SoTier

How, exactly, is Rodgers "a good fit in New York"? Aside from doing celebrity things around town to dazzle the media, Rodgers has done nothing to fit in with the Jests. The team has done more back flips to accommodate Rodgers than a gymnast prepping for the Olympics, including hiring his favorite former OC as their new OC and adding several Rodgers' pals to the roster. The NY media and Jests fans are smitten with visions of Lombardis dancing in their heads because Rodgers deigned to appear in a preseason game for the first time in five years and looked "good" against the Giants' 2nd stringers. We'll see just how good a "fit" for New York Rodgers really is when reality shows up beginning September 11. Rodgers and the Jets seems much more like Russ and the Broncos than Stafford and the Rams or Brady and the Bucs. Both the Rams and the Bucs were solid offensive teams with good OLs when they added their new QBs. Even Brady didn't receive the royal treatment afforded to Wilson and Rodgers by their new teams and the local media when he arrived in town.

I'm optimisitc because for all the whining about the Bills "tough schedule" in 2023, all of the AFCE teams face similarly tough schedules. All the teams face 6 games against their AFCE rivals, 4 games against the AFCW, and 4 games against the NFCE teams. That means each team has 3 games different from the teams its rivals play. The Bills play the Jags, Bucs, and at Bengals. The Dolphins play the Panthers, Titans, and at Ravens. The Jets play the Falcons, Texans, and at Browns. The Patriots play the Saints, Colts, and at Steelers. All the AFCN teams are going to be really tough outs, so none of the AFCE teams are finding easy pickings here, especially since all the AFCN teams will be at home. The Bills may have a tougher schedule, but it's surely not significantly harder than the schedules of their AFCE rivals like so many doomsters worry about.

If he's healthy, why wouldn't Allen be at/near the top of the QB rankings when the FO has given him more and better weapons and added better players to the OL?

Her name is Jamie Erdahl, and she is much better than Kay Adams.

Actually that was an offensive explosion compared to the epic Bills-Brown stinkeroo on October 11, 2009 when the Browns beat the Bills 6-3 after Parrish fumbled a kick off, enabling the Browns to kick the winning FG. Derek Anderson threw 2 completions in 17 attempts for 23 yards and 1 INT. The Browns didn't even have 200 yards of offense. The Bills passed for more yards and ran for almost as much as Cleveland, but Trent Edwards was intercepted once and Roscoe Parrish lost two fumbles, including the one that led to the winning kick for the Browns.

Suck it up, Buttercup. As a long time Bills fan, I survived the Bills struggling to win 2 games all season long. I survived 0-for-the-1970s. I survived HCs who were so incompetent that the players mutinied (Hank Bullough) and HCs whose aim was not to lose by too much (Dick Jauron). I survived a #1 overall pick who refused to play for the Bills (Tom Cousineau). I survived watching players the Bills developed into stars leave for other teams over and over and over again. I survived a football organization that that put profits over winning for a decade. I'll worry about the wheels falling off the Bills' juggernaut when I actually see the wheels coming falling off.

So, you can't know if you're doing your career/profession/job better or worse today than you were the day you started unless somebody's done an "objective study" of your progress or lack of same? My guess is that your supervisor doesn't need to study a dataset to figure out whether you've improved since you were hired or not.

Some posters need to improve their reading comprehension. Sorry, HappyDays never said that playing center was easy. Sorry, but HappyDays never said that center wasn't important, either.

Why are you surprised that some on this MB think Dorsey can't improve? There are pages upon pages of comments in multiple threads already consigning the 2022 draft class to the bust pile. Our window has closed. Beane can't make good picks in the first and second rounds. The Jests and the Carp have better rosters, etc etc etc ... Sometimes I have to go back and check that the Bills actually did go 13-3 last season and won a playoff game given the litany of "the sky is falling" chants that seem to be overrunning this MB.

The window closed when Beane failed to draft Creed Humphrey ... //sarcasm

Isn't that like claiming Miami has a better team than the Bills while ignoring the most important position, QB? It would be much easier for the Bills to hit on their first and second round draft picks if they regularly drafted in the top ten spot in both rounds, but I don't miss all the years of the season being over by mid-October ... or even late September. Another Nostradamus! I'm shocked that you haven't already pronounced Kincaid and Torrence doomed to be busts.

