Utah John

My wife broke her ankle in March. A much simpler break than Dak had. She is back to walking but apparently it takes a year before you get fully back to normal. I hope he has a full and successful recovery, but this will be very hard to come back completely from.

I think the danger is more related to injuries to a few key players, than to the team losing its focus. Unraveling is unlikely. Getting crippled by injury or covid is always a possibility.

The argument in favor of the Bills rests on the faulty assumption that their defense is as good as it was the past couple of years. For some reason (no Star?) it just isn't as good this year. I think the improvement in the Bills offense is much greater than the problems in their defense, so overall they're a much better team, but in order to take down the Chiefs, the Bills will need to slow down Mahomes, and only Belichick seems to be able to do that.

In the writeup about Conklin, there's a mention of Wyatt Teller, whom the Bills drafted and then traded to Cleveland. At that time it looked like Teller was promising but not able to move up the depth chart in Buffalo. He's transformed himself and is now playing at a very high level. Too bad he didn't get that motivated while with the Bills. I'm happy for him. He seemed like a good guy and he has worked hard. I just wish it was in Buffalo.

It seems certain there will be more covid issues in the weeks ahead, and the league will be adjusting schedules for more teams. The Bills have a big adjustment to make, but so do some other teams. I just don't believe right now that the Titans have this under control. This is a highly contagious disease, and a football team practicing together is bound to spread this from one man to another. Once it's in, it's in. And it seems to me the Bills are at risk of the same thing happening to them. Tre White was very close to not playing this season at all, to protect his family. Suddenly he has a back injury and can't practice. Is he just trying to stay healthy to protect his family? Personally, I wouldn't blame him. I think ALL the Titans games should be cancelled until they have a completely clean testing list for at least a full week. They could infect one team after another, wiping out half the league.

The NFL needs to protect the Bills players, and all the other players in the league. Cancel the game. Give the Titans an L. The Bills will just have 15 games on their schedule. Done.

I agree about the offending team not getting paid. The question was whether the Bills players would be paid.

Let's look further up the money stream. Do the TV contracts call for a reduction in money to the NFL from the networks? I can see why they would do so -- lost ad revenue for the network -- but if the league (and the teams) isn't going to lose any TV money, they should pay the players.

Who knows how many Titans are infectious (can spread the virus to others)? Why threaten the health of the Bills players, the staff, their families, and the WNY community? They should NOT play the game. How the league handles the W/L aspect is an open question. I think the Titans getting the L and the Bills having a bye is the best bet. It's very likely the same situation will be coming up all through the season with other teams. This seems like a proper precedent -- if your team gets sick and you broke the rules, you get an L -- if you did everything right and your team still gets sick, you just get a bye -- and the game is cancelled.

Considering they're the Jets, they would probably send us a couple of players too.

Gase is terrible -- we all saw it when he was the HC in Miami. The fact that the Jets hired him is one illustration out of many of how bad the Jets front office is. Replacing Gase and the other coaches won't solve the problems the Jets have. They need a much stronger and more capable front office. They have a lot of high draft picks coming up and could work that advantage to build the roster, but their team is so full of holes they're likely just to play whack-a-mole, solving one problem while another pops up, and watching their few good players continue to demand trades or just leave in free agency. How do I know that? I've been a Bills fan for almost 60 years, and I know once a team gets into that hole it's really hard to get out. The Chiefs-Pats game showed ex-Bill Gilmore (one first rounder) covering ex-Bill Sammy Watkins (two first rounders and change). That should tell you what you need to know about what could happen with the Jets in the next few years.

The interception that counted was a bad call, completely, but Allen has had a few shouldabeenpicks throws that the defender just didn't squeeze. Also Diggs has made some contested catches where the DB actually had position on him and should have had a shot at an INT. It's not like Allen has been mistake free, it's partly that he's been lucky. Allen has been riding high all season, and I hope that continues, but odds are he'll have a bad game sooner or later. Everyone does. The question will be, what happens after that?

This is a big game for postseason seeding. The Titans have been squeaking by, but the Bills haven't completely dominated any opponent either. The best indicator is that the Bills beat the Rams and Raiders, two teams that are much better than any the Titans have beaten. So if the Bills win, the Titans fans will grouse that the players out with covid could have made the difference. Well, grouse away, guys. One team gets its first loss of the year, and I don't think this year's Bills will fall into the trap of taking a team lightly.

The stated reason for trading Hopkins was that he knew they couldn't afford both Hopkins and Watson and Watt. It's a lot harder to find a really good QB, so if you have to choose one or the other, he chose the right option. BUT it isn't that simple. The best WR in the league >> an aging, often injured edge rusher. They should have kept Hopkins and traded Watt (maybe to Buffalo).

