BullBuchanan

Lol at passing stats comparisons from 50 years ago. When Fouts retired he was 2nd all-time in passing. Allen is currently 97th and 78th in passing TDs. Of course he has a great chance to finish in the top 10, but I never said he wouldn't be a Hall of Famer at the end of his career, just that he definitely isn't one if he never plays another snap.

They play in a suddenly tough division and have a tough schedule. I think they'll be better than their record, but If they get more than 2 wins, it'll be because McCarthy is willing it.

The problem is Josh is not performing optimally under his current program. He's plateaued over the last 3 seasons and is further from a Super Bowl today than he was then. Unless he gets extremely lucky where both Mahomes and Burrow are out in the same year, he's unlikely to win a Super Bowl with his current level of play - especially as he's getting older and his physical gifts start to decline. 1) My own job performance is far from optimal. I'm currently quiet quitting or "resting and vesting". However, I have performed optimally in the past, but it took 16-18 hours a day of dedication to reach that level. You can't do that forever, which is why it's important to capitalize on the prime years of your mid to late twenties when you have the combination of skills/experience and stamina to make massive strides in short windows. Even these things considered, I would say I'm within the top 5% of my profession and would have been closer to the top 1% when performing optimally. 2)Yes, salary would have a massive impact, but so would prestige and the possibility of accolades. I'm not in a position any longer to become "the face of the franchise" but that is a massive motivator to a lot of people. Some folks chase MVPs, others chase 30 under 30, Nobel Prizes, Industry awards, magazine covers etc. 3) Yes. I consider myself a coach, rather than a "boss". I'm ultimately responsible for an outcome, so I will guide people on how we get to that outcome, but I take their perspectives into account and generally let them try to manage their own processes for how they get there. While we're in the process of building trust, I'll keep tabs on the process and direct if I see issues, again, letting them find their own way unless asked directly. I praise privately and publicly processes that are geared towards finding desirable outcomes, whether or not they do, as we can't control the result of a process, only the planning, execution and analysis of the process itself. If you did everything right, but something still fails due to things outside your control (and you anticipated the ramifications of potential events outside your control), then all you can do is try again. Most of the time though, this doesn't happen. There are rarely events that cannot be planned for, it's just we choose to deprioritize extremely unlikely ones that would take enormous time and expense to mitigate, so we implicitly (or sometimes even explicitly) accept the risk. 4) Yes. I think there are several areas that jump out to me where Allen can improve his game that give his team a significantly enhanced opportunity to win. The most important one is that he needs to learn how to be a game manager 90% of the time, because that's what is takes to win consistently in the NFL. We all know he's one of the best football heroes to ever strap on a pair of cleats, but he's far from one of the best Quarterbacks, because he doesn't manage the game. Guys like Brady, later career Elway, mid-later career Peyton Manning, and Mahomes after his first couple years, figured out that it's easier to win playing boring football, than exciting football, though it's a massive edge to have that in your back pocket if you need it. Specifically to Allen, he needs to not only be less aggressive with his throws when the situation doesn't call for it, he needs to make smarter reads. Those reads not only need to factor in the risk of a bad immediate result, such as an interception, but the reverse implied odds of what happens even if he's successful. Most times when we've blamed a defensive collapse for losing or nearly losing a game, Josh Allen had an opportunity to be the last one to touch the ball. Instead he chooses aggressive plays too often that result in scores or turnovers. When he scores as soon as possible, he then gives his opponent an opportunity to do the same. This happens not just at the end of games, but at the end of halves. While 13 seconds was definitely not his fault, an earlier example in that game had him giving KC the ball back with nearly 40 seconds left in the half, during which Mahomes promptly drove the field and put his team in position for a FG (that was missed). In the game against the Giants last year it's 2:30 left in the first half on 1st down and instead of throwing to a wide open Murray underneath, he chooses Knox with three defenders between him and the ball, which results in a turnover. Against KC in the playoffs, with 1:50 left in the game on 2nd and 9, he locks into Shakir in the end zone instead of a wide open Diggs on the left side of the field, and he gets bumped into by Dawkins/Chris Jones and drills in the dirt. Then on 3rd and 9, he locks onto the deep threat in the endzone instead of seeing a wide open Shakir to the other side that would have given him, at worst, a 4th and 1 and a chance to muscle for a 1st with the downside being an easier FG. Instead he has to throw it away, Bass misses and we blame him for the loss. Of course, we forget that even had he completed the TD to Shakir or Bass made the FG, we'd be giving Mahomes 1:42 left to drive the field, which he statistically was more likely to do than not. These aren't isolated examples. They happen all the time, have happened his entire career, and aren't just limited to scoring too quickly or throwing risky balls. It also involves not locking into reads, seeing the potential for an open underneath guy with YAC opportunity instead of a flatfooted perimeter WR, building momentum to keep the defense on their toes and tired, and there's more, but that should be enough. I'm fully prepared for this to be met with a "nuh-uh" or for others to rathole on some minutiae here, but hopefully this shares some of my perspective on where I think he needs to get better if he wants a realistic chance at multiple Lombardi's. I'm rooting for the kid, and I always have been even if I didn't like the draft pick when it happened. I want him to succeed. I just hope I don't want it more than he does.

