brianthomas

Yeah i agree with your assessment of the oline overall. As for the screen passes. You saw them called more often in the 1st half of the season, but then as the season went on it seemed Daboll used them less & less. I havent analyzed everyone, to be frank i'd have no idea how to even do that. But just from watching every game I can tell you more often than not that when we ran one i was scared to death. Other teams implement them vs us to great success & there is a smooth movement of the play where it baits our defense & off the play goes. But when we ran them on some throws the ball was thrown like a missile, getting there faster than Ford or Dawkins could run, since a fastball isnt the type of throw thats needed & the ball bounces off the rb's hands as you'd expect for a throw so close... (if the rb even turned around at all before the ball got there). Or Allen would over compensate and the ball would have a larger than normal arc with more touch & the ball would take too long to get there, giving the defense that split second of more time to recognize what was going on. I think its been pretty well discussed here some of the issues Allen has controlling his velocity on shorter throws that need some touch to them. And i'm a big fan of Josh so im not trying to be unfair to him. But i think Daboll took them out of the play book to a good extent simply because that play wasnt working for us & was an accident waiting to happen. And its a play i think we really need in our arsenal to help keep defenses honest & to use our shifty RB in space with blockers out in front of him. The few times where it did work, helped us out a lot. Like the 49 yarder to Singletary vs Washington. These types of plays can really help take the pressure off of Allen... when successful. I know i can't be the only one who thinks this way. I know the Buffalo News had a few articles where they talk about our inability to execute those plays. But theyre behind a paywall & im not gonna subscribe. But its not like Daboll just stopped calling screen passes willy nilly for the hell of it. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge on the subject can speak to it. But that'd be my general assessment of the whole subject as a fan watching.

I keep seeing posts saying the OLine wasn't good enough, Allen was running for his life. And to some degree that was true. Unblocked defenders were in his face way too often. But what we don't know is why those plays happened. Sometimes they picked the wrong defender to pick up, so was a presnap read missed on some of them? I do know that Allen held onto the ball the longest in the league last year. I believe around 3 seconds. So doesnt that imply that he had the most time to throw? Of course the Oline could use an upgrade & im sure Beane will work on that. This whole team has been built incrementally from season to season, with him looking to upgrade everywhere. But what needs to improve the most is Allens faster recognition of the defense pre & post snap & where to go with the ball. Upgrading his weapons for sure should help with that, as well as another year of learning & growing. But our Oline was sufficient enough for us to have success. Allen couldnt complete a screen pass for his life, passes which help immensely with easing the oncoming pressure, nor could he hit on those deep passes. And there were times when he had all day to throw (with WR's or TE's wide open) that he just didn't see were open, or where his feet were planted the wrong way & he'd just flat out miss them. This is not a knock on Allen as i've been impressed with his growth & play. Just an observation. I think the Oline overall was a pleasant surprise last year. So many new bodies & i think they held up & for the most part played together well. Still room to improve of course (and im sure it will be) but you just can't hold on to the ball all day long in the NFL. You need to get rid of it on time.

I do 100% expect the Chargers to move on from Rivers but I am surprised that NFL.com & ESPN havent posted this story if it is true. This tweet came out hours ago, 222pm, so you'd think there'd be a more official article about it. All you get on NFL.com is an article that came out at 630pm, hours after the tweet, that says his future there is still uncertain. Case in point, Jay Glazer says one thing, Ian Rappoport counters that they havent. https://news.yahoo.com/counter-report-chargers-haven-t-020147111.html who do we believe?

When we evaluate the draft & where one player was picked versus someone else, we do so with the added benefit of hindsight. The ultimate example being Tom Brady drafted in the 6th round. So yeah some 1st round wr's in hindsight were drafted too high, but others worked out well & performed as they were hoped to. You do your scouting, you have your film study & analytics review & interviews & you make the best decision that you can. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesnt. But if when pick #22 comes around & theres a wr Beane feels is the BPA at the time then he'll draft him. But theres nothing about Beane that makes me worry that he'll reach for anyone. So when it comes time for our pick he'll simply pick whoever is his BPA at that time. And if its more valuable to trade down given who we have targeted on our board, we'll move down & get another pick. Bring on the draft!

