The Red King

Each team playing on Thursday should be coming off a bye, just to make it fair. That, and the players may need the extra time to prepare their eyes for the optic searing Color Rush experience. Most look like what you'd get if you fed a unicorn skittles and it threw up on the team's away jerseys.

He didn't like taking a pay cut, saw the Bills make the playoffs and thought himself an indispensable part of that. He likely thought he could squeeze Beene for more money. When Beene said "Nope!", he flippantly announces retirement, and waits for the Bills to try and bribe him back. Unfortunately for him, I don't think Beene gives in to threats or demands. Richie's done. As for the Hall of Fame, not even close. Ironically another strong year or two with Buffalo could have helped his case. Ah well...

Words fail. It's amazing how quickly people are willing to completely write off a season before it begins. "We traded away some players, the season's over!!!" "We traded up in the draft, the season's over!!!" "An offensive lineman retired. The season's over!!!" "The waterboy has a hangnail, the season's over!!!"

Alright, lemmie see if I made sense of this thread. Aliens have mind controlled Whaley, who is whispering in Beene's ear to force Incognito to retire. As a result AJ's wife will become a widow who can then be promptly wooed by the aliens, because Mars needs women?

There is a plan here, and I'm willing to see it through before passing judgement. We got to 9-7 and ended the drought last year, a season many people even analysts said was utterly doomed after our last offseason. Remember all the talk of tanking? How the week one matchup with the Jets was a preview of the battle for the top pick this upcoming draft? Bottom line, we're only at halftime for this offseason. At least wait until after the draft is over before dooming the Bills this season.

Wait, I know I'm getting old, and I tend to forget things, but I think I still know numerical order. If I'm not mistaken, not just 1, but 1 *and* 2 both come before 3, right? That didn't get changed? So, can someone please explain to me how Mayfield is a "lock" at #3 for the Jets? Nothing is a lock at #3. The Browns or Giants could nab him at 1 or 2...or they could trade those picks to a team that could take him, Bills included, before the Jets even have a chance. The farce is strong in this one... >.<

I did, but the example holds. He wasn't the only one saying the season was already over at that point.

I love absolutes. Didn't Rodak, after all the trades last offseason, say the season was over before it began...and then we broke the drought? While I understand the intent of the thread, the assertation that we will, with 100% certainty, not make the playoffs for a full three years should we trade up to #2 is a rather silly one. Anything can happen. Found it: http://www.espncricinfo.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/28518/bills-set-up-tyrod-taylor-to-fail-blow-up-2017-season-with-shocking-trades "BUFFALO -- Turn out the lights on the Buffalo Bills' 2017 season, because it is over before it started."

2018: 9-7...we'll look better then 2017, but I think the schedule will be rougher. We'll beat the Pats once, though. Likely the second matchup. 2019: 11-5...since speculation is fun I'll go out on a limb and say we sweep the Pats, marking an end of a dynasty and prompting retirement from Brady and Belly in the face of Father Time and an AFC East rival that finally isn't a pushover.

It's weird. I don't hate the Pats outright. I hate Bellie for throwing a tantrum by running up the scores in the almost perfect season, I hate Brady for crying and whining for a penalty every time he's sneezed on, and I hate Gronk for thinking the sideline was a WWF ring. But, if all three were to suddenly retire, I'd be far more ambivalent toward the team. That being said, I remember the Dolphins hate of the '90s, and it pales to that of the '70. My dad really, really hated that team. Kept mentioning how during their perfect season, Buffalo actually had them beat after intercepting. But since Schula was on the rules commitie he kept getting calls, including a phantom call to negate the interception. There was a lot of venom in his words.

TT is a quarterback for a team that needs consistancy more then quality. Buffallo used to be such a team, but outgrew him, Cleveland is such a team, making the trade good for both teams. By the time the Browns outgrow him, their rookie should be ready to take over. And you can't overlook the draft pick and cap relief we got in the trade as well.

Wow...I...haven't heard an excuse like this since a certain Bills' backup justified his poor play by saying the reason he sucked was that he didn't study the playbook since he wasn't expecting to play. Not saying Manziel is wrong, but he's wrong to say it. I always tell my kids when you make a mistake you need to do three things, admit the mistake, apologize for it, and do what you can to make it right. This...is not taking responsibility. Yes, at the end he said it was all his fault, but his earlier words say otherwise. I wonder what reaction he expected to get. Sympathy? People thinking, "Really wasn't going to give him a chance, but he's right...it was Cleveland's fault for not realizing he was...well...Manziel. In light of that, sign him up! If he still sucks, it will be our fault for not realizing he still sucks." Just...true or not...you don't *say* things like that. >.<

Ish. New helmet is fine, but the unis...it's like they chose powder blue as a signiture color (for obvious reasons), then said use the Seahawks as a base, but swap out the neon green with powder blue. The numbers, well, no sugar-coating how hideous they look. Grey on the shoulders looks like they ran out of fabric and just had to grab something to finish off the unis, even if it was grey. Not the worst unis, like some of the ideas, just...some really head-scratching decisions.

I'll say it again, Brady would not be Brady behind our O-Line, or most O-Lines in the league right now.

