billsfan89

OT should be 15 minutes in its current format. I like the idea of a field goal on the opening drive not instantly ending games as once teams got into sub 45ish yard field goal range teams would basically play uber conservative (Inch the ball up a few yards and stop playing for a TD) and kick a field goal. Now teams are encouraged to actually go for TD's on opening drives. I don't know why they shortened it to 10 minutes as that is basically enabling ties. If team A kicks a field goal and team B responds with a field goal odds are those drives are going to be about 4-5 minutes each. Which means that when team A gets the ball back there isn't much time left in a 10 minute period. Whereas if OT was 15 minutes you probably would have 6-7 minutes left in Overtime where a field goal would win it. I have no idea why the NFL decided to lower the amount of time in overtime, what problem were they trying to solve? Hockey does 5 on 5 golden goal overtime for the playoffs. The 3 on 3 and shoot out is gimmicky but at least it is confined to the regular season.

I agree somewhat, I do seriously question McBeane's ability to bring in free agents. But in the 2017 off-season where McD was having a big hand in free agent acquisitions they did hit on Hyde, Proyer, and Haush. Although the 2018 free agents are looking pretty poor McBeane only had 2 contracts above 3 million dollars a season and although Murphy and Star aren't looking like they were worth their contracts they are only 25% into the season and Murphy's deal is pretty easy to get out of. But the sample size for what McBeane can do with cap space is small. I hope their results are more similar to 2017 where they found 3 starters in free agency than it is to 2018 where they found 1 starter who is overpaid for the roles he provides (Star) and a player whose impact is more so that of a good role player as opposed to the starter he is paid for (Murphy.) The Bills in my mind will need to find at least 3-4 starters on offense via free agency and probably some help on the pass rush side of things via free agency and maybe a slot corner too. Overall they have the cap space to make these signings but the jury is still out if they can find the players at the appropriate price.

The team also has a playoff appearance under McD something no coach has done since Wade.

4 games in he looks great (Although tonight he got carried by his supporting cast) jury is still out and I have the upmost confidence that Mahomes wouldn't look nearly as good in the Bills system with the Bills supporting talent.

Losman and Allen share a somewhat similar draft profile. Both were big arm QB's, good mobility, came from not so good teams, they both had good scores on the Wonderlic (Losman scored a 31 and Allen scored a 37) and they even shared some accuracy and footwork concerns. But Allen is a different beast than Losman. For one Allen has maybe the strongest arm to come out of college since Cam Newton or JaMarcus Russell and arguably has one of the strongest arms to ever be scouted. Losman had a strong arm coming out of college but it was not unreal like Losman's. Another big difference is the intangibles. Losman was thought to have a bad attitude coming out of college. Allen's intangibles are thought to be very good. Another significant difference is Losman's throwing motion was a bigger concern than Allen's. There are also some small differences in favor of Allen as he is three inches taller and just a bigger overall player. Although the accuracy and college production issues were less significant in the case of Losman so there is some positives in favor of Losman but I think that overall they aren't very similar coming out of the draft. Allen is a lot more raw coming out of the draft but Allen also is a much higher ceiling player. Losman had some very positive attributes coming out of college, he certainly was a bit more polished a product, but he was not nearly as tantalizing as Allen and came with big attitude issues to boot.

Zay has come a long way from the awful 2017 campaign he actually looks like an NFL player out there. I hope that as Allen gets more comfortable and Zay feels things out a bit more (remember he is coming off an injury) that the more significant production from Zay will come. If Zay has a decent 50ish receptions 500ish yard season I think he certainly will prove he is worthy of being on the roster for one more season to see if he can develop in year 3. Sometimes player development takes time. I don't think Zay will ever live up to his draft position but hopefully he can be a contributor.

I wouldn't write the Colts or At Jets game as losses, nor would I write off the Lions game as a loss either. The Dolphins got off to a hot starts but neither Fins game are loses either. Overall I think the Bills have at least 7 more winable games on the schedule (now that doesn't mean they will win all 7 of those game) Both NE games, the Bears, Titans, and Jags games to me seem like 5 unlikely to win games. The rest the Bills have a chance.

