mjt328

Mitch Morse returned to the game last night. He will probably get some lighter work this week, but I would expect him to be good going forward. Tim Settle practiced Saturday, so I imagine he is close. Everyone else is a total mystery.

There were many times last season, where the Bills clearly tried to coast against inferior opponents. They often struggled against teams that were very physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage (such as Tennessee). I want to see this team laser-focused on a weekly basis. This game will be a big test.

I think most of the Buffalo fanbase suffers from PTSD, from all these years of suffering and heartbreak. Can we not feel secure about our team's season, unless every other franchise in the NFL looks like complete trash? Half of this board went into a total panic mid-afternoon Sunday, under the sudden realization that one of our division rivals might win double-digit games this year. Hey everyone... It's OK if the Dolphins have a good team. It's OK if the Chiefs are still really good too. We can still win a Super Bowl if the AFC East and #1 seed isn't in the bag by Thanksgiving. Let's all try to relax and breathe. The Bills are heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl because OUR TEAM is exceptional. Not because everyone else is expected to suck. If we stay healthy, stay focused and handle our business, the Bills should still win the AFC East. Miami had 9 wins last season, and 10 wins the season before. Anyone who expected them to be a total pushover this season was in denial. They already had a strong defense. And having two weapons on the outside like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle was going to cause problems for quite a few defenses. With that said, I have watched a good chunk of both Dolphins games this year. Their offense managed 13 points in Week 1. They had 7 points at halftime yesterday and 14 points at the end of the 3rd Quarter. The Ravens defense started playing very soft when the score was 28-7, and their defensive backs barely made an effort to stop the touchdown throw to Mike Gesicki. They totally blew the coverage on the tying touchdown to Hill and he was open by about 30 yards in every direction. It was a great comeback. But let's not pretend their offense is totally unstoppable. Since Josh Allen became our QB, the Bills are 7-1 against the Dolphins. The only loss was the infamous Charles Clay endzone drop. In those wins, our offense has put up 42, 31, 37, 56, 31, 26 and 35 points. Our defensive scheme is built to stop the big play. Although it certainly won't be a given with (possibly) two rookie corners on the outside, there is no reason to be scared. They have shown zero ability to slow us down on the other side. Based on history, the Dolphins will need about 4-5 plays like that to keep up with our offense.

Taking off my homer glasses...Patrick Mahomes probably gets the edge over Josh Allen because: He has been elite for 4 full seasons. Allen took a few years to develop, and has been elite for the last 2 seasons. His team has a 4-1 edge in head-to-head matchups, including twice in the playoffs. He has a Super Bowl trophy and an MVP, while Allen is still chasing both. Herbert is well below both guys. He makes some great throws, and is clearly a QB on the rise. But there are times that Allen/Mahomes simply cannot be defended. I've never seen him hit that level. Not to mention, he still hasn't even led his team to the playoffs.

Thanks for this information. It's very important to note the difference between QB scrambles and the various kinds of designed QB runs. Telling Josh Allen that he shouldn't scramble with the ball would be a mistake. It's one of the aspects of his game that makes him special, and almost impossible to defend. Take that away, and yes he's still a good passer. But I don't think he's elite as a pocket-only guy. You can see the same evolution with Russell Wilson over the last 2-3 seasons. Once he decided to stop running as often, the level of his game went down a notch. He's still very accurate and smart. But defenses don't fear him like they used to. I think our offense would also miss the read-option plays if we cut them out completely. They have been a key piece to this offense (with both Daboll and Dorsey). If Allen starts handing the ball off 90% of the time, the defense will quickly figure that out. And then those plays become ineffective. I think the answer here would be to "limit" the read-option looks, and only use them in the more important games/situations. The pre-designed runs are the easiest to scrap, and don't seem to gain much anyway. Those are the plays that eventually ran Cam Newton into the ground. Hopefully our staff learned some from his quick decline, and takes notes for Allen's career.

The Rams game was a test for our upgraded pass rush, and they far exceeded expectations. The Titans game will be a big test for our upgraded interior D-Line. DaQuan Jones. Tim Settle. Jordan Phillips. I'll also throw in Shaq Lawson setting the edge. The key to their offense is obviously Derrick Henry... and then the play-action that results from teams selling-out to stop him. If our D-Line can stop the running game without much help from the linebackers and secondary, we should be in pretty good shape. Without AJ Brown, there shouldn't be any receiving threats we can't handle.

It's a long season. By the end, I would expect James Cook to be a major contributor to the offense. Right now, he's clearly not ready. He's not ready as a blocker. He fumbled his first/only carry of the game. He apparently ran the wrong route on another. Not to mention, Devin Singletary looked better than ever. The Bills can afford to wait on Cook and ease him into games.

