finn

To be fair, Mel Kiper thought he was terrific. He was mocked by his colleagues for that stance, and they've never forgiven him for being right.

That's not saying much. Count me in both camps. I wonder if McDermott realizes he's just not in the front ranks of coaches. Pegula has to decide if it matter or not that he is. In short, is Allen good enough to overcome a middling head coach?

Maybe a thought experiment would help convey my point: If Mahomes--the exact Mahomes who is revered today--were put on the worst team in the NFL and the team, not surprisingly, never made the playoffs, would he still be a HOF player? No way. But it's the same player! Football is a team sport, right? If the Bills had a better kicker, he might be playing Sunday instead of Mahomes. But he, too, would be the same player. So, no, Mahomes is not unquestionably better. He is arguably better. He is unquestionably on a better team.

Along with how many drops, fumbles, and disinterested play when he's not getting the ball? To think he's due almost $28 million next year, same as Von Miller. Yikes.

Get this man a team, Beane!

Don't see how he can complain he isn't getting targets, or that he makes the most of them. Neither are true, nor is the story that Dorsey went to him far more than Brady. The fact is, he dropped passes, fumbled, didn't appear to get open as often in the past despite single coverage, and overall did not perform like a WR1, especially a superstar one. Players do hit the wall. I remember when Lofton was suddenly not effective, and even Moulds and Reed fell off.

I didn't bother to extrapolate the interceptions, but it's yet another stat that indicates Allen and Mahomes are at least on par. I'm working on not letting the idiot narratives that Mahomes is unquestionably better, GOAT, the Messiah, etc., get to me.

By comparison, Mahomes has 39 passing touchdowns in 17 games, which would translate to Allen passing for 23 TDs in ten games. But he has only five rushing touchdowns, which Allen has matched in seven fewer games. Mahomes' playoff rating is 106.3, mostly because he's thrown for only seven interceptions in 17 games compared to Allen's four in 10 games. Put it all together, and I'd take Allen every time. He's more clutch and, with his legs, more dangerous. Plus, looking at Mahomes' stats, you simply have to take into account that he has mostly been throwing to not one but TWO future HOF receivers behind a much better line and with a future HOF head coach, while Allen has had Diggs and a bag of peanuts to throw to behind a sieve line and, well, McDermott as head coach. Anyway, it doesn't matter, really. The bottom line is that Buffalo has one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game. Now, if only Beane can get him receivers who can get open and catch the ball.

Throwing but not running the most talented running QB in the league not named Lamar.

HIS receiver catches the underthrown pass. That makes him the better quarterback than the one who throws a longer pass more accurately and his receiver drops it.

I wonder if Lamar's performance in this game will affect the MVP vote.

Bernard, Oliver, and Dane Jackson, for sure. Hopefully Elam and Dorian Williams, too. The glaring exception is Gabe Davis.

I think it's both, although I don't think you're giving Beane quite enough credit. Look at the defensive roster he gave McDermott, if injuries hadn't happened: White, Bedford, Poyer, Hyde, Taron, Milano, Bernard, Floyd, Miller, Rousseau, Oliver, Jones. That would arguably have been the best defense in team history, and maybe the best in football. On offense, he gave them what developed into an above-average line, a very good running back trio, two solid TEs, one elite WR, and of course a future HOF QB. I would say his only blunder--and it has turned out to be fatal--was assuming Gabe Davis could be a WR2. But without the injuries on defense, even this WR group might have been adequate. But McDermott.... Can we all agree he's not a great coach? Can we also agree that, with his W-L record, he's not awful? The bottom line is that he might be the Gabe Davis of coaches. Good enough to lose with.

Right. An awkward head coach deterring talented people from sticking around, leaving no one to check his weaknesses, such as shutting down Allen as a runner, benching the star running back because he fumbled, and insisting on ball-control football instead of a scheme that suits the unicorn he has at QB. It's not entirely incontrovertible that he's not suited for head coach, but, if that's the case, by the time it is incontrovertible, it'll be too late. It's very risky to change head coaches. But you hate to look back and realize that's what they should have done.

My fear is that McDermott is such a control freak that he'll continue as DC even it means losing Babich to a rival. Or, alternately, Babich will leave even if offered the DC job here because he doesn't want to work under McDermott. How about offering Babich McDermott's job now and save all the heartache of the coming years? ☹️

I never understood the hit you describe. I think you're right, or at least I've heard this explanation, but if the trading partner is paying his salary, where is the hit coming from? If it's guaranteed money, can't the trading partner agree to pay it, given they really want Diggs? For example, say we trade Diggs to a team with a lot of cap room for a second rounder on the condition that the other team takes the entire hit. Would that be legal?

