billsfan89

I wouldn't hit the panic button on Luck just yet. He has looked so so in camp and pretty ass in pre-season. But it's only half way through pre-season and he is coming off of a major injury. But If we are in week 7 and Luck still looks horrible it is cause for serious concern.

Football analytics has its place, but football analytics will never be as well respected as baseball and to a lesser extent basketball. But there is a place for PFF style analytics it just has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Fortunately it looks like a more minor injury than previously thought. I hope they just sit him out the rest of pre-season and maybe even week 1, they have Phillips to take over his role.

Everyone here always overreacts to everything. So the calls of bust and savior will be thrown around frequently.

I disagree, although I understand your point that training camp and pre-season is no longer needed in terms of getting players into shape but with the huge amount of coaching and roster turnover teams need some time to build chemistry and incorporate new schemes. Coaches also need to formulate their depth charts and practice squads. College may not have pre-season but they do training camp and scrimmages between teams. Players get hurt in training camp and in scrimmages. So if you got rid of NFL pre-season and did more inter-squad scrimmages you would still see injuries happen there. So is it better than injuries happen under scrimmages as opposed to pre-season?

I wouldn't let pre-season get you too excited in either direction. Tyrod has looked pretty good in pre-season and in training camp. The Browns aren't going to hamper Mayfield's development by playing him too early esp when they have a competent option in Tyrod.

If you shorten pre-season to 2 weeks that doesn't solve the issue. The starters don't play much in game 1 and they don't play at all in game 4. So trimming it to 2 weeks doesn't lessen the playing time of the starters by much. I don't see an issue with the current pre-season format. Game 1 the starters get a few practice swings while the rest of the depth chart is set for games 2 and 3. Games 2 and 3 are the tune ups for the season. Game 4 is a last shot for the reserves and bubble players to make the roster. For the starters it basically is a 2 week pre-season. I find it funny that fans will call for an end to pre-season because of injuries but then when injuries happen during training camp they don't call for an end to training camp. I don't think there is a solution. Teams do need live game simulation to get ready for the season. If you just allowed teams to do more intersquad scrimmages you would just see more injuries happen during those scrimmages.

Ironically I see Rosen being a Sam Bradford/Drew Bledsoe type classic pocket passer. Rosen can make all the throws and moves decently within the pocket. It is just that his mobility won't be a big factor in game plans which could hurt his ceiling.

The talent he is playing with should be better but the talent he is playing against is also much better too. The injury to AJ really hurt because now the team might be in a position to force Allen in or start Peterman who I think isn't very good (He looked great in the pre-season last year too and we know how that turned out.) I lean towards starting Allen but I would also hope that the front office tries to bring in a veteran guard if one were to hit the waiver wire as a cap causality.

He certainly has improved his bad habits but Allen would not be stepping into an offense conducive to being successful esp successful as a rookie. It would be hard for almost any QB to walk into this offense behind this thin group overall and a core lacking along the O-line and WR corps and make an offense good. Asking a rookie to do that might shake his confidence and further entrench bad habits that lead to bad throws. But then again why waste starts on Nathan Peterman? At least McCarron plays a game managing style that works with the process. It might be the right move to start Josh Allen, but I worry it ends up damaging him longer term.

Miller was a 3rd round pick as well, a fairly high pick too. They had a good veteran acquisition in InCog along with 3 players drafted in the first 3 rounds (Wood, Glen, and Miller) and their weakest player Mills at least was fairly good in the ground game. It is clear that the O-line now needs to be restocked. Dawkins a 2nd rounder in recent years is a good chip to have at LT and I do think Groy and Miller could be capable players but LG and RT are clearly areas of need. A lot of Allen's bad habits (which caused him to miss a lot of "easy" throws thus lowering his accuracy) were developed as a result of him playing behind a poor offensive line. I feel like it might be best to take that into consideration when pushing him out as a starter behind a bad O-line. Do we really want Allen's NFL career to start under the same conditions that led to the flaws in his game?

Generally speaking the O-line has been pretty poorly neglected but in 2015 and 2016 the O-line was one of the best units in the league. Glenn was a high draft pick and a pro-bowl caliber player at LT, InCog was a pro-bowler at LG, Wood was a pretty solid center and Groy a good backup for when he got hurt, Miller at RG was a 3rd round pick who played well in 2015 and 2016, and Mills at RT is a poor pass protector but above average as a run blocker. I actually think had InCog been healthy and given us one more season this O-line wouldn't be nearly as tragic as it is looking. That being said they poured the resources into the D-line instead of the O-line. They had limited resources cap wise and they made their choice. I hope next off-season they make a big play to solidify at least one of the guard spots or RT via free agency and spend a high draft choice along the O-line.

The Bills played a game in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, that counts wither or not they "backed in" is completely irrelevant. If you personally don't want to count it then whatever but that is irrelevant to wither or not it actually counts in the records of the NFL. I also would counter your Mets point by saying that RA Dickey should have had a no-hitter because the one hit he allowed in 9 innings should have been ruled an error.

I am pegging the Browns to be between 4-6 wins, I am also pegging the Bills to be between 5-7 wins. The Bills regression is more so due to the massive dead cap they have had to eat and the trade ups for Allen and Edumonds eating away a lot of draft capital leaving other areas of the roster compromised. That's not to say that the moves made weren't the right ones long term, but rather just that playing for the long term was the better move than trying to win in 2018 at all costs. As for the Browns they added a lot of talent to both sides of the ball and they finally settled down their QB situation both in the short term with Tyrod and longer term with Baker. But they still seem like they are a mess off the field. The coaching isn't where it needs to be and the organization isn't where it needs to be overall. I think that if the Browns could find a good coach they could be in a good place longer term as they have a ton of cap space and a foundation of good young talent plus all of their future draft picks. But the trust in the Browns ability to improve as an organization remains questionable at best.

