Inigo Montoya

I think a Wild Card is realistic. Being one of the top six teams in the AFC this year will be a big jump for the Bills. We still have some holes on this team. Beane couldn’t fix everything this year. I think we’re on the way though.

Calling my shot here... I expect the Bills to be in the playoff hunt throughout the entire season and it will all come down to Week 17. I think the Patriots, Chargers, Colts, and Browns win their divisions this year. That leaves the Bills, Jets, Chiefs, Broncos, Texans, and Steelers who will likely be in the Wild Card hunt at the end of the season. I'm not going to predict who wins the Wild Card from the Chiefs, Broncos, Texans, and Steelers group, but I do think that the winner of our regular season finale grabs the last Wild Card spot. I think home field advantage pushes our young team over the top. New Era Field will be rocking on December 29th.

Buffalo Bills Penalties By Year; 2014 Doug Marrone; 124 penalties, 31st in league 1031 yards, 28th in league 2015 Rex Ryan; 143 penalties 32nd in league 1249 yards, 32nd in league 2016 Rex Ryan; 111 penalties 23rd in league 995 yards, 21st in league 2017 McDermott; 98 penalties 10th in league 872 yards, 9th in league --- PLAYOFFS 2018 McDermott; 116 penalties 27th in league 992 yards, 28th in league We obviously took a big step backwards from 2017 to 2018 in penalties. You can't blame our poor 2018 season on an increase in penalties alone, but it certainly was a significant part of it. How many of Allen's big passes down field for a first down got called back due to penalties? At times last season it seemed like every other big play Allen had got nullified by a penalty. I don't think it was possible for the Bills to punt or kick off, or receive a punt or kick off last year without a penalty flag flying. I think it's fair to blame part of the team's penalty regression on a young roster of less skillful players who got caught out of position and were forced to interfere or hold trying to make a play, but some of it is also due to a lack of player discipline. Below are the "discipline" penalty totals broken down by type. The totals below are for Roughing the Passer, Personal Fouls, Unnecessary Roughness, and Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties on the Bills. 2014 10 2015 12 2016 11 2017 6 --- PLAYOFFS 2018 9 The totals below are for pre-snap infractions, Offside and False Start penalties on the Bills. 2014 26 2015 22 2016 12 2017 13 --- PLAYOFFS 2018 26 We're not a good enough football team yet to be able to give away yards and downs to the opposition and not have it cost us in the win-loss column. If we can get back to playing disciplined football that could make the difference between getting into the playoffs this year or watching from the sidelines again. Playing clean football is a trait of well coached, disciplined, and ultimately successful teams. McDermott and his staff need to reverse this trend and get back to playing tough, physical, but smart football this season.

Shady is on the last year of his contract and is a long shot to be back next season. Frank Gore is on a one year contract and may be brought back next year on a similar one year contract for $1-2 MM if he continues to produce this season and provide some veteran leadership for the offense and RB room. Yeldon is on a 2 year contract averaging $1.6 MM a year. Unless Yeldon is horrible this season I would guess he is back next year too. In 2020 I think the plan will be Singletary as the feature back, Gore or some other free agent or draftee as the change of pace back, and Yeldon as the receiving back. With those three combined next year, the RB position will cost less than $5 MM. Pretty good value there.

Frank Gore Stats 2018, age 35; Rush attempts; 156 Yards; 722 Average Yards per carry; 4.6 yards Receptions; 12 Receiving yards; 124 Average yards per reception; 10.3 yards For the last 6 years everyone (including myself) has been saying that Frank Gore is too old to keep playing at a high level and is about to hit "the wall". He does hit the wall every year and runs right through it. If he can contribute 4.6 yards per carry on 150 rushes this season for us, that would be huge. I'm done saying that Gore is too old to play RB in the NFL. I've been wrong too many times. He is one of those athletic freaks like Adrian Peterson. A combination or great genes, a phenomenal work ethic to stay in game shape, and a fierce drive to compete. I think the Gore signing was brilliant. They are not looking to have him carry the rock 200+ times. I would expect a similar work load to what he had in Miami last year. I think he and Shady will just about evenly split RB1 duties and they will bring in Singletary for a change of pace back and to also get some valuable game time experience for when he is the feature back next year. Yeldon will be the receiving back like James White in New England. If Singletary plays so well that it's hard to keep him off the field, that's a great problem to have, and I think he eats into Shady and Gore's time share equally.