It's hard to miss with 2 picks in the top ten (#4 and #10) in 2022, although the Jests have a tradition of doing so, especially when drafting QBs. They missed on 2 of their 3 top ten picks since 2018: Sam Darnold in 2018 and Zach Wilson in 2021. I think it's very unfair, Nostradamus, that you already know the results of the 2023 NFL season and haven't shared them with your fellow Bills fans on TSW. I would like to see the Bills try to improve their scouting/collegiate player evaluation staff(s). I think that would probably improve the Bills drafts somewhat. As long as the Bills are winning double digit games and drafting in slots #21-32 in the first round regularly, though, they're not going to match the draft successes of teams regularly drafting in the top 5-10 positions.

For most OTs, it's significantly harder for them to move to the other side of the line than to simply move inside to OG on the same side. I think that Dawkins has a better chance of making an awesome LG than making a competent RT.

Exactly this. Too many posters apparently cannot or will not accept the fact that not all first round picks are going to develop into All Pros at their positions. I don't know what the percentage of all first round draft picks become good or better players over the course of their careers but my guess is that it's south of 50% (< 16 players), with most of the best coming from the top of the first round in each draft. Beane and McDermott gambled that a very young MLB would grow into greatness, and they lost. OTOH, they gambled that a very raw QB with a big arm but poor mechanics could develop into an elite QB. They won that one.

Since the Bills had several bottom 10 (maybe bottom 3) LTs after they traded away Peters, those of us who remember those bad old days understand that the LT position could be significantly worse than these Dawkins haters can imagine. IMO, playing next to an improved LG, McGovern, will improve Dawkins' play when the games count for real.

No, I'm not. I'm simply making the observation that the 49ers since 2017 under Lynch and Shanahan just can't seem to keep QBs on the field because of in- game injuries. If it was just Garoppolo, it could just be dismissed as one injury-prone player but every single QB who plays for them ends up hurt. Last year they went through Lance, Garoppolo, Purdy, and Johnson. In 2018 or 2019, they used three QBs because of injuries. It's not like the Niners have a crappy OL or that their QBs are running like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. The injuries aren't similar so it's unlikely that they stem from training regimens. Do they tend to pick QBs who are more slightly built than the average NFL QB and thus more injury prone? Is it possible that Shanahan's offensive schemes somehow expose his QBs to injury more than other coaches' schemes? I can't give Lynch and Shanahan kudos for being successful despite an unsettled QB situation when their QBs can't stay healthy for more than a few games at a time.

Purdy's been serviceable for 6-8 games. So was UDFA Nick Mullens, who's currently Cousins' backup in Minnesota I think. There's been dozens of late round QBs who have been "serviceable" for half a season or so over the years. It's not all that rare. What's a rarity is a late round/UDFA QB become a real franchise QB for several years at least. How is Josh Allen being "squandered"? "Squandering" a QB was Matthew Stafford playing most of his career in Detroit. 2018 - The 49ers could have taken Lamar Jackson, who eventually went #32. 2020 - Jalen Hurts went in the second round. 2021 - Mac Jones went #15. Jackson and Hurts are bonafide franchise QBs. Jones is, at minimum, a serviceable NFL starter.

You might want to reconsider your praise for Shanahan. Maybe it's just a curse, or maybe Lynch and Shanahan aren't particularly astute in picking QBs who can stay on the field -- or maybe it's not the QBs but something in Shanahan's offense. I can't think of any other playoff caliber team in the last decade or more that has repeatedly lost multiple QBs to game time injuries. In 2022, even the backup (Josh Johnson) to the backup promoted from 3rd string (Purdy) was hurt in the same game. - John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan both came on board in 2017. - They passed on Mahomes in the 2017 even though their QBs during the season were to be Brian Hoyer and CJ Beathard after they released Colin Kaepernick. - In October, they traded for Jimmy Garoppolo, who played in only 3 games in 2018 because of injury and only 6 games in 2020 because of 2 separate injuries. In 2021, Garoppolo suffered three separate injuries, one early in the season, another in Week 16, and finally a third in the playoffs. - In 2018, after losing Garoppolo's backup, CJ Beathard, to injury, the 49ers brought in UDFA QB Nick Mullens who seemed to be really good for a few games ... until he wasn't. In 2020, Mullens was injured late in the season when playing in place of Garoppolo - 2021, Lynch and Shanahan sent 4 picks, including 3 first rounders, to Miami in order to draft Trey Lance, who barely played in college, and at a small college at that. Lance played in 2 games as a rookie. - Lance was named the starter to begin 2022 but only played two games before being injured and out for the season. - Garoppolo managed to start 10 games in 2022 before being sidelined with a broken foot in early December, opening the door for 7th round pick Brock Purdy. - Purdy lasted until he was injured in the NFC Conference Championship game and was replaced by veteran Josh Johnson, who also was injured in the game, necessitating Purdy returning even though he couldn't throw effectively.

