CincyBillsFan

It's not amazing to me at all given how so many of these "experts" predicted that Allen would be a draft bust on the order of Ryan Leaf. We all saw the incredible nastiness that NFL talking heads threw at Allen & the Bills after they traded up to take him at #7 in 2018. So I'm not surprised in the least that given any opportunity they throw shade at Allen. Allen failing, even now, would at least partially vindicate a group of "experts" who went on the record making what turned out to be the worst QB prediction in NFL history. That has to still sting. It is lunacy that Tannenbaum would keep Jackson over Allen. As for Burrow I live in Cincinnati and have all the respect in the world for him and consider Burrow a great, elite NFL QB. But Allen is better and if Allen had Burrow's weapons he would have at least one and maybe two SB trophy's. As for Kellerman ranking Allen as the 6th best QB - are you kidding me. There is only one QB in the NFL who could be seriously put ahead of Allen and that's Mahomes.

As long as Allen plays like he has the last 3 seasons the answer is NO on whether he deserves blame for the Bills failure to reach the SB. There will always be an undercurrent of "experts" who will jump on anything to move Allen down the QB rankings list. They claimed he would fail when drafted and they want at least partial vindication for what turned out to be among the worst predictions of a QB's success in NFL history. The problem for the Allen haters, and most of these people are exactly that, is that love or hate PFF having the 30th ranked O line (okay maybe it was only the 25th worst yet maybe it was the worst) and still putting up the individual and team stats that Allen put up is amazing. And a shout out to Dorsey to. The rookie O coordinator has taken a beating on 1BD but what he accomplished with a bad O line is pretty solid. As for Allen's commercial activities? Come on man, Mahomes, Rogers & Burrow are not exactly shy about their non-football elated commercial projects. As an elite NFL QB Allen was inevitably going to be featured in commercials. And I see no evidence from his production or the teams success to believe it has negatively influenced his play in any way.

Seriously, how good is Allen to put up the numbers he did with the 30th rated O line and only ONE elite play maker. Are you really saying that if the Bills had the Eagles O line and the Eagles had the Bills O line last season the Eagles would still beat the Bills? NO. FREAKING. WAY.

I'm sure Allen is devastated that in every game next season he may have to take a couple of more deep shots to Diggs. It must be killing him to pass up that 5 yard check down to Cook to keep Diggs happy.

Bengals game was a disaster for the offense for two primary reasons: * The Bengal's played great defense * The Bills O line had their worst game of the season. Allen was pressured on half his drop backs. Do you remember what happened to Mahomes in the Tampa Bay SB under similar circumstances? In the Miami game if Knox holds onto that TD and Shakir makes that catch on a perfectly thrown 55 yard haymaker the Bills have the game wrapped up at half. I think the Bengal's pass rush was on his mind. He was pressured on half his drop back pass attempts. Thank you. And we Bills fans should know this as we watched our HOF QB Jim Kelly get a lot of help from fellow HOF and all pro level players during the Super Bowl run.

Did you watch the drives Allen orchestrated at the end to win the Chiefs, Ravens and 2nd Dolphins games?

Bingo. If over the next 3 seasons Allen plays EXACTLY as he has the last 3 seasons he will be more then good enough to win a Super Bowl. The key to the Bills wining a Super Bowl is not Allen getting better it is: * elevating the O line from being one of the worst in the NFL to just being average. * redirecting resources away from the D in order to add quality skill players I think Allen is equal to Mahomes and better then Burrow and I think Burrow is great.

Good points. And of the modern QB's I suspect Allen might actually do the best in a football world of Bruce & Reggie.

First, I like McD and approve of the contract extension. But that being said Allen did beat Mahomes in that 2021 playoff game by leading TWO epic 4th quarter TD drives. That KC was able to get a FG with 13 seconds left is on McD and the coaching staff. And no one will convince me otherwise. So your basic premise is false IMO. Second, the 3 QB's you mentioned - Mahomes, Burrow & Watson - all benefited from offenses that were stacked with talent in organizations that pushed the majority of their resources to surrounding their elite QB's with play makers and an effective O line. By any criteria Allen has had much less to work with then the 3 QB's you brought up. This is my biggest issue with McD. He and Bean have focused on the D at the expense of the O and it has not led to a SB. It has led to the Bills being one of the top 4 teams in the NFL over the last 3 seasons and winning 3 straight division titles. From what I can see this has started to change and will lead to a SB berth in the next couple of seasons. So to part ways with McD over his failure to reach the SB in the face of his clear success is dumb. To blame the failure to reach the SB on Allen is dumber.

The Bills. Sure KC & the Bengal's will be right there with them and the Jags & Chargers might make some noise but I think the Bills have had a sneaky good off season and improved in the places they needed to get better in.

If we're winning and fighting for a Super Bowl Diggs can talk all he wants - it will be like background music.

It really is this simple. Sure I B word about their decisions like the best of Bills fans but the reality is that this is the 2nd best Bills organization in the last 56 years. How big of a sample size are we dealing with here?

The Bills have been using the lions share of their resources to try to create an elite playoff defense and it has failed. This has included grossly neglecting, until this year, their Offensive line. The Bills #1 need going into this season was to improve their O line. It was by far the worst O line of the leading Super Bowl contenders. The Chiefs were able to part with Hill in part because they had a first ballot HOF TE that is one of the top 5 offensive players at any position in the NFL. Who is the Bills equivalent of Kelsey that Allen could fall back on in the event they part ways with Diggs?