I thought we were talking about the best QBs, not the most successful. Success has to do with such things as having a reliable kicker on your team. On the hand, pure talent isn't everything, either, as Ryan Leaf, Jamarcus Russell, and (arguably) Justin Herbert have shown. In settling the question of who is the best, I feel I'm all alone in arguing for a metric that accounts for differing coaching, scheme, surrounding talent, and so on, at least to the degree possible. For example, I would argue Allen outplayed Mahomes on Sunday since he was playing against a much better defense. His beautiful 65-yard pass to Diggs matched any throw Mahomes made in his career. It shouldn't matter that it was dropped, just like it SHOULD matter that Mahomes threw two incomplete passes, unpressured, in the end zone that should have been TDs. On Sunday, I saw a god of a quarterback playing the position as well as anyone could in history, patiently picking apart a top defense not giving him anything easy. His opposite number did not need to be great, since he was playing pitch and catch against third-string practice squad players. Yet you'll hear that Mahomes outplayed Allen.

Sacrilege coming. What about trading Diggs? Yes, you take a very big hit, but if it allows you to move up in the draft for a stud (and comparatively cheap) WR, it might be worth it. Even if it's a wash financially (you're paying him the same as if he were here), you replace a fading player with a young superstar (ideally). Every year, at least one or two are chosen in the first round: Chase, Lamb, Jefferson, Wilson, Waddle, Flowers, Collins... Yes, it's a crap shoot, but I've really lost confidence in Diggs. Shakir has outshone him with far less targets.

Hey, I agree, too. Make all things equal, and Allen is just plain better than Mahomes. He can do everything Mahomes can do as a passer, and he's a far, far more dangerous runner. No one mentions that for years Mahomes was throwing to the best WR and best TE in the league--behind one of the best lines, executing a scheme designed by the best offensive mind. Frigging Mac Jones would have gone to the Super Bowl in that situation. Not saying Kermit isn't terrific, just that there's no way he's better than Allen, who may end up being the best QB in history, if Beane gives him someone to throw to. 1. Allen, Burrow, Mahomes 2. Stafford, Stroud, maybe the fading Rodgers. 3. Goff, Hurts, Mayfield, Prescott, Lawrence, Love, Herbert, Lamar. (Note: Lamar is unique, but he can't throw nearly as well as the top six. Contain and pressure him (no small task), and he folds like a cheap table.

Don't quite agree. I think Diggs is no longer a WR1. He's a nice possession receiver at this point, no more. Miller could still be effective; he just wasn't ready this year, much like White wasn't ready last year.

Cosell and Simms have been saying the same thing for two years now, and they're right: The Bills aren't talented enough on offense. It would be more obvious with a less talented quarterback. That's why I'm worried about Beane's comment that he thinks Diggs is still a number one wideout. He's not, or at least you can't count on that. Let him be a Beasley-type possession receiver, the third option after a big-time player and Shakir. But you need that one superstar, not some lame Sherfield or Harty type. Star player plus Diggs, Shakir, and Kincaid, with Cook and Ty Johnson and solid backups everywhere. Then you'd see results. How much would it cost to trade up to a sure-fire wide receiver in the draft?

We'll be looking back at this year and marveling that Allen took this offense this far throwing to Diggs and Davis as his top two receivers. This might have been a different season if Shakir and Kincaid had been the featured receivers all along, with Diggs relegated to a Beasley-type role and Davis restricted to blocking and the occasional target. I mean, wake up, Brady! Shakir led the league in catch rate--with an impressive YPC and YAC, too. Did Brady and McDermott think he was too young and inexperienced? Didn't smell good enough in the locker room? What do Diggs and Miller have in common? Both are paid north of $25 million a year. Is THAT why the team kept playing them in the face of glaring evidence that both are profoundly ineffective?

Good point. Jones' push might have affected the throw to Diggs, too, especially since it would have been over Jones' head. Posters are assuming it was a gimme vs. a difficult throw. Again, even a touchdown there might not have won the game. If the Bills had won, it would have been a (accurate) story of Allen overcoming an injured defense and an AWOL Diggs and mastering a top defense with discipline. He couldn't have played better. On the other side, the (accurate) narrative would have been Mahomes couldn't even beat a badly depleted defense. Instead, we're going to get seven months of Mahomes the godhead and Allen the eternal bridesmaid.

Yet another reason to appreciate Allen's performance. He had Shakir and Kincaid, and that's it, except for checkdowns. Two receivers, one the number three or four receiver, the other a rookie tight end. And he still put the team in a position to win by making plays again and again. Meanwhile, Mahomes missed to passes in the end zone (chokes) and was playing pitch and catch against a deplorable defense. Whose performance was more admirable?

The Bills need to get younger and cheaper, which means draft picks, lots of them. It's not easy to unload expensive veterans, and you're still carrying part of the cap hit, but it might be the best option. Most controversially, I think it might be time to move on from Diggs while he still has trade value. So little production from so many targets, you don't want someone like that on your team, especially earning, what? $26 million? A second-round pick and what cap savings a trade will bring might be the best option. If you hit on the draft pick AND have say $9 million, that's a win win. Let some other team take the risk of having him on their roster. Same with Von Miller. Releasing him means taking a huge cap hit, but, like Diggs, he's taking up snaps out there that could go to someone more productive. Factor in what savings you can get by letting him go, it might be the best move. Maybe you can get a fourth-round pick for him. Same with White, sorry to say. No draft compensation, probably, but take the hit and what savings you can. These three moves mean a lot of dead money. But none of these players is worth investing in any longer. The team has to move on and use the savings on better players.