BADOLBILZ

I don't like the Bills TE's or FB options but playing a lot of 21 or 12 personnel is just better long term, IMO. More big plays in the passing game because there is more space for the Bills receivers to work. More pass blocking assistance for an OL that clearly hasn't gelled. And perhaps most importantly the WR don't take the beating that they do when they try to run empty and use the passing game as a replacement for the run game. The dink and dunk gets your skill players beat up.

The Washington front is being criticized for not performing well..........but we know how talented they are.........they have some added motivation to play better this Sunday. Would rather have them coming in hot and the Bills OL being called to account. They have allowed far too much pressure in the first two games.

It's funny how a contract year can sharpen a players focus. After signing new contract? Different story. I'm hoping he just needs to round back into form..........and hopefully it doesn't take until late in the season.

Yeah he is surprisingly poor in space against OL downfield...........he should be discarding those big guys out in space.........but as @Simon pointed out in his post Monday.......Edmunds will eventually get rolled onto his flat side.......and if it's a screen pass on 3rd and 15 he might just cause a pile up with his door jam routine and leave the opponent a yard or two short of the first!

1. Everyone has a role in every play. Being where you are supposed to be away from the ball is expected.......it's not the same as making a big play. We understand the concept of team defense.........but the idea that Edmunds himself cannot make any big plays because he is too busy letting everyone else get the credit is laughable. Routine plays are cited as Edmunds highlights. We've had some posted in this thread. @ctk232 tried to shout down the conversation in this thread with snark..........you don't see it that way because you clearly don't have any common sense.......you are like a 7 year old nephew in that regard.

Having no recollection of the games from his rookie season when he was actually a dominant player.........that was BY FAR the most energy that I've ever seen Star Lotulelei play with. He's generally been quite satisfied to just slow dance with his blocker at the LOS. He was actually impactful in this game. But the downside of being more active appears to be injury. He has already missed a game with a calf injury and suffered a groin injury in Miami that's limiting him. So his improvement might end up short lived but I'd rather he played hard for 7 and missed 10 others injured than be the Polynesian Pylon for 17 again.

1. I literally said he's a top 10-12 MLB/ILB in the NFL........so don't start straw-manning me with the BS notion that I said he doesn't belong on the team. You can't possibly have misinterpreted that. And comparing the MLB in this defense to a guy who is, in theory, doing his job by just tying up blockers is a weak argument. He's in position to make plays. His predecessor was Pedestrian Preston Brown.......and he lead the entire NFL in tackles in this defense in 2017. The bar is high. 2. I can tell you are regurgitating rather than using your own two eyes because you are talking about the hybrid nickel as if the Bills really use that. They use Taron Johnson almost exclusively as their nickel coverage defender. And you can't say that Edmunds/Milano have the same responsibilities and not acknowledge that Milano regularly makes game changing "splash" plays........TFL, sacks, forcing or collecting turnovers.........and not explain why Edmunds has not. 3. I am comparing him to Derrick Henry because they are both players with body types and traits that are usually associated with elite pass rushers.......the second most valuable players in the game behind the QB's. Yet they have somehow ended up at devalued positions. Henry lacks certain skills that you want in a great RB.........but he's taken the great physical skills that he has that other RB's don't.....and made himself into inarguably the most valuable RB in the NFL. He changes games and has reached his potential. Edmunds skills have not materialized into anything close to his potential. As for the "run stuffer" question........what I am pointing out is that Edmunds lacks some of those RB/MLB traits.......the instincts, the elusiveness and leverage that are associated with guys like Devin White, Leonard and Wagner. But Henry isn't extraordinary in those regards either. He uses his speed and power to dominate the position. For Edmunds though, lacking those "smaller player" traits has seemingly left him in no-man's land as a playmaking, game changing player. 4. What player on our team can't play better? That's a feeble attempt to avoid the point.......but I'd say a bunch of them. Milano? White? Johnson? There are a lot of players who are likely at their pinnacle and are in the right defense to be at their best. Edmunds is supposedly in the right defense. But he's not his best........not anywhere close to it........he can play A LOT better. That is the distinction between he and most of the starters who have modest room for improvement. And don't get me started on his "marked improvement". Claiming that he was "markedly" better in 2020 than 2019 is absurd.

There have been some unfair criticisms of Edmunds........like saying his isn't physical enough........that's certainly not the case. But the criticism regarding his lack of big, game changing plays over the last 3+ season's is simply factual. And it's not just fans on a website who note it. Watch the games. It's part of his identity around the league now. People like yourself and @Max Fischer can do a ton of research trying to familiarize yourself with the Bills defense.....but to understand what you are seeing you also need to be able to use your own eyes and a little common sense as well. Milano and Edmunds don't have identical roles in the defense. They are similar but you can't on-one-hand say that they have nearly identical roles but effectively one guy "by design" makes big plays and the other does not. Edmunds is a top 10-12 MLB/ILB ...........a devalued position.........and that's OK but when you are the biggest and most gifted player playing the position in the NFL and your team traded up in the middle of round 1 to select you and you are about to become a $12M-$20M per year cap liability.........people are going to expect YOU to be the guy making plays. The mike on a defense is traditionally a mirror reflection of the (also de-valued) RB position.......and if you take your nose out of the biased Bills coverage/analysis and actually follow the rest of the league....... that's really still the case with most of the truly elite MLB/ILB's. Physically, Tremaine Edmunds is the Derrick Henry of inside LB's..........but unlike Henry he doesn't perform like a truly elite player at the position. In short, save the line of bulls*t about he's just so misunderstood for people who don't know he can perform A LOT better.

