BADOLBILZ

Yeah Cook seems to be a bit of a dunce. Sharty had a rep as a fumbler in NOLA so it's been refreshing that he has been catching everything and not spilling it until now.

Yeah fumbles and drops galore now that he is getting more usage. I guess he was sick this week but if you are too sick to catch or hold onto the ball then stay on the porch.

About what? They just played one of the very worst defense's in the NFL and struggled mightily to get 24 points and you immediately post a complaint about criticism of the Bills playmakers?

That's good for them, their ownership is cheap enough without that excuse to use..........but the teams that are in that Bally's jam are in a terrible spot. Like the ACC member schools individually, other aspects of Bally's are doing great. But Bally's aren't going to rob Peter to pay Paul..........that's not even a consideration in modern business........and neither are the ACC schools going to continue to take far less for the product they are putting on the field.

No, Disney/ESPN just needs to re-negotiate their rights deal with the ACC.........or the conference will fall apart. Pretty sure the Orioles are caught up in the Bally's disaster with their Maryland regional sports network...........Bally's is going under and when they do they won't pay those teams the TV rights they owed them. Same situation except it's the ACC that is going to disband if they don't get a rights deal commensurate to Big Ten and SEC. It's business. If you don't understand it, grab a punchcard and watch the clock. 😉

Defense's have effectively separated the wheat from the chaff in the passing game this season. Phony WR2's like Gabe have gotten exposed. There has never been more WR talent in the NFL than there is now........but you have to be REALLY good to make plays when defense's are basically running the equivalent of hockey's neutral zone trap. The only reason you can't see that our playmakers aren't as good as KC last season is because you refuse to face the fact that Juju was excellent last year. 24th in receiving yards and 77% catch rate. A stud season from a guy who also once put up a 1400 yard season. The Bills don't have anywhere near that kind of player as a second option. The Chiefs also had dynamic impact from their RB's receiving........ 10 receiving TD's from McKinnon and Pacheco last season.......Cook has 4 with 3 games left. But LOS aligned receivers are more important to the equation. And fwiw, both Chiefs SB wins were capped off by plays by their WR2.......Sammy Watkins and Juju(who is open to extend and end the game if Bradberry doesn't grab him).

So as far as you could see.........having NOT EVEN LOOKED.......the idea that the Bills want to limit Allen's rushes until later in the season/playoffs is "completely unsupported, speculation"? You do realize how ridiculous that statement is right? You basically said you have zero clue if it's right......but it's bullish!t! Go back to page 7 and read @GunnerBill post...........each year since his breakout Allen has run a lot more at the back end of seasons. You should know this from the eyeball test alone being a Bills fan. They always endeavor to keep him in the pocket early in the season......even at the expense of keeping games closer than they should be. They've used the same formula to turn their fortunes around in 2021 when they were in a very similar spot with a 7-6 record. The Denver loss was a less shocking but equally painful equivalent of the 9-6 loss in Jacksonville in 2021.

Again, with regard to Cook being the Bills top or second option........I don't believe the quality of a RB makes a difference in reaching or winning a SB. SF got great RB production from everybody they have used under Shanahan. They can reach the SB if McCaffrey goes down. No problem. They can't if Deebo goes down and probably won't if Aiyuk goes down. You are wrong about the Bills TE's being good. Knox has been terrible in the passing game this season. By every metric. We can cite the injury for his drop-off but it's about what he and Kincaid are now...........not what they could be. And at his best all Knox was still not close to top tier TE who you'd want as a top 2 option. What he's getting paid has nothing to do with it.........that contract looks long-term bad right now. With his lost season combined with Kincaid's toothless production the Bills have NOT had a good TE game.........let alone a TE who has been an elite second option. And yeah Knox makes an occasional highlight play but so does Gabe and so do Justin Watson and MVS for the Chiefs.........the problem is they aren't good enough second options. You saw how impactful Gabe and Knox were when they needed them to step up in the Cinci playoff game last year. They aren't NEARLY good enough to consistently step up against the style of defense opponents are playing good passing games with right now. 2023 has been the year of the playmaker. If a non-QB is going to win MVP ever again, it's this season. Teams with multiple stud receiving targets(of the non-RB variety) are making teams like SF and Philly SB favorites and keeping flawed teams like Cinci, Miami, Seattle, Houston and Jacksonville in contention. Teams like Dallas and Baltimore don't have stud WR2's but they have a better top 3 of pass catchers.......though losing Andrews means Baltimore really needs the #1 seed, IMO. The Bills and Chiefs are fighting against that current this season.

