Koufax

Any chance we can bump Hollins down on the progression list, and keep feeding Cook? Cook is going to be good enough that we don't need homeruns early when we throw and can just get completions and move chains.

Disappointing that these players are out, but the ebb and flow of injuries is part of the season. I don't think any injury here backs us up too far, and interferes with a next man up plan, but definitely see Oliver as the biggest short term blow, as his disruption helps the edge guys so much, and his absence might hurt the impact the edge players make more than the direct impact of defending runs up the middle. I think our Everybody Eats / Open Receiver plan will work fine without Shakir and will help cover for him while he gets healthy. I think Bishop is better than Rapp, and if this week is where we deal with the first start mistakes as he gets up to speed, I expect the net impact to be minimal and the long term benefit as he becomes our future difference maker gets accelerated.

Can you believe we traded Diggs for the #64 overall pick? Just kidding, but this is not what I expected from a Darnold led Vikings.

Isn't Michigan's big house the place to Sweet Caroline this into a sports tradition?

Yeah. Not a lot of forearm injuries to choose from. He was looking at it like something was wrong right away. Could be elbow or wrist mislabeled as a forearm, but I don’t see a forearm injury that has him ruled out that isn’t a minor fracture.

It was great to score 34 and spread the ball around, but I’m really disappointed that they didn’t have a few more plays for Kincaid who is one of the best football players on our team. We also have enough tape by now to know Josh is at his best with pass to scramble and I don’t love the designed runs inside the tackles. Thinking of the 3rd and 2 particularly, but as a trend I wish we would have some plays where run is a quick second choice and he rolls out and runs if his main options are covered.

That is definitely my guess. Small non-displaced fracture of his ulna will take about four weeks and depending on location and severity he probably can play with a splint of some sort, but I expect him to miss a few games.

Week 2 at Miami...I know they aren't gameplanning in detail yet, so no Lawyer Milloy impact, but likely some level of advantage in addition to improving our QB2 position. However with other cuts coming up there might be even better options at QB2 if we are looking just at the player, and not the insider info.

Definitely sucks on a lot of levels, but as others have mentioned, everything we want to do that is special happens after Christmas. Obviously before that our playoff seeding, etc is up for grabs, but having him at full game strength for the playoffs is our silver lining. That was my hope last year too, and we know how that turned out, but this is a new thing and unrelated to past heart break. Will also accelerate Dorian's development and I think he is ready for a big year 2. Still a devastating injury and heart breaker.

Such a good example about how imprecise the draft is, and not just when the Patriots took Antwan Harris in the 6th round of the 2000 draft. For Mitch to be QB1 over Mahomes and Watson, or Darnold over Allen. What we can see pretty surely looking back is obviously the importance of QB is so high, and the certainty of any given prospect relatively low, that rolling the dice is always part of the process. There are drafts where there are multiple superstars, and there are drafts where there are zero valuable players, but if you have a top 10 pick and you don't have a franchise quarterback, you have to assess. But scouting misses I think fall into three main areas: 1) Overvaluing less important traits because "Scout". Accuracy, decision making, leadership are the real three traits, and now we are adding a game speed mobility element as the game evolves. Size/strength/hand size and all the lesser things that are more measurable ones often have people imagine what could be. 2) Player development. USC Darnold was better than Wyoming Josh as a moment in time QB for a number of reasons. But Josh's stunning improvements in accuracy and decision making and Darnold's inability to process the differences between college and NFL defenses (think the Patriots ghosts game) changed that all pretty quickly. Is there a way to know that / predict that ahead of time with more accuracy than these draft rooms do? I think probably, but the teams that do so don't usually need to try again for 15 years, so it is a small sample skill hard to really know. 3) System advantages. Plugging a specific player into two different team settings can certainly change the equation. Would Andy Reid have done a better job with Watson or Trubisky? If Brady went in the 4th round to Jags? For the record I wanted Watson at #10 and was mad when we traded down. I would have passed on Mahomes, and I stayed mad until Josh became Josh.

Track Record. Dawkins 63, Milano 163 Harrison Phillips 96, Taron Johnson 121 Singletary 74, Knox 96 Moss 86, Gabe 128 Brown 93 Cook 63, Bernard 89, Shakir 148 I think Beane deserves some street cred in the 3-5 rounds, and trusting his big board and how he sets it up and moves around, even for guys Kiper thinks are a reach or we haven't heard of. I didn't love this pick myself, but am also glad that we aren't using my big board after the first couple rounds.

Absolutely. Excited to get a player. A lot of uncertainty about drafted receivers, but the list of guys who had lower draft day ratings and were awesome is pretty big, so we have to wait and see. Elite athlete and basketball skills. You really hope that there is some DK Metcalf or Davante Adams in him, each of whom went lower in the second round, and neither of which was a clear cut first rounder. Can't wait to see how he plays and grows, but I'm optimistic on the athlete and the value.

