Utah John
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Posts posted by Utah John
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1 minute ago, Billl said:
Right? This makes no sense.
And now Kevin Zeitler, a starter on their O line, came out, apparently with a hammie. Might be OK since they have a week off.
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4 minutes ago, london_bills said:
Has Minnesota ran a screen all day?
Well, they tried to. Does that count?
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1 minute ago, Aussie Joe said:
Not Jefferson’s best game today
Watching the look on Jefferson's face says it all. He was in shock and looked small sitting on the bench.
I think most of us admire Detroit's style and abilities, and except for the game against the Bills we wanted to see them succeed. I'm happy watching them rout the Vikings.
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Minnesota needs to be out in the cold. They're melting down as we watch.
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6 hours ago, Doc said:
And what's better is it likely saved Mayo's and their GM's job.
Well, turned out this Mayo has a one year expiration date. Winning this game, by only a touchdown, against the Bills' backups, shockingly didn't save his job.
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Dorsey's biggest problem with the Bills was Diggs, and the perceived need to keep Diggs happy. Once that got fixed by Brady, the entire Bills office and Josh Allen in particular exploded in capability and production. The other thing working in Brady's advantage is Kromer, making the O line into a bulging beastly thing. Plus Spencer Brown finally figured it all out and became a dominant force.
Should Dorsey have ignored Diggs earlier? That would have taken a lot more cojones than Dorsey ever showed. At the point Dorsey was fired, the Bills season was wallowing in mediocrity, and I think McD figured they had nothing to lose by moving away from leaning on Diggs.
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12 hours ago, RunTheBall said:
I think Cooper and Von will be unleashed in the playoffs and they’ve purposely been kept under wraps during the season (plus Coop got injured as soon as he got here). Both Von and Cooper have been playing a very small number of snaps this season considering their pedigree. I’m not buying the “Cooper is drawing all the attention” argument because he’s just not out there all that much. In the playoffs I expect McD to give his best players the majority of snaps since their snaps have been managed throughout the season so they are fresh for the playoffs.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Coop takes a team friendly deal to stay here. He’s a 10 year vet, he’s made bajillions since he’s entered the league. The guy is a very cerebral player, he’s not chasing the money anymore he doesn’t have to. Maybe it’s my Buffalo homerism but I think we’ve grown on him and he’s going to want to spend a couple more years with us and chase a ring.
Von is playing the best he’s played since his injury. He’s ready to explode and hopefully that will happen in the playoffs. Groot has been playing very good as well. I expect them both to get 70% of the snaps during playoff games.
I hope you're right that Cooper sticks around with a team-friendly deal. It could happen. Keep in mind that he and his family arrived in Buffalo at the absolute worst time, weather-wise. Cold and wet, cold and snowy, gray skies. Natives shrug that off but newcomers see only that, and at some point if not already it's going to get to him and his family. The gorgeous Buffalo summers are just a rumor to them.
I hope those concerns don't influence his decisions.
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The biggest advantage to having a crew of quite good but not elite receivers is that when one or two of them are out with injuries, there isn't a noticeable decrease in production. They don't all play the same way or have the same strengths but Brady always has a way to succeed with whoever is available. Also, except for Cooper who probably will go chase a bigger contract elsewhere, all the receivers make modest salaries so the Bills can afford to keep them all.
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12 hours ago, Special K said:
There are a few good candidates, but I'm going to go with Sedrick Van Pran Granger....I think the Bills view him as a future starter at the Center position(so do I), and I think a good start this week could be a solid foundation for pushing for a starting role as early as next season...if the Bills would be willing to move McGovern back to LG.
Which younger player are you looking forward to getting extended playing time this week??
I also would like to see SVPG get a good look. At the start of this year when many were worried that McGovern couldn't do a good job at center, I thought we'd see SVPG moving into the starting lineup mid-season. Well, McGovern shut that down, and David Edwards turned out to be starter-quality too. So I am not hoping to see SVPG in the starting lineup and move McGovern back to LG. The Bills O line is the best we've had in decades and I don't want to mess around with it. It will be good to know whether SVPG is the guy we want as McGovern's backup.