For those who were wondering, the Bills had the 9th best average offensive starting position in the league. Here is the data in case you're curious. Whether that warrants holding a roster spot for someone like Roberts, that'll be up for debate. But i do appreciate how he was dependable not to turn the ball over.

Some internet digging: You mentioned ESPN, 6 out of 10 espn experts picked the Texans. On espn's site the headline is how the Bills can get the upset victory over the Texans. https://www.espn.com/chalk/insider/story/_/id/28411692/nfl-wild-card-upset-picks-how-bills-beat-texans Another article states majority of experts pick Texans: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bills-vs-texans-predictions-majority-of-nfl-experts-pick-houston-to-beat-buffalo/ar-BBYB6rZ 5 of 6 Sports Illustrated picked Texans 6 of 8 SB Nation picked Texans 4 of 7 USA Today picked Texans... Sources below. Thats not to say the ESPN tv crew on the field didnt all pick the Bills because they did. But that 1 channels on field tv team isn't the same as the national conglomerate of experts out there. This game wasnt as one sided in the national media as you claim. This wasnt like Superbowl 25 where everyone thought our Bills would light up the Giants & we were favored by 7. Like i said earlier, Texans were favored by 3. So yeah i totally disagree with your premise since 4 espn field personalities arent the same as all the NFL experts. There isnt a dark cloud over us. We didnt embarrass ourselves or reach a new low. It was a very close game between 2 good teams & it went back & forth & couldve been decided either way on any number of different plays. We'll get em next time & I bet if we get there again next season, the majority of experts will pick us instead. Because our schedule is a lot tougher next year & we'll have earned it

Any other QB & youre right, thats whistled down as in the grasp. But for players like Allen who are known to escape situations like this, the refs seem to wait longer to blow the play dead. Not wanting to stop the play too soon & be the cause of a great play being ended prematurely. Things like this we just have to live with imo & take the good with the bad. As for Lee Smith, I know he's been praised for his leadership & his penchant for blocking but i really wasn't that impressed with him this year. Way too many penalties that killed drives over the year that you wouldn't want to see from a young TE, yet alone the veteran teacher. And even just in this Houston game, there were critical missed blocks on his part that hurt our offense, not to mention others over the course of the year & lapses in composure. Sometimes those things just happen, nobodies perfect. But i expected more from him as this blocking TE guru. I personally wouldn't mind parting ways with both him & Kroft this off-season. Can't wait to see what Beane does

Pretty confused by your post here. From what i recall, most of the so called experts picked the Texans to win. Not by a huge amount, i'd say it was probably 60-40 Texans. I know some who have been with us as a dark horse candidate picked us like Schein or Robinson. But even people like Chris Simms who is pro Josh Allen & pro Bills picked the Texans over us. Even the betting line was Texans favored by 3.5 points. Mostly because they had the quote "better QB" & were at home. I also don't see that game as a new low either. We played tough & played an exciting game that went deep into OT & back & forth. Us being there was a surprise to lots of people if you look where we came from at the start of the year. Our young QB & team keeps growing & with $90 million in cap space we'll keep doing that & be ready to take the next step

He's shown me more than Kroft has. In Knox's rookie season he was 16 yards short receiving to Krofts best year in 2017. And salary wise, what Knox makes over 4 years is what Kroft gets in 1. Dawson will be here for awhile & i'd expect him to improve next year, but just like every position i'm sure Beane will look for upgrades where possible. And as much as i wish we'd move on from Kroft (as i wish we never signed him in the 1st place), i expect he'll be here again next year as well. But yeah our future looks great... as long as Allen keeps making strides in improving his game. This team will go as Allen goes. But yeah we're in a much better position now than we have been in decades. Its time for us to circle the wagons on the AFC East & the rest of the NFL

hearing & reading posts like this just makes me more depressed. Yeah for sure there shouldve been a penalty there. There were lots of opportunities for us to win the game. Wrong or missed calls by the refs but more impactful imo were our own mistakes. It sucks to get blown out of a game, probably sucks even more to think you shouldve won a game when you lose it. All we can do is hope this loss pains them & they turn it into extra motivation for next season.

