BarleyNY

I mentioned this in another thread. Specials rocked on Saturday. They were stellar.

That’s fair. My concern is that the Bills only beat one team with a winning record this season - the Titians. Notably the Titans were still starting Marcus Mariota at the time. He went 2-4 in games started and then was benched for Tannehill. So were we 10-6 good? We were probably at that level or at least close to it. The Bills were a little above average, but definitely not well above. That fits with 10 wins and a competitive first round playoff exit. We’re going to have a tougher schedule next season so we’re going to need to improve just to stay at that record. It’s very possible with our resources to even do better than that. A lot will come down to Allen’s development though.

Yes. Really. Metcalf was a risky pick not because he didn’t have a high ceiling, but because of the very real possibility that he would fail. People can play the hindsight game all they want, but he was who he was as a prospect. He was a supremely big, fast WR who lacked lateral agility and was very raw technically. You do not take such a player in the top 10 because the bust rate for that kind of player is high. Day 2? Have at it. To his credit he has worked very hard and has improved his route running a great deal.

It’s worth mentioning that people were arguing whether to take Metcalf with our 9th overall pick. That was nuts. Many of us who didn’t want to see that would’ve been happy to have the Bills trade up into the back of the second round to grab him.

I agree. Plus Specials shouldn’t be forgotten. Our third side of the ball had a tremendous game. As for Watson’s big play at the end of the game, he’s a top 10 QB in the league. Sometimes a player like that is going to make a Wow! play. The game should have been over in regulation - and it would’ve been if the offense had done its job.

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

Allen did take a shot to the head on one of his runs in the game. I’ll have to look to see if the horrible decision making started after that. It would make a lot of sense. That’s the play I was thinking of. I was surprised he wasn’t checked out by the medical people after that.

Yeah. As good as he looked in the first half, he choked big time after that. He’s young and learning. Hopefully he steps it up in crunch time. I’ve been a critic of his and he effed this one up, but even with that said I’m not totally down on him. It’s easy to forget how raw he was coming here. He’s done some great things and that makes you forget. Here’s hoping he grows from this. He deserves to be our QB next season so let’s finish building the team and see what he becomes in 2020.

Kitchens was Dorsey’s pick. Depodesta wanted Stefanski (Vikings OC). Haslam went with Kitchens in large part because Mayfield liked him and gave him the thumbs up.

Congratulations to Tre, he sure earned it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world worked that way?

The sports media is about clicks, eyes and ears. They’ll always run with hype on any team making splash moves - especially in the off season when they need all the material they can get.

A lot will depend on the Texicans playing zone, as Romeo prefers. Josh has done well against that but has struggled against man coverage, especially with a strong rush. On the other side of the ball our DL needs to handle Houston’s poor OL and make things tough on Watson and the run game.

Have to visit the FIL and his family. I’m dragging my sous vide set up and mini charcoal grill to make filets. Not sure what else is on the menu but I’ll at least have that. Also I’ll be drinking.

I will truly miss Captain Andrew Luck’s Twitter account

Outside of QB the only two offensive players on Houston that I take over ours are Hopkins and Tunsil. That’s it. The rest of their OL is poor. Their TEs are a joke and their RBs are pedestrian. I’d take Beasley over Fuller in the slot and Smoke over Stills. As for QB, Hopkins is a top 10 QB in this league. Allen is not close to that today. But I think he still might be okay on Saturday. Romeo Crennel likes to play a disciplined, but passive 3-4 with a lot of zone. That’s exactly what Allen thrives against so we might have a really favorable matchup in this game. I like our chances to get the W.

He was the OC the second half of the season and Baker and the Browns offense did very well for those 8 games. That’s what got him the job. But he was in way over his head as HC - especially also calling offensive plays.

This is fact. FWIW I hear that he realizes that he screwed up for pretty much exactly that reason. He thought it would be easier this year and it wasn’t. It also didn’t help that he got crushed by Kitchens’ incompetence. People wonder why the Browns did well in so many games on their first drive or two, then fell apart offensively. It was because the OC, Monken, scripted a couple series worth of plays every game. Then Kitchens took over. The good news for Baker and the Browns is that Mayfield has what it takes to be their FQB. He needs to dig in and properly prepare. I fully expect that to happen. The bad news is that the Browns also need to get their organization in order and get the right people in the right places. That is far, far less likely.

You might want to think twice about ripping on Depo. His job is to provide organizational structure for the Brown, though that’s been largely ignored up until now. The Haslams went against their management’s wishes when the Browns hired Hue Jackson and against Depo’s when they hired Kitchens. He preferred Stefanski. Also when the brass - including Depo and analytics driven GM Sashi Brown - voted unanimously for another candidate, but the Haslams ignored them to select Hue, do you want to guess who they all voted for? It was none other than Sean McDermott. Seems like the problem with the Browns is ownership, not competent people like Depodesta. Things with the Browns aren’t going to get better until they step aside.

You can’t hold that against Dorsey. It’s exactly what he did tell the Haslams, but they made him keep Hue for another season. Dorsey’s problem was that he went with Kitchens when he did get to chose. He also meddled with some coaching things and hid that from ownership, which did not go over well when discovered.

Already a thread on this

Yes, except for Green Bay. That’s public information, which the owners of the other 31 teams hate because their numbers are public. They are often used to to help estimate the finances for the other teams.

This really got ignored, but it’s the correct answer. Passing efficiency in meaningful situations is what matters. Take garbage time out of the mix, add in a QB’s rushing ability, account for drops, etc. and you see a much stronger relationship between wins and a QB’s performance rating. Metrics like QBR, DYAR and DVOA get ripped on a lot around here yet they do a much better job of rating QB performance than ones like passing yards and completion percentage. Take a look.

Correct. BB coached Cleveland’s last game but Baltimore didn’t want a Cleveland coach holdover.

No team has ever not rolled over their cap space. One could chose not to do so (or make an unintentional mistake and not do so), but that would not impact the minimum they are required to spend. The minimum spending limit is calculated as a percentage of the unadjusted league cap. Rollover cap dollars from each team are added to the unadjusted cap amount for that year to get each team’s adjusted cap.