HappyDays

I am as hopeful as anyone about Kincaid's impact as a rookie. I still think it is a lot to expect him to immediately be the #2 target in the offense. If he has the impact you suggest then yes I will be more comfortable with Davis as the #3 target. But I would rather go into the season without relying on a rookie to be the only thing stopping Davis from being the #2. It's a big risk that signing Hopkins immediately takes care of.

No one ever talks about this for some reason but the Bengals would have won the Super Bowl last year and the AFCCG this year if Burrow had played just a little better in each of those games. I like Burrow, he's a great QB and he has single handedly changed the narrative in Cincinnati. I just don't understand why a lot of analysts pretend he has had nothing to do with his team falling short the past couple years.

Oh, that's interesting. Why are you stretching to find reasons to criticize Beane? It's bizarre. There are genuine criticisms to be made without suddenly flipping the opinion you've always held.

If it helps to understand our position - the fascination is not with Hopkins specifically, it is with upgrading Gabe Davis as the WR2. Hopkins just happens to be the one available player that would do that. If for example we had Tee Higgins or Devonta Smith on the team this would be a dead topic. Many of us simply aren't comfortable relying on Davis to once again be the #2 target share in this passing offense which is what he currently projects to be. What about Hopkins' recent actions shows him to be the opposite of what we need? Von Miller required a $100 million contract to sign here. So I assume you think he is also not the kind of player we should have signed?

Yeah I expect Shakir to be the official starting slot WR but I'm expecting Kincaid to ultimately get more snaps and targets than him, especially as the season goes along. He is too talented and too pro-ready to not have a significant role early on. OTAs only tell you so much but he has apparently been a favorite target of Allen in the past two sessions that the media attended. Kincaid was practically designed in a laboratory to defeat the cover 2 shell defense that befuddled us so much last year. His attributes will be more valuable to us in the slot than anyone else on the roster IMO.

You could have just said "no I haven't listened to a single thing the team has said about Kincaid" instead of implying there's a chance he winds up as the TE3. You do you though.

It's hard to take anything you say seriously when this statement shows that you haven't been paying attention at all. I mean here you're implying there's a chance Kincaid starts the season as the #3 TE behind Quintin Morris. Have you listened to a single thing the team and beat reporters have said about Kincaid's role?

We'll see what happens when the pads go on and he has to deal with NFL physicality, but I can't remember the last time I was this certain a Bills rookie would end up being great. He is just such a perfect fit with Allen's skill set. I really think they are going to be unstoppable together for the next decade.

That $20.75m cap hit in 2025 is the big decision IMO. If he isn't living up to his contract they can cut him for $8.85m in dead cap that year. Not a bad risk/reward.

Just incredible.

That play is a poor example of what you're referring to. That isn't a needle throw. Davis by NFL standards is wide open. As soon as Allen sees the CB in trail and the LB flat footed without enough depth it is a quick read and an easy decision. Because of where his hips are facing at the top of his drop it is in fact the easier throw then readjusting to throw to Shakir. The play works exactly as designed - Knox and Diggs create enough traffic so Davis's man loses him. If the play didn't work Allen would have turned to Shakir as his outlet but he didn't need to. To your overall point - in the New England offense, which we run a variation of, the reads go long to short. I heard Chris Simms talking about this last week. He was contrasting it to the Shanahan offense where reads go short to long. Our offense is designed to read deep first. I don't necessarily disagree that we should have some more short and quick passing concepts built in but that is more of a scheme change than an Allen change.

A lot of consternation came from the initial report that we gave him $45 million guaranteed. But it appears that is not actually true. Unless I'm missing something this is a very team friendly deal and the initial report was a straight up lie.

It isn't about Mahomes specifically. Your question is absurd on the face of it. It has no value in the discussion. "Why does Josh need help?" Because every QB, ever, needs help. Super Bowls aren't won by one man shows. Allen clearly has elevated the players around him. When are his teammates going to elevate him? Mahomes had a high ankle sprain and had to leave a playoff game for an entire quarter plus. He spent the rest of the playoffs hobbled and had an inexplicable no-contact fumble in a critical moment in the AFCCG. His teammates found a way to elevate him. I'm not trying to take away from his greatness, not at all, but the decision makers in KC have made it a point to build as much as possible around him first and foremost. Brady is the GOAT but had a ton of help every year that he was in New England. In 2019 the offensive talent around him fell off a cliff, his stats declined susbtantially, and they lost in the wildcard round. Everyone declared his career over. He went to the most talented roster in football in 2020, and hey what a coincidence just about every stat he had that year was better than his career average. There's this widespread belief that great QBs make their receivers. The truth of course is that it goes both ways. The question isn't "why does Allen need help?" The question is why shouldn't he have as much help as he can get? What is the downside to trying to create an offense that rivals the greatest offenses in history? I can understand the argument that Hopkins is a poor fit for the Bills, past his prime, etc. but I really don't understand the argument that we should stop trying to add offensive talent just because Allen is the QB.

I wonder if they added a void year to stretch out the cap hit.

How does this differ from Mahomes?

That's your opinion, not mine. I put our RB rooms on the same level. Our WR group is deeper, no debate there. "Solid?" It was the 2nd or 3rd best OL in the entire league. And the difference between Reid and Dorsey was indeed VAST, even in the most optimistic view of Dorsey's job last year. This is arguably more important than any roster differences between the two offenses. Anyways you're the one that tried to paint Allen in a bad light because "he needs help." I'm just pointing out that even the perceived best QB in the NFL needed a lot of help to win his Super Bowls too. An all time great TE, an all time great play caller, a top 3 OL. Why does Mahomes need so much help?

I mean, yes they were?