BADOLBILZ

Game attendance falls off but the level of fandom of those that show up also gets VERY watered down. Early in the season the fans scream over me at Daboll for his play calls...........late in the season fans also scream at Daboll when the Bills give up a big play on defense. I wish I was joking about that but I'm not. A significant portion of the crowd are just a bunch of casual fans/tourists on free passes late in the season..........always gets like that when the weather gets bad.

By sitting players for the finale they might be risking a shot at a home AFC title game..............but I think EVERYONE would rather play Tennessee in Nashville in the divisional round rather than KC. I'm not feeling too bad about the Bills as a #4 seed. Sets up a potentially amazing revenge tour playoff lineup for long time Bills fans.

Yes that little bonus is actually irrelevant IMO..........his deal was going to be re-worked this offseason either way. They may want/need $40M of cap space to work with this offseason..........they have about $8-$10M to start with from the bump in the cap.........then can create about $20M-$25M thru sensible/likely cuts..........but they only have so many ways to create cap room elsewhere and that $18M cap hit is probably the easiest one to work on and Diggs is the most justifiable player to give extra guaranteed dollars.

While that makes total sense........that's the kind of thinking that keeps baseball stuck in 1960. One of the nice things about the NFL(and the NBA too, actually) is that individual records/numbers aren't so "hallowed"............it helps the league be able to pivot much easier to always be making itself more entertaining.

Are you dense? We don't resell our tickets online so they aren't being transferred........so they would not know this information. And no........they have no idea whatsoever who sits in our seats. I could give you more specific examples to prove that but let's just say the banned ***** tossers could walk in with some of our ST cards for all they know. As far as they know we have 30 full time ST holders when it's more like 15 people who pay for all of the tickets and actually attend every game. Those 15 tickets will be all that's left if they triple in cost. Now there is plenty of money in Bills fandom to fill 60K considerably more expensive seats........Joe-sixpack doesn't think so but there is..........the key is making it worthwhile for them to show up. The outdoor environment in Nov/Dec/Jan closes the market off to people with means who might bring their wives and kids or people who might fly in from their seasonal homes or just ex-pats with means. The kind of people who aren't put out by the cost.

Well no sh*t they have a plan. They have had a lot of plans since they first bought a Buffalo sports team........some have worked.......some have failed miserably. What I said is they need a NEW plan for filling those seats at a more expensive venue........because their season ticket numbers are highly inflated because the relatively cheap price has created the appearance of more human demand than there is.

As I've said before........right now the tickets are priced right enough that our large group of about 6-7 different accounts owns many extra season tickets........about double what we actually use.........and that's fairly common practice among locally based long-time ST holders. When the cost triples(with seat licensing)...........for the most part, that ends. So they need a new plan for the next venue.

It's that simple. It was this way in the 90's when they were winning as well...........and that was WITH blackouts in place to force people to attend if they wanted to see it. Those tickets you see online only represent a fraction of the available ones too..........most ST holders just give them away or eat em' if they aren't going or don't have a familiar buyer. The way it works out........the extra season tickets we own get sold in September and October and after that if the weather is inclement it is all give-aways and if we didn't have a great party and food we couldn't even give them away.

Yeah this wasn't terribly uncommon parenting technique in the 70's and 80's.

This is actually pretty common with kids if their first game was in the cold...........the coldest I can remember my feet ever being was the first Bills game I went to with my father in 1981.........friends have similar stories. As WNY kids we were used to being out in the snow and cold all day.........but we were running around when we were doing that. Sitting idly in the cold is not natural for kids and they then tend to tense up and try to be still and that leads to poor circulation and cold extremities. Nowadays we always have boxes of packs of hand and foot warmers at our tailgate so it's a non-issue. They are an absolute must for the feet late in the season.

Ok, Marv. You know he also said "failing to prepare is preparing to fail". You are just a fan..........not part of the team............not working for the Associated Press...........you aren't impacting anything either way by speculating.........if you are just OCD about it and speculation causes you anxiety then a message board certainly isn't the place to be. Anytime there is a potential for losing an important assistant coach it's discussion worthy on TSW...........especially if it would mean getting two 3rd round compensatory picks out of the deal.

The current High Mark stadium just sits there unused, off season. But it's also in the suburbs......and the outskirts of that suburb as well..........it's not like tens of thousands of people are driving past it every day on their way to work pondering it's existence. Whatever you build in Orchard Park is going to sit there unused for 340 days per year, doesn't matter if it cost 20% more to build it or not. The reality is that it's just a big televised entertainment studio that you are trying to get people to show up and spend 3x as much money at as they are currently spending. I think people have a hard time grasping the value of money over time. Rich Stadium cost $22M to build and a player who performs there eventually signed a 6 year contract extension worth $258M. His contract is worth more than twice the inflation adjusted value of constructing the entire stadium 50 years later. The cost of doing business in construction and entertainment are rising much higher than most anything else. When wide receivers are signing $300M contracts in 15 years........not spending $300M to put a lid on the venue to give the team a positive performance environment to play in will have seemed like a very shortsighted decision.