Which team is that? The Bills have been my #1 team for nearly 40 years. Just because I give you hard truths you don't like doesn't make it trolling sweetie.

1) I'm not over caring what he does in the offseason, because he isn't getting the job done. If you fail every single year and you have an extra 5-6 months to improve your game and you have an extra 4-6 hours a day, you should be putting in the work if this is really the reason you're alive. If it's just a job and you're punching a clock, of course you don't do that, but those folks aren't going for greatest X of the year awards. We can talk all day about how he's second only to Mahomes, but Mahomes is the guy who's been to 6 straight AFCCG, 4 Super Bowls with 3 wins, has 2 MVP awards, 2 SB MVP Awards, and a OPOY award. Allen meanwhile has one AFCCG appearance on his resume and a trophy cabinet with a bunch of division championship pennant flags hanging off it. Personally, i think Allen is more than content to collect his half a billion dollars to give 70-80% in the offseason and 100% on Sundays. 2) Mahomes in the greatest in the world and at minimum the 2nd best player of all-time. He's doing everything he needs to do to hit that level, so if he wants to eat Wendy's with Andy and do commercials, that's his prerogative. If Mahomes retired today, he'd be a unanimous 1st ballot Hall of Famer. If Josh Allen retired today, he'd never see the Hall of Fame unless he bought a ticket. Maybe he could carpool with Andrew Luck.

His own actions and statements. He's openly said he doesn't watch much film, and I think this shows on game day. He can't wait to get on the golf course in the offseason, including when he had elbow and shoulder injuries that impacted him during the season. He's been making the same mental mistakes his entire career and has consistent execution holes in his game that he isn't improving. For the record, I think Allen is a top 3 QB in the NFL right now, and probably top 2, but I also think he's an underachiever that reaches the heights he does because of his immense physical gifts. I'm not making an argument that he's a slacker that comes into camp out of shape or doesn't know the playbook, but I don't for a second think this game means as much to him as it did to Brady or Manning. He's not putting in that dawn to dusk work that those guys were famous for. The first couple of years in the league it was clear he put in incredible work on his technique that propelled him to the largest turn-around story in NFL history. However, he peaked in that year 3 season. While it's not realistic to see him make those kinds of monument jumps, as the amount he has to improve is far smaller, you would expect some incremental growth, and I don't think we've seen very much in terms of growth in 3 full seasons since then. Everyone has leaks in their game, but Mahomes' leaks aren't costing him hardware.

You know what you call those "3 or 4 plays"? A leak. It may be a small leak, but it's one Mahomes doesn't have, and that's why he has a case filled with hardware while Allen has zero. Until he starts taking the game seriously, Allen will need an incredible streak of luck to get a Lombardi or an MVP.

He's often overrated around here with people calling him "the greatest player in the league" While there's guys in the league who have won multiple MVPs and have won multiple Super Bowls. I think the national consensus that he's int he top 2-3 QBs is much more reasonable and I wouldn't call that overrated, but the mistakes he's called out for here are undoubtedly true, and they're the primary reason he doesn't have at least one MVP or a SB ring.

It does apply to you. The difference is your company handles it on your behalf. If you file your own taxes, you're required to report earnings where they are earned.

Good on him for trying to cheat his neighbors and his country? So, they effectively reduced their own operational cost by 8.3% this year through collecting money from rich tax cheats. Sounds pretty good to me.

He's older and more expensive than Diggs. 0.0% chance.

