Mikie2times

Sanity through balanced expectations. This is a playoff team until they prove otherwise. That's all they're right now. That's all they were last year. Beat KC and I will change my tune.

Not sure how many people watched "The Last Dance". How often a previous SB team doesn't even make the playoffs. We caught teams off guard a bit last year, both in our offensive system and in terms of the quality of our team. If we want to make the next step we need to be the hunted and take everybody's best shot. It will make us better, Josh better. I think it's premature to just assume natural progression from Josh no matter what. Teams have so much tape now. That said, for Josh and the team, we will benefit a great deal over the season from facing such circumstances.

If our expectation as Bills fans is Super Bowl after 20+ years of learning to be careful with expectations, shame on us. We should be concerned if that is the current expectation. We could have just as easily been a 13-3 one and done playoff team last year. We aren't there yet. We are a playoff team, to what extent will depend on the growth during the season. McDermont has a history of getting things to gel as the season progresses.

I also think the Steelers caught us just at the right time. Sort of reminded me of when Washington knocked them off last year to give them the first L. We outplayed a good team, I do think they wanted it more but you could just as easily say we failed at executing. Same as Arizona last year, then we we went on an 8 game run. I know it's a hard concept to grasp but sometimes in life negative experiences make you better.

I didn't see the thread. If it's too similar mods can merge or delete. I agree with that post fully.

We should have won and if we played really well, it wouldn't have been close. It's a little different going from hunter to hunted and the Bills got a taste of it. We will take every team's best shot and Josh will not be given anything easy with how much film teams have on us from last year. I was getting sick of being everybody's trendy pick. If we expect this team to have SB aspirations we will need to be hardened by competition. I would have rather it not been an AFC game, but taking an L in week one, in my mind, will rally this team. Ground them. Make them better. I see it as Hail Murray 2.0. Not at all concerned.

People want to be trendy more than right. We had an outstanding previous year and it's reasonable to think this team can build on it with it's youth. I still think all roads go through Tampa and KC until proven otherwise, but we are certainly in it. It's sort of a Bulls/Pistons deal. I just don't think you can have us ahead of those teams, specifically KC, until we prove we can get a win against them.

He's in the conversation. I think it's always the most balanced to ask if an all time great from the past would be successful now, perhaps even dominating, Like Wilt Chamberlin or Jim Brown. I have no doubt both would dominate any era. On defense, I think some players from the past like Deacon Jones, Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, that's not even talking guys like Ray Lewis, Ronnie Lott, and Bruce. But when you look at those first three names in Jones, White, and Taylor, all three are very similar to a Chamberlin or Brown. They had elite athleticism but were freaks of nature as far as size and strength and I think all would dominate in todays game. Same as Lewis, Lott, and Bruce. That said Donald is making his way into this conversation. Nobody has ever really been like him outside of maybe John Randle and I wouldn't call him a poor mans John Randle, more the other way around. He is better than Randle and he's a Hall of Fame player. So that saying a lot as does his peers voting him so high so consistently in the annual top 100.

Probably had one of the more underrated plays of the season last year. New England was moving the ball at will on the last drive, that would have put us in a 3 of 4 skid with another loss to the Patriots. To have lost again to them without Brady, being the better team, who knows where our confidence is at.

He has like 300 posts. I don't frequent this place enough to know if he is an attention seeker, if so my apologize. I do frequent it enough to know these type of responses are far too common. Little support for new members, no value posts, just bla, less than even an OP that is off base as far as you describe. Every post somebody doesn't agree with the topic on has one of these.

In the time we have to see the video the chick did everything she could to get punched in the face. Then she literally slaps the guy. Not softly. What did you expect him to do? Calmly walk away? He reacted. Then stopped his reaction. Then when a man finely appears he points all of his energy at that guy until she again starts attacking him/preventing him from just taking the guy on, so now it's 2 on 1. Yes, at that point I would blast them all which he did. F' that chick, females shouldn't get to act a complete fool with impunity. If I was the guy I would have left her ass there. All we have is the video. That's my take on the video. Who knows how this started but the two males seem to be the least involved/most calm. Yet they have to deal with soccer moms drunktardness.

