Chuck Wagon

While they might not have a Robey, the Seahawks have a pretty decent secondary. Edelman is a seriously underrated part of their offense, watching the Super Bowl last year I told my buddies the game was over when Jeremy Lane went out because the Seahawks had no one to cover Edelman (Sherman's ego is way to big to get burnt by a slot receiver in the Super Bowl). Gronk gets all the pub, but the key to beating them is stopping Edelman.

Brady tends to really lock on to Gronk and Edelman. Teams tend of focus on Gronk out of the gate, then the Pats will nickle and dime you to death with Edelman and as soon as you shift focus in that direction Gronk will murder you with a big play.

I don't see how he survives the season. That line is terrible, the running game wasn't there like they hoped against Baltimore and he's going to get "Arthur Moats"'d at some point this season. The real question - does he catch Favre for all time yards? He needs 1,972. If he can average 283 (seems like a tall task after Sunday) he'll break the record in Indy.

I tend to have this approach as well. In my mind the only real questions is QB and Tyrod has answered with flying colors so far. Our defense has proven it's good, Sammy/Woods/Harvin/Shady have proven they can make plays in this league, the line is certainly a concern but so far has been fine. Looking around the rest of the AFC and I don't see why we don't stack up well. Denver's line looks like a mess and Peyton is clearly in his end game. Baltimore looked pretty stagnant yesterday. Obviously we handled the Colts. Miami did not look overly impressive against the Redskins, needing a punt return TD to pull that game out. The Jets and the Bengals looked fine but it could also be the Browns and Raiders looking bad. Ditto Titans-Bucs. The Steelers defense is atrocious. I thought KC and San Diego were the only AFC teams to approach our level of play yesterday.

Yes, We really need to be 2-1 and it would be great if we could be 6-2 heading into Rex's return game. That's going to start a tough stretch of 5 road games in 6 games.

No kidding. Basically "I admit that I might be wrong about Taylor, but here's an extensive list of things he didn't do perfectly." How is Taylor throwing quick easy passes any different than what Brady / Peyton do most weeks? When is the last time either of those guys threw a 50 yard TD like Taylor did to Harvin? Ordinarily I'm not a "so and so in the media hates my team" type but it's clear judging by his body of work Barnwell has something against the Bills.

Barnwell picked the Colts on Grantland, he said our offensive pieces make no sense.

The radio guys here in Columbus talk about the Bills a fair amount, but it's always things like "Sure they got McCoy but who is the QB, yeah they resigned Dareus but what's the point without a QB"? Then with the Browns they'll say "why draft a QB until you've got a full team"? They did pick the Bills to win a wildcard.

*except for Oregon

The only 2 teams I think are clearly ahead of the Bills when it comes to playoff odds are the Colts & Pats. As long as Luck stays healthy, the Colts should win their division comfortably and until I see them beat I have to believe in the Pats AFC East mystique. Otherwise I think the Bills playoff odds are just as good as the Steelers / Baltimore / Cincy / Texans / Broncos / Chiefs / Chargers / Dolphins, that's essentially 9 teams for 4 spots. All of those teams have their respective Achilles heels and the Bengals have shown the ability to make the playoffs with average-ish QB play the last few years. I have a hard time seeing the Jets / Browns /Titans / Jags / Oakland breaking through enough to claim a spot this year, the Jets have a lot of new pieces plus the Geno & Sheldon Richardson dramas, the Browns are trying to do what we are trying to do only with a worse defense and no offensive playmakers and the Titans / Jags / Raiders are all very young rosters still in the build process. This is a good point. First it speaks volumes about our roster that we are worried about backups and second it's not like other teams have potential Pro Bowlers as their 6th linemen. The Pats started a rookie undrafted center last night and he was able to look competent because they could account for one weak link. I think part of the concern is seeing our backups not playing next to a guy like Cordy Glenn thus making the whole unit look much worse in preseason. It's one thing when you are plugging one guy into a starting unit, it's quite another when he's next to 2 guys who'll be selling insurance in a month.

Well they also didn't look like they knew what was going on when we played them with all of our RBs/WRs out.

