BarleyNY

A less superstitious man might make some glowing comments about how our team - and specifically our QB - has grown and improved. Stuff about how far they’ve come, how difficult and impressive that is, etc., etc. Ahem.

Indeed it would. I’d be getting up early on Saturday mornings

I look forward to having this conversation in earnest the week leading up to the Phins game. Keep winning and see where we stand.

Had same thought. Did the player refuse to sign his hat and then put his cigarette out on his neck?

I do not know much about him.

No thanks. We’ve got Beasley. We don’t need a poor man’s version of him on the roster. Now if a speed WR becomes available then that’s another story.

Ed Werder has the high bid on the autographed Joe Montana jersey.

Very nice to see Klein making a positive impact. Congratulations to him!

That’s fair about us putting resources into the TE position and just not getting value out of them. A third round pick for Knox was a very reasonable use of capital even if it hasn’t planned out quite as well as we’d have liked. The Kroft contract was just throwing money and cap space away though. I’ve hated that since the day we signed him. I’m just happy they cut their losses by reworking his deal to get out of it after this season. I’m not really sure what benefit there is to having Lee Smith on the team either. He does almost nothing but block and with the new rule this season requiring teams to have 8 active OL I don't see value in him taking up a roster space and $3M/year. I’m sure Nseke, Dawkins or Williams could block better and manage to catch 2 or 3 passes every year. Gilliam is our H-back. He’s cheap, doesn’t get a lot of snaps and I honestly don’t have a read on him. We obviously need a FB or H-back to fill that role though.

So if we had a tight end that was a legitimate receiving threat we still wouldn’t bother getting them involved? I honestly do not buy that. This TE position lacks a quality receiving talent. Maybe the plan was to prioritize other positions. If so, then that’s fine. But the fact is that the talent just isn’t there for whatever reason. If it were and we still weren’t using them effectively then that would be on Daboll and Allen. But it’s not. I think we can all easily see what a TE who could threaten the middle of the field could do for this offense. Add back in a deep threat like Brown and defenses would be incredibly stressed in coverage. Right now the only offense like that is KC. Looking a little closer at what we have, here are the TE stats: Kroft 12 catches on 16 targets for 119 yards, 3 TDs, 0 Fumbles Knox 9-17-111-1-0 Gilliam 2-2-16-1-1 Smith 2-2-4-1-0 Total that’s 25 catches for 250 yards through 11 games, which isn’t much. But they also have 6 of our 24 total receiving TDs. WRs have 15, RBs have 2 and Allen has 1. So to me it looks like our TEs have a role and it’s to be big targets in the red zone. They are suited to that. I haven’t looked more closely but I’d bet they’re getting targets on short yardage plays too. This team needs a deep threat WR for sure, but I’d love to see the offense with a real receiving threat at TE too.

I guess that depends. Are we not getting much production from our TE corps because we have poor TEs or do we have poor TEs because we aren’t putting a lot of resources into a position we wouldn’t use much anyway? Daboll comes from NE where Belichick has always stressed the TE position. But Allen is a different kind of QB. I really don’t know the answer, but I have to think that one quality in line TE that could be effective both blocking and receiving would help this offense. But whether that’s in the cards from a resource allocation standpoint is another question. The Browns snagged Harrison Bryant in the fourth round last draft. I’d love for the Bills to find that quality of TE in that part of the draft next time around.

Yup. While I wouldn’t have wanted any Bill to suffer a season ending injury, if forced to pick which starting OL to have it happen to.......

Agreed. The coaches were just being extra cautious about his most recent concussion.

Kosar’s last season in Cleveland was 1993. He was well out of the league by 2002.

It’d be nice to play the Dolphins here two week in a row, especially if week 17 is effectively a bye for us and we play scrubs. The Raiders are my other choice. Both are high win probability games and neither is so imposing that we should get beat up in the process. We can then head into playoff game 2 healthy and reasonably rested.

Yup. It’s not a quality of opponent issue, it’s a matchup issue. Also those are physical teams. The Iggles seemed to be scraping a player off the field every other play last Sunday. Even a win could be costly. The Steelers and Ravens defenses are physical too obviously. The AFC crown is going to be a physically demanding journey.

Faneca deserves it IMO. Many more years and games at such a high level.

It really wasn’t luck with Burrow. The Bengals put him behind a putrid OL. Some of us saw this coming. The Bungles are probably going to waste a tremendous QB prospect in the same way Luck was wasted by Indy.

I’m surprised that so many teams have black or white as their “color rush” uniform.

So much depends on coaches and GMs being on the same page. A stable, well run organization helps enormously. The difference between organizations that: - know what they need in players - can take the time to develop young players properly - allow the hard work of the scouting department to dictate player acquisition and - can play a long game with the draft, trades and contracts versus those that: - constantly have turnover because new players have to be brought in every few seasons to fit a new system - rush rookies into important starting roles - allow the whims of owners and coaches to dictate player acquisitions and - are pressed into draft reaches, bad trades and bad contracts because jobs are on the line cannot be overstated. I think some teams draft a lot better than others, but I also think that there is a ceiling for it. Beyond that it’s luck. The big differences we see are between well run and poorly run organizations.

They are closer to 2019 than 2018 Bills to be sure and I agree that they’d be a tough out for the Bills. That’s more match up related than thinking they’re as good as the Bills right now though. They are probably on the right track, but this is year 1 for Stefanski and his crew. That’s one issue. The other big ones are a lack of talent for their defensive scheme (though they have some very big talents like Garrett and Ward) and Mayfield’s regression. Note that I am from Cleveland and root for both teams so maybe I’m being a little more critical of the Browns than I need to be.

The Iggles completely sold out to stop the run against the Browns. I expect that to be the defensive game plan against them from here on out. It’ll be interesting to see how the perform against that. In general I think the Browns are some where between where the 2018 and 2019 Bills teams were in development. I’d have them close to the 2019 Bills if not for Mayfield’s regression. And coincidentally if the playoffs started today the Bills would be hosting the Browns.

You are right about that as his fifth year option was declined. I know they’ve put claims in on him both times. I guess they just want to do their own medical evaluation on him.

Broadcast map CBS only has one game this week. It is showing Tennessee at Baltimore according to this map, not Steelers v Jags. It’s the only game between two likely playoff teams. I get why the Miami game at 4 would be better for us since Miami is our only threat for the division, but it’s not like they are playing a playoff contender. We are getting what is likely to be a more competitive game. I would prefer the Miami game, but I get why they chose what they did.

Yeah, I was wondering where all these people saying they are doing yard work live. I’ll be watching games by a fire as the snow/ freezing rain falls outside