hondo in seattle

Thanks for the well-wishes. While things could have worked out better, they could have easily been worse, too. I count myself lucky. I'm talking to friends about exactly this. The key to business is simple: buy low, sell high. We think there may be some opportunities to buy low coming up. Lenders and investors are little nervous right now but a new normal will emerge eventually. Thanks for the kind thoughts. We actually made an offer on a package of restaurants and the offer was accepted. But the owner was extremely slow in providing his end-of-year financials - impeding the due diligence phase of the buying process - and that pushed back the date of the closing of the deal. It was frustrating at the time but it saved me and my partner from a huge mistake. Not knowing where we'll end up, my wife and I are looking at motor homes and will try the RV lifestyle for a while. I imagine myself parked in our RV near a little creek somewhere in the beautiful Cascade Mountains, doing a little reading & writing, and hiking with my husky. While the circumstances are far from ideal, we're looking for silver linings and finding some.

Long story short... after working in the restaurant industry for 20+ years, I quit my good-paying job and sold my house to chase a dream and buy a couple of restaurants. Fortunately we didn't close the deal before Covid 19 hit. If we had, I'd be bankrupt - my life savings mostly gone - because the restaurant industry is in smoking ruins right now. Nonetheless I am effectively homeless and without an income. And given then sad state of the restaurant business (industry experts expect 100,000+ restaurants to permanently close over the next few weeks) and my advanced age (61), I'm not sure how fast I'll be able to pick myself back up and dust myself off. According to estimates, 3,000,000 other restaurant workers are currently unemployed and I personally know mom-and-pop restaurant owners teetering on insolvency. Sad all the way around. Hopefully the NFL season isn't cancelled and the Bills make a run this year. I sometimes proudly wear a Bills sweatshirt that says, "Just One Before I Die."

You want to force the other team to defend the entire breadth and depth of the field. The more real estate they have to worry about, the less successful they'll be. An offense must present a deep threat to be maximally effective. All this talk about trajectory and level shoulders is good. But to me the problem seemed more mental rather than physical. It seemed to me that Josh was throwing not to be picked instead of throwing to complete a big play. I'm not saying, of course, that Josh consciously threw off target. But I think the fear of being picked subconsciously effected Josh's ball placement.

He looks faster than his 4.65 40 time - fast for a guy who likes to bang heads.

This would be interesting if a group of retired scouts put it together. One ESPN guy can't possible do a credible job rating position groups of the entire NFL. When Clay is labelled an "analyst" what that really means is that he's a professional writer and amateur football evaluator.

I've never whined and cried about PFF because I really don't care what they say. They're not very good. It's really hard to evaluate a player without knowing what his assignment is or what his coaches are telling him. To make matters worse, sometimes a player will get out of position because he's trying to cover up for someone else's missed assignment. How is that graded? It surprises me that supposedly all 32 teams subscribe to PFF. What PFF does is an interesting attempt to quantify individual performance in a team sport but they have a long way to go.

I'm too old for Madden but this does seem like a fun thing to follow for those staying at home. But, man, I have a lot of problems with the player ratings.

Not necessarily. The Bills have been so bad for so long, that if the Bills win the AFC East with 12 or more wins, Allen will get a lot of votes even without 35 TDs and 4000 yards.

I watched this game live. Probably my 2nd favorite game of all time - behind only The Comeback. Fun to reminisce. Thanks for posting.

What TT lacks as a passer, he partially makes up for as a runner. Pair Tyrod with a good RB, and opposing defenses need to be prepared to stop two viable running options without entirely being able to neglect the pass. In 2016 when ALynn was calling the plays in Buffalo (after Roman got fired), the Bills offense averaged something like 26 ppg when TT was under center. That's not spectacular but it's really solid - and significantly better than the 19.6 ppg our Bills averaged last year. ALynn clearly knows how to maximize TT's unique skill set and work around his weaknesses. If Chargers can get the right cast around TT, they could potentially score 30 ppg. At least, that's probably what Tyrod's thinking when he talks about 'turning heads.' I personally like Taylor and would love to see him get his day in the sun.

We won an AFL Championship with Jack Kemp at QB. You don't need Tom Brady to win big games. Allen seems to have the same thing that made Kemp a winner: Leadership. And sophomore QBs aren't yet fully made. Josh can get better and hopefully will. Jim Plunkett, for example, in his sophomore year with the Patsies made really bad decisions too - far worse than Josh. That season he threw 25 picks versus 8 TDs! People questioned whether or not he was good enough to start in the NFL. Later in his career, though, Plunkett won two Super Bowl with the Raiders and was named a Super Bowl MVP. I think it's far too early to give up on Josh. There was clear progression from Year 1 to Year 2. Let's see what Year 3 brings before we start looking for another QB.

Agreed. Singletary is not a Bell Cow RB and that era is over anyway. And if Singletary is 1a, Yeldon is not 1b. I don't agree with the posters who seem to think RBs are a dime-a-dozen. There's just as big a difference between JAGs and Superstars at the RB position as any other position. I'd like the Bills 1b to be someone who's good-to-great, not just a JAG like Yeldon. Ideally, the 1a and 1b possess different skillsets. So I'd love to see us draft a strong between-the-tackles bruiser.

That's a really interesting reality and a much appreciated improvement over what we've seen in years past. But if I were a GM, I'd aim to get 2 PB quality studs on the OL. I think the trench is that important.

Gore was a shell of his former self. But our OL didn't consistently create holes, or push defenders back in short yardage situations. Both our passing game and running game need to improve. Getting better weapons will help. Diggs instantly makes the receiving corps more lethal. A bruising between-the-tackles RB to complement Singletary would be great. My biggest hope, though, is that JA and the OL get better.

Sincere condolences to his family and friends. Hope he gets to see the Bills win a Super Bowl in a better place.

Kelce dropped 5.9% of his targets and had 8 total drops versus 97 receptions Knox dropped 20% of his targets and had 10 total drops versus 28 receptions. It's not remotely close. Knox was a drop machine last season - an easy winner of the NFL's 2019 "Hands of Stone" award. https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/stats?season=2019&week=100&category=RECEIVING&opp=0&sort=10&qualified=0&sortOrder=0

On the one hand, I heard good things about the Bills S&C program. It seems to have been a competitive advantage that will be compromised in 2020 by the Covid 19 lockdowns. On the other hand, the kind of players Bean and McD have brought in are the type who will reliably work out on their own instead of playing b-ball in the offseason like Stevie Johnson.

This is something not much considered when rating all-time great RBs. It was harder for backs to get yards (ypc) in Jim Brown's and still in OJ's day because defenses were designed to stop the run. It's different now. Defenses are built to stop the pass first. LBs used to be big and tough - think Dick Butkus. Now they're quick and agile. A team team w/o a good QB would be well served by a power running game. I wouldn't be surprised if the Pats go that route. I certainly don't expect a losing record from any Belichick coached team.

I think Josh Allen needs to continue his growth. And the OL needs to get better - either through continuity or by adding a couple PB type studs. The D was good enough to play in a Super Bowl last season. If Josh and the offensive line get better, the O will be good enough too.

I hope you're right about him taking his eye off the ball because that is correctable. He looked like Gronk on that catch and run versus Cinci. I'm hoping plays like that define his career, not his drops.

I get what you're saying about Know not having a lot of opportunities at Ole Miss but then again maybe they didn't throw to him much because they knew he had hands of stone. The problem might simply be that he lacks hand-eye coordination and that's virtually impossible to teach. I'm not going to rush to judgment on a rookie but the drops are concerning. He's not getting any love from me - beyond the love I give all players in a Bills uni - until he proves he can be a reliable target for Josh.

D was good last year and this still have arguably the best coach ever.

Random thoughts... Peter King. I like King's writing. I respect his insider information. His judgments and opinions, though, are often wrong. For example, back when Doug Whaley was with the Steelers, King said the Bills should make him our GM. Hopkins. Any comparisons to the Hopkins trade are problematic. Despite his obvious talent, few teams actually wanted Hopkins because (1) he wants $20 million/year and (2) he doesn't like to practice. As One Buffalo suggests, check out today's MMQB article by Albert Breer. Draft. There's been some buzz that the Bills were less enamored with this year's WR crop than some others. Furthermore, no draft pick is a sure thing. Getting Diggs puts the Bills in the enviable position that they can truly draft BPA instead of reaching for needs. Diggs. This is a proven NFL WR who can beat press and does well against zone or man and excels at contested balls. At $12M/year, his price is reasonable.

I went back and looked at this thread - Thanks for posting! Some folks really thought the sky was falling. One even posted that the JA pick will force the franchise to leave Buffalo! It's really amusing to see how wrong some of us were. I actually liked 26CB because he loved the Bills and actually knew quite a bit. Just not as much as he thought.

While this is true it's also true that JA will look better when the OL gives him more time. There were flaws in both areas. I'm not a huge fan of PFF and I think their grades for our OL are a little harsh but it is true that we don't have elite/PB level talent up front. Building a Super Bowl team, you probably want 2 elite/PB caliber offensive linemen and then a few solid starters. Right now I'm hoping continuity makes the OL better. This is only the second year together for this group of starters and OL Coach Bobby Johnson. Cross my fingers - we'll have healthier starters this year too. But I'd love to see the Bills pluck an OL superstar out of the draft.