Just wondering what the plan is at QB. Josh starts then sits, and Trubisky takes over. Are the Bills calling up a QB from the practice squad to be Trubisky's backup? If Trubisky is hurt, does Josh have to go back in the game? If he does I hope the Bills just hand it off to RBs on all three downs, then punt, every possession.
This is a game that Pats fans want to lose, and Bills fans don't care about, but that players on both sides want to win because that's what they do.
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11 hours ago, Mikie2times said:
So our inability to advance past a certain round for several years or the Patriots and Chiefs ability to consistently do so is just randomness? It shouldn’t matter how a team does in the playoffs when evaluating the best team?
Maybe actual difference makers become more important come playoff time and maybe as nice as “The Process” sounds it doesn’t create difference makers?The "difference makers" get paid a ton more than the guys "the system" puts out across the board. Nick Bosa is on a five year, $175,000,000 contract with most of that guaranteed. Yeah, when he's healthy, he's better than anyone the Bills have. But the dollars it would take to have someone like Bosa would mean less capability at other positions. We now have really good depth at all offensive positions, and only really need to rebuild starters and depth in the defensive backfield. Teams with a couple of difference makers have serious holes at other positions, and when the difference maker is injured, the entire team feels the impact.
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An O line is a unit of five men, and its success depends on all five working together. The Bills O line doesn't have any players who are best in the league at their position, but they have an extremely strong combined unit. And, all the backups have the opportunity to learn from the starters, and be ready to step in and be another link in the chain.
Kromer gets and deserves a lot of credit, but so do Beane and McDermott, for finding and keeping the five guys who work together the best. It's taken years to get here. Think of all the players who've cycled through the Bills, and then been discarded before going on to good contracts elsewhere. There must be a dozen former Bills starting on O lines around the league. The only bad miss was trading away Wyatt Teller before the Bills realized his real potential. You can tell McBeane are happy with the current roster by the lack of changes over the past two years. They've got a very strong O line and have the luxury of grooming replacements.
Would you take Penei Sewell (and his contract) over Spencer Brown, and his contract? Sewell might be a little better but I have no complaints at all about Brown, and the extra dollars that would be needed to have Sewell would detract from somewhere else. The Bills have it figured out.
PFF says the Bills have the third best O line in the NFL. I can live with that.
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On 12/31/2024 at 9:58 AM, Mr Info said:
I will be making flight plans today to take advantage of money savings on earlier booking. Planning to leave sometime early Saturday afternoon so can do the Sat evening or games anytime on Sunday.
I am currently not thinking Bills are on early Sat or MNF game. If the Bengals are the opponent, thinking NFL will place them on Saturday late game or Sunday 4 pm or late game as this will be a big advertising $ game. Hope I am correct as doing something Sat morning. If the NFL schedules Bills @ 1 pm or 4 pm on Sat then will have to cancel the Sat morning appt and rebook flights for very early on Sat.You're a brave person to make down to the minute flight reservations the way airlines are doing lately. Any kind of weather anywhere in the country throws their entire schedule off. If you're in Ashland VA you probably can get a direct flight to Buffalo, but anyone making connections ought to leave a day earlier than you'd think necessary.
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This season has worked for the first time the way Beane wants the roster to be built. Except for QB, I don't expect any Bills to get post-season honors, although Taron Johnson and maybe one of the OTs could make a case. But like all the other top players on the team, he's not a superstar. The Bills are built to have A to A minus starters (no A plus or better, except at QB) and a depth roster with younger players on their rookie contracts, who are learning and will be able to step in. A plus players cost too much, and the delta between what an A player brings and what an A plus player brings, is not worth the delta in what they both cost. Also all those A to A minus players bond together since no one has a prima dona mentality.