Plenty of people hate the Seahawks for their brash, arrogant behavior. People hated the Raiders (also cheaters) and the Cowboys when they were great. If we start winning, other fans will hate Rex's bravado. People hate the Pats because they win and it's magnified by the cheating, if they were the Browns and pulling all these bush league stunts while going 5-11 every year they'd simply be a laughingstock.

I forget who it was but someone was on ESPN radio the other day picking Miami to do well and saying they had really good linebackers..... Let the Dolphins have the "Offseason Champion" title and let more hate continue to be dumped on guys like Tyrod and Shady, if these guys really knew what they were talking about they'd be cranking out millions in Vegas.

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/08/nfl-predictions-2015-picks-afc-east Has us going 10-6

Thurman & Rex - "Greg, can you give us a scouting report on Luck?" Roman - "Yeah, he's really good"

I do worry Vontae Davis will be able to man up and take Watkins out of the game, freeing up the rest of the D to load the box. Clay in the seam could be huge for us this game to help with the vertical element.

I expect it's all going to be about creating space and getting the ball to guys where they can make something happen. I don't really think we have the personnel for a "ground and pound" as Shady isn't that type of back and you'd prefer to have a QB with a big arm to stretch the field vertically. Lots of quick stuff to mitigate Taylor's accuracy making pre-snap reads crucial.

He's hated on every move we've made, so he's just doubling down. I'm trying to stay level in regards to expectations, but I think it's ridiculous to see us being worse than the Giants / Buccaneers / Bears just to name 3 teams that should be in the bottom 8. "In 3 first round picks the Bills have little to show other than Sammy Watkins" - this leaves out the fact they moved down to get EJ, picking up an extra 2nd used on Alonso and ultimately used on Shady. I typically try not to buy into the "this writer hates the team" frenzy, but from everything Barnwell has written about the Bills it's clear the dude has an axe to grind. Apparently he feels our best course of action would be making no moves whatsoever and stripping the roster to the bones until we luck into a QB, nevermind that teams like the Seahawks, Ravens and Steelers have built up strong rosters then plugged in relatively overlooked QBs and won. In 2014 he was right on 4 of the 8 of the "cellar dwellars" / 3 of the 8 "Falling stars" and predicted the Redskins to win their division.

Yet Bill Barnwell (a Giants fan) thinks we'll be worse than them.

If they start out 0-3 there's a chance they aren't favored in any of the final 13 games, except maybe the 49ers game at home week 14. I'm not sure if I remember a team that's started the year with worse skill talent than them outside of expansion teams. They could be a tough team that scraps out 6-7 wins, but a 1-2 or 0-3 start leaves them staring 2-14 or 3-13 in the face. The Redskins seem like a tire fire, but they've at least got guys like DeSean Jackson and Alfred Morris who can move the ball and put points up. The Bucs Oline looked pretty bad in the preseason and they are breaking in a rookie QB, but Jameis should be better than McCown/Glennon, they've got guys outside who can make plays and there defense could be ok around McCoy/David. The 49ers could be bad as well given the attrition they experienced this offseason.

The way I see it, if TT gets hurt during the game you bring in Cassel as the closer. If TT is out the next week you prepare EJ as the starter (unless Cassel lights it up).

It should be the Julio Jones AND Justin Houston trade. The Browns traded a 3rd that turned into Justin Houston to move up from the Falcons pick at 27 to 21 in the same draft.

Don't overlook the ability to utilize Percy out of the backfield and as a 3rd down back. In 2011 with the Vikings he had 52 carries for 345 yards, last year in 8 games with the Jets he had 22 carries for 110 yards, the Vikings frequently lined him up at tailback.

The Browns looked MUCH better last week against Tampa than they did against us or Washington, though McCown was playing with a reckless abandon that will leave him sidelined with injury in week 3. On the flip side Tampa looked like a wreck, their oline is bad and running game may be non-existent

The Colts Oline has really struggled so far this preseason. I really think this is set up well for a repeat of last year's week 1 where everyone counted us out. However I'm also growing more convinced we'll be getting a ticked off Brady in week 2.