st pete gogolak

No, it's an issue in search of a solution. You certainly don't want the NFL to devolve into the NHL where teams are openly tanking to obtain the next Gretzky, McDavid or Bedard. At least in the NHL you have a lottery to potentially prevent a successful tank (looking at you, Buffalo Sabres). Plus, recent Super Bowl history doesn't support your thesis. In the last ten years, there are maybe two QB's who won Super Bowls on rookie deals. Mahones winning over SF. KC is back this year when Mahones isn't on his rookie deal, so what does that prove? Maybe that if your QB HC and GM are good enough it doesn't matter if your QB is on his rookie deal. Wilson winning when Legion of Doom destroyed the Broncos. Yes, that fits. Otherwise, it's mostly Brady, Manning and Stafford at the tail end of their careers. The original point of the post is that there isn't any other sport with a salary cap or luxury tax where one position knocks the whole system totally out of whack other than QB in the NFL. The solution can't be tanking to hit on a franchise QB and then sign a bunch of free agents to win a Super Bowl on the QB's rookie deal. That's nuts.

Here's another comparison. While he was with the Pats, Brady had uniformly immaculate, great o-line play in front of him, allowing him to hold the ball sometimes seemingly forever. Josh with the Bills, not so much.

Wasn't the Monday after this Super Bowl that Wilson fired Polian? If that is correct, it has to be right up there with the darkest day in Bills' history. Levy shouldn't have been safe after that debacle. He should have been canned. I think the question the owner always has to have in mind with his or her head coach is - will he win us a Super Bowl (same question with the GM)? If the answer is "no", that person shouldn't be your head coach any longer. After that Super Bowl, it was clear Levy would never lead us to a Super Bowl victory. I think that is a fair question to ask of McDermott and Beane at this point - will they win us a Super Bowl? If you are convinced that the answer is no, it is time to look in a differnet drection. Not saying that time has arrvied but we're getting closer.

Agree. Beane seems to have a knack picking WR's and DB's but not OL or RB. Here's a partial list of backs picked after Cook who had superior rookie seasons: Brian Robinson (3); Dameon Pierce (4); Tyler Allegeier (5); and Pacheco (7).

Pacheo >>>>>Cook. I don't follow college ball but how in the world did this guy last until the 7th round? If we had drafted him, there wouldn't be any issue regarding running back going into next season. He's fast, powerful and breaks tackles. Wake me up when Cook breaks a tackle.

That's just the point. Is that system a fair system? What if in the NHL goalies made four times what any other player made? You could field a good team with a crap goalie or a great goalie with a crap team. Who would want a system like that?

Full disclosure. I've been a Bills fan since 1965 so I'm obviously biased about this because if it somehow came to pass it would benefit the Bills enormously. That said, QB compensation in the NFL and how it distorts the salary cap is, if not unfair, frankly bizarre and unlike any other sport that maintains a salary cap. That's because QB compensation is so dramatically higher than any other position. That's not true in basketball or hockey. Yes, you pay your superstars but McDavid isn't making double or triple every single one of his teammates. You're punished for selecting a QB who turns into a franchise QB. That's if you do it right. Heaven help you if you pay a QB that lands you in cap purgatory (Prescott, Cousins) or, even worse, one that lands you in cap hell (Wilson). A carve out probably lets the Raiders keep Carr. I don't know what the solution is but you shouldn't have to gut your team because you found your franchise quarterback.

Now do their 2021 and 2022 drafts.

In 2020, the Eagles desperately needed WR help. First round pick was Jalen Reagor. Very next pick was Justin Jefferson. Reagor is no longer with the Eagles. Jefferson is one of the best two or three WR in the league. Maybe the best. Yet, Eagles are in NFC Championship a couple of years later. Beane's been far from perfect and we all know the list trading Wyatt Teller, picking Ford over Metcalf and A.J. Brown, Basham instead of Humphrey, Bernard instead of Parham, hell even Oliver instead of Simmons. Some of that is hindsight, some of it is not. Point is, none of those "mistakes" are fatal. This is, however, an enormously consequential off-season for Beane and the team. He needs to make rebuild of the offensive line number one priority (same as KC did after Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay), establish a legitimate running game that doesn't depend on Allen, somehow introduce flexibility into a defense that has grown way too stale and hope we can avoid serious injuries. Not saying it will happen but there is certainly hope that he can fix what is obviously broken.

