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I didn't see this posted yet so I thought I'd share. It's an article on The Athletic so it's behind a paywall but I'll cut and paste a few bits and pieces. Shaq Lawson - Joe predicts the Bills will get a long-term deal done with him before free agency. Quote... "Signing Lawson would benefit the Bills in a few ways. They would be rewarding a young, vocal leader who has grown immensely under their watch. They would also be sending a message through the locker room that it doesn’t matter whether a player was brought in under the current regime; hard work, a good attitude and production are more important to them." Jordan Phillips - Joe predicts Phillips will sign elsewhere during free agency, however... "It wouldn’t be a surprise if Phillips allows the Bills to match a contract offer he receives, but the Bills are in a good place. Oliver is a superior pass rusher and run defender to Phillips, and Harrison Phillips is on the way back. All the team needs is another low-cost, rotational piece to complete their four-person defensive tackle rotation and they should be able to make up for the loss of Jordan Phillips. If Phillips doesn’t find a long-term deal in free agency, the Bills should remain open to another one-year pact (though it seems unlikely his market falls flat after his jump in production). But, with so much already in place at the position, it makes sense for the Bills to use that money elsewhere." Quinton Spain - Predicts he will test free agency... "Spain was an above-average starter for the majority of the season and stood out as a run blocker. But it’s notable that the Bills chose to rest Feliciano, and not Spain, in Week 17 against the Jets. Feliciano provides the versatility that Spain does not. The Bills also have a team option on the second year of Long’s deal and could bring him back this offseason. Cody Ford could play a part in the Spain decision, as the Bills haven’t ruled out moving the second-round pick inside." Kevin Johnson - Predicts the Bills will give him a short-term deal... "Without any substantial money tied to the cornerback position right now, the Bills have the flexibility to bring Johnson back on a short-term deal. He would give the Bills a fringe starter and depth option, he fits their scheme, is a special teams contributor and can even play inside at nickel when they need it." He also adds that he believes the Bills will likely bring back some depth/special teams players, naming Dean Marlowe, Julian Stanford, Senorise Perry, and LaAdrian Waddle. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing Lawson back, but at a manageable deal. He might be looking for a payday, though, who knows. There were also some quotes from Beane in the article that seemed to allude to them knowing the likelihood of Jordan Phillips testing the market is high. He added that they have Harrison Phillips coming back and how he had been playing very well before his injury. JP had some splash plays but also seemed to disappear at times, and also seemed to be in the game when the struggles to stop the run would happen, so, we'll see what happens there. Kevin Johnson is solid depth, I'd bring him back. Spain played well down the stretch but they may feel they have a better option there if they decide to switch Ford over to guard full-time. Should be an interesting off-season.

I read it. I had to laugh at the "God's not gonna make the same mistake" thing, haha. Athletes and the lord, I guess I don't quite get it. But if you follow his IG or anything, you'd think he's part of some kinda alien-worship cult, always posting about how he's an alien and he's on StarShip14 and yadda, yadda, ya. Weird dude. Talented, not quite what people thought he'd be, though.

I don't see this as a big deal or a sign of him being immature. The start of that game yesterday definitely did not go how anyone anticipated, KC included. He was probably just more shell-shocked then anything, like, "What the hell's going on?" And I really never minded when he spoke out while he was here in Buffalo. He was on some teams that weren't the most "together" group of guys like we see now under McDermott. It was the Whaley era so it was a roster constructed without too much concern for how a guy was going to fit into their culture, if they even had one at that point. Him biting back at folks on Twitter is a little lame. It's kinda like the stories I've read of Mayfield and O'Brien chirping back at fans in the stands. It's football, and if you're the visiting team, you're the enemy. You're going to get booed, people are gonna say things, you'd think most players, especially a coach, would be able to tune it out.

I'd be surprised if he comes back. I'm sure he was hoping Seattle was going to make a run to the Super Bowl where he would've only had to play in three or four games to get there. Who knows if he wants to go through another full season.

