Straight Hucklebuck

How is Allen much different than Cardale Jones?

Again, why are fans sold on Allen being the answer?

There are degrees of fandom. I’m not as big of a fan as Pinto Ron. I’ve been a season ticket holder (x2), have watched plenty of games over the years, but over the past ten years my level of monetary involvement in the team has declined. The losing saps my interest in the team because I find the Bills media and fans perpetually finding ways to spin mediocre/poor results as progress and that bothers me. Chris Brown, John Murphy, the old 1991 legends being dragged out at normal intervals annoys me.

Hence the “room to improve” that I mentioned. And of course, what Bills fan thinks they’re set across the rest of the offense. Some fans have been impressed with Allen to the point they’re sure he’s the answer. I think he’s been as advertised coming out Wyoming, nothing more, nothing less.

This is a realistic and truthful post. 1. <60% completion percentage 2. Averages ~200 yards/game and 1 TD offensively. 3. Roughly matches Cam Newton’s height and weight with less muscle. 4. Brandon Beane referenced Cam Newton multiple times when discussing what he looked for in a Franchise QB and what Josh Allen’s strengths were/are.

What’s your counter argument past this ?? Why would you need a “blueprint” ?

Yeah it’s serious. Why would teams rams have to install a special blueprint for a guy that averages ~200 ypg passing when he plays the whole game and 1.3 TDs (rushing/passing) combined.

You can’t say that Boatdrinks. You have to be a John Murphy bobble head and agree that Josh Allen looks great. In reality I see the same thing as you in 2018. He is exactly what his Scouting Reports said he’d be. Gifted, but erratic. The difference is whether you believe Allen is 100% going to improve and be an upper echelon QB, that his trajectory is straight upward, or whether you acknowledge that he might never improve enough to really win Playoff games. That the 2-3 years away thing is really the old Parcell’s line that potential just means you haven’t done anything yet and that some guys don’t ever escape that destiny because at the end of the day they don’t have the instincts or the playing patterns required to win at the NFL level.

Drafting BPA = myth

Yes, not good. Sunday will be his 11th start. He has 7 TDs passing and 6 TDs rushing. So he is generating 1.3 TDs per game, at an inefficient 52% completion clip, to go with 11 interceptions. Like I said, just play your normal defense and you can beat Josh Allen. You have nothing but look to the future John. Of course there is room for him to improve. So far he is what his scouting reports said he was - erratic, sometimes brilliant, but at the end of the day not a lot of production.

The key to beating Josh Allen is just play your normal defense. He isn’t good.

The best and most consistent player of The Drought. For a long time he was the only draft hit the Bills had.

When Doug Whaley talked about why he loved EJ Manuel the entire talk was about his leadership, presence and size. No mention of his accuracy, his decision making, his productivity. He didn’t have many 300 yard games in college relative to his draft status. FSU immediately won the National Championship after he left. Manuel has some dud games in his rookie year, including Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. I think what went wrong was he never could read a defense, never fixed his accuracy issues and what I noticed was the for a guy that was billed as having a huge arm he never seemed to step into throws or put any steam into his throws. He threw a lot of checkdown floaters. Questionable instincts for the game as well. He would try to spin away from the rush and inadvertedly go head-first right back into it. Ultimately he was a lot like Trent Edwards, Tyrod Taylor and Josh Allen (so far). He led an offense that really only could muster one (1) TD drive a game. The offense was unproductive and went 3-out.

That’s what I’m talking about. Fans who put down the Pom-Pom’s and start asking when does the winning start. Because those fans are smart enough to realize that you don’t get 6 years to show progress without the winning. If the year-3 gameplan is still centered around protect the football and playing field position, then how do you expect to beat the Colts, the Chiefs, heck even the Browns? How are you going to score enough points to even be a threat? When am I actually going to be good? It doesn’t make sense to draft rocket arm Josh Allen just to institute a bleed clock, ground and pound like the Ravens. They’re better at it anyways because they draft players of a certain body type. Figure it out Bills, what’s our identity? Undrafted scrap heap players trying to defy the Scouting Reports?

I’m just saying what’s stopping the Bills now? Every year fans rush to defend the Bills. We couldn’t do this because of that, you can’t expect that, we lost this player, how could our Coach have known that. And on and on and on. The Bills have no excuses now. They have the building blocks in place to the plan Beane has been talking about, so I’m saying let’s see it. Josh Allen leading more than 1-TD drive a game, not banking on 52 yard FGs, throwing over 300 yards a game occasionally, actually thinking to run a screen to a running back, a crossing route, can the Bills finally find a real starting NFL Tight End, or are we going to continue finding these converted Joe Klopfenstein types. When are we going to field a real team? Every press conference, every interview is keep the game close, don’t turn it over, correct mistakes, 3rd and manageable, punting and field position. I’m asking for a team that someday takes the training wheels off. Does this Coach have another mental gear?

