starrymessenger

Like I said, forget the stats (especially the one's that don't exist). I'll stop with the accuracy stuff when Josh cleans up his mechanics and becomes more consistent with it. If he can do that he's clearly franchise material. If he can't he will be limited and will not make the best use of his talent. People refer to the height of his ceiling. You want to keep the plays that make them say that and at the same time raise his floor so that the head scratchers become more the outliers.

It was not a good pass in that Allen did not hit Clay with a perfect spiral between the numbers standing still by himself in the back of the end zone. But the thing is receivers and TEs have to make adjustments to catch the ball with regular frequency. And while not exactly a gimmie it was actually not that hard a catch for a NFL player to make. I have to think league wide in similar circumstances that ball is caught near 80% of the time. So 80% on Clay. Meanwhile Allen gets an A+ for escapability, extending the play, keeping his eyes downfield and finding a good target. In relative terms Clay was not being asked to do all that much. He's a highly paid professional. I'm sure he feels awful. But what's more important than the outcome of that play is Allen's inaccuracy, especially when on the move. This is clearly the result of a problem with his throwing mechanics/footwork that has been flagged for improvement from the get go. It also is the reason why some of his throws flutter or are flat out ducks. Clearing this stuff up remains job 1 IMO. Both his accuracy and his touch need to get better. Outside of that, I don't see many posters or pundits saying this morning that Josh Allen should have been drafted in the third round or later. Josh Allen has the wherewithal to dominate on an NFL playing field much in the same way that he stood out as a man amongst boys as a WYO Cowboy (forget the stats). That is nothing short of ridiculous. So by now it should be evident to all exactly what the bet was when the Bills drafted him. As has been said many times, Allen's physical skillset for playing the position is elite. It's only about whether he can iron out the wrinkles in his game. I think there is a good chance that he can and will and if he does the Bills certainly have their franchise QB.

I want to see her giving a post game pep talk to a lockerroom full of half naked behemoths.

Yeah. Suggests to me that coach is a little unsettled by the incident, which does not surprise me. Verbal missteps are frequently indicative of an unexpressed psychological reality (or so Dr. Freud has said). Making a public display of stripping the jacket, especially in that venue, was predictably going to be interpreted by the player as a public humiliation. Some players are wired to cower and endure, some players not so much, and it's more a question of personality and not necessarily correlated in any way with ability. One of he tough parts of coaching is management of different and frequently strong personalities. Anybody who can't do that is not going to be successful. The "process" tent has to make lots of room for different personality types. This is not to say that buying in and intangibles are unimportant. They are of course very important. I hope Ed Oliver goes undrafted like Burfict so we can sign him up as an undrafted free agent.

Great rant. Keep 'em comin.

And if he can handle it, move S. Neal into his spot. We haven't seen much of Neal, but I would not sleep on him. Upside is Cam Chancellor.

Nice to see the kid have a big game and help the team get untracked on offence. He worked his limited but important role - stretching the field - very well today needless to say. Though he also tracked the ball well for a change I have to go back and check but I think he was still catching with his arms, gathering the ball into his body, instead of his hands. # 1 WRs use their hands.

Well they are comparable inasmuch as they are both raw and inexperienced players at the same position needing a lot of work and both being in a less than ideal environment as far as their development is concerned. Obviously there are also big differences which explain why Allen is the #7 pick and Peterman a fifth rounder: basically if successful, Allen projects as a franchise guy, and Peterman as a potential backup. So, with those caveats I think you can speak of Allen and Peterman in the same breath, if that's alright with you. Actually, even if that's not alright with you.

Peterman, like Allen, is very raw and inexperienced. Like Allen, he is in a less than ideal situation as far as his development is concerned. In addition to lacking Allen's physical traits, he has not shown the QB smarts that he needs in order to have an NFL career. That really is what he needs to work on as well as the mechanical issues most rookie QBs deal with. I don't think his arm is any more of a rag than Fitz's. If he is really determined to succeed and if he can develop Fitz's smarts, I could see him enjoying a comparable career as a viable backup (because that is really what Fitz is). Can he do that? Idk. He hasn't shown it yet and it's a pretty big ask but I wouldn't say it's impossible.

I'm pretty sure that Beane thinks he saw a Cam clone in Allen. I don't think he based his decision on the notion that Allen has a higher ceiling. I think he will consider it job one well done if Allen can develop into a reasonable facsimili of Cam, and I believe that to be the objective. I don't think Beane reasonably expects Allen ever to be known as an accurate passer the way Drew Bree's is accurate. I think he will be fully satisfied if Allen can become the passer Cam is because with a decent ground game, to which Allen (like Cam) can contribute, a decent O-line and WRs, that will be good enuf as far as the offensive side of things is concerned (in his opinion). And that is asking a lot actually.

