billsfan89

There are a lot of variables as to what will happen in 2020. Ultimately I trust the Dems to ***** it up and not manage their control of the House (they will probably focus on indictments and other stupid stuff) I also trust the Dems to run another bad Hillary Clinton type candidate. IF the Dems push a more populist left policy agenda and a less Russia based agenda they stand a chance to push momentum positively in 2020. But as I said the Dems are as incompetent as the day is long. But I do think that there was a mandate from the voters to reel Trump in but once again it matters what you do with the support of the voters.

Cam also put up one of the best rookie seasons ever. Allen has looked like a very raw rookie (which isn't unexpected) they only comparable they had are their big frames and insane arm strength. That being said Allen will be the starting QB next season, hopefully they massively upgrade the offensive talent and adjust the scheme to his strengths and mask his weaknesses. After seeing what he has in 2019 they will make a longer term decision on his future although no matter what he is going to get a shot to be the stater in 2020.

The Bills aren't at the point where they should bench most veterans (That's usually reserved for the last 2-3 games of a season) but in this particular case when neither veteran player is doing all that well and you have a 5th round pick sitting on the bench you might as well see what he has over the next 7 games because if Teller finishes strong in the back half of the season maybe you invest the resources you would have spent on two guards into one high end signing? Its better to make the change now and see if you get some better play or at worst know Teller needs more development.

I think you are being a prisoner of the moment. The Pats are clutch and in a winner take all one shot game its hard to take them down. The Rams are as complete a team as possible and in a rematch I wouldn't count them out. The Chiefs are the softest of the 4 but in a shootout the Chiefs have as good a talent to do that as anyone.

Bills 16 Jets 13. A real ugly defensive struggle. The Bills get a couple of turnovers and eek out a win.

I don't think the XFL expects to or wants to compete with the NFL. I think the XFL wants to be more like the USFL in the 1980's and be a winter/spring league for football fans who don't want to watch the back half of the NHL and NBA seasons and spring training. Even the original XFL wasn't trying to be direct competition but just be an alternative. I don't think the XFL2 will be successful even if they apply some of the lessons they learned from the first time. I do however think there is room for a spring football league. I think there is room in the sports landscape for minor league off-season football.

I disagree with the sentiment of the article because there are always 5-6 teams whose seasons fall apart early and they go into a tank mode of trading vets and playing the young guys. Then there are 3-4 elite front running Super Bowl contenders followed by 4-6 teams who are secondary contenders who can get hot and contend. Then the rest of the league is just trying to make the playoffs. The balance isn't that much more different than it has been in years past. The Saints, Rams, Chiefs, and Pats are elite contenders and then you have the Panthers, Steelers, Vikings, Chargers, Falcons, and possibly one or two other teams are in the "If they get hot" category.

I wouldn't put the Saints above the Rams, Chiefs, and Pats. But the Saints are for sure in the conversation with those teams as being an elite Super Bowl contender. The best part about the NFL in my opinion is that you can have 4 teams that are legit contenders but then have several other teams that can get hot and have a shot to contend. I wouldn't rule out the Vikings, Panthers, Chargers, Falcons, and The Steelers in the conversation either.

I was in the camp that wanted to keep Tyrod for one more year because he was on a great one year deal and could have kept Allen from starting for at least a year. But that being said the offense with a run first and don't turn the ball over mentality ranked 9th in 2015 and 10th in 2016. IF the Bills had a top 5 defense like they had in 2014 those years the team would have had a top 5 defense to go along with a top 10 offense. A top 5 defensive unit and a capable top 10 offense is a recipe for a 10+ win team, Rex's poor execution of the defense cost the team a chance at 2 playoff appearances.