If you can't directly link to the video it is on YouTube, copy and paste this into the YouTube search window; Patriots vs. Steelers Insane Final Minutes! | NFL Week 15 Highlights I have attached a video clip of the last few minutes of the Week 15 game last season against the Steelers. The game came down to a 4th and 15 in the Red Zone. Fast forward to the 10:00 mark in the video to see the start of the play. At 10:35 they isolate Brady on the replay with an end zone view. Watch how Brady releases the ball. Watch it twice. Brady does not throw a good ball. He does not step into the pass. He feels the pressure coming as T.J. Watt gets around the right tackle and bails out of the throw, throwing off his back foot while spinning away and then falls to the ground to avoid being hit even though Watt wouldn't have touched him on the play because Watt falls down. With him bailing on the throw like that the ball is a duck and is inaccurate. Game over. Tom Brady five years ago stands in the pocket, steps into that pass, takes the hit, and probably delivers a strike to Edelmann. You can tell from that play that he is thinking about taking that hit and basically quits on the play. He is hearing the footsteps now and it is starting to effect his play. Unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer, GOAT, married to a Brazilian super model, rich as Midas, but now at the end of his career and thinking about his health and his future quality of life. No shame in that. I really think this will be his last season.

I don't like Brady, but I have always respected his game. The Patriots won the Super Bowl last year with a power running game. Brady only had 570 pass attempts in the regular season, the lowest number of attempts in a season where he has played a full 16 games since 2010. Bill Belichick is the best coach in the league and will continue to game plan to hide Brady's decline like he did last year, but there is no doubt that Brady is no longer the QB he was even just 5 years ago. Can Brady still manage a game? Yep. Can Brady still work his magic on a game winning drive when he needs to? Yep. Can Brady sling the ball 50 times a week, game after game and win that way anymore? Nope.

Great post OP. On defense it looks like they added some experienced secondary depth, our only real loss, and it was a big one, was Kyle Williams retiring but we went out and got Ed Oliver in the draft. We'll see how that goes, but on paper it looks like nothing worse than standing pat on the league's 2nd ranked defense. We brought in the best return man in the league in Andre Roberts on special teams and have been adding free agents and draft picks who should hopefully improve on the coverage teams. McBeane dumped some good special teamers last year to clear up cap space for this year's off season. It looks like he is trying to restock the cupboards now with Senorise Perry, Mo Alexander, and our later round draft picks like Joseph. Having a healthy Hauschka back will be huge too. The offense is almost a completely new unit. Allen will step on the field this season with 7 or 8 out of the 10 players being new (we'll see if Dawkins can hold onto a spot on the line somewhere). Every new player looks like a clear up grade over last year's roster. Gotta be happy with that. We should see better offensive play all around It's not just upgrading the starters, we should have some solid depth when the injury bug inevitably bites. It looks like a real NFL roster for the first time in a while. Even better is that we are in great cap space shape to extend our new free agent players who have come in on one or two year prove it deals to long term contacts if they play great. Right now according to Sportrac, the Bills will have the fifth most cap space in the league next year with $71MM. We should be able to keep the young nucleus of this team together for a while. We will still have three years on Allen's rookie contract after this season to continue to upgrade the roster. I can see us being real contenders for a Super Bowl after this season if Allen continues to develop and Brady continues his decline. I think Beane has been on point since he got here with his plan; do whatever you have to do to get your franchise QB, build the trenches, and lastly, sprinkle in some great skill position players in free agent and the draft to push your team over the top.

Good question JimmyNoodles, honestly, I don't know. Anderson had half a season with Josh last year. He'll have training camp and preseason this year. I guess it will depend on how Josh feels about it. I think Josh will want Anderson to stick around one more year, just my guess. Josh lost Culley this off season so he will have a new QB coach coming in. Anderson might be a bit of a security blanket for him, some continuity. Josh doesn't even have a full season of games under his belt yet. I would bet Anderson stays. It's a great off season thread @Dan Darragh, it's something to chew on and speculate about with so much time before they start playing meaningful games. We'll all know the answer on Aug 31st, cut down day.

Anderson is not teaching Allen how to throw the ball, he's teaching him the intangibles of being an professional NFL QB. The behind the scenes skills that a rookie QB needs to learn that will help him be successful at the pro level. Anderson is trying to lessen that learning curve for Allen, and according to everyone in the organization, Anderson has been very successful in doing just that. That is Anderson's value to the organization.

Hey TigerJ I just don't know if it would work to have Anderson turn into a coach, a lot of the things that he is teaching Allen comes from watching Anderson be a QB. How Anderson handles the huddle, how he prepares for a practice and for a game. How he interacts with the other players on offense. We have all likely had a mentor at work at some point who was not your boss, but another guy working next to you who has been there a while and is great at the job. It's easier to turn to them and ask a question than it is to walk up to your boss and ask them the same question. Allen's development is key. I think Anderson has a lot to contribute to that process and is worth a roster spot. I think that after this year, with Allen going into his 3rd season, that it would be ok to take off the training wheels and moving Anderson to an assistant QB coach if he is interested would be reasonable. Right now though, Josh Allen has not arrived, they still need to do everything they can to help him along and having an experienced QB who is friends with Josh, who Josh feels comfortable with, who has years of NFL experience, and most importantly, sees his job as not competing with Allen to get on the field but helping Josh become a better QB, is simply invaluable.

