billsfan89

I'm also glad to in the third round take chances on a high upside talent who might need more developing. That's the luxury of being a talented team. The Bills going into the draft had Groot, AJE, Bosa, and Hoecht 4 pretty solid to good DE options either as starters or higher end rotation players. Then you also had Solomon a mid-round pick the year before coming in off a year of development. The Bills didn't need a prospect who could come in right away year 1. They were drafted at DE more so for 2026 when Bosa and AJE are likely gone and they will need someone to step into the rotation. Jackson is a physical freak he had a 9.88 (and by some estimates a 9.95) RAS score. He has a good head on his shoulders too so character concerns aren't there. So if he maybe doesn't know how to use his hands or attack tackles at the NFL level give him a year to learn and develop and a second off-season as well and let's see what this guy has in 2026. Bad teams desperately need rookies who can make an impact right away. So teams with more pressing needs likely are going to pass on high upside players who might need a year or two because they need competence now. Overall I am just not too worried about Landon. Now if in 2026 he's not even able to crack the rotation at DE then yeah he's trending towards bust.

Skyy Moore's porn name ironically is Pete Jones...

I also think fans kind of forget that Knox is one of Josh’s friends on the team and this team is also dropping a lot of 3 TE sets as the new “6th offensive line” wrinkle. Knox isn’t going anywhere this season and if he is willing to rework his deal next year he will probably be back

I am just saying that it is hard to write off a regular season that is still currently in progress and the fun fans have with that because the destination hasn’t been reached yet. There’s a lot of football left to be played and it is also about the journey enjoying the season as it unfolds and such. I remember a lot about last season not just the sad ending. Yeah it is bitter pill to swallow falling short but it is also still about all the ups and downs of a season not just the result

Going to this Sunday evening game, what is the best way to tailgate? What time do they open the lots for a SNF game? Any info would be tremendously appreciated!

This idea Vrabel has McD's number is not really accurate. The Titans were a bad matchup for the Bills not because they were masterfully coached (I would classify Vrable as an OK coach) but because they had two components that were a bad matchup for the Bills. Derrick Henry and a strong interior D-line. In the early Josh era 2020-2022 the Bills interior O-line was ok to mediocre and the Titans had Simmons and other good DT's that were among the better DT units in the league. And as you mentioned the Bills in that matchup were still 3-2 despite the mismatch.

The defense last year was ranked 17th. It did well against sub par offense, OK against OK offense, and bad against good offenses. This year with an influx of talent hopefully it can push at top 10 ranking which would be a substantial improvement. Thus far it is ranked something like 12th overall. We haven't seen this team play great offenses week to week other than week 1 against a healthy Ravens which the team did not fare well. Other than that the defense has faired from OK to very good against lesser offenses.

You have to win in the regular season to make the playoffs? I don't get this thinking that regular season is not important. I understand that in the end the seasons of most teams who are contenders are going to be decided in the post-season. But you for one have to get there and trying to get a top seed is important. So to think that while the regular season is going on it all doesn't matter is just silly to me. The Bills in the Josh era have never been the one seed, seems to me that would be a tremendous advantage?

The positions where I think the Bills could possibly be on the market for a player. WR- The Bills don't have a "go to" WR. It could be an issue, I would gladly take a chance on a real difference maker like Olave but I also just don't think the Bills would do it nor do I think any other actual affordable (cap wise) difference maker is there. Bills will have to hope Keon/Kincaid continue to develop. DT- For what seems like the 6th trade deadline in a row the Bills could use a true big run stuffing DT. But given the recent draft investment of Sanders/Walker and the vets in Ed/Jones and a returning Larry O I just don't see them doing this. Safety- Cole is playing better and I think will get better the more snaps he gets. But does this team think they could upgrade Rapp? Maybe acquire a safety and move Rapp to a "big nickel" niche role like he had in 2023? LB- Maybe more so a depth need here. Bernard is a solid MLB and Milano a quality player when healthy. And the Bills have seemingly found a nice vet in Shaq Thompson. But with the sudden lackluster performance from Dorian Williams (Buffalo Joe more of a ST ace and a third stringer) could this team maybe use some depth at LB? Milano has durability issues and Shaq is older. I think a smart move here could be a trade some depth at LB. CB- Mad Max will likely/hopefully be back at some point but if Tre gets hurt could this team go after a corner? Or even if Tre just struggles and Strong is a bit raw and Mad Max's return is later in the year does this team look to get more at corner? I think overall this team is going to make some sort of move on the defensive side. Not necessarily a massive difference maker (those aren't exactly easy to find at the trade deadline) but a Rasul Dougals 2023 acquisition the could add a good starting caliber piece to the defense to further solidify the unit. Bills can't fit Trey under the cap, the Bengals just gave him a boat load of cash to keep him happy this year. There's no major impact player that the Bills could likely acquire under the cap. I think the best the Bills could hope for is a Rasul Douglas 2023 type player, a solid to good starter to bolster a unit.