ACC wants $560M for them to be able to leave the ACC. That's why they don't just pay the fee. That's like the last 15 years of Orioles payrolls.

The "Gabe is a very good WR2, I don't know what you're talking about!" crowd has officially eliminated Gabe from their vocabulary. Everybody is off that wagon, finally.........or if not they are in deep lurk mode. Now they are now resorting to "well who did the Rams or Patriots have?".............when we already went thru who all of these teams had in the Gabe debate. Which proves they were never listening to the facts of the argument in the first place. If you guys want to learn a bit about the impact of receivers I suggest you follow this site: https://receptionperception.com

MVP of the SB. Did you even watch that SB? How many times did talking heads bring up that it was too bad that he got hurt because he was on track to be the MVP of their SB win? He was having a great game and I'm convinced you didn't even watch it. After he went down their offense stalled and allowed the Bengals to get back in it and make it a game. Next thing you are going to tell me the Bengals didn't have good weapons.

So in addition to Moss and later Gronk you don't think Welker and Edelman were big time weapons for NE? 11 out of 12 years from 2007 on their slot receiver averaged somewhere between 67 and 98 yards per game! Eight 1,000 yard plus seasons. Studs. Fact. Right in our own division. Were you following the Bills or not? Some of you really don't follow football close enough to even be discussing these topics. Go back to the kids table @Thurman#1

TE can be a WR2 equivalent if they are really outstanding receivers. How does including a TE who averages 15 yards per catch and has a 65% catch rate and 60+ yards per game like Gronk negate the argument? Kelce was great in all 3 of the Chiefs SB years and Tyreek and Watkins were the 2nd and 3rd options in 2 of those SB appearances. And last year Juju was a do-everything-well second option at WR who put up WR1 bulk stats(24th in yards receiving) and provided Mahomes a crazy efficient near 80% catch rate passing game weapon. It would be incredible if the Bills had someone like that opposite Diggs this season. In fact compare his efficiency numbers last year to Diggs stats this year. Better ypc, success%, catch rate, YAC, yards per target.......he was legit VERY good last year. The Bills TE's haven't been dangerous. Knox has had a truly terrible season. His biggest impacts were two crucial 4th down drops........one that nearly lead directly to a loss against the NYG.......and one that greatly contributed to defeat in NE. Before that he has always been an inconsistent passing game weapon just like Gabe. Kincaid has show more promise but he has a pathetic 8.1 yards per reception and 6.7 yards per target. He's been toothless to this point. Maybe this year is the exception when you don't need a stud 2nd receiving option? Maybe this year playoff defense's don't shut down offense's that rely so heavily on RB's like this year's Bills and Chiefs? That's why top ranked, must-feed RB's don't win SB's.......but again, maybe this year is finally the exception? There are a lot of maybe's but my point is that the known quantities that the Bills have as weapons are not on par with what has been getting teams to SB's.

Very right about: - MLB being an easy fill.......never worried about it. - WR position being a big weakness (and Sharty and Sherfield not being impactful after worse careers than Crowder and McKenzie whom they replaced) - Kincaid being good for a rookie but also not real impactful - Offensive line being much better than expected Very wrong about: - Ed Oliver stepping up his game significantly........I doubted it - The opinion that Von Miller would be ready early in the season and play well this year. He had a setback in August but even if he came back on the early timeline he'd have sucked for the first 3 months based on how unimpactful he's been. - I was specifically quite confident that Allen wouldn't repeat his mistake prone 2022 performance in the Meadowlands..........but he did and then some.

Those kids Christmas almost got Munsoned

Yeah I will believe a RB is the difference when it happens again. As I said in another response, run defense is all about effort and technique. So defense's can easily elevate that aspect of their game in the playoffs.......and often do. Think about the 2017 Bills defense in the WC game in Jacksonville. That was a team that had given up a franchise record of rushing yards over a 3 game span earlier that season. They were STOUT in that playoff game. This reality has long spelled doom for run-centric teams in the playoffs.

