HappyDays

Yeah I could see us ending the season 14-3 and still ending up the #2 seed behind the 16-1 Chiefs. I guess you hope they lose one of their remaining divisional games, maybe in Denver, and then hopefully the Texans or Steelers find a way to beat them. It's hard to see them ending the season any worse than 14-3 and even that record is assuming we beat them.

Root for the Texans to lose as many games as possible before Nico Collins is back. Man I wish the Colts had made the QB switch one week sooner. Texans have a sneaky difficult schedule to end the season - they still have Lions, Cowboys, Chiefs, and Ravens. I think 1-3 in those games is likely. If they also lose tonight that puts them at 6 losses on the year and I would feel very confident we end ahead of them in the standings in that scenario. But hey if the Jets lose that will still be a good result because we'll basically lock up the division with a win on Sunday. No bad outcomes tonight.

Arm length was only used as a talking point regarding his ability to play outside. And that has turned out to be a legit talking point - 69.8% of his snaps this year have come from the slot. I don't have access to stats on his exact target share from the slot versus outside, but from the eye test I'm mostly only seeing him get outside targets on screens, everything else is coming from the slot. Not that there's anything wrong with him having a defined slot role. His efficiency from that position has been otherworldly and his YAC skills are as good as it gets. That's been my favorite aspect of this new pass catching group as a whole. YAC is arguably more important than ever now because of the way defenses are schemed. It's very hard to win over the top these days, so getting chunk plays with the ball in your skill players' hands is the best way to move down the field in a hurry. Joe Marino does a weekly recap of Josh Allen analytics as part of his Substack. According to his data 57.4% of Allen's passing yards come from YAC. That ranks 4th in the NFL. Coleman and Shakir rank 2nd and 5th respectively in YAC per reception. Kincaid ranks 12th. This is a massive upgrade from previous seasons where I know we consistently ranked near the bottom of the NFL. So we may not have a defined vertical WR right now but I think we're more than making up for it with the efficiency of the group.

There's really no questions about any of these players. Elam is worse than Benford and Douglas and it's not close. Edwards I can't speak too as much because I haven't seen him play this year but I won't ever question McDermott on DBs. Deion Jones? He is a free agent, not even offered a PS spot anywhere. Why did you even bring him up? And Bishop is a rookie who blew a coverage so bad we gave up an uncontested 60 yard TD. I'll be critical of McDermott when warranted but none of these players have proven they belong on the field.

I'm sorry but it is laugh out loud funny that a career backup has the audacity to demand a trade. Hard pass for me, even if we got an offer which I doubt we would. Quality depth is an important attribute of championship teams. Edwards himself is a good example considering he had to step in for KC during their playoff run last year. A swap of 7ths or whatever isn't worth giving that up.

McConkey is never going to be much better than he is right now IMO and he'll likely be relegated to the slot. High floor low ceiling type of player. I think you can find that skill set in the 3rd round or later. Big physical WRs with elite body control don't make it out of the top 40. I am all about drafting for the future, not for year one. And as we're seeing with Coleman sometimes that future comes faster than you think for the physically gifted players.

Yeah well I have a few complaints about your British English: 1) Not every word needs an extra "u" thrown in. The letter "o" is perfectly fine on its own. 2) The first floor is the one that touches the ground. The one above it is the second floor. Etc. 3) We don't learn histories, sciences, or Englishes in school. And so neither do we learn maths. It is a singular concept.

Is he really "under fire"? Seems to me like he said a word that is considered offensive in the UK - which the NFL is actively trying to expand their market into - and is likely being told by Fox not to use that word anymore. I've seen more outrage about the supposed outrage than the supposed outrage itself. I haven't seen anyone calling for him to be fined, fired, or anything like that.

Beautiful eulogy @SDS. Thank you for taking the time to write it. If you spend as much time on here as some of us do, you have to have a few screws loose. John was no different. I'll miss his particular brand of posting and my thoughts are with his son and daughter.

I remember after Worthy scored a TD on a totally blown coverage in week 1, there were a few people on here that said that play was evidence of him "beating press coverage" 😂

In this modern media environment that fan will have a $1 million podcast deal sponsored by Manscaped by the end of the week

Yeah even the play he drew a DPI on near the end of the game, on the all 22 you can see him stack Woolen and gain vertical leverage. That penalty was well earned. If he can start doing that consistently in addition to what he already offers in the short to intermediate areas, not to mention his elite YAC skills, he's going to be a nightmare for CBs. Woolen is as physical as it gets at the position too. That was a great test and he passed with flying colors. I see enough traits that could develop into a #1 WR. I don't think his ceiling is as limited as you do. He was basically shadowed by his opponent's #1 CB on Sunday and performed like a #1 WR in that situation. I never saw Gabe Davis do that. Next thing I want to see from him is developing his timing on downfield boundary catches. He dropped a beautiful honey hole shot from Allen because he didn't time his jump correctly with when the ball arrived. That sort of nuance will come with reps.