Anderson will be on the team as the QB3 and inactive for most games, but Anderson will be in there during the week to help Allen and Barkley get better at their jobs. How many times has McBeane said how happy they are with their QB room now, and they recognize how they blew it by not having a strong veteran presence in that room at the beginning of last season for Allen? Turning Anderson into a coach will completely throw off the dynamic that they have created in the QB room. Allen lost his QB coach this year and he needs some stability. They are not going to take anyone else away from Allen at this point. They are not going to mess with a QB room that is working well. If Allen feels comfortable and is happy with Anderson and Barkley in that room, they are going to be there.

If he doesn't stick as a QB he might be a flyer as a developmental TE on the practice squad.

I think Dawkins ends up being the odd man out. He was the best of a bad lot last year and I think he gets beat out and ends up being the reserve swing tackle. Nsekhe / Spain / Morse / Long / Ford Just my guess. The Battle of the O-Line is going to be incredible this year and improved O-Line play should really push the defense to be better as well going against them in practice all week.

When the season was over last year we all knew that upgrading the O-line was the single most important thing on Beane's to-do list. It looks like he felt the same way. With the addition of no less than seven new O-lineman, I think we may have upgraded the teams biggest weakness into one of its major strengths in just one off season. I think the last truly dominant O-line in the NFL was the 2016 Cowboys. They were maulers and helped rookie Zeke Elliott to over 1,600 yards rushing and helped rookie Dak Prescott look like an All Pro, franchise QB. There's a link below for a great article that really digs into the incredible stats for that Dallas 2016 O-line. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000784248/article/offensive-line-of-the-year-dallas-cowboys-lived-up-to-the-hype I remember watching the Dallas offense tear it up that season and wondering why more teams don't invest in their O-lines like Dallas did? Why the Bills never seemed to make that common sense investment? I know O-linemen are not flashy or sexy like skill position players, but everyone knows that the offense lives and dies by two things, QB play, and O-line performance, and the QB play is dictated in large part by how well the O-line plays. I think a lot of GMs feel the need to keep the fans happy (and hopefully keep their jobs) by making splashy skill position signings and don't invest in the O-line. Does the average fan get stoked about an offensive guard signing? It looks like Beane gets it though. Enter Cody Ford. It might have seemed that we were set at O-line after a free agency where we brought in six O-linemen, but I think Beane is determined to place not just a solid O-line in front of Allen, but a dominant O-line, a line like Prescott had in 2016. That's why they turned in an envelop with Cody Ford's name on it with the 38th pick. A right tackle instead of a flashy WR or TE. With any luck, Ford is the Bill's starting RT for the next ten years. By all accounts Cody Ford plays nasty and this line has been in dire need of a little bit of nasty since Incognito left. I think that when all the dust settles, we will have gone from the 31st ranked O-line in the league last year to a top 5 line this year. I think every part of our offense will flourish this year because of it. Beane gets it, find your franchise quarterback and then build the trenches, everything else will follow.

God Bless Pancho!

Orchard Park

My son and I were standing about a hundred yards from the stage in the rain watching the top of round one unfold. When the Raiders took Ferrell we were stoked. When the Giants took Jones we were high fiving. That meant there were only two picks left before the Bills selected and Josh Allen, T.J. Hockenson, and Ed Oliver were all still on the board so we knew we were going to end up with one of them. We would be ecstatic with any of them. It was just a matter to see which of the three was left at 9. We both wanted Hock but can not complain about snagging Oliver at 9, which is absolute highway robbery. We were hoping Beane would trade back into the first and snag Fant and we both thought that Seattle at 21 was the most likely spot to do it, but then the Broncos traded up at 20 and snagged Fant. Seattle did end up trading back and out of 21 with the Eagles. I think if Fant would have been there at 21, Beane might have made a play for him with Seattle. All in all, the first round of the draft was a great experience, the crowd was fun, ended up standing in front of a guy wearing a Titans jersey who grew up in Tonawanda like I did. Can't wait to see what happens today. I think it almost a certainty that we walk out of rounds 2 and 3 with more than two picks. Can't wait to see who they are. There are still some solid WRs on the board and Irv Smith. I think Allen still needs some more weapons, I think they will find him at least one today. Hoping for a little bit more Beane Magic today!

Agree. I’ve got no beef with the commish...

Might be hard to get a folding table past security into the draft this year to jump onto and destroy. Looking at the security section on the draft web page and you can only bring a freezer bag sized clear plastic bag in with you. No backpacks, no fanny packs, no cameras or camera cases, no purses for the ladies, no signs, no umbrellas. Nothing but your Bills Mafia self....

That might be a bridge too far.... You wouldn’t by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

Lol! I’ll kiss Beane on the lips if he drafts Hockenson. ?

Those are fighting words! ?

Thanks, my son is 21 and in the same boat as yours, he has never been able to root for a great Bills team. Hopefully that will change soon. Blasphemy! ?

Is that before I jump through the white folding table??? ?