hondo in seattle

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Yeah, passer rating - like every other metric of QB proficiency - is flawed. But it's suggestive. It measures something meaningful. And I think it tells us something when 4 of the 5 season that DA had at least 100 attempts, his passer rating was higher than JA's. As is his career passer rating. Ignoring numbers, here's what my eyes tell me having watched them all play: Derek is a bad starter. JA - so far - has been a very bad starter. NP has been horrific. I'll be surprised if DA doesn't play better this year than NP has. But I'd like to see Allen get back in the saddle at some point because he needs game time reps.

Maybe. Josh has looked a little lost at times. Overwhelmed even. More time in the film room will help him diagnose defenses. That'll lead to more confidence and quicker decisions. He shouldn't be allowed back on the field until he can make a good pre-snap read 19 times out of 20.

DA has a career passer rating above 70. NP has a career passer rating below 30. I think the positivity around DA is relative.

Good post by The Frankish Reich But let me take a simpler approach that looks at our QBs specifically. Here are their career passer ratings: NP: 29.9 JA: 61.8 DA: 71.1 Derek Anderson's knowledge of the playbook will be limited. But we've heard that Daboll was using a simplified version of his EP offense with Josh and Nate. Whatever DA runs won't be dumbed down much from what NP and JA were running. And DA has run the EP in the past. He should be able to get up to speed quickly. Anderson's 71.1 passer rating isn't great - but it's better than the crappy QB play we've been getting.

It's interesting how some coordinators will excel one place and flame out another. I guess roster talent and HC involvement matter.

I just thought the tone was harsh. The line, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" comes to mind when thinking about the QB situation. Beane said something about AJ not being who they thought he was. In any case, he looked bad in preseason and practice. He was probably supposed to play two roles: interim starter and constant mentor. Well, that didn't work out. Peterman looked good in preseason - decisive and accurate. But he turned out to be fool's gold. And so the original plan for developing Josh turned to crap. (Though some argue the best way for a QB to learn is on the playing field). Each decision Beane & McD make is an uncertainty. They weigh the odds and make rational decisions based on the best information they have at the time. It's kind of a 'game theory' thing and sometimes things just don't turn out. But, as someone said, you're no Sully - and to me that's a good thing. Sully whined to whine. You made good arguments and the Phantom of the Opera references were unexpected! Federal Way is a good place for Korean food - but probably no better than what you have in SoCal. The two Taco Bells in Auburn used to belong to a company I ran. Next time up during football season, you should hang out with the Bills Backers in Seattle. I haven't been with them since I moved to the west side of the Sound a couple years ago. Back then we used to have good turnouts - sometimes crowds in excess of 100 all singing "Shout" together after TDs. I love our fan base.

Screenwriter, huh? Cool thing about TBD - and fandom in general - it brings people together from all walks of life. Nice article, KtD, even if I disagree.

Today I went to the hospital with an acute pain in my side. Turns out I have kidney stones. I cracked a few jokes and smiled a few times during my stay in the hospital. At no time did I actually think the situation was funny.

I think Daboll was hoping early on that Josh could connect with Foster on a couple deep throws to force opponents to defend the entire field. That obviously didn't work out. As far as I could tell, Foster's only football skill was that he could run fast.

It's not really a fair comparison if you're looking at Hackett's tenure with the Bills versus Daboll's. Hackett was not an independent OC. Players grumbled that he wanted to open things up but Marrone wouldn't let him. I'd also argue, though, that Hackett had better players. If I had a choice, I'd go with ALynn running Roman's run concepts. With our QB situation, we need to be able the run the ball but our OL isn't very good. To compound matters, our only legit offensive weapon (Shady) needs space to do his best work and this OL doesn't create space. ALynn put up a lot of points with a mediocre OL and QB - though not this mediocre. Gailey also did well with limited offensive talent but even that roster had more to work with than this one. It's hard to judge Daboll because I think this squad would make any OC look incapable.

Yes... if Allen doesn’t show anything when he comes back. And keep drafting QBs until we find a winner. But if Allen looks like the guy by the end of the season, we’ve got to start building up the WR corps and OL. Obviously.

I really wanted to keep TT until Josh Allen - or someone else - proved to be the better QB. But you hit the nail on the head. Beane is saving money for next year Christmas.

We haven't had a competent offense all year. Why would anyone expect Anderson - with a week or so to prepare - to suddenly bring competency to this offense? He may, however, be a step up from NP.