Once again it’s like the Bills aren’t even in the league. Just completely irrelevant, devoid of any stars.

Which is why I say - McD and Beane have a pile of cash and draft picks in 2019, along with their hand picked QB to get some results. They earned the opportunity based on the 2017 Playoff appearance. But the 2018 season has used up that goodwill. In 2019 the mantra about watching tape and culture need to stop and winning needs to start happening. Fine 2018 was about learning and seeing what you have. 2019 can not be the same story.

As long as they can find a reason to explain why something happened it’s like all judgement must stop. This is the reason so it’s okay, it’s normal to accept losing. But don’t you worry someday out in the future we’ll be dominating, just you wait and see. Can’t judge Allen, he’s a rookie. Can’t judge McDermott, he doesn’t have his guys yet. Can’t judge Edmunds, he’s 20-21 years old. Can’t judge McCoy because he’s behind a bad OLine. Can’t judge the WR’s because they are all young. So this is how it goes. Every year the can of expectations gets kicked down the road until the current regime gets fired. Then we start fresh with the new scheme excuses and the GM is not on the same page as the Coach and the timeline for winning stretches out for another 3 years. Our GM said he would have traded more to get Allen. That’s their guy.

It doesn’t really matter. The men who are paid to run the Bills modeled their QB after Newton. That’s what they want. So we can debates it all day, but in the end that’s their template for a Franchise QB.

This regime will be in Year 3. Jauron made it 3.5 seasons, Gailey got 3 seasons, Marrone quit after 2, Rex got canned after 2. The clock should be ticking on 14-17 McD. It’s time for the bar of expectation to go up. Beane and McDermott blew a lot of draft capital last season on Allen and Edmunds. They now have the cap space, the draft picks, and owner backing in 2019 to make the jump. 9-7, 5-10 is same as always. For The Process to actually mean anything the winning needs to start and fans need to stop making excuses and caveats for everything that goes wrong. I swear Bills fans make more excuses to explain away poor results. I expect better than the 31st rated offense next year, I don’t care if the OLine isn’t perfect or the WRs are new. They have their QB who they traded Glenn, #12, #53 and #56 for. They chose not trade McCoy and so on. Get results.

5-6 wins and in the twilight of both their careers.

I know, for most Bills fans every position has to be perfect before a regime can be judged. I thought 10 draft picks and a boatload of cash, an elite culture and a handpicked QB were the most important centerpieces to real expectations and winning. My bad, because we do not have a Franchise LG we can’t expect any real winning next season.

I mentioned Cam Newton specifically because Brandon Beane has referenced Cam Newton by name when asked about what he looks for in a Franchise Quarterback, so he thinks he’s one. When asked why Josh Allen after the draft he weaved in Cam Newton’s name into Allen’s running ability from designed plays. We’ve seen the multitude of ex-Panthers they’ve brought in. I think that’s a big reason Allen is here. He reminds them of Cam Newton, and the “Panther model” got both McD and Beane their highest level of achievement to date in the sport. Regardless, this regime has everything they want now. They didn’t settle for the QB they took, they got the man they ranked #1 overall. There should be no excuses now about culture or cap or scheme. It’s McDermott’s culture, it’s his style of play, he has time to review all the film. 2019 should bring real progress in the win column.

Allen has not been very good this season. He is erratic, but sometimes brilliant in his play. It's averaging out to 175-200 yards passing per game, 1 TD, a low completion percentage, with turnovers. Frankly, isn't that exactly what he was at Wyoming? Now it goes beyond Allen of course, our running backs are slow. The Bills WRs are not real NFL players. They're largely undrafted training camp cuts being forced into starting. All that talk of Zay Jones taking meaningful steps forwards have stopped. I agree with Jeremy White, the Bills have dumpster dived on offense and this is the result. I don't see how fans can really measure "progress" with Allen or this offense. Are the Bills really getting more competitive week in and week out? When they win it's tight and low scoring, when they lose the offense can't muster more than 14-17 points. I guess it doesn't look like the Chargers game or Ravens game, but that largely went away after McDermott took control of the defense. The Dolphins stink. Allen threw 40 times against New England. Let's see if he can put up 300 yards and 2 TDs. That's the beginning of the bar.

Great man, that was over 30 years ago now. And how do you explain the Browns? 0-16, to 7-7-1 and riding a 3-game win streak with a rookie QB and a HC/OC change right in the middle of the season to a guy who's never called plays? Years of atrocious drafting. The bar is so low we're tripping over it here. 6-10 would be get the pink slips ready next season.