happening.

Did he score a TD?

This is true, and people are balking at Bortles, but while we mostly knew we had a better QB than Bortles at the end of two seasons, the numbers are comparable. Bortles had a solid Season 2, at least statswise. However, as you suggest, if you look at Allen's season as other than overall stats, you see a QB who improved over the course of the season. From Game 5 on and through the playoff game, he had 17 TDs to 3 iNTs (plus 6 rushing TDs and a receiving TD). I'd contend that's at least a bit above avg. If you were a fan and/or you watched him every game, you'd realize he was essentially working on his short game in year 2--an aspect where he improved by an almost unfathomable amount. After 2019, I felt fairly confident that we had something special at QB and that while there was still a slight chance he could go the Bortles/Mariota route and teams could figure out how to defend, that felt more like tamping down expectations. It was his capacity for learning that won me over quickly after we drafted him and that sets him apart from those pretenders.

He was a UDFA signed the day after this year's draft.

Cool topic. I've built up a hearty hate (well, not really hate--football fan "hate") for most of the AFC (and Cowboys, Eagles, WFT), but the few NFC teams I'm OK with winning other than against us: New York Giants -- live here, know many fans who are lovely people, Tiki Barber did great for my fantasy team a few years. Green Bay Packers -- love the fanbase and the Lambeau Leap and feel like they are our cousin in emphatic small-town fandoms (also love that they have stock in team), liked Aaron Rodgers until recent nonsense in which whatever the true story is, there's not really a scenario that paints him in a favorable light here) Carolina Panthers -- know many people from the area and do an annual draft analysis on a local radio station there Players I'll root for are mostly just former Bills--and it's still hard in many cases to root for them as if they do great, they go into the "one that got away" category... Fitz - hard not to root for him and would love to see him in the playoffs someday, while admiring how he keeps finding his way back to starting roles. Shaq - could not root for him in Miami, but always thought he got a bad rap here. Jordan Phillips - I'm a well-wisher in that I wish him no specific harm.

Four games is a pretty good balance of respect and not having to play a 5th game at a weird time. Getting a Thanksgiving game two years after the last one may be the sweetest plum in terms of respect from the league. That's the ultimate regular season marquee game. You almost have to wonder if they are trying to make the Bills TG Day Game a thing.

I'd give them more leeway if they had not gone into a tailspin and won just one game while the Bills did not lose again until the AFC Championship game. Honestly though, it barely bothered me at the time as it felt fluky and them having a moment rather than us blowing it and that felt time a change. This was not who we were anymore and games like this felt like an exception instead of a pattern. That said, it is still tiresome to see it without it being once put in context. That the national press is airing it way too much is understandable--it's the sort of play that reminds people why they love football. It sells. That the Cardinals are doing it given how they did the opposite of capitalizing on it, just seems kind of sad.

Exactly. Funny story: Bills Pass D was ranked 1 and 4 in 2018 & 2019, two years in which Levi Wallace started 7 and 16(!) games respectively. I'm standing by my running argument that 2020 was a weird year for our defense (and yet Bills still were 13-3 and a game from the Super Bowl). I'm all for adding a veteran, but this attitude that the Bills are in dire shape at cornerback is silly.

Can't help but feel a lot of the D issues last year stemmed from a convergence of 2020 weirdness: having all these new players, a lack of Star, and less time to practice together. I'm truly excited to see what this defense does in 2021 b/c if the reversion to the mean is the top 5 defense of 2018 & 19, this is going to be one hell of a team.

You left out the most important part!!! Did you find any good vinyl? (also it was a fun story)

JessicaWalter.mp4

Hah, he does seem like a totally loveable guy and I was totally on the Jasper train at the time. I hear in the seventh season of The Brandon Beane Show they'll introduce a tiny alien who only he can see, as well as a 7-year-old cousin who comes to live with the Buffalo Bills.

Yeah, why would anyond defend a GM of a team that has gone from 6-10 to 10-6 (playoffs) to 13-3 (one game from Super Bowl). It's hard to defend that. Been there with the pets though, although one of my cats seems to love Brandon Beane (is staring at his press conference as if he were a bird).

Mike Jasper is the David Sills V of Da'Rick Rogerses

This guy is an even bigger bust, as he was a top ten pick. He was comically bad when with the NY Giants. Some days on WFAN when I was driving home from work (I'm in Jersey, about 6 miles from Meadowlands) and every single call was about how much they hated Ereck Flowers. Remember when everyone was fawning over Miami's off-season last year? Other than Byron Jones (who was a good pickup), is there anyone from their Spring 2020 shopping spree remaining?

Wow, that escalated fast. I missed that he called Beane an idiot or a liar and if so, I certainly do not agree with that. I do think Beane will be a bit opaque in his intentions at time, which is fine. Honestly, I'm at the point with Beane where if there's a draft move or a pick that I think is dumb, and he makes it, I'll rethink my own strategy. I get mad if I see a GM ranking list and he's not at least top 10. At this point, the team's record has gone up substantially every offseason he's been here. I'll trust the process and after all these years, I'm thankful to have a team that seems to be working.

That's as good an argument that I've seen that they are going BPA, whatever you think he did the last few years, as the best player at any position is most likely to help you in the long run. I've always looked at BPA as best player for the longterm as opposed to best player immediately. For example, if you're drafting for the longterm it might make you more liable to draft, say, Caleb Farley, if you think his injury is temporary. Ultimately, what might be the problem here is that people have their own definitions of what "BPA" means or what different teams' needs are.

I guess it's semantics. I agree that sometimes it's good, sometimes it isn't. My annoyance (I was not annoyed by your post, btw... even said fair analysis) tends to stem from people who use this sort of thing to denigrate our current players. And it's a stupid pet peeve of mine when people act like there was a perception before the draft that just was not true (i.e. Epenesa was a stretch when he went over 17 picks after where the lowest person I could find had him). Sometimes BPA & need converge as you can arguably say happened with Edmunds. When I was doing mocks in Fanspeak et al, I usually had to trade up to get him when on a lark I did a non-QB draft. Allen is a great example of when drafting for need was a good idea. Although even then, Mel Kiper had him as the top player available. And, what do I know, I wanted Rosen. Allen won me over within a week, but still..

This is a fair enough analysis, but just b/c the draft fills a need does not mean that the player was not the BPA, for example, we picked Epenesa 17 picks later than any mock draft I could find. If the BPA happens to be at a spot that is a weaker spot on your roster than others, do you not draft the BPA just to show you are not drafting for need. Ford was a first round pick in some mocks. Knox, sure. Edmunds was a top ten pick in many mocks that year and I remember at the time the trade happened getting giddy and texting friends that it had to be for Tremaine Edmunds b/c he was dropping down the board. Allen, well, duh. With hindsight, he's the BPA :).