billsfan89

The defense is missing a lot of components. Obviously Ed and Milano were the big names but the PED Twins are still suspended and the teams first round pick at corner is on IR. That's 5 potential high end role players or starters that this defense could have in the pipe. I'm not super worried about the defense. They gave up 21 points could have been more could have been less. The Fins offense isn't a bad unit either despite their O-line issues. I also just completely throw out Thursday games. Thursday games esp divisional Thursday games are a bit wonky. I want to see more of this defense in action on Sundays and Mondays before I really make any judgements on it. One bad game in the opener, one good game week two, and one OK game in week 3...

Walker pressing the issue and causing less of a field view and Bernard making the INT were clutch defensive plays. They made the play that put the offense in position to ice it

Groot hasn’t had much in terms of splashy plays. He looked to set the edge well against the Jets, I think he also had a knock down against the Ravens. Thursday games I just write off. I will give Groot a couple of more games on normal days before I panic.

I would like to see a few more games before saying the Bills have a passing game issue. I think the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But these Thursday games aren’t great barometers for how teams actually are because teams shouldn’t be playing on Thursday’s after playing Sundays

Larry O I am not that excited about. He seems like such a JAG at this stage of his career. But Hoecht is needed they need to get Bosa less snaps to keep him healthy and Hoecht offers good versatility only 3 games left before they return

This game was close. The Fins were a penalty away from having the ball (granted on their own 1) tied with about 7.5 minutes left in the game. They were also down 7 with the ball on the Bills 20. I thought with one miscue the Bills could lose this game. Credit to McD that this team is learning not to make mistakes and playing crisp clean games for the most part

Bills “got away” with letting a team hang around. But these Thursday Divisional games are funky sometimes. The Fins were about to get the ball back on their own 1 but they made the mistake that put them down 7 and then with the turnover late it sealed their fate. Josh is the ultimate bail out when needed but give the defense credit they made the clutch play too and 21 points against a Fins offense that played well despite their Oline issues. The Prater missed kick was the only major mistake the Bills made it tiled the game from Bills up 10 and looking in control to giving the Fins the ball in solid field position down a score. These are the games you gotta “grind out” and now the Bills have a “mini bye” to hopefully get Ed and Milano back and continue to a more dominant effort against the Saints Are you saying fans are reactionary and prisoners of the moment? That doesn’t sound like this board

Bills letting the Fins hang around not great. Offense has to step up and take control of the game on the first drive. Then the defense has to get a stop. Set the tone and retake control of the game

Each game counts as one win. And this is a divisional game too at home against a reeling opponent. If the Bills want to be in play for the one seed that gotta win all the games they "should" win. You need at least 13 wins to be in play for a one seed. That leaves little if any margin of error to drop games that you should win esp inside the division/conference.

I think Edumonds could be in play as a Milano replacement next year. The Bears have a very easy out on his massive deal (its a 2.6 million dollar dead cap number against a 17.2 million dollar cap charge) and if he's not willing to rework his deal or the Bears just want to move on they will likely cut him. He's only going to be 28 next season, I could easily see McBeane brining him back for one season and drafting a longer term replacement to develop for a season. This year I just don't think it would make sense as a trade cap wise.

The D-line in that game was almost all injured. I know Ed is out and the PED Twins are still suspended but this D-line is much healthier than that one was. I also think that 2022 team was out of gas. Even before the Demar situation that team had been through a lot on and off the field. It was a year of hell heavy with injuries on the field. But also a lot going on off the field (Topps shooting in the off-season, Knox's brother passed away during camp, Deadly snow storm, moving a game to Detroit while battling a flu and covid out break, etc) and then the DeMar situation happened. This is simply not that same set of circumstances on or off the field. But yeah I'm always nervous before games like this where it "should" be a blowout. This reminds me more so of that 2023 Giants game where it was the narrowest margin of victory at home against a bad depleted opponent or it could just be a home blowout? Either way Go Bills....

I the argument is that ignoring 2020 misses the context to which 2021 and 2022's lack of significant WR/pass catcher investment happened in. When you trade for a 27 year old WR1 and draft a decent WR in round 4 you probably could take a year or two and focus on other areas of the roster. Even in 2021 they added a reliable vet in Emmanuel Sanders to patch over that spot for a season. The Bills in 2023 clearly saw the deficiency in Gabe as a WR2 and drafted Kincaid in round 1 to get a better pass catching option in the mix. Then in 2024 the Bills spent their top pick at WR to ease the departure of Diggs. Why each team makes investments at each position varies in terms of the context to which the roster was at in the prior seasons.

The NFL is goofy sometimes, games where it "should" be a blowout just end up being much closer. I hope the Bills can just open up a 3 score lead by half and just be in position to put this game away in the third quarter.

Hard to say if he's going to be a lifer because teams needs change so rapidly but I think there's a good chance he's here in 2026 and likely 2027. Beyond that at age 32 the team probably will want to get younger at the position. But this 3 TE thing each one brings their own strengths to the table. Kincaid decent blocker but by far the best receiver of the bunch. Knox very good blocker solid receiver (drops a little too much but is able to run a lot of routes and can catch). Hawes and elite blocker and showing that he's not a bad receiver at all. Each has a different skillset but each can block to some degree and each can catch to some degree.