I literally sit about 20' directly in front of Daboll........it's not been a peaceful place to sit most of the season........there have been games this year where you aren't sure if it's just raining yet again or if it's the overspray from people critiquing his work.

Just the thought that someone thinks you might not know something irks you.

I think Cover 1 touched on it as well but it was Eric Wood who explained the rationale in a couple segments he did on WGR last season. We've had many discussions in the past 14-15 months about the Bills decision to go to majority zone blocking at mid-season last year. I didn't love it........they have a hodgepodge of scheme fits and misfits on the OL.........Jon Feliciano made himself even less effective this offseason by losing a bunch of weight trying to fit better in outside zone.......their RB's aren't really very good in OZ. They signed the athletic Forest Lamp and the Shanahan-SF-proven outside zone threat in Matt Breida.........but Lamp failed to make the roster and I think Breida made too many mental errors to earn a lot of PT this season.

Yep and maybe free agency will be rescinded and players won't be allowed to make business decisions about not playing their home games in a negative individual performance environment. More realistically...........over the course of the life of the new stadium..........players will have considerably more influence over where they play. And while they might not otherwise choose against living in a city for 6-7 months if the QB/HC and money is right.........superstars aren't likely to choose to run their races on a muddy track. (and I'm told that Terry Pegula fancies a heated natural grass field........so that could become quite literal ).

The explanation we got last year was that running much more outside zone plays allowed for quick and easy line calls.......which allowed them to run up tempo and gave Josh more time to focus on how to attack the defense in the passing game. They were averaging 8 yards per attempt throwing the ball and in the second half of the season it almost seemed like they didn't need to run the ball at all. The pass protection collapsed this year though and the passing game has subsequently become much less productive on a per play basis.

The warning signs were there last year that their receiving targets weren't as explosive as their overall passing numbers would indicate. They weren't a very good RAC team even then..........but Allen averaged a ridiculous 3.14 seconds before throwing which was statistically the highest above expectation in the league...........so he was getting very good protection and often "waiting" receivers open. They doubled down on "route runners" in the offseason when they got less explosive with Emmanuel Sanders. Beasley and Diggs took an absolute beating last year and haven't looked as healthy or explosive this year. Things still might have worked similarly this year but the pass protection fell apart. But either way the Bills have become underpowered in the weapons category. It wouldn't be a pretty picture if they had an average QB with this supporting cast.

That was one of the more "lucky" postseasons for a team ever though. Raiders narrowly escaped to beat New England. Steelers totally annihilated the Colts. But both the Steelers 1,000 yard rushers were lost for the season in the Colts game. The 15-1 Raiders against a Steelers team with almost twice the point differential of the Raiders.............that might have been the ultimate matchup game of the 1970's. I guess fortune favored the bold that postseason! That Steeler team had a PD of over 200 in just 14 games.......that's crazy.

There is no maybe about it. As noted earlier in the thread McKenzie once had a season where he fumbled 6 times in 24 returns..........and had fumbled twice in the preseason that year as well. It was an epic amount of fumbles.........cost him his roster spot altogether in Denver. He came to Buffalo and promptly fumbled twice in 16 return chances and lost that job again. He's a known commodity as a fumbler. Maybe Stevenson will turn out to be unreliable too but McKenzie absolutely is.

Stevenson had 1 career fumble in college and pro football games combined prior to Sunday. Not saying he's a great option.........despite his strong showing in preseason I wasn't overly impressed with his punt receiving in practice setting this summer and honestly thought he'd be IR'd all season..........but ball security has proven to be a serious issue with McKenzie.......and over a much larger sample size......so it's not the least bit surprising they have tried someone else.

McKenzie is not a very natural catcher of the football........his hand eye coordination is off just enough that he ends up double catching too many footballs..........not as big of an issue in the receiving game when he drops a ball or impales himself on the football with his awkwardness..........but it's very concerning in the return game. The punt return that he scored on against Miami last year was almost a muff.........had to double catch that one. For the little bit of impact he was giving them on kicks and punts this year it probably wasn't worth the stress to McDermott.

It's not about the big injuries.......it's the game to game wear and tear. The cumulative impact of lot's of strains, sprains and bruises to the entire body that only occur from all of these high impact hits running around. Executing at a high level from the pocket involves a great deal of precision..........guys like Brady and Brees were able to keep their mechanics tight and have great longevity by keeping the mileage on their bodies to a minimum.

It's been fun watching him run these first 4 years but that has to change soon. They need to fix the OL and get some more explosiveness........and maybe size.........in the receiving corps. Diggs and Beasley's yards per target are down a whopping 40% this year.........the Bills 20+ yard pass plays have fallen off a ton from 66 in 2020 to 49 in 2021........and the Bills average yards per pass attempt(6.9) is tied for 21st in the NFL same as the Colts and Titans. Need to make the offensive side of the football their focus this offseason..........and I don't mean draftin' a RB in round 1..........they need blocking and big play receiving targets to get away from Allen needing to run the ball to extend drives because of their significantly less punchy passing attack.

One freak fumble? McKenzie became available to the Bills on the waiver wire because he fumbled an astonishing 6 times on 24 return opportunities with Denver. One of the all-time worst seasons by a returner ever.