I was thinking the same. There are advantages to learning from the bench. There are advantages to learning with live game-time reps. Allen gets both. It looked like Allen might have been overwhelmed on the field. So we've hit the pause button and he gets time to reflect and learn from a vet.

Dunkirk Don Reborn was wrong?

Just to be a rebel... Bills 13, Colts 10.

I agree. I know the Bills have the lowest paid roster in the NFL. I wonder how that breaks down between offense and defense - because the D is actually playing well. The O, on the other hand, is painful to watch. I disagree. In just one year with Beane, the defensive roster is already on its way to being very good. And - according to Over the Cap - we have the 4th most available cap dollars in 2019 and the most in 2020. That didn't happen by accident. Beane very planfully got rid of the big contracts so he'd have some money to spend going forward. While I'm convinced Beane has a plan, I don't know if it'll be executed successfully because I don't know yet if Beane knows how to draft well or how to capably spend FA dollars. We'll see. Allen was out there to gain live reps. He's unpolished and needs experience under center - though the circumstances have been far from ideal. I'm sure McD is trying to win every game. Given how he's managed the cap, Beane clearly sees this is a rebuilding year - kind of like an extended preseason for 2019.

I get get everything you’re saying and you’re right. But we have the lowest paid roster in the NFL this year. On the other hand, we have gobs of cap space in 2019 and 2020. Circumstances like that don’t happen by chance. Beane minimized spending this year to build a better future. This year is a train wreck by design. You can’t let every other team to outspend you and expect to be competitive. Having said all that, I’m guessing Beane didn’t expect the QB position to be this bad.

Beane had rational reasons to make each of the decisions that he made. But with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we can see that Peter King is right. The QB position - in its entirety - was mismanaged. Given where we're at now, you can't argue the point. Here we are with our only healthy QBs being Nate Peterman and his sub-30 career passer rating, and mediocre journeyman, Derek Anderson, who's barely had a week to learn the offense. Feels a bit like '68 when the awesome trio of Dan Darragh, Ed Rutkowski and Kay Stepenson were in the QB room and each of them had starts.

So if the year was 1921, our passing offense would be cutting edge? Ahead of its time? I feel so much better now!

Whether or not Allen is on par with the other rookie QBs is, to me, meaningless. They could all turn out to be busts or superstars. Who knows? The fact is that Allen's current level of play is inadequate. The pertinent questions are: Can he correct his shortcomings? How? Allen's arm is impressive. But the list of things he needs to correct is also impressive: inconsistent mechanics, accuracy, pre-snap reads, post-snap reads, decisiveness... Most/all of his problems are potentially correctable. But there's so much he has to work on that it's hard to confidently predict that he'll be a franchise QB some day. My fingers are crossed and I'm certainly pulling for him but I wouldn't bet the farm just yet.

Good QBs are hard to find. There are maybe 10 or so in the entire world. Our problem is that we haven't found one yet. You could argue that in the entire 50+ year history of the Buffalo Bills, we've only had one truly good QB. Beane's only had a year so far to find one. Maybe we should give him more time. And the photo, while amusing, proposes a false choice. McD isn't choosing Peterman over a competent QB. So far, he's been choosing Allen (not yet a competent QB) over Peterman. In the army we have an expression: "developing the situation." Instead of following a rigid plan, when the realities are fluid, a leader is expected to 'develop the situation' as circumstances change. Peterman is proving that his good showing in preseason wasn't predictive. Allen is looking like a raw rookie. Similarly, there's been some disappointments at other positions - but some good news too on defense. With $80 mil or so in cap money next year, let's see if Beane and McD can effectively develop the situation.

If strategy is the problem, you go to the sky box where you can see the game better. When execution is the problem, you get on the sideline where you can coach and impact your players. I agree that Daboll made the wrong call. This offense needs a leader, and you can't be a leader of men when you're not even with your men.

How do you know what Daboll expects? We can only judge his actions, not his intentions. He might be giving Allen a lot of chances to throw the ball - with minimal expectations of immediate success - to develop his skills for next year. I agree with you that the run designs aren't creative. However, I will add that poorly skilled players can make any OC or DC look bad. Mistakes stand out more when plays are unsuccessful. When skilled players make good plays out of nothing, the coordinator doesn't get blamed for the initial nothing.