Thurman#1

People here seem to think that because some fans think Phillips is a cancer or a bad locker room guy that it's true and that McD and Beane think the same. And that's simply not true. They're trying to change the culture and you can bet that if they thought Phillips would screw it up they wouldn't have brought him in. And that if he does screw things up, he'll be gone quick, with virtually no bad effects for the Bills at the miniscule amount they're paying him.

Jeremiah's smart. Sure he's wrong a lot. Everyone is when they're trying to predict the future often. Nah. It's fine as long as what you're doing is evaluating what we've seen so far, without assuming that what we've seen so far is what we'll see going forward. EDIT: I see this has become a thing in this thread. Sorry, John, didn't mean to pile on. You're a good poster. Harrison Phillips or Taron Johnson. This shouldn't worry anyone. Allen was seen as developmental and Edmunds was seen as terrifically athletic but needs to learn not to overrun plays and to hit the right holes. Allen was never going to be good this early and it was unlikely with Edmunds.

It really was. I remember also not really believing Hostetler had hung on. I think that the Bills would probably have won it if that had happened.

If you have $100 when you go into the grocery store, what's the optimal way to spend it? ... depends.

Literally zero players? Literally? Yeah, I get all worn out by all the "Trade Edmunds" and "Trade Tre White" threads. Hate to be the grouch, but it sure looked to me like part of that was just that Minny had an absolutely awful game. Yeah, some of it was us playing well, but they came out flatter than the Bonneville Salt Flats. But they legitimately look like they're coming together into a force to be taken seriously.

That was the year his light came on almost at the end of the regular season. He played like the young Manning for most of the season and then in the last few games of the regular season he figured things out, right in the middle of some horrible weather. That Pats game that was the last game of the regular season he looked sensational. Elite is roughly top three to five in the game. Eli certainly doesn't fit there. But neither does his contract. He's the 13th highest paid QB in terms of average salary. That's roughly what he is, IMHO. As I pointed out earlier, it's fair to say that signing a good QB to an NFL-standard contract contract makes everything else harder. But Eli no more than any other QB.

You're either trolling or clueless. Saying McD has proven he has no clue how to build a modern day NFL offense is like saying a woman who's four months pregnant has proven she can't develop a baby to full term. In both cases it's so early that anyone who thinks he can make a final judgment is saying far more about his lack of understanding than he is about McD.

Nah. Pretty much nothing about this is measureable. You can come up with one number but there are hundreds that factor in. It's all opinion. Educated opinion but opinion. Peterman might still be very successful. The odds dipped after that recent game but it's not like Allen passed significantly better than Peterman did under the same circumstances. What Allen did in that game was run better.

Yeah, he needs development. Hopefully development will be enough. It's just nonsense, though, that mental reps don't help. They do, a great deal.

I somewhat agree. But I'd say that the reason he's been a good playoff QB is because when they made the playoffs they had a good team and he was having a good year. He is up and down but it's more season to season, than game to game, IMHO.

Make the best offer and they will come. Make a lower offer and they won't. That's how 95% of players make their minds up about contracts. It's only when the offers are more or less equal that other things come, for most guys.

I'd disagree with that, personally. He's had a long career, and he's been paid for most of it after the first contract. It's somewhat true of every high-paid QB. But I wouldn't say it's more true of Eli than of any other.

No, he's not elite. Never has been. Has never claimed to be. Yes, he's been a top ten QB for most of his career after the first four and half years, though he's also had some bad years when he tried to take the whole team on his shoulders. But he's never been that guy.

That you believe there's any parallel here is, yeah, kind of sad. Thinking Allen should sit isn't saying he's going to be awful. It means he's not yet ready. There's no way to argue in any fashion that Eli is not yet ready.

Yeah, they need to stop examining what is actually happening and make up some stuff that's not happening but is earth-shattering. This is one of the two main takes on reporters: "He's saying what everyone else is saying ... boring" and "He's saying stuff that nobody else is saying, and that proves he's wrong."