thurst44

I know you mean well here, but it's a bit backhanded to call someone a "half way invested fan" for not buying a new jersey all the time. As it happens, I'm not really a jersey person, but in a fit of excitement after driving 10 hours to watch Andre Reed inducted, I decided to buy a jersey, and my choices were Manuel and Watkins. I had a well-paying full-time job then, and am working multiple part-time jobs recently. I still try to find money for Sunday ticket (a new jersey has been secondary) and in NYC between that and going to the Bills bar, I have only missed watching one game in the last 20 years (went to college in Buffalo and lived there most of the 1990s), and watched the replay of that as soon as I could -- that would be on NFL Game Pass in the Seattle airport, screaming loud enough I risked getting thrown out of the area. Tomorrow, I'm checking out the Public House, NYCBBB's new place, and I WILL wear that Watkins jersey proudly, because, to address another poster in this thread... We're not supporting the players, we're supporting the team. I don't wear the jersey to rep Watkins -- although I wish him no specific harm -- but to support the Bills, as I have been since a child in the 1980s (my family's from Buffalo) and stayed with them while I was in grade school in Manhattan and the team was going 2-14 for two years straight. Maybe some fans rocking obsolete jerseys are "half way invested" but not fair to presume that Sorry, yes I may be overreacting while sleepless in the middle of the night, but find this thread a bit obnoxious and judgmental.

Yes, like I'm pretty sure there's no way Barkley can win that Jets game from last year. It's in New York and we are 2-7, so we should probably go back and call that a loss, even though he tore apart their defense and we routed them..

Continuing to squander it?!?! We're 3-1, only loss -- and by less than a TD with the ball with a chance to win at the end -- to the crowned Best Team Ever [TM] who set all-time defensive records for the first three games. Let's get this into some sense of perspective here.

Oh, you're one of those. Yawn!

This is one of the most affably self-aware posts I've ever read on a sports website. Well done, sir. Hopefully you were as wrong on Oliver as it would appear I was wrong about Allen.

FWIW, I was watching the first game at the Seattle airport on my phone through GamePass at 2pm, so it seems pretty quick.

That should probably be the ultimate takeaway: if we're going by the standard yards metric, they were the worst defense in the league by a wide margin in the six quarters he was on the team and the best defense in the league by a decent margin in the 58 quarters after he quit. Thanks Vontae.

Also, let's keep in mind that in weeks 1 & 2, the Bills faced arguably two of the top three or four running backs in football, and that's skewing the results a bit.

Another catch by "First Down" Brown!

Bojo getting enough criticism here, we should give him credit for looking great today! That being said, hopefully that's the last we see him today :)!

He has a lifetime 4.9 ypc in the regular season. He's actually played better in the regular season than during pre-season. I agree that he probably would not get anything in trade, but he's been a solid #3 back when given the chance. Give him his due credit; to say he's not an NFL player is a bit unfair and hard to back up when he's played solidly when given the chance in the actual NFL.

Well, it's hard to sign someone who hasn't been cut ;). They'd have to do battle with the Phillipses

At one point, the Bills 2nd team DL owned the Panthers 1st team OL.

I'm gonna go with a bounceback season and he hits 1000+ for the season (i'll venture a guess of 1379), but that's the last gasp. With the crowded backfield, though, I could see him losing yards if Singletary comes on (or the line could be so improved that Singletary and the vets all ball out).

So, Chief Wiggum?

I'm talking about on the same level over a career. Mahomes had an amazing season in his first as a starter. We have yet to see what he does in the rest of his career nor what Allen will do in his second season and beyond. Let's say Allen has a great year but sub-Mahomes in 2018: 35 tds, 10 rushing, 4000 yards, 15 interceptions and Bills go 10-6 or 11-5, do the Bills still lose the 2017 draft? If they get an elite CB and the pick that allows them to get their franchise QB, that's a win in my book, even if Mahomes has a better career.

How is it "insane" to suggest that a quarterback considered by many experts as the best QB in a strong QB draft could develop into one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Yes, he's polarizing. I was not initially a fan, but to write off a QB after one season (where he went 5-5 in full games as the team went 1-5 when he did not play a full game) as "insane" seems a bit extreme. I was not saying he was at Mahomes' level last year, but Mahomes was a second-year QB. Let's actually see what he does this year before dismissing him. My point is IF Allen works out, then the Bills win b/c they got an elite QB AND CB, as opposed to just a QB. It's a gamble, but the book is far from closed.

When we traded our pick in order to get a 1st rounder in the next draft presumably (and as it turned out) to get one of the QBs from a rich draft, so judging it in isolation and acting like the 2017 draft had nothing to do with picking Allen is disingenuous at best. If we got a shutdown CB and Allen turns out to be on the same level as Mahomes, I'd call that a win and a better outcome than JUST getting Mahomes or Watson. One could also argue it set up getting another pick in the 1st round used to pick a potentially elite LB.

I'm roughly 5 miles away from where two other teams play, so, no. I did live in Buffalo for 8 years during college and beyond, before moving back to the NYC metro where I grew up.

As other poster said, 19, and there was a consensus among experts (almost) that he would go 19th or higher. Of course, as I go to back up that boast the first mock draft I find had him dropping out of the first round (SB Nation). The rest I checked: 8, 11, 8, 11, 19, 19, 11, 11, 17 (then i got bored). Ragland was also a first rounder in most of those, fwiw, and from what I've heard from Chiefs fans, we were not premature to trade him. Hindsight is 20/20. Lawson has played better than his stats and than most here give him credit, but certainly not played like you want from a first rounder. That said, I'm still hoping for a breakout year this year, and would not be shocked if that happened and he wound up back in 2020. However, also, that said, I don't think it's particularly likely (just in the realm of the possible).

Anderson got 22, 48, and 76 yards against the Bills in his last three games -- I'd hardly call that "toasted."

The same CBS Sports that called us the most improved team in football?

I'll feel really old when Adam Vinatieri retires as he's the last player in the four major sports who is older than I am. Jaromir Jagr was second to last. Bartolo Colon is a month younger than I am, but even he's not on a team last I checked. NBA players rarely make it to 40 on the court. I'm in this weird (but amazingly fun) 4-sport fantasy league and at one point had Vinatieri and Jagr, probably for that very reason. You want to feel really young: Jose Canseco is still playing professional baseball, sorta, or at least put up some official stats last year at age 53, but hasn't had a hit since age 51 and no homers since 50. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=cansec001jos Saw him, when he was the age I am now, playing for the now defunct Newark Bears in front of me and maybe 20-40 fans. He was staring into the middle distance most of the game and it was one of the sadder sights I've seen.

It's really quite amazing to remember how bad the defense was in that first game (and then the first half of the next game) and to imagine that the team would be one Baker-Mayfield-pass-on-his-last-drive away from the #1 defense in football.

He was my first favorite Bill when I was a kid! Well, maybe second after Robb Riddick!