Thurman#1

In the Steelers game that we lost, Allen went 30/51 for 270 with one TD. Had two fumbles, though he only lost one. Can we be sure another guy getting open woudn't have helped, maybe putting us over the top? One TD would have made the difference in that game. Yeah, the OL was a major problem, but if they could have thrown a few quick hitters to Beckham with the CBs playing off, would that maybe have made a difference? Against the Titans our passing was better, but if it had been even better yet, couldn't that have made three points worth of difference, maybe? Jesus I feel like that damp rag Tucker Carlson, "I'm only asking questions." Sorry about that, but you asked the questions, and I think it's legit to say that your questions don't appear to me to have obviously negative answers, and that it's possible that he could indeed improve our passing offense if he came here and got open a lot. NOT that I expect this to happen. I don't. But I think it's slightly possible if things came together just right on money and availability and if Beane would be willing to bring him in.

It's not all character issues that are deal breakers for this group. It's certain kinds of character issues. They're keeping Beasley, they at least kicked the tires on Antonio Brown. It'd be interesting to know whether Beane feels Beckham's character issues are beyond what they could accept. My guess is that they are, that they don't want him. I'm not that sure of it, though. I don't think anyone can be.

Be interesting to see if he does get claimed off of waivers. I'd guess he won't but it's possible. If he doesn't, I'd guess we at least call and kick the tires. Don't think it would actually work out, though. I'm curious what the perspective on him is within the league. Do they put most of the blame for his ineffectiveness on Mayfield/the Browns? Do they think he still has most of his skills at 29? Do they think he's toxic or just high-maintenance? It'll be fun to watch.

Dorsey's there. I'm not yet convinced they see him as heir apparent, though it's certainly possible. I like Webb a lot as well, but he'll need a few years working his way up the coaching ladder before he's ready for a job that big. When he retires, I hope the Bills offer him an entry level shot. My guess is they go outside, but I could definitely see them going with Dorsey instead.

It's a smart and effective rule. The absolute worst result of following the Rooney Rule is that you have to give one extra interview. During which if you're smart, you can learn about the tactics of the last team, new plays, philosophies and the other members of the coaching staff of that team and even the players. And while I hear you that you're arguing that only the team loses if they ignore a guy because of the color of his skin, the guy who didn't get an interview is also hurt, in that he's not in the national conversation and doesn't get practice interviewing for the next interview in a situation where they're open to finding the best candidate regardless of skin color or anything but effectiveness. Josh Allen: "Thanks, Brian Daboll." Doing anything every time you hit a situation makes you predictable and easy to defense. Yeah, I'm with you in that I'd like to see that be the majority of our calls in that situation, no, it shouldn't be all of them. Make them defend the whole field.

These receivers are damn good. Top five group, certainly. Having said that, if they think he'll fit the locker room, and he's willing to come in for cheap enough that we think we can afford him, sure, bring in Beckham. I doubt those two conditions turn up aces, but if they want to do it, they've certainly earned my trust, as the great majority of their moves have turned out really well.

Of course top receivers see production drops - and rises - from year to year. Justin Jefferson's production is down significantly this year. Beckham has fallen off a cliff. RIdley is way down. DK Metcalf's production is way down, but it was down even before Wilson went out. Keenan Allen is down, Golladay is down, and yeah, you could say he's missed a couple of games but he's also down in YPG. Look at Deandre Hopkins. His best year was probably 2015 when he had 111 receptions for 1521 yards. The next year he had 78 receptions for 954 yards. 2019 104 receptions for 1165. Look at Julio Jones' best year, 2015, with 136 catches and 1871 yards. All down since then. Mike Evans' best year was 2016, with 96 catches for 1206 yards. The next year he went for 1001, last year for 1006. I'm pretty sure I could find a bunch of receivers beyond Cooper Kupp who are up this year also. This is how statistics work, because it's how the world works. Things go up and down.

No, of course not. It always cracks me up how people moan about this. Games are lost probably fifty times more often because of bad plays made by players than bad plays by refs.

I am not joking by any means. They had a really good roster for about two years early in his career there when they had Merriman in his first three years and Tomlinson there playing at a high level. After that, they were mostly an OK roster with a terrific QB.

No, it's not kind of choking if you can't complete a pass in 4 downs. That's a blanket statement, and as with most blanket statements, it's not correct. Depends on why the passes were incomplete. In this case, from the 44, Rivers completed a six yard pass to the 38 yard-line to start off, but McDermott had called time-out just before the play (though the officials later announced that the replay official had stopped play before McDermott did, returning Buffalo its time out), nullifying the play. If play hadn't been stopped, they'd have had second and four at the thirty-eight, and if they'd had two more incompletions, a 55 yard field goal shot on fourth down, for a chance at the win. But play had been stopped to give the refs a second chance to look at the play before which had been a fumble torn out by Milano and recovered by Buffalo but the refs had called Pascal, the receiver down before the fumble. After a long, long pause with the announcers and Steratore saying after many replays that it was a fumble, it was upheld as the play being over before the fumble. The ball was moved to the 46 after the delay. Rivers then completed the first down pass but it had been covered well and the receiver had to immediately get out of bounds for a yard loss. So you said, "if you can't complete a pass in 4 downs," but he did. Actually, he completed two. The one on first down and then another one. On second down they rushed to the line and he completed an eleven-yarder for a first down. But whoops, again time had been called by McDermott with the time-out they'd gotten back. Would've been a first down on the 36 yard-line, but McDermott stopped them as they tried to run a really quick play after the one-yard completion. On the second play on second down, Rivers had to throw it away, way out of bounds. Everyone was covered and he wasn't pressured but he realized he had to end the play quick. It was now third down with 0:08 remaining. That was good defense, and the fact that they had no time-outs, so he couldn't complete one that would end up being tackled in-bounds. On third down one of his receivers made a mistake, as there were two recievers very close to each other on the sideline, one at the 39 and the other at the 32, with Taron Johnson between them, effectively covering both. Rivers threw it really quickly putting it a bit long, where it was either going to be a sensational catch by the guy further downfield or it would go over him and out of bounds. It went over him. Fourth down and eleven with 0:04 seconds left. The only chance now a Hail Mary to the end zone. Not real good odds either way. The Bills still remembered the Hail Murray and they defended the Hail Mary. That was NOT a choke by Rivers, by any stretch. It was good defense and great time out calls by McDermott, helped out by a mistake by one of the Colt receivers on the third down. But Johnson had good coverage on the play anyway, and there were three Bills defenders within about 5 steps of the play. Should probably have been a Bills fumble recovery four plays earlier, to be honest.

