hondo in seattle

My coach used to say that if you're not in the game, your role is to be a cheerleader. Maybe they don't teach that anymore?

It is scary. But I think McD has a better sense of Daboll's skills then we do. While we only see the product on the field with all its warts, McD gets to see Daboll's "process." He gets to watch him game plan, coach and prepare. McD should be able to determine if Daboll's doing the right things. We know the result is wrong but is the "process" right and just needs better players?

I mostly agree but want to add that being a good OC does far more than just playcalling. A good OC attracts good position coaches and then coaches them to be even more successful. He leads effective meetings and walk-thru's to and makes sure the team is ready come Sunday. He studies film and accurately dissects an opponent's weaknesses and tendencies. He develops an scheme to successfully attack enemy defenses. He motivates players to give 100% effort all the time. And so on. The thing is, it's hard to evaluate all that when the basic talent is lacking. Good players can make average OCs look like geniuses. Bad players can make any OC look like an idiot. At this point, I just don't know if Daboll is a good OC.

Nobody knows if Allen is going to be a franchise QB. On the one hand, anyone who says he's so bad that it's just not going to happen is either delusional or just not watching. Allen has proven his ability to make big time NFL throws. The question is: can he do it consistently? And that depends on his biomechanics, ability to read defenses & find receivers, the talent around him, and all that. NFL QBs sometimes get better and sometimes they don't. There's no foolproof way of prognosticating this. On the other hand, those who think it's certain that Allen will be franchise QB are also delusional. There's just no guarantee. In the end, one camp will be proven right and we'll hear the gloating told-you-so's. But any certainty at either end of the spectrum at this point is misguided. As I fan I see positive signs. I see why Beane drafted the kid and hope for the best. I don't care at all what Barnwell thinks or writes.

Shady's not a bruiser. He needs space to do his thing. If we trot out the same OL next year that we have this year -then no, don't keep Shady. Shady and this OL don't work well together. If we upgrade the OL, then I say yes for the same reasons others have given: Shady still has some gas in the tank and his competitive fire/leadership are useful. As an aside, back in 1971 I watched Willie Ellison break Cookie Gilchrist's pro football record for most rushing yards in a game. Willie ran for 247 yards on 26 carries versus Cookie's 243 (AFL record) and Jim Brown's 237 (NFL record). Don't remember Willie Ellison??? That's because he wasn't all that good and spent most of his NFL career as a backup. But the OL in front of him on that magical day was freakin' dominant. They opened gaping holes the size of Texas. A good high school back could have easily rushed for over 100 behind that line and many college backs could have gone over 200. It's hard to imagine what OJ or Brown might have done but it would have been incredible. On the flip side, I think Barry Sanders would have had trouble getting yards running behind our offensive line. OLs matter hugely. The 1971 Rams OL made Willie look like an Olympian god toying with mortals. Our OL makes Shady look like Elmer Fudd.

The Bills outgained the Jets 368-248. If talent can be measured by roster spending. The Jets ($150 million) have a much more talented roster than the Bills ($111 million). And yet - if not for special teams - we would have won. I don't think this is a clear case of their coach outcoaching our coach.

Gug, you're right. He had a mediocre overall career. But when at his best, he was extremely talented.

No offense but I suspect you didn't seem him play in his prime. Before injuries ruined his legs - and thus his biomechanics - he was a preternatural threat with the ball in his hands. Just think about this one stat if his SB victory isn't enough: he passed for 4,000 yards in a 14 game season in 1967. Next best in 1967 was 3300 yards. Broadway Joe threw for something like 20% more yards than the next best guy. Incredible. No other QB would throw for that many yards until 1980 when the passing game started to explode thanks to all the rule changes making it easier on offenses and harder on defenses. In 1974, defensive backs were no longer allowed to maul receivers running downfield. In 1977, seasons became 16 games longs allowing for greater yardage totals. Also that year, offensive linemen were allowed to use their hands when pass protecting. More rules were passed in 1977 and 1978 limiting contact between DBs and receivers. Rules protecting the QB followed and the avalanche of passer-friendly rules continues to this day. Namath threw for 4,000 yards before all that - back when QBs and WRs were real football players and got the holy snot beat out of them. But those beatings took a toll and Namath's abilities declined with his health.

The OP poses an interesting question. It seems to me there haven't been many (if any) balls that should have been incomplete but the receiver made a great catch. There have been plenty of drops though. Normally, you'd expect the drops and great catches to more-or-less even out - providing the QB with a fair-enough stat line. Not so this season.

Daboll has never been successful as a NFL OC. He just doesn't have the right resume yet. Even if Daboll has the potential to be a good HC, why would a GM do this? It would be hard to sell to the fans. It would be hard to sell to position coaches and coordinators. It would be hard to sell to players.

