Utah John

After the Bills lost to the Titans in the 1999 playoffs (the illegal forward pass leading to the Music City Miracle), the cap-strapped Bills cut Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, and Thurman Thomas. Smith and Reed went to Washington, but Thomas, in full snit, signed with the Dolphins. He just wanted to stick it to the Bills front office, not really hurt the Bills or their fans. After a year, when everyone realized Thomas was finished, he retired and moved back to WNY, where he's loved and respected, and his Dolphin episode is forgiven if not forgotten. Poyer knows what buttons to push to try to get the Bills to give him a rich, long-term contract. I don't think it will work. But if he does sign elsewhere and then later on decides to move to WNY, I'm sure he'd be welcome. Not that that's likely for a glamour couple like Poyer and Bush.

Maybe he just wants to sit in the shade during the early season scorchers.

I was replying to a post that said OJ never made the playoffs. I agree 75 and 73 were better years than 74.

Glad to hear your ass was OK. How was your head? A good move if you have the time is to slap the ground with both arms as your body reaches the ground. That absorbs some of the energy of the impact. One of the videos someone attached to a post in this thread shows the person doing that.

The Bills did make the playoffs in 1974. This was OJ's only playoff game in his career. They lost to the Steelers. OJ was not on the field when the opponents had the ball, so he wasn't responsible for the defense's struggles. Hasek was on the ice the entire game so he was in position to dominate, which he did. You just can't compare them based on the team results. Hasek was great, no doubt, but I put OJ's 1975 season on top of the list.

Thanks for mentioning the 75 season, which in many ways was even better than the big record in 73. People who didn't get to see OJ play have no idea how great he was. No one ever glided through a defense like he did. It was simply beautiful to see.

If the cap is not a real cap, then all the talk about being over the cap is just a way to negotiate with players? "Sorry, Jordan, we realize you want your big payday, but we're gazillions over the cap. The fact that you're starting to get hurt a lot, just like most players your age who are ready to slide down the hill, never crossed our minds. Gosh, we're sorry."

Rodgers is a drama queen, self-centered, egotistical -- I'll go along with all of that. But the Packers roster overall is very weak, with a lot of holes. They managed to win this year because of Rodgers, not in spite of him. They probably should dump him this year, accept the losing that will happen, and let Love play to see if he's got the talent to ride the wave back up. As for where Rodgers might end up next year, it would be ironic if he goes to the Raiders and reunites with Davante Adams.

Bruce Smith in HIS prime.

Let the division winners in regardless of record, but seed all the teams based on record. No automatic top-4 seed for a division winner.

McBeane have built one of the best regular-season teams in the NFL. They should routinely rack up 10-12 win seasons, and go x-1 in the playoffs. x being 0 or 1 or 2 I don't see them going x-0 The Bills have a system and they stick to it. It's too predictable for the coordinators on good teams not to be able to figure out ways to attack it.

There's no reason to replace Brady, unless it's that Dorsey doesn't feel secure as the OC and doesn't want a likely replacement on his staff. Brady is an experienced OC and probably would bring more innovation and creativity to the position than Dorsey knows how to do.

Sorry warrior I missed your post. I have had this idea for a while and finally got around to posting it.

I think the NFL must be contacting potential replacement players to see if they'll agree to show up, before announcing their names. Saffold and Huntley must have been the only guys who answered the phone.

The NFL has this strange procedure for calling delay of game penalties when the play clock expires. Sometimes it seems a QB will have a full extra second, but not always. With all the high-resolution technology available for almost everything else, why use this subjective approach? When the play clock expires, sound a horn (like in basketball) and have lights on the sidelines go on, so no one can mistake when the snap is late. This seems like a very easy, and fair, way to go.

This is sensible but the Bills don't allocate enough roster spots to O linemen to make it happen. They have dozens and dozens of D linemen (or so it seems) for four positions, but only about 8 O linemen for 5 positions. The big reason they traded away Wyatt Teller was that he still needed time to develop, and they didn't want to waste a slot on him.

Watching what KC's D line did against the Bengals was very disappointing, because the Bills with all those high picks couldn't do anything similar. The Bills were supposed to blow up the Cinci offense because of the three replacement O linemen. Instead Cinci ran for over 150 yards, and Burrow was hardly touched. Epenesa and Basham are both busts, and will likely stick around for another year or so only because they're warm bodies on their cheap rookie contracts. Also because Beane drafted them, and who wants to admit such a terrible mistake?

