BADOLBILZ

It's hard to heal calf injuries. You can go easy on a hamstring but it's hard to walk at all without aggrivating a calf injury. They are so often the precursor to a torn achilles. It's happened so often to so many big name players now that it's odd when people try to brush it off like you are doing. The Bills have good depth a DE. That's the saving grace. Not the insignificance of the injury for a brittle old pass rusher.

I posted it somewhere else before but the average SB winner's offensive and defensive ranking over the last decade or so was surprisingly low. I think it was an average of 9th for both. So there isn't really a direct correlation between very high regular season rankings and postseason success. But over the past decade the quality of your second receiving option has been as big of an indicator that you will reach the SB as any. That was true again for the winner this year as Devonta Smith averaged 64 yards receiving per game as option #2 for Philly. AJ Brown averaged 83. Those are big numbers that project over 1,000 in a 17 game season. The bulk totals for Hurts/Brown/Smith were down this year due to games missed to injuries but they easily have the most talented 1-2 WR pair in the NFC. Bills fans often cite the Chiefs as an exception. Like they haven't had high end receiving talent. But 2024 was the only season since 2015 that the Chiefs haven't had two of the top 32 receiving yardage producers in the NFL. The Bills haven't had a top 32 ranked 1-2 punch since Diggs/Beasley in 2020. Basically, the Bills are trying to be a significant outlier. At least the 2023 Chiefs went into camp thinking they had still fringe superstar Kelce and a rising star in Rice.......who was on a 1400+ yard pace prior to his injury. Unless the Bills make an unexpected move this will be the second consecutive year they have entered the season without a receiver who has put up at least 900 yards at some point in their NFL career. For perspective, before that it had been almost 40 years since they started a season without someone who'd at least put up 1,000 in a season. "Everyone eats" or not they are accepting a pretty low standard.

I think we already touched on this topic earlier in the thread but he Bills were not 9th in passing yardage. They were 17th. The figures you are referencing are "net" passing yards..........which subtracts sack yardage. If you are historically great/lucky at not turning the ball over and your QB never gets sacked that's going to greatly benefit your "net" numbers. But if you are judging the quality of talent in the passing game........remember this........the league DOES NOT subtract sack yardage from QB's individual passing yardage(or the WR's, naturally). @Paup 1995MVP's reaction to your post reflects how misleading including sack data is. By no means was the Bills 2024 passing game an aerial circus.

It's back. Kinda'. https://slicesoda.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid+ad&utm_campaign=slice-soda-brand&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22117546269&gbraid=0AAAAAq2m6Bs3qvcAYrPO444Y3Oy_D_U8W&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2OXCqsy9jQMV4F5HAR0ugCqnEAAYASAAEgKcIPD_BwE

Yeah people don't realize how much they've missed the unnecessary, drive stalling calls that you get when you use a 250-270# TE to run block instead of a real 320# offensive lineman. The mind blown "imagine if the Bills could use a TE instead of an extra OL" takes after the draft were precious. Nobody needs a Lee Smith. If he's going to be out there he better catch the ball and make plays in the passing game too. The good news is that he seems to be getting good reviews in that regard.

If we are going to speculate on why Coleman struggled when he came back I'd say it's more likely that he had mentally checked out on the season during his recovery. Coleman is not a guy who was used to playing football in December and January to begin with. It's hard to be any good in the NFL unless you are all-in mentally and physically. I'm not directly equating the situations but Chase Claypool is the extreme example of how far you can fall in the NFL when you lose your competitive edge. I think Coleman's lapse was likely temporary but now that is part of his history that people will be watching for.

What Allen CAN do consistently that the Bills can't take advantage of with this WR corps is throw 30+ yard passes on a line. He doesn't have great touch on throws that require air under them but he can throw to areas of the field on a rope that others have to throw with arc/anticipation. Throws that are normally way out of a QB's range to make and where DB's are very vulnerable . Allen's range as a passer of low trajectory throws actually opened up the field quite a bit for Gabe Davis, who had the size to do work downfield but little else. Hopefully Coleman can become a much better version of Gabe, at least. But unless Allen can maintain his strong arm until the end, eventually he will have to find more consistency on touch/timing passes over the top to stay among the very best in the league as he ages.

9 years ago the idea that there would become bandwagon Bills fans was a bit far-fetched. For years on TSW two things I often talked about that needed to happen: 1) The fanbase had to become their own separate entity from the team in the way that even longer-suffering Chicago Cubs fans had under similarly difficult circumstances. Prior generations of Bills fans would vote for or against Ralph with their wallets and that was a recipe for losing your team and all the fun and entertainment we enjoyed around the 48 hours of sh!t football we were subjected to annually. 2) That they should pick a QB with their first pick EVERY year until they got one that could get a stadium built. Both goals were achieved, even if not in the way you'd draw it up. I am grateful that Josh Allen and the energy of Bills Mafia can bring us new fans. I can remember going to local bars with friends to watch Bills pre-season games during the Rex era and even if the place was packed nobody else even knew the Bills were playing. The Bills territory was contracting and you didn't have to venture far outside of Buffalo to reach where the team was becoming irrelevant. The brand was that tarnished by the likes of Ralph, Jauron, Levy and Brandon. In general, the fans that this Josh Allen era creates will be the people sustaining the franchise 10-15 years from now the same way that the kids of the Kelly/Bruce/Thomas/Reed era Bills sustained the organization thru the 2000-2017 drought years.

