GunnerBill

Ah man. A replay? Didn't we win the first time? Replays are for what you guys call ties.

I hope soon.

Taylor, Robinson, Barkley, Cook and Gibbs would be my 5. I am a bit of an ageist (as is known) and McCaffery's 3.5 yards per carry isn't buttering many parsnips anymore.

This is where I am at. Shaheed was a potential complimentary piece. A complimentary piece might help a bit but it doesn't change this offense or how teams defend us. Only a true potential outside #1 does that. Last year you had Adams, DHop and Coop who have all been that in their careers on the market though well on the back 9 and trying for them made sense to me even if Coop didn't totally work out. The trade market this year didn't have those kind of options available. It had pieces that to me move the dial very little. Is there a price at which Shaheed made sense to me? Yea. Not sure it was more than what Seattle paid.

I agree no running back should win it, and there is no bigger JTay fan than me. He is the rare thing.... a running back I thought was worth a 1st round pick (even though he went in the second) and he and Jimbo have elite vision in common. But Cook has been right there on a par with him in terms of performance this year. You say that Taylor means more to the Colts but in the two lesser Cook games (Pats where they dud a nice job on him, Falcons where Brady inexplicably got away from him) what did the Bills offense look like? Cook is more important to the Bills offense than I'd like him to be.... I think without him we are pretty stuck in neutral.

I am not agreeing with that. I think he is 4th on the list, sure. But I think he is still in that tier. He was incredible last season and had his team been better he'd have been MVP.

They'd suffer too, obviously. We have seen plenty of the Ravens without Lamar and it isn't pretty. We haven't seen much recent evidence of Bills or Chiefs without their guy but Matt Barkley once led the Bills to 41 points. It didn't mean they weren't better with Josh Allen. I don't think Joe Flacco's performance on Sunday tells us anything other than if you want a backup QB in the NFL then you can still do a lot worse than former Superbowl MVP Joe Flacco. In other news, water is indeed wet.

The Bengals are 45-32-1 with Joe Burrow since he was drafted. For a 0.576 win percentage. The Bengals are 7-14 without Joe Burrow since he was drafted. For a 0.333 win percentage. He isn't perfect, he holds the ball too long at times which for a QB with limited mobility should be a no-no but he is in the elite club. No question.

It was the right call. 52 yards in the modern NFL in high leverage scenarios is must make. Prater missed. This is actually a VERY good point. Well done that man.

And I think Beane drafted him thinking he'd be a good receiving back and offer some pop in the run game. He has surprised even them I suspect. I am not trying to be smart after the event but there were people before that draft saying the Bills should take Breece Hall in the first and I said I think there is so little between them I'd rather take Cook in the second. It is now undeniably the case that Cook is a better back than Hall.

Health is obviously a consideration with every player in the league. For a back mind you James doesn't take that many big hits. He is a different style of runner to his brother. The bigger risk is him getting his ankle rolled up on etc which he did a bit Sunday and looked gimpy for a series or two afterwards. That can happen to anyone at any time. The him wearing down.... I worry less about that.

The Patriots worry me the most because I think Drake Maye's best can lay up with Josh if Josh is at 80/85% of his best. Jones can't. He needs Josh to be at more like 50/60% and so does Nix. Herbert can lay up but without both tackles he is going to be running for his life unless the gamble on Trevor Penning (who I was a fan of coming out) pays off. If the Bills had to go on the road and beat the Broncos, Colts and Patriots to make the Superbowl you can sign me up for that right now. Not sure I'd include the Chargers in that personally. I think they are pretty beat up and I'd take the Chiefs roster over theirs right now. If everyone was healthy, possibly I'd agree. But their offensive tackles are arguably their two best players and they are both done for the year.

Also I don't think Shaheed is the player some imagine him to be. That isn't to say he isn't good. Or he wouldn't have helped some. But I think people are building him in their heads to be something he isn't. He isn't a player who transforms this offense.

Yes that was a good one.

Yes, but I'd be surprised if that alone dropped him to the 6th. Normally when a guy slides that far there is some sort of medical or off field flag.

"Nah should let him walk. Ray Davis can do the same behind this line." Anyone who had that take should be here to eat crow. Cook's vision is absolutely elite. That is always what wins for running backs. A bit of speed is nice too. Size is good if you can find it. But vision always wins. He was underrated the last two seasons by a large chunk of Bills fans. He is without doubt a top 5 back.

Agree with almost all of this. I didn't love this trade market though at receiver. Do I honestly think Jakobi Myers, Rashid Shaheed or Calvin Ridley were the peice that made the difference here? No. Not really. I like Myers but he is not really a vertical down the field receiver. He is another hybrid slot / outside guy who does his best work in the middle of the field. Shaheed is similar and while he does have downfield speed he isn't really an X receiver who is going to dictate coverage. He is more like a better (and bigger) version of Elijah Moore. Calvin Ridley if you are getting the version of him from a couple of years ago would have been thr closest to what we need. I have no idea what compensation the Bills were willing to give to make that deal happen, but for my part it had to be less than we gave for Cooper a year ago. Giving up more day 2 draft ammunition for guys the wrong side of 30 wouldn't be for me. I don't think Ridley is a Cooper level talent in any event. Beane made his wide receiver bed in the spring. Then shouted at some radio guys to make himself feel better. But the bed he made he must now lie in. If this regime is still here in April it should be with a clear dictat from Terry Pegula: Find Josh a #1 receiver or else. EDIT: as an aside.... Tory Horton in round 5 would still have made a big difference to this roster. Imagine him returning kicks and offering some situational deep threat here as he is in Seattle (scoring 6 total TDs while he is at it) over Tyrell Shavers.

6th round. First pick of the 6th I believe which was considered a significant slide for a guy who was anticipated as a late day 2 / early day 3 prospect. Does make you wonder now whether there were something on his combine medicals that factored into that slide and maybe that was related to the neck.

The offensive illegal formations I put more directly on players. That isn't confusion about the call or the formation that is just sloppy. The Samuel one last week for example is totally inexcusable. Other than drag his ass off the field and cut him not sure what else there is to do there for the coaches. The defensive ones are about getting the call in and the players knoeing their counter to offensive shifts and this season we have had more lined up incorrectly incidents than I can remember the last 8 years combined.

It has mainly been on defense. But I agree it is a coaching issue. McDermott has fixed the 3rd down defense since taking over. But the lining up incorrectly is still happening and it can't happen.

Agree. The other defensive timeouts on Sunday were necessary because we are still having regular lining up issues. But the 4th and 17 one felt unnecessary to me. And it definitely gave them time to dial something creative up. That said.... there were still two major execution errors that led to that play working for the Chiefs. Lots to fix on that play.

There is no advantage. There is no disadvantage. It is just absolute standard practice across the NFL. Every week, after every win, you find a defensive player of the winning team talking about how they saw something on film. It's a total non-story.

Because changing your body language in those situations is easier said than done. It's muscle memory.

Yea. And it is admittedly very minor differences. Basically whatever the Bills did they were very strong favourites to win.

I've seen different numbers on twitter. Will try and dig out.