Inigo Montoya

We are in a rebuild and we are going to take some lumps this year. Thank God we were able to break the Drought last year and at least get that monkey off our back. Hopefully we now have our QB of the future. No small thing. Next year we will be out of salary cap hell and we will likely have a high draft pick and be able to go out and aggressively upgrade the 53 man roster and add some pieces around Allen to help him develop. It's indisputable that the sun is starting to set in New England. I think that we will be on the upswing after this year. Try not to lose sight of the big picture.

I think the bottom line is that the Bills need to carry three QBs on this roster with the current state of the O-line.

Agree 100% Boatdrinks... Even if we can snag a couple decent free agents after the cut downs it will take time for them to gel. That's why I'm hoping that they keep Allen on the sidelines for the first few weeks and let Peterman take the reins. I think Peterman won the starting job outright anyways. (don't want to start an argument about that point here) As for the value of what Peterman has won, that's another matter all together. He may have won himself a First Class ticket to injured reserve with our current O-line...

Let's see what happens when the league makes their 53 man roster cuts next week. There will be a handful of serviceable veteran O lineman across the league who get released because their particular team decides to go with a younger, cheaper player that they feel can step in and do the job. We don't need a long term solution on the O-line right now, we just need a serviceable stop gap player (or three). An older vet(s) with a little bit of gas left in the tank might be able to step in and help us out this year. I think Buffalo will be an attractive destination for a vet with a year or two of playing time left because Buffalo will offer the one thing that most other places won't... playing time. Is this situation optimal? Hell no... Is it probably our best chance to bolster the O-line before we get all three of our QBs killed? Hell yes...

The two things I'm most excited about this year watching the Bills games are; 1. Seeing what Allen can do. 2. Not hearing the announcers mention 50 times a game that it's been 17 years since the Bills made the playoffs.

@ Dollars to Donuts I think you have a good argument, there is definitely something to be said for trial by fire, but ultimately, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I think you're right, Allen probably is our best chance to win, and if your #1 objective is to beat the Ravens, Chargers, and Vikings, then you should play Allen. If your #1 priority is to give Allen the best chance to succeed long term, then I would sit him for a few games and let the O line figure itself out first and let Allen get more of a feel for the pro game before you throw him in there.

I like Buffalover4life 's position, Let Peterman go the first few weeks. Let Allen learn the nuts and bolts process of how an NFL game week / game day works. Let him see how Daboll installs a game plan for the upcoming game. Give him a chance to see how the offense breaks down film on the opposing defense. Let him see all the hoopla of opening weekend on the road and the spectacle of a few real NFL games before you ask him to go out there and run the offense. Give him a few weeks to get used to all that and then ease him in week four. That also gets him past three meat grinder defenses. I don't think anyone wants to see Peterman / Chargers Part II for Allen. We need to do everything we can to maximize his chance of being a long term successful quarterback. If it turns out that our O-Line is a turnstile, do you really want him out there at all until the O Line has a few games to gel and get their act together? If holding Allen back and starting Peterman means losing the first three games of the season to set Allen up for future success, I'm ok with that. We've been waiting twenty years for a franchise QB in Buffalo, I can wait three more games. Other's may disagree, but that's my opinion. I'm not in the Peterman camp, I personally think Allen is better, but I am in the camp of giving Allen the best shot to be successful and I think that means easing him into the starting lineup this season.

The thing that gets me about Allen's throws is the crazy flat trajectory of them. Most QB's need to put a bit of arc or loft on the ball to get it down the field over twenty yards. Allen's passes come out of his hand moving at Mach 2.3 and just travel in a straight line to the receiver. When I watch those passes it almost looks like an optical illusion. Sometimes the ball gets there so quickly that the DB, who is in good position to defend the pass, doesn't even have a chance to make a play on the ball. It's like Allen handed off the ball to the receiver twenty yards down the field. Inconceivable!

I think what it boils down to is that most sports broadcasters and journalists are lazy and just go with the conventional wisdom and don't want to put in the time and effort to see if the conventional wisdom about Allen is correct or not. They listen to the same pundits we do and heard all of the flaws in Allen's game just like we did. On this board many of us spent some time and went back and watched film of Allen playing in Wyoming and at the Senior Bowl and throwing at the combine and at his pro day. We followed Allen's performance in the training camp practices open to the public. We wanted to have an informed opinion about Allen, but having an informed opinion takes a little bit of effort. Do you think they did all that to prepare for this game? Of course not The word out of the draft was that Allen has a rocket of an arm but was inaccurate. He was probably going to be a huge bust. With that framework in place they see everything through those lenses. Get used to it because until the evidence becomes overwhelming and shows that narrative is incorrect, that's what we are going to continue to hear week after week. Their inaccurate reporting and skewed perspective against Allen isn't malicious, it's just lazy reporting.

Don't be fooled, she's a dude....

I have worked in the busiest ER in my state for the last 21 years. Over those years I have learned a simple truth.... God loves drunk people. They never seem to end up as hurt as you think they would considering what happens to them. They must all be assigned an intoxicated guardian angel to look over them.

Innocent until proven guilty, but you have to admit that unless this whole thing was staged to get back at McCoy, which isn’t very likely, I don’t think that McCoy will ever step on a football field again.

Physicality

Was this really an issue that was crying out to be fixed? How many more rules can they cram into this game? At this rate, the NFL rule book is going be bigger than the federal tax code in ten years.