I don't know about long-term, but there are more serious problems to fix. I think both guards need to be replaced before RT.

The nail in the coffin for Oliver for me, was that he completely disappeared against three backups on the Bengals' O line. The Bills big advantage in that game was supposed to be that we could disrupt the Bengals' offense because of their O line injuries, and it turned out to be the opposite. Wanna bet that KC's D line finds a way to beat that Bengals O line?

Tyler Bass should be off-limits too. Now that we have a dependable kicker, and a young one at that, we should keep him right where he is.

It's natural after a playoff loss to be looking at what's not good enough, but it would be good to review the things that went well also. Which veteran players were better than previous years, or better than expectations? Miller turned out to be pretty good punter, and Bass has been rock solid, getting better and better each year. Mitch Morse continues to play well. Matt Milano has turned into a real star, and the Bills did well to sign him already for a team friendly salary. Knox became a better receiver and a better blocker, and I'm glad he's on the team. Rousseau had a better year than last year. Hines had a few big players on ST but never got integrated into the O. DaQuan Jones was usually our best D lineman not named Von Miller. Unfortunately that's about it for the good news. As for players who didn't improve, Allen was injured and he had to screw around with his throwing motion, which really did hurt his passing. At the end of the year, teams spied Allen and suddenly he couldn't break off those runs, and at the same time he started missing easy throws he always makes. (The overthrow to Diggs on the Bills first possession of the Bengals game showed that Allen is just not himself. I think the Bills would still have lost if they had scored on that play, which was right there for the taking, but you've got to take the chances that come your way.) Diggs did not disappoint. His production was down largely because Gabe Davis sucked so much and Allen struggled from time to time, but Diggs was always there, getting open and making catches. Which draft picks worked out? I think Elam was meh, not a star at least not yet, but he was playing in a very unsettled secondary. He could turn into a consistent, long-term JAG, but that's about it. Cook got better and better through the season, but he's so small I'm concerned he's at risk for injury -- and his game is all about quickness so if he wrecks a knee and loses even a little bit, he's done. Shakir and Benford, also good. I don't know if Shakir will ever be a serious threat but he's better than any of our other options for WR3. (Wouldn't it be nice to have Isaiah Hodgins? Look what he did with the Giants when he got his opportunity.) Terrel Bernard -- I had to look him up, he was so invisible this year. A third rounder. Jeez. And Matt Araiza, also jeez. Wasn't there another O lineman we could have drafted for depth with that pick? We got a perfectly good punter off the street. Oh yeah, Luke Tenuta was a O lineman. He couldn't stick with the Bills OR the Colts, and he's barely playing for the Packers. Overall, is that a good enough draft? I just don't think so. As for disappoinments, there's a long list. Gabe Davis is at the top. I think he must have had at least one dropped pass in every game, but some of that is down to having to make contested catches because he's so bad at getting separation. Ed Oliver continues to vanish completely sometimes for entire games. Edmunds is doing what Frazier wants, taking up space, but he's a responsive player who chases down the opponent after the opponent makes a play. He is NOT a threat to make plays for a loss, or to stop an RB in the hole before he gets the first down. Maybe he could be that guy, with a different D scheme under a different D coordinator. Jordan Poyer, man, hats off to him for holding things together when he wasn't injured, but (a) he WAS injured a lot, and (b) that's not surprising considering his age, and (c) even when he was there, he wasn't as good as last year. Hyde's absence probably had a lot to do with it. Finally, the coaching was less good than last year. Teams have been figuring the Bills out for a couple of years. The D is the same as always, so other teams have figured out how to attack it. And on offense, other teams have figured out our pass routes and are playing to stop what we do best. And they have all seen how helpful it is to spy Allen, as I mentioned. Where's the innovation on either D or O? It's going to be tough to stay on top of the AFCE. The Dolphins are getting better, and if they replace Tua with Lamar Jackson, holy crap that's going to be hard to stop. The Jets D is excellent but the Jets are still the Jets so they keep on screwing things up. The Pats are stuck in pretty-good land, not good enough to make the playoffs but good enough to be a tough out, and never drafting high enough. All things considered we're probably looking at 10-12 wins a year for the next few seasons. We'll make the playoffs but will never get a top seed, and will be on the road at KC or Cincy or the Chargers, who will continue to improve despite their many boneheaded moves. I'm 67 and it's beginning to dawn on me that I will NEVER see the Bills win a Lombardi during my lifetime. 2021 was the year. The 13 seconds took away the best chance we'll ever have with Allen and the McDermott staff. From here on, we'll have a good team but a slowly deteriorating one.

