billsfan89

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.

Most Viking fans hated the trade, the only positives were that at least if they traded him they got good value. Personally loving Diggs...

There was very legitimate concerns to be had about Josh coming out of college. Accuracy is something that can rarely be taught at the pro level and Josh also had to develop his footwork and decision making game awareness. Josh also came from a small college and rarely played against great competition. The Bills gambled on Josh having elite throwing power, running ability, size and strength and his intangibles as a smart leader making him able to harness those abilities at a pro-level. The Bills also gambled that his accuracy issues while there were overstated in college due to the deep passing scheme and low talent level would deflate completion percentage. The Bills so far appear to have been correct, experience and coaching have helped his footwork, decision making and game processing/awareness. Which has tightened up his accuracy and allowed him to harness his elite attributes thus far in 2020. So I don't blame PFF or FO for not liking Josh out of college. There have been a lot of other "million dollar arm" type QB's who never developed accuracy in the pros. Josh had a good amount of red flags. But after 2019 Josh gave hints of being able to win and improve, you had to at least upgrade your outlook of him somewhat. And thusfar in 2020 he has only shown to progress more and is likely at the very least a mid-level starting caliber QB.

PFF does try to do situation weighing but for whatever reason they don't do a good enough job of it. Football Outsiders grades every player on every play like PFF but their metrics and other subjective elements are just better than PFF. I don't know if PFF has lesser qualified people watching the games or what their deal is but their ratings always seem more off.

I do generally agree that the Bills should be more cautious in brining back Edumonds and Milano due to it being a non-conference game. However I am not so sure that these injuries are that serious. Considering the 3 week IR minimum, why not just IR Edumonds and Milano if the injury is a 3 week recovery? I think there is a 50/50 chance that each of them play.

Milano is a key player in the defense. But his durability is a concern and at some point the Bills will have to make a hard choice on the roster due to the cap. They resigned Dawkins and White to big deals and they will need to make some cuts somewhere on the cap and that might be naming a price on Milano and sticking to it

PFF is clearly working backwards from their conclusions to hate on Josh. Was Josh the best QB last Sunday? Maybe you could argue it, but he certainly was a top 5 performer at worst.

Very clearly going to come down to the Bills vs. Pats. Newton has found his new home in NE and they are competitive and will in my opinion win at least 10 games. The Bills need 11 wins if not 12 to win the division.

This team should be passing to set up the run. I also think this team should feature Singletary more in the ground game. I think he is simply the more effective back, that's not a knock on Moss who should get a share of touches and carries but rookies are having a rough start all around the league.

The NFC East is trash, The NFC West is probably the toughest division in football, 4 legit teams there. The Chiefs and Ravens are the elite teams in the AFC (Outside of the Bills of course) while Pittsburgh, The Titans, The Colts and New England should all be tough teams to beat in the AFC. Tampa Bay should be a legit team out in the NFC as I think they are at least a 10 win team. The NFC runs through Seattle and NOLA but I would rule out Green Bay or Tampa.

Patriots are for real. Despite the close loss they are still a contender for this division. The Bills are going to have to win 2 out of the next 3 going into that KC game. Winning 2 out of 3 puts you at 4-1, a loss to KC puts you at 4-2 and then you can fatten up against the Jets and go to 5-2 heading into a matchup with NE. That matchup with NE week 8 is going to be so critical to this teams success. I think that if they can get to 6-2 by week 8 beating NE they will be set up for a good stretch. Yes the back half of the schedule isn't easy but hey good teams beat other good teams.

This game might be a bit of a shootout. IF Edumonds and Milano can get back on the field I think the Bills should be able to take it as with a healthy LB core I think they can slow down the Rams offense just enough. But if one or both are out then it could get ugly over the middle again and it becomes a 60/40 game where I can see the Rams taking it. This is a solid game to see exactly how good this team is. Decent defense, very good offense solid ST unit. Good test for Josh as the Rams defense will be the best he has faced so far in 2020 and the defense will be facing a potent offense. Overall it seems like a good temperature check for this team.

Not really, the running game hasn't been successful the first two games. It started to get going in the second half a bit against the Fins so I am optimistic that it will get going. But overall Josh has just been that much more effective throwing the ball and it is what the playcalling is and should be leaning into.