18th? Does your fan base do this? 1. Routinely endure the elements and temperatures so cold that they’d make a polar bear’s nuts shrivel, often while wearing little to no clothing. 2. Consume an amount of alcohol that scientists state is incompatible with life before noon, but still manage to get into the correct seat in the upper deck of the stadium like an inebriated homing pigeon before the 1 pm kickoff. 3. Make pregame bonfires using their own bodies as kindling to demonstrate their team spirit. 4. Conduct pregame ritualistic sacrifices to curry the football god’s favor by hurling themselves from great heights through folding white tables in a manner so violent and reckless that veteran members of Seal Team Six would cringe and be forced to look away. 18th? INCONCEIVABLE!!!

The OP has a point. It seemed that over the years, the Buffalo News beat reporters slowly morphed from reporting on the Bills, to being opinion writers about the Bills. Since a lot of what they wrote about the Bills ended up being negative during the Drought, they probably were not liked very much by the people at One Bills Drive and their sources inside the organization slowly dried up. I hope they bring in some new reporters who don’t have all the scar tissue that Sully and the others had after years of being immersed in following a dysfunctional team. I know there were times in the past twenty years when I got so disgusted I just had to turn off the TV and walk away for the sake of my own sanity. There were entire seasons where I just didn’t follow the Bills as closely because the team was so bad. It made me miserable watching them and it just wasn’t worth it to me. I’ve been that way with the Sabres the last few years. The beat reporters didn’t have that luxury and I think over time it effected how they covered the Bills, especially Sully. It’s time for a fresh start at the Buffalo News with some new beat reporters who haven’t been beaten down for years.

I’m D. B. Cooper.

The Darby trade was the only move that gave me pause when McBeane pulled the trigger on it. It seems funny, but I really had no problem with moving Dareus and letting Gilmore go, but trading a promising young CB, a rookie who had outplayed Gilmore, and who still had years left on his rookie contract seemed crazy to me. They drafted White and brought in free agents who got the job done. Our secondary, which I thought was going to get blown up every week, ended up being the best unit on the entire team last year. Got to tip my hat to McBeane on those moves. I was wrong and they were right.

My mistake! Thanks for setting the record straight, I edited the original post.

One of the most frustrating experiences every Sunday watching the Bills play during the Drought was the number of senseless, drive killing, or drive extending penalties that the Bills always took at the worst possible moment. That “third and long” play that was successfully defended, but a senseless late hit on the qb or a holding penalty on the other side of the field, twenty yards away from the ball, would keep the drive alive. Or the long pass play or run for the Bills that always seemed to get called back because of a holding penalty or illegal formation. It drove me crazy. How many games swung on those plays, that lack of focus and discipline on the part of the Bills? I think one of the most important things that McDermott has done is to work on cutting down on those self-inflicted wounds. I believe that effort is an under appreciated factor in finally ending the Drought, and it’s the sign of a good coaching staff and a clear sign that the culture is finally changing in Orchard Park Below are some stats from Marrone and Rex Ryan’s tenure and the first year under McDermott to illustrate that point; NFL Team Rank; Penalties Per Game; 2014 - 31st 2015 - 32nd 2016 - 24th 2017 - 10th NFL Team Rank; Penalty Yards Per Game; 2014 - 29th 2015 - 32nd 2016 - 22nd 2017 - 10th You just can’t win in this league if you are not a disciplined football team. McDermott is creating a culture of accountability and is building a roster of high character players who will buy into that culture. I think the elimination of senseless penalties is one of those changes that flies a bit under the radar compared to some other football metrics, but I think it was a big part of last year’s success and one of the main reasons I’ve become a big McDermott fan.

Sammy just never got it going here in Buffalo and I think it was the right decision to move him when they did. I'm not going to take anything away from him, he is a talented receiver and has a high ceiling, but with his injury issues, and the price it was going to cost to keep him, getting that 2nd rounder and Gaines was the right move by McBeane. I think that foot injury is going to plague him his entire career. Those foot injuries just never seem to get better.

I don't mean to rip the scab off the Great TT Debate, but the bottom line is that TT is a serviceable NFL QB who can win games in this league with a fair to middlin' supporting cast. I think Cleveland will be happy to win 5-6 games this year and I think TT is definitely able to do that for them. He might not have been our "Franchise QB" or our "QB of the Future" but he is a QB who can win some games for a team and that's all Cleveland is looking for. I wish TT the best of luck.

Fair enough... But what if the Bills had hired Belichick eighteen years ago instead of Gregg Williams, and the Bills had won multiple Super Bowls over the ensuing years and been the most dominant team in the league for more than a decade, do you really think you'd feel the same way about our coach Belichick?

Agree, more than that, he was brought up in the Belichick offense that changes weekly to exploit their opponent's defensive weakness. Some weeks they throw to the wide outs, the next week they run the ball forty times, the week after that the tight ends are the focal point, sometimes the backs are catching passes all game long. Their offense is never the same two weeks in a row. That's why I have never used any Patriot in my fantasy football league except Brady for the last ten years because the offense seems to go through a different player every week. I wonder why more teams don't do it this way? If you can put together a roster of capable players (no small thing I know) the Belichick Way has been shown to be consistently successful over the long run. Like most here I don't like Belichick, but you have to give the devil his due. A little bit of Belichick at One Bills Drive might not be a bad thing.

I'm placing this entire message board on Double Secret Probation!!!