hondo in seattle

Isn't that, though, the idea behind power rankings? It's not about win-loss records and more about which team is actually the best? According to ELO ratings (which are used to rank chess players but can also rank any other competitive sport/game), the Bills are #2. They have Josh rated as the #1 QB. ww.nfeloapp.com/nfl-power-ratings/

Everyone likes different things. I grew up in the Buffalo suburbs and chose not to live there. I'm currently in the San Francisco Bay Area. I love the proximity of the ocean. I go hiking in the mountains every week. I enjoy the multicultural environment and especially the insane diversity & quality of the eating options. But Buffalo has its charms, too. My wife from the tropics actually wants to retire there. She loves Buffalo's four seasons, especially the snowy winters.

It's a funky award. Reid, possibly the best coach today, won the AP Coach of the Year award exactly as many times as Lovie Smith and Wayne Fontes (i.e. once). Smith and Fontes both retired with losing records. Ron Rivera and Kevin Stefanski both won the award twice - once more than Reid. They also both have career losing records. Reid's been a winner everywhere he's coached and has multiple Lombardis.

I guess it depends on how you weigh the evidence. Not in the Bills favor: three losses including a blowout to the Ravens and a defense that is now collapsing. Much in our favor: we beat - reputedly - the best team in the AFC and the best team in the NFC. Both victories were unfluky and well-deserved.

Good observations. You should post this on X.

Which is weird (or maybe my memory was weird) because I recall his deep ball being one of his strengths his first couple of seasons. I think his bigger weakness has been decision making: making throws when his feet aren't set, choosing the deeper covered receiver instead of the shorter open receiver, not throwing on schedule because he's hoping something better might open up, etc. But he does seem to be making better decisions this year.

Fair enough. I only wish it was every team at its best the past two years. I think I read something somewhere that the Bills were NOT losing more player-games than the average NFL team the past couple of years. Our issue is that we were without very key players on defense during the playoffs. I would so love to enter the playoffs healthy this year - with only backups and maybe a jag or two starter hurt.

14 teams get into the playoffs. So I think the Bills odds are somewhat better than 7% since we're somewhat better than the average playoff team. Our D worries me, particularly with the injuries (but even without them). Let's call it 10% or so that we win it all. 20% we reach the SB. I'm not sure why injuries don't count. Every team has injuries but not all teams have the same injuries. There's a gigantic difference between a backup QB with a minor tear to his non-throwing shoulder and a starting QB with a broken hip.

Celebrity chef, Geoffrey Zakarian, is a fan of the beef-on-weck at Charlie the Butcher. I had it the last time I was in Buffalo and it was good.

Now that I think about it, I think you're right. Still, Beane had two choices: A) Keep Diggs and his talent on the team. B) Get rid of Digg and his issues and take $31m hit. The fact that he chose Option B tells me all I want to know. I don't want him back.

I think he's the most exciting QB ever. He makes the most jaw-dropping plays. Sometimes he does thing with his arm that few others can do. Sometimes he does things with his legs few others can do. Sometimes he does both of those on the same play. But Brady and Brees, for example, we're just so frigging consistent. They were like machines, continually make good decisions, producing completion after completion. I haven't seen that level of consistency from Josh yet. One thing that bugs me, though, is that Josh has never had a good receiving group and a good OL in the same season. Part of his inconsistency and (admittedly overrated) turnover problem has been the need for him to run around and make plays under less-than-ideal circumstances.

I get what you're saying but I see it differently. It's not real money but it's not semantics either. By NFL accounting rules, it's just the same as if we wrote Diggs a check for $31 million. $70 million of Diggs' contract was guaranteed so I'm guessing some money did change hands when we traded Diggs though I don't know how much. I assume Diggs got the remainder of that $70m. In any case, the bookkeepers allocated $31 million for Diggs this year which meant we had $31 million less for other players. My point was, you don't take a dead cap hit like that unless you really want a player gone.

For brevity's sake (a lot of us have poor attention spans), this could have been two posts: (1) 30-point streak; (2) Philly. As for the streak, I don't really care. I just want the Bills to enter the playoffs healthy for once. And Brady came out swinging the past two games because he knew he had too. I expect a little more ground-and-pound against the Pats. Additionally, Joe and Josh have obviously found a rhythm but they've proven they're also capable of 10 point games. Sometimes DCs have great game plans. Sometimes offenses go cold. Sometimes both those things happen on the same Sunday. The 30-point streak will end. P.S. Welcome to the Mafia! Despite our occassional online curmudgeon grumpiness, it's a great place to be!

