Ethan in Cleveland

Agree. Texans have to be the worst run organization in all of sports and that includes the Sabres.

Christ sake I'm so sick of posts like this.. Jackson has a career passer rating of 102.6 and it was 99.4 last year during a supposed "down year". He has a nearly 4:1 career TD to INT ratio. So is your post ignorant, racist or both?

The media likes winners and hates losers. Simple as that. There is no bias for or against Buffalo.

Epenesa wasn't ready to play lat the start of ast year. He was too thick around the middle and too slow so they asked him to lose weight. Rousseau looks like a beast already and Epenesa has looked better. It's a rotation and I expect Rousseasu to get as many snaps as Hughes and Epenesa and Addison to have similar snap counts as each other. I too think Basham is a healthy scratch for the game.

As much as I rip on Edmunds I actually am not worried about him. He was terrible last year and I don't really think he can play worse with the talent he has. I am optimistic he will play better this year. He is a year wiser and he is healthier. Also Klein came around and started to play well later in the season. It will be interesting to see how McD and Frazier mixes in Klein and Milano with Edmunds. Late in the season he started to move Edmunds outside and played Klein at MLB. As much as I want to see Edmunds move outside permanently, I didn't see any impact plays from him lining up outside. Will be fun to watch.

I agree with everything you state. I however would counter that sacks is a credible stat. The two top teams in sacks last year were also the two top teams in points given up. It's not an absolute correlation but 3 of the top 5 sack total teams were also 3 of the top 5 in points given up. Bills were middle of the road in both sacks and points given up last year. If they convert 8-10 hurries into sacks it will be transformative for the defense. I would also add, the WR's can only get so far down the filed in a 2 or 3 step drop. So you need to teach rush and get your hands up on the DL and the DB's and LB's need to sit in the short zones. McD's defense should be perfect to counter the short passing game approach.

Agreed. Go watch the Bruce Smith sack highlights and count how many of those sacks led to turnovers. Many of them did. Hell there were probably 5 or 6 in one season where he never even touched more then the QB's arm/hand and caused a fumble. Pressure the QB in any way possible. I've been posting that for years. They have better pass rushers than at any time since Mario Williams was here. They should be able to get consistent pressure with the front four letting them drop more into coverage. Dropping more into coverage means it will take longer for a guy to get open. Frazier blitzed more last year than he has ever done. If the young guys pan out he won't need to nearly as much and that is a good thing.

Both can be true. There is no doubt the rules changes have helped the offense. However, modern NFL QB's have been training to play QB in passing offenses since middle school. That wasn't the case in the 1980's. They were running the option in HS and college. Very few pro-style offenses in college let alone HS back then. The number of good quality QB's is just greater than it was in the 1980's and certainly in the 1970's.

That's an average time to throw the ball. What matters is getting pressure when the down and distance is in favor of the defense. Hurries matter but Frazier is wrong. Sacks do matter and he would take a sack over a hurry almost every time. Sacks lead to QB fumbles and loss of yards. An incomplete pass is good but a tackle for loss is better.

Week 1 pick: Three best options look like Seahawks over the Colts, Rams over the Bears, and Packers over the Saints. I will choose the Rams. I think they beat the Bears at home easily.

Can there be any other answer than 1980 Bills-Dolphins? 89 Dolphins and the 2003 Sam Adams 31-0 beat down of the Patriots are great games but there is nothing to compare to tearing down the goal posts, Fred Smerlas dancing with fans, and the start of a great season.

Excellent work: My edits: 1. WR - Remove Beebe and add Jerry Butler. I include Diggs. If you remove him because of the two year rule then I keep an extra RB - Fred Jackson see below. 2. RB - Remove Fred Jackson and add Joe Cribbs. This is the hardest group. I loved McCoy and it is no knock on Jackson. But Cribbs was a dual threat RB much like Thurman. Had he stayed with the Bills he would have been an all-time great. Any all-53 must have Gilchrist on my team as did the OP! 3. DE - Add Schobel. He is the most underrated Bill. Move Paup to OLB. He didn't play DE. 4. LB - Moving Paup to LB means Milano is off the list. Conlan was overrated and with Fletcher and Spikes you have two Inside Backers. I would add 6 time All-star Mike Stratton. I too leave off Talley - he's on my list of most overrated Bills. 5. TE - Warlick is the only decent player in the history of the franchise. For that reason I have only 1 TE and that let's me keep an extra OT - Dawkins. 6. DB's - think you nailed it. Henry Jones was not a superstar but he was quite good. You could make a case for Milloy but Jones played more seasons with the Bills.