He, his dad and uncle are an enigmatic bunch. There are people that swear they are fantastic human beings and at the same time you have self-destructive issues with the law and coachability problems. Kaiir's self destructiveness is just a bit more 1st world than the prior generation who grew up with less. It's great that he is so kind/compassionate/caring for those less fortunate than he. You find people like that at all socio-economic levels. From the upstanding to the most criminal. That's just one aspect of their humanity. What's applicable here is that Kaiir just didn't make the effort for his employer, his teammates or the fans in Buffalo. It's one thing to struggle to win a starting job it's another to then not even feel compelled to contribute on special teams. That caused a spiral here because they couldn't activate a backup DB who wouldn't play ST's. He alienated himself because he refused to do the dirty work and earn those opportunities to cover receivers every week. He was already financially set from that first contract and he knew he'd get another shot elsewhere because he was a first round pick so he didn't feel compelled to lower himself to the level of a guy like Ja' Marcus Ingram. Now he's basically a 6th round pick for the Cowboys so I expect him to re-adjust his expectations of himself.

My understanding is that teams have less control over editing of HK than you think. They have to claim that the information they want edited out creates a competitive disadvantage for them. And for the people who point to HK training camp edition teams not having great results that season.........up until this season teams that had made the playoffs the prior season had been exempt from HK for a long time. That had helped the Bills avoid it since they had been to the playoffs 7 of the last 8 seasons. So you weren't seeing SB contenders in the TC edition. That's the primary reason why the records weren't good.

I don't think Beane voluntarily put a bullseye on himself. The WGR thing was pretty much a steam of consciousness thing where he was kind of all over the place torn between talking sh!t about how smart he is(Josh Allen 2018 draft) and making excuses why he can't pay a WR and then dropping the "I signed Joshua Palmer" flex at the end. But yeah, the questions about the WR position will be addressed in Hard Knocks. It would be one thing if it were questions about the safety position that Beane was yelling at local media about...........but putting some extra focus on WR also gives HBO an excuse to keep more focus on QB1.

I think they just finally ran out of excuses and the NFL forced it on them. They've dodged the first 30 or so of these reality shows. The training camp ones, the in-season, off-season and the Netflix QB and WR docs. Maybe surprisingly exempting them from an international game this year was a concession? But either way I think they would likely have avoided it if the league gave them a choice.

They haven't been a top 2 team since 1993 but yeah they've won the division 5 years in a row and should have also won that 6 beginning in 2019 but just plain choked against Brady in NE back when Belichick still owned McD(0-6 vs BB at that point). I didn't say it or even quote it though so you'd have to ask @dcinmuncie exactly what they meant by "under the radar". The Jets were the betting favorite to win the AFC East last year but I never bought into that so they haven't been under the radar to me since their surprisingly dominant 2020.

I don't know if you are actually in the minority or not........but I think it shows that you probably just care too much about the outside perception of the team when there really is no rational reason to. But irrational things like worrying about outside perception of the team or whether officiating is unfairly biased against your team bonds fans to the product. It's an advanced suspension of disbelief.

I repeat, you are claiming the questions about the Bills WR corps "will likely not be covered" on Hard Knocks. Mmmkay. I suspect you will be backpedaling on that the same way you did when you started that thread last spring to tell us how nobody but you understood how great Khalil Shakir was going to be in 2024 and then walked it back in the fine print so that 900 yards would meet the criteria. 😂

So if a month of HBO following the Bills around in the preseason is equivalent to "breaking their legs"..........how did Mahomes survive being followed around by Netflix for an entire season and win the Super Bowl that year? It's irrational to have such anxiety over Hard Knocks for a team with a 9th year HC and GM and 8th year QB. They are the definition of a team that should be ready for this and yet still interesting enough to be worthwhile for average NFL fans to watch.

Get real. It's going to be the #1 storyline at the beginning of the show. Of course it should be talked about. That's how these things work. The Bills are normally a very low drama organization(outside of 2022 which was a drama sh!it storm). So Brandon Beane going on the offensive with local media and then going on a tour to yuck it up with out-of-town media about it while patting himself on the back about how great a job he's done with the WR corps is good drama to build on. Not a lot of GM's put their neck out like that. And then they open up with the Ravens, who literally exposed the Bills WR corps last fall and sent Beane scrambling to trade for Amari Cooper a month ahead of the deadline. The Ravens then later held Allen to a pathetic 127 yards passing in a home playoff game where they physically outplayed the Bills but lost because of a comedy of errors on their part..........I mean, the WR drama could come to a head right away. The potential entertainment value beginning this season story with Hard Knocks is enormous. By the end of that 1st game Beane could look like a genius or already be getting panned nationally if they struggle to throw the ball against Baltimore for a 3rd straight time. Everything about this season is setting up to be incredibly entertaining. Love them getting Hard Knocks this year, they have a seasoned leadership group and coaching staff and areready for it, IMO. And so glad they didn't know they were going to be on it until Beane added some spice to it with his "I signed Joshua Palmer" swagger.😂 This is going to be great.

