billsfan89

I wanted this team to draft Josh Rosen so I have zero expertise in football but once I started to dig deeper on Josh Allen I liked the pick more once it was made and I dug into it. I kind of thought of Josh's accuracy issues in college being somewhat deflated because the system he played in was deep throwing and he lacked decent receivers. Of course I knew Josh had his issues part of his accuracy issues were decision making and footwork. I figured decision making and feeling comfortable in the pocket would come with experience but footwork isn't always something that gets fixed. But in 2019 Josh started to make better decision as the season wore on and he showed progress in his footwork. By 2020 three seasons of hard work and two years of starting really are paying dividends. Adding a true WR1 helped a lot of course. But while I still would like to see what Josh can do against better defenses I think he is more than likely the real deal. Let's not get crazy there might still be a few bumps in the road ahead.

People also forget that there is a big time pressure from the union for players to cash in on their chance to set the market. If Josh is a proven top 10 guy whenever he is negotiating his contract he isn't taking much of a discount. Tre had 2 years left on his contract and he was still getting the highest contract at his position (until Ramsey with only 1 year left topped him.) There is no way Josh takes a discount, at best he allows the structure of the deal to be friendly to Buffalo (maybe spread the hit out if he gets a deal going into next season or front load the deal in some way.) You always pay QB's no hometown discounts here.

I agree that it's best to sit them an extra game to make sure they are healthy for the rest of the season. But the game being a non-conference game should have no weight in that decision. With that being said I think they suit up Milano and sit Edumonds one more week.

I worry that the Bills get so enamored with getting Josh to spread his extension over the last year of his rookie deal and the 5th year option that they end up digging into their 2021 and 2022 caps significantly and it impacts the short term ability to win. I also worry that they extend him after this season (assuming he turns in a good season) and then the league makes adjustments to Josh in 2021 and he isn't as effective and the Bills get locked into a big money deal with him for the next 3 seasons. I like Josh as much as any Bills fan but this team should for once finally be thinking short term. The window to win is open in 2020 and 2021, use it, worry about the rest later.

I am predicting a shootout but in the end I think have at least one of the starting LB's back is enough to get the defense to make a key stop or two and hand this team the game. 35-31 Bills. Key game as the Bills for the two must wins to start strong but a win against the Rams would be a good confidence boost to Josh and this team.

If backup QB were a position that you could get into the Hall of Fame for Fitz would get in. 3 teams if you include the one year he played for the Giants.

I don't buy into the stuff about the schedule just yet, this season could change on a dime with injuries and other factors.

In the AFC you have Mahomes who is the big elephant in the room, he is where Aaron Rodgers was at in 2011 only even younger and a bit better. Then you have Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson as the new top young guys with Josh knocking on the door of being in that conversation. Of course in the third tier you have the guys with potential like Burrow, Darnold, Mayfield, Locke, Hurbert, Tua, and Minshew. In the NFC you are less top heavy with QB's under 30 but you have a lot of good young QB's some of whom might take that step up to rival the Wilson's and Rodgers up top. Kyler Murray, Goff, Wentz, Jimmy G, and Dak are all solid starting caliber to good QB's. None are at that elite level yet but any of them could step up. The NFC certainly skews older at QB. Brees and Brady aside you have Rodgers who is in his late 30's, Wilson who is in his prime at 31 going on 32 later in the season, and Stafford and Matt Ryan who are in their mid-30's. You do have some other third tier young QB's like Daniel Jones, Haskins and Trubisky but I just don't see them panning out. Overall this is the strongest time for QB play in a long time in the NFL if not ever. I would say half or just under half of all NFL teams have good QB's capable of putting up big points and improving the quality of play of the team around them.

The article I read was from 2019 so maybe the 5th year option is listed as 17.6 million. Not sure how fluid the number was/is. But I would wait to do an extension until after 2021. I get the idea of spreading out the hit using that 4th year to take on some money, but the window to win with this team is now and while I get that you want to think long term you can't pass up cap space in 2021 that could be used to add or retain other players to save cap space 3-4 year from now when the team might not be in contention.

Would the option changes be retroactive to current deals or for the newest first round picks? Genuinely curious as that does change the algebra a bit. Still I would rather wait to see what you have longer even if it makes it harder to do the cap. Too many times has this team overpaid a QB early (Tyrod and Fitz come to mind) not saying Josh isn't worth it but let's know exactly what he is before making the long term commitment.

Allen's 5th year option will be around 17.6 million, it is the franchise tag that is north of 30 million. You can still spread his contact out over the course of that 5th year option and lower the cap hit. Give me another year with a stacked roster around him.

Watson is in a wasteland in Houston luckily he is going to carry that team and we will see if the newer guys like Burrow pan out. Overall Mahomes and possibly Lamar remain the big elephants in the room. Let's just hope Josh is a big game hunter metaphorically speaking.

