Utah John

I agree with you, WEO. The real purpose of this bill is to attract political attention, not to solve anything. As you said, the sexual harassment issues are already being addressed. If anything this bill just lets the NFL know that Congress expects action on that issue. As for the stadium funding question, that's just to attract attention.

This bill is an attack on the NFL for the continuing problems with misogyny and sexual harassment, in general, and with the behavior of the Washington Commanders in particular. The way to attack the NFL is to go after money, so the bill links up an unrelated issue -- public financing for sports stadiums -- with the women's issues. I look at it like a big bomb dropped near the real target, that gets debris on the target but also makes a big splash that gets everyone's attention. Should stadiums get tax breaks? That's a good topic for a discussion and possibly for changing things. Let's have that but let's keep these two unrelated issues separate. And certainly the women's issues need to be addressed.

Fan since 1963, age 7, when the Bills battled Boston, and my cousins had moved from WNY to the Boston suburbs so the arguments had started already. That's when I figured out how the playoffs worked: Whichever team, Buffalo or Boston, won more games, got to play San Diego for the championship. Not whoever the western division champ was, just San Diego. That made sense to me and in those years I was right. We listened to Bills games on the radio, and Jack Kemp and his high-pitched voice was the sound of the Bills. Now and then we could get them on television. After the games all the boys in the neighborhood would pile out of their houses and we'd play football in the back yards, arguing over who was going to be Jack Kemp. I clearly remember the Kemp-Lamonica debates. Eventually my uncle got a color TV and we'd watch the games at his house. I remember watching the first game of the 1967 season, and the Bills beat the Jets, but my dad and uncle both shook their heads and said it was going to be a long year. Favorite Bills football memory: First game of the 1974 season, Monday Night Football vs the Raiders. The Bills took the lead late in the 4th quarter and had the ball to run out the clock. Then Braxton fumbled and the Raiders ran it back for a TD and the lead. Ferguson brought the Bills back and hit Ahmad Rashad in the left half of the west end zone. All this with OJ out, hurt as I recall. The first two or three years Rich Stadium was open, I was a vendor in the stands, selling pop in 73 because I wasn't drinking age yet (only 17) but after I turned 18 I could sell beer. Great job, but lousy beer. Got to watch a lot of OJ runs for free, and made some money besides. Favorite Bills non-football memory: In 1972 or 73, our HS band (West Seneca East) did an exchange with a band from a HS in Maryland. They came to Buffalo to see the Falls, and we had a free day in DC. Seven or eight of us boys found Rep. Kemp's office and asked to see him. And we got in! The other guys just looked at the football photos on the walls, but Kemp and I got into a long argument about development in China. I thought the people in China were really benefiting from the improved standard of living, and he thought the people in China deserved better human rights. Turns out we were both right. Favorite Bills player. OK, so many obvious choices, but I'll give Freddy Jackson some love. No one played with as much heart. A good back, not a great back, but always trying. Beat out Marshawn Lynch for the starting RB slot. I was so sad he couldn't last another couple of years so he could taste the playoffs. Favorite current player. Josh, of course. I started on The Stadium Wall in the mid to late 90s. (The Dean and I were pretty active posters. Is he still around? I haven't seen his posts for a long time.) I was living in California then and posted as John in CA. Moved to Virginia in 2000, and posted as John in VA. Moved to Utah in 2008 and became Utah John. Moved to Alaska in 2018 and kept the Utah John name.

Another thread asks if Diggs will be a first ballot HOFer. The answer is probably yes, but it might not be the NFL HOF. Or not ONLY the NFL HOF. nice

None of these QBs play defense, so if you want to evaluate QBs as QBs, you have to look at what THEY do and not what their team does. Both Mahomes and Allen can make great, innovative, dynamic plays on a regular basis. They have both learned to make good decisions. Both can dissect a defense. Burrow and Herbert are great passers but I haven't seen the rest of the skill set from them yet. Good ranking. I can't argue with any of these placements.