This is true but football is a team sport. While of Brady's hardware is impressive, I'm not entirely convinced that Brady was better than Drew Brees. For example, Brees has more 5,000 yard seasons than Brady and Mahomes combined. As well as six seasons completing over 70% of his passes. The guy was incredible. Do Brady and Mahomes have the rings because they were better QBs or because they played on better teams with better coaching staffs? OJ was a phenomenal player who played on bad teams. For example, the day OJ gained 273 yards, the QB was the inept Gary Marangi who went 4-19 for 29 yards. OJ got all those yards despite the defense focusing exclusively on him. It's not OJ's fault the Bills didn't win championships.

We ate 31 million in cap. That's the same as paying him.

Back in the 50s, 60s and early 70s - the very best athletes became running backs. Offenses revolved around bell cow running backs. Defenses were designed to stop running backs. And OJ may have been the greatest of the great. In 1973, when he gained 2003 yards, the back who would have led the league in rushing if not for OJ had 1144. When has another RB produced 75% more yards than the 2nd best guy? Or a QB? Or WR? Brady never did this; never came close. Tua had a great year last season: 4624 yards. Josh would have had to pass for over 8,000 yards to accomplish the equivalent of what OJ did in his best year.

And if he wasn't a killer. OJ's off-the-field exploits seem to make people underappreciate his other worldly on-the-field talent. And maybe that's how it should be. Back in the 1970's - before QBs took over the game - I would have argued that not only are Jim Brown and OJ the best RBs ever, they're the best football players ever.

I hope we set the world volume level for an open air stadium currently held by the Chiefs Kingdom: 142.2. The current Bills home game record is a mere 124.8 in the open bowl of Highmark.

I liked the first six words of your post but you lost me after that. I appreciate Diggs' talent. But Beane and McD decided to pay him $31 million this year. By my standards, that's a lot of money. And they paid him to go away - to play for someone else. I don't know what was going on in the locker room but when a team pays a player millions to go play for another team, that tells you something.

I wasn't sold on Brady last year. And after the Ravens game, I'd seen enough and wanted him gone. But I'm eating my words now. We're averaging 31.8 ypg without star receivers or RBs and we've scored 40+ the past two games. Brady has schemed running attacks in games, good passing attacks in other games, and several games with excellent balance. Obviously, the offense runs through Josh but beyond him there seems to be a new hero every week. Brady is impressing me. Hope he sets the record for most consecutive 30 point games and gets no job offers anyway.

So disappointed that this didn't count.

I have a lot of respect for the Bengals because of the class their coach, players, and fans showed when Hamlin got hurt. And yet I confess to a certain sadistic pleasure when watching our rivals fall apart.

I didn't want to go to Buffalo either but wasn't given a choice - my mom gave birth there. Met an Indian Silicon Valley techie who went to school at UB. Said he'll always have a love for Buffalo because people there are truly different. Although he currently lives in the Bay Area and is thus a 49er fan, he's also a big Bills fan. Says it was unavoidable after 4 years at UB - mafia mania is joyous, contagious, and bonds people together in a unique way. And that the unpretentious, warm people taught him a lot about "the American Way." Goff doesn't know what he missed and, in retrospect, I'm happy my mom pushed me out where she did.

One thing I'll add... in Josh's favor despite me thinking recency bias is a problem. When Brady was still playing, people were already hailing him as the GOAT largely because of the rings. But - other than the rings - how much better was Brady than some of his contemporaries: Brees, Manning, Rodgers, etc? These other guys often produced more yards, TDs, etc. But Brady played on better teams with better coaches and hoisted Lombardis. And, look, he was very talented but I never saw him make throws that other elite QBs couldn't make. His game was presnap reads, good decision making, and accuracy. His consistency is what wowed you, not any individual play. OJ, on the other hand, made plays no other RB could make. Bruce had sacks that very few others could have duplicated. Brady wasn't like that - but Josh is. Sometimes your jaw drops when he does something that makes you think something like: well, maybe Mahomes could have done that but no one else.

I think there's a certain group of fans who overrates Beane's roster-building and conversely underrates McD making lemonade with lemons. McD is the primary reason that our D has been mostly good the past 7 years. We've never been loaded with talent but McD has mostly made it work through scheme, teamwork, and preparation. But when the other team schemes on offense as well as we do on defense, then it became a matter of talent. And we lose that battle. Chris Simms, depressingly, put it this way: "Bills defense just doesn’t have a singular player who can wreck a game. They rely so much on scheme over talent. And when Bills play a team that can overpower them up front and get forced into M2M, it’s over."