Josh had two great to good games against two bad teams. I get it that good to great QB's beat up on bad teams. But I am not crowing Josh just yet. Let's see how he does against an OK Rams defense and then go from there. I like Josh a lot, super likeable and progressing a lot. But until he puts it together consistently against better teams I am holding off on the crown for now. AFC is going to have at least 3-4 great QB's in it. I already think Mahomes and Deshaun are there, Lamar likely will be there and Josh is knocking on the door. Burrow and Herbert are interesting possibilities and I think Cam has a nice run in NE unfortunately maybe even Tua might be a solid QB.

I broke up with Madden many years ago around Madden 14. I just got sick of core gameplay mechanics from NFL 2k5 still not being in the game. I forgave it a bit in Madden 07-09 because they were making a jump to a new system (going from Xbox and PS2 to PS3 and the Xbox 360) and I only rented those versions. By Madden 2010-2011 they added in a lot of gameplay stuff that was in NFL 2k5 (pocket forming around the QB and gang tackling) so I enjoyed the games more even if it still had some issues. But by Madden 14 I was still frustrated by how they still lacked some key features from NFL 2k5 (the way the run blocking is and the situational awareness of the players to name some.) By then they had been working with the 360 and PS3 for nearly a decade. Once they couldn't get that stuff in there I knew Madden was never going to change. The gameplay stagnated in the early 2010's and the little things like owner mode never got improved to where they were in Madden 05/06. I am just saddened about the lack of an alternative. Only having Madden to choose from just turned me off from football video games. I remember thinking in 2004 when Madden 05 and NFL2K5 came out how much better sports games would be in 15 years and they are a mixed bag. So sad.

Shoulder injuries are hard to deal with if you are taking a lot of contact like a LB. I would rather sit Edumonds for one more week to fully rest up that shoulder and risk losing a game than risk losing him for the season.

Hell no they don't take extend Josh until he is on the last year of his deal. First off, why not see exactly what Josh is before you reset the market? You have him under control the next 2 seasons after this year. Why not let Josh play out this season and next season so that you know fully what player you are investing in. Don't make the same mistake the Rams did fully paying Goff with 2 years left on his deal, when they could have waited one more year to fully make that investment. I love Josh but I think he should wait one more year for his extension. Not only would it give you the ability to have one more year of cheap QB play but you then would fully know what type of QB you are investing in.

Freeman should be interesting, Dion Lewis and him are kind of similar backs both can catch so it is going to be interesting to see who gets the touches.

Based off of that I would expect to see Milano this week and not Edmunds. Shoulder injuries need proper rest. Although I think Edumonds is more valuable to this defense I think that having Milano back and pairing him with Dodson on Nickel situations (bring AJ in for 7 man fronts, that should be his only role to run blitz) will improve the passing defense over the middle significantly.

Madden hasn't been consistently good since just after NFL 2k stopped making licensed NFL games. Don't get me wrong I am sure there have been a few good installments of Madden (personally liked Madden 10 and 11) but for the most part the best case scenario is usually a big feature will be added but then it takes 2 years before they work out all the bugs with it or they won't bother to add any big gameplay features and just refine what is there marginally and then add some big mode that adds very little to the game. I wish the NFL sold its rights to two companies again. 2K pushed Madden to be better and Madden pushed 2K to be better. 2K in my mind was always more simulation based than Madden but Madden focused on game modes and game control (unique things like QB vision and Owner mode) as well as graphics. It was great as a fan because you had a great choice between a simulation based game with great presentation (2K) or a better looking game with better gameplay modes and unique in game controls (Madden.) Both games had their pros and cons but as a consumer it was great to have a choice. Madden 04-06 was some of the best Madden games EA ever put out and certainly the best three year stretch Madden ever had. Now Madden meanders between bad and above average offerings with no alternative to the consumer.

Seemed pretty good to me, he hasn't been great but he has been average to above average from my amateur watching of both games.

A lot of rookies are having a hard time making an impact due to the lack of a pre-season and a lack of off-season in person training. So AJ getting 17 snaps is probably the coaching staff trying to ease him in.

The value in terms of draft compensation was solid for the Vikings. They got the 22nd pick in the draft and other additional mid and late round picks along with the cap relief of not having Diggs under a large contract. Now what they do with those picks and how they pan out may or may not fit their timetable. If in two years Jefferson is very good and they find another starter with those mid-round picks then it will look like the Vikings did good in the trade. But the Bills were in it to win now and fortunately Diggs was out there via trade and the Bills gave up something to get something.

Mel Kiper out of all people was banging the drum on that point that the system he played in during college and the receiving talent was deflating his completion percentage. However Josh did have legit concerns about footwork and game processing that were contributing to his inaccuracy. So it wasn't without risk.

When you don't have a good TE you go with your WR's more. Mac is a nice gadget guy and they seem to like Davis so it doesn't shock me that they are going with Knox on the field less and putting in some gadget plays for Mac and getting Davis some snaps.

I thought the Zay Jones pick was such a slam dunk at the time. I thought at worst he would develop into what Beasley is now which is a solid upper end slot receiver. Sadly he had a lot of issues here and I think that the team put him in over his head once they traded Sammy right before his rookie season and not having much help in 2018. I hope he does at least have a few more years in the league, it just was the wrong place at the wrong time for Zay.