Utah John

The Bills have one of the strongest rosters in the league, even despite some drafts that really weren't good at all. So many high picks wasted over the past few years. And yet the front office continues to assemble complete rosters with no gaping holes anywhere. Anyway my point is that bad drafts keep the Bills from winning SBs, but a string of good drafts will put them into a very strong position. Good being good enough, if maintained year to year.

The only thing holding back some of these rookies is the veterans playing their positions and doing very well. Granger might have been called on to play center on another team, but McGovern seems to have figured out how to make line calls to protect against defensive stunts. Andreesen probably would be playing on other teams. I'm a little surprised Bishop isn't playing more since Hamlin is still the same, too-slow and out of position, player he's always been, but safety in McD's defense is probably the most complex position for a rookie to figure out. Don't forget that deep in McD's genes is a reluctance to play rookies. And who can argue that letting rookies just watch and learn is a mistake, when there's a veteran playing great on the field already?

It sounds like the fix is in, to keep Josh Allen out of the MVP race. What this reminds me of is people looking at weather forecasts for a week or more. Meteorologists know that weather models have almost no skill beyond about 5 days, but weather sites routinely publish forecasts out to 10 days. I guess people figure that what they see on their phone must be right (how else to explain the current political situation?) even if anyone who knows anything would tell you that it's worthless. So PFF giving grades to players is like a weather app telling you it won't rain a week from this Friday. If you decide based on that to schedule a picnic a week from Friday, or to bring in a FA football player based on PFF, you're making a decision based on nothing reliable.

The Patriots are having a fire sale, disposing of reasonably good assets at bargain prices. The Chiefs just scored a good pass rusher for a sixth round pick. I don't know the Patriots' roster but I wonder if there's anyone left that would be an upgrade over anyone currently on the Bills. Cultural issues come into play. The Bills have a great, winning culture and anyone left on the Patriots probably has had any will to win beaten out of them. Maybe the Bills don't want anyone like that in the locker room. The fact that the Pats just beat the Jets says more about the pathetic Jets than it does about the Pats. What it really says about the Pats is that they can't even lose correctly.

The Giants can't be competitive with Daniel Jones at QB. They should have given up on him years ago and moved on to a new option. Fortunately their season will end with a high draft pick and they can have a chance at a decent player. That guy, and the new HC and GM, will have some good talent but a lot of deadwood on their roster. Every time I see Jones play I'm even more thankful we have Allen. You can't have everything. Would you rather have Allen plus Rousseau, or Wilson plus Watt? In other words, a normal year.

The Chiefs are going all-in to try for the unprecedented threepeat. Right now I think any team in the NFCN except probably the Bears could beat them, but in the AFC at least UFN the Chiefs are the team to beat. The Chiefs are giving up quite a few future draft picks to get players who won't help much going forward, or even be on the team at all. They'll pay for that over the next two years, while the Bills continue to reach another peak. Sometime between 2024, 2025, and 2026, it's all going to come together for the Bills. (Hey, maybe all three years, right? Maybe it's the Bills who get the threepeat.)

The best thing about the screen game isn't the plays that worked, it's that all the opponents now need to prepare to stop it. The Seahawks tried to adapt, pulling attention away from the middle of the field. And so Allen had a lot of time to pass, and Cook and Davis had holes at the first and second levels. Quietly, this was a great game by the O line. You rarely hear those guys mentioned unless they screw up, but this game they were being singled out for praise. By the maybe-GOAT.

Yeah, Samuel might go down as one of the worst FA signings Beane has ever made. The Bills seem to work better whenever he's not around.

McD is a great DC and a pretty good HC.

Hope you're right. The Bills seem to have the Dolphins' number, that's for sure. About the Seahawks. They just folded. No professional team should have turned tail like that. They went into garbage mode at the start of the fourth quarter, not even trying for big plays to get a chance to catch up. Instead they padded stats and burned the clock while on offense, moving down the field 8 yards or so at a time, which the Bills were happy to allow. And their D just lost heart. I haven't seen a Bills opponent give up like that since the Bills beat the Pats in a playoff game a few years ago, with Arctic temperatures. Micah Hyde made a brilliant interception to put the knife in, and the Bills scored TDs on every drive to twist the knife. No NFL defense should tolerate failure to that extent. The Seahawks weren't as bad as that today, but it was clear they lost heart when they got three points total after two first and goals inside the three.

Agreed. He had no holes to run through. He showed good skills as a receiver running after the catch, but then again, as you said, the Bills didn't let him get going.

I thought Shakir was getting more separation today than he has before. It seemed the Seahawks had their best corner trying to guard Coleman, and Cooper was getting attention, and Shakir and the two TEs were as wide open as anyone ever gets in the NFL. Today, the machine was working almost as well as it's capable of. A beautiful thing to see.

It will probably be a little tougher next week. Yeah I know the Dolphins just lost to the Cardinals, in Miami. Next week is a frustration game for the Dolphins who would love to derail the Bills' season. As for the defense, great game. Walker is a very good RB but I don't think he's as fast as Mostert and Achane. I haven't been tracking the Dolphins closely so I don't know what shape their O line is in. We will be in great shape next week if St Bernard is on the field. That was my first time watching Walker play. He looks really good, not just for rushing and catching passes but also blocking and a great no-surrender attitude. Not that the Bills need him, but if things had worked out differently so he was on the Bills, we would absolutely love having him on the team.

