Utah John

The Bills and Chiefs each added an excellent veteran receiver. The Bills gave up a little more in draft picks to get Amari Cooper, but the Chiefs are stuck with more salary requirement with DeAndre Hopkins. (Tennessee will pay half of Hopkins's salary but the remaining amount is much more than what the Bills are paying Cooper for the rest of the year.) Cooper is very likely a rental unless the Bills and he completely fall in love with how things work out and both sides give a little slack in salary negotiations going forward. If Cooper just wants to chase dollars, I think the Bills will not be able to match. I don't know what KC's plans for Hopkins are. They have Rice and Brown both injured, both good, and both returning next year, so maybe Hopkins is a rental too. So, what's your bottom line on which deal was better? It could be, both teams come out ahead and are happy with the results. But, given the choice, would you have preferred to get Hopkins than Cooper? My thought is the Bills couldn't afford even half of Hopkins salary, so they did the best they could getting Cooper, who's just about as good as Hopkins.

I've been posting for a couple of weeks that I thought Garrett might be available and would be a great fit for the Bills needs. Getting Cooper when the Browns are cleaning house was one thing, and I was thinking an even greater need would be addressed by Garrett. But I was chastised, correctly, that the cost in draft picks would be exorbitant, and not something Beane would countenance. We'd have to throw in Rousseau -- the only DE on the team who regularly does anything -- and probably two firsts, to get Garrett. That's just not gonna happen.

Part of the explanation is the other part of the team: the offense. The Bills offense generally gets better performance in the second half (the Jags game excepted, which was over by halftime and the Bills coasted). So the offense is on the field more in the second half, which by my math means the defense is out there less. Also when the offense gets in gear and takes the lead, the other teams generally stop running so much. Why are they both better in the second half (again, the Jags excepted)? Maybe the Bills are so good they can play vanilla the first half, then the OC and his guys, and the DC and his guys, get together, and start calling more aggressively in the second half. Knowing that only a few teams can match them when they get going. There ARE some teams that can match them, and that should win more than five times out of 10 games with the Bills. That's the nature of a re-set year. As we've been expecting all year, the Bills should stroll to the AFCE again, this time probably getting the 4 seed and a home playoff game, maybe win that, then lose in the next round. A pretty good year all things considered. Next year is when all the pieces should be back in place.

I'm thinking you're right, that it was Douglas and not Rapp.

A few years ago the league made it illegal for little defenders to cut the legs out from under massive O linemen coming downfield. The defender is supposed to take on the lineman, giving up 100 pounds or so. This was done to protect the linemen from injury. Rapp made a brilliant play in a similar situation. He slipped past the Jets lineman and made a tackle. The play was so good because it's so hard for DBs not to get blocked out of the play. I don't think Johnson deserves the fine, but the league is definitely trying to send a message -- DBs, don't even think about it. We NEVER hear about punishment levied against officials. The league handles those matters behind closed doors. There was widespread disgust from sports writers at the way the officials lost control of that game.

Bass missed two kicks. The atrocious miss was actually blocked. Not that that's not at least partially on Bass, who needs to get enough elevation to prevent a block, but it's also on the O line.

Bass has indeed missed some kicks on his own, but some of his misses are actually blocks. That terrible kick against the Jets? It was caused by a Jets player getting a hand on the kick. In some cases, when a kick is blocked, it's the kicker's fault for not getting enough elevation. In other cases the kick would be just fine by the defender makes a good play or the kicker's protection breaks down. It's hard for us fans to know which is which. My criticism of Bass isn't based only on the misses. He also doesn't have the same range as other kickers. Other teams routinely get FGs from 55 yards, which used to be considered heroic, and which seems to be beyond Bass's range. Or maybe McDermott won't take the risk on long FGs because if they're missed the opponent gets great field position. Combine the lack of range with the number of misses that aren't blocks, and yeah I'm thinking the Bills need a new guy.

When was the last time the Bills played with the standing buffalo on the helmets? I think it's been at least a couple of years but I'm not sure.