Rex inherited the best or second best defense in the league and in two seasons had defenses ranked 24 and 27. The reason the over under's set by Vegas were so low was because in 2015 there was questions about the QB play. Everyone thought the team had a stacked defense and a stacked offense outside of the QB position. The biggest weakness actually turned out to not be that big of a liability since Tyrod was a decent QB. But Rex's specialty defense was what let the team down. Ironically Rex and Whaley made so many good moves on the offensive side of the ball, they had two good coordinators on offense. bringing in InCog and drafting Miller fixed up the O-line (even finding Mills was a plus to the run game,) trading for Shady was a brilliant move, Tyrod stabilized the QB play, and even though Clay was massively overpaid he still was a productive player. But switching the scheme defensively was jamming a round peg in a square hole. If they had that 2014 defense with the 2015 offense I have no doubt they win 11 games. Hell they won 8 with the 24th ranked defense, I think with a top 5 defense they at least pull out 3 more wins. Even in 2016 everyone still thought that the team suddenly had a more than competent offense and with the additions on defense and everyone "having another year in the scheme" thought the defense under someone who is supposed to be a defensive guru would help turn around the defense. But the defense regressed even further. If Rex had fielded even competent defenses he would have at least gotten another year or two but he ***** a great defense up and couldn't take advantage of a big spending spree.

I find it so odd that KB is such a bust this season, dude is on a contract year and hasn't collected a big contract in his career. You would think he would be balling out trying to get a big guaranteed deal. Dude is playing like a guy phoning it in on a fat guarantee in his ***** contract year. I hope he saves all that 5th year option money because that's the last significant money he is going to see in his career.

Peterman played quite well for me to poop on.

Guards are no longer plug and play easy to find players. That's due to many factors but the main two in my opinion are the influx of high end interior pass rushers at the DT position and the changing of college offenses to spread offenses is leading to all offensive line play being less prepared to translate to the NFL. 5 years ago you could draft Guards in rounds 1-3 and the bust rate was pretty low. You could find free agent guards fairly easily. Buddy Nix found guys like Craig Urbik off the scrap heap and he played pretty well for a few years. But interior O-line players are no longer these easily changeable pieces.

Rex's teams had much much bigger expectations. The 2015 team was thought to be a playoff contender that could make some noise if they got decent QB play. Rex in 2015 inherited one of the best defenses in the league and although the offense was ass in 2014 they brought in a lot of help on offense. Adding InCog and drafting Miller along an O-line that had pieces in Wood and Glenn. They added Shady and Clay to a skill position core that had Sammy, Woods, Goodwin, and Hogan. They even got decent QB play with Tyrod but Rex ***** up a great defense that had added a good player in Darby. In 2016 he was given a draft to add some pieces to the defense to better run his scheme and the team still had mediocre results. The difference between McBeane and Rex was expectations. Rex took over a 9-7 team that added a lot of talent, McBeane took over a 7-9 team that was not in a good position cap wise and had aging talent. Rex had a pair of rosters on paper that should have produced double digit wins and the reason for failure in both years was a subpar defense which was supposed to be Rex's specialty.

They should just start Teller the rest of the way. There is very little to be gained starting Miller or Vlad. Miller although still fairly young has been ruined by this team the past two seasons, even though I think some team might be able to salvage him, his time here is done. Vlad is a vet, he might be a decent backup but he just is what he is at this point. You need to see what you have with Teller the rest of the way. If Teller finishes the back 7 games strong maybe you are fine with him at RG and you only have 3 holes to plug along the O-line.

The plan was in my opinion a 2 year rebuild for McBeane, they gutted a lot of players on this roster to acquire draft capital and future cap space. They exceeded expectations with a playoff birth in year one but that didn't necessarily change their plans on how to build the team. I am willing to write off 2018 as the step back to take two steps forward that it is, but in 2019 with the many avenues they have to improve the team the results need to be there in 2019.

Chiefs fans mocking the move were right this guy was trash, really wished they had kept EJ Gaines instead of signing Vonta.

Haha I forgot about Mike Leach, I just looked up his record in his second college gig and after a rough start he has done a pretty good job with Washington State. I don't think he would make for a good NFL coach however, I think he would likely be a Chip Kelly kind of NFL coach. But I wouldn't mind seeing him be the next coach if nothing for innovation and taking a shot but I think it was you or some other big Mike Leach supporter that had me sold on him right around the time they made the Chan hiring.