Brady and Montana are the best ever at QB. Kelly may be on the outside of top 20 soon. But right now I have right around 15. Here is my top 10 Brady, Montana, Manning, Favre, Elway, Marino, Brees, Young, Rodgers, Staubach for 11-15 I will start with some old-timers Unitius, Graham, Roethilisberger, Aikman, Kelly I have Kelly better than Dawson, Starr, Fouts, Bradshaw, Wilson, Tarkenton, and Warner(he doesn't even belong in the HOF but he is on some lists for top 25) for now

Donald is a great great player and one day may surpass White and Bruce as best DL of all time. But no one is moving past LT. He changed the game of football. No one ever schemed to block a linebacker before LT. No one ever run blocked the backside of a play before LT started running them down.

That is why I list Jerry Rice first. He is so much better than any other WR to ever play. As for Brady I was in the Montana as GOAT camp up until the last few years. Bruce had two games a year against Marino. But in general the quality of the NFC was much better than the AFC, so I would not discount the opponents White had to rush against every week.

Agreed on letting Phillips go. I would have picked up Lawson's 5th year option and jettisoned Murphy. Lawson was the better player but McD loved the PED cheat.

My top 4 in order are: Rice Brady LT Brown Montana, Manning, Reggie White, Deion Sanders, Munoz, and Ronnie Lott would be my top 10 off the top of my head.

It's DT. And it's not even close. Let me present my case. I have two arguments. The first - how many truly elite players are a each position? The second - time to development? Who is the top QB in the NFL? Mahomes, Rodgers, Wilson, Allen, Brady? You could make a case for any of them and that leaves out future HOF'r Roethlisberger. Who is the top DT in the league - Aaron Donald. No argument. Some rookie QBs can play well from day 1. Routine high draft pick CBs routinely start right away. Defensive tackles often take years to develop and very few ever achieve elite status. Rookie DT's even in the SEC are playing against far inferior talent on the opposing OL. That's not the case in the NFL. In college they could physically dominate many if not all their opponents. In the NFL they are playing against real men, much bigger, faster, and more agile than anything they would routinely face in college. Their 21 year old bodies aren't yet used to the physicality of the competition.

Generally agree. I would add however it is very difficult for assault victims to come forward so I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. That said you are presumed innocent until the proof and facts come out.

Last season game was close with the Steelers WRs dropping many passes early that killed their drives. Allen didn't look good in the first half. Everything changed on the Taron Johnson pick. It will be about the pass rush. Can we stop theirs and can we get to Ben. Should be a good test for Edmunds too. Steelers will want to run more and Ben likes to throw a lot of crossing routes.

It's a good question to ask. My thought is that Brown was injured so much last year that defenses were not overly concerned about his speed over the top. I don't think it will be an issue. The Bills offense is very unique because of Allen. Allen is elite with the intermediate depth throw. Those throws are dependent on an extra second of pass blocking which the O-line does very well and WR's that run great routes. That is what the WR group does well.

They do, but 3 drops on only 44 targets (6.8%) is far higher than league average. Diggs for comparison had 5 drops on 166 targets for only a 3% drop rate. So while the total numbers are not alarming, the data does support the narrative that drops are an area he needs to work on.

Agree. Good take

Agree with that list with Baltimore, WFT, New Orleans, Denver, Seattle and maybe even the Giants in the discussion too. Don't know about teams like Tenn and even the Bears these days.

Well that is an interesting list and might make one evaluate the data differently. There are quite a few excellent QBs on BB list. Even Vince Young was good his rookie year. Roethlisberger not so much as guys like Wilson and Luck. Outside of Herbert the McD list are all terrible and Herbert played well against Buffalo. I've never thought in the moment "oh wow McD is really messing with the rookie". That's not a criticism though. McD and Frazier have a consistent defensive game plan and I'd honestly prefer they use the surprises and wrinkles against the better QBs.