starrymessenger

I know it maybe wasn't the plan but I expect Baker to be installed as the starter this year, maybe as soon as the bye. I also think it would be the right move.

This is true. The eyes are the portal to the soul. Once the eyes glaze over you know the guy has lost confidence and is done. And there is no coming back. I remember seeing Trent warming up on the sidelines before a Browns game. His eyes were dead. I thought "this is not going to end well". I thought I saw the same thing in Peterman's demeanour in a presser before the Ravens game, which frankly I did not expect from him. Said he was focussed on getting better in a weak sort of way. Hardly what you want to hear from your leader before the season opener. Projected zero confidence as though he had come to the realization that he was not up to it. I was disappointed in him.

Really awful decision. Could have been a back breaking 100 yard pick six. C'mon man!

Well poor footwork on short throws is what many observers have identified as a main cause of what they call Allen's "inaccuracy". There is a fair amount of this in his college tape. Don't mean to be argumentative because you know your stuff but I disagree that the pass to Clay in the seam was a good throw. DB recovered well but it sure looked under thrown to me (Clay slowed down) and it was a rope when there should have been more air under it.

Always liked Mitch. Looks like a good one to me.

Yeah. Both his feet were off the ground when he released the ball. Crazy stuff. It's the kind of thing that drove some analysts to distraction.

Good measurables. Runs 4:34 - 4.40. Good ball skills. Injury settled with Colts in May. Hey maybe McCoach can do something with him.

A little bit is ok. A whole lot not so much.

I've not been to New Era. Is there a Wall of Shame?

Dude has those intangible thingees nailed down pretty tight.

We're not talking about the same play (probably I didn't describe it very well). I'm referring to the WR sweep left to right just behind the line where the QB just sort of drops the ball and the WR grabs it and looks to take it upfield usually outside the numbers. I saw Goff do it (don't recall who the WR was, maybe Woodsie, and the execution was better/more fluid). I though Foster did ok on that play.

Daboll also borrowed the misdirection hand off to the WR from the Rams. Worked pretty well with Foster.

Great move by the Pats. Possibly a very good move for the player too.

Brutal. Glad it looks worse than it is.

You mean Laura. What was she doing on the field? Hitching a ride on Josh's back? I must have missed that.

Actually it hasn't been a while. Flame throwing a dart accurately through a narrow window is something JA has always been pretty good at. We saw him do it in the Panthers game (to Ray Ray), the Browns (to Streater), the Bengals (to Benjamin) and again yesterday vs Chargers (Benji again). It's a tough throw and it's great that he can make it. But it's also part of the problem. Too many of his intermediate and deeper throws are ropes with not enuf air under them (like the under thrown pass to Clay yesterday). Taking the pedal off the metal without sacrificing quickness of release and accuracy is what he must learn to do. Getting to better know his WRs and improving his field vision and anticipation are also on the list. The pass to Ray Ray vs the Panthers was great but he had at least one much easier read if he had been able to recognize it (don't recall who the WR was).