Beane broke his system when he brought in Von Miller, and it might have worked out except for the injury. Also trading for Amari Cooper was an unBeane move, but it was worth it because Cooper was cheap in terms of dollars, not bad for a rental. We'll miss that 3rd rounder though. Cooper isn't getting targeted because he's drawing defenders to him, and the other receivers and backs are the beneficiaries.
It was clear from the start of the McBeane tenure that these two are building a dynasty, a team that can win season after season even if players are injured or lost as FAs, or just let go when their rookie contracts expire. (The players know what's going on and they're OK because they see how well former Bills get paid by other teams.)
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The NFL should give the 2 seed the advantage of playing on Saturday, so the winners of those two games get an extra day to prepare for the next round. That would be a well-deserved benefit prize for getting the 2 seed.
Unfortunately while the AFC's 2 seed has the second best record, in the NFC the 5 seed (Lions or Vikings) will have the second best record. So the NFL might not want to give the 2 seed (Philly) the advantage.
11 minutes ago, machine gun kelly said:
Agreed. Historically it’s been Saturday at 3:30 and 8 pm.Sunday is 1, 4, and 8:15.
Monday at 8:20.
I just don’t want Monday night as most likely one day less if rest for our team. This boogeyman thing with the Bengals is a bunch of talking heads remembering the Bengals from 2 years ago. Their defense is one of the worst in the league, hence 8 losses. I’m sure it will be the Broncos, and probably an afternoon game. Most playoff years there is an AFC and an NFC game on Saturday, and so on.
Like most teams, the Bengals have a lot of variability in how well they play. At times their defense has looked incredibly inept, but at other times it resembles a professional football team's unit. I have a lot of confidence that Brady will find ways for Allen to pick it apart no matter how well prepared the Bengals think they are.
They still have an excellent QB and two great WRs. If we play them it will again come down to whether our own defense -- in particular the D line -- shows up. Their poor play in the playoff game against the Bengals two years ago was the biggest reason we lost.
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Last year the Bills got the 2 seed by beating Miami in the last game of the season. If they had lost that game, they would have missed the playoffs entirely. (They would have been 10-7 instead of 11-6, with Miami winning the division and three other teams beating out the Bills for the WC slots.) That was with last year's defense that was very strong, losing to KC in the playoffs only after massive injuries on the defense.
This year the Bills, ho-hum, got the 2 seed again. How boring, how lack of progress, we're doomed, fire McD, etc. Well, no. They won the division with five games to go and kept on rolling. They challenged the Chiefs for the 1 seed all season long, at least after mid-October, and it was only through a series of miracles (for KC) that the Chiefs lost only the one game. Even with the patched-up defense that has trouble stopping the run, they are a much better team this year.
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22 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:
Houston game was Allen’s faultYep. This was the turning point in the season. Allen played like crap, completing 9 or 30 passes (THIRTY PERCENT) when short passes were wide open all game. I have no idea what he thought he was doing. After that, dangerous Josh turned into smart and dangerous Josh, the player I hope we'll see for a decade to come.
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2 hours ago, T.E. said:
A lot of words to say that you're content to just win the AFC East and make the playoffs. Again, some people understand that the goal is to win the Super Bowl. If you have a defensive-minded coach whose defense is a major weak point, what does he actually bring to the table? Now combine that with a history of bad game and clock management. Taking a team with Josh Allen to the playoffs honestly isn't a huge accomplishment.
I think saying McD is "a defensive-minded coach whose defense is a major weak point" is putting the most negative spin possible on what the Bills have done so far this year. It's accurate to say he's a defensive-minded coach, but what he did was take a shell of a formerly good defense that had been shredded by age, FA, and injuries, and rebuild it with new players into a credible if flawed unit. What does he bring to the table? Well, obviously, 13 wins so far and a defense that finds ways to win most of the time, while the offense almost always wins. It's an impressive achievement and a tribute to his skill.