Every subsequent failed attempt to get a WR1 in the draft are honest mistakes compared to passing on AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Terry McCLaurin in the 2019 draft and choosing Cody Ford instead. They've been chasing ever since. Beane has struggled to find an elite pass rushing DE but at least in that instance he has the excuse of having to deal with the rigidity of McDermott's scheme. The amount of DE's who check all of the boxes to satisfy the wants of the McDefense are limited. If you insist on 6'6" 270 pound DE's with 34" arms you gotta' be willing to keep throwing numbers at it and take on day 3 risks like they did in Carolina with Greg Hardy. And perhaps McDermott hasn't been willing to allow Beane to go that far. But you aren't getting an Aidan Hutchinson with the 28th pick. Beane has no such excuse at WR. Those are unmitigated whiffs.

The Elam's were all knuckleheads at his age. Whether he was different than his dad/uncle was always the biggest question to me. He isn't. I expect he will get it together eventually. He has plenty of talent so he will get enough shots til it sticks. It's not a direct comparison but Rasul Douglas was terrible until he was suddenly really good.

Good because I am already sick of you moving the goal post with your bad arguments. You were mad that I said the trade-up for Kincaid hasn't proven worth it to this point.........and then you are saying Beane made a "ridiculous" evaluation plugging him in immediately and "expecting" results because in your eyes he was totally unprepared for the NFL. The fans didn't give him all that playing time and targets. The team did. I mean, pick a lane for fuxake.😂 You don't pick a non-premium position like TE in round 1 and then hope he starts playing like a first rounder in year 3 or 4.

Kincaid was thrown a lot of passes as a rookie but had very little impact. You often see teams force playing time on rookies they expected a lot of. But no receiver that begins at the LOS and had only a 9.2 yard per catch number nowadays, did anything remotely historic that season. That was sort of like the regular season Kelce had last year that people said was terrible and called him washed up. He has an age excuse. Kincaid was 25. That's PRIME age. He was supposed to be plug and play and has turned into at least a 3 year project. And the concept of a split-only TE like Kincaid really was as a rookie is fairly new so comparing his rookie season production to guys even 10 years ago is what is ridiculous. It's like comparing passing yardage and TD/INT ratio to 30-40 years ago. Edmunds was a failed trade up. He's an adequate first round pick but they also dealt a valuable second round pick to move up for him and he wasn't worth a second contract to the team. If you aren't deemed market worthy and they don't have an OBVIOUS replacement for you(which was the case when Edmunds left)....... then you probably weren't worth a first and second round pick. And we know why they didn't want to extend him. He lacks the instincts for the position that the far lesser size/speed athlete Bernard has in abundance. Yet Bernard got extended. EARLY. The Bills had Edmunds play out his 5 year deal and let a 24 year old veteran go for a reason. They even ate a big $11M+ cap hit in his option year to avoid extending him. As for noteworthy day 2 picks? What's your point? I never said he hasn't made some good day 2 picks. You are just making up a rebuttal to an argument that wasn't made. My point is simple........his itchy trade-up finger on day 1 and 2 has not yielded results they couldn't have expected by sticking and picking. I mean do you not think Fred Warner is better than Edmunds? Is LaPorta not as good as Kincaid? Metcalf/AJBrown/McLaurin all not better than frickin' Cody Ford? These were all worthwhile options at the time that they could have had without trade ups.

Yeah those Super Bowl Bills were no angels but their off field transgressions didn't prevent them from playing well(except for Super Bowls, of course). Kelly was accused of violence against women but was never charged like idiot Eric Moulds though. He'd probably get attempted murder for what he was accused of nowadays. Speaking of those lenient times, I have to laugh when I see the people with Cornelius Bennett handles. Most are or were totally unaware that he did actual time in WNY for sexual assault(forced anal sex, specifically).

Yep traded up for Allen and then Edmunds was the first of Beane's long string of, so far, failed Day 1 and 2 trade-ups.

It didn't. Moulds was just an idiot entering the NFL. After he was drafted reports came out that he was off a lot of teams draft boards. And though you would think it was for his propensity for assaulting women, it was actually because he was an idiot on the field. At the 3:19:30 mark you see Moulds catch a ball a couple feet from the sideline and stupidly stay in bounds and cost the Bills a timeout as the Bills were driving down 22-16 in the closing moments. He was unplayably stupid.

McConkey probably isn't a starting NFL player back in Reed's prime. It took defense's getting smaller, in response to running backs like Thurman Thomas destroying LB's in coverage, for the league to take the next step and go to smaller slot-only receivers. The slot receiver of today is the 3rd down back of Reed's era. Reed could play inside or out because he was a big, physical receiver even by todays standards and the outside CB's of his day tended to be smaller and less athletic than they are now. That's a whole "what happened to all the athletes who used to play RB" evolution story, but in short, Reed is not really an apples-apples comp.