Technically yes you're right. But thats just not the way people think. Like when you turn 20, 30, 40 years old, each time you hit one of those years you consider it a new decade of your life by default of digits. Its the same thing with the calendar & 2020. Its a bit illogical but its just the way it is

If anyone needs a way to watch this game, just send me a pm. You're not gonna want to miss the Bills winning their 1st playoff game in years. Starting off the new decade with a win!

I've said this a bunch of times but I havent been a fan of the Murphy signing since day one & im sure Beane will look to improve DE during the offseason. If he can find an upgrade he'll move on from Trent for sure. Me personally i hope he does. He's only had 1 good year in his career back in 2016, other than that he's done what he's done here with us. We're paying $7 mil now $9mil for a guy who before today had 33 tackles & 3 sacks. Perhaps you think thats money well spent, but i'm pretty sure we can do better. As others have stated, he's not that great in stopping the run. He doesnt set the edge well & gets pushed back often & is pretty slow for a DE. While rushing the passer he doesnt seem to get his hands up enough to deflect passes either. Not to mention that he's often hurt & not even on the field a quarter of the time. He may have gotten sacks today, but it was a meaningless game. If you're paying someone that kinda money, you'd like them to have an impact when games matter. Not just when getting a couple sacks vs the Jets will get you a nice bonus check. As always I hope he tears it up for us because we need him to. But if we have a chance to move on from him i hope we jump at it.

Her voice is okay i guess, better than mine, but i know my voice is flat in parts so i don't make videos of me singing, but her voice just doesnt fit the song at all. I think thats why people here spoke negatively about it. I know thats why i did. Church choir vocals don't really fit in with Renegade imo. Surely not for a Bills song to pump anyone up. But shes obviously a Bills fan so hey, thats cool. But gimme a Renegade that rocks Btw we're in the playoffs! GO BILLS!

And why didn't we pull the trigger? Because of the last thing i said in my post: "because the price was too high for his plans" Idk why you're quoting me on that lol. Every GM was interested in Mack including our own. Once Beane learned of the cost he obviously felt it was too much. The same process that'll take place IF & only IF the Rams do look to move Donald. If Beane felt that cost was too high for a position of need, for a player who has connections to our city & who has made it known in the past that he would've liked to play here, then i see no reason to think he'll pay that cost for a position we have good depth in with Donald. And btw we have no idea what Beane offered back then. Rumors are just that, rumors. Most likely from beat writers hoping you'll click on their story. Theres a new rumor every day about something. Rumors none of us will ever know if they're true.

Yep, i posted his cap hits just a couple days ago in another thread where people talked about moving on from Star. All these topics are just fan board fodder. Its just not gonna happen. If you're trading for Donald & getting rid of Star, its the 7.5 hit that you're taking. Plus the money to replace him $25 mil. So thats $32.5 mil just for that 1 spot. Where we rotate our DT's a ton, making it where you're spending all that money for 50% of the snaps. Beane didn't make all these moves to fix our cap, just to make future moves to eat it all up again. We may have 90 mil of cap space next year, but that doesn't mean we're gonna spend all of it. Ed Oliver is our Aaron Donald that we drafted & we'll try to resign Phillips. Any moves in free agency or trades will be for other positions of need. And we all know what those positions are from other threads discussed adnauseam. If Beane would be interested in doing this for Donald, he for sure wouldve been interested in Mack, for a position that was much more in need than DT is. But he didn't because the price was too high for his plans. Theres a lot of different ways to shoot down this idea but i'll just leave it at that. Its just not gonna happen no matter how much anyone might want it to.