Everyone here (and pretty much anywhere NFL related) loves to overreact to everything positively or negatively. After the bad losses the Bills should fire everyone and trade Allen for a 7th if we could be so lucky. After the Vikings game to quote Rodney Dangerfield from the end of Caddy Shack "We're all going to get laid." Coaches will often say they look at seasons in quarters so after 4 games what are you composed thoughts and impressions about the team thus far? Positives 1- The defensive turn around. After 6 God awful defensive quarters the team has been pretty good and consistent defensively. If this team has any hope of trying to win games and develop Josh Allen they will need a consistent defensive effort 2- Josh Allen. Josh Allen has not looked good in 2 out of his 3 starts. But he has flashed athletic ability and he has put together some really nice throws. I think that considering how raw a prospect Allen was coming out of college it isn't surprising to see Allen come out and look very uneven. 3- Young defenders. Phillips, Johnson, Milano, Edumonds, White, and the continued development of a young core of defensive players emerging gives hope that this strong defensive play can be sustained beyond this season. Hopefully Shaq gets added to that list of good young players. 4- Zay Jones. Zay hasn't light the world on fire but he is competently putting together a decent season, after Zay's mental breakdown and injury issues it is good to see him not only playing but probably becoming the teams best WR out of an abysmal core. I could honestly see Zay developing into a quality slot receiver. Negatives. 1- Peterman. The fact that Peterman is one snap away from playing is unforgivable. The fact that this staff got fooled by per-season Peterman twice is horrendous. I don't mind having Peterman as a third string QB but why on Earth have they not explored a veteran backup option? 2- The O-line The Bills might have the worst O-line in football. I know the All-22 has been a bit kinder to the O-line esp in the LA loss (no word on the Green Bay loss as I type this) but watching this team you can see they are losing the battle in the trenches rather consistently in every game but the Vikings game. Playing a rookie behind this O-line is something that could seriously stunt Allen's footwork development. 3- The skill position core. The WR core in particular is outright bad and might be the worst unit in the league certainly bottom 5. KB isn't doing much and Zay Jones putting together a decent season is probably the best thing going which says a lot. The rest of the team is Andre Holmes a JAG veteran and a bunch of young players not doing a whole lot. Clay and the tight ends are decent if you had good receivers but they have limited impact since the receiving core is awful. 4- Shady might be done. Shady was/is a dynamic offensive weapon, one of the things that could have made the skill position core's relative weakness palpable is if Shady was still an elite weapon out of the backfield. With his injury and at his age/miles it isn't looking to good for him early. Granted this is only 25% into the season so there is still plenty of time for him to turn it around but it is sad to see him get off to such a bad start. Overall the Bills are who we thought they were a team that mortgaged veteran players to get out from under contracts and accrue draft capital. They then spent that draft capital on two trade ups to acquire Allen and Edumonds (Cordy Glenn and picks 21, 22, 53, 56, and 65 for Allen, Edumonds, and a 5th round pick.) Those trade ups and the massive dead cap really crippled the teams ability to build a more complete roster. If you trade away a lot of productive veteran players for draft capital (Which also incurs short term dead cap) and then do two big trade ups with that draft capital then there are going to be massive holes on parts of the roster. The Bills are looking to be who we thought they probably were. A team that has some key pieces in place but will have to wait until the dead cap clears in order to build up other parts of their roster.

Luckily he will only get a better feel for the game by playing more. It is going to be a very up and down season for Allen. This is to be expected for a very raw rookie.

Tampa actually did invest a lot of their draft picks and free agency dollars into their defense this past off-season. Surprised they haven't at least looked competent.

In the 2013 draft where Geno Smith and EJ led the pack I certainly think a player of Allen's profile would have been a top 5 pick. I think in most draft classes he isn't viewed as the top 1-2 selection at QB.

I don't think they can, as long as a QB is able to scramble and avoid a hit tackling a QB via a straight line is the best way of attaining a sack. This rule is way too hard and way too burdensome for defenders. There have been defenders who have hit the QB with their shoulder and because of the way they fell they got flagged. When one human being is taking down another human being in a matter of seconds it is almost impossible to expect them to make last second adjustments to how they fall onto that person. This directive is effectively making a QB insanely harder to sack in a manner that is completely unfair and almost impossible for defenders.

The NFL still dominates Sundays. But the NFL its self has crippled its own products ability to continue to grow with overexposure (Those dumb Thursday games) and poor management of external issues (The Ray Rice debacle and the anthem protests.) The NFL still does insane TV ratings and the ratings this year so far have done well (after two years of declines the NFL's ratings are either holding steady or slightly up.) Overall I don't think the NFL is necessarily less popular but rather that the NFL has handled its business poorly and it has turned away some casual fans.

The video doesn't make sense because the game is played at speed and these defenders can't make these adjustments in matter of well below a second. At this point you should just make hitting the QB illegal because these new rules are just an insane over correction.

Hyde and Proyer are a very legit top 5 safety combo in the league, so to underplay them as "scrappy" is under playing them and as you mentioned White is a stud at corner. That's a pretty good base to start a secondary with, toss in the fact that Johnson seems to be playing well and that adds a second pretty good reliable corner. If you have 4 very legit players who can all play at a high level that's a pretty dam good secondary if they are all healthy. IF Johnson is playing at a high level I would classify them as a top 5 secondary.

