VW82

Except we've had the privilege of watching the games and so we know it isn't always Zay's fault. Allen is missing him a lot or forcing him to lay out for difficult catches that should have been routine. I agree Zay has a real problem holding onto the football and that issue doesn't appear to be QB dependent. Allen is exacerbating the issue with all the errant throws and Zay is in turn further killing the confidence between them with all the drops. At this point that has to be a factor: deep down they don't have confidence a throw will end in a reception.

I wasn't a fan of Singletary in this game. His run on 2nd and 5 in that second series was bad. Line got a nice push with so much open field out to the right. Prime Shady would have turned that into a 20 yard run. Singletary instead hesitates and then runs straight ahead into their DE. One rushing attempt doesn't make a career but that one left an impression.

And Josh shouldn't have airmailed him or thrown it in the dirt in that first series. Maybe they could have scored points if they'd kept that drive going. Watch the play again. Josh throws the ball wide and Zay has to adjust his route. It was a catch and in a vacuum that's all that counts but in this case it's another small piece of evidence that those guys aren't on the same page. There are too many miscues between them dating back to last season. It's on both of them at this point.

That is interesting. Not that we needed any more evidence that Bodine will be shown the door. Maybe Long will be too? Some of us have been trying to find ways to keep Teller who's in a numbers crunch now that Ford is at RG. Using Feliciano as the back up C accomplishes that. Edit: the more I think about it we have to carry three guys who can play center. Even if Morse comes back he's a ticking time bomb. This should mean our top eight guys are set (DD/QS/MM/CF/TN with JF, SL, and WT back ups). The question is, who is going to be the back up swing tackle?

Agreed. Josh needs guys who can consistently get open. I noticed a lot of the routes that did work on Thurs where either sitting down in space or comeback routes. Josh can be accurate on those. It's when the receiver is moving to the side or on the diagonal that he has problems (and sometimes when he throws to the sidelines). But I think he's going to be a big play guy though, and he's a gamer. We've already seen that. Bills had so many areas that desperately needed upgrading on offense the degree of difficulty was harder. Long-term this team needs more play makers

You're a funny guy. I finally got to see the game and I stand by my comment. Josh wasn't very good. He was inaccurate, again. He mostly stared down and threw to his first option. It's clear to me there's a problem with Josh and Zay. Josh misses him on his first couple throws to start the game. Josh turns what might have been a long gain or TD into a difficult catch for Zay along the left sideline (which he makes) in the second series -- instead of lofting it so wide why not force the angle upfield more so Zay can turn and run up the sideline? There was so much space! By the time Josh throws the infamous drop at the five yard line they've had some missed connections and miscues due to QB error. Zay should have caught and held that last one at least until the egregious hit to the head which should probably be reviewed by the league. It's possible we might need to separate them as they seem to be feeding each other's weaknesses. But I can see you don't really want to talk about any of that, so I'll stop here. You can go back to being the hot take arbiter. Have a nice day.

Why is he going to get hurt? Russell Wilson seems to play a lot of games (and win Super Bowls!). Allen has that type of big play ability. I feel like it's unlikely Allen gets over his issues with inaccuracy. He's had two off seasons, two training camps, one full regular season, and he's still apparently missing guys and being "uncomfortably inaccurate" despite being in the athletic prime of his life. He'll get better at reading the defense and leading receivers and bunch of other things but I worry about the accuracy stuff. He's so tantalizing and it's going to hurt that much more if he busts out. Please God let him be good! Edit: either way I like McD. He should stay and get a second chance if it comes to that.

I wasn't referring to the pass or the drop, but rather their careers to date. It sounds like I'm going to see a game where Zay dropped a ball and Allen missed a couple of receivers who were open (just going by what others have written). These are exactly the two areas of weakness most discussed. I think it's fair to lump them in the same boat at this stage as promising young players with some areas that need to be cleaned up. It's less fair to single one out in order to praise the other. They both have issues.

If you're a professional quarterback and your receiver gets open you have to be accurate with the football. Otherwise, what's the point? I think Allen and Jones are young players with a lot of promise who have some glaring weaknesses. Hopefully they can overcome their shortcomings and become good players.

No, Spain. Teller had two holding penalties and they were both in the same Dolphins game. He got his ass kicked in that one. I like him though. The leash will be a short one for Spain, I predict. Also, to the poster asking about keeping Teller over Long: I think we need to keep three guys who can play center and one of them can't be Bodine. We have to keep Long. Ford can function as the swing tackle should Nsekhe or Dawkins get hurt. This would allow us to also keep Teller.

Thought it was interesting that he had five holding penalties (one declined) over the final eight weeks of the 2018 season. Seems a little high, no? Hopefully he starts to move his feet.

