Thurman#1

I never worry much about run yards total. It's more of a function of number of runs than anything else. YPA shows better how good your run game is. And the Bills, when you take Allen out of YPA go from 5.0 yards per carry to ... hang on a minute, checking your chart ... to 4.5 yards per carry. Hunh!! Still good.

It does happen, and you're right that McDermott may well have been part of his failure. But Zay was having serious issues at the time, and nobody says that was known from his college days. I mean, remember the time when his brother saved him from jumping out a window? That's not really something the coaches could likely have done much about. I wish the best for him.

Nah. Zay's playing well. Gabe is at least as good and probably better. Comparable yardage, Zay has 12 yards more, Gabe has one TD more, and Gabe has had only 77 targets while Zay has 106. Gabe is much more likely to be involved in impact plays.

The fans weren't aiming the sun at us. And if the sun hits you in the eye you don't risk serious injury. Uncool. Nobody was trying to hit anyone in the eye, but it could've happened. It's both, for me.

No. But neither is KC. Or anyone else. Everyone - absolutely every single team or unit in history - has ups and downs and leaves meat on the bone. That's the way complicated team endeavors work. Particularly endeavors manned by human beings, who are imperfect. But more, your question here is dumb. Assuming that if the offense is operating poorly it must be the OC's fault is just bad thinking. Does he need to get better? Sure. But we heard for the last four years from plenty on here how awful Daboll was when the offense was having problems. Now the same folks wish they had him back. And if he were back, you'd be attacking him again. The OC is the traditional scapegoat.

He really is. He's very good himself. But more, he makes the players around him much better. Any decision he makes I will have the greatest respect for. Stay healthy, Mitch!!

Yeah, I get that you feel that way. Thing is, what you say ain't reasonable. The Bills have made it clear - very very clear - that he was doing the unglamorous things they needed done, eating bloc When the choice is between the opinion of the coaches and players on the Bills and the opinion of a depressive on the internet focused on any Bills problem he can find, the smart person knows the Bills are right. DaQuan is better, he's collapsing the pocket really well. But Star was doing a really good job generally - the first two years - eating that space, enveloping those blocks, moving sideways but not back, and making life a lot easier for the players around him. The year before Star got here, the Bills had the ninth-worst defensive YPC in the league. The Panthers, with Star, had the ninth-best. The next year, Star goes from Carolina to Buffalo and the Bills are now the ninth-best at defensive YPC and the Panthers drop to 21st. Star wasn't all of that difference, but he was a major major part of it. I certainly agree about his last two years here, opting out but then not getting vaxed and then getting Covid early in the 2021 season and immediately experiencing a massive dropoff from which he never really recovered. Awful. And it could very possibly have been avoided. But his first two years here he was an absolute success. Here's what Beane had to say, from Getzenberg: "Lotulelei missed time during the 2021 season after testing positive for COVID-19 and for personal reasons. General manager Brandon Beane noted a decline in Lotulelei's performance after dealing with the effects of COVID-19 despite being one of the Bills' 'disruptive lineman' in the early portion of the season. 'But when he got COVID, when he came back, it really affected him,' Beane said. 'Without getting too deep into the woods, I don't think he returned to form. And I think he'd be the first to tell you that at what he was playing at earlier in the year. He got better and I thought it improved the two playoff games, but I still don't think it was as consistent as he was the first part of the season.'" https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33537065/buffalo-bills-release-star-lotulelei-following-dt-additions-free-agency

Yes, and very well the first two years. Didn't rush the QB the way DaQuan did but he did very well at space eating. Bills defensive YPC this year: 4.2 Bills defensive YPC in 2019: 4.3 Bills defensive YPC in 2018: 4.2 That's not all DaQuan and Star, but those first two years before Covid, Star was a fine player, though never really a pass rusher.

White hasn't this year ... yet. IMO he's trending in that direction and we'll see him get there soon. I could be wrong about that, certainly, but it looks that way to me. And I might even throw DaQuan in there this year, with a bit more time to think. That guy has been playing great the whole year.

Yeah, top twenty DE? I totally agree. Maybe even top fifteen as the season has progressed. Politely disagree about him being our 2nd best behind Milano, though. Poyer, White and Edmunds are right up there, IMO. Hyde certainly too before the injury. Most of those guys are pretty close to maxed out, though, and Groot is improving. A lot.

