Logic

With a reasonably healthy roster, I'd feel pretty good about our chances at victory. With...whatever this is we're about to roll out on Sunday, not so much. Just to be clear, on defense, we're gonna be missing out best DT, a HOF edge rusher, an All-Pro WILL, our starting strong safety, and very possibly an All-Pro nickel and team captain MIKE. On offense, we're gonna be missing the only WR that has actually produced for us this season. I hate it.

No one on this forum could possibly have foreseen that players get injured in the NFL and that having a paper thin WR depth chart constituted clear and obvious roster mismanagement. Nope. No one at all. Frustrating. I think they'll survive the absence of the DTs and Rapp, but Shakir being out...that's a tough one.

This was one of the best -- if not THE best -- Thursday Night Football games I've ever watched. Passing fireworks galore, a close, back-and-forth score throughout, two quarterbacks playing at the height of their powers in a divisional matchup in front of a fired up crowd, overtime, dramatic walk-off big play ending. It had everything. OUTSTANDING game of football. Games like this are why I love the NFL.

Mixon being out would make a huge difference, in my opinion. I have a decent amount of faith in the Bills to be able to shut Akers down (especially after getting embarrassed in the run game last week, you just know McDermott is gonna be preaching run fits all week) and make the Texans one-dimensional. I think who does and doesn't play for the Bills could be the key to this game. As of this moment, Bernard, Johnson, and Dawkins are all questionable, and who from that group is active will go a long way in determining the Bills' likelihood of victory.

If nothing else, Beane's inquiry about Adams shows that the Bills are at least open to the possibility of acquiring a veteran receiver via trade this season. Cost will continue to be the issue, as the Bills don't have the cap space to take on any big contracts. But if any of the Browns, Titans, etc are willing to eat the cap hit in exchange for a higher draft pick in order to send Cooper, Hopkins, etc...I imagine Beane would continue to be interested.

Beane always does due diligence and calls to see what the compensation being sought is, as any good GM should. It's why you hear the Bills mentioned in just about every situation where a player is seeking a trade. I do not get the sense that Beane is going to be willing to give up a ton of capital to add a receiver. He wasn't willing to make a small jump up the board for BTJ on draft night. He wasn't willing to trade for a receiver all offseason. Why now would that have changed? I think he envisions this team being in a "get right" year and in year one of a mini-reset, and throwing a bunch of capital and money at a 31 year old WR doesn't feel like his M.O. at this moment in time. I also do not get the sense that the Raiders necessarily want to eat much of the cap charge this year. They've not historically been a franchise that loves spending money when they don't have to. I think that, in the end, the most simple and obvious thing likely happens: He becomes a Jet or a Saint.

I wonder if both Edwards and Cine could be active. Edwards would replace Rapp. Cine could take Miller's vacated game day roster spot. Of course, that would mean the Bills are going lighter at DE, but five guys there instead of six seems fine. Cine as the dime backer would be really interesting to me. Perhaps they feel he offers more against the run than Ja'Marcus Ingram while not losing much in pass coverage. Color me intriuged.

Call me crazy, but offenses like that of the Texans worry me much less than offenses like the Ravens. It's the teams that have a power run game and/or can capably employ heavy personnel that best exploit the Bills defense. The teams that can run just as well as they pass. Even the Chiefs, on the occasions that they've given our defense problems, it's often because of Travis Kelce, who is an elite big-bodied tight end. Teams like the Texans, whose main strength is passing -- Joe Mixon and Cam Akers don't really scare me in the run game -- I like our chances against them. That's the type of offense we ARE set up to stop. That's exactly what our defense is built to combat. I'm not saying the Bills are gonna completely shut the Texans offense down. In actuality, I expect Bobby Slowik to outcoach Bobby Babich, at least in the first half. I'm just saying I'd rather face the Texans of the world than the Ravens of the world, defensively speaking.

So you agree with me that it seems unlikely the Bills can afford him?

I think Bishop/Edwards is gonna become the starting safety duo sooner rather than later. I also can't help but be curious if Kareem Jackson or Lewis Cine from our practice squad have anything to offer. IF Micah Hyde comes back, I can't imagine it being until much later in the season.

No, it did not. I got that it was sarcasm. That's why I included it along with the other funny responses to the OP. Because I thought it was a funny response. Because I knew that it was sarcasm.

Pushing all of the "will they, won't they" noise and opinion to the side... I just have on question: Can the Bills financially afford to bring in Adams? Are there any realistic levers they can pull to fit him under their salary cap this year? As far as I can tell, his base salary is $16million this year. I'm not super tuned into all the nuances of player contracts, but that seems impossible for the Bills to pull off.

