MDH

Not sure why McDermott would announce this unless he was going to IR them and bring up their replacements. Why not keep the fish guessing right up until gametime?

Don’t turn it over twice?

Made me irrationally mad.i HATE that soft zone bull crap in that situation. They weren’t scoring 3 times in 1:30, why the soft zone?

What matters is how much help does a QB need to consistently put his team in a position to win the Super Bowl. Does he consistently need a top 5 roster to have a small chance or can he put the team on his back and, given a good roster, give his team a legit chance year in and year out. Once a QB gets out of their rookie deal having a top tier roster on a consistent basis is nearly impossible.

If it proves to be true Id imagine they cut the one less likely to be picked up off waivers.

Yet somehow this will be controversial...

I spent all night and this morning reading stroy after story about whats going on, I came here to get a break from that. Because people dont want that discussed on a football message board does not mean we’re ignoring the issue or don’t support the players. It means our brains need a healthy break every now and then so we’re not just feeling rage/sadness/hopelessness 24/7.

Sacks and turnovers tend to be the things that vary widely from season to season. Defenses that thrive in them can have big swings in production because of the randomness of both stats. Phillips is a great example of this. QB pressure rate was low but sack rate was off the charts. That’s not sustainable. The reason McDermot has consistent success is because he runs a scheme that doesn’t rely on these things. He makes teams earn their entire way down the field which also cuts down in the game altering big plays. Its not sexy but it is the best way to have a consistent performance.

With the amount of 11 personnel they ran in the 2nd half of last year and the addition of Diggs this is what I think as well. They’ll keep 7WR and only 3TE. Sweeney will be cut. I agree that Hodgins will be the 7 as well.

This talk about Daboll being subpar directly relates to Allen. You can’t have a consistent offense without consistent QB play and Allen did not deliver that last year. He improved greatly, GREATLY, and I’m optimistic that, given how raw he was coming out of college, he’ll make another jump this year. I expect Allen to be a top 10-15 passer this year given how Daboll handled him. Im not saying Daboll was perfect or even great, and a lot of criticism above is accurate. The persistence of putting Gore on the field during important sequences was maddening. But given the talent level on offense two years ago and a QB who is the model of inconsistency I thought Daboll did a pretty f’n good job last year. His use of McKenzie on fake jet sweeps was a fantastic way of holding one edge to protect a slow, jukey, Singeltary from getting his cutback lane filled by a LB which helped Singeltary thrive. I love Singletary but I think some of his success was schemed and that goes directly to Daboll knowing how to use his players. I also love how Daboll didn’t coddle Allen by making everything easy for him with half field reads or other gimmicky trends that hide a QBs inexperience. They bit the bullet the past two years and made Allen learn to read the D and properly go through his progressions. And he struggled plenty because of it, but that’s how you get better. They taught the kid how to play QB and while it didn’t pay dividends last year I think it will moving forward.

So he’s either HC material or he’s fired? Binary much?

They will be. If you think the starters were crap wait until you see the replacements...

Larry David is a Jets’ fan, so that’s likely his reaction too.

I think of Olsen kinda like Frank Gore. A veteran presence in the TE room who can show the young guys how a vet does things. The plus side of Olsen is he’ll be better on the field than Gore was. I’d love to see the Bills run more 12 personnel and keep defenses guessing. That can only be done effectively if you have two legit all around TEs. Olsen and Knox are good enough to do that.

If I'm remembering correctly Nate didn't even pick Knox to win the award in the week he won it, he went with the Juszczyk run. Now, for angry run of the year he votes for Knox. I think they just wanted to leave it up to Kyle to decide.

It's not inexplicable. He's a TE. If you don't want him sent into routes then you should put another tackle on the field. You have to keep defenses honest.

I’ll plant my flag on the opposite hill. I don’t get hating a player who simply wasn’t that good. As long as they put in the work it isn’t their fault they suck. It’s also not their fault where they were drafted. It frustrates the crap out of me when they suck but given some distance/time the anger fades for those types of players. The players I truly dislike, I dislike for their lack of effort (See: Hobert, Billy Joe) or their personalities. Players like Baker Mayfield or Antonio Brown top the list in the NFL these days. Players like Dion Sanders in years past. For the Bills, the list of A-holes kinda begins with Flutie and his lack of accountability from the QB position. A position that is supposed to be all accountability.

Goodell did. He slid it right in there: "We all want the Buffalo Bills to continue to be in Buffalo, to be successful." Would that make any sense if, before their new stadium he had said, "We all want the Dallas Cowboys to continue to be in Dallas, to be successful."? No, it wouldn't have and that's because there was zero chance that the Cowboys were going to move. Zero. Goodell just brought up the thought of Buffalo not having a team and he did it by saying the opposite, how we all want them to have a team. Pretty slick, but a pretty obvious threat too.

The more I learn about this draft this is the direction I'm leaning as well. Grab one in the 1st or 2nd then another in the 4th/5th. Take advantage of the depth and make a weakness a strength for years.

Was never much of a Shady fan anyway. I thought his contributions to the team were way overblown by the Bills' fan base. He was a good, not great back with us. I don't fault him for wanting to retire an Eagle, he had his best years there.

Yep, he's pretty much unanimously considered the best OL coach in the league and one of the all time greats. It's a huge loss.

Not just his injury history but the age of the Bills' WR room. They need to get younger there and start staggering when guys need to be replaced. They signed FAs in the WR last year now it's time for a draft pick or two. What makes the safties so valuable in this scheme is how well they know it and each other. They can play each others positions and take each others responsibilities on the fly. They can disguise a man look when it's still a zone look because they wordlessly take on the others responsibilities. This confuses the hell out of opposing QBs. The value of Hyde and Poyer isn't in how great they are as individuals but in how well they work together. You're kidding yourself if you think someone is going to step in to one of their spots without a significant immediate fall off. There is a reason the Bills had so few blown coverages last year and consistently lead the league in fewest big passing plays against.

He also isn’t the fighter he used to be. There’s a lot of miles on his treads. He’s 4-7 in his last 11 fights. Not exactly top tier competition. Dana has carefully constructed Connor’s career with favorable matchups. Cerrone only had a chance if he decided to take it to the ground. Im lookin forward to Connor getting abused again by Khabib.

Not shown in the highlight reel is his ability to break tackles, keep his legs turning and always fall forward for a couple of yards more. His toughness in some short runs between the tackles is something I never expected from him. Those plays done end up in highlight reels but they’re really impressive for a smaller back.