I was going to post something along these lines but in the affirmative - Sabres win the Cup before Bills win the Super Bowl. Bills broke my heart this year. Really thought this was the year. But looking at the Sabres, you can see a championship team in embryo. Superstars (Dahlin, Thompson), potential superstars (Cozens, Power), potential supporting stars (Quinn, Petreka), role players (Tuch, Skinner, Mule, Olafsson). It seems strange that a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2011 may win a championship before a team that has made the playoffs four years in a row (including an appearance in the AFC Championship game) but Sabres are going to be primed for a run in another year or two. Tons of cap space, loaded with prospects and draft choices. Plus their needs are fairly obvious and not that difficult to fill - some grit and muscle up front and at least another veteran physical defenseman. Of course, the wild card is goalie. UPL? Levi? Bring a vet in? Nothing is guaranteed of course. Tampa Bay had a group of superstars and the best goalie in the world and they didn't win the Cup until they adde some grit up front and some muscle on the backend. The Bills season is still a mystery to me. Crush defending Super Bowl champs on the road, crush Titans, lost the flukiest of fluke games at Miami, beat a good Ravens team on the road (remember the narrative we couldn't win close games), crush Steelers, solid win at Kansas City, bye and cruising past Green Bay at the half in what looks like another beat down. At that point they were clearly the best team in the league (maybe argument from the Eagles). Then the second half of the GB game and the rest of the season. Not a single game did they look dominant or like a Super Bowl winner. What was their most complete game post- Green Bay? Road win at New England? I'm in agreement with almost every poster here on what do to going forward. Fix the offensive line. Number one priority. I thought Spencer Brown would be Pro Bowl caliber going into his third season. Uh, wrong. I can't believe how badly he played this year. Can you move him inside to guard? I don't even think we need receivers or running backs if we legitimately fix the OL. Davis will be in contract year. Shakir will start. If Allen has time and a running game, we'll be fine. On defense, Frazier has to go. Bend but don't break isn't going to win a championship. Remember the St. Louis Rams "Greatest Show on Turf". Their defense was all that great (quick, name a defensive player from that team other than London Fletcher) but it was designed to compliment the offense. The Rams offense took a lead and the other team was forced to play catch up. Rams D pressed looking for turnovers. If it got beat deep, so be it. Just got the ball back into their offense's hands quicker. That's the route we need to take. Aggressive D that takes chances - exactly opposite of Frazier's D. Cap isn't insurmountable but it's a difficult road for the Bills. I'll take the Sabres winning the Cup in 2025 - 2026.

This game reminded me a lot of the Minnesota game. There were legitimately a dozen plays you could point to in both games where if the Bills made the play offensively or defensively, you could mark in your notebook "game over" (nod to Greg Easterbrook). Minnesota game was much worse but this was similar - the Knox almost touchdown, the Shakir almost catch, etc. etc. It was maddening.

I was going to make a similar comment. Three games decided by 2, 3 and 3 points, yet the Bills had over 500 (!) more yards of offense!! How is that even possible? Amazing. Sacks and turnovers tell part of the story (13 v. 8 and 5 v. 2) but even with that a couple of those games should have been Blls' blowouts.

Someone previously posted that Bills would have nothing to play for Sunday if the Chiefs won because they would be locked into #2 seed based on having tiebreaker over Bengals if Bengals beat Ravens and Bills lost to Pats. Based on the flowchart that's incorrect. Is it? Even if Chiefs won and Bills did have tiebreaker over Bengals, Bills would still be playing for chance to have AFCC played at neutral site instead of KC.

Not to nitpick but it's "here comes THE Robert E. Lee", the steamboat, not the general. In any event, great song from a great band.

Going into the game, I thought two things were locks. Dolphins wouldn't be able to run on the Bills and we'd have big problems with Dolphins pass rush. Of course, those were, for the most part, things that didn't happen. It's one thing for Hill and Waddle to beat you, but Dolphins ran at will. Until Morse went out, OLine held up really well. After he went out, not so much. Interior OLine was awful. Thought Spencer Brown had pretty decent game. If he doesn't recover Allen's fumble, game is pretty much over at that point. If OLine is Dawkins - Saffold - Morse - Bates - Brown going into playoffs maybe we're ok.

I'm not a doctor. Not buying in to concussion theory. In another thread someone suggested shoulder sprain. Again, not a doctor, but statistics indicate SOMETHING happened in the first half of the Packers game.

I've posted on this before but now I'm paranoid obsessive about it. We've played 13 games, so half the season is up to the end of the first half of the Packers game. Josh's stats at that point were 167 completions on 249 attempts (67%) for 2101 yards, 19 TD's and 4 INT's. Definitely MVP numbers. From the second half of the Packers game and the following six games, his stats are 133 completions on 221 attempts (60%) for 1452 yards with 7 TD's and 7 INT's. Weather for the Vikings game wasn't great and was terrible for second Jets game. On the other hand, two of the games were in a dome and in the first half of the season, we played the Dolphins in a sauna and the Ravens in a driving rain. So, is it physical (obviously elbow but lousy game and a half before elbow injury)? Mental? Lousy play-calling? Dropped passes? Worse play from the offensive line? A combination of all of the above? Much more conservative play over the last four games leading to 6 TD's and only one pick on a tipped ball and, oh yeah, four wins. Still believe something happened in the first half of Packers game to impact him physically and whatever it was, it didn't go away immediately then was followed by the elbow issue. It's been a brutal schedule so far this year. Really hoping for a big game this week or next week from Josh to put an end to the string of "mediocre numbers" and go into the playoffs with this as a dead issue.

