Logic

It is easy to see the progress Allen has made this season. Any notion that he "won't progress unless/until he stops running", or that he hasn't progressed a bunch ALREADY, is false in my opinion. First, let me get this out of the way: He has a long way to go and a lot of areas of needed improvement before he's where he needs to be. Nobody better accuse me of being an Allen apologist. My post history shows that I was firmly in the "anyone but Allen" camp leading up to the draft. That having been said, Allen has progressed in key areas as the season has gone on, particularly since he came back from injury. He's going through his reads faster, setting his protections and IDing defenses better, audibling into run plays when the box is light, leading his receivers better, throwing with better anticipation and touch, displaying more fearlessness when making tight window throws, trusting his receivers better, throwing short passes and screens more accurately, and showing improved pocket presence and poise. That's a TON of improvement across just 7 games. It also appears that the mid-season month on the bench did him wonders. Long way to go, as I said, but he has shown tremendous progress.

I predict there will be a lot of unhappy TBDers on draft day, because I think the Bills are going to draft a defensive linemen. I can just hear the outrage now. "HOW CAN YOU DRAFT A PLAYER AT THE TEAM'S DEEPEST UNIT?!?! FIRE McBEANE!!! GRRRR Rabble Rabble!!!" Here's the thing: The absolute, no-doubt-about-it, undisputed deepest talent pool in the draft this year is along the defensive line. And after that, other defensive players in general. We could see 22-25 first round picks spent on defensive players. So if the Bills see an offensive player sitting there at their pick that fits the value, then great, pick him. But there's a very high likelihood that the best players on the board at the time they pick will be defensive players. And to those saying "JUST TRADE DOWN!": It's not always that easy. It requires that someone ELSE wants to trade up. And there's also no guarantee that offensive player X will still be there at the pick you traded down to. One more thing: Our three biggest impact front seven defenders are old or GETTING old. Zo and Kyle both might retire, and Jerry Hughes is no spring chicken. Furthermore, once Kyle retires, there will be a GAPING hole at 3T, which is a crucial position in McDermott's defense. If an Ed Oliver or Josh Allen are there at the Bills pick and present the best value, they'd being doing themselves a disservice not to take said player.

Wait....you mean to tell me that declaring Zay Jones a bust before he was even half way through his second season was premature? GTFO!

I will be at this game. Flying in from Oregon. First Bills game I will have attended in about 7 years. Just couldn't pass up on seeing Allen vs Darnold for the first time in what should be a long and awesome rivalry for years to come. I'm gonna be 4th row from the field -- the closest I've ever been to the action! Oh, and one more thing: Our defense is gonna FEAST against Darnold.

Cover 1 on Twitter showed a snapshot that captures the moment McKenzie breaks open toward the sideline. Allen already cocked his arm back and the ball is about to leave his fingertips. Furthermore....Zay should've caught that ball.

I've seen it said across a few different threads here, and from several different posters, that Allen needs to cut down on the amount that he runs the ball. I've seen a few "he's not long for this league if he does that" type comments. I'm here to say that I completely and unequivocally disagree. He needs to learn to be more patient and let the plays develop, yes. He can naturally cut down on the amount that he NEEDS to scramble by reading the field better and going through his progressions. But even then, he should not make it a goal to limit or eliminate his scrambling. Indeed, it is precisely his otherworldly improvisatory scrambling ability that sets him apart from most other QBs in the league. Consider this: In the Super Bowl era, Allen is the ONLY QUARTERBACK EVER to rush for 95+ yards in back-to-back games. And he did this in only the 6th and 7th games of his career. The bind that Allen puts defenses in by having such lethal running ability AND such a lethal arm is hard to overstate. If they choose not to spy him, he'll run wild. If they DO choose to spy him, he'll have extra time to find an open receiver and make the defense pay. This type of double threat is unique, rare, and is what will make Allen a successful QB in this league for a long time. And as to the notion that he'll get hurt if he keeps running so much? I just flat out disagree. First, the argument that running QBs get injured more often is not really based on fact. Instead, most QB injuries happen IN the pocket, not outside of it. Furthermore, Allen's sheer size should lessen his injury vulnerability. Look at Cam Newton, who is very similar in size and running style. How many games has he missed due to injury in his career? Bottom line: Allen is dangerous BECAUSE of his running ability. It is not an overstatement to say that he is on track to be one of the best running QBs in the HISTORY of the NFL. His combination of size and speed -- combined with his passing ability -- makes him a unique and difficult player to defend. Any notion that he needs to concentrate on scrambling less or cut it out of his game is just wrong. Aside from the aforementioned natural decline in rushing attempts due to his learning to see the field better, nothing else is needed.

latex or sheepskin?

Why do people feed the trolls?

