TigerJ

I think there is more risk in betting on Peterman than in using one of your first round picks to draft some competition for him, and failing to draft one more support person. I like Peterman, but he's not a sure thing. I would not package the first round picks to move higher and draft one of the top three QBs because I'm not convinced that the QBs who have been considered the top three this summer are risk free, can't miss prospects. I'm talking about Darnold and the Josh boys, Rosen and Allen. I like Mason Rudolph as much as any of the three, and I think Baker Mayfield could end up being better than any of them. This is a fascinating draft class for QBs, and probably better than any class we've had in a while, but it is still something of a crap shoot as far as ranking the top 5. At this point, I don't know that I would be more inclined to pick a QB with my top first round pick or my second first round pick. It depends on how the first round plays out.

In a perfect vacuum, obviously the Bills should have kept Watkins. Woods is not a key player, but it certainly would not have hurt to keep him. Managing the cap, however, is a challenging and delicate task. Given Buffalo's cap situation at the time, I can't blame the Bills for letting go of Woods. As far as Watkins is concerned, I absolutely think he is an elite talent. At the time the Bills made the trade, I don't know what information they had about the status of his recovery form foot surgery. Nobody knows what his salary demands would have been following the 2017 season. What the Bills did in making a trade was in essence a hedging of a bet on their wide receiver situation both near and long term. The gave up the possibility of having an elite receiver because he might not have been healthy and might have been too expensive after 2017, in return gaining a good receiver (Matthews) who can probably be retained for less money than Watkins (I realize it took two transactions for the Bills to end up with Matthews, the actual Matthews trade being with Philadelphia). Because there are draft picks involved with the two trades, it is probably going to take at least a couple years to come up with a reasonable assessment of whether or not Buffalo came out ahead in the two transactions. In the mean time, Rob Ryan has a difficult enough time handling the complexities of coaching, without trying to take on GM responsibilities too.

Yes, he was. I agree, this diagnosis should not be construed as an excuse for his commission of murder. While it may have affected his emotional state, the crimes he committed, at least as far as what I can tell, look like they were a premeditated part of the illicit activities he was involved in. The murders and the CTE are separate issues as far as I'm concerned.

I am most intrigued by Rudolph and Mayfield. I think both would still be available when Buffalo has its first round one pick. At least one of them and possibly both will still be there toward the end of round one.

When the Bills first made Tyrod their starter at QB, I figured he was an improvement over what they had had in a while, but he is not a franchise type QB, and the search for someone better would have to continue. That's where we are now. I leave it to the coaching staff to figure out when they want to try Peterman. He is a rookie, and will go through a rookie learning curve when he starts (yes, I said "when" not "if"). There are things they know about Peterman from multiple practice hours that we don't. However there are things that nobody can know about him as a starter, not even the coaching staff, before he actually takes the field in a regular season game. Some of those things will factor in how long it will take for him to be more effective as a starter than Tyrod. One game? five games? half a season? a full season or more? Since I don't control the roster or the starting lineup, I try not to fret about it too much. If McDermott continues to start Tyrod, he will continue to have to deal with the results, good or bad. I think we all kind of know what we have with Tyrod, in any case. I am interested to see if Peterman can be better, but in its own good time.

Sorry if someone gave this answer earlier. I didn't go through all 7 pages. Taylor was on the John Murphy Show today and talked about this subject. He seems to be under the impression that as he gains greater command of the offense, he will have more liberty to audible out of the called play. Maybe he's delusional, but that's what he thinks anyway.

Well, at least it will be more humid in Buffalo than in Denver. I can't see that Buffalo's offense has the Bronco players shaking in their cowboy boots though.

Defensively, both teams are pretty good, at least up front. Most of Houston's offensive woes can be attributed to the lack of a good and experience QB. Maybe later in the season Desean Watson will start to help out the offense more, but his "rookieness" really shows at times. Cincinnati really should be a lot better than they have shown thus far this season. I'm wondering if it is the offensive coordinator who is holding them back.

I think the play of Mills will have a lot to do with it. He actually had a good game on Sunday. I don't know that McDermott will change out a part that happens to be working. Moreover, It would be kind of nice for the bills to have a competent swing tackle who can back up both positions. In the end, I expect McDermott to try and put the 5 best guys on the field in any case.

For all of Vicks physical attributes, the mental aspect of his game was his downfall. Tyrod is no Brady when it comes to reading defenses and making decisions, but he's better than Vick in that regard.