Agreed but I think the Bills are interesting in running 3 TE sets and using Hawes as a fullback here or there. So there's plenty of versatility these guys offer.

The Texans were a solid team last year and that was an away game. Also toss in the fact that this game was when the Bills WR core was still struggling (I know Cooper wasn't a massive add stats wise but his presence was something teams respected) and I think you very clearly see the loss of that game. The Bills were effectively 13-3 last year and likely could have been 14-3 had they needed that last game for seeding. The 3 losses they had when playing starters were all against playoff teams away. All 3 teams made the divisional round as well. Not a single egg laid last season which is why the team had the Chiefs not been insanely lucky in one score games should have been in play for the one seed.

Knox is really close with Josh, I think people underestimate this when thinking Knox is gone next year. Yes the Bills won't be able to keep Knox at a 17 million dollar cap number and his dead cap charge is only 7 million. But given the relationship I think as long as Knox is willing to be reasonable with his deal he will be back for one more year. I think they probably could knock his cap number down to the 10ish million range and basically bring him back for one more year at around 3 million because they would already be sinking in 7 million on the dead cap charge. Just seems like if this 3 TE rotation is working and one of the guys is Josh's friend and a pretty good player but overpaid they could probably work out the overpaid part.

I don't think Beane has invested much at WR since 2020, that I will agree. I don't think he's done bad at WR from 2021-2024 given the relative lack of resources put into the position But I also don't think he's done well there either. I was glad to see them invest their top two picks in 2023 and 2024 into pass catchers for Josh and I am glad to see the early returns on Palmer looking solid. If Kincaid returns to his rookie year form, Keon develops, and Palmer is a solid complementary outside vet WR I think they will have assembled a good WR room esp with Shakir already being a quality slot WR and I think they will get some pop out of Moore and or Samuel here or there. But I do think the Bills should eye drafting another WR in the first three rounds in 2026. Assuming Moore and Samuel are gone they will need to keep putting in talent there.

Going to my first game at Highmark to see the old stadium off. Looing for one ticket in the $300 range (willing to go up to $350 if the value is there). PM me with any details. Go Bills.

Hard to say what he's gonna do because the way the rest of this season plays out is going to shift the priorities of the team. Assuming there's no McGovern extension (Which is unlikely) the Bills could have two spots on the offensive line open with Edwards and McGovern being free agents. Also WR still remains a possible sore spot if Palmer/Keon aren't panning out the rest of the way.

They haven't since 2019 when they acquired Brown/Beasley made many moves at WR via free agency. 2020 they acquired Diggs via trade a home run in my opinion. In 2021 they signed Emmanuel Sanders for a rental and that was solid. 2022 they added Jamison Crowder and he got hurt. 2023 they signed Trent Sherfield a special teams signing and a cheap one at that. In 2024 they whiffed on Samuel but found a decent low end find in Mack Hollins. In 2025 the early returns on Palmer have been solid. Given that none of these deals were for any significant amount of money and more than 1 year deals other than Samuel and Palmer I don't think that's a bad track record. Not great but not bad at all given the circumstances.

2023 his injury was a fluky broken leg in that completely bull#### London game. 2024 was the torn pec in training camp which also seemed kind of fluky. Other than that he's been mostly durable.

To me this is going to be another game where the RB's have a lot of carries and they try to control the clock and grind this game out. If that's the case I suspect the TE's will get a lot of targets as they look to get "easy" first downs in more manageable down and distances. The Jets game will likely be the blueprint once again for what they will try to do against the Fins. Of course Josh is there in a "break glass in case of needed" event. But I think this looks to be a big James Cook game.

The Bills defense in 2023-2024 had this pattern where it tends to "beat up" on bad offense well while also capably handling mid-level offenses. Above average offenses the success rate is 50/50 where they can give up big points or hold them in check and top 10 caliber offenses most of the time give them indigestion and usually can spot upper 20's or more points. Of course this year the Bills through 2 games have the same exact pattern. I think that for now the Bills simply just have to handle the bad to mid-level offense well and "get fat" while they can. We will see later in the season when they face better offenses just where this defense is at (although if Burrow is hurt for the Dec 7th game the Bills may only face Philly and Tampa as elite offenses the rest of this season).

Bosa in 2024 with the Chargers played 66% of the teams snaps roughly in the mid 30's in terms of raw snap counts per game. Bosa managed to play 14 games last year. In week 1 Bosa played 35 snaps accounting for 66% of the teams snaps. So very heavy use similar to his last year in San Diego where he missed a few games. In week 2 Bosa played 26 snaps accounting for 55% of the teams defensive snaps. I think the Bills are going to have to try to keep Bosa much closer to his week 2 snap count and percentage if they want to keep him healthy. What worries me is that unless the game is a garbage time Q4 game like against the Jets the Bills don't have much at DE to rotate him out until Hoecht gets back from suspension. Groot is playing as heavy a snap count, AJE and Solomon rotate in but both guys are better suited in rotational roles. I would bite the bullet so to speak and play AJE more with Groot and have AJE hit a higher snap count even if he's less impactful than Bosa. When Hoecht gets back they can have Hoecht take most of Solomon's snaps and eat into Bosa's snaps too. But that's 4 games from now. Hopefully the Bills can just blowout the Fins and Bosa just gets pulled in the last quarter of the game and this is a non-issue.