The opposite side of that coin is that none of the offense were all that good. The Jets have one of the worst offenses in the league certainly bottom 10, Miami's offense is mid-level (likely bottom 10 with Hill out but at the time the Bills played them they were a decent but not great offense) at best, and the Saints are another bottom 10 offense. Granted if you aren't going to "beat up" or at least play solidly against the bottom feeders who are you going to play well against? Also 5 key players could possibly be back at some point this season so its not like there aren't reinforcements coming. I also think if this team needs a piece of defense they will go out and acquire one maybe not a dynamic game breaker but a quality starter similar to how they acquired Douglas in 2023 (who say what you will about how he played in 2024 was fairly good in 2023). I think the truth about the defense is that by the time all is said and done it probably somewhat better than last years defense but we don't know if it is better by a big enough margin? Last year the defense was ranked 17th which tracks with how it performed (beat up on bad teams, OK against OK teams, and bad against good teams). This year if they ranked 15th that's not gonna cut it, but if they can be a 11-12th ranked caliber defense that could make a difference.

I would say that if the playoff format were still 6 teams that the Ravens are likely going to put themselves in too big of a hole to make it. But the AFC is likely going to put 9-8 teams in play for the final wildcard spot so I think if they can just limit the damage and float within a game or two of .500 deeper into November they will at least give themselves a chance at a wildcard run. If 2 out of the 3 teams let's up a bit AFC South Wildcard Jags or Colts, Pats or Second AFC West Wildcard Denver/Chargers/KC then the Ravens could find themselves only needing to go 9-8 to be "in the mix" for the 7th seed. The AFC just isn't a deep conference where you need to push 10-11 wins for a wildcard. That can change of course. I certainly think the Ravens are going to be rooting for the Chiefs and Bills this weekend to bring the Jags down to the pack and to hand the Pats a loss to keep them at bay. The fact that they could go 9-8 and be in the mix and at worst only need to go 10-7 to get a wildcard or their division is what keeps me from counting the Ravens out. They are 1-3 which while not good means they would only need to go 8-5 to get to 9-8 and 9-4 to get to 10-7.

Both things could be true, his lack of separation could be hindering him from being an elite WR but he's still a quality player contributing in multiple ways. The team doesn't need Keon to be a Diggs level superstar they just need him to be a quality boundary WR who can win outside matchups here or there.

Keon's having a nice second year, his stats outside of week 1 aren't eye popping but this teams WR's are going to some ups and downs stats wise. I think one thing that's underrated about Keon is the blocking he brings in the running game and YAC situations. It's not a glamours thing to be a very strong blocker at WR but it adds value to the team and opens up what they can run playbook wise. I think he will finish pushing 1k yards and 70+ catches with 5-6 TD's on solid but not great efficiency. That's right where this team needs him to be.

I remember watching the game in real time and thinking Brown was having a terrible game in pass pro but still doing well run blocking and then realizing half way through it was VDM. I think his pass protection was OK, but given that the ground game didn't skip a beat (and the All-22 reviews and somewhat smart people reviewing the film say this) I think his run blocking was good. If a swing tackle can give you competent play that's about as good as you can ask for and a true luxury to have even a decent backup tackle when many teams struggle to have two or even one decent tackle. I think largely what made VDM look bad in pass protection was that Brown is usually so good that it probably makes OK play look terrible. Kromer's development factory seems to be working. The only "major" investments in the line cap or draft wise since 2022 have been a late 2nd round pick in Torrence and a upper mid-level free agency signing in McGovern. The rest of the depth and signings have been lower level vets like Edwards (whose plugged in nicely as a starter) or lower level draft picks and UDFA's like Alec Anderson and VDM have been higher end backups/role players while SVPG and Grable are also developing along with Lundt. As I watched the game I thought Brown (and then later realizing it was VDM) was getting beat at RT in pass protection but the ground game was not suffering for the most part. I wonder was VDM bad at pass pro or was he just OK but Brown being so good makes OK pass protection look bad by comparison?

It's fun fan speculation to have these conversations week to week, but there's just not really much meat on the bone just yet. It is very hard in football for there to be a Bonafede MVP front runner 4 weeks into a season but it is still nice to have some fan speculation.

You gotta win who you play to put yourself in the playoffs and get as good of a seed as possible. The Bills can't win playoff games in September/October, I've checked and that's impossible. The Bills can however play a lot of younger defensive players like they are (with Cole, Walker and Sanders all getting hefty playing time and even Strong and Solomon getting snaps) so that by the time January rolls around these guys have a lot of experience under their belt. I'm very nervous about this defense but I'm also not going to say the regular season doesn't matter either.

If would largely say that Josh if he's gonna finish with those numbers and the Bills get a 1 seed at 13-4 or 14-3 then that should firmly put him in any MVP discussion top 2-3 and 95% of the time he would win MVP going away. But Josh's numbers aren't eye popping in the sense that he's leading the league in total yards and TD's by a wide margin and has not firmly cemented himself as a Bonafede MVP front runner just yet. Of course consistency is key in any MVP race and wins are paramount. Josh is in the MVP conversation but it's one that there's no leader in the clubhouse for the award. Honestly most seasons there rarely is. Last year Lamar/Barkley/Josh didn't emerge as the MVP favorites until deeper into November.