2019 is make or break for McBeane in my opinion. I am not shocked that 2018 is a lost season, my expectations for the season were 6-10, the fact that they are 2-7 is probably right about where I thought they would be honestly. They are probably in line for a 4-12 or 5-11 season (I think they split the Fish and Jets games while possibly scratching out another game) which isn't that much worse than I thought they would be. The offense being bad isn't shocking to me and given the resources invested in the offense (or lack thereof) it is somewhat understandable that the offense is the worst in the league (although being historically bad is rocking my confidence as I will explain below.) However what is making 2019 an absolute make or break season for me is the complete bungling of the QB situation. I can forgive trading Tyrod since they got a fairly good pick for him. Signing AJ McCaron for the money they did was a smart move as out of the available QB's out there he wasn't a bad option and at his price he was a solid addition. But the complete idiocy surrounding the team going into the season with Peterman and Allen as the only QB's on the roster is astounding. How McD thought he was set at QB with a raw rookie and Peterman a second year player whose only positive has been looking good in pre-season games and whose biggest negative is his horrible regular season play at every stage of his career, is baffling. There is no excuse for trading AJ and not immediately moving to sign a decent backup veteran QB like Derek Anderson or Matt Moore. But given the dead cap situation and the needed trade up to acquire Allen I am willing to let 2019 be the "All In" year for McBeane. You have gutted a lot of your roster for cap space and assets and you have the big piece in Allen in place. There is no more excuses for not being able to find the last piece or two for the defense and infuse the offense with a lot of talent. The regime has been able to draft well and their free agency resume is so-so (although they have not had much space to sign players via free agency the past 2 off-seasons, I think if you total the amount of contracts that are over 3 million aav its about 5-7 contracts spanning 2 off-seasons.) If they can nail 4-5 free agency signings and have another good draft I think there will be a good shot at a turnaround.

This offense is historically bad, you could see McD watching the offense on the sidelines and it is clear that they will need to spend significant free agent money on the offense. I agree with you in general that McBeane is more of a retain your own players type regime but they will have to at least bring in 3-4 starters via free agency on the offense and I suspect they will sign a corner on the defensive side as well. They can spend every draft pick on the offensive side of the ball and it won't be enough of an infusion of talent to impact the tide of the offense enough. They need to infuse the offense with talent using at least a significant chunk of their cap space. Considering the good market for interior O-line players and the massive need there I can't help but think that they will at least go big game hunting to sign one big contract there. Although the WR market isn't all that great I think they bring in at least one veteran of note there too. I am hoping for a somewhat big spending spree along the offense (I would love to see Saffold from the Rams and one other interior O-line player come in along with Golden Tate) but I am prepared for a more modest spending season.

Gregg Williams sounds like that kid in 8th grade who is getting laid like crazy two towns over and also had a hot Canadian girlfriend at summer camp too.

Flop is a strong word in my opinion. AJ wasn't bad in training camp he was just outshined by Peterman and Allen made more wow plays with that cannon he has (Allen also made more questionable plays.) Even if you wanted to argue that a 5th for AJ was simply too good to pass up there was tremendous idiocy in not signing another veteran right after the AJ trade.

They should have kept AJ or at the very least if you are trading AJ they should have signed a veteran immediately after. The fact that this regime though that Peterman and Allen were the only QB's necessary on this roster show how horrendous they handled the QB situation.

Away against a solid Chicago team is one that I could see ***** them up. Mack is a one man wrecking crew who can disrupt any offense, the rest of their defense is good, and the offense is capable of putting up points (although inconsistently.) Its also in Chicago in December, that's the X-Factor in my mind. Bad weather can make any game a tight one possession game let alone bad weather on the road. At New Orleans and home for the Chiefs are another two games that are their most talented opponents so I suspect the Rams are unlikely to be undefeated by the time they play the Bears but if they are 12-0 going into that game I think that's the last really suspect game for them.

Have a lot of people been calling for Dawkins to not play LT? Dude has been on of the few consistent bright spots on an O-line whose play has been more bad than good. PFF graded him out a secret stud, (I know PFF ratings aren't the be all end all but its a piece worthy of factoring in) and he played strong last year. Dawkins is the only player on the O-line that should come back in 2019. I don't think it is a common thought among a significant portion of Bills fans that want him to be moved inside.