I'm not sure Teller shouldn't be playing over Spain.

His stats aren't great and we didn't score with him in the game. What was your read of it? I'm looking forward to seeing what happened.

I haven't watched the game yet (taping later tonight on NFLN) but I think we can safely say Josh Allen didn't have a great night. He finished 6/11 for only 66 yards and 0 points. People keep talking about Zay's drop. WRs drop the ball sometimes. Good QBs find them enough that it doesn't matter. We clearly tried to put the ball in Allen's hands and unlike his 2018 draft class counterparts his offense didn't produce.

I agree we need to wait until the actual bullets start flying to make any real determinations but there are certainly clues available. Has anyone dug through all the training camp threads and compiled his comp% to date? I know there will be caveats to that (i.e. can’t hit the qb, lots of red zone work, etc.) but it might give us some idea whether he’s actually making headway with his decision making and accuracy issues.

Anyone else a little concerned that Josh is throwing a stupid amount of batted balls the last few practices? It’s like he’s aiming for the Dline. I don’t recall this being a problem last year.

We paid big money for a finesse center who has had problems staying on the field. This is his third documented concussion in the last couple of years. Hopefully he’s OK though I worry he’s going to be more prone to future concussions now that he’s had a few. It’s not great.

Didn’t Zay play like 90% of the snaps last year? I have a really hard time believing he isn’t going to make the roster let alone not play a significant percentage of snaps. https://mobile.twitter.com/adamlevitan/status/1155100766945861640

I’m not surprised by this ranking. You have a very polarizing young QB in Allen who needs to show a lot more than he has (and I think he will) to get the attention of writers covering the league. Beyond Allen we have exactly zero young studs on offense, rather a bunch of competent veterans and intriguing players looking to capitalize on a second or third chance. On defense our two best players, Hughes and Lorax, are well into their 30s. Our safeties are already in their prime. We definitely have some young talent too in Edumunds and Oliver but they haven’t shown star potential on the field yet. I think the team is going to be better this year but any future ranking which looks at proven young stud blue chippers is going to rate the Bills poorly.

Great post by OP. Pretty much mirrors my thoughts on Allen. There are definitely issues with accuracy and decision making but the kid has a penchant for explosive plays. I hope we embrace his strengths and don’t get too caught up in trying to turn him into something he isn’t. Simplify the game for him. Don’t ask him to make a bunch of quick reads or difficult throws with the receiver in motion. Let him be an athlete, and take off if need be. Have the receivers run come back routes or sit down in zone coverage. He can make those throws. The future is exciting.

I thought it was terrible behavior by Raptors fans. It wasn’t the cheering when he went down as there was a fast break. It was cheering/jeering KD while he was being helped off the court. People should know better. It’s not like this is the first time someone got injured in front of fans. I hope fans wouldn’t cheer Brady getting seriously hurt.

I still doubt Josh. He's come a long ways since game one but he's still no where near good enough. He still isn't accurate with the football. He takes too long to make decisions, and he makes too many bad ones when he finally does. Allen put out a lot of tape to feed the doubters. He also showed he can learn from his mistakes and improve. If he has the drive and will to never be satisfied and keep getting better then I think he'll become a good QB because the talent is certainly there. He'll never be Peyton Manning but he might be some version of a cross between Brett Favre and Cam Newton.

I remain terrified of this pick, and expect Oliver to have a rough transition to the NFL much like Edmunds did at times. I also thought Edmunds might have to change positions and those guys scare me. OTOH in two years it’s possible we have the best 3T/MLB combo in the NFL. I’d be more skeptical if it wasn’t McBeane taking/developing them.

Nowhere did I say they were gods. I said I’m growing more impressed with each transaction and that they weren’t incompetent. That’s quite the reach you made. Obviously there have been misses. They way they handled the QB position last year was just awful. Many of the decisions they made last off season were terrible, but they appear to be getting better. What I like the most is they seem to be building an identity with tough minded, character guys. No divas. No agenda guys. They had a rebuilding plan and they executed it, and even lucked out and made the playoffs for the first time this century. On the whole, it’s been impressive. Obviously everything depends on Allen’s development and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about that (especially with the way our other QB decisions have gone). There’s hope for him though, and now at least we’ve given him help. I’m the meantime, we’ll be a tough minded defensive team that good teams aren’t going to like playing. We’ll be in most of the games, playing hard and being competitive, which as a fan is all you can ask for really.

This is perfect. Exactly what I'm sure many of us were hoping for. Gotta say, I grow more impressed with McBeane with each transaction. It's so much more fun cheering for a team that isn't incompetent when making player personnel decisions.