I wonder what WR's will be available on the trade market if any. I think that if Allen continues to progress well the team will have to at least scan the market for WR's as it is likely the weakest group on the team.

From 2006 to 2010 the only notable young QB's that came into the league were Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, and Joe Flacco. I would argue that only Ryan is really an elite player out of the 3. That's 5 consecutive draft classes with a subpar influx of QB's into the league. That's certainly going to help those older QB's seem at the top of the league longer.

It's been a solid steady flow of good young QB's into the league since 2011. 2011- Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Tyrod (Cam is a top 10 QB with top 5 potential, Dalton is a pretty good QB, and Tyord a competent QB) 2012- Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Tannehill, and Kirk Cousins (Wilson is a legit top 10 QB borderline top 5, Luck is beaten up but he was elite for a few years while Tannehill and Cousins have emerged as a starting caliber QB's) Nick Foles was also in this draft class. 2013- Busts, seriously one of the worst draft classes of all time. 2014- Derrick Carr and Jimmy G (Carr is a pretty good QB and Jimmy G flashed potential but sadly got hurt) 2015- Winston and Mariota (Both have top 10 potential but Winston's off field issues have hampered him and injuries have hampered Mariota.) 2016- Goff, Wentz, and Dak (Goff and Wentz are top 10 if not top 5 QB's and Dak could still be a decent QB.) 2017- Trubinsky, Mahomes, and Watson (Mahomes is lighting the league on fire, Watson light the world on fire last year, and Trubinsky well he will keep getting starts to turn it around.) 2018- Mayfield, Allen, Darnold, Rosen, and Jackson (5 legit QB prospects.) I feel like from 2006-2010 there was a big dry spell for QB's. The only real notable QB's to emerge were Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, and Matthew Stafford. 06, 07, and 10 were particularly bad drafts that produced no notable QB's.

Bell will easily be able to recoup that 15 million he lost sitting out this season by signing a huge deal in 2019. Bell could sign a deal with upwards of 40 million guaranteed in 2019. Bell will be two years older than he was in the 2017 season but he will be coming off of a year where he wasn't injured and logged 0 wear and tear. He is preserving his future value by not playing for a team who only has 2018 in his interests. If you are in a market paying for future production then avoiding the risk of a team running you into the ground for one season is probably a smart idea. Bell is avoiding the scenario where he collects that 15 million but gets hurt and loses the value of a future contract. Even if Bell signs a 30 million dollar guarantee that's double the guarantee he currently has with much less risk. His representation is giving him the right advice. He played on the franchise tag last year and played out his rookie deal all at high levels of production. Now with his team having little recourse but to fine him he is not having much at risk.

Luck clearly isn't anywhere close to what he was. Now his injury was very very serious so I am not willing to write him off just yet as he clearly was going to need some time to get back to 100%. He looks like damaged goods but still too early to tell.

Even as far as second round busts Cyrus Kouandjio is as equally bad a bust as Zay is thus far. Cyrus was drafted to be a huge anchor at RT very early in the second round. Cyrus obviously didn't pan out for the Bills. So even by the standards of recent draft busts there are equally as bad ones.

I love Lorax as a specialty all around player. Obviously Milano and Edumonds are projected to be 3 down line backers. Both Milano and Edumonds can play the run and are fast enough to defend the short and intermediate pass game. Lorax however is a little exposed against the pass. But as an early down LB and as a pass rush specialist he has value. Not to mention the positive force he is in the locker room.

He caught his only target for 17 yards and it was an important catch for a first down fairly early in the game. It also seemed like Zay got a limited amount of snaps as the team seemed to be rotating receivers to keep everyone fresh. Only WR that I saw consistently out there was Benjamin. He wasn't a factor out there but it wasn't like the team was throwing a lot after they built the lead either. Zay hasn't crushed it but he had a big play against the Chargers and he seems to be consistently working it out there. I wouldn't throw in the towel on him just yet.

I love football but I can't get into college football for some reason. I think it is mainly due to the sheer volume of teams and the bizarre notion of ranking teams before they have even played that turns me off. I also feel like a lot of teams play 50% or more of their games against far less opponents which makes watching week in and week out less interesting. I also find it inherently un-American that a league with multiple billion dollar television contracts can't pay their players. I am sorry but we don't charge some of the players to go to school isn't exactly what I would call fair compensation.

I think Dez is a potential problem child which makes me think he wouldn't fit the process. I am curious as to if there are any other WR's on the market that would be worth kicking the tires on? I would have loved to have traded for Josh Gordon who I think is a legit number one and would have brought a lot of speed to complement Allen's big arm. But no use crying about not getting Gordon. However, I do think that all options should be explored when it comes to getting some help at WR.