HappyDays

Spotrac's breakdown is significantly different. They are saying we can get out of it in 2026 with just a $3.8M dead cap hit. OTC says we would have a $16.6M dead cap hit. I'm going to assume OTC is correct because I doubt Spencer Brown signs Spotrac's version.

Bills 27 Dolphins 26 I'm totally on the fence about this one and when I'm on the fence I default to picking the Bills. Biggest thing that gives me hope is I think we outmatch them by a mile in the trenches on both sides of the ball. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend I'm comfortable about all their speed on offense matched up against our LBs and safeties who appear to be a tick slow to process. Hopefully Allen's left hand is okay and doesn't bother him too much. I suspect he has a broken bone and the team is intentionally keeping it under wraps (no pun intended).

Contract details are in: Pretty low guaranteed number. That 2026 cap hit looms large though so hopefully there is some kind of restructure built in to stretch that out in future years.

If it helps people to understand the skepticism of Joe Brady, note that the competition is Kyle Shanahan and Andy Reid. That's who we're up against trying to win a championship. I know the response will be that that is who everybody else has to compete with too, but that is the reality. And Joe Brady is not at that level. His offense never makes you say "Wow I haven't seen that before." "Wow our offense looks like it's playing in a totally different gear." "Wow these guys are wide open on every play." Like I said after the game his offensive coaching is perfectly fine. He knows the strengths of his players and uses them accordingly. He doesn't actively hurt the team. By the standards of his peers it is serviceable offensive coaching with a QB that can at times make serviceable look amazing. Outside of Allen you could describe the entire offense as serviceable, coaching and talent both. The question is if there is enough at either level to keep up with the true elites that are currently dominating the league.

I don't necessarily mind the run heavy game plan. Run defense was known to be Arizona's weakness coming into the game. I have no issue trying to enforce your will on the ground. But the point of doing that is to punish them when they finally go all out to stop the run. They started run blitzing us to death and we didn't adjust or make them pay. Felt like we had some good opportunities to mix in PA or screens and we just didn't...

😬

I saw the snap counts. Ray Davis only got 6 snaps while Ty Johnson got 14 snaps. That needs to flip starting this week. Davis looked good on all his opportunities.

You know Shaw, this is a fair point and does give a different perspective on the game. As frustrated as I was through much of it, the narrative ultimately should have been that the Bills sleepwalked against an inferior opponent for 25 minutes before turning it on and coming away with a two score victory. That looks a lot better than the current narrative which is that the Bills are lucky to have won by the skin of their teeth. Special teams TDs are one of those flukey things that can completely swing games and cause people to misinterpret the final result. They say week 1 lies and I feel that this will probably be even more true for the Bills than for other teams. For one thing, I would wager that several of our starters on defense today will not be starters by the end of the season. We have essentially two new coordinators. It's going to take several games at least before the offense figures out who its best skill players are. Over the past few years the Bills have been well established even entering week 1 and it was a matter of just stacking wins using our proven formula. This year it will be about tinkering and learning what our best formula is over time and hopefully having all of the right ingredients in place by December.

As others have pointed out, the issue is that Josh Allen had to take a lot of physical punishment today, just to beat a below average team with a bad defense. If he doesn't put his body on the line today (which literally caused an injury, the severity of which is still unknown) we would have lost. I guess this year they aren't putting the leash on him early in the season like they have in previous years. He has free reign to run around and take hits, because they know it's the only way this team can move the ball and score enough points to cover up our numerous deficiencies in all three phases. We don't have any pass catcher that can just go out and beat their man 1v1 with any kind of consistency. So it falls on Josh, like it always does but even moreso than usual. So yeah we should care that we don't have anyone on offense capable of taking the load off of his shoulders. But hey for today at least the pass catchers all played their respective roles and did enough to get the job done. It is encouraging that the group wasn't a total trainwreck. Still there are concerning signs that I'm not going to ignore because we scored 34 points.

Yes I said in the live game thread he proved me wrong and made several great plays today. I suspect Taron will miss some time but after Lewis' performance today I'm not as concerned as I would have thought.

Yeah the commentators didn't analyze that play properly. He saw Budda with leverage towards Samuel and wanted no part of that throw. I don't have an issue with the turndown. I have an issue that his inner clock didn't tell him it was time to get out of there or get rid of the ball. But whatever, it's the first offensive drive of week 1.

Absolutely hilarious watching Baker Mayfield completely turn his career around while his replacement the massage weirdo plays at barely backup level.

I'm concerned about the offense because I'm concerned about the defense. It's what I've been saying all year. As a team we are going to have very little margin for error and much like today we are probably going to be drawn into a lot of quasi-shootouts. To win shootouts consistently you need a dominant offense. Solid first game but I didn't see anything that makes me think we have enough playmakers on offense to dominate like that. Of course when Allen puts the team on his back as much as he did today we are still going to score points.

Laughed out loud watching that one on RedZone. How do you not even give your receiver a chance? Just ate the sack. I guess he gets his $200 million from Jimmy Haslam either way.

The Chargers predictably marched down the field with zero resistance and scored a TD.

We have an offense full of role players but nobody that can take over games or command extra attention. That's what I thought they were all offseason and that's what they were today.

Raiders had 4th and 1 at the opposite 43, down 6 with 7 minutes left, and elected to punt... I thought head coaches like that were left in the previous decade but I guess Antonio Pierce is the lone holdover. What a loser.

Yes this was the most positive thing to take away from the pass catchers today. And there were a couple tough catches from Coleman and Shakir so it wasn't all gimmes. Although I want another look at the missed pass at Knox, in real time it looked like he got his hands on it and should have made the tough catch but they didn’t show a replay.

Uh this is not the game to be bringing up receipts about the play of the WRs. Most of the time when Allen was looking downfield he couldn't find anyone. Shakir showed he can make tough plays and has excellent YAC skills but he isn't a consistent target. The TEs barely showed up. Samuel was a non-factor. The most impressive pass catcher of the day was the rookie. I come away from this game with the same concerns I've had all offseason - we will need a near perfect offense to make up for the many deficiencies on defense, and I don't trust the supporting cast to be capable of doing that consistently. BTW the Cardinals have a poor defense so it is only going to get harder.

There's no argument lol

Brady did about as well as I expected, which is to say he was fine. No more, no less. I saw nothing from our offense today that makes me think he is close to a top 10 play caller. As usual it's going to fall on Josh to carry the offense. Teams are going to run blitz us and dare our pass catchers to get open.

Yep he's our #1 WR. All the offseason talk was about slots and TEs, but ultimately Josh Allen's offense will always run through the boundary.

I wonder if Allen's hand made them play conservative there. The final pass we saw from him skipped off the turf and it was all runs the rest of the way. I know it's his off-hand but it still effects his mechanics to some degree. Hopefully it isn't a major problem moving forward.

I won't lie, I'm terrified of our LBs and safeties versus their offense. They were mostly terrible today and the difficulty is only going up on Thursday.

His offenses have always been bottom of the league bad, except for those few years where he was lucky enough to be coaching Josh Allen in his prime.