I disagree. As you say, both teams are good but the Bills beat Miami 2 out of 3 times last season and have won the division 3 years in a row. Based on that history and the fact that the Bills had at worst a modestly effective off season it's ludicrous that a local Buffalo radio station would place the Dolphins above the Bills in a PRESEASON poll. This has nothing to do with being homers it's a simple expectation that a local Buffalo station would give the local team the benefit of doubt in a PRESEASON poll. I stress "preseason poll" because if the Dolphins get off to a better start then the Bills it would be appropriate for GR to rate Miami higher then the Bills. But until we see the Jets & Dolphins in action the operative word here is MIGHT be better. For now a local station should use history & the off season as their guide.

IMO that was the biggest reason we lost that game and not Allen's fumble & INT late in the game. We had a 27 - 10 lead late int he 3rd quarter AT HOME and our all world defense allows a RB to run off tackle for an 82 yard TD.

Man did this not hold up well over time! Now the only way Allen doesn't carve NE and Belichick up is if there's a hurricane hitting the stadium. But I love the Cowherd show: it's entertaining and somewhat informative. To his credit Cowherd admits when he's wrong, which is often, and highlights his screw ups in a weekly spot called "Colin right/Colin wrong". For the record I think his insight on the value of offensive minded coaches over defensive minded coaches is spot on and quite compelling. I also think he's wrong about the Bills because they're the exception that proves the rule. Bean has significantly improved the O line & RB room and we should see it this season.

Cowherd isn't wrong here but IMO he downplays the additions to the O line and running game that the Bills did do this year. What it will come down to is simple, if the guard play significantly improves and Brown makes the leap then McD will have solved the O line problem and the Bills will be formidable this season. If the new O linemen don't improve the guard play and Brown continues to struggle then Cowherd is 100% right and heads should roll at One Bills Drive.

Agree but my assessment involves the cumulative impact. Sure losing Edmunds hurt in one area but adding Floyd helps in another. I see it as a wash. But I get that others would see it as a net loss. But given the importance of pressuring the QB in today's NFL someone could also argue that Floyd for Edmunds represents a net plus.

Floyd evens things out IMO.

Agree. With this signing we can say with confidence that at every position group the Bills are no worse then equal and in some cases are much better versus last season: * QB = 2022 * Kicking = 2022 * WR slightly better then 2022 * TE slightly better then 2022 * RB much better then 2022 * O line much better then 2022 (went from bad to average which is a big improvement). * D Line slightly better then 2022 * LB = 2022 * DB's much better then 2022 when you factor in returns from injury. And coaching has a chance to be much better as McD takes over the D and Dorsey has a year of experience behind him.

I also think Bean is figuring that D linemen will be hit with a huge inflationary spike over the next couple of years. A player with exactly the same production as Oliver in 2 years could be earning 25 million per year.

Agree 100%. Some facts for those that want to point all the blame at the offense & Allen: * In a playoff game AT HOME and in bad weather, a great defense is expected to start the game off strong. Instead the Bills D gave up 2 long TD drives to put the team in a 14 - 0 hole with the offense having only run 3 plays. * After the Bills cut the Bengals lead to 14 - 7 the Bills D promptly gave up a 6 minutes FG drive that only avoided being a TD drive by a close replay overturning of a Bengals TD. That drive not only restored the Bengals two score lead but used up most of what was left of the 2nd quarter. * The Bills opened the 2nd half with a 7 plus minute FG drive that cut the Cincy lead to 17 - 10. The Bills D responded by allowing the Bengals to use up most of the remaining 3rd quarter on a long TD drive to go back up by 14 points.

And again we see that Allen had a much better game then originally thought making some absolutely spectacular throws. And he made those throws under extreme pressure and often getting hit as he threw the ball.

To be clear my main point was that during the playoffs the Bills supposedly "better" defense played poorly in 6 of the 8 Allen era playoff games. IMO the defense led directly to BOTH KC losses in the playoffs preventing the Bills from reaching the SB both years and almost blew the Colts game in 2020. The only playoff game where the D played a pivotal, winning role was against Baltimore. The Chiefs D has not been as damaging to Mahomes playoff career as the Bills D has been to Allen's. Great playoff defense by the Bills likely would have meant TWO SB trips by the Bills in the last 3 seasons. It isn't. It was an attempt to explain why the Bills D ranked so highly during the regular season and failed so often in the playoffs. My main point was to counter the idea that the Bills D gave Allen an advantage over Mahomes whose Chiefs had a weaker regular season D. The truth is that by any standard the Bills D has played very poorly in the playoffs likely taking 1 or 2 SB trips away from Allen & the Bills.

This is a great example of where stats can be very misleading. The Bills have had a very good & consistent regular season defense that mostly padded its stats at the expense of bad QB's and weak offenses. In contrast the Defense has mostly struggled against good offenses in the regular season and particularly in the playoffs. IMO the KC defense is designed to compliment their offense. It isn't built to shut teams down on the stat line but to force 3 & outs and TO's that give the potent Chiefs O more possessions. There is only one playoff game in the last 4 years that the defense could be said to have won the game and that was against Baltimore. In every other game except NE, and the O gets the credit for that win, the D has played poorly. This is 6 out of 8 playoff games which is startling given how well the D plays in the regular season.