Josh didn't quite make it to 300 yards today, and we had only one WR get to 100. Not that I'm complaining at all about a game like that. It's just we don't need to exaggerate.

I remember some personal toys being tossed out on the field, too.

The only trade that might make sense for Kupp would involve sending Amari Cooper to the Rams. They would need a top-level receiver to go with Nacua. Cooper could be that guy. I think Kupp is somewhat better than Cooper so some additional asset (5th?) would be needed to go west too. But I still think the salary cap issues make any deal for Kupp impractical. And really unnecessary. Granted Cooper had a quiet day today but wait till next week when the Bills put Shakir, Cooper, and the two TEs up against Miami's weak pass defense. After that I think the chatter about adding another WR will die down.

The reason Kupp will be too pricey (and I agree) is the existing contract he has with the Rams. But Cooper won't be a lot cheaper, not if it's clear to the Bills and to his agents that he became the difference between a good season for the Bills, and a great one.

The info I found online says White signed a 1 year, $10M contract with the Rams after he was released by the Bills. If the Bills or any other team trades for him, they're responsible for the balance of that contract which seems insane. The Rams must be kicking themselves about giving that much to an older player. If the Rams outright release White, he can sign elsewhere for whatever he can negotiate. Maybe the Bills, if he's willing to take the vet minimum.

Wasn't Isabella on the Bills' PS? If so, then how could Pittsburgh sign him to their PS? My understanding is that a team can poach players off another team's PS but must add the player to their 53 man roster. If Isabella was a FA then this move would be OK. Can someone please explain? Anyway, I'm happy for Isabella. Seems like a good guy, very fast, not quite good enough to be a regular NFL WR. About Columbus et all -- This is really important because when he got to North America there were no people living there at all. Completely empty. Just a land without people for people who wanted more land. Similar to current events, no? But just as with 20th century developments, of course what I wrote is not true. There were hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of people of Asiatic descent living in North America when Columbus (or Erickson) arrived, just like there were millions of people of Asiatic descent living in every other corner of Asia, including along the eastern Mediterranean.

I think it was Beane's plan to draft a WR next year, and to hope for the best riding with what we had for this year, thinking this wasn't the best team we were going to have. That wasn't working and the team turned out to be better than he expected, so he made a move to challenge for the SB this year. Drafting another WR next year is a great idea, so the new guy can learn the ropes. Plus I think Cooper will turn out to be a rental we can't afford going forward.

The Bills and Chiefs each added an excellent veteran receiver. The Bills gave up a little more in draft picks to get Amari Cooper, but the Chiefs are stuck with more salary requirement with DeAndre Hopkins. (Tennessee will pay half of Hopkins's salary but the remaining amount is much more than what the Bills are paying Cooper for the rest of the year.) Cooper is very likely a rental unless the Bills and he completely fall in love with how things work out and both sides give a little slack in salary negotiations going forward. If Cooper just wants to chase dollars, I think the Bills will not be able to match. I don't know what KC's plans for Hopkins are. They have Rice and Brown both injured, both good, and both returning next year, so maybe Hopkins is a rental too. So, what's your bottom line on which deal was better? It could be, both teams come out ahead and are happy with the results. But, given the choice, would you have preferred to get Hopkins than Cooper? My thought is the Bills couldn't afford even half of Hopkins salary, so they did the best they could getting Cooper, who's just about as good as Hopkins.

I've been posting for a couple of weeks that I thought Garrett might be available and would be a great fit for the Bills needs. Getting Cooper when the Browns are cleaning house was one thing, and I was thinking an even greater need would be addressed by Garrett. But I was chastised, correctly, that the cost in draft picks would be exorbitant, and not something Beane would countenance. We'd have to throw in Rousseau -- the only DE on the team who regularly does anything -- and probably two firsts, to get Garrett. That's just not gonna happen.

Part of the explanation is the other part of the team: the offense. The Bills offense generally gets better performance in the second half (the Jags game excepted, which was over by halftime and the Bills coasted). So the offense is on the field more in the second half, which by my math means the defense is out there less. Also when the offense gets in gear and takes the lead, the other teams generally stop running so much. Why are they both better in the second half (again, the Jags excepted)? Maybe the Bills are so good they can play vanilla the first half, then the OC and his guys, and the DC and his guys, get together, and start calling more aggressively in the second half. Knowing that only a few teams can match them when they get going. There ARE some teams that can match them, and that should win more than five times out of 10 games with the Bills. That's the nature of a re-set year. As we've been expecting all year, the Bills should stroll to the AFCE again, this time probably getting the 4 seed and a home playoff game, maybe win that, then lose in the next round. A pretty good year all things considered. Next year is when all the pieces should be back in place.

I'm thinking you're right, that it was Douglas and not Rapp.

A few years ago the league made it illegal for little defenders to cut the legs out from under massive O linemen coming downfield. The defender is supposed to take on the lineman, giving up 100 pounds or so. This was done to protect the linemen from injury. Rapp made a brilliant play in a similar situation. He slipped past the Jets lineman and made a tackle. The play was so good because it's so hard for DBs not to get blocked out of the play. I don't think Johnson deserves the fine, but the league is definitely trying to send a message -- DBs, don't even think about it. We NEVER hear about punishment levied against officials. The league handles those matters behind closed doors. There was widespread disgust from sports writers at the way the officials lost control of that game.