CincyBillsFan

I justify my optimism on a few things: * Brown is very young and inexperienced coming from a small school and he didn't play football during the covid year. More then most draft picks he has the opportunity to improve. * he is a physical freak who is still growing and maturing. * he has shown flashes of being very good as well as being very bad. It's reasonable to assume that with more experience and maturing his highs will outnumber his lows. * Off season surgery last year set Brown back big time. He will have a true off season this year.

And don't forget that gold plated NFL pension.

It's hardly wishful thinking to assume that McGovern or Edwards or the rookie will NOT be train wrecks. Saffold was singularly awful and Defenses exploited this the 2nd half of the season. At minimum, Bean has shored up this problem and the Bills should at least be competent at guard. This alone may make all the difference given the Bills were 14 - 4 with Saffold.

Fair point. To be more precise: Bean has identified the problem correctly; he has moved aggressively within the constraints of the CAP to correct the problem at Guard. On paper it looks like the Bills will be much better with Saffold gone and one of the three new options replacing him at guard. In addition I agree with Bean expecting that this will be the year that Brown makes a significant jump at RT.

The more I think about it the more it seems to me that the single biggest factor in our offenses uneven performance in the 2nd half of last season was the play of Saffold & Brown on the O line. Opposing teams figured out how to target pressure at these two weak points and this messed up the offenses timing. This was particularly a problem at guard where immediate pressure on the QB can be generated. And NO QB in the NFL consistently deals well with inside pressure. This problem was also magnified as the field shrank in the Red Zone and we lost the room to make big plays. IMO Bean has actually done a great job at dealing with the issue at guard with an excellent draft pick and the signing of two guys who could step in and do a solid job. This shoudl eliminate the most glaring O line deficiency and immediately elevate the Offenses constancy and efficiency. As for RT it's not unreasonable to expect that Brown shows a big jump in performance this season. His off season back surgery last year kneecapped the anticipated year 2 spike in performance. I suspect we'll see it this season.

I listened on the radio yesterday and Dawkins was fantastic. Came across as genuine and knowledgeable. This guy will definitely have a media job after he hangs up his cleats.

Hey this is good news! With Mahomes engaged in all this non-football related off season stuff, I just saw a new Subway commercial with Justin Herbert in it, he is going to really suck this season. Or at least that's what some Bills QB gurus insist has happened to Allen on some other threads.

And those gaudy numbers in close games (no garbage yards against a prevent D) were accomplished with only ONE elite play maker on offense.

The first 3 and out was brilliantly dissected on a link in another post. On 3rd & 4 Allen was immediately forced to his left by a missed Saffold block. He was clobbered at exactly the moment he released the ball and missed an open Diggs for a likely TD. The guy reviewing the play thought Diggs ran a great rout and Allen made a great throw under the circumstances and that they missed tying the Bengals by a few inches. The play of the O line and lack of protection was easily the single biggest factor in the O struggling in that game. Go back and actually watch a playoff game. It's not unusual, particularly on a bad weather day, for an O to struggle to get its feet set early on. In that type of game AT HOME your top rated D is expected to hold the fort. Instead our D allowed the Bengals to score 14 points and use up almost an entire quarter. How different is this game if the D does its job and holds Cincy to a FG and an early 3 - 0 lead?

The defense did not make a stop when it had to the entire game: * Allowed back to back 75+ yard drives to stake the Bengals to an early 14 - 0 lead, silence the home crowd and grab all the momentum right out of the gate. * After the Bills cut the lead to 14 - 7 the Bengals went on a long time consuming FG drive that took up most of the remaining 2nd quarter and gave Cincinnati a two score lead at half. * After the Bills opened the 3rd quarter with a long FG drive to again cut the Bengal's lead to one score the Bills D gave up a long time consuming drive that used up most of the remaining 3rd quarter and gave Cincy a 14 point lead. Meanwhile the Bills O line allowed Allen to be pressured on half his passing attempts. HALF! A lesser QB would have been sacked 6 or 7 times.

IMO even if Allen played lights out and was at his best the Bills still lose. The D never stopped the Bengals when it mattered. Sure the score would have been closer but with Allen running for his life and the Bengals able to name the score against our Defense it would still have been a loss.

The Shakir drop was huge. Not only was it a missed chance to gain 55 yards late in the 1st half on a perfectly thrown ball but it happened at a moment where the Bills were leading 17 - 6 and still dominating. Had he caught that pass, which a high school player would be expected to catch, the Bills likely use up most of the half and score a TD or at worst a FG. By dropping that pass the Bills ended up punting, there was a great return and the Dolphins kicked a FG to pull within one score.

Allen was one of the players least responsible for the playoff loss to the Bengals. Defense and O line own that one. That Allen wasn't 100% isn't in dispute. The point is that even when banged up he is still very good. And his stats and 8 - 2 record after the elbow injury demonstrate that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Was he 100% after the Jets game? No. But to claim he hurt the team in any way by toughing it out and playing is to ignore the reality of what he did after the Jets game: * A 7 - 1 regular season record & division title against a tough schedule with all sorts of mayhem intruding on the Bills season. The only loss was in OT against the Vikings. And while Allen had a couple of bad TO's in that game he had 414 total yards. * A 1 - 1 playoff record. So Allen's Allen's post injury record was 8 - 2. * Look at his stats over that period. Maybe not top 3 in the NFL but definitely top 10. And don't discard the impact of bad weather on Allen's stats over that period.