You're missing my point.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/18/russia-election-hacking-trump-putin-698087 2) Hackers went after the Democrats "Last week’s indictments against 12 Russian intelligence laid out the other half of the alleged plot: the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other liberal political groups, as well as aides to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The plot included an operation in mid-2016 that injected malware on “at least ten DCCC computers,” which then lurked on the DCCC network, stealing employees’ passwords, the indictment leaks. That allowed the hackers to watch Democratic staffers’ keystrokes and spirit away DCCC files to a server the Russians leased in Arizona. The hackers then got into the DNC’s computers and transferred several gigabytes of data to a server they leased in Illinois. The hackers also breached the DNC’s Microsoft-hosted email service and stole “thousands of emails” from committee workers, according to the indictment. The Russians then published their stolen files, using both outlets they created — a website called DC Leaks and a lone-hacker persona called Guccifer 2.0 — as well as an unidentified organization that’s believed to be WikiLeaks. The timing of the releases was no accident, said the indictments, which described private online conversations involving efforts to seize on the "conflict between bernie and hillary" before the Democratic National Convention." So you're saying that you don't feel that the hacking of the DNC and the public release of materials found therein to paint Hillary in an unfavorable light impacted the election in any meaningful way? REALLY?! You don't think thousands of voters who were on the fence were impacted one iota by the hacking and/or disinformation campaigns? And you're calling ME willfully ignorant?

Well, a few things: First, I find it weird that you spent time and energy differentiating between "interference" and "meddling". You stated that they are "verrry different". But if you look up the definition of "meddle", it states: "to interfere in or busy oneself unduly with something that is not one's concern.". Does it sound to you like the meaning of each word is sufficiently different to warrant your semantics lesson? I also find it weird that conservatives -- even those that say they didn't vote for Trump -- bend over backwards to try to downplay the seriousness and malevolence of Russia's actions and their impact on the election. Secondly, I simply disagree with you as to the notion that the election was fully legal and legitimate. When a hostile foreign power is known to have interfered -- oops, I mean "meddled" -- in an election, I don't see how you can continue to vouch for its full legitimacy, or how you can fail to understand how an investigation into the details of said meddling is warranted. I also think that current evidence overwhelmingly points to the Trump campaign's knowledge of and collusion with said "meddling". We don't have to go back and forth on that one, though, because I think the coming weeks and months are going to provide a clear answer as to who is correct in this matter. And finally, I find it laughable that you discount and mock Seth Abramson, but then proceed to continually quote Chuck Ross...as if he is somehow more legitimate. I always enjoy the double standard here at the PPP when it comes to what sources and outlets are and aren't acceptable to quote.

https://www.justsecurity.org/61652/jereome-corsi-roger-stone-wikileaks-yes-collusion-legal-significance-mueller-revelations/ Yes, Collusion: The Legal Significance of the New Mueller Revelations The special counsel’s draft Statement of Offense for Jerome Corsi includes much extraordinary information. But what are the most legally significant details to emerge? At bottom, the draft court document supplies additional reason to believe that Bob Mueller can charge Trump Campaign associates and the campaign itself for violations of federal campaign finance law either directly under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) or as part of a conspiracy to defraud the United States by obstructing the capacity of the Federal Election Commission to enforce the FECA. The federal offense of a conspiracy to defraud the United States serves as the backbone of the special counsel’s February 2018 indictment of Russian nationals, which then raised the question whether the special counsel would subsequently indict any Americans for knowingly participating in the general conspiracy. The activities of Roger Stone, Jerome Corsi, and Ted Malloch, as shown by what Mueller decided to include in the draft document, points to legal jeopardy for them and any others who knowingly participated with them in this scheme with Wikileaks.

Leighton Vander Esch was 22 on draft day. Tremaine Edmunds was 19. I'm not taking anything away from LVE. He looks great. Tremaine hasn't been a slouch, either. Just in the Jags game alone, he tipped a ball in a key moment, allowing Poyer to intercept it. It's not as if he hasn't been making plays, too. Let's just see after two or three years, who has turned out to be the best pick. Judging this matter 12 games in -- especially when one of the guys just turned 20 years old -- is silly.

He's sort of a Cam Newton/Big Ben hybrid in terms of his size, scrambling ability, and escapability. That's a hell of a combo. If he goes on to have a career as good as the former, then it was a good pick. If he goes on to have a career as good as the latter, it was a home run.

Isn't it weird when people who clearly don't know any more about football than the average fan get jobs as sports columnist and get paid to publish uninformed opinion pieces?

I want to point out that Vander Esch is two years older than Edmunds. Edmunds was NINETEEN on draft day! We'll see who the better player is over the next couple years.

You DO admit that Russia interfered in the election by engaging in hacking operations and perpetrating disinformation campaigns against the American people with the objective of getting Donald Trump elected, right? Note: I'm not asking whether you think Trump knew about it or had anything to do with it. But you admit that this interference HAPPENED, yes?

That's just it. There is so, so much smoke around the fire indicating that he was NOT legally elected. We already KNOW that Russia meddled in the election. How, knowing that, can you claim that it was a fair and legal election? How, after a hostile foreign adversary has meddled in the election, can you vouch for its legitimacy? And please, do tell me: which parts of what he said are incorrect or inaccurate?