If we weren't already committed to Star than yeah I'd say go for it. But given that we are & given how much we rotate our DT's i just don't see this as something we'd do. No matter how much i might salivate at the thought of it.

If only Duke Williams was on the field for that last play to the end zone. Perhaps if that wr wasn't 5'8" he comes down with the catch. haha im joking but now that i think about it

Thats the movie where while in town filming, Angelica Huston stole an ashtray from the restaurant i was working in, saying aloud: "this is the best part about Buffalo" as she placed it in her purse. And where Cristina Ricci peed herself at the table, while drinking when she was underage. Think i've told that story here once before the last time this movie came up. Whenever i see it mentioned i instantly get flashbacks to it. Naturally

People saying we should lose Star aren't factoring in the cap side of it. He costs $10 mil next year with a dead cap hit of $7.8 mil. I think the more likely outcome is he's here for 1 more season & in 2021 he'll get released, where his dead cap is a smaller $5.2 mil. Thats not to say that I want him here. I haven't been a fan of that signing (or that contract) since day one. But I just dont see Beane paying that much money to get rid of him & then again to replace him. But to the op's question. Yes i think Jordan gets to 10 again. With Oliver's development, he should be even better next year. I imagine we'll address our DE situation in the offseason as well, along with another CB to play along side Tre. If Phillips is still with us i see no reason why he shouldnt be able to replicate the success he's had this year... perhaps even surpassing it.

Yeah Motor is the right nickname for Devin. Its the nickname that his father had when he himself was a RB in high school & when Devin started playing he took it over from him. So while The Real McCoy is clever, good luck asking a son to change the nickname he got from his dad, & another thing, it doesnt really fit in with the culture & attitude of our team & that lockerroom. And even if a fan post nickname could catch on & overtake the nickname Devin has had for years, its just not proper to put down an ex teammate & ex Bill like that in a new one going forward. Motor works, motor describes him, motor has been his nick since he was a kid. So keep on motorin' Devin

If it wasnt for the ones last night you wouldnt be saying that. One game doesnt indicate a trend or a significant problem. Its just a game. 1 game. Versus 1 of the best D's in the league who make a concerted effort to knock the ball out. If people want to be really concerned by this thats their choice, me personally I see it as it was... just 1 game where the ball came out a couple times. I'm sure Devin & the rest of the staff will put extra emphasis on ball security this week in practice.

A Bills version of a meme thats been going around the internets for awhile now.... I like it At least it was the Shout song & not the train whistle.... but that wouldve been funny too since i could relate to wanting to shut it off

Just think what a stampede would do after hearing that ghastly train whistle blaring thruout the stadium. It'd be pandemonium. They'd all freak out & charge thru the stands. I'm only down for it if we can get rid of the whistle

I'm with ya in ur general statement, but when a defense is blitzing that means theres opportunities to make them pay elsewhere & its on Allen to make those throws. Teams would be afraid to blitz vs Brady because he could diagnose where the pressure was coming from & make the correct read. I know comparing Allen to what Brady does is unfair, but just using that as an example that everyone can relate to. This past Sunday Allen got blitzed like 80% of the time & there were times where open rushers got thru & Allen had no chance. But there were also times Allen left the pocket too soon where he didnt have to. These are parts of Allens game that hopefully will improve over time. But Daboll would love to call some screen plays, especially vs a defense who's blitzing as much as the Ravens were. But all thruout the year, Allens throws on screenplays have been near disasters & now theyre pretty much nonexistent in the game plan. I'm sure its something they've worked on in practice & you'd think with our athletic OL we'd have some success with them. But from what i've seen, Allen doesn't sell it good enough & he doesn't have that touch to throw it in there. His throws are more on a rope & as a result, the oncoming DE's or LBs get in the way & its just a mess of a play & a near disaster in the making. So with that being said, i think its probably wise we're not running more of them at this time.