Not helping the Chiefs is way less of an issue than trying to help the Bills. Four options to consider: 1) Pick Worthy at 28 2) Pick someone else at 28 3) Trade with Chiefs 4) Trade with someone else We weren't doing #1 based on our evaluations of players. If #2 we take who we want at 32 (33) with that pick, then either trade up by Chiefs with Dallas, Baltimore, Niners for Worthy, or one of those teams picks Worthy, or Chiefs get Worthy at 32. Can't guess on trade with someone else, I see more Ginn Jr than Tyreek in Worthy (time will tell) so I'm not sure which option does more to make the Bills better than what we did. I just don't see anybody I fall in love with at 28, and would rather have three players in the top 100 than two players in the top 100, and very likely we still get our favorite choice at 33. The players I wanted more than the #33 pick that wouldn't have cost the future are Thomas at #23 and Arnold at #24, but not sure there was a trade partner to make that happen. Absent that there is nobody I coveted at #28 that is worth more than extra picks. We will see tonight how they do.

if you are worried about spiting the Chiefs more than improving your team then you are probably still in Norwood PTSD and should not be running a football team. If they wanted Worthy or believed he was the best player at 28 they would have taken him. They did not. He is a player with one big skill and a lot of question marks. I hope he doesn’t work out but if we picked someone else at 28 and the Chiefs got him at 32 or traded up to 29 it wouldn’t be any different. If you think he will be Tyreek Hill and not Marquise Goodwin or Ted Ginn you don’t just take him at 28, you move up to make sure. Tyreek is so much more than a forty time. Both trades helped this team get better. There aren’t perfect receivers out of the top ten so you have to trust your evaluations and projections. We will see if the evaluations were right or if we missed the mark (happens dozens of times each draft) but I think the rationale and draft day specifics are spot on for these two trades, just like the move up for Kincaid was. Remember the Lions drafting top five receiver busts over and over. Then picking Megatron anyway? If you let past draft trauma impact future choices instead of solid evaluations and strategy, you have already failed.

One of my favorites of all time and such a talented player. Contract and production and drama made it the kind of thing that was likely to have to end at some point but it feels a year too soon for me. getting pick #33 next year (when we gave up #22 to get him) and another cost controlled talent into the roster with it helps, but we have to draft smart this year to find ready to contribute players at a position that often has a learning curve. We all want a big splash with a name we know, but remember trading up for Watkins while Odell was there at 12. Pro bowl receivers are available 1-10, 11-20, 21-30 and aren’t always the first guys picked. Not sure if there is anything left in free agency or trade to help.

What a great Bill. Thanks Jordan. Obviously he lost a step and Father Time is undefeated, and salary cap made it obvious, but a tough leadership loss, and I hope he always considers himself a Bill no matter where he finishes his career.

I love him as RB1. Just really excited that when down 3 with 2:42 to go and first and 10 from the KC27 we don't run him right guard for 1 yard. He is sometimes going to get bottled up and needs holes. He is sometimes going to drop passes, so use him accordingly.

I'm not down on Bass, as frustrating as that was. We would have needed to stop Mahomes from getting into field goal range with more than thirteen seconds, and then would have had to win in overtime. I was not interested in a game tying field goal when we were first down from the 27 with 2:42 to go, and realistically would have considered playing that as four down territory. Hard that after playing smart possession football for 57 minutes (and the deep balls coming close but not being useful in our overall efforts) we ran for nothing and took two deep shots to the end zone. I would have loved to see Josh run once in that sequence, and targeted receivers 5-10 yards downfield. Josh threw some great deep balls this game, but they didn't contribute to our offense. Josh was our best runner but with the game on the line we didn't call his number. We completed 26 short to medium passes, but when moving the sticks and the ticks mattered we attempted zero of them. Still proud of this team.

Boy that was a tough game to lose, and there are plenty of individual things and moments we can key on, but I'm proud of how this team battled since 6-6 (and even before), excited for the next opportunity to cheer on Josh, and optimistic for how great a sports moment it will be when the Bills win the Super Bowl. Go Bills!

The late hit on the one he did slide was weak. But no chance anything wrong on the long run. but thanks for sharing because it gave me another opportunity to enjoy watching Minkah stopping playing football while Kinkaid kept playing football. Like on the Shakir play where Minkah stopped playing football while Knox kept playing football.

Sorry, they sold online between my post and the replies. Life won’t let us be there Monday either, but Go Bills! Give us another chance to get Taylor Swift I mean Buffalo Bills tickets next week!!

They are in trouble if they are flying JetBlue like I was...but currently showing more than half the flights tomorrow cancelled already. Would be awesome if they had some extra hassles to deal with between now and kick off...

I think I saw this John Candy movie too!

I like your thinking. Been trying everywhere, but I think we are going to have to root for another opportunity next weekend. Go Bills!

Well, flight from the west coast is cancelled, so I am putting away my coat and mittens and will watch the game in the 70s by the pool. Should be a better view, but I'm so sad to miss the snow game experience in person. If the Bills spread the field they will find better running lanes for Josh and the RBs, but also be able to complete 5-15 yard passes regardless of weather. We are not built to play eight offensive linemen in I formation no matter what the weather, so I hope we can be creative and not just be ourselves like there isn't weather, but also not act like a 1950s Chicago Bears team thinking we have to. We will try again next weekend if there is a game and there is an airport. Go Bills