Darnold looked OK, he looked like a rookie, some good some bad. Clearly a player still learning the pro-game. I suspect that the Jets are probably going to try and trade Bridgewater to a QB thirsty team for a solid draft pick. While they start McCown until the bye week where Darnold starts the last 7 games of the season. Unless Darnold lights up week 3 of the pre-season I think the Jets air on the side of caution with Darnold.

Although I am anticipating a bit of regression in 2018 (I think this is a 6-10 team) I think the long term process is very much in place and the team is setting themselves up for massive success in 2019 and beyond. 2019 will bring a windfall of capspace to a team that has a good defense in place, a long term plan at QB, a young quality LT and some other pieces along the offense. The Bills will have 59 million in cap space but they should be able to roll over 10 million in cap space from 2018 bumping up that number to 69 million. But the Bills should also have plenty of big salaries that they can dump if the players are under performing. Jerry Hughes, Shady, Charles Clay, Trent Murphy, Chris Ivory, Vlad, Andre Holmes, Bodine and DiMarco could all be released to free up an additional 32 million in cap space while only eating 12 million in dead cap. Now obviously not all of those players will be released but simply releasing Ivory, Holmes, Vlad, DiMarco and Bodine would free up 10 million in cap and I do suspect one or two out of Hughes, Shady, Clay and Murphy will either be released or have a contract restructured. So the Bills should have between 70-95 million in cap space headed into 2019 with a full complement of draft picks. Although cap space isn't a panacea and the Bills will have to resign some of their own talent but the Bills should have enough space even after taking care of their own (Benjamin is the only player in 2019 they have to immediately resign.) So the Bills could easily use their cap space to sign 2-3 starters and retain Benjamin if he has a strong season while still keeping longer term roster flexibility. Plus they have the draft. to supplement the roster. TLDR Although 2018 might see some regression the Bills have a good plan and philsophy in place.

I am not sold on Ivory but unless there was an injury at RB I think the team is comfortable with Ivory and Murphy behind Shady.

I that is where the speed and first step comes in. Shaq can't out power NFL players and be consistently effective. My hope is the speed off the edge makes it easier for him to make that adjustment to his play.

I thought Shaq played the run well last season before he got hurt. But he never really got any sort of pressure. Hopefully, that quick first step combined with his power results in a better pass rush. Shaq has been pretty banged up his first two seasons so it isn't surprising to me that in his third season he is still looking like he has work to do, but he also looks like he is getting there. Hopefully he stays healthy and can focus on progressing his game with more pass rush moves and the finer points.

If Shaq has a breakout season and ends up being the fixture to the pass rush that the team drafted him to be that's a gigantic plus for the defense going forward. Having Shaq emerge as a prime pass rusher turns the defenses oldest and most questionable unit into a very respectable one and one that has a good young piece anchoring it. Really rooting for Shaq.

I think Zay can turn it around. Zay was known for his hands in college and his struggles last year seemed to be mental. I think his off-season incident might have been a blessing in disguise. It might have allowed him the "Bottoming out" moment that he needed to properly reassess his mental state. I think Zay can in 2018 hold down the slot receiver position over Kerley. I am especially optimistic for Zay with KB looking good and the acquisition of Coleman, those two will hopefully will allow Zay to play out of the slot more where I think he can thrive. He should at least play limited snaps. I can't see why he wouldn't at least take 20-30 offensive snaps. If he is good to go in practice he should at least get some playing time.

1 good pre-season game and jumping a bust on the depth chart is a nice way to start a season but there is a long way to go before Chad becomes a starter, let alone before he is the next Tom Brady. I do agree though that the Bills should have drafted him, I would much rather have had Chad than Peterman on the roster.

4 is perfect, keep in mind if they only have 2 that doesn't mean you will be getting 2 more regular season games. In games 1 and 4 of the pre-season the starters either barely play (game 1) or they simply don't play (game 4.) To me the pre-season is paced perfectly. Game 1 - Is a warm up in the truest sense. The starters play 2-3 drives to shake the rust off while the rest of the game goes to the depth players who get their chance to establish the depth chart for the rest of the pre-season. Game 2 - The first big rehearsal for the regular season. The starters play all or most of the first half and get it into gear for the regular season. The depth players get the second half to shine and the coaches get to get a look at who makes the roster. Game 3- The big gear up for the regular season. The starters play 2-3 drives into the second half and the rest of the game goes to the bench. This get the starters in gear for the season. Game 4- The starters don't do anything, but the depth players get the last chance to shine. This basically serves the purpose of giving the coaches one last chance to set their practice squads and the back end of the depth charts. While games 1 and 4 seem like filler they seem necessary for the coaching staff. I don't see anything wrong with the current structure of the pre-season.

I think the team will miss him somewhat. Edumonds will have some growing pains, Brown wasn't anything special but he was steady and a leader on the defense.

I always look forward to the 2nd and 3rd preseason games. The middle two pre-season games are the "dress rehearsals" for the regular season. Coaches play the starters for almost the entire 1st half in game 2 and about half way into the 3rd quarter in game 3. The 1st pre-season game is usually just 2 or 3 drives of starters than 2nd and 3rd and 4th stringers the rest of the way. The starters don't even play the 4th game the 4th game is mostly for 2nd, 3rd and a few 4th string players to get their last chance to cement roster spots and depth chart spots.