But nah, I'm sure it's just the vicious MSM spewing lies, and there's nothing to see here. Of course. And from Seth Abramson on Twitter: “I don't think people appreciate yet what's happening. If Trump was secretly working a 9-figure real estate deal with a Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch AFTER he received his August 17, 2016 classified briefing telling him Russia was attacking America—Houston, we have a problem. 2/ Keep in mind Trump KNEW his deal with Rozov involved Kremlin consent because COHEN TOLD HIM SO after speaking repeatedly with Sater. So Trump was *knowingly doing business with active enemies of the US* while promising them the most historically pro-Russia foreign policy ever.”

At least I'll have someone fun to tailgate with against the Jets!

Guilty. When Allen went on the shelf with injury, it provided an interesting opportunity: To see his impact on the offense. Put a different way, I sort of thought the offense might IMPROVE while he was out. I thought maybe HE was what was holding the offense back. As anyone with eyes could tell you, that was NOT the case. As it turns out, the only thing that WAS giving our offense any life whatsoever was Allen. Yes, the infusion of speed in the WR corps has helped. But still, it's plain as day that Allen provides juice to this offense that it otherwise doesn't have. Just like at Wyoming, Allen is sometimes the only thing keeping his team's offense going. At times, it feels like a one-man show, or at least as much of one as there can be in such a team sport. So take that type of ability and leadership and heart and add some actual offensive TALENT and PROTECTION around him? Egads. THAT I'm looking forward to seeing! And really, for a rookie coming off a month of being on the bench to will his team to victory against a top 5 defense...I just couldn't have been more impressed. A very encouraging day.

Thanks for the writeup as always, Shaw. I was solidly in the "anyone but Allen" camp leading into the draft. The prospect of another big-armed, physically gifted QB who couldn't do the little things necessary to be successful was just too frightening to me, after the JP Losman and EJ Manuel debacles. It is now obvious to me, after the Jacksonville game, that Allen has something that those guys did not have: HEART, WILL, and FEARLESSNESS. I have been cautiously optimistic and impressed by some of the things Allen had done on the field prior to Sunday's game. But he was very up and down. Even the Minnesota game: It was encouraging, but the gameplan didn't ask him to do a lot and the defense kept giving Allen the ball deep in Vikings territory. But Sunday's game against Jacksonville? That was the first time I stood up and said "this kid's got it". When I say "it", I mean the ability to take a team completely on his back and will them to victory. And make no mistake, that's what happened against the Jaguars. They have an absolutely all-world defense, with speed in bunches and 1st round picks all over the field. Put simply, the Bills absolutely would not have won that game without Josh Allen. All three touchdown scoring drives happened because of Allen. The first TD drive saw Allen complete a 47-yard play to Kelvin Benjamin and a first down pass to Croom (with nice touch, by the way). The Foster play, well...just WOW. The 4th quarter scoring play may have looked easy, but it involved Allen stiff arming a big d-lineman to the ground, juking like a running back (as you said), and plowing through a linebacker. Not easy in the least. In between those scoring drives, he kept drives alive with his legs (even scrambling for a 45 yard gain at one point!), made smart decisions, took care of the football, and generally kept his team in position to win the game. But aside from his actual play on the field, it was the intangible stuff that showed up: His excitement after big plays and scores and his getting the crowd and his teammates pumped up. His "swag" on the 14-yard TD run. You think it was an accident that he did Jalen Ramsey's "flex" TD celebration after scoring? Nope. Underneath his "aw shucks" country boy demeanor lies a deeply competitive man with the heart of a lion and a will that one rarely sees in athletes. How could Allen's teammates watch him lay his body on the line play after play -- not sliding, but juking and stiff arming and always looking for more yardage -- how could they watch him WILL his offense to points again and again and not want to follow his example and lay THEIR bodies on the line every single play? Heart, Will, Leadership by Example, Swag, and as Shady said: "He just brings that electricity". And how about the way the veterans talk about him? Hyde, Poyer, Lorenzo, Shady...they could give stock answers when asked about Allen, but they don't. They all rave about him and swear he has a bright future in this league. And these are professionals who know what they're talking about and who see him day in and day out in the locker room, in meetings, on the practice field. They all feel they're in good hands going forward. They're all inspired to fight for Allen on the field. And this is SIX AND A HALF GAMES into his rookie season! He has a fight in him and a will that I haven't seen since Fitzpatrick...the only difference is that Allen has quite a different set of physical gifts that Fitzy had! I don't know if Allen will ever be a Brady or a Rodgers. He may never make "top 10" lists of the best quarterbacks in the league. But after Sunday, I'm standing up and taking notice, and I'm starting to believe that he can be the type of guy who -- by sheer force of will and heart and leadership, and by the power of game-breaking plays with his arm and legs -- can lead the Bills to the promised land. I know, I know...he's a rookie. Gotta tempter expectations. But my antennae are up now. Allen's got....something.

"Hillary had ***** pneumonia and attended a 9/11 memorial anyway and fainted and Trump and his supporters went bonkers and said she was about to die. Trump won't stand in the rain for a few minutes to honor the veterans of WWI, and we get total silence from his followers. It's astonishing."

Let me know when he does something -- ANYTHING -- worthy of praise and we'll see. The Reverse-Robinhood Wealth Grab Tax Cut doesn't count in my book. Neither do his endless golf trips or the "lock her up!" rallies that he's still holding for some reason even though he's already president.

Memes are fun.