Oh, come on. A year or two years ago, when the D was playing lights out, the concern was that Frazier was the coordinator we'd lose. Suddenly that talk has gone away. This year the offense is playing lights out. Daboll is the same guy, creative and smart, but now he has the weapons to succeed. A year or two years ago, most of the people here were trashing him and asking for him to be replaced. Personally, I hope we keep both coordinators around for a few more years at least. Frazier should be able to figure out how to fix the D -- he'll get a lot smarter when he gets Star back to clog the middle, and when the NFL goes back to enforcing holding penalties on the O line. Daboll is a good guy and I hope he gets his chance to move up, in a few years. Put him in as HC with a crummy team and he'll be lost in the churn, struggling to overcome the poor personnel at the new place, having a miserable time, getting fired after three years, and never getting another job as good as he has now. There are too many examples of this to count. It would be much better for him to replace a retiring, successful coach with a team with good offensive talent and a strong D coordinator already in place, even if that takes a couple of years to pan out. Of course, I have my own perspective. I built my own career (now retired) by NEVER jumping at a promotion just because it was available. I always asked myself, do I really want to do the duties of that other job? Is the work interesting, rewarding, and important? If not, screw the extra money. The right job always came along. I hope Daboll does it this way.

The trade is looking great, for both teams actually, since the Vikes drafted their replacement for Diggs too. But things are different now than 30 years ago. Players don't settle for mere millions of dollars when they can get tens of millions of dollars somewhere else. We kept Bennett around for several years, until his age started affecting his play. That's what used to happen all the time. Now players have the right to leave more easily, and they do that when they have a chance to cash in. It will be tough to keep the skill positions on this offense together, once Allen goes onto his second contract. Diggs is the best of that crew and will probably get an offer we can't match, once his current contract is up.

I don't know how KC will keep that team together when they start making payments on Mahomes' HALF A BILLION dollar contract. Allen will get a big raise when his rookie deal runs out, or maybe before, but the Bills seem determined not to let a few crazy contracts disrupt the entire team.

I don't feel sorry for the Jets. That organization deserves to suffer for its incredible ineptitude. Their approach seems to be to take the lazy way out, bringing in high-cost older players as if a few of those guys can make the whole team better, while a cast of JAGs is there to fill out the ranks. The Bills do the opposite -- our FO researches players carefully, understands their character, and brings in good to very good players (but not the best in the league at any position, which would distort the salary cap) to build a strong roster top to bottom. Putting injured players into a game, as the Jets did with Becton and Darnold, is outrageous, and Gase will lose the locker room if he hasn't already. It's clear why Jamal Adams wanted OUT of there ASAP. The guy I feel sorry for is Rosen. Apparently, a good NFL prospect. Goes to the Cardinals with a truly lousy offensive line, and the team is terrible his rookie year. Then before his second year, a new coach comes in who wants Kyler, and Rosen is dumped to the Dolphins, who also had a poor team. He doesn't fit there, and the Dolphins then draft Tua. Rosen's confidence has to be shot. If he's up to it, he could try for a Fitzpatrick career, signing up as a backup somewhere, then hexing the starter so he can come in and look like the solution. Whether Rosen's game is as adaptable as Fitz's is, I have no idea.

The Jets should fire their GM and coach every year, just before the draft. Consistency is the key to excellence.

We have good (or better) starters across the board. We're a little thin regarding depth at some positions. If we get a string of injuries at the same position, or if Allen gets hurt, I don't think it's possible we make the playoffs. Of course that's true for almost all the teams. My point is, anything can happen.

Ask me again in three weeks. The Rams were the first of four tough games. When I saw the schedule I was hoping for a 2-2 split of those four. That's still a realistic goal. Also, we were THIS CLOSE to being 1-2, if it weren't for late heroics by the offense, after the defense let Miami and LAR take the lead away. Both of those games could easily have been a loss. Unless the D starts playing better, 9-7 is only slightly pessimistic.

As long as agents get paid a percentage of the player's salary, there will be pressure on the player to squeeze every dime out of the team. And who can really fault either the player or the agent for that? But, if the team's best players as a group talk to each other and say they want to keep the team together because they love having each other as teammates, maybe they all can agree to forego enough money to keep the core around. The Bills are in a great spot now, but all those smart draft picks are going to be looking for more money in a big wave. White is just the leading edge. Allen is going to deserve a huge raise (I hope he is still playing great into the future), and Edmunds and Oliver could play themselves into a highly leveraged spot. I don't know how long Diggs has on his current contract but he will probably get a big raise too. If those guys are willing to take team-friendly contracts, that will help the Bills carry on with their approach of having very good players across the board, but not very many top guys who can demand top money.

What they saw was, he wasn't very good, at least not when he was drafted. Just like a horse breeder or trainer can look at a colt and size it up as a future racer, the Bills' FO put in the time to get to know him, and see how he responded to coaching and what his desire to improve was. The Bills didn't intend for Allen to play much or at all in his rookie year, so we got to see the raw JA on full display. What we're seeing now is a great player emerging.

Sometimes it seems the officials are there to carry out a script, like a movie or a play. The Bills were winning too easily, and the glamour LA team was embarrassed, so it was time to make the game a little more interesting.

Maybe put his name up twice, then make a big deal out of removing one.