If the Bengals had won the SB, that would have been just perfect, another key game where the deciding score was enabled by a ludicrously blown call. How a ref can miss TWO penalties on a WR -- both grabbing the facemask and offensive pass interference -- and let a team take the lead, should be unbelievable. But believe it. It happened.

He might have to sell, but he'll make a profit, no doubt about it.

OK, sure the 13 seconds at the end of the Chiefs game was on the coaches, and were it not for those mistakes we probably win the SB this year. OR the Bills don't lay complete eggs against the Steelers and Jags, two teams they should beat easily, and they get home field and the #1 seed, and don't lose to KC or anyone else in the playoffs. That's on the players as well as the coaches. I'm just saying there are other ways to avoid the disaster and the disappointment. I think the players realize how close they came this year and what they need to do differently next year.

That's because he had the most practice.

The Rams chose to go all-in for this year. Going forward they'll struggle to keep their team together. Beane has been conscientiously working to build an enduring top-notch team, one that will be strong year after year, by NOT chasing high-cost performers that distort the payscale of the players under the salary cap. Are good players better than picks? Well, good players on their rookie contracts are a hell of a lot cheaper than veterans, and that matters if the goal is to have a strong, complete team. If the Rams win the SB, they'll look smart for having made the choices they did. But they almost didn't make it, which would make them look foolish for making the same choices. And whether the Rams win the 2021 SB, it's a really likely outcome that the 2024 Bills will be better than the 2024 Rams.

You're right, and it's obvious if you just watch the video closely. Of course the orchestra wasn't faking it, so they must have worked out how to accompany a taped performance ahead of time.

Sure, let's ignore the offense for another year. In the guns and butter debate that economists like to have, defense is guns and offense is butter. We keep thinking we can win by investing more and more and more into the defense, and let Josh and Stefon and Gabe figure out how to score points with an O line that's shedding players, and no depth and no real playmakers at RB and TE. Then when that doesn't work we'll blame the problems on the new OC. A society that puts all its money into defense and nothing into helping its citizens develop, won't amount to much for very long. A team that can't stop fixing its defense long enough to keep its offense healthy won't win a lot either.

The Bills QB that Mac Jones is comparable to is Joe Ferguson. Not very tall, and not much of an arm, but a good game manager. He can win if he has a strong defense backing him up, and if NE ever gets themselves an OJ that will make him look even better.

Allen definitely did NOT whine about OT. He said the rules are the rules, and if Buffalo had won the coin toss the Bills would have been the ones celebrating. Classy and NOT whining.

About Josh's pushing for Dorsey to move up to OC, I think this is likely because he thinks Dorsey will follow the path Daboll laid down. Josh likes that path, naturally, and would not welcome some outsider OC's ideas being installed to replace what works so well for him. But, three things. First, Dorsey hasn't called plays before. Sure Dorsey understands Daboll's system, but he hasn't had the pressure of making calls in critical moments during games. Let's hope he's up to the challenge. Second, to be successful, an OC has to be innovative, constantly coming up with new schemes because anything they've done before will be on tape, and the opposition has a chance to try to stop it. Can Dorsey innovate? Can he come up with new ideas? Actually in this case Dorsey could very well be better, since Daboll's new idea well might have run dry by now. We'll have to see whether this is a positive or negative area. Finally, while a new OC could very well disrupt what the Bills' offense is used to doing, it might be an outsider brings strength to the running game that Daboll never really exploited. We'll never know about this change since it didn't happen. Hiring Dorsey was a "it ain't broke so don't fix it" kind of move. It could work out and of course I hope it does. But we'll never know what we might have had with a new guy. Of course we do have a new guy as the QB coach, and that new guy was an OC last year, so if Dorsey's not up to the job, maybe a change happens anyway. I hope that doesn't occur, and that the offense continues to be as lethal as it was in the two playoff games. The biggest question for the offense next year actually isn't the coaches, it's the players. The only QB on the roster now is Allen. How well and how quickly can new guys come in and fit into backup roles? With Allen's style of playing the backup QB is very important. Also how many WRs can we count on for next year? Diggs and Davis. Sanders was looking pretty much over the hill late last year. Beasley has lost a step and is expensive. McKenzie apparently will never forgive McDermott for benching him, and will be looking to leave. The only legitimate TE we have is Knox. At RB, Singletary has come into his own while Moss has faded. On the line, Ford and Feliciano have shown they aren't good enough, Bates is a FA, and Williams is way overpaid for a guard. Overall, it's looking like an offense with good players at most of the positions but with no reliable depth at all. The Bills have been drafting defense for so long and have not focused on building the offense's personnel, either depth or new starters. The only true need on defense is at CB -- it's time to bring the offense back up. Otherwise, if we get a critical injury -- and of course we will -- there won't be any material for Dorsey to work with anyway.