There's no real MVP front runner as of now. There's not really been in the early goings of the season anyone that stands out as an MVP just yet. There's 2 4-0 teams and while Josh has had a strong start his stats aren't eye popping, Cook has a strong start too and eye popping stats but MVP's and RB's are hard to come by. The other 4-0 team the Eagles doesn't have a strong stand out either (Hurts and Barkley's stats are pedestrian). Then you look down at the 3-1 tier teams and the only eye capturing stats to me are Puca whose on pace for 2k+ yards receiving or Jonathan Taylor whose leading the league in rushing at 414 yards on a 3-1 team. I think Josh/Cook/Puca/Taylor/Stafford/Herbert/Jones are in the early running but we likely need 2-3 more weeks before we solidify this race a bit more.

I get why fans think the offense could use a "go to" WR. It seems like at times the offense can't get it going and needs a "bailout" playmaker. But the issues on this team are more so on the defensive side of things. If this team could add a piece at the trade deadline it would be better to do so at DT/LB/S.

The Bills defense as a collection of talent isn't bad and if they need a starting caliber piece somewhere they can add it esp in the secondary or at LB. And they make some fantastic big plays. They are a "clutch" defense certainly but there's very clearly something missing from the defense either they are really holding back scheme wise or they just are being sloppy...

I think the earliest this team is going to see Hairston is likely after the bye, they haven't even activated his 21 day practice window. I think they aren't in a rush to get him back they really need him for a stretch run. Ed and Milano seem like they will have a shot to be back which should be a needed shot in the arm. I wonder if any people who are very knowledgeable on this can explain why? Is it the D-line getting blown back consistently? Is it poor LB play? Is it poor secondary tackling? You obviously don't get that level of bad without there being issues with all 3 levels of defense but there's obviously some levels that could be worse than the other.

My random thoughts Ryan Van Denmark - Looked OK, a strong performance in the run game and OK performance in the pass rush. Pretty good for what is a backup swing tackle. D-line just got gashed in the ground game this is just looking like a lot like last years defense - I know reinforcements are coming with the PED Twins and Ed Oliver and there's always the trade deadline where a decent player could be added but either this team is holding back for the playoffs or this just isn't quite the defense we need. This defense was put in a bad spot sometimes by the offense and they made the big plays when needed but the running game defense was an issue. Cole is up Rapp is down - Cole obviously had a very big play on the Philly special INT but even beyond that Cole had another solid game. Cole after a bad week 1 has been trending in the right direction. I thought Rapp while not tragic wasn't very good either. I think if I am looking at a move on defense maybe replacing Rapp and moving him back into a more "Big Nickel" role might suit him better. Bills ground game overall on offense seems to be chugging along - Saints defense ain't good but it isn't bad. Bills pass protection while not bad seemed worse than it was due to the relatively high volume of 3 sacks but the pressure rates and other metrics were still good for the o-line down a starter. Offense put the defense in some bad field positions and the defense actually didn't do bad. WR's/TE's were OK, it's all been very solid but unspectacular thus far just have to hope Kincaid and Keon keep developing and the team gets reliable production from Palmer and Shakir plus the rest. Overall it is human nature to not get up for a game like this but the Bills gotta open up 3 score leads on some of these games just like they did against the Jets. If the Bills come out so/so against the Pats they could get got in that game...

Worthy's issue in the NFL was always going to be health. He's an inch taller and about 8 pounds lighter than Zay Flowers who many questioned as being too skinny to hold up in the NFL. Worthy had tremendous speed and good skills as he had multiple years of high end college production. I never questioned if he was going to be a good player or not. I questioned if he could stay healthy and be an every down player. He's already gotten banged up this year and missed 3 games effectively. I think as good as he is and can be if he can't stay healthy he's a glass cannon.

Landon Jackson not having much of an impact his rookie year does not mean he is a bust. Please stop. Shakir and Bernard (and Bernard was a 3rd rounder too) didn't have much impact year 1. We could go on and on about players who didn't have much impact year 1 and went on to be productive players. Yes for a earlyish 3rd round pick you at least want the player to come in and be a back end rotational player. But Jackson likely fell in the draft despite his amazing physical acumen (9.88 to 9.95 RAS score) because teams probably felt like he was very raw and needed time to develop. Teams drafting players in the top 80-90 picks usually want guys that can come in right away and contribute. High upside but low short term impact is exactly the type of luxury pick the Bills as an organization could afford. The Bills entering the draft had 4 DE's that are solid starting or high end rotation options in Groot, AJE, Bosa, and Hoecht plus they had Solomon in the mix a mid-round pick who had a year to develop. The Bills taking a chance on a physical freak who may need a year to develop is exactly the type of high risk high reward move the Bills should have made. They did they exact thing with Walker in round 4 taking a chance on a high end talent with an injury (back injury for a guy that massive is a concern) and he is paying dividends early because his concerns were more health than developmental. Overall I'm not concerned a rookie is raw. I think it is possible Landon is a bust but I am going to shelve my concerns until next year...

The offense also put the defense on a shorter field a couple of their drives and the defense mostly held up. This game not being a massive blow out was more so on the offense than the defense in my opinion.