BigAl2526

He was listed at 225 lbs in college. On the Bills roster, he's listed at 218 lbs. Still very small for a linebacker

The score in a preseason game has value only as one of many indicators of how individuals and the team as a whole played in the game. It can be a faulty indicator though. If one coach plays his starters for three quarters of the game while the other coach keeps his starters on the sideline, the score becomes meaningless.

A Buffalo Rumblings article is wondering if Rashaan Evans or Jarrad Davis, former first round picks, might be candidates to bring in and bolster the linebacking position. Evans played weak outside linebacker in the pros, but was a middle linebacker in college. Davis has played middle linebacker and SAM in the pros.

I can't understand why Jake Fromm is not yet starting - his career as a State Farm spokesman.

I agree on Dawkins. He looked fat an out of shape in the spring. It makes me wonder if he takes off season conditioning as seriously as he should.

At this point, I'd guess he's competition for Darrynton Evans at the back end of the RB group. Not real big, but not a smurf either. He has speed similar to Cook and Evans.

He's been kicking around football for a while. He was something of a star in the XFL and has been listed as a guard or tackle for several teams. He's been on practice quads. I don't know that he's played any actual NFL games. He's 28 now. Perhaps he's developed his skills a little since his days at East Carolina. In any case, he's probably at best competition for the back end of the roster but in his favor is some position versatility.

Shorter demonstrated the ability to be an effective short passing target. His reputation in college was as a deep ball receiver, so this could be an indication he has some versatility.

Yeah, it was his left knee. As he was going down, his left leg was out straight and got hyperextended.

Spencer Brown took a couple bad penalties to be sure, but he was not the only one to play a sloppy and undisciplined game. I'm not evaluating Brown's prospects for the 2023 season based on the first half of a preseason game. In general, the Bills have to clean up their offensive line play a lot. In other observations, Barkley showed why Buffalo was looking for an upgrade. He can look like a world beater in one drive or one week, and make awful decisions or display his noodle arm the next series or the next week. Thankfully, Kyle Allen started to look like he's getting the Bills offense in the 4th quarter. He hasn't proven he's the answer yet too the backup QB question, but he took a baby step in the right direction. We already know James Cook is capable of having explosive running plays, though he didn't show it yet. We saw some decent to good play out of the rest of Buffalo's backs (Murray, Mims and Evans). Damien Harris may find he's expendable before he ever steps on the field in a game for the Bills. Trade bait? There were few if any drops from Bills receivers tonight. That was encouraging. Kaiir Elam is still too "handsy." Some CBs seem able to get away with it. Obviously, officials are looking for it in Elam. He's running out of time to win the competition to start. Buffalo is no closer to an answer at MLB. Klien and Dodson both had some decent plays, but neither showed anything in pass coverage, which is something McDermott desperately wants in his middle linebacker. A lot of the stuff that went wrong tonight seems as if it should be fixable. The only question is, why did the Bills let it happen to begin with?

That article was written as an observation of the same thing everybody watching also saw. It has no information from medical professionals who examined him, or from team spokesmen who might have updated information. It looked gruesome to be sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean the worst case scenario will come to pass.

The odds are decent that both Shakir and Shorter will make the team. Since they are different types of receivers, I suspect playing time might be more dependent on situations as opposed to one being clearly better than the other. Interestingly, one of the pluses with Shorter coming out of college was his run after the catch ability. Tonight, he showed none of that, but that might have been more on the QB than on Shorter. If you're digging the pass out of the turf, your not going to get yards after the catch.

With all due respect, it a trainer is making a diagnosis, there was a problem with your college team's injury protocol. I'm pretty sure that Doyle is going to have an MRI or some test that will give a definitive diagnosis in the next day or so.

He most definitely was in the competition to be a swing tackle for the Bills. The Bills will need to look for some veteran competition for Quessenberry, who looks like the fall back option at swing tackle. He's not the worst backup in the league, but I am pretty sure the Bills were hoping to be better. The retirement of Shell and the injury to Doyle pretty much screwed that.

I think the Bills will roll with what they have. The retirement of Shell is a blow, but I don't think the Bills are worse at tackle than las year, and with Brown benefitting from a healthy offseason, he should be improved. All that depends on he and Dawkins remaining healthy, of course.

His voice is made for TV.

Buffalo has potential in the receiver group but little star power beyond Diggs. Even Davis has come up a bit short possibly due to his injury last year. Having Josh Allen certainly elevates a receiver group, much the way Mahomes does in KC. I wouldn't be surprised to see the ranking climb a bit next year.

I thought everybody knew the K-Gun was named after McKeller, an athletic receiving tight end, kind of like Dalton Kincaid.

I suspect that at the start of the season middle linebacker is going to remain unsettled and that several players will continue to get a crack at it, possibly depending on the opponent. During that time, I expect Dorian Williams will continue studying the MLB position, maybe getting practice reps as the opposition MLB in practice. At some time during the season he might get a chance to start. It's not going to happen for the opener versus the Jets though.

While it's true that linebackers have plenty of responsibility covering passes on the short zone and defensive backs are supposed to provide run support, There is no way that DBs averaging no more than 200 lbs are going to be able to take on run blockers and make plays tackling running backs the way that a quality linebacker will, nor will a linebacker be able to provide sticky coverage on an elusive receiver the way a defensive back can. By playing what is essentially a "dime" defense (six defensive backs and one linebacker, a defense can be vulnerable to offenses getting big chunk plays by running the ball on "obvious passing downs."

How many plays has Matakevich actually had on defense during his Bills tenure? Precious few, I'm pretty sure. While the Bills love him as a special teamer, ultimately, it would be to the Bills' advantage if he could be replaced by a player who was great on special teams and at least a solid backup linebacker the Bills did not hesitate to use on defense. At linebacker, Matt Milano is the one player that the Bills and fans feel really comfortable with. It looks like Dodson is ahead at MLB. After those two, Buffalo has Klein, Bernard, Williams, Matakevich, Spector and Travin Howard. That's eight linebackers. I don't think Buffalo keeps more than 6. I think they keep Klein for his experience. He's also listed as the starter at strong side linebacker at this point, though he's the third linebacker on the field, and the Bills go with 2 linebackers most of the time. I think Bernard and Spector are both likely to make the team. We can write Travin Howard off. That means the last spot is probably between Matakevich and Dorian Williams. If Dorian Williams is not a complete dud on special teams, and I don't think he is, I don't think there is any way he loses that battle.

I hope it was one of those new helmets designed to prevent concussions.

I wouldn't be too broken up in Erie having to listen to announcers that had a Pittsburgh bias. At least I'd still be able to watch the game.

I disagree with the OP. Elliot doesn't make the Patriots worse. Stevenson wasn't going to get all the snaps anyway. If Stevenson can stay fresher, he's more dangerous. That said, the Patriots were not one running back away from being a good team. They don't have the horses to stay with Buffalo in the AFC East race and will likely lose two games to Buffalo in the regular season.

I'm not as ready to dismiss Kyle Allen as some are, but it was not a good outing for him. He's unsure of himself and slow making reads post snap. If the competition ended Saturday at 4 PM, Matt Barkley is the backup QB. The competition is not necessarily over yet. Matt Barkley is far more experienced in this offense. Kyle Allen may improve enough over the next couple of preseason games to get McDermott's attention. Kyle Allen's skill set is more similar Josh Allen's than is Matt Barkley's. If Kyle can get the mental part of the game down, it means far less adjustment for the offense if Josh were to get hurt. As I understand it, Barkley was very successful in the pre-season game making passes to his first read. Regular season games against first team defenses might require him to go to his second or third read. That might muddy up the differences between them a bit.