Why?

"A “splash play” in football is a play that makes a big splash—that is, it makes a big impact on the game. A “splash play” might be a quarterback sack, a tackle for a loss, a fumble recovery, or an interception." I'm not sure how you came up with this idea.......but Edmunds does not make many "splash plays". Yes, he is inconsistent.........but the most glaring weakness in his game is the near complete lack of impactful, game changing "splash" plays. Also not true.

The NFL is the biggest TV show in North America........not the biggest show or hottest ticket in the world. Going to games is a different story.....general attendance at NFL games had been in decline across the league for years prior to the pandemic. And it's become a relatively small amount of the revenue teams generate so a few empty seats isn't the crisis it was decades ago. The Bills should sell out most if not all games and there will not be much additional foot traffic from out of town fans of other teams.

So has "Reverend Rhule" and his faith based brigade changed your opinion about christian leadership in football? Rhule really wanted Jack Easterby...........if he had a QB like DeShaun Watson at the time then maybe Easterby goes there instead of Houston. 😉

Rousseau was a unique prospect. They don't all pan out..........but players like Aaron Donald and JJ Watt were mis-evaluated and then became so difficult to stop because they were unique. Phillips, on the other hand, was run-of-the-mill performer who had already retired once because of concussion issues. Excellent athlete, good movement skills for his size.....aside from not producing and all of the medical and commitment red flags he fit the mould.....I thought he warranted an early day 3 pick.

He looked woefully out of shape to me. He had that look in his eye like he had far too much booze or red meat the night before. He was a better QB than that starting for Indy. What he did better than Tua was recognize the blitz and fling the ball in the right general direction but it wasn't threatening in the least, IMO.

2. I think that they drew up this pass-rush-centric Dolphins game plan months ago. After you repeatedly beat down a division rival you have to expect that they are going to dedicate a lot of time to exacting some revenge. So they did what Miami wouldn't expect. Well done. They should have taken that approach with Pittsburgh as well, but as I said before the opener, I'd rather lose the Steelers game than the divisional game the following week.

Yeah if but's and if's were forced fumbles and pics.......... Unfortunately it's been 44 regular season games since he's produced one of the former and he has just 1 of the latter in his last 34 regular season games.

Aside from perhaps actually winning SB's.......nothing creates stronger fan bonds to a team than the idea that bad officiating or the league office are out to get "us". The league doesn't intentionally set up officials to make bad calls...........but they naturally have a financial disincentive to ever perfect officiating..........a certain amount of 3rd party human error and the subsequent outrage is quite beneficial to the bottom line. No bias necessary. So rather than ask why any rule is a rule in a game with so many..........maybe ask why your team can't follow the rule or doesn't know how to put the other team in position to violate said rule?

Don't need a dish. Excellent HD reception off an antenna in Orchard Park. We always have the local 4pm game on after the Bills game and sometimes some people in our group will just come to tailgate and then watch the Bills game on TV. Less so now that they are winning.........now everyone wants to go inside. Some of the private lots have the game on big screen in their garages too. I've caught the end of some bad games outside on those TV's during the drought. As some have mentioned it's an interesting experience hearing the crowd reactions from the stadium prior to seeing the play on tv because of the delay.

If you don't like conclusion-based analysis then you should quit watching sports. KC lost 3 games last season........Tampa lost 5 but finished ahead of them because that's how the system works. Edmunds doesn't make big plays.........50+ games into his career it's clearly not an aberration.

They are physically such different players..........but I see your point.......Rousseau is a bull rusher and while Reggie White used brute strength to plow over RT's Groot uses the long arms, huge hands and long strides to get them off balance. Different skillset to achieve similar style of rush.

It's not Edmunds hate.........I think he's a very talented player.........what I hate is that they put him at a devalued position like MLB that a 2017 Preston Brown or a current AJ Klein or Tyrel Dodson-level talent could man quite adequately. It's been a misuse of talent that is about to become a misuse of talent and cap space. I'd also hate Stefon Diggs at RB, Jordan Poyer at boundary CB or Matt Milano at DT.

Oh he still over-threw a ridiculous frozen rope to a wide open Singletary streaking down the sideline too. He is best on throws he can put on a line but he needs to learn how to throw with the appropriate trajectory if he is to remain a top 5 NFL QB.........and while he put some more passes in harms way today he did under throw a pass to Diggs that he put good air under that allowed Stefon to come back and make the Bills largest pass reception of the game.

Move him to MLB!

Yeah if you go back to his first career game........he records a dynamic strip-sack fumble against Baltimore. That season he actually made some plays. That player was a different guy. I'm sure he's more assignment sound at this point but I think the responsibilities he has at that position are unnatural enough to him that they have taken away from his natural playmaking ability. Planting him at MLB has been one of the more peculiar decisions in Bills history, IMO. Basically the opposite of when the team kept Cornelius Bennett at OLB for far too long when it was clear that he was a better fit as an off-ball ILB. Biscuit got accolades he didn't necessarily deserve at OLB in the SB runs.......but despite being constantly turned loose on the QB the pressures and sacks weren't coming. Enter Bryce Paup.........that position immediately rolls up 17.5 sacks.....Bennett had produced just 14 total the prior 3 seasons......... and Bryce wins the NFL DPOY..... and Bennett was really tremendous at ILB. Sometimes a staff is just wrong about how best to use a players skillset and I think that's been the case with Edmunds.