hondo in seattle

The encouraging things are the offense just got Cooper and the defense is getting healthier. But I'm still not sure how good this team is. Brady to me is maddening. Some days, he seems like a good-not-great OC. Other days he seems in over his head.

I'm not interested in who's "better." I just hope Brady uses them correctly. Cook isn't fast but he is quick and has good vision and picks his way through space effectively. Davis is a little battering ram. Hits holes rapidly and smashes into tacklers violently, carrying them for a few yards. They're not exactly fast elusive OJ and big bruising Braxton, but it's something like that - a complimentary pair each with their own unique strengths and proper usage.

I agree and disagree. Mahomes has the duo of Reid & Spags - the best head coach/opposite side coordinator duo in the league. In contrast, Allen has McD and a rotating cast of OC wannabees. But both QBs have had to overcome, at times, bad decisions by their coaches. And both QBs have had the advantage of playing for a good head coach in a league that has some bad ones. But yeah, Reid & Spags have helped Mahomes win Lombardis and make his reputation.

I heard a successful GM (Ron Wolf maybe - don't remember for sure) explain that drafting starters isn't the goal of the draft. Every team has 22 starters. He believed that every draft needed to produce one Pro Bowler. Two would be better. He also explained that he didn't care if the 1st round player was a bust if the 3rd and 4th rounders were named to the Pro Bowl. As long as the team kept drafting Pro Bowlers each year, good things would happen. Championships aren't built with jags. Championships are built with playmakers. So my question is: Is there a Pro Bowler somewhere in the 2024 draft?

I played a lot of sandlot football when I was a kid. We applied common sense when determining catches. I think we did a better job as kids than the NFL does with its professional referees and hefty rule book.

Offense: Keon. 4 catches, 125 yards, and arguably a long TD unfairly called back. All his catches produced 1st downs. Defense: Groot. Five QB hits and 11 QB pressures! It was a curious game because the Titans had the league's best pass defense. And yet, for the first time this year, the Bills wideouts looked legit. Coleman had his best game so far. Shakir had 7 receptions on 7 targets. And Coleman made his presence known. It was an encouraging start to the Amari Cooper chapter of the Josh Allen era.

Yikes. I enjoyed today's game once the offense got in gear. But the word, "juggernaut," never entered my mind when thinking about our receivers. (Or about Joe Brady). I hope you're right.

I believe Daboll is the best OC of the McD era. I also believe Daboll and McD have no desire to work together again.

In my mind, "Everbody eats" means throw to the open guy instead of forcing to Diggs. The problem has been there haven't been open guys. So I guess it's correct to say "Everybody eats" is a failure. Though you could say the philosophy is fine, it just needs wideouts who can get open.

Despite your warning, I'll be surprised... (1) The Bills offensive terminology is notoriously difficult. He's not going to learn the playbook with all our difficult jargon in less than a week. He'll learn the calls for certain packages and be in the game for those. But my guess is he won't be an every down player or even close. (2) The Titans pass D is good. They don't give up a bunch of "insane games." (3) Brady believes in "Everyone eats." And he's not a great pass game coordinator. He doesn't produce a lot on "insane games" for WRs. (4) Allen and Cooper will need more time to develop their rapport. I hope I'm wrong. But I'm expecting modest production from Cooper in his first game.

In limited action, Cooper won't have a big statistical day. But he will score his first TD as a Bill.

Offense: Cook. Cooper's presence will affect the defense. But with Coop still learning the playbook and Tennessee fielding the league's best pass defense, Brady will lean on James Cook. Defense: Douglas. McD's defense will confuse Levis as it often does young QBs. Levis already has multiple games this season with multiple picks. Add one more with Rasul Douglas stealing two from the Titanic QB.

Sad trivia... In the NFL this year, kickers have made 75% of kicks over 50 yards. Bass has made 75% of all his kicks. www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/nfl-not-considering-narrowing-goalposts-amid-record-setting-field-goal-blitz/ar-AA1ssvJM?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=d87aad79a0834c3ab9e83a4f69bed060&ei=39

Saban also said, “I think Amari Cooper is a great player, and I think he’ll make a huge impact with the Bills, who have a good offensive team, good quarterback, and all that... I love the guy. If I was coaching a team, I’d want him on my team.” Let's hope.

Don't know anything about Ahmanrean Brown but it's a sad day for him.

Theoretically then, we could get five 1,000 yard seasons from Cooper. (A man can dream, can't he?)

I would love that. If Josh gets hurts, the season is over. That Mahomes kid would be an awesome #2.

I'm puzzled. I searched this thing for 20 minutes and still can't find him.

I'm going to be an optimist for no particularly rational reason: We're going to enter this year's playoffs healthier than ever. Defense: with Oliver and Milano back, we'll start playing like a Top Five defense. Offense: with Cooper on board and Shakir and Samual both fully healthy, our passing game will improve significantly. Even Coleman will get better as the rookie adjusts to the NFL. With better weapons to work with, and an evolving understanding of the defensive schemes deployed against him, Brady will begin to look like an upper-tier coordinator. For once facing teams with more injuries to key players than we have, we'll make a run all the way to the SB. Go Bills!

I expected more 12 personnel as well. The old football truism is you put your best 11 on the field. I don't think Knox and Kincard are All-World but they're better than MVS, Coleman, Hollins, and Samuel. Then you add in that Brady runs a bit more than he passes, it seemed like 12 personnel would be an easy and sensible choice.

Some of the ire is contextual. We were spoiled by Hyde and Poyer who were among the best tandems in the league for a long while. As you say, Hamlin is a "serviceable starter." That's not what we're accustomed to and that's not what we want if winning a Lombardi is a goal. But Hamlin starting is not some kind of bad joke.

His birth name is Bishard. His mom and/or aunt (depending on who's telling the story) started calling him 'Buddha' when he was an infant because he looked like a baby Buddha. I guess they changed the spelling to 'Budda' to give it a twist. As a practicing Buddhist, it drives me crazy to see it spelled wrong.

Ripley's Believe It or Not... According to the Bills Wire, Hamlin was our 2nd highest graded defensive player versus the Jets. Hamlin was graded even higher than Taron Johnson who's impressive pick sealed the victory. Top Five PFF grades for the Jets game... Rapp... 76.4 Hamlin... 71.4 Groot... 70.7 Taron... 67.2 Cam Lewis... 62.7

This is probably why he hasn't been cut yet. Well, this and his contract. But Bass is only 75% this season (tied for 30th in the NFL) and seemed to fall into a funk at the end of 2023.

This is all true. But let's also remember that Beane and McD have built the defense to stop the pass first. Nickel has been our base since McD's arrival and we've run Nickel more than anyone. In my youth, a Nickel defense was called "Pass Prevent." The other thing you notice about Beane and McD is they don't want LBs who can't cover. To exaggerate a bit, our LBs are just larger DBs. Think of the big bruising, tough-as-nails, knock-the-snot-of-you LBs of NFL lore - guys like Dick Butkus, Chuck Bednarik, Jack Lambert... All Hall of Famers. Beane wouldn't draft any of them and if he did, McD wouldn't start them. They both want faster, rangy coverage guys as LBs. This stop-the-pass first philosophy works really well when your offense puts a lot of points on the board forcing the other team to throw to keep up. In other words, it worked better when Daboll was the OC and we scored a lot. It doesn't work as well when Brady is your OC.