I wasn't knocking Purdy but Lynch and Shanahan. Very few college QBs, including those drafted in the first round, actually become top NFL QBs no matter where they were drafted, much less from day 3 of the draft. Since 2000, you can count on the fingers of one hand the ones from Day 3 who've become top NFL QB and have a couple of digits left over: Tom Brady (2000 - 6th round), Dak Prescott (2016 - 4th round), and Kirk Cousins (2012 - 4th round). There have been several notable late rounders like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Cassel and Gardner Minshew but none of them would be considered "top NFL QBs". I think it's incredibly arrogant of Lynch and Shanahan to bank on Purdy joining Brady, Prescott and Cousins after only 8 starts, especially since they haven't demonstrated that they actually can evaluate QBs, given that they felt they whiffed on Lance after giving up 3 first round picks to get him.

I would ROFLMAO at the supposed geniuses Lynch and Shanahan if Purdy went the way of about 99% of the QBs drafted in the 7th round.

Acquiring a backup OLer better than any of the backups currently on the roster would raise the ceiling of this team significantly more than acquiring a QB without NFL experience as a backup QB. Other than being the #3 draft pick a couple of years ago, what about Lance makes you think that he can be more effective coming in for Josh Allen than Barkley or even Kyle Allen? Lance hasn't played enough in the NFL for anybody outside of the 49ers organization to have real insight into his potential as an NFL QB -- and SF's actions suggest they don't think he has much.

I'm not sold on McDaniel. Much like rookies who sparkle in their first seasons and then tail off in succeeding seasons, some new HCs never develop into good HCs. Unfortunately for you and all these "experts and pundits" so in love with the Fish, having a supposed "clear cut top 5 roster" is meaningless. An elite QB working with a top HC makes up for most talent deficients most of the time. The Pats and Chiefs have demonstrated this pretty regularly over the last 2 decades. Tua isn't an elite QB and McDaniel isn't a top HC.

The mishandling of high draft picks and sending their best players off to other teams were hallmarks of the end of the Wilson era, but so was signing big name FAs like Mario Williams and Terrell Owens to put butts in the seats rather than to make the team better. It's why I don't whine about Beane like so many others on this board. I'll take honest -- if sometimes unsuccessful -- attempts to build a winning team any day over the crap show Bills fans suffered through prior to 2018. There is nobody ever associated with the NFL I loathe more than Russ Brandon.

If anybody wants evidence that the Bills under Ralph Wilson put profits over winning in his last fifteen years as owner, compare the players the Bills drafted and/or developed that they traded away or allowed to walk in free agency and those that they kept. The list of ex-Bills who went on to star for other teams is far longer than the players the Bills kept who became more than JAGs. Jason Peters, Marshawn Lynch, and Stephon Gilmore all became All Pros for other teams after the Bills sent them packing -- and won SB rings, too. Antoine Winfield, Sr made the Pro Bowl three times and was also named 2nd team All Pro. Willis McGahee made the Pro Bowl twice for two different teams (Baltimore and Denver). There were many more. Kyle Williams was one of the few good home-grown players the Bills kept. They were much more likely to keep players like Chris Kelsay, Lee Evans, and Leodis McKelvin. IMO, the only way the Bills can hope to improve their OT situation via other teams' castoffs is if they find a very raw rookie/2nd year player that another team tries to stash on their practice squad. That player would be unlikely to be of much help this season though.

Actually, the Bills were paying Peters low-end RT money -- and wanted to continue to do that -- even though Peters made the Pro Bowl and 2nd team All Pro at LT. The LT whom Peters replaced left in free agency the next season and signed for more than the Bills were paying Peters IIRC.