CincyBillsFan

Exactly right. We should not underestimate the value of taking "QB" off the plate with respect to off season efforts. This will free up the Bills organization to focus like a laser in improving this team. Given the cap room that will be a full time job this winter/spring. Remember for every potential impact free agent out there you also have a Kelvin Benjamin. We need the front office to be clear eyed as they spend all that money.

This is my thinking to. The Pat's are like a wounded tiger - they still have enough in the tank to rear up and rip you apart. Hopefully by next year they'll have bled out and their dynasty will be dead.

The way I look at it is that you can't teach a QB to WANT to play Hero Ball and you can't teach a QB to WANT to be a gunslinger. Those seem like innate skill sets. However, you can teach a QB to temper both of those attributes. Seems to me on this subject Allen has EXACTLY what you want in a QB.

Great move. He will be a solid back-up and arguably the Bills have stabilized their QB situation to a greater extent then at any time in the last decade. On top of this it's clear from this signing that Allen, Barkley & Anderson are all part of a very effective QB room. This is big when trying to develop a raw rookie. Given everything management has to fix on the offense in the off season it's almost surreal that the one thing they don't have to fix are our starting & back-up QB's!

Trust me when I say that I hope I'm wrong here. To beat the Pats in their place, possibly hammering the final nails into the coffin of their dynasty and robbing them of any chance for a 1st round bye in the playoffs would be so sweet.

I suspect he'll try to take away Allen's runs and his intermediate to deep passes to Foster. Achieving both things is very doable IMO. Now if Zay Jones can hang onto the ball and Clay starts thinking about how big his contract will be next year on another team they might both have big games for the Bills. In some ways Dabold is more on trial here then Allen. I've seen enough to be very confident that no matter what happens over the next 2 weeks Allen is way ahead of schedule and has demonstrated that with further development he can be our franchise QB. It will be interesting to see what Dabold tries to do on the road against a team being coached by one of the true defensive geniuses. A good performance by Allen & the offense may reflect even better on Dabold then Allen.

This seems like conventional thinking that Allen's on field performance to date has rendered obsolete. And on a team with as many needs on the offensive side of the ball to waste a 1st or 2nd round pick on another QB IMO would be football malpractice. I don't see Allen having a passing game breakout Sunday with this current group of skill players. If the Pats take away Allen's runs and Fosters receptions what's left? A conventional running game in which the backs are either practice squad players or injury hobbled vets? Or TE play that could be shut down by dropping your nose tackle into coverage (ok this is a an exaggeration but you get the point) or a stable of WR's whose distinguishing characteristics are not getting open, not making tough catches and dropping passes? Even a solid contributor like McKenzie may be playing hurt. And on the other side you have a NE team playing at home and desperate for a win. Bottom line is I fully expect Allen to take a step back on Sunday. We'll have to wait until next year and the revamping of the offense for Allen to have a breakout passing game and to beat the Pats. I hope I'm wrong though because it would be one hell of a Christmas present to beat the Pats on Sunday.

That was my thought to. What's forgotten in all this is just how good that pass was. If the Detroit DB doesn't tackle the WR he catches the ball and glides into the end zone. It was a perfect 50 yard pass! That play should also become the first exhibit in any defense of awarding the ball at the spot of the foul for pass interference. Those folks clamoring for PI to be a 15 yard penalty need to watch that play and realize DB's would tackle the receiver EVERY time downfield if beaten knowing it would only cost them 15 yards.

I agree with you. People should not read to much into this game if we get stomped by something like 27 - 10. The Pats are a team that is old and on a downhill slide but they still are dangerous and have everything to play for. The fact that NE has not lost to a rookie QB since 2001 is all you need to know here. And I suspect that playing at home in a crucial game will bring out a last great effort by NE. Throw in that the Bills are depleted due to injury and you have a perfect storm for a Pat's blowout victory. Now I hope I'm wrong but we'll need to wait until next year before we beat these suckers and see a true changing of the guard in the AFC East.

I agree 100%. In spite of my complaining about our receivers some of them have produced. We do need to upgrade TE though. Is there any team getting less out of their TE's then we are?

I agree. But Allen has the potential to trigger a lot of cussing among our opponents fans as he turns 3rd & 15's into first downs with his legs. I suspect that once he establishes his ability to hit anywhere on the field with his passing game (he's close already) then his QB runs, while not used often, will routinely generate chunk yardage.

Some good points on this thread so I'll just throw out some random thoughts on the topic: * Way to early to write off Rosen but the Cards are now close to doing permanent damage to their rookie. What has surprised me the most is that if you had asked me in preseason which QB is most in danger of being mishandled and ruined I would have answered Allen. I'm happy that I was wrong. * While I think the Bills screwed up Allen's preseason by not giving him more reps with the 1st team, IMO Dabold has done a terrific job with the rookie. Let's not forget that while we chastise the Cards for throwing Rosen to the wolves the Bills threw Allen to the wolves at the start of this season. We had just lost to Baltimore 40 - 3 with an offense that didn't gain a 1st down in the first half and now we were starting our project rookie QB in week 2 against a Super Bowl contender. Even worse there was no veteran QB on the roster to work with Allen. Given that during the off season Dabold did not develop our offense for Allen, our current situation is quite good and our rookie QB has survived his first test by fire. I hope we have Dabold next year. * Mayfield is heads & tails above the other rookie QB's but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's also a lot closer to his ceiling.