The secret to Brady's success is pass protection. If you can get to him, you can rattle him. One reason he carves the Bills up year in and year out. He's also quite old. Were Brady to be traded, that team better have one hell of a front line blocking for him. If not, the "goat" won't even last the season, nonetheless win a championship.

See my prior comments. Every team in the league had a passing play of 50+ yards. At least one. Everyone that is, except the Bills. In 15 1/2ish games TT could not do this even once. I know the receiving corp is meh, but you cannot look me in the eye and tell me that not one single play in all those games did he ever have a receiver open deep. The film clearly showed he did and he either did not throw it, or missed his receiver. Bad receivers lead to fewer deep throws, not *no* deep throws. That's on TT. Again, the receivers are as much to blame for the lack of offensive production...but at the same time TT is as much to blame as the receivers. Will AJ fix the offense? Not alone, but he should at least be able to stretch defenses and give McCoy a little running room.

People are not saying TT was the sole reason the offense was bad. Even earlier this thread I noted the receiving corp was sub-par. A very good receiver might well have made the catch at the end of the Carolina game. A very good QB would have put that pass where a sub-par receiver could catch it. Sadly, we had a sub-par deep passer throwing to a sub-par receiver. We're not putting the offensive woes solely at TT's feet, but we are holding him accountable for the factors he had control over. His reluctance to throw deep, even when he did have receivers open deep, and his inaccuracy when actually throwing deep are on him, and resulted in opposing defenses simply stacking the box. If TT had managed to hit his receivers deep when open, but they just weren't open often...then you could absolve TT and place blame solely on the receivers, but we all know that didn't happen.

Buffalo's receivers did not mystically repulse the football into the dirt. Bad receivers are not open as often as good ones, but when they did get open it was all on TT to get the ball on-target, something he failed at regularly, more frequently the longer the throw. I think we all remember the end of the Carolina game. How many balls underthrown? How many in the dirt. And, of course, that's when he even saw the open receiver and threw to him. Yes, the Bills' receiver corp was subpar, but that does not excuse TT's lack of vision and downfield accuracy. AJ, if he plays, should push the ball downfield more, even with the same set of receivers. Which, in turn, should spread the defense, giving McCoy a chance to run into something other then a brick wall resulting from a stacked defense.

Might be the NBA draft. After all, the Bills did make the NCAA Basketball tournament this year. XD

This is how you do an April Fools Day post. Kudos to the OP, this one was creative!

Ah, but this is a day for the ladies to do the chasing as well. Happy Dingus Day, all!

The Buffalo Bills are trading away their first five picks to acquire a hot dog, confirmed here! ;-)

Tough question to answer. My gut is telling me we're looking at 9-7 again...but what I'm really unsure of is if it will be enough to get in. I...I'm going to say 'yes', and rather then backing in, I have a hunch a key Week 17 victory, perhaps an upset, gets them in. Last year's team overachieved, yes. But let's not overlook the positives of that. Be it coaching, heart, or a combination of the two, they did more then looked possible on paper. Nothing saying with the same coach and changing culture that doesn't happen again and this team pulls a few more surprises. Tyrod is an anomoly, the ultimate baseline. He is a die that only rolls '3' or '4'. He kept some games close, but when the game neared the end if we were behind he couldn't give us the high rolls we needed. He took us as far as be could, and will do well in Cleveland, where 8-8 would be adored. We hit TT's ceiling, and when Cleveland finally does, their rookie should be ready. That being said, we don't know what AJ will bring. There is a very limited body of work to go by, and it doesn't include Bills' players, coaches, or schemes. What he does give is a chance to be better then TT and the risk of being worse. If nothing else, I'm hoping he's willing to throw deep. Keep in mind McCoy was running uphill. Having a star running back and a QB that only throws short makes defense easier. You put eleven players, a couple cheerleaders and an assistant coach in the box and dare TT to throw deep. Hopefully AJ, if he's playing, will at least stretch out the D and make the offense less predictable. For every game we barely won thanks to turnovers or such, there were games we barely lost, such as the Panthers and Bengels. I think we're going to gain and lose ground in equal measure this year, but our long-term outlook will look better. And, if nothing else, I think it will be entertaining.

None of the players you mentioned receive the venom Trent does. Hell, you've proven my point this thread just by labelling him "Trentative". That's why it's being discussed. Nobody is claiming the guy would have been HoF had he not been concussed, but many think he would not have been anywhere near as bad. And if that's the case, he simply doesn't deserve the abuse he gets. He certainly didn't look "Trentative" leading a come from behind win against the Raiders.

Thanks, all. This is the kind of discussion I hoped to have. I'm not arguing Trent would have been a HoF QB, or that all the problems were the result of the concussion. Just, to me, there did seem to be very noticible changes, mainly to his decision-making abilities. If I recall, just before the Arizona game, Trent executed a brilliant 2-minute drill to pull off a comeback win vs. the Raiders. As we all know after the concussion his two-minute drills were awful, with constant check-downs and horrific clock management. It just seems like he couldn't think quite as fast as before, and sadly, that will kill a QB.