Could it have just come down to wearing better cleats? On O and on D, the Bengals seemed to be able to run and cut pretty well. Our guys were so tentative. Cook took a swing pass to the left side. There was a hole there for him to cut back into, and on a dry field he's made that cut many times. Today he just ran straight ahead and got tackled. It was even worse on D, where our guys just didn't attack like they usually do. The Dolphins solved Josh. They spied him, and suddenly Allen could no longer break off the long runs our O depends on. So of course the Bengals did it too. Until we figure out how to neutralize the spy, we'll keep seeing it, and Josh will lose part of the skill set that makes him so good.

There are some improvements already in the pipeline. Next year we get Hyde back, and we finally get Tre White back to being Tre White. His injury often takes two years to recover from. He certainly wasn't playing like he used to, this year. He was often a liability rather than a dominant strength. We also get Von Miller back, but he will be in the first year after the same injury White had, so he might not be as good as he was at the start of this year, right away. Expect Rousseau to continue to develop. I think his selection in the draft was a win. Not so much Oliver, who has never been the impact player we were told he'd be. Certainly not Epenesa or Basham, either. Those last three players will stay on the team until their cheap rookie contracts run out, and then they'll get their big second contract somewhere else. As for Poyer and Singletary, they're both looking for big contracts, but I think they'll be disappointed in the offers they get. Who's going to give a high dollar long term contract to a 30+ year old safety who's entered injuryville? It's sad because he's been so good for us. And, who's going to give a high dollar long term contract to the 8th or 10th best RB in the league, with a lot of workload in his past? Very few RBs make a lot. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if both of them came back on team-friendly, two-year contracts. I think they both make the team better. If Frazier leaves for another job, expect Edmunds to go with him as a FA. Frazier loves Edmunds, who fits exactly into the role Frazier wants as the center of his D scheme. If Frazier is replaced, the new guy probably will want to rebuild the D with a more conventional LB, one who doesn't just limit damage, but who makes proactive plays.

1996: 23 year old Mounds (rookie), 37 targets, 20 receptions, 279 yards, 2 TD receptions 32 year old Reed (12th season), 101 targets, 66 receptions, 1036 yards, 6 TD receptions -- Reed clearly the top dog -- Kelly's last season 1997: 24 year old Moulds, 52 targets, 29 receptions, 294 yards, 0 TD receptions 33 year old Reed, 114 targets, 60 receptions, 880 yards, 5 TD receptions -- Reed still the top dog at his advanced age 1998: 25 year old Moulds, 116 targets, 67 receptions, 1368 yards, 9 TD receptions -- Pro Bowl Moulds had clearly surpassed Reed by that point. 34 year old Reed, 109 targets, 63 receptions, 795 yards, 5 TD receptions -- opportunities did not drop off from 1996 and neither did production 1999 season (Reed's last year in Buffalo): 26 year old Moulds, 101 targets, 65 receptions, 994 yards, 7 TD receptions 35 year old Reed, 90 targets, 52 receptions, 536 yards, 1 TD reception I have to say that at his peak, Moulds was the most physically dominant receiver we ever had. Reed's career was longer, and he was producing at a high level (eight or nine years with high production) for longer than Moulds did (six seasons with high production). Reed did have Jim Kelly throwing to him for years, but don't forget that Kelly retired after the 1996 season so Reed had to deal with the motley crew of failed JK replacements for his final years in Buffalo. Moulds never had a really good QB. Which is better? Take your pick. My pick is Reed, since it's so very hard to sustain high performance over a long period in the NFL. (If we're talking about the best receiver the Bills ever had, don't forget about Jerry Butler, who was killing it before he got his knee wrecked. Butler had Moulds' size and Reed's route ability, and the Bills' best hands since Haven Moses.)

Our D line is just as good as Baltimore's. After the Bengals' O linemen were hurt, leaving only two starters on the field, the Cinci offense was done. Cinci scored on the long fumble return, but that's it. I think the key player will not be an individual, but the entire D line, with players taking turns taking advantage of playing against scrubs.