Opposing defenses are thus far mostly concentrating their efforts on stopping Kincaid and Shakir, and are content to give up outside stuff and force the Bills' other receivers to beat them. In the most recent game, in particular, the Ravens mostly put Kyle Hamilton on Kincaid and Marlon Humphrey on Shakir, and said "we dare you to beat us with other guys", and the Bills couldn't. Unless and until the Bills start getting some more meaningful production from their outside WRs, defenses will continue to sell out to clog the middle of the field. This is where a genuine outside threat would be useful. This is why I wanted Brian Thomas or Xavier Worthy (or Troy Franklin, who has been a zero so far, and I'm an idiot): To force defenses to respect them deep and to open things up over the middle. Maybe Coleman becomes the guy. Maybe Samuel gets healthy and becomes the guy. Maybe the trade for someone. They need to be able to do SOMETHING outside, or Kincaid and Shakir will increasingly be blanked.

When I read the OP, I was immediately curious what the responses would be. Y'all did not disappoint. I didn't even really have to go past page 1 and all angles were pretty much covered.

I was not surprised that their offense had its ways with our defense. As others have stated, they were uniquely suited -- both in terms of personnel and scheme -- to attack the weakened spine of the Bills defense. I absolutely think things would have been different defensively if Bernard and Johnson were playing, and CERTAINLY would have been different if Milano was playing, too. What DID surprise me was how thoroughly their defense stymied our offense. They had creative overload pressures all night long that our offensive line did not adapt to, and they played man coverage behind it. Typically, blitzing and playing man coverage are the exact two things you DON'T want to do against Josh Allen. The Ravens, though, showed that they had the defensive personnel and scheme to make it work. The good news is that I don't think there are many (any?) other teams in the league that are going to be able to replicate the gameplans the Ravens just put on film. Not many offenses have the size and physicality to do what the Ravens did. Not many defenses have the man coverage corners and pass rushers to do what the Ravens did. That being said, both Bobby Babich and Joe Brady will need to show that they have counter-punches and scheme evolutions to deal with these things, should they arise again. I don't believe the Bills were "figured out" last night, or that they suddenly just have bad coaching and bad players. Quite simply, they got punched in the mouth by a hungry and talented opponent on the road. Time to get back into the lab, practice hard, and get ready for next week. On to Houston.

As someone who was vocally unhappy with the way our WR corps was handled this offseason and called repeatedly for more help, lemme just say... This post stinks. Sitting back and saying nothing after the Bills put up 30+ points for three straight weeks and passed the ball with relative ease and saw Josh Allen put up career highs in EPA and passer rating, only to run to your keyboard at the first sign of trouble and crap all over the receivers and call them a dumpster fire... Weak. Just weak. That's all.

Agreed. We've also beaten the Ravens before, including in the postseason. We have historically had no trouble matching their physicality with our "finesse". The only major differences between this team and the Ravens teams we beat in the past are Derrick Henry and Todd Monken. Gimme a rematch with a healthier defense and a team eager to get some revenge after being embarrassed, and I like our chances perfectly fine.

Agreed. The Ravens have the perfect offensive personnel and scheme to exploit the Bills' banged up defense. The ability to go heavy and run it straight at the middle of the Bills defense and force them out of nickel. Defensively, they were the rare team that could send blitzes and play man defense behind it and actually have their corners hold up. In short, they were perfectly suited on both sides of the ball to beat the Bills as soundly as they did. Add in the intangibles of that fired up primetime "blackout" crowd and the players playing like they were 1-2 and badly needed the win, and you have a recipe for domination, which is exactly what we saw. The good news? There aren't many (any?) other teams in the league that are built like the Ravens. Collinsworth, who I generally abhor, made a smart comment last night: playing the Ravens this year is like playing Army. They run a style of offense that you just don't get to see often or prepare against much. But again...there aren't many Baltimore Ravens offenses or defenses out there. We got outschemed, outcoached, and out-executed. It happens. Onto Houston.

Same. The Bills don't suddenly stink. It's been 40 games since they lost by more than six points. Sometimes it's just not your day. They got outcoached, outschemed, outplayed, and had some rotten luck too. They got out of it healthy (relatively speaking), are 3-1, and getting some key players back. I don't feel the need to torture myself reliving it all week. See y'all next weekend.

Yeah: Skip it.

Mack Hollins as the leading snap getter at WR so far for your 2024 Buffalo Bills. I was told I was crazy for predicting such things. What a world.

Man, I think we all knew the Giants would stink. Daniel Jones just isn't the guy. But the Cowboys? Absolute dog water. How do you go into a season with a running back depth chart of Rico Dowdle, Deuce Vaughn, and the ghost of Ezekiel Elliott? It's only week four, and they have a primetime divisional showdown, and they're giving serious carries to FULLBACK named Luepke. But how could they have acquired a better running back? Well, aside from the obvious free agency option (they could have easily afforded Derrick Henry), there was the draft. Knowing they had a GAPING hole at running back, the Cowboys used their third round draft choice to select linebacker Marist Liufau. At the time, Bucky Irving, Braelon Allen, Ray Davis, Jaylen Wright, Audric Estime, and Marshawn Lloyd were all still on the board. Instead? Carries for Luepke. In primetime. Dog water.

This it technically pro football, I guess.

This game stinks. The Giants are boring. The Cowboys are boring. Josh Allen has ruined other NFL games for me. Time for Murder She Wrote re-runs.