Utah John

OK, adding items that others have mentioned, just trying to get them all into one place: -- Luke Dawson's death -- Kim Pegula's health issue -- Dane Jackson's gruesome injury -- also Jamison Crowder's injury -- also Dion Dawkins's injury -- also Spencer Brown's injury -- also the losses of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen The Timex of NFL teams. They take a licking, and they keep on ticking. (What, you're not old enough to remember that?)

On top of the events the film mentioned, there was also the big storm that pushed the team out of Orchard Park for a week, and the heat stroke game sitting in the sun in Miami. I understand the theme of the film is the connection between the team and the community, and that's beautiful to see, but looking at it from only the team's perspective, this has been the season from hell, and they came together, fought through it, had a season with excellent results, and are in position to make it back to the SB. They didn't dominate that many games this year, except the first two and the Pittsburgh game, but considering the injuries to Hyde, Miller, Milano, Oliver, Poyer, Hamlin, Edmunds, White, Benford, Morse and Allen (and I'm forgetting some others), to keep winning and winning and winning despite the challenges, is ridiculously impressive. Maybe all that will go into the film they make after the Bills win the Super Bowl.

Who's going to dominate the conference? All of them, two or three at a time. None of them will be on a team that is able to hold it together for a decade. The salary cap, the drafting rules, and the scheduling rules all act to prevent dynasties. It will be a wonderful, exciting, disappointing time for fans of most of the AFC teams. I suspect the team that will dominate the conference from 2023-2032 more than anyone else is the Jets, and they don't even have their QB yet. But they have a very strong defense, and a great RB coming back from injury next year.

Your post could have been from 10 years ago, or 5 years ago. As long as he has a good O line, that guy could play forever.

We had a couple of first round draft picks and other key players also lose time. Milano, Edmunds, Oliver. Those guys would be the best player on the team for a lot of other franchises. And yet despite all those defensive players being out, it wasn't the defense that led to the three losses (total of 8 points) it was the offense that couldn't sustain drives in a couple of games. It was the offense that fumbled, giving away the Vikings game after the defense had that great goal line stand. It was the offense that didn't convert a TD pass right at the end of the Miami loss. Aside from Crowder and some short-term injuries to the O line, the offense did not have anything like what happened to the defense wrt injuries. Allen, Diggs and nine JAGs on offense is not good enough.

I think the Tua situation this year is going to result in changes with more restrictions. He got three concussions this year, not two. The first one was in the first Bills game. He never should have been allowed to return to the field in that game. Getting two more in the same year suggests he probably didn't fully recover from the first one. This situation should lead to a full review of the concussion protocol during the off-season.

If they do draft a defensive player high, he should be a safety. But the O line is the greatest need.

Youngsters who don't remember the 1960s. SMH. The Boston Patriots were the chief competition for the Bills in the AFL Eastern Division. They had some really great games. It was one of the Bills-Pats games where Cookie Gilchrist ran over a Boston DB, knocking him out, and then turned to the Boston bench and asked which of you m****f****s is next. Good times. Later on, the Bills weren't as good but still regarded the Pats as their main rival. Jim Nantz (the fullback, not the announcer) ran roughshod over the Bills, and basically returned the favor.

He would have been gone for the 2021 season if he'd had an offer. The Bills' incredible offense at the end of last year was his ticket to being a HC. Sticking around that year turned out to make him even more sought-after, and it should have led to a Bills SB win. While I agree Frazier has earned consideration for another HC job, I think people look at his unimpressive stint as a HC previously, and his more restrained personality than any of the younger coaches have. He always appears dour, and quiet, on the sidelines. I never see him riled up by a bad play or excited about a good play -- and that's exactly what you want in a DC. But as a HC, he might not have the inspiring personality to charge up a team. Early this season, I saw a clip with Daboll and his team laughing and cheering while Daboll sang along with some rap song they all knew. And Daboll knew it too. He related great to the 20-somethings on his team. Would Frazier? I think Frazier's currently in the job and the situation he was born to be in. I hope he stays for another decade.

Chicago's aiming for a world-class facility, and it has the history to back up its claim to that status. Buffalo is much smaller and is not a world-class city. I think I'm just being realistic here, not trying to cut down my home town. As to putting the new stadium in OP, a small part of that is to enable fanatical tailgaters to continue their parties, and that's fine. A bigger part, I think, is money, and another bigger part is time. Putting the stadium downtown would have required far more time to coordinate and fight lawsuits from who knows where -- but there would be lots. And money to open up a good space for the stadium and parking, and to redo the infrastructure (roads, highways, water, sewer) would have busted the budget. Someone in Chicago spent a lot of money for that great visualization. Maybe that was a good investment, to get the city behind the proposed changes, but Buffalo would dismiss such an exorbitant dream as crazy.

Daboll had a long career, building capabilities and getting experience, and learning from a lot of successful coaches. He held the Giants together when injuries and tough opponents derailed their happy days early success. He deserves NFC COY in my opinion. Dorsey had one year as QB coach and one year as OC. He might like the compliment of being asked to interview, but a man's got to recognize his own limitations (thanks Clint). He's just not ready. Becoming HC on a team without a QB would be a disaster for the team and his own career.