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On 12/28/2024 at 5:13 PM, Jamone said:
The two massive coaching blunders this year cost us the 1 seed. Going for 3 straight passes and leaving enough time for Houston to get the ball back and kick a game winning field goal and choosing to accept the penalty on Los Angeles instead of 4th and 7 which would have no doubt resulted in a field goal. Just terrible. The gauntlet of how the playoffs look like they are going to play out is tragic. If we see the ravens, which is more than likely, I unfortunately see us getting bounced in the divisional round. Hopefully chargers or Pittsburgh can beat them in the wildcard…
McD cost us two games and had nothing whatsoever to do with the thirteen wins. OK, sure. Or, maybe McD and Babich patched up a defense gutted by departures and turned it into a credible, if flawed, unit. Maybe McD's organizational skills and leadership provided the support the team needed while it spent September figuring out what it was good at.
Even supposing the Bills did get the 1 seed, they would still need to beat two good teams to get to the SB. As it is, they'll play whoever falls to the 7 seed, and then have to face -- guess what, two good teams to get to the SB.
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Absolutely the Bills should be giving Bishop reps against New England. Despite their poor record, as we saw last week their rookie QB is a real talent, and it will be good for Bishop to work against good players. He has improved quite a bit over the course of the season, and I think he'll be much better after next year's OTAs and a full training camp.
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5 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:
I don't get why so many here are sweating the 7th seed already.
I don't get why so many here are so friggin insulting and negative all the time.
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12 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:
He's not getting laid enough?
anyway, Bills haven't put up a player on the wall in 18 years. If a Safety goes up, it won't be Poyer.
I'm not sure the Bills intend to even have a WOF in the new stadium. (One way to not have OJ Simpson's name up there, I suppose.) But if they do, I would like to see both Poyer and Hyde up there, next to each other.
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1 minute ago, Warriorspikes51 said:
uhh pretty sure veteran players are not subject to waiversActually Beck Water is correct. I didn't know it before but apparently it's true that players released after the trade deadline must go through waivers. Maybe it's to keep teams from trying some kind of underhanded deal. Also this means the released player's contract remains in effect which protects the players.
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1 minute ago, BuffaloBillyG said:
If the Dolphins release Campbell he would likely be scooped up by the Ravens. If he goes unclaimed I would bet he goes back there on his own.
The talk is that he'd be released, not waived. If he's waived then the team records come into play. If he's released outright, he would be free to make the best deal he could. He might choose to go back to the Ravens or he might not. Since his existing contract would no longer be in effect, it could come down to dollars in a bidding war.
3 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:Poyer on the WOF?? come on.
marriage has already killed Bernard's career??
I'm heating my home with these takes!
Yes, Poyer played great for the Bills for years. He deserves the WOF.
I didn't say Bernard killed his career. I have noticed that since his wedding, he hasn't been playing as well. Correlation is not causation of course. It could be he's playing through an injury.
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5 hours ago, Process said:
Conventional weather models, including ensemble models, are essentially skill-less two weeks out. Analog models might be useful if they're able to predict a blocking pattern or other stable situation. There's no harm in looking at whatever tool is available, but don't make big plans based on what's available. Check back in a week.
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Can't believe all the Cody Ford love during the Bengals-Steelers game.
in The Stadium Wall
Posted
The number of O linemen the Bills went through after the SB teams ended to finally get it right, is exceeded only by the number of QBs they went through between Kelly and Allen. The hard part is knowing when the guy you've got is just not going to work out, so you dump him at the right time, not too soon as they did with Wyatt Teller, and not too late as they did with Cody Ford. It was clear early on that Ford just wasn't good enough with his footwork to play the way the Bills wanted, but they took at least a year and maybe two, to finally cut bait.
Maybe Ford got better. Maybe he put in the work and got quicker and more agile, or maybe the Bengals don't really ask their guards to be athletic.
But look, this guy tried hard to make it work with the Bills. He was a good teammate and for all I've ever heard, a good all-around person. I wish him well.