Ahead of Hill, which is probably true, I just didn't think the NFL would put him ahead of him. Congrats Diggs!

I'm higher on him than most. I just think that Chicago offense was trash and Mitch was way over drafted. He lost confidence. This is the right scheme for him. I think we have a playoff team with Mitch. More because our team is so deep than Mitch himself, but I wouldn't say that about Barkley. Regardless of how well he did play (again, I just think this system and our WR's make this QB friendly). Mitch just has much more talent. I expect him to be a starter again. Even if that's not his best fit he will be one again. We bought him at his lowest value point. Great for us.

It's very hard to put a value on a bonified insurance policy for the most important position when you're making a run at the Super Bowl. We have been fortunate with Josh so far. Call me crazy, but to us, right now, this season, I wouldn't take a first round pick for him.

Another interesting tidbit on Rousseau, he has the 13th biggest hands ever recorded for a DE. It goes back to 1987. So he has elite extension and hand size that you see once about every 3 years. I think he uses both to maintain control over his opponent.

Wingspan has to be part of "the process" the Bills use at DE. Rousseau was 9th among DE's in this years class with 34.75 inch arms, that would have been good for 3rd last year. Instead, last year Epenesa was 3rd in 2020's class with 34.50 inch arms. Reach allows ends to keep separation from lineman. It's a fundamental advantage if you have it. Doesn't mean you will be successful, but it helps if the other skills are present. Rousseau also shows closing ability, leverage, and power. He's also not exactly a poor athlete. He ran Sub 4.7. I think Esenesa will be much improved this year, but Rousseau eventually taking more snaps. He's just more talented. We will rotate a lot anyway. Good problems to have.

We still make the playoffs with Mitch. That's how good I think this team is as a whole. We need Allen to go the distance but Mitch can weather the storm if needed. He was just in a bad situation in Chicago. This is perfect for him to reinvent himself. He's a good fit for our offense.

Ya, I was not sober when I wrote that, not my best work 🤣

I agree 100%, ESPN and NFL network have much more accurate coverage 🤔

We knew the names, but to see it stacked on paper, we are loaded on both sides.

He can give every American about $500 bucks.

But how does it look without Peyton? Thurman was a trend setter. He redefined what a RB can do giving people like James a new path. The rest that followed, specifically if they had an elite QB, I don't trust the numbers. It starts to become who were you drafted by? James was an excellent player, but I still think the Peyton led Colts don't skip a beat without him and if he was drafted by the Bengals we aren't talking about this. HOF players have to be capable of taking over a game or be responsible for a shift in play. I said Thurman earlier because like Thurman, James was applauded for his dual skill set. That said, Thurman allowed James to be James. So you can speak in similar terms with both but only one of them was a trend setter. James was never a guy that could simply take over and dominate and that should be the HOF standard. Stats are meaningless in this conversation. Could James take over a game without Peyton? I don't see it.

I think the OP is getting a little too much flack on a what seems to at least be potential situation. Just because other leagues have had fans doesn't mean it will be the same in College and Pro Football all season. Vaccination immunity is likely going to reduce in conjunction with Delta growing. The state of NY is going to act more defensively than other states. If Cuomo puts similar language in effect on gatherings as he did last year would it be that big of a shock? It doesn't matter what any of us think of Covid, it matters what the Federal government and State of New York think of it. In that context it's plausible.

Just based on the timing the vaccine was released, when the Delta strain is supposed to really hit hard, then a low probability of a vaccinated/infected person even going for testing, then the frequency of testing done in the NFL (less for vaccinated players, but still will be done). The NFL might have one of the better environments we will find in the coming months to understand rates of breakthrough infections against variants as well as decreased immunity as whole.

Randy Moss is a good example of a WR that made QB's. We also saw what that looked like when he was partnered with Brady. So you can get sort of a back and forth in these types of comparisons. Was Moss great before Brady? Sure. Was he better with him? Unquestionably. The same can be said for both Allen and Diggs. Neither need each other to be good/great NFL players. Partner them together and it's something special. It also shouldn't be discounted that they have great chemistry and truly seem to enjoy playing together. I would imagine they would laugh at this thread where a lot of other combos over the years, at least internally, think they have an answer to the question.