I watched a good chunk of the Dolphins-Patriots game on Sunday. Not really sure what they are so excited about... or why they are suddenly so confident against us. They beat an average team by 13 points. We beat the same team (before they lost Josh McDaniels, JC Jackson, etc.) in the playoffs by 30, and scored a touchdown every time we touched the ball. Tua completed a bunch of underneath passes (which plays right into our defensive strengths), and their offense managed a whopping 13 points the entire game. Meanwhile, we played the Super Bowl champions and didn't punt.

It actually goes back to the 1940s. They just never use it on their helmets or merchandise, so very few people even know the character exists.

Here's the thing... The 17-game regular season is really about positioning for the playoffs. Just over half the teams are eliminated. A couple get first-round byes. Homefield advantage is established. I think we have the best roster in the NFL. But it really doesn't matter who the "best" team in the NFL is. Because once you reach the playoffs, it's one-and-done. No matter how superior we looked in Week 1, there is a LONG season ahead. And even if we blow through every single opponent on our schedule, we still need to win 3-4 games in the playoffs with no slip-ups. So... who scares me? Anyone that doesn't see the Chiefs as another 50-50 coinflip at this point...they are fooling themselves. That team is absolutely still a monster. The Ravens and Chargers also looked good enough to hang with us. The Bengals are dangerous, and always seem to claw their way back into games. That's just the AFC.

So just under 3 touchdowns per game, and just under 300 yards per game. I don't see any reason why he can't accomplish that. Our multiple primetime games is going to help in an MVP bid. Voters will be looking beyond just pure stats. Yes, he threw two picks last night. But everyone realizes the first wasn't close to his fault, and the second was pretty much his only bad throw the entire night. The rest of the game he was absolutely unstoppable.

The way Dane Jackson looked, both rookies are going to be watching from the sidelines a good chunk of the season.

They were pretty sloppy in the second quarter. No question about that. But this was the 3rd game (out of their last 5) where the Bills offense hasn't punted even once. That's going to make up for a lot of the stupid mistakes.

All this is 100% spot on. The question is whether the Bills are really the inconsistent 11-6 team that we saw last year. Losing to the Jags, Steelers and Patriots. Or were they playing down to inferior opponents, and didn't quite get mentally right until the last quarter of the year? I think most people believe the latter. Hence the high expectations for this season.

To be honest, this level of attention is making me a little nervous. It's totally new territory. As a fan of this team, I'm too used to disappointment. Yesterday, all of the NFL Network announcers picked us for the Super Bowl. Not a typo. Every single one of them. Even in the 90s, we were generally overshadowed by the 49ers and the Cowboys in yearly predictions. With that said... I agree with Von Miller. Burn it all. Forget about the past. This is a different team. The Patriots were losers for most of their first 40 years. Before Brady/Belichick, they were 0-2 in Super Bowls and had a grand-total of 7 playoff wins in their entire franchise history. Now they are above the Packers, Steelers, Cowboys and 49ers as the top franchises in the sport.

My feeling is that Ed Oliver is pretty much a lock for an extension. His impact goes far beyond the stat sheet, and the coaches see that. I think he's poised for a huge breakout playing next to Von Miller. If he starts hot, I don't think they will wait until the offseason to lock him up. Tremaine Edmunds is probably a 50-50 split. The coaches definitely value him much higher than the fans. But do they see him as irreplaceable? And what can he fetch on the open market? If he finally explodes this year, he may price himself out of our range. I hate to say it, but Jordan Poyer is most likely a goner. I think the Bills would be willing to extend him 1-2 more seasons with a decent pay raise. But I get the feeling he wants 3-4 years at top safety money. At his age, he just seems like the odd-man-out.

I'm of the unpopular opinion that Brian Daboll was just an average Offensive Coordinator, and we actually may be better with Ken Dorsey. Before coming to Buffalo, Daboll did time as the OC of the Browns, Dolphins and Chiefs... and the results were pretty terrible at all three stops. In his first two years in Buffalo, the offense gradually moved from pretty bad to middle of the pack. Then suddenly Josh Allen had his breakout season in 2020, and the somehow the entire NFL concludes that Daboll is some kind of playcalling genius and quarterback guru. I'm not buying it. Not to mention, Daboll struggled during the first 75% of last season in developing a running game, and adjusting to how defenses were now playing us. Don't get me wrong. Having continuity at OC was definitely a big thing for Allen's development. It allowed him to focus more on his mechanics and learning how to read a defense, instead of constantly restarting with a new playbook (like so many other young QBs). But now that Allen is a veteran superstar, and every defense is keyed on stopping him... we need an OC that knows how to adjust and attack with other players. My feeling in the offseason is that our offense will have a greater focus on the O-Line's run blocking, and getting the backs involved. Which will ultimately make us more consistent, and less likely to have games like Pittsburgh and Jacksonville.

