FilthyBeast

So much for a 'raw project' that needs a year or two to develop. What Groot is doing as a rookie just 5 games into his NFL career has the makings of a future HOF player especially when you consider some of the elite blue chip DE's taken in the top 10 in recent years and how their careers started (i.e myles garret, chase young).

My point about holding up is that just like with any rising team/QB, the more film teams get of Herbert the more they will be able to slow him down in the future just like we are seeing with Mahomes. Also the big difference right now with Staley as HC vs Anthony Lynn is they are winning close games, but you can argue they are getting lucky with all the success on aggressive 4th down calls. And once teams start to stop them the luck simply runs out. Until then yes the Chargers are up there but I'm confident in the Bills being the better overall team and being able to beat the Chargers in Buffalo in the playoffs should that matchup happen.

As good as Edmunds has been the last few weeks I would agree that this game is a true litmus test to see how he fares against the best RB in the NFL. If Henry goes off the Titans will not only stay in this game but have a great chance of winning.

Hyde is definitely up there and seems to be playing the best football of his career right now, PFF and other key metric based sites have him graded out as the #1 safety in the NFL and he showed as much making a huge game changing play against the Chiefs in the 3rd quarter when the offense stalled after the long weather delay.

You're not wrong either, i guess my thought is that I would prefer the Bills are playing their best football and peaking in Nov/Dec vs Sep/Oct but perhaps that will still be the case. Either way getting the #1 seed matters because you guarantee yourself home field throughout and have to play one less playoff game, but some of the biggest upsets in NFL history have happened to the #1 seed coming who had a bye week and in some cases were able to rest guys in the final weeks of the regular season which was my point.

Biggest concern and question that needs to be asked....what if the Bills are peaking too early? Look no further than our friends who beat us week one and how they started 11-0 last year, obviously they didn't have these type of metrics backing them and it was pretty obvious a correction was coming considering how lucky they got and how many close games they played before starting to lose towards the end of the season. Will be very interesting to see if this holds up over a 16 game season and a few injuries could derail everything sadly. Until then it's safe to say the Bills are the best team in the NFL right now.

They are no threat to the Bills so who really cares until next season when they might actually be a real threat again. They do have games left against the Titans, Browns and Chargers though and can hopefully do the Bills a favor pulling off an upset or two along the way.

I mentioned this in another thread but he probably would have been a top 10 draft pick this year if not for the Covid opt out, maybe even in top 5 assuming he would have had a similar season like 2019. Stupid luck that we landed this guy and have him on a rookie contract because something tells me he will be very hard (i.e. expensive) to keep down the road.

The only silver lining of the college covid opt outs was landing Groot and Spencer Brown. I think had both played in college last year Groot would have been a top 10 pick and Brown as high as 2nd rounder, in other words we probably wouldn't have landed either.

Agree with this, but I still think the Bills would be able to handle them in the playoffs fairly easily because of inexperience in big games and simple fact Chargers defense just isn't very good. Also why I don't see the Chargers holding up and being a top 2 seed and still think KC may ultimately catch them for the division.

Regardless of the Raiders and the bigger picture of next round of job opening next year....I still think Daboll will be the hotter commodity because of Allen's development and how wrong the experts were about him, so naturally the assumption will be that Allen wouldn't have panned out if not for having Daboll as his OC his entire career thus far. Frazier on the other hand has already been a HC and is an assistant under a defensive minded HC but I do think he will get another shot especially if the Bills off the chart defensive metrics hold up throughout the rest of this season.

I don't think Milano plays this week, smart move is to sit him through the bye so he's presumably 100% healthy for the stretch run.

I still think the interior oline is going to continue to be a problem at times this year especially in the playoffs but there's not much we can do to address it until the offseason.

They probably played their best game of the season but obviously it wasn't anywhere close to good enough to win the game against a team of the Bills caliber. Still think they were figure things out and even with marginal improvement they'll be right back in the playoff/championship picture by end of season because Mahomes is too good to completely let this team fade, at least I think.

If history has taught us anything some of the greatest regular season teams in NFL history have crashed and burn come playoff time, in a lot of cases 'one and done' without even making it to a SB to lose there. So yes of course this team can be beaten and I think any of the following teams are capable of doing it as of today since they all have equally capable defenses/offenses: Rams, Browns, Chargers, Cardinals, Cowboys. Regardless still a long way to go and the only real concern is if the Bills are peaking too early, assuming they aren't going to play any better this year which is a scary though if possible.

I don't see this as a new trend if anything because most teams rarely have this kind of depth at one single position. So we all should enjoy this while it last because next year things will likely look a lot different especially since about half these guys are pending FA's after the season and we won't be able to keep them all including Addions, Obada, Hughes, Star.

Yeah I think people are reading too much into things and not sure his twitter account deletion/low snap count last night have anything to do with one another. I do think this is probably his last season in Buffalo though irregardless of the vaccine/twitter stuff.

I really hate reading stories like this especially with fanbases fighting among themselves but obviously this type of thing has happened in Buffalo many times through the years as well, as pretty much every other pro sports fan base with alcohol and emotion involved.

I've been a big critic of him (especially after week one) but he's done fine since, albeit against mostly poor QBs/WR's until last night but he held his own. But at the end of the day you can't keep everyone and i'd gladly let him walk vs paying him a lot more. What little money we do have next year in FA will likely be allocated to resign other key veterans to cap friendly deals for what might be another SB run depending on what happens this year. Guys like Sanders, Hughes, Addison, Star L, all come to mind given their expiring contracts.

We were able to get him back dirt cheap this year for a reason and pretty sure we can do the same next year if need be. Either way I still think CB is a position that needs to be upgraded in the offseason, likely in the draft.

I'm still not sure if I'll every truly be a fan of the 'bend but don't break' style of defense that this team runs, but at least for now they have found the right ingridients to be the best defense in the NFL. The question is whether or not it's sustainable through 17+ games. Either way I certainly see Frazier get another HC opportunity after this season comes to a close for the Bills, SB or not.

To the Chiefs credit, there were moments in which they looked closer to the Chiefs defense of 2019/2020 last year but overall they still have serious issues in terms of pass rush and secondary which go hand and hand and why they aren't going very far this year even if they make the playoffs without major improvements with the talent they have. But from the Bills side, as others mentioned there are still concerns with the oline and overall consistency with the offense as a whole that could haunt this team in the playoffs if not improved.

Their defense isn't that great either and just like with the Chiefs and Mahomes, the key is stopping/slowing down Henry which the Bills have done in the past.

I still think he's the best QB in the NFL, but guys like Allen, Murray, Herbert, etc are closing the gap quickly. What is happening with the Chiefs this year so far should be a cautionary tale for the Bills in terms of what too expect a few years down the road (i.e. attrition of talent because of top heavy investments on star players).

It's hard to criticize anything about this coaching staff right now and it's not crazy to say McD might be the best coach in the NFL right now, top 3 at worse. Going to be interesting to see how he responds next year because regardless of how this season ends for this team, it's probably safe to safe both Frazier and Daboll will be gone next year as HC's for another team.