You know what they say - if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

I knew it would take time to reach his ceiling, but I was fine with that. If you want to draft for year one then take Ladd McConkey, knowing that the ceiling is limited and he'll never be a true game changing player. I shoot for the high ceiling in the 1st round. Beane has had no difficulty finding plenty of good players. We need some great ones with physical abilities that go above and beyond the play call. Coleman is a bit ahead of schedule for what I expected actually. By the end of the year I think he'll be a considerably better talent than Gabe Davis for example, and he may have already broken that threshold over the last two games. Then like you said it's a matter of how high that ceiling goes. I really think people overthought Coleman as a prospect. A lot of it reminded me of the Josh Allen pre-draft conversation. I was 100% on the wrong side of that one and I vowed to never get fooled again by media narratives. Like with Allen, fans and analysts were throwing around totally out of context and unexplained stats that were just taken as gospel. Contested catch percentage, reception perception charting, etc. It's like people forgot what actually wins at the NFL level - size, strength, body control. Also people were analyzing him as the player he was, not the player he could become. Scouting is about projection. Like with Allen he had an unusual athletics background which implied a rawer starting place than his peers, and elite athletic traits which implied a higher ceiling. Like Allen he was known to have a strong work ethic and a desire to be great. So all the ingredients were there to tell me he had a bright future. Plus like I mentioned above I wanted a physical WR that could finally overcome the issues we continually run into in the playoffs. To me it was a simple formula - take a physically imposing WR and place him on the field with a physically imposing QB, and it will probably work out for the best even if it doesn't always look pretty. I wanted a power forward, not a ballerina. Coleman quite literally met that standard and his football character traits (based on everything I had read about him) pushed him even higher in my esteem. Couldn't be happier with the result so far and it's only gonna get better.

Yes playoff football is why he was my #1 target for the Bills. I was so sick of watching WRs like Stefon Diggs and John Brown get shut down by physical DBs in the playoffs when officials keep their flags tucked away. Small WRs get bullied in the playoffs. Finally we got a WR that is the bully.

You mean the last 8 weeks

We don't need another situational pass rusher. We have like 3 of those, and yes I'm including Von in that mix. The one position I want Beane to add is a big DT.

I'm old enough to remember when most fans and analysts said Tomlin made a mistake putting Wilson in for Fields. No question Wilson is running the offense better. I don't expect Pittsburgh to make any real noise in the playoffs, but hopefully they at least give Baltimore a real run for the division title.

I understood the concerns before the season. I mean people that were still worried even after Saleh was fired. That was an awful move that was certain to blow up spectacularly in their faces. Following it up with a trade for another one of Aaron Rodgers' buddies was the cherry on top. Championship teams are built through long term culture and system building, not week-to-week reactionary BS.

I mean he did play... He was out there for 50% of the snaps, and keep in mind we were just running out the game for basically the entire 4th quarter, and at one point he appeared to hurt his shoulder. As for his limited target share while on the field - without checking the all 22, I suspect Seattle was bracketing him after seeing how productive he was against Tennessee. Like they dared us to beat them with anybody other than Cooper, and our other weapons stepped up to the challenge. That is where having one great pass catching weapon helps and makes "everybody eats" a more viable strategy. Cooper draws extra attention, everybody else benefits. I'm not overly concerned with Cooper's on-paper production. His presence on the field is arguably just as impactful to the offense as his own play. If the offense is constantly racking up chunk plays like they did yesterday, who cares about individual stats?

In favor of Rousseau:

If I was taking positional value into account I definitely would have picked Benford. I think Cook has pretty clearly separated himself from Davis/Johnson. RBs are inherently going to be somewhat limited by the run blocking so it can be hard to see that difference on tape. One example from yesterday - Davis had a run in the middle of the 4th quarter. Game was already over so it didn't really matter but he had one guy to beat and nothing but open space beyond him. Instead he got brought down for like a 4 yard gain. Cook gets a 50 yard TD on that play. That's where his skill set makes a legit difference to the team.

I meant over the course of the season so far. If it was right now it might be Amari Cooper even though he didn't do much yesterday.

We're halfway through the season. Coming into the season, a big talking point was that the Bills had no real stars on the team other than Allen. In the past the possible answers to this question would have been easy - Tre White or Stefon Diggs. Now it's a bit less clear. I included all of the names I thought would be the most common selections, but feel free to comment if you genuinely think a different player has earned this distinction. I seriously thought about Christian Benford, but ultimately I'm going with James Cook. Might be recency bias but he's the one player on the team that consistently gets more than what's available. Shakir is a very close 2nd in that regard, I just think Cook gives you more consistent down to down production and Shakir's injury hurts him in my analysis. My top 5: 1) James Cook 2) Christian Benford 3) Spencer Brown 4) Khalil Shakir 5) Dion Dawkins

Good reminder that coaching is almost as important as talent in the NFL. And the Jets now have the WORST coaching staff in the league. That's why I didn't understand Bills fans that were still worried about them even after Saleh was fired... Saleh was pretty clearly not a great coach, but he brought an energy to the team and his side of the ball was playing at an elite level for most of his tenure. Now they've handed the reins to Jeff Ulbrich, a guy that no one had ever heard of before his sudden ascension. Is anyone surprised they have become a terrible defense? Yes, terrible - you give up 37 to the Steelers and 25 to the Pats, you are a terrible defense. Meanwhile on offense they have Todd Downing and Nate Hackett running the show... Like I said, the WORST coaching staff in the league.