The Bills won, but boy were they a bad team that year. I can see why Dallas was embarrassed at losing. I think Ferguson was playing hurt, and he was very ineffective. The Bills didn't have any WRs that could play. (Was this the first year after Jerry Butler's injury? That was such a shame, for such a good player to have his career ended.)

I hope Dennis Allen got a long contract -- at least 6 or 7 years -- on the grounds that it's going to take a few years to clean up the mess, and he doesn't want to get that job started and then get fired because he's not finished yet. It's a little late in the coaching carousel calendar to find a great new OC (and DC for that matter) in New Orleans. Everything is lining up against this guy's early success. He'll be coach of the year if he gets to 9-7.

The Bills had a great defense who Schwartz was DC, but they had built that defense to play his style. There is zero chance the Bills want to start over, building a new defense, when we're in the SB window NOW. Plus look at all the high draft picks on our D -- we've invested so much in building Frazier's and McDermott's idea of how a D is supposed to work. It was Wrecks Ryan who pushed Schwartz out. I don't think Schwartz would hold a grudge against the Bills. But for the reasons I mentioned I think he's the wrong man for the job.

Well, Allen was offered the chance to go as a replacement for Lamar Jackson. He politely told them to take their Pro Bowl offer and stick it where the sun don't shine.

I think that's a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

McKenzie apparently really likes Daboll, and a lot of people are expecting McKenzie to follow Daboll to the Giants.

I'd like to see McKenzie on the team next year, but I'm not sure he wants to stay. I think McDermott burned some bridges with McKenzie by benching him after the ridiculous fumble on a KO return against the Colts. But sometimes money really talks. Especially if Beasley is cut for salary cap and performance issues, McKenzie could take on some of Beasley's pay as well as the starting slot receiver role. Neither McKenzie nor any other player is the equivalent of Tyreek Hill. We can't get Hill so we need to have the best possible alternative plan. That could be McKenzie, or possibly another player via the draft or trade. Maybe some team with a quick slot guy really needs a road grader OL player, and wants Feliciano or Ford.

I don't think the world has ever seen Daboll's personality, unleashed. I have no idea what that might be, but he's now the head guy and doesn't have to let McDermott or Saban or Belichick represent the franchise. Daboll might just be trying to establish that he's The Guy. Who knows. Maybe he figures this message will get to the players on his team. Anyway, good luck to you coach, you did very well with the Bills and we're grateful, no offense taken of course that you'd leave for a HC job. But you're not a Bill anymore.

Likeliest option, as I see it.

The reason they don't have full time refs is that the refs all have careers and they don't want to give up those careers to go sit in a room every day going over the rule book. Refs move up through the ranks, and only a few get to be NFL refs. All the time they're moving up, they're also moving up in their day jobs. By the time they get to the NFL, they're also pretty high up in the food chain wherever they work. If they quit those other jobs to become full-time refs, they wouldn't be able to go back after their NFL days were over.