Good observations and I would add that Allen has taken his scariest hits while sitting in the pocket. He has actually looked quite composed when he runs the ball and executes a nice slide to avoid the big hit. I slightly disagree about the running not being sustainable for Allen. Sure, trying to run for over a 100 yards every game isn't going to cut it in the long run but Allen's ability to gain 20 yards on 3rd & 18 will be a HUGE part of his game throughout his career. If on average he makes 3 or 4 big runs per game then he will be a difficult QB to defense.

It's called throwing a WR open. If our NFL TE can only muster high school level speed then he shouldn't be out there. To me the photos make it even more clear that he should have caught the ball. Or another way to look at it is if you drop a pass like that you better make a spectacular catch to make up for it.

I took his post to mean that Bills receivers have to make the catches that SEEM to be impossible. You know the ones that we see being made EVERY week all over the NFL and which are spotlighted on Sports Center. Like I've posted before the ONLY truly great catch I've seen of an Allen pass was DeMarco's catch on that poor wheel route throw Allen made. I just haven't seen a Bills WR or TE make an exceptional NFL caliber catch. Sure there have been a bunch of solid NFL level catches and a couple of very good ones, like the sideline catch by Foster against Miami. But truly spectacular catches? None so far. Just last week the Lions receiver made two such catches and they were game changers. Had we matched the Lions by making two equally spectacular catches we score at least one more TD. And Allen gave his receivers the opportunity to make game changing catches and they failed to take advantage. Oh and for the record that diving drop would have been a borderline spectacular 55 yard catch. That type of catch is routinely made in the NFL and college football and if you watch High School football you will see kids make that catch once in a while.

I'm more frustrated with Clay because I see him adding no value to the passing game. I'm a bit more agnostic about Jones. I could see him suddenly not dropping passes and he is getting open. But most of all what I want to see our receivers starting to catch more of those 50/50 balls which they never seem able to do.

It's a bit wobbly but as you say hit him right in the hands, waist high and he didn't have to break stride.

So do you think he put Clay in a tough position with that throw against the Jets? Or that he put Jones in a tough position with that second down throw over the middle that was dropped? In the NFL a great throw can be a QB getting he ball near the receiver and relying on the receiver to make a play. Every week I see guys making tough catches look routine. My guess is if espn were to pick out the 100 best catches of the year not a single Buffalo Bill catch would make the cut. NOT ONE.

That hit Clay tight in the hands. It was as close to a "perfect" pass as you're going to get with that throw or am I missing something? It hit him in his hands, waist high and slightly in front of him. If he catches that ball he doesn't break stride. Maybe I'm just seeing this through my Josh Allen colored glasses but those of you who thought the ball could be better placed I would be curious to know how?

I have a bad feeling about this game folks. The Pats remind me of the Bills in the last years of their run when they weren't going to the Super Bowl but still making the playoffs with Kelly & company. You could see the end was nearing and they were getting old but late in the season when someone came into Rich Stadium to dance on their grave, they would rise up and crush their opponent. And for a fleeting moment you would think "yea, the magics back"! But then reality would intrude over the next couple of weeks with a playoff loss in which the team looked their age. This NE team just seems desperate and I suspect that Brady & company still have a great game or two left in them and both the Bills & Jets will see this over the next 2 weeks. But after the Patriots are beat in their first playoff game you will be seeing the end of an era. NEXT YEAR is when you'll see an improving Bills team lay the wood to the Patriots. I hope I'm wrong but I've got this sense of dread about this game.

The best part of the All 22 reviews on Allen is the unanimous feeling that he's improving every game. This is the most important stat IMO for a rookie QB. I particularly like that after reviewing the film these folks are concluding that his biggest improvements are in things he did poorly before. The willingness & ability to learn is huge for the ultimate success of a rookie QB.

Jackson is an interesting QB and I hope the Ravens keep running him like it's college ball. I know the conventional wisdom is that he'll get banged up and not last a full season but maybe the times they are a changing in the NFL. I'm a big time college football fan and it's pretty impressive to see how much the NFL copies from the college game. On offense almost all the innovation is happening at the college level not at the pros. And one aspect of the college game is that most of the top offenses feature a true dual threat QB. Now Jackson may be a better runner then passer but is he a good enough passer that if he stays healthy can win in the NFL over the long haul? It will be interesting to see but I'm open to the possibility that we're on the cusp of a seismic change in how the NFL views the QB position and how a QB manages their offense. In my lifetime as an NFL fan I've seen the league go from the I formation with the QB under center to a hybrid that featured the I formation on 1st & 2nd down then a 3 receiver set with the QB in the shotgun on 3rd & long to most teams running a shotgun spread. Maybe we're about to see another big change.

What swung me to Thurman was that if Norwood had made that FG Thomas most likely would have been Super Bowl MVP in that game. And I don't think Thomas was a GOAT in the 2nd & 3rd Super Bowl. The whole team played poorly in both games. As for his fumble in the last SB, he also had a great 1st half in that game and frankly the GOAT IMO was Levy for not being more aggressive at the end of the half when the Bills had a chance to go up 17 - 6.

Couching my recommendation with the fact that I have been the worst FF player since the end of the Bills Super Bowl run (I drafted the whole Bill's team & started them every week) I would start Wilson over Allen. I just think Allen is going to struggle big time against the Pats. NE desperately needs this game; it's at NE and when was the last time they lost 3 in a row in December? I suspect Belichick will take a personal hand in designing the defense to contain Allen and the end result will be a couple of INT's and maybe one TD. I hope I'm wrong.

This was a tough question and an even tougher list to pick from. I ended up taking Thurman. My #2 would have been a tie between Kelly & Reed.