I swear Denver hired him because they thought that they could lure Rodgers to Denver, which is dumb enough in and of itself. Then they compounded that with the horrendous Wilson trade. Like they say, when you pay franchise QB money to a QB, you better be pretty damn sure you're getting a franchise QB.

I was thinking about putting this in a separate post but I hate it when someone opens a thread with nothing other than a player's name. So here goes. Spencer Brown. I thought that after his rookie year, Brown would be All Pro by his third year. Incredible combine metrics as far as pure athleticism is concerned, huge frame, great attitude, plays with a mean streak. Yet gets beat over and over again on an outside rush. Melvin Ingram undressed him in KC playoff game. On the other hand, he appears to be very good in the run game. Is it just a question of providing him with a smaller space to operate in? I get that you don't see 6'7" guards but would moving him inside be an answer? Draft OT #1 and OG #2 next spring?

On top of winning three games away from home field in 12 days, in spite of snow storms, injuries, lack of practice and what-have-you, how about this for a statistical anomaly. After 12 weeks, the Bills have played seven road games, four home games and one neutral site game. Despite that and despite playing numerous Top Ten teams in various power rankings (KC, Miami, Minnesota, Baltimore, Tennessee, et al.) the Bills are 9 - 3. As General George Patton might have said, "Damn, I'm proud of these boys."

I'm still struggling with what I'm trying to get at with this post. It's such a statistical anomaly to go six games with incredibly good stats (one statistically mediocre game at Baltimore in the driving rain) with four picks (one 100% on McKenzie and another a tipped ball) to five games ranging from mediocre to downright awful, with a season's worth of red zone picks, game changing horrible plays, etc. Maybe it is something physical or something mental but something happened either during the bye week or during the Packer game that has put our Super Bowl hopes in jeopardy. I really believe one mistake free, "big game" performance and it's all in the rear view mirror. At least that's my hope.

Opened the season crushing the defending Super Bowl champs on the road despite four turnovers. Crushed last year's AFC #! seed at home. Lost a freakish heartbreaker at Miami despite a rash of injuries and hellish and unfair conditions on the field. Came back with a gutsy comeback win on the road at Baltimore. Destroyed Pittsburgh at home. Great game on the road for a well-deserved win against arch nemesis KC. 5-1 going into the bye. I hadn't felt as confident of a win going into a game as I did Green Bay. Rested, getting some players back going against team at the bottom of the league stopping the run. Good game to get our run game healthy. Up 24 - 7 at the half. Offense looked fine. Defense looked soft against the run, which was a surprise given how sturdy we had been against the run the first six games. At that point, Josh Allen had 19 TD passes against 4 interceptions and was favorite to win MVP. He took a couple of big hits early in the second half and hasn't looked the same since. Since halftime of the Packer game Allen has 4 TD passes against 7 interceptions (including 3 red zone INT's) and a fumble on a QB sneak that cost the Viking game. He looked bad against the Jets well before the elbow injury. I'm convinced Allen suffered some sort of injury early in the second half of the Packer game. It just seems statistically impossible to play 6 1/2 games so well and the next 4 1/2 either mediocre or flat out bad. Granted, the lousy offensive line play hasn't helped. Brown has been a big disappointment. Our defense after getting gouged by Green Bay and the Jets on the ground has rebounded nicely in stopping the run (other than the 80 yard Cook run). Pass defense has been bad but hopefully that will be cured by getting some of our guys back. The one thing this team needs is one big game from Allen showing that he is back. That, and staying relatively healthy and we will be fine.

I'm sure it has been mentioned in this thread more than once but Tre tore his ACL last Thanksgiving. OBJ tore his during the Super Bowl. Are you going to sign the guy for the second half of the Super Bowl? 45 pages for this? Seems kind of nutty.

Browns had approximately 400 yards total. Of that, 75 on opening drive (which counts of course) and approximately 150 on last two "garbage time" TD drives with Bills having big leads. Incredible job to hold Chubb to 19 yards on 15 carries. I also get playing prevent defense up big late. Ask the Browns. They gave up an 80 TD pass under 2 minutes left and cost them loss to Jets early in the season. Helped ruin their season. What I don't get, however, is the last drive and not forcing the play away from the sidelines. Play after play Brisset was completing passes to receivers who stepped out of bounds and stopped the clock burning maybe 5 or 6 seconds. A completion inbounds burns 30. Keeping receivers in play would have forced Cleveland to heave something towards the end zone at the end instead of having a shot to recover an onsides kick and causing more heart palpatations in BUFF.

And yet, we outplayed Miami and lost because of injuries, heat stroke and bad luck. The Minnesota game, I don't think I've seen a team have like, 20 chances to put a game away and failing to make one play to put the game away. The Jets, on the other hand, played us pretty even up and deserved to win that game.