You mean the dreaded Haynesworth-Dareus Syndrome?! Haha. I like big JP, he made some great plays this year and does fly off the tape every now and again. I feel like he kinda disappears at times, too, though. I wouldn't mind if they re-signed him. They'll have Harrison Phillips back as well and from the few games he played, it seemed like he was a better option against the run. So maybe rotate those two like that, let Harrison handle run downs and then see if they can't scheme up something to get JP loose on passing downs, I dunno. Just spitballin'.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's accurate. EJ had extra tutors through high school. I think I read that he had some difficulty in comprehension or whatever. I remember reading about that the week before the 2014 season opener. It was an article about how hard the guy works but also some of the stuff he's had to overcome. I remember seeing the part about his issues in school and thinking like, maybe that was why he had such a difficult time reading defenses.

It's not Marcus frickin' Mariota, I can tell youse that much.

I don't think it was that bad. It was probably on par with other teams and near the league average. It's just a lot more noticeable when it happens at really inopportune times, like say, late in OT in a playoff game and two defenders magically bounce off a quarterback. Dear football gods, smite Deshaun Watson, smite him! Oh, they did, look at that, blew a 24 point lead.

He's JAG. They probably thought they'd get a bit more out of him and have him mentor Knox and Sweeney (which I'm sure he does), but he got a bum foot so he was a bum all season. Except that time he caught a touchdown against the Steelers. But yeah, as others have said, I don't think there's a huge love-fest going on for the guy. He could be alright, definitely serviceable. Just depends on him staying healthy. Next season is Rambo's year, though.

Someone will overpay for him. Won't be Beane, but someone will.

It's the old switcheroo. Make everyone think you aren't interested and then bam, that's the guy they take. I kid, but that's actually how they ended up with Kiko. Totally different regime, I know, but I'm sure a lot of teams do that. They knew they liked Kiko from the the first game they scouted him at and then afterwards they made it seem like they had zero interest in him. I'm confident they'll find some offensive playmakers. And I hope they keep investing in the DL. Keep adding studs up front like San Francisco. I expect it, that's pretty much how they operated when they (McBeane) were in Carolina.

Just made a fan out of me. Contact balance is outstanding, runs over guys like a back, change of direction is crazy, yowza. Get this kid in Bills blue, Beanie!

What was his answer?

What about four Cole Beasley's and a partridge in a pear tree?

Ugh, it was the worst. 4th quarter started and I began thinking, "Alright, he's gonna turn it on now, 4th quarter is where he makes his money, flip that switch my man!" Alas, the switch remained unflipped. Sad trumpets. Lateral move for sure. And on a personal level for him, why would he uproot his family and truck three hours down the 90 to coach in Cleveland? His career has taken him a lot of places but he's coaching in his own backyard now. I highly doubt anything less than an offer for a HC job would make him leave here.

I had to turn it off pretty quickly as well, the commentary, not the game. According to Booger, every play was the result of the other team breaking down in some fashion. "Great run by Singletary!" "Well, Joe, again, poor tackling, look at this guy over here, he's 15 yards away and misses the tackle, he should be ashamed!" I just can't stand commentary in general anymore.

Exactly. Can he draw up the run game like nobody's business? Absolutely. But it's his passing concepts that get him kicked to the curb. Very basic concepts, not hard to defend.

Me either, actually. She may have just deleted the original and put up something else in its place.

She edited the tweet, it was different yesterday. Said she thinks the Bills owe Poyer a big payday after how he's played for them. I think Poyer has played well... I don't know if he's up there with some of the top safeties in the league, but I think I'd keep him around. And if I were a pro athlete, I think I'd tell my SO that my agent will handle contract negotiations. Comments like hers (before she changed it) just draw negative attention.