OBJ was huge for the Rams in their SB run and was on pace to be the MVP for the Rams in that SB. They held on after he got injured. But they don't get there without him stepping up........including the 9-11 for 113 versus the Niners in that closely contested NFCCG. The quality of a teams WR2 has been a huge indicator for teams reaching the SB the last 6 seasons. The quality of individual RB has been inconsequential for the most part. For decades now. And that's because run defense is about effort and technique and defense's tend to raise the levels of those things in playoff games.

The Chiefs were MORE of "that" last season though. And they had a short road to the SB(the only one of the past 4 years that they didn't reach the SB was the year they didn't have a bye). The Bills don't have a second boundary receiver who can run a full route tree, create RAC, catch a contested throw or AT LEAST draw the occasional PI penalty. Juju could do all of those things for the Chiefs..........which then made MVS more effective and so forth.

Unfortunately the lack of playmaking at the receiver position made that hard to sustain. I truly believe that Beane is getting better at his job but the current lack of playmaking ability at WR is on him.

We can hope this season the SB winner is an aberration........like Josh and the defense putting the team on their back in the playoffs like the out-of-his-mind Joe Flacco SB Ravens or something........but they don't have all of the elements of any recent SB participant. Their playmakers don't stack up.

Yeah there is no arguing that not having a salary cap keeps good big market teams competitive every year..........that's real. But the only real current threat to changing the current course that's producing new champs year after year is Steve Cohen. And Cohen seems to be trying to build more gradually/responsibly himself. Guys like Friedman with LA and Hal Steinbrenner are in it to make money first and foremost. The Dodgers have essentially added at most $31M in real payroll expense to their roster next year with Shohei and Yamamoto. It's not crazy money by any means. The Yanks will pay that to Soto and that cost them players to acquire. The Yanks will pivot and spend money elsewhere but it won't largely change the balance of the league and the de facto salary cap called the luxury tax will continue to give Hal the excuse to keep his payroll in the 25%-35% of revenue range.........as opposed to NFL teams who pay out over 50%........and as opposed to pre-tax era when George Steinbrenner at times had as much as 80% of revenue tied up in player salaries. The luxury tax isn't exactly a salary cap but because greed naturally expands and rich endeavor to avoid taxes......it serves the same purpose.

Memories are incredibly short with football fans. Josh not running was the biggest complaint all season. Fans expected Dorsey's offense to be productive and consistent anyway. Joe Brady takes over with a clear directive to cut Josh loose as a runner and the narrative is that Joe Brady is some kind of revelation as the OC. I think he's fine and being his second job as an NFL play caller I think that experience and then time to step back and re-evaluate maybe gives him a little edge over Dorsey when working against veteran DC's........though Spagnolo got in his pants in that second half in KC. But that experience matters. First year OC's never win a SB so it's no surprise Dorsey got Anarumo'ed in the playoffs after being on a 9 game heater.

No parity? There hasn't been a repeat WS champion since the luxury tax was instituted. Baseball is basically back in the collusion era of the 1980's. Tax the rich for spending.......and they spend less. That's a universal law. 2 free agents sign and someone brings up parity.........meanwhile about 800 others are looking for work and most will get paid a fraction of what you'd expect. This is the kind of free agency Charlie Finley wanted and Marvin Miller was trying to prevent. Yeah the big market teams are still going to usually win a lot of regular games most years and bad small market teams like the Pirates will stay bad...........but the current system still makes stories like the ingenious Tampa Bay Rays and the usually incompetently run Baltimore Orioles(current) a real possibility. Well run teams of all market sizes can be very good and the playoff system is such that upsets are always possible.

Yeah, Miami and Arizona dumped him because he tried too hard. Yep that's been his rep. Dude is second only to Aaron Maybin among 21st century Bills at fake hustling and eye wash. When the going is tough and it hurts to play with leverage, tie up blockers and get off blocks he plays like he's 250# instead of #350. When the other team has one foot on the bus, playing on their heels in garbage time he chases the easy stats/big plays with wreckless abandon. Same thing last year when he stupidly hurt his shoulder flopping wildly at Mac Jones at the end of a blowout. He connects with fans for his cheerleading but the reality is that he is one of the worst rated DT's in the entire league again this year.

Hines? $5.5M for a 28 year old scatback with a blown knee to be the 3rd RB? Nah. That would be gross mismanagement by Beane. Find next years version of Ty Johnson to be the 3rd back.