Thurman#1

Great stuff, Shaw. It really is different from the old days when teams had more time to get ready for the early weeks of the season. It really does seem that these days the team has to come to understand it's identity during those first 4 - 7 weeks or so. And that you just don't know what you're getting before then, even if you think you do.

Because they haven't "haven't gotten it done." Rousseau for one is a good player who's getting it done. Top 30 is sacks last year despite not having a guy on the other side to take some attention away. One of the best in the league at setting the edge. We'd all love him to be a top five or ten sacker, but that's not a reasonable expectation for a guy picked at #30. He earned his extension. You seem to be blaming the performance of the whole defense on the guys who got extensions, which again is unreasonable. You can expect them to play their own positions well. Which they are. And it ain't as if any of them are now super high-paid for their positions. You can't blame Oliver because we had problems at safety and CB and LB injuries, it ain't defensible.

Samuel's a gimmick/gadget guy. And he's also an actual WR that can run routes. He's done both in his career. The Bills seem to want him more as a gadget guy, but he's also run routes for us.

Sorry, man, the idea's dumb. We won't be facing the Chiefs in the playoffs with this defense. Because if the return of Hoecht, Ogunjobi, Big Ed, Milano and Hairston doesn't make them demonstrably not "this defense," then the further maturation of the rookies who are already playing certainly should for anyone with a lick of common sense. I hear they've got this mushroom coffee, to help wean you off caffeine? Supposed to not be that bad. And yes, you're the one trolling. 'Nuff said for me on that.

Seriously? Good lord, dude, not even slightly close. Something to watch? Yeah, sure, though pretty much everything is. But is his seat hot? Hell, no. The idea's ridiculous. Again, if you look at the defensive performance in the playoffs, it's good. Very good. Except against the Chiefs. That's where the problem is.

Yeah, and they missed the Super Bowl last year by one play through smoke and mirrors. It's pretty clear you're trolling, but if you're not, consider giving up the coffee, dude.

Yup, unbelievably good. 4-0, by the way. But no, they wouldn't do any of this article's moves, I don't think. None look particularly good for this tea.

Yes!! An extension at a bit lower level.

By that reckoning, Spencer Brown was a major disappointment. Not a single snap in his first four weeks, though healthy. Clearly, we never should have drafted him.

Harrison Phillips started most of his third year here. And it's really not fair to try to judge rookies on whether they'll be good or not. If you did, Deone Walker for one looks pretty damn good so far. But again, that also is early. Fair enough, though, that DE has been his weakest area in his draft record.

Wait, you mean Beane made two bad draft picks? In the second round? Yeah, he clearly needs to be fired. Sure, they just missed the Super Bowl last year, but still, two missed 2nd rounders, hey, that's really case closed. * Sigh *

Actually found a Reddit thread on him about how he did a good job holding even with bad snaps. This is a Bills kind of guy.

Your take is that "it is reasonable to expect a 3rd round pick that is not injured to be dressing on game day and playing in some capacity"? Despite the fact that seven others have 0%? Yeah, two of them are IR'd. But would they have played if they weren't on IR? No way to know. Despite the fact that it's historically always been harder to find playing time on better teams? Despite the lack of data on how many of those other snaps might have been special teams, or results of other players being injured? Despite no way to know whether the ones who played played terribly or well, or whether they might have cost their team a game, or been an integral part of a win? Yeah, that is a result of your pre-conceptions. Four games into the career, that is completely nuts. Four games in, about all that can reasonably be taken from any data about this, really, is that stuff happens. That mountains can be made from data that is statistically insignificant. And that within three years or so we'll know how the picks turned out.

We are in no way laboring to move the ball. Any more than anyone else, anyway. This offense is deadly. And it's not just points. We're second in the league in yards per game, and less than half a yard per game out of first. Second in points, and only one PPG out of first. Yeah, we'll struggle against Spagnola/Fangio. So does everyone. Pretending that what we're doing on offense "doesn't work," is nuts. Flat-out nuts!! Lack of draft resources? A 3rd plus for Amari Cooper. The #33 pick for Keon. What we have needed, and apparently did a pretty good job of acquiring this year, was a pass rush that could hurry Mahomes.

0ct. 15: Bills trade for Amari Cooper Oct. 20: Amari Cooper plays 19 snaps for the Bills Oct. 27: Amari Cooper plays 38 snaps for the Bills No, I don't think there's a serious chance of this happening. He doesn't seem like a guy who would fit will in this everybody eats framework. But McDermott doesn't make vets earn it. Rookies, yes. Vets, no, if they can memorize the plays quickly enough.

This.

We are very effective in play action. But Josh doesn't like it. For it to meet the official definition of play action, the QB has to line up under center, turn around as he drops back and fakes to the back. That means he has to take his eyes away from downfield. Josh doesn't like doing that on pass plays.

This. Probably three cities in Canada anywhere close to enough of an economic / population base to think about supporting an NFL team. Getting Americans to watch might be a reason for this. Or making it even more of a development league for the NFL. I wonder if this will work out for them.

We don't "need" young WRs. The group we have now on offense is putting up 34 points per game. I wouldn't mind it. At every position you want to bring in young talent to develop. WR is no exception, but we don't have any special need there. As for overpaying, we are using 12% of our cap this year on WRs. That's cheap. And it seems like a tactic - historically used often by Super Bowl-winning teams to deal with having to pay a top-flight QB - of putting together a top-flight roster on both sides of the ball. One of the benefits of having an elite QB is that he can be effective and productive without expensive WRs. The Chiefs and the Brady-era Pats are the best recent examples, but there are plenty of others. Yeah, this, please.

The reason why not is that you're right that he's historically played a lot of snaps, but also historically he's been injured a lot. There's a good chance that there is a relationship between those two facts. They want to limit his snaps this year. And it's a great idea. But with Hoecht out for the first six weeks, Groot playing with a bone bruise (according to Joe B. in the Athletic), Landon Jackson not yet getting it so that he's not active and Solomon being a liability on run plays, that pretty much leaves Epenesa and Bosa as the only two DEs who are healthy, available and up to speed on any given play. Expect Bosa to see a lot less action later in the season, so that he's fully healthy going into the playoffs.

Groot's got a bone bruise. They're saying it's from the Ravens game. He's not playing the way he will when he's better. Ahhh, Dave McBride already posted it. Thanks, Dave.

You're not right. It isn't that they've been top 10 every year but one. They've been top ten every single year under Sean. 2024 1st 2023 3rd 2022 4th 2021 3rd 2020 3rd 2019 10th 2018 8th 2017 9th It's an amazing thing, even more so as the year before, in 2016, they were 23rd.

All very reasonable. But very much pointing out that winning the turnover battle is NOT a Josh Allen thing. It's a Buffalo Bills thing. Josh is a big factor. But .... Again, the Bills D has been top four in takeaways the last five years, which is just about unheard of, that kind of defensive consistency. 2024 1st 2023 3rd 2022 4th 2021 3rd 2020 3rd That's sensational. And is a huge part of us winning the turnover battle so consistently.

Yes, this.

They are contributing. They're playing. Mostly at a decent level so far, certainly well for DLs in their first three games. Playing is contributing. Playing STs is contributing. Just about all of them are contributing. As for doing more than that in the first three games, high draft pick or not, "expecting them to" do more than "contribute right away" only shows that you're wackily expecting the world to bend to your will. Slightly more than half of first rounders don't even pan out. Pretending that any draft pick, particularly one outside the top five or ten, to start making a difference in the first three games says more about unreasonable expectations than it does about the player's results.