Bingo. It's lazy the way some posters throw this stat out. Allen, who is on his way to being the most effective duel threat QB in NFL history (if he already isn't) will always have more total TO's. It's the nature of how he plays the position. The key point you have identified is how badly have Allen's TO's hurt the team? Last year ONLY ONE LOSS, the Vikings could be plausibility put on Allen's TO's. Even worse then the ignorant posters are the ones distorting the TO stats to dump on Allen. You know the ones who throw out TOTAL fumbles and not fumbles lost or who whine about how Allen's TO's kept the Miami playoff game close as if his nearly 400 yards of total offense and 3 TD's didn't mean anything in a WIN. I expect this kind of stuff when I check out a Dolphins or Patriots message board but seeing it here on a Bills message board? And then to be labeled a "homer" for objecting and pointing out how dishonest these people are.

The 71 consecutive starts is only the regular season, if you add in the playoffs Allen has 79 consecutive starts. For the life of me a stat like this should contain playoff games.

Last season the Bengals O line was better then the Bills and this was true even with the injuries. I watched a lot of Bengal games living in Cincy and IMO this is not debatable. Also what is also not debatable is that the Bengals have far more elite/very good offensive play makers then the Bills. And finally the Bengal's Defensive Coordinator was much better then the Bills Defensive Coordinator. The two SB teams last year had the best O lines - go figure. Last season Buffalo had a worse O line then Cinci, Miami & SF. The Jet's O line sucked and they finished 7 - 10 so why are they in the conversation? PFF projections are fine but they're just PROJECTIONS. I put more wait on their evaluation of units in hind site which is much more accurate. For the record, if the Bills O line finishes rated 24 then they will again likely lose in the Divisional playoff round. If they're ranked 17 then there is a good chance the Bills are in the SB. That's how little an improvement will be needed with Allen at QB.

You're ignoring a huge difference in O line talent between the top teams and the Bills the last couple of seasons. Hopefully that has been repaired enough to get Buffalo over the hump.

Of course if the Bills had drafted Mahomes we would all be big Mahomes fans and defend this elite, uniquely gifted talent from the passive aggressive cheap shots a few on 2BD hurl at Allen. As Bills fans we would be thankful that we had drafted Mahomes and we would be urging McBean to fix the O line and load up on high level play makers so as to fully exploit Mahomes elite QB play. At the same time an objective assessment of the situation would reveal that if Allen were the Chiefs QB they would be every bit as successful as they've been with Mahomes. Because Allen is equal to Mahomes as a QB.

Nitpicking Allen to death on a Buffalo Bills message board is weird.

I'm not "hyper sensitive" about anything "Allen related". I just can't stomach unfair, biased hit pieces on the 2nd best (soon to be best) QB in Bills history on a Bills message board. Allen does work with his new receivers - at OTA's. How do you know that Allen isn't doing "extra stuff". Pretty presumptuous of you to declare that he isn't.

Yes & No. Sure on Super Bowl Sunday it sucked when the last second ticked off the clock and the Bills had again lost the Super Bowl. But from early September to the end of January those 4 years were magical. Winning a lot of games, winning the Division, winning EVERY playoff game in every manner from historic blowouts to the greatest playoff come back in history, and winning 4 straight AFC championships. And even after that last SB loss it seemed to me like no one would ever match what the Bills accomplished. And over time this has been proven to be true. Fifty years from now they'll still be waiting to see a team match the Bills and go to FOUR straight Super Bowl games.

So you've been a "Bills fan for over 40 years"? A couple of comments on this: * As a Bills fan I never considered that I "suffered" through the 4 SB losses. I was frustrated and pissed off, but "suffered" - no that would not be a word I would use for the excitement of going to FOUR straight Super Bowl games, winning FOUR straight AFC championship games and watching a team with all sorts of future HOFers enjoy a decade of elite play. * Prescott was 2nd in TO's playing what 5 fewer games? That's why he was roasted. And for the record, Dallas didn't go 13 - 3, win their division or advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. And Prescott had a better O line and more top notch offensive play makers then Allen had. * By what criteria & evidence are you basing your claim that Allen isn't fully committed? The off-season is designed in part for these players to unwind, get healthy and clear their heads. No QB in the last 5 years has been more successful then Mahomes and what does he do in the off season? Make a lot of commercials from what I can tell.

If the Bills had their typical "drought" QB in 2019 they don't make the playoffs. Allen was a key component of that teams success and he had a great playoff game in the first two and a half quarters at Houston. There wasn't a game they lost because of Allen and at least two, Dallas & Pittsburgh, that they won on Allen's back. So instead of 10 - 6 the Bills would have finished a very droughtish 8 - 8 without Allen. IMO the Allen "regressed" trope is false and the data backs that up. I believe that in 2022 the Bills had by far the worst O line of the last 4 seasons and that includes 2019. A bad O line is the Achilles heel of even the best QB's as seen by Mahomes against TB in the SB. The reason we should be cautiously optimistic as Bills fans is that Bean's moves should have at least raised the O lines quality to the middle of the NFL pack. And given how well Allen and the O performed with one of the worst NFL O lines in 2022 we may be shocked at how good they are in 2023.

My guess is that they're not fans of the Bills but are posing as fans. What other logical explanation is there? A lot of the stuff these people post goes way beyond proper criticism of where & how Allen might get even better. Beck Water is a great example of a Bills FAN using a proper balance in his criticizing of Allen. But the stuff a lot of these people throw out about Allen is, pardon my French, BS.