dave mcbride

Bill Barnwell’s all pro selections are up: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43241328/nfl-all-pro-team-2024-season-barnwell-50-best-players-picks-every-position-pro-bowl. The only Bill he selected is Allen. I can’t really disagree with his logic, though. Barnwell is not an actual AP voter, however, so it doesn’t matter. But he’s at least a very knowledgeable observer. The actual AP voters feature a lot of talking-head ex-player knuckleheads and journalist fossils: https://apnews.com/article/ap-nfl-awards-panel-e71a6a4641246b75abcca6a553bc0dab. Truly, a motley crew. Who knows who they’ll end up picking.

Oahu and Kauai.

He is a phenomenal player, no doubt. He is playing off the hook this season.

Just checked: going back to 2020, Allen leads all NFL players in AV since then with 75 (mahomes has 69 and jackson 60). Going back to 2019, allen is tied for the lead with mahomes, with both at 86; jackson is next with 85 (he had a monster season in 2019). Miles Garrett leads defenders with 65 from 2020- 2023. Aaron Donald put up 71 between 2018-2021 (a four-year period comp).

The leader in QBR going back to 2006 has always been on a team that has won 12 games or more except one time - the 2016 11-5 Falcons, a team that had zero business losing the SB that year. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/qbr_year_by_year.htm Allen is an AV god. You might want to rethink that. It is not QBR.

AV explained, for those interested: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/about/approximate_value.htm

Well, if Joe Burrow had been the Bills qb vs the Jets last week, he would have taken 3-4 sacks (the Jets’ pass rush was good). Allen took zero. Burrow has a 6.76 percent sack rate and has fumbled 10 times (5 lost); Allen has a infinitesimally small 2.82 percent sack rate and has fumbled 5 times (2 lost). Jackson also has 10 fumbles (5 lost). Allen had the lowest sack rate in the league last year too: 3.98 percent, which tells you how impressive his sack rate is this year. I always go back to Flutie and RJ. Behind the same lines, RJ had a 10+ percent sack rate while Flutie’s was around 4 percent. It was exactly why Flutie was always the better performer and option for the Bills. RJ actually has the highest nfl sack rate of all time. Might happen this year with Burrow, but through no fault of his own. Their expected record right now should be around 10-6, but given the ridiculous losses late, they are 8-8.

PFR has an AV (approximate value) rating similar to WAR (MLB) and VORP (NBA), and it certainly passes my eyeball test. He led the league in AV in 2021 and 2022. He was 5th in 2023 and 3rd in 2020. It encompasses all positions—for instance, Aaron Donald led in 2020 with a 24 AV. I suspect Allen will lead the league in AV this year. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlleJo02.htm

Thanks. I’ll be in Hawaii so it’ll be breakfast with the Bills for me. I like it — doesn’t suck up a vacation day in paradise.

Tough to answer, but at the end of the day I want the Bills depth to perform well and gain confidence because we may well need them in the postseason. You never know.

Totally. The Steelers do NOT want to be an on 0-4 run going into the playoffs, and since they haven't won a playoff game in forever (four first-round exits since 2017), no team is more acutely aware of the need to play a reeling Houston team as opposed to a smoking hot Ravens team (who will likely steamroll them) if they want to have a chance at winning a playoff game. I expect them to go all out in this game -- balls to the wall. I am beginning to think Pittsburgh might well beat them. I think Pitt sees this as an absolute must-win game.

Trump doesn't have an MBA. He has a BA from the Wharton School. He spent two years at Fordham and transferred to Penn for his final two years. He was an econ major, hence the Wharton affiliation.

Hmm … I wonder how he got in: ”Rosen is the maternal great-great-great-grandson of Joseph Wharton, the co-founder of Bethlehem Steel and founder of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which was named in his honor,[9] and a descendant of Thomas Cornell, progenitor of the Cornell family. Rosen is named after another ancestor, Joseph Ballinger Lippincott, who founded publishing house J. B. Lippincott & Co.”

This game is freaking terrible. No defense on either side whatsoever. I feel like I’m watching a bad NBA game.

But it’s not even really a record anyway. OJ had 2003 in 14 games and Dickerson 2105 in 16 games. Giving a guy an extra game makes it a false stat. It should be rushing yards per game based on the number of games in a season. Which says OJ holds the record.

https://nypost.com/2024/12/30/sports/its-shocking-to-watch-this-sad-version-of-aaron-rodgers/ “Aaron Rodgers had a QBR of 1.2, the lowest of the season for any quarterback in the NFL, per ESPN. It was also the lowest of his career.”

Tell that to Cal Ripken, Lou Gehrig, and Brett Favre.

I don’t think you lost because of that hold. Allen passed them down the field anyway after that play and got an extra ten yards to boot to make up for the hold.

Wrong. It is incredibly valuable as trade capital. It also means you get the number one pick in all seven rounds.

Well, the bills have won 13 games 4 times, and none of those seasons resulted in a SB victory. Maybe 14 wins is the lucky number that gets them to to the mountaintop?

Not contradicting myself at all. The player’s responsibility is to play as hard as possible and in any event it’s hard to avoid doing that given the physical intensity and violence of an NFL game. A coach needs to focus on the big-picture outlook for the organization and do what is strategically wisest for his employer. Do not be surprised if Drake Maye sits next week.

Exactly — the “every round” factor is huge and not discussed enough among fans.

It sounds like the Pats may be doing some organizationally smart thinking. Winning is a terrible outcome for them.

Honestly, outside of Allen and maybe Cook (under 1,000 yards in a 16 game season, though), everyone has been "disappointing" because they spread it around so much.

You're factually wrong about Skylar Thompson. The Dolphins team passer rating that day was an abysmal 41.1 (40 percent completion rate; 4.2 yards per pass play). And Miami had 20 carries for 42 yards as well. The Bills' D pretty much completely shut Miami down. Outside of one drive, all their points came off ST blunders and Bills turnovers.