A force? Absolutely. Elite? Certainly not yet. Elite generally in football means top three or four at your position. Groot isn't getting there yet. Still early, though. You may well be right about the sacks Von has added to the other guys here, IMO.

Oh, that's only his wallet? The chicks will be so disappointed.

That's why people are waiting for you to step up and throw in the extra half billion, House.

Jerry's smart, and generally a really good writer. This thing about women goes too far. He simply shouldn't have said that, it's rude and ignorant. Yeah, the GMFB folks handled it just right. Being critical is fine, what he said was fine, but should've been phrased as a question so Josh could have answered it. And Josh absolutely nailed that reply. Couldn't have been better. But that thing about women he said, it was just irnorant.

The differences when those two teams play are the Bengals defense. The Rams won the Super Bowl last year with 41 passes and 23 runs. What year was last year again? Not 2022, but still pretty recent.

You're right, I am indeed welcome to disagree. I'm also welcome to point out immensely stupid things. Here's one to repeat ... OF COURSE YOU SEE MORE FROM OTHER TEAMS. THERE ARE 31 OTHER TEAMS AND ONLY ONE BILLS. This is how statistics work, for God's sake, not to mention it's how confirmation bias works. What you want from your team is efficiency, chunk plays and production. That's what the Bills give you. In spades!!!! I would indeed care to elaborate. In fact, I did. Three other posts. Just above here. There's a limit to how many times someone needs to point out that something's dumb.

So, you feel we have fewer great catches than other teams? And your evidence is that you "seem to see a lot of great catches" from other teams? You're aware that there are 32 teams right? And that 31 of them are not the Bills? Which would mean that if everything went as expected we'd see 31x the number of catches from other teams as the Bills? You did say the same thing twice, in different sentences, that you saw lots from other teams. Again, the slightest bit of thought would point out the wildly obvious reason it seems that way. And then your other bit of evidence is pointing out a few times when the Bills did make those catches? I mean, seriously, that's all your evidence and the thought you've put into it? Jesus!

See, you're making his point. This is a tell!!!

But the one whose narrative better fits the fact that the Niners didn't even put in a waiver claim will be the one who's correct.

There really is reason for it.. The NFL's been given various protections in terms of things like antitrust exemptions. That makes them of interest to Congress. All of which has been determined and known for decades. You might not like Congress. Fair enough. But they do have an iron in this fire.

Sorry, that's dumb. Because one guy with one background picks something up simply does not mean that every guy with every background, every capability, and every physical build, should pick it up as quickly. That's simply not the way it works. It's the way a guy desperate to win an argument and susceptible to confirmation bias argues. But it simply doesn't fit with the real world. Elam dealt with almost all man-to-man in college. Go back and look at the draft reports. It's all over them that Benford was really good in zone. See the difference there? "Excellent in zone coverage, whether he is playing tight or soft coverage." https://www.si.com/nfl/draft/news/christianbenford

Sure, bigger fish, smaller fish and other fish. None of which should prevent them from frying this fish or any other they want.

You're right that they're not perfect. Significant misstatement on Teller, though. They didn't have one of the best guards on the NFL on their roster. They had on their roster a guy who would turn into one of the best guards in the run game but not all that great at the passing game when put into a different system with a different coach. When the Bills had him, he wasn't especially good. They just didn't have room on the team for a guy playing the way he was playing. It's also questionable whether he would play as well as he plays in Cleveland in our scheme. Fair enough on Benjamin, though that move got them to the playoffs. And fair enough on Ford. Are you now going to go through all of the good to great moves they made? Or just find ones that are negative? Your constant focus on the negative on an extremely good team is easily noticeable. Yes, that they did it doesn't make it right. But as far as looking at the past tells you about the future, the fact that most of the stuff they do is right means it's more likely than not to be right, though not a sure thing, certainly.

That's ridiculous. Elam's been good sometimes, particularly when they play man, and OK a large amount of times, and bad other times. They knew it was likely to take time. He was a man-to-man guy being drafted onto a team that plays more zone, and a particularly intricate and reactive zone as well.