I think it's still early in the season for getting a good read on team strengths. Was Cam's first game performance rust, or a sign of lingering issues with his injury, or tentativeness from concern over future injuries? We don't know yet for certain. Is Tyrod's improved play in some areas going to take hold and be the norm for the new season or did a bad Jets team make him look better than he really is? Are the Bills receivers already at their ceiling, or can them make some significant improvements in their ability to gain separation going forward? There are lots of questions like this. Some of those questions will begin to have better answers over the next few weeks, but right now there is more room for error by both professional prognosticators and fans.

For CFL enthusiasts, it will be interesting to see how this affects fundamentals like tackling in games. Is it going to get more sloppy. One also wonders if this will actually increase the risk of injury in games since players will become less accustomed to techniques for making contact without risk of injury. In other words, there are right ways of doing contact that reduce injury risk. Will players become more careless in games about using those techniques since there are no opportunities in practice to use them with live action?

Yup!

As I recall Stephen Hill was really raw coming out of college, but he had freaky straight line speed for a 6'4" guy. Not quite Randy Moss speed, but close.

Buffalo could win. They also could lose. That's true of every game, but more true of this one than some they might play this season. The Panthers are favored, but they are a flawed and vulnerable team.

On special teams. Tolbert got all the reps at RB when Shady was resting. I think that is a mistake on the part of the Bills. I don't mind Tolbert in short yardage situations, but I think Banyard and T. Jones give the defense a lot more to worry about on second and long.

Too soon to tell. Today is a day off. It was publicized as a contusion. Contusion is a fancy name for a bad bruise, so it's probably not a tremendously serious injury. He's going to be sore, but it wouldn't surprise me if he plays.

The Jets gave Buffalo fits with their run game last season. Powell and Forte are holdover RBs. The Jets are probably tanking but Forte and Powell didn't suddenly become a whole lot worse. I don't know how much turnover the Jets had on their offensive line, but if it wasn't that much, the game probably shows that Buffalo has become much better at stopping the run, and Shaq is a big part of it. Buffalo did not stack the box and dare the Jets to pass (knowing the Jets have no decent receivers). They did it with a balanced defense.

One scouting report suggested he was good at beating press coverage off the line at the snap, and suggested he's a fit for a west coast offense. I don't know that he's really an upgrade over what the Bills have though. The problem is an upgrade may not be out there at this point. Generally, what you find out there on the free agent market are going to be scrubs in September.

Panthers are not a great team, but Vegas thinks they beat the Bills without much trouble. That means it should be a good test for the Bills as a next step after winning a game they were supposed to win. The Broncos and Falcons are both good teams even if Trevor Semien is not a franchise QB. Buffalo is going to be a huge underdog in both games. I never say never when it coms to winning games in the NFL, it would be a miracle if Buffalo comes through that stretch at 4-0. I would be pretty happy with 2-2 at that point.

A little history: when the Bills made OJ Simpson their RB way back when, their head coach was John Rauch. John Rauch did indeed have the "brilliant" notion to make OJ Simpson a decoy in his offense. He did not last very long as Bills head coach. So some head coaches are indeed stupid!

The question about more opportunities for WRs is legitimate. Where Sullivan showed his stripes was in the editorializing about balance in the asking of the question.

I think one game is probably too small a sample to make meaningful evaluations. It did appear there is some growth in Tyrod's game, brought about in part by the scheme change. There are also things he needs to keep working on (quickness in making reads). There also needs to be improvement by wide receivers. Overall, they need to do a better job gaining separation and holding on to the ball. There will be games this season where 4 receptions by WRs won't be nearly enough.

I don't pretend to be an elite evaluator of offensive line talent, but I'll go with the consensus that Miller is better than Ducasse. I'm hearing that Dion Dawkins has the tools to be an elite zone blocking right tackle, but his pass blocking hasn't caught up, which is why Mills is clinging to the starting position. I'm guessing that at some point in the season the offensive line is going to be Glenn, Incognito, Wood, Miller and Dawkins, but it may not settle out that way for a few games.

It turns out the Patriots defense is a lot thinner than they might have hoped for. They've got some newcomers to the defense, and they are making more mistakes than is usual for a Belichick coached team. Belichick will work to tighten the execution up, but the defense is still going to be vulnerable to injury, more than is some years.