I'm happy with the Cooper acquisition, but the Browns player I really want is Myles Garrett. The Bills continue to struggle in rushing the QB except against weak O lines when the other team has to pass, and none of the Bills on the roster seem to be able to threaten consistently. Cleveland is going nowhere as long as Watson is their QB, so they might as well not waste more years of Garrett's career and get draft capital for him. The Jets have demonstrated the ability to lose to anyone. The Bills lost road games to two powerful teams, and actually had a decent chance to win the second game. Unless injuries really set in, the Bills should win the AFCE by two or three games.

If we're going after Bubba, why not get Forrest too? He was a great kickoff returner in college -- made All-American if I remember correctly. And stamina for long-distance running...no problem.

Do you remember last year's playoffs when we had NO depth LBs and had to bring back Klein to face Mahoes and Kelce?

Considering Cooper is moving from degenerate Watson to Superman Allen, he might be willing to play for free, more or less.

WHAT will only come down to Super Bowls? Whether we think Allen is any good? Don't be silly.

What's with these delicate little Jets? Two personal fouls on simply ordinary tough football plays. The roughing the passer call was egregious.

Why not just not rush anyone? Two guys are never going to get home. Wasted personnel. OK so the Bills played it stupidly but I am still willilng to give Rodgers credit for a good play.

Yeah I thought so too, but that never gets called on Hail Marys.

Ahem. Davis had 5 catches for 45 yards and 2 TDs. He did have a couple of egregious drops. So, yeah, he's the same guy we knew and cringed about, sometimes making good plays but more often killing drives with drops.

Well, the best player in franchise history played in four straight Super Bowls. As for all the gloom and doom, this team is the best that Beane could put together, pretty much. I think he made some mistakes but considering all the losses and departures, plus the key injuries, he still did a good job. The realistic goal for the year was a winning record, and the enhanced goal is winning the AFCE again. Ever since the Diggs trade ate so much cap space, it's been clear this year's team was not SB bound. It's next year that Beane is planning for.

You make it sound like this is a long-term trend, that Josh is doing that game after game. He did it far too much against the Texans but he wasn't doing that in previous games.

I have to say the problem is the O line. Given time, Josh can make decent receivers look great. It comes down to the decision not to re-sign Mitch Morse. DCs have figured out how to confuse McGovern and the guards, and we see stunt after stunt producing a free rusher. McGovern is a bigger body than Morse so the thought is he'd be a better road grader, but he's not playing guard anymore. He has far more responsibilities and doesn't seem able to get the job done. The Bills are running more but it always comes down to what Josh can do.

If the Bills are really thinking about this, they could make an offer for a 28 year old game wrecker of a defensive end on a floundering team that will not win for at least two more years while it does a QBectomy. I'm talking about Myles Garrett and the Browns of course. Garrett would give the Bills what they tried to get with Von Miller, and actually did get from Miller for a few games before he wrecked his knee. Schwartz has always been a good DC. The only reason he didn't stay with the Bills is that Wrecks Ryan wanted to replace Schwartz's excellent defense with his own, and that turned out to be a disaster. Would Schwartz return here? No chance while McDermott is HC. Just like Ryan, McDermott wants to run the defense his way. There's no place for a strong innovative DC to take over the defense.

What a nice statement from the club. And good on Cook for the way he handled it.

My takeaway is that Seattle's defense is really bad. Couldn't cover receivers crossing 8-10 yards downfield, couldn't tackle anyone without giving up 10 YACs, couldn't stop the run until SF's starting RB got hurt. Also, I'm impressed with Brock Purdy. Good decisions, good accurate passes. Not much of a deep ball. Also a much better runner than you'd think, until he zooms past someone for a first down.

I suggested 22 or 21 recently because we need Gilliam in the backfield to protect Josh. With Morse gone, the line is not picking up stunts and twists from the opposing defenses, and Josh is running for his life. McGovern is a big body which is fine but he's not doing a big part of the center's job, getting the O line working together properly. Or instead of Gilliam, use Anderson. Have him declare himself eligible every down, and let him be Josh's guardian. We have to do SOMETHING to protect Josh.

So this is the situation the Steelers are stuck in. They never have a losing season under Tomlin so they never get high draft picks, and so they're always hanging around but never winning it all. I hope the Bills never have losing seasons too but they eventually will, and that pain is what's needed to get a top pick.