Forward Progress

This article on Darryl Johnson just came out today. Sorry for posting from a paid site (it's the only paid site that I subsribe to), but it's a great article that goes into Johnson's background and path through high school and college. https://theathletic.com/1154574/2019/08/22/he-can-be-a-beast-in-this-league-how-darryl-johnson-became-the-surprise-of-the-bills-draft-class/ Small excerpt: His old coaches have seen this movie before. “He’s always faced this same scenario: ‘Fight for a spot and show what I can do.’ He’s accustomed to this,” Coffey said. “He’s hungry for this. He’s not going to let up. He’s just always kind of been in that mode where he’s had to prove his value and his worth in some type of way. There’s no reason for me to believe he’s not going to respond now. “I promise you, you guys haven’t seen anything yet,” Washington said. “The sky is the limit with this boy. He’s going to do some things because of his natural ability and talent but also his work ethic. He’s going to outwork the average guy.”

The Jets, who picked 3rd overall in this year's draft, are not in the bottom 10?

Through our entire playoff drought, I don’t remember any of our QB’s getting the bashing that Allen does. Our string of QB’s has been Kelly Holcomb, JP Losman, Trent Edwards, Ryan Fitzpatrick, EJ Manual, Kyle Orton, and Tyrod Taylor - none of these guys got the national disrespect that Allen is getting. The stat sheet scouts have very strong opinions against Allen because, in their opinion, numbers never lie. It’s reached crusade level recently.

Hmmm... it is tempting to give up a first round pick to add a me-first personality to team-first team. Let me sleep on it.

As long as we lose our NFC matchups, tie breakers will put us in the playoffs and nobody gets fired. ?

Slightly off of your topic... I don’t like the booth reviews. Managing your challenges and timeouts is just another strategic layer of the most strategic pro sport. I think every very challenge should be a coaches challenge, so coaches who are better with challenges have a strategic advantage over those who challenge poorly. No more automatic reviews on scoring plays, turnovers and in the final two minutes. Let the coaches be the only source of challenges. The result will be that only game-changing plays are challenged, which should be the purpose of the challenge system.

Funny, I thought this was going to be a thread about trading away the players who don’t make the final 53 with the Bills to teams who would trade day-3 picks in return. Instead, it was an actual garage sale thread.

I’m worried that our team has improved so much that I will be disappointed when we make the playoffs as a wildcard team instead of winning the division with a bye and a home playoff game.

This looks like the best five on the field to me. When we signed Spain in free agency, I checked out the Titans board to see their response. They weren't really sad to see Spain go.

This has me excited. There were two many games where teams ran it down our throats last year and Edmunds choosing the right gap will go a long way toward correcting this. We already know our pass defense is very strong... if our run game is strong like it appeared last night, this defense will be elite.

Move to Canada and get DAZN. Every NFL Game (live or delayed) and European Premiere Soccer (plus some sports I don't watch) for $150 Cdn per year. If you only watch NFL, $20/month might be better. We are nice people here, I think you'd like us.

Thanks to three injuries to the guys above him, he got a lot of reps for a 7th round draft pick. It sounds like he made the most of his opportunity. I'm looking forward to seeing him with my own eyes tomorrow night. I'm still higher on Knox than Sweeney as he is significantly faster and he was playing well up until the injury. In addition to his own routes, his speed will help with down field blocking as well.

Realistically, there isn’t room for both the Jets and the Bills in the playoffs. Assuming the Patriots continue their reign of dominating the AFC East, it’s unlikely that both AFC wildcards come from the same division. The winner of this game is much better positioned than the other for a wildcard spot. The fanbase of the losing team of this game will be hurting after this game as both fan bases view this as a winnable game.

That is a different scenario than I had in mind. Thanks for the clarification. I’m sure the players are tired of practice and ready for some real football by now.

I like the habit of taking a shot when the defense jumps offside, even in practice. You want the WR’s to develop the habit to run the full route every time, even on a flagged play.

After thoroughly scouting a 5-min highlight reel, I thought Duke would be our 5th receiver. Unfortunately, he hasn’t made many headlines so far, so I have to admit that he feels like a long shot now to make the roster. He could hang on to the practice squad, it’s probably between him and Sills for that spot. I may also have to accept that my scouting methods have let me down. Next year, no less than 7-min highlight reels before forming an opinion. ?

Met Life Stadium Standings after Week 2... W-L Bills 2-0 Giants 0-1 Jets 0-2

I agree with the OP if you define the weakest link as the weakest player on the field. The weakest player on defence gets targeted more than any other player and likely has a greater effect on the game than the strongest defender who is avoided. The weakest member of the O-Line will be targeted in the pass rush. Weak receivers can be shut down in single coverage by average defenders leaving double coverage for the top receiving threats. When comparing the top-heavy Whaley rosters with a deep and balanced roster (like I think we are building here), I believe the deep and balanced rosters are more successful.

I’m happy to Singletary’s high pass blocking grade. I wasn’t expecting to see that.

I wanted to like the Browns after so many years of struggling. However... The personality of the Browns' players are wearing on me... between the cockyness of Mayfield and the me-first attitude of OBJ, I find it really hard to like this team. Just another team to add to my hate list, topped by the Pats*.

I am in Ontario, but much closer to Detroit than Buffalo. The fan base here is pretty diverse, with fans of the Lions, Packers, Steelers, 49ers, Patriots and Bills. There are not enough fans of any one team to dominate the region. To be fair, it was the marketing strategy of the Bills to play their games on Global TV (then CTV and City TV) every week, beginning in the late 90's that picked me up as a fan. Watching the same team, week after week sucked me in and now I'm obsessed with all things Bills related 365 days per year. My sons are also diehard fans of the Bills as well.

So true. Right now there are about 25 fan bases (Bill's included) that expect their team to make the playoffs this year, because, on paper, almost every team is better than last year. The league feels more balanced than it has for a long time with a large number of young and capable QB's joining the league in the last few years.

In the NHL, it is common for the back up goalie to play when teams play in back-to-back nights to give the starter a rest night. They could have schedules without back-to-back games so that every game is high quality, but they want more game revenue. In the MLB, teams have a rotation of five starting pitchers because they need recovery time. Catchers get rest days occasionally as well because their legs need time to recover. They could schedule games once per week so that every game features the ace pitcher, but they want more game revenue. I understand and that the QB is more integrated with the other players on offence, but other sports already have accepted the practice where players in prominent positions miss games and the fan bases accept it. I agree with other posters that the NFL has something special where every game is of high importance which adds to the fan experience. I grew up playing hockey, but watch very few games because the wins and losses don’t seem to matter much in an 82-game season. I won’t miss one play of a Bills’ game. With 18 games, the season is still short enough where every game still matters, but this is another step toward diluting the product.

I'm relaxed and I understood that you were being facetious. If the league goes this way, I think the strategies for how teams use their healthy scratches will be interesting to see how it plays out. Do you take your lumps and mail it in against the league powerhouses? Do you wait for injuries to happen and then adjust in the second half? Do rookies sit out the first two weeks to get more practice in before they play their first game? This change will influence how teams build rosters as teams with depth will have an advantage over teams with the salary cap concentrated into a few players. Do you want one elite WR with three No. 3's or four No. 2's where your 4th WR is 3rd on the depth chart six times per year? I saw a proposal with 17 games where every team plays one game at a neutral site. With all of the games played in England and Mexico City, this could work too.

There is no way that the star players sit out for Divisional match ups, even if one team has been stealing the other's lunch money for the past 20-years. The weakest rosters will be reserved for inter-conference games, that don't count as playoff tiebreakers.