finn

That was represented as a positive last year, complete with pictures of "ripped Gabe." I'll take his lightness and ankle status with a grain of salt until I see him catch more balls than he drops.

Agreed. It would be better if he were worse because at least he wouldn't be playing. (Yes, it's still too early to say for sure.)

It could be that Benson is just better, not that Elam is bad or even a disappointment.

McKenzie drops the ball on 1st and 10 Davis drops the 47-yard pass into his hands Spencer Brown and Saffold both blow their blocks, leading to the 31-yard incompletion. So there's hope this year!

Wonder if this story will eclipse the scandalous Stephon Diggs story.

Objective numbers? Bah. What's important is the Prevailing Narrative, which declares the Bills to be the third or fourth best team and Allen the third or fourth best QB. As much as I enjoyed the Bills being the media darlings last year, I knew the talking heads would turn on them in a flash if they didn't go all the way as they predicted. And turn on them they have, with a vengeance.

J.P. Losman just needed to develop. Leif Larsen would dominate at DT. Corbin Lacina would be the answer at guard. Josh Allen was JaMarcus Russell.

To make his point that losing is not acceptable, Diggs will miss mini-camp, training camp, and the regular season. Only then will the team learn how to win.

Just for an intellectual exercise, nothing more, would it be plausible to trade Diggs and sign Hopkins, if Diggs went into full Diva mode?

Agree. Unless he's doing quiet things away from the ball that keeps the QB from throwing his direction. Every time he appears onscreen, he's blowing the coverage. Just good enough to make it close, but I don't recall any wins from him. And yet, they keep bringing him back.

Basham and Settle are the weakest players of this group. Too early to cut Basham.

B+ contract for a B+ player.

Yeah, but Saffold was a five-alarm fire. You could argue he cost the Bills the season, with his play against the Bengals. By then, it was too late to do anything, but his incompetence was clear from the start. Restructure contracts, trade a player, even snag a warm body off another team's practice squad, if the backups were even worse than Saffold. (Another indictment of Beane, by the way.) Well, it's all water under a dead horse at this point...

It was plain to everyone, especially the coaching staff, I'm sure, that Saffold was beyond awful, yet McBeane sat on their hands all season. Why not give up trade for a competent guard? They didn't need excellent, only adequate. They brought in Brown and Beasley off the street; why not a guard? To my knowledge, no reporter ever asked Beane why he let Saffold start all season long. His actions after the season show he realized he messed up. How may guards did he draft and sign? 15?

You may be right, but how do you interpret Diggs behavior as anything but a self-indulgent pout? Is it a form of leadership? If so, how does that work? Allen and McDermott say he's just showing that losing isn't ok, but I don't see how posting snark does anyone any good. (To be fair, I don't recall what exactly he said, but it wasn't positive.) To put it another way, what exactly does Diggs want the Bills to do? Apologize?

Reasons to be optimistic about the season: --Many key players are in their prime, including Allen, Diggs, Davis, Dawkins, Harris, Knox, Oliver, Milano, and White. --Oliver is in his contract year, so he may finally live up to his draft status. --Allen, Davis, Poyer, Hyde, and Brown are all healthy, and White is another year past his ACL injury. --Knox has had a year to recover from losing his brother, and the team has had the offseason to recover from Hamlin, Tops, etc. --Beane has done a good job upgrading the depth, adding Poona, Edwards, Sherfield, Harty, Murray, and Shell, as well as bringing back key veterans like Lawson and Martin. --McDermott takes over DC duties. Conceivably, this could be a negative, but he won the head coach job because he was a very effective DC, so odds are he'll do great. --Dorsey, Kromer, Smiley, Babich, and Brady all have a year's worth of experience with their respective charges, which can only help. --Last year's rookies all look ready to contribute more than last year, especially Elam, Cook, Benford, and Shakir. --This year's rookies should make valuable contributions, and Kincaid, Torrence, and Williams may end up starting. --They are no longer the media darlings anymore, which might take some of the pressure off. Reasons for pessimism: --Diggs' prima donna act may get worse and become a distraction. --They now need to get past not just the Chiefs, but also the Bengals, Dolphins, Jets, and maybe Ravens. --They have no real backup for Dawkins. --Their pass rush will likely continue to be mediocre until Miller returns. --The offensive line may have two new starters and will take time to jell. --Kincaid, Harty, Shorter, and Sheffield might not add enough juice, even taken together. As you see, reasons for optimism outnumber reasons for pessimism. But it's only May!

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you were claiming Bernard was an upgrade. I was just saying it's ironic that smaller, faster, more athletic LBs are the new trend, and Bernard is just smaller.

Yeah, but Bernard is smaller, slower, and less athletic than the guy he's supposed to replace. Quite an upgrade!

Why let facts get in the way of opinion? Posters here made up their mind well before the night in question.

Not to trash Davis completely. He did have that magnificent TD where he wrenched the ball away from Minkah Fitzpatrick. That was All-Pro stuff. But I'll never forgot how he dropped that 65-yard Allen bomb at the end of the Jets game that hit him in stride on the numbers. He's better than a #3 receiver but not reliable or talented enough to be a true #2.

Well, remember last year when he said he had been lifting all offseason and had put on five+ pounds of muscle? I was optimistic then. Less so now.

Dorsey threw a fit because McKenzie caught a pass with seconds left on like the 16-yard line, and, for reasons known only to him, elected to stay in bounds to end the game. This is after he dropped a lateral to mar an otherwise excellent Dorsey game against the Rams and before other drops and idiot moves on McKenzie's part. Every coordinator deals with execution failures, but overcoming the loss of the short game due to Allen's injury, on top of the stunning incompetence of the slot receiver and two O-linemen, is asking a lot, especially for a first-year guy like Dorsey.

Dorsey was doing well until Allen got hurt and the short-passing game was compromised. Meanwhile, he had turnstiles at guard and tackle and unreliable receivers besides Diggs. If you want to point fingers, point them at Beane for signing Saffold and putting his faith in Brown, McKenzie, and Davis.

A little worrisome is an understatement. Brown and "struggle" are synonymous; plus, he's been out for significant stretches both seasons he's played, and his replacement, Quessenberry, is the one who got Allen hurt with a blown block against the Jets. And who's behind the Quessenberry? OT is the only glaring weakness on the roster at this point. I really thought Beane would bring in a veteran to truly compete with Brown. He said he would.

Beane said he planned to bring in a "veteran" to challenge Brown (in the context of giving Brown a vote of confidence). Easy to see Brown struggling again. He struggled as a rookie, did well for a stretch, got Covid, and struggled some more. Last year, he struggled most of the year (yeah, yeah, back surgery). Struggling is what he does. RT is easily the biggest question mark on the roster right now. Thinking of Bates over there is the only way I sleep at night.