I can see how/why fans are impressed and encouraged by what they saw in Allen vs Chargers. But what they saw (and liked) is basically what got him drafted high in the first round and, for now anyway, nothing more. Pre-draft I obviously didn't get to see tape of all his throws at WYO in 2017 but I saw as much as was available on the net, including what I thought was some pretty astute analysis and breakdown in expert analyst podcasts. And what I saw yesterday afternoon was exactly his 2017 tape, or such of it as I got to see. He absolutely looked like the same QB - a physically imposing, determined and mobile raw flame thrower with a strong arm but with footwork/accuracy issues, poor touch and field vision limitations. So I hesitate to sign up to the idea that there has been lots of progress already in his development. If there is I don't see it. Of course it is unreasonable IMO to expect substantial improvement at this early stage but then the hype machine should stop talk about how far he has come for now. He is having to learn from scratch. It's not lining up under centre 30% of snaps that made his WYO offence a pro template. He was given half field and single read responsibilities in a simplified scheme that did not incorporate timing concepts. At the end of the day it was pretty much a standard college O where the QB waits to see if the first or second read breaks open and only then commit. If not, tuck and run. Any wonder then that he needs to learn how to throw guys open with anticipation. There have been some comparisons with Mahomes. Mahomes always threw with anticipation, good instincts, and accuracy. He was very much a natural passer, not just a thrower, that way. His problem was with footwork and of course also (and probably even more so) with beginning to absorb the many complexities of the pro game that a QB needs to master. The laundry list of things that JA needs to work on is longer. Also, JA has been given none of the benefits and advantages that Andy Reid made sure were available to Mahomes. I would have liked JA to redshirt this year before starting but things haven't developed that way so I'll stop complaining about it. Point is tho that Allen has not been done any favours by the Bills. If he manages to overcome and get better the credit will be all his IMO. What we need to see now is gradual improvement. If by the end of the year he's the same guy that we saw yesterday that will not be good because that was not good enuf.

Assuming they get to choose, I've been wondering whether it will be Oliver or Bosa. My guess is Bosa but only because I see them wrongly thinking that HP can serve as a reasonable facsimile of an elite 3 tech.

Well really only Foster is bigger and faster. Not sure he qualifies as a "target" though. So far maybe just a "person of interest" if that.

Maybe but my fear is that if he tries to go vertical behind this line he's more likely to wind up horizontal.

Im beginning to trust the protest.

IMO there is no way that starting JA on this offence at this time is conducive to his development. Common sense strongly suggests the opposite. I'm actually not that concerned about a loss of confidence. He's a player that has already overcome a lot of adversity on the path he followed to the NFL so I see him as unusually strong mentally for a rook. What worries me is that in the circumstances live action isn't where he should be working on improving the (hopefully correctable) mechanical issues affecting his game and beginning to decipher the complexities of NFL defences. I fully expect to see him do some things that as Bills fans we have not seen for a very long time. But the reason for this will be his extraordinary physical ability, not his ability to run a pro offence (and no he did not run a true pro style offence at WYO). The natural ability that he flashed in college is what got him drafted high in the first round. I'm fully on board with that. But I don't want him to continue to be that player. He needs to be a different and much better player. To me the Bills have put him in exactly the same position he was in at WYO - behind a poor team with a bad line and few playmakers. I don't want to witness a replay of WYO vs Iowa week after week, but I fear I may have to. Josh Allen is not Jamarcus Russell or Ryan Leaf. He's better because in addition to physical gifts he is a hard worker and he's bright. Raw intelligence is not always the same as football smarts (or vice-versa) but it's a definite positive. To me he's not Jake Locker or Kyle Boller either. He's determined to succeed and he can make throws that other strong armed QBs who failed don't make. So with all these qualities it's just possible that he will see his way through this situation and find a way to get better. If he does the credit will be all his (not the Bills) because regardless this is no way to bring a raw rookie QB along and he should never have been put in this position. The Bills defence can and I think will play better. That will take some of the pressure off. After that it will be up to Daboll to come up with a gameplan that focuses on Allen's development and bodily security. Putting too much on his plate is almost certainly a disaster in waiting because you know that this player in particular will take it upon himself to throw the whole team on his back, just as he had to do week in and week out in college, and that's when the risk of injury becomes more palpable. The NFL is light years beyond the Mountain West Conference.

Yeah I know WRs can be slow to develop and he probably didn't land in such a good spot but to me he really hasn't shown anything good at all so far and I do find that concerning and even surprising. Also not sure how the move to JA will affect Zay. One of the things Josh needs to work on is making his throws, especially the short ones (but I'd add intermediate) more catchable/receiver friendly. A little too much mustard on them at times.

A very reliable anonymous source told McCoach that Bridgewater was a Muslim from Africa.

They are better than Zay. Both of them.