Well the rumour is that the Cards really wanted Josh Allen with Rosen winding up the consolation prize. Let's hope that they didnt again back into the right pick despite themselves.

Not surprised to see them give Gaines his shot ahead of Lewis, though it didn't work out. Lewis is fine as long as the play is in front of him but he has trouble defending longer game busting routes. He's an athletic freak no doubt but despite his straight line speed, he often loses a step when he turns and for some reason he is slow to recover. I guess the juice in his 40 time is more towards the end than the beginning. Looking forward to seeing what Wallace can do.

Hard to figure why Detroit took him just ahead of David Johnson. He's a lot smaller and slower than Johnson. Still, I figure he'd be an upgrade over fan favourite Marcus Murphy. And he should come cheap.

Ok, I looked at it lol. And y'know what, you're right, it's not good. And amongst starters Josh Allen's is the lowest in the league. Josh the strong armed flame throwing field stretcher. Daboll pretty much has to run a predominately ultra conservative 'horizontal' offence. Quite apart from the QB position, he just hasn't got the O-line and WR corps to do anything else. YPA is a reasonably reliable indicator of team success, but it is for that reason in large measure a team stat. You cannot pin it all on the QB because the calc does not adjust for receiver or O-line quality or for scheme. The adjusted calc is even less accurate as a pure QB performance measurement because, for example, sack yards come out of the gross passing yards total and sacks are added to attempts. Conversely, but to same point, guys like Montana and Warner are going to have great YPAs in part because of the playmakers at their disposal. Our QBs may be able to manage the occasional seven yard slant, but there is no Rice or Taylor here to take it 90 yards to the house. And it's probably worth mentioning that Josh and Nate are not only on bad offences, but they are raw, inexperienced players, both of them. All of this year's first rounders who are starting are right at the bottom of the league in YPA, even the ones who are clearly talented passers (as far as prospects are concerned).

Both McDermott and Beane are into the second of 5 year deals. I think they get at least another 2 years (after this year) even if the O continuous to underperforms. They will get their chance to turn it around.

With respect to the low yards per\dink and dunk criticism, that was built into the game plan. Bears have a good secondary (ranked ahead of the Bills) who were playing a lot of man with some press coverage on crucial conversion downs. To beat this you need WRs who can gain a step the at the LOS and follow that up with good crisp route running to maintain separation. The Bills WR group really are not good at doing that, especially our # 1 "go to guy" by default. Because of that its asking a lot of our QB, whoever it is, to throw downfield with anticipation. I think Daboll knew how the Bears would scheme to defend against the pass and this was his to be expected answer, the more so because the Bears are also good against the run and are capable of pressuring the passer.

For some reason he reminds me of Roberto Duran.

He will clear waivers and sign a 2018 contract. He could be useful to many teams as a situational pass rusher. His sack/pressures have been pretty good but he did have K. Mack helping him out - probably a lot.

Yeah, the book on him is that he's good as long as the play is in front of him in the run game but he can take poor angles and can be a step slow in getting back into position to make a play - exactly what we saw Monday night. With Jets and Lions he didn't play much on passing downs. So STs has been his meal ticket in the pros.

Agree, assuming he plays (other than STs). Saw a post the other day that said he was not a good athlete. But I thought his test scores (pro day I think) were really very good and his power lifting exploits confirm his raw strength.

I think the Jets will try to sign him. They have a good D but lack a pass rushing DE.

If you were to take the money you would otherwise pay him and throw it in the St. Lawrence river, it would be better spent.

No to Trestman. He looks like a muskellunge.

Well, you know, no one disagrees with giving Allen OL and WR help, but that's not really going to happen in any meaningful way until this season is in the books. So there is that. As for whether Allen would benefit from the advice a guy like Anderson could give him about playing the position in the NFL as he tries to adjust IMO he would most definitely would. It's not like the Bills have surrounded the kid with coaches well known for developing young QBs. In fact the Bills have quite the opposite reputation. Darnold has been very outspoken about helpful McCown has been to him. I don't think he was just being politically correct. It makes perfect sense.

I have no interest in seeing Anderson vs the Bears. I don't think he should be playing, healthy or not - and I don't think he will play Sunday. His role should be like JMc in NY, mentoring the rook. He can't do that if he's playing.