He improved this season. I don't know what kind of number to put on that but it was pretty clear that he got a lot better at the short/intermediate stuff, his pocket presence and movement got a lot better, he didn't seem to have the happy feet as much and he didn't bail on clean pockets as often. He picked his spots when he wanted to take off and run and despite racking up 510 yards, it seems he took less hits than last season as he would slide or get out of bounds. You know, that's one thing I find weird... in Baltimore, everyone loves seeing Lamar run all over the field, "Oh my, what an amazing player!" but almost every other QB with the ability to run, you hear, "Oh my, he took a shot! His coaches don't want him doing that!" I mean, obviously we don't want the guy to get hurt but he's 6'5" 250 and pretty tough. Forget who it was but an analyst tweeted after the game that he couldn't remember a game where he saw a QB endure more contact that Allen did and called him a tough SOB. Anyway... he also showed a better understanding of the offense which allowed him to check to different plays at the line and at times call his own plays. I think he did better in reading defenses although he had a few throws nearly picked where there seemed to be a bit of a lapse in what he was reading. He cut down on the interceptions. He still struggled with the fumbling. Weird that it keeps happening even when he's holding the ball in the typical ball-carrier fashion. Hopefully that can stop happening so frequently. He definitely made some visible strides this season. When I look back on say, EJ, I can only think of one or two things that you could see marked improvement on. I think he was able to change up his throwing motion (he used to aim the ball like he was throwing darts) and probably had a better understanding of the offense. But, he would still take off too soon and struggled against more complex defenses. It was tough to see where he got better... but that wasn't the case with Josh, which is a good sign. Josh shows the ability to address his flaws and do what he needs to do to correct them. I'm confident he'll show more improvement in year three. And I like Brown and Beasley and Knox and whatnot, but they really need to find some big time playmakers to take the pressure off him a bit.

Ugh, barf. I hate seeing sh*t like this. These guys are human beings, but some people act like they're just friggin' football robots or something. Crap has to stop, you'd figure it would've stopped after someone set Leodis McKelvin's damn lawn on fire after he blew it against the Pats back in '09, I believe... but here we are. Kid played hard all year long and definitely bought into the culture the minute he got here, that's all you can ask for. I think he'll get better, and if he doesn't end up as their starting right tackle then they've at least got a heck of a guard they can use to replace Spain if he walks (although I did just read that Spain told his agent that if the Bills want him back he would like to come to a deal before free agency starts). I was bummed when they lost, too. But I didn't get on Twitter and berate the guy. Have some dang class, BillsMafia! Kid probably felt bad enough as it was, even though it was a super weak penalty to call. The officials ought to be grounded, or at least put in time-out for a good month or twelve. Friggin' jerks.

I'm smad! That's sad and mad. Not really, but it was a bummer. I woke up today a little bummed just because there's no more Bills football until September. Meaningful football, that is. Not many truly believed they'd do as well as they did. But they surprised a lot of people. And now they know what it takes to get there, and they have playoff experience under their belts. Lot of promising things to look forward to. What I don't look forward to is that brutal road schedule next season. Excited to see what Beane does in the off-season. Dude is probably already watching film on prospects or upcoming free agents. One things for sure, these guys will never stop working to improve.

Earlier on the week Allen said that the coaches had put an "insane" amount of work into the game plan. Clearly they wanted to be prepared. But part of me feels like maybe they over-strategized. Sometimes you just gotta stick with your bread and butter and let your guys go out and execute.

I just have to laugh at anyone criticizing the players for not instantly being over the loss. If they were automatically over it, it would indicate that they don't really care. Welp, these dudes care. The culture they've created is a team that really cares about one another. Beyond that, they're human beings, they're allowed to be bummed out. I've never understood this perception some "fans" seem to have, they look at these dudes like they're some kinda fancy football machine and they should shirk all other aspects of life and do ONLY football ALL the time. Get the eff outta here with that. The fact that Allen displayed legitimate improvement in areas he struggled with in 2018 is enough for me to believe that he'll come back for 2020 even more refined and ready to go. The dude wants it. Sometimes maybe too much, maybe that's what drives his high-risk heroball shenanigans. Maybe Daboll should've settled him down in OT and realized he had a whole new quarter and three timeouts. Run the ball a bit, do the things that got you there. Instead, he coached as if they had 30 seconds left and needed 60 yards all in one play. Calling low-percentage passes didn't seem like the best strategy. And I said this in another thread but anyone who thinks wholesale player/coaching changes are the answer...move along, cause that ain't it. Continue to build on what they got. They have some cornerstone pieces, they've drafted well, they've signed quality free agents, they'll start extending their own guys pretty soon. Pretty much all the things fans speak of when talking about what goes into building a contender.

I'm happy for Zo that he was able to cap off his career here on a high note. Came in 2016 and racked up 12.5 sacks and was a clear locker room leader. Off the field he seems like a great dude. Go enjoy retirement at the ripe old age of 36!