Rivers raised those teams up. Rivers-led teams got farther than they should have based on their rosters. Yup. The question would be age, not talent.

Damn good. Top five. But it's still a bit early in the season.

That's the thing ... they're not. They're solid to good, but not great. You don't get a 5.1 YPC by being terrible, you simply don't, and they're both really really good pass blockers, which the Bills greatly value for the obvious reason. People seem to want a top five RB, and that's a misuse of resources. We're not going to run an RB enough to make it worth paying huge $ for one or using big draft capital on one. We need a guard, maybe a CB, much more than we need an RB. A lot more.

That's about how it looks to me too, though I'd have put Henry a lot higher before the injury. Maybe a spot or two higher for Allen as well. Last year, Allen was top two. This year he's only terrific.

I had not realized that the laws of mathematics had been changed such that 5.1 YPC (8th in the NFL this year) has somehow become equal to zilch and nada. It's neither him, nor the offensive line nor Daboll, it's the perception of people who think our RBs have done nothing. Fair enough that neither is elite nor anything close. But they're both solid backs.

Singletary's a damn good blocker. He has been since he got here. The reason he's not thought of here in that way is that Moss is even better, among the absolute best in the league. But Singletary is not far behind. I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that both of the RBs they brought in are excellent pass blockers.

It's Oliver's third year and he's continuously made progress. If he continues at his current rate, they should absolutely pick him up. Hell, he's worth the fifth-year option right now without an ounce more improvement. Some of his very recent improvement comes from Lotulelei starting to get doubled in pass situations. Previously it had been Oliver getting the doubles this year. Now we've got two guys giving interior OLs problems in passing situations. And the first three rounds under Beane have been good, so far at least. Not great? Fair enough, but certainly good, and Oliver is a part of that. Edmunds has looked like an excellent pick since probably his second year. Epenesa is showing flashes, but will have to continue to grow ... but that's how these things generally go. Basham is way way too young to judge. Ford is getting up close to judgment age, though he's not there yet, but if he doesn't improve, he will have been a poor pick. Still has a chance to improve, though.

He doesn't stink. Not playing as well as you'd hope, certainly. But stink overstates it. In theory, maybe. But Beane greatly values draft picks, and for good reason. And yes, Norwell would be $13M against the cap next year. Right now on next year's cap we have $15.5M available re: Spotrac. Not a good fit. The kind of target we'd consider is the type mentioned above, an upgrade from a team looking to rebuild with draft picks, most likely an older guy but also a guy in his middle years who's on a contract that's not onerous. A Daryl Williams type, though we were pretty lucky he was available coming off a bad year. Guys coming off bad years or injuries are more likely to be made available. Thing is, guys who are obviously excellent players aren't generally going to be available for terms that Beane would reasonably consider for a tem in our kind of cap shape this year and next. That's the problem. That kind of guy when he becomes available usually has a lot of suitors and so things get bid up, and he costs too on the cap as well. If we do get somebody I'd guess it will be a journeyman type, but hopefully on the high end of that group.

No, they very much should not. Mortgaging the future would be absolutely butt-stupid. Particularly this early in Josh's career. We've got a decade left in our window. More maybe. Luckily we don't have to worry about Beane doing this. Unlike some on here, Beane gets it. He's made it clear that his goal is consistent competitiveness from his first P.C. Thank goodness we didn't get one of those doltish GMs willing to increase the odds in one year by decreasing the odds in several. Yeah, that's probably the reason we're in the top three in points and yards, that Daboll doesn't get it. Good grief there are some awful takes on here, and it's after a win.

There is no reason why the Bills won't win it all this year. A bunch why they possibly might not. Which is also true for every single other team in the league and was true for the Bucs last year and every champion there ever was. But not a single reason they won't.

Yup. Not likely but it does happen. One onside kick was recovered this week, I believe. But most of the Fins fans understood. There were definitely a bunch of whiners there, but most got it.

Oh, nonsense, that's not what Collinsworth said. He only said it's a fact that it goes on, not that it's defensible or reasonable.

Back in the bad old days we had people start the exact same kinds of threads on Bills boards when teams would beat the crap out of us, particularly Belichick. There probably is a point at which it's classless running it up, but as a lot of the Fin fans said, if you don't like it, stop them from scoring.

They're absolutely legit #1 RBs. They're not elite, they're not work horses and neither one is a home run threat. But they both get explosive plays and together they get more than the blocking would usually amount to and they add up to probably a top 16 backfield. They're limited, but they're #1s.

Yeah, totally. If I were the Fins I'd demand pick protections. Not sure I'd give them if I was the Texans, but I'd strongly consider it. They need to put this mess behind them. They all do.