Hawaii is 5 hours after the east coast, not 6.

If there's a CB as good as Sauce Gardner available, the Bills should do what they need to, to get him. For any other CB, no. Sauce Gardner is going to be a pain in the butt for the Bills for a decade.

If Tua plays, the Dolphins will be the unBills -- the exact opposite of a team that shows love and concern for the well-being of one of their players. The rest of the team, and the rest of the league, will take note. OK, sure. I meant before yesterday.

If the Bills had had a normal schedule of mostly 1 pm Sunday games, this would be great -- staying with a 1 pm Sunday game. But since they've been bounced around so much, this game will probably feel more like just another different schedule. (I can't remember the last time they played at home at 1 pm Sunday. Does anyone know? I can't find this info on line.)

Lovie Smith was a dedicated Chicago Bear when he was a player. Getting his team to a win yesterday put the Bears into the top draft pick. Coincidence?

There was a stretch of a month and a half or so, during the second half of the season, where Detroit was nearly undefeated, losing only to the Bills, and that was a tough game for the Bills. I was really impressed by how well they played together. Their roster still has holes, but almost every roster does. Goff (and Mac Jones too, I have to say) looked like a very good professional QB. I was rooting for Detroit, partly because Aaron Rodgers has turned into such a jerk, and partly because the Green Bay organization failed to put a team around him, who despite being a jerk is still a good QB. An organization that makes so many mistakes doesn't deserve to win. And partly because I really appreciate the effort that Detroit put in, to turn into an above-.500 team in one year.

I think if we had 2021 Gabe Davis instead of 2022 Gabe Davis, we're no worse than 15-2 and probably 16-1. The AFCCG would be in Buffalo, no neutral site, and on to the SB. Davis did NOT lose those three games himself, but if he'd made plays when they were there to be made, the Bills (who lost 3 games by 8 points total) would have the 1 seed wrapped up.

Comparisons of top players are fun but they resolve nothing. It's the results on the field that matter. Mahomes and Allen take turns beating each other. Burrow so far always beats Mahomes. We have a sample size of 0.03 for Allen v Burrows so the jury's still out. There are four excellent QBs in the AFC -- Allen, Mahomes, Burrow, Herbert. Lawrence is just outside that group but could join soon. That's a lot of great competition. They're all different people and have different strengths as QBs. I think Burrow and Herbert are the best pure passers. Allen and Mahomes are the best runners but have the strongest arms and can still be really good passers. Allen is the most emotional. Allen is also the most likely to be inconsistent for large parts of games -- but when he's on, Good Lord it's amazing. They're all great leaders. All of them are good enough to win on any given Sunday, even against the other group members, and no one would think it was a fluke or an upset. They all have GMs building teams around them, but Mahomes and Allen have been around the longest which means they're the most expensive for their team's salary cap. Possibly as a result, Mahomes and Allen have the weakest receiver groups to throw to. Allen has Diggs, Mahomes has Kelce, and then there's a bunch of JAGs on both teams. For the other two, there are multiple top-level threats. The Bills have focused their investments more on defense than the other three, and except for the jinx of the DB room (reminds me of Spinal Tap's drummers) have the best defense of the four. I think the Bills have the most complete team, and we have a better shot than any of the others at the SB, but our chances are still less than 50%. Maybe Bills 35%, Bengals and Chiefs at 25% each, and Chargers at 15%. I will be shocked if any other team makes it this year.

I've been at conferences where the supposed highlight was a speaker like this. Someone describing all the bad things that had happened to him, and how he overcame them. I was bored silly, and offended that someone thought all of us needed to hear it. I have had enough challenges and setbacks in my life, and I overcame them. Should I get up and tell MY story, aggressively, as if I think it's necessary to challenge the audience to disagree with me? Total BS.

They stand to maybe lose a home game, if they lose to the Ravens. The Ravens without Lamar. It's proper that they'd object, but come on, the Bengals will kill them.

My preference would have been to add an eighth team in the AFC, thinking eliminating the bye would force KC to play an extra game. Then I realized that KC would certainly win that game, and that this would still give KC home field through the playoffs, and that would be worse than giving them a week off. The only other fair option would have been to push the playoffs back a week, and let the Bills and Bengals play in week 19. But then EVERYONE except the winner of the Bills/Bengals game gets a week off. That's not right either.

I honestly don't think Tre is the Tre we know, either mentally or physically. The Bengals' first play exposed him. He's out there doing his best but a great receiver will beat him one on one. The Bills have a serious DB problem, and they'll be fortunate if someone else beats Cinci. I think the Bills match up better against the Chiefs. And there's no way any other team should be able to beat them in the playoffs.

Either that or make the 1 seed play the 8 seed, so neither gets a bye. It totally sucks that KC could lose to both Buffalo and Cinci in the regular season and still get a bye.

So add an 8th team to the AFC playoffs. Then no team gets a bye. Why not? There's money to be made, and another team gets some glory. Maybe they'd even have a winning record.