I don't have a subscription so I don't have access to the article. But I wonder if anyone's charted Allen's throws? What's his percentage when he throws deep middle? Intermediate left sideline? Etc. I wonder if his completion percentage to certain parts of the field is actually solid. Allen kind of reminds me a QB from the Dan Fouts era when a lot of QBs had lower completion percentages because they threw downfield more. I wouldn't say that's the entirety of the story on Allen, but he does dump the ball off less frequently than other QBs. I'm encouraged that Allen is no Trent "Captain Checkdown" Edwards. It seems it would be easier to teach Allen to throw short now & then than to teach Edwards to get the ball downfield.

That’s an interesting - and refreshing - stat.

My original point was that there is a clear correlation between spending and wins - albeit an imperfect one. This year our active roster spending is $17 million below the #31 team. We're spending roughly $40m less than the average NFL club. There's a vocal minority calling for McD's head and I'm not sure why. The guy's outgunned every Sunday and never had a fighting chance to return this team to the playoffs this season. We have the draft capital (10 picks) and financial resources ($85 mil) to do a lot of catching up next year. There are indeed a lot of holes to fill. But with so much to work with, we ought to see a dramatically improved squad... If Beane's any good at his job. Beane's already had both hits and misses in his short career as a GM. The pessimists will emphasize the misses and the optimists the hits. The cautious realists are still in a wait-and-see mode because the sample size on Beane personnel decisions is still small. Maybe I lean to the optimistic side because I think 2019 will be a much better year. And, peering further ahead, as things stand right now the Bills have - by a wide margin - the most available cap space in the NFL in 2020!

Had a hundred yard receiving game just a couple months ago.

The Bills have - by far - the lowest paid roster in the NFL this year which would suggest the Bills have the least talented roster. Not surprisingly, our W-L record is poor. But what about next year? With the third most available cap space in the NFL in 2019, will the Bills return to the playoffs? Here's what the numbers show. Over the past 3 years (2015-2018), the teams in the top five of active cap spending finished a combined 146-93-1. The teams in the bottom five of roster spending finished a miserable 76-164. 9 of the 15 teams in the top five in spending went to the playoffs. In contrast, only 1 team in the bottom five in spending made it to the playoffs - the 2017 Buffalo Bills. In sum, money matters. Teams tend to spend their money wisely and given enough money a GM can usually build a playoff team. GMs without money to spend understandably fail. But there are clearly no guarantees.

Teams that are blindly loyal to their head coaches are doomed to perpetual failure. Just look at the Steelers.

Fran was 190 - but your statement that he couldn't survive in today's game may be true. But Allen isn't Tark. He weighs 55 lbs more! In any case, I'm not so sure you can't make the comparison. In Fran's time, LBs were human sledge-hammers with names like Jack Lambert and Dick Butkus. In today's game, LBs are chosen as much for their coverage skills as their tackling skills. The Butkus-type thumper is a thing of the past. While Tark survived in a league where most - if not all - of the LBs outweighed him. On the Bills, Edmunds might be the only LB who outweighs Allen. Allen is bigger than pretty much all DBs and many LBs.

Is this really true? When I think of scrambling QBs, the first person I think of is Fran Tarkenton who lasted 18 years in the NFL. "The Mad Scrambler," as Tarkenton was known, was the NFL passing yards leader in his 15th season and the NFL TD leader in his 18th season. In other words, his effectiveness as a QB had a long life. And Josh has a couple advantages over Tarkenton. Josh weighs 245 lbs versus Tark's 190. And today's rules protect QBs - even ones on the run. This is a great point. Not all running QBs are cut from the same mold. Sometimes their style of running might make the probability of sustaining an injury far more likely.

Has anyone done a study on running QBs? Do they really get hurt more or have shorter careers? I'd rather see Josh Allen running than an immobile pocket QB getting pancaked behind a porous OL. Allen's best attributes are his big arm and his running ability. I think Daboll should build next year's offense around those two things. And find a backup QB who can do the same kinds of things - just in case.

Agreed. I only care a little about wins and losses at this point. What I really want to see is our young players - especially Josh - get better. 2018 is training camp for 2019.

I have no desire to defend Hunt for what he did. But I want to ask: How much does context matter. One site says Abigail Ottinger kept calling Hunt the "N" word. For example, she was quoted by a witness yelling, "F**k you N******! You ain't sh*t!" She was yelling these slurs supposedly for 30 minutes. On top of that, according to a witness, Ottinger hit one of Hunt's friends in the face prior to Hunt's altercation with her. None of this excuses Hunt for what he did. But it does make his reaction a little more understandable and maybe a little less monstrous. https://blacksportsonline.com/home/2018/02/kareem-hunt-met-a-girl-while-bar-hopping-she-called-him-a-*****-now-is-saying-he-assaulted-her/ https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/woman_says_kansas_city_chiefs.html

Completely different situations. In Shady's fight with the off duty cops, some of the witnesses said the cops instigated the fight. They certainly didn't shy away from it. The allegations of Shady hitting women never came from credible sources. The police never pressed charges because there was no clear evidence Shady did anything wrong. Here we have video of Hunt instigating the violence and later escