GunnerBill

Of the three roll out / improvs I saw in my breakdown of the first 3 drives, two were on Josh. One for dropping the snap. The other he missed Shakir wide open in the middle. The one he made the superman play to Johnson fair enough. That is Josh making something from nothing. Yea McDaniel is an innovator. He isn't suited to being a Head Coach. I'd consider hiring him though if I needed an OC and he became available.

I think what is yet to be tested is can they win a true shootout. A game where it is clear at half time you might need to score every time you touch the ball second half and the run is taken out of it a bit and they have to be a volume passing offense. We haven't seen that. Houston is the week I think we might.

See when I watch the Lions what I see from Ben Johnson is exactly how you have described Brady. I don't think Johnson is an innovator particularly. His run scheme is a bit more creative but his pass scheme is pretty basic. What he does exceptionally well is he coaches to the skillset of the players he has. He doesn't ask St Brown to be an outside, vertical receiver. He doesn't ask Goff to make corner route throws into tight windows between safety and corner. He doesn't ask Jahmyr Gibbs to run between the tackles (or Montgomery really to run outside them). He leans into what his talent does well. If Williams is truly breaking out as another weapon they will be even better because he has a skillset Johnson hasn't had so far.

I can't remember a championship team though with so little toughness. They always have a mix of flash and substance. I don't think the Fins have that balance right.

And a horrible offensive line. And the middle of their defense - DT, ILB, S - is soft as *****. The two edge rushers you mention only wanna rush the passer and don't want to play the run. I think it's been built entirely for flash. And that doesn't work IMO. As for a top 10 roster? Maybe. If they are they are bottom end of the top 10. I'd have them in the next batch to be honest 11-15

Yea I am fine with Von being between 30% and 45% of snaps each week. Use those snaps sensibly.

Yea they are a badly built team IMO. All speed and razzle dazzle not much meat and potatoes. Letting Wilkins (their only toughness) walk was a mistake.

Yea, every QB just fails to see the odd one every week. But was a nice design Josh just didn't see it. As you say that will have been a "how the ***** did I not see that?" moment when he looked at the ipad. On the receivers overall the two guys who are getting the most separation are Shakir and Hollins. Without doubt. Hollins is a sneak good route runner. He isn't Stefon Diggs but he is precise in his footwork and his breaks. Impressed with him tbh. Shakir does a lot of underneath and middle if the field stuff obviously but is good at finding spaces which I remember as a rookie he struggled with. He would run past the open zone a ton. Not now, he has it buttoned down. Coleman is not getting much separation. Admittedly running the tougher routes outside but at the moment I think they are going to have to rely on him winning 1v1 contested catches.

Yea Samuel has his guy beat if Allen gets it out in front. But I would wanna see Samuel fight back better for the ball to try and draw a flag and his size possibly limits him from that.

The All22 is now out and I wanted to go back and look at the design and whether Bills receivers were getting open / being schemed open at the same frequency as Sunday. I'd say not quite overall, but there still weren't many plays where receivers were blanketed. The Bills aren't getting tons of guys open on the same play but they are finding ways to get 1 or 2 people into space to be options for their Quarterback. And the pass protection is good! Sometimes Josh could show a tick more patience in the pocket before he starts to move, but also the WRs have to try and separate faster, especially on downfield routes where I think some of the limitations of that group are showing up. I think given what we have at receiver though the offensive scheming so far is pretty decent. Obviously tougher tests to come. Anyway, I've got through the first four drives, conclusions below: First drive: - 1st & 10 - designed quick hitter to Kincaid for 9 yards; - 1st & 10 - designed quick hitter to Kincaid for 8 yards; - 2nd & 2 - incomplete pass - play action roll out to the right, Dolphins saw it coming the whole way think in the end Allen throws away smartly as opposed to trying to fit in to Coleman, or Kincaid who in any event was short of the sticks; - 4th & 3 - TOUCHDOWN - beautifully designed pick play to Cook out of backfield for 17 yard TD. Second drive: - 2nd & 7 - short pass to Shakir short of the sticks for 6 yards - nobody else open but excellent protection. - 3rd & 1 - incomplete pass - Allen drops the snap, Hollins runs a really nice in route middle of the field is wide open if Allen doesn't drop the ball it's a simple completion for 10 yards with some RAC possibility with a well placed ball. Allen eventually tries to force it to him later in the route after recovering his fumble, ball batted down. Third drive: - 2nd & 8 - Allen scrambles for 2 yards - Dolphins have an unguarded rusher off the left edge on the blitz. Once Josh evades him there is a chance to Knox middle of the field who is wide open and Allen does look at it but it would have been a bit of an across his body throw and probably not a risk needed at that stage, so he pump fakes and runs for 2. 3rd & 6 - short pass to Shakir, 11 yards and first down - Protection is great and three Bills receivers win their assignment here. Shakir is probably the first to uncover and Josh takes what they give him and the first down, a split second later Kincaid uncovers on a corner route and there is a short throw to Hollins in the flat right at the sticks which might have been a first down had neither of the others been open. 2nd & 7 - incomplete pass - Josh goes deep to Samuel in the endzone, incomplete. Was probably the right risk. Shakir was open underneath but Samuel has a step on the DB outside in pure 1v1. Allen leaves the pass a little short and the DB uses his bigger frame to ensure Samuel can't come back for the football. If the throw is out in front it may be a touchdown, but also does show some of the limitations of Samuel outside. 3rd & 7 - incomplete pass - Allen misses Shakir who runs a post route from the slot and ends up wide open. Protection is good, not sure why Josh tries to move out to his right to try and hit Ty Johnson in the the flat, poor throw but he probably isn't making the 1st anyway. Shakir, had he seen him and hit him, might be a touchdown. Fourth drive: 1st & 10 - designed screen to Davis loses a yard - don't love this design Allen fades back too far in the pocket and by the time Davis gets the ball he is a good 6 or 7 yards behind the sticks. 2nd & 11 - complete to Shakir, 21 yards, first down and 15 yard penalty on Poyer - Shakir uncovers. He is the only open guy but he does have Coleman 1 on 1 outside to the right if he had wanted to try a jump ball. 2nd & 16 - complete to Shakir, 4 yards - didn't have anything deep down the field. Both Shakir and Samuel separated but both were only getting 4 or 5 yards back. 3rd & 12 - complete to Ty Johnson for 33 yards - did have Keon running a corner route to the left who found the zone between the corner and the safety and would have had the first down had he gone that way, but Josh was looking to his right the whole time and made the one "superman" play of the day.

He did in the gameball thread in fairness to him. He acknowledged this was primarily a coaching win.

I have him in 2 of my 4. He went later than he should because of touchdown production. Only 6 all last year. 3 so far this. He is gonna have similar yardage to last year if he stays healthy but he is gonna score more.

Yes.

I think 8 counts as one score.... given the chance of a 2 pointer. I think they'd need to have lost by 9 to be out of the reckoning for this stat. EDIT: D'oh ignore me. I see it specifically states more than 6. I thought it was just 1 score.

To give a name that hasn't been mentioned Maxwell Hariston, Corner, Kentucky who caught my eye last season on a couple of occasions. He is carrying an injury currently and I thought he struggles some against South Carolina last week - we had that game live over here - be he is tailor made for an NFL zone defense. Hoping he can get healthy and bounce back because I think he is a guy who with a good year could sneak into day 1 contention.

Yes Groot extension is the other easy cap button to press. He is due $11.5m in 2025 on the option. An extension at least halves that if not more (you probably do a smaller up front bonus to amortise to keep 2025 low then a big option bonus in 2026 that is a foregone conclusion, same as with Spencer Brown's deal).

Nope. Samuel cancels out Dodson. I have already factored the formula uncertainty in. The Floyd one is pretty certain to be a 5th. It is right in the meat of 5th round territory. Davis is technically a 4th based on the known elements of the formula but I think that likely ends up as a 5th for the reasons you state. My prediction at this point is it will be two 5ths.

Looking at that play if BangedUpBills is right it is nothing to do with size. Just a freak occurance. Arm sorta gets caught behind as he pulls away from Jones. That could happen to anyone at any size. A month would have him back just in time for the Jets. If he can't make the Jets and the Bills are say 4-2 after that game I think you leave it another week (Titans home when you might not need him) and you are looking at Seattle on the road at the end if October.

Agree. I hated taking him off the field last year to bring old man Murray on to chug straight into the pile. Cook is slippery. So long as the blockers give him a chance he will find a way to get it done.

Diggs didn't look too "bad" last week. Indeed I think he is at this point exactly what you say Hill would be. A legitimate #2. Not me arguing for the Bills to keep him btw. It was time for all parties. But Diggs already showed last week he is not finished as a player.

Not in all those, but sure, Jones is a difference maker. It's a regular season stat but even including post season it is once in 49 games and even that is incredible. To play 49 games in the modern era of the NFL and only once lose by more than a single score. Especially when you look at the period in question when the Bills have lost star players to long term injuries - Von, Tre (twice), Milano (twice). I doubt that regular season streak will ever be beaten tbh.

After Hollins Coleman is our next best blocking reveiver. So even though he is still learning he is already better at it than Shakir, Samuel and MVS and that is contributing to the snap counts.

No we don't get Troy we get the ESPN reserve crew. I am an Orlovsky fan though. He is one of the best analysts around at the moment IMO.

Not much dead cap in 2025 - about $4m from Tre White. But at the moment we are still looking like being tight against thencap depending on where it lands. I think on Spotrac's estimate about $4m over. That is probably conservative as an estimate. My guess is we will end up just under the cap number but needing to do some work if we want to sign free agents and to sign our draft pool. Von't contract is the easiest place to go for that but a renegotiation with Josh to give him a new deal but lower his $43m cap hit is also a strong possibility. At the moment I believe we have EIGHT draft picks: 1 x 1st 2 x 2nd 1 x 3rd 2 x 4th 2 x 6th But we will also get two comps for Davis (either a 4th or a 5th) and Floyd (a 5th). So we will end up with TEN picks and eight in the first five rounds.

I don't really know why it's called that but it's just a word NFL defensive coordinators have taken to using for all out pass rushing dlines with defensive ends inside as tackles.