The Bills have a pretty active and high quality social media presence for a sports team, imo.

Young and Elway are still considerably ahead of him. I'm also taking Mahomes ahead of him regardless of category, because while Allen might rush for more yards, Mahomes is an excellent and effective runner of the football, but he doesn't rely on it nearly as much as Allen. I don't really care that Allen piles up personal stats in the regular season.

Not a doctor, but I'll put an infinite amount of money on it not "working out". Anyone want some action?

Growing up it was John Elway. The guy had it all. He played the game so hard and had every tool in the belt. When I thought about what a quarterback should be, it was Elway. That is, until I saw Peyton Manning. Manning took it to another level, because he was the most cerebral football player I'd ever seen. When I saw Peyton rise up, it really made me appreciate the next level of football IQ. It wasn't just play against play, player vs player. it was 11 on 11 (or maybe 14 on 14) chess. Every player and every little nuance of their responsibility was something for him to analyze, utilize and adjust. It was breathtaking watching him line up into the mouth of a defense and then audible and hot-route guys into the perfect exploit.

Justin Tucker is the only kicker who's completely trustworthy. Bass is as good or better than 20+ kickers in the league. The difference between a percentage point is around 1 kick made or missed every 3 and half seasons. It's really not worth worrying about as fans. The difference between the best kicker last year (Folk) and the 17th best (pinero) was 3 FG misses. Basically meaningless as a stat without context. Also worth mentioning Pinero has the 3rd highest FG percentage of all time. Is he garbage now? The bigger problem is that McD has never trusted any of his kickers and it shows. You want these guys bang 60 yarders in warmups and then he punts when faced with a 50 yarder. That kind of move destroys a kicker's self-confidence, and it's a position where everyone is a headcase.

Then you took the wrong meaning from it. We had a superior offense, and still lost with the ball in our hand. A couple better decisions from Allen and and the game never comes down to a kicker.

Right. That's why so many in Bills fandom spent the offseason calling out Diggs, Bass and crying about a punter we released that's never played in the league. Meanwhile MVS, Sky Moore, And Kadarius Toney have SB Rings.

Ever since Mahomes started racking up rings, he makes it look like being a quarterback is easy. All he does is call the play, complete the pass, score the touchdown. Prior to the last few years, he made a lot more insane hero plays like Allen does. I was super excited when I saw how Allen look under Dorsey, because I felt that McD finally got it, that to win the big games consistently, your QB has to be boring. I've thought from the very beginning that Allen needed to be housebroken, and it looked like it was happening, despite the fact that he clearly didn't like it and was struggling with it. Instead, they abandoned that plan and let him go back to doing what he wants. It makes for a hell of a show, but it doesn't get you rings. It gets you blaming kickers, and punters, and WRs, because you start getting a ton of "did you see that play Allen made! How could his team let him down like that?". I'd rather Allen throw the ball at the top of his drop to Cook who's 4 yards downfield, in stride, than watch him throw the best pass anyone's ever seen across his body while falling down, right on the fingers of a guy 49 yards downfield. Give me that boring, high percentage play instead. If you need a hero, with 30 seconds left, you have one. Give me a game manager the other 59:30 Manning is my favorite player of all time, but he was a clear #2 to Brady by the end, and he's behind Mahomes now.

Why can't Allen just be "really good" and that be enough? Putting him ahead of Mahomes, who has probably already locked up #2 QB of all time, is completely delusional, even in a hypothetical. There's probably a healthy amount of people that would even have Burrow in the conversation for #2 right now, but they're both way behind Mahomes, imo.

I think Romo is already the best color commentator of all-time, but there are always contrarians for every great thing.

Re-read the post you quoted and you'll have my answer.

It's gotta be Von Miller. Right now he's a $40M boat anchor. He was supposed to be the missing piece to the Super Bowl, and now he's an albatross. Take away his name, and the player he was last year isn't good enough to be a practice squad player in the NFL at league minimum.

I guess you're just hellbent on having a bad take here. Well, I won't get in your way anymore. Enjoy.

Cool. What does that have to do with anything? KC has unique advantages that let them win super bowls with weak WRs, much like the early 2000 patriots. We, very obviously, do not. Until we wake up one day and have one of the top 2 coaches, QBs, and TEs to ever play the game, comparing how our team is built to theirs is beyond meaningless.