These were issues 3-4 years ago. Today... not so much. Every 8-10 games, Josh Allen has consistently grown in some aspect of his play. If he can come close to maintaining his play from the last postseason, every record on the books will fall this season. Short ball accuracy hasn't been a problem since early 2019. Deep ball accuracy hasn't been a problem since the end of 2019. I'm sure even veteran QBs have issues with disguised coverage sometimes, especially when the O-Line is letting through lots of pressure. But I honestly think Allen is one of the smartest QBs in the league with breaking down defenses. He's very underrated in this area, since most focus on his physical skills instead. Not sure what he's talking about with "timing" on the offense. What makes Allen special is his ability to extend the play, beyond what the coordinator designed on paper. This should not be a criticism, unless you are doing the same to Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers.

For nearly two decades, we witnessed all the mistakes a GM/Head Coach can make when trying to rebuild. So it's easy to see what Brandon Beane/Sean McDermott did differently, and how it ended up leading to their current success. Doug Whaley was a strong evaluator of talent. But he was never on the same page with his head coach (neither Doug Marrone or Rex Ryan), and the disconnect was frequently apparent. There is a big difference in collecting talent, and building a cohesive team with a singular vision. It is clear that Beane and McDermott are unified with each move the team makes. Buddy Nix lacked urgency and strategy in building the roster (especially about the Quarterback position). His tendency was to sit on his hands and watch... ultimately forcing him to make an unwise decision out of panic. We saw it with Mario Williams in free agency. We saw it with EJ Manuel in the draft. In contrast, this regime has no problem make bold and calculated moves. Marv Levy was too old school, believing he could build a winning roster almost entirely through the draft. The problem was, his drafting was absolutely terrible. And even though he ignored the big-ticket free agents every offseason, he still managed to overspend on the second-wave guys. Tom Donahoe was aggressive to a fault. His time here was splash move, after splash move. It was exciting and our team was full of talent. But it never quite came together on the field. By the end of his tenure here, the Bills were in terrible cap trouble. We also had very little young talent, since many of our draft picks were traded away for veteran players.

One of the reasons that I believe our offense will be better under Ken Dorsey. It wasn't until the final quarter of the year that we managed to develop a running game. Part of it was the O-Line blocking better. Part of it was Josh Allen taking off more often. Part of it was Daboll just being willing to focus on establishing the ground game. At no point did we suddenly become a "running" team. But once defenses knew we could actually move the ball on the ground, the entire offense became pretty much unstoppable. All it really took was the threat.

Did we ever get clarification on what McKenzie's injury actually is? There was a small note about him "limping" out of practice about a week ago, and a small follow-up saying it looked minor. They never said if it was a knee, ankle, foot, hamstring, groin, etc. The lack of attention made me think he was perfectly fine. Now it sounds iffy on whether he will play Thursday. As one of our starters, I would think this would be bigger news.

Dolphins for sure. They have enough talent to finish with 9-10 wins this year, for sure. My bold prediction for this year... the Patriots will finish last in the AFC East.

None of these situations will have an affect on the Bills winning games. Cody Ford wasn't going to play much (if any) this season anyway. Everyone already knew the pick was a bust. They have been moving him around since his rookie year. He's was always the weakest link on our O-Line, and our blocking improved massively when Ryan Bates finally took his job at the end of last year. Getting something in return was a positive, not a negative. OJ Howard was a busted free agent signing. But it wasn't like he was extremely expensive, and he was only signed as a backup. And one of the main reasons for his release was the surprisingly strong play out of Quinton Morris. We are out $2.6 million in dead-cap, but seemingly have a better/younger option ready to step up in his place. Oh well. The Matt Araiza situation was tough, because the team was put into a very difficult position involving a serious off-field situation. The only critics of the Bills organization are those who agreed with Araiza being cut, but just felt the team should have done it 48 hours earlier. They will voice their opinions, and then we can all move on. Later this week, the Bills will sign a different punter (who may end up being better) and it will be like Araiza was never on the team.

I highly doubt anyone is taking the result of this game seriously. The Panthers played 95% of their starters for an entire half. Meanwhile, the Bills didn't play ANY of their starters (outside of maybe Kaiir Elam), and even sat a large chunk of their top backups. Our third-string QB is tonight's punter, for crying out loud. The coaching staff is clearly using this game as the last chance for fringe guys to win a roster spot.

Imagine if you (or a close family member) was falsely accused of something like rape or domestic abuse. Your reputation is gone. Your closest friends now hate you. And instead of waiting for all the information came out, your job immediately fires you because they don't want to "deal with the distraction" from the media. The Bills front office claims to care about the personal lives of their players. I'm glad that Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott are willing to be patient, and won't throw Araiza to the wolves, because it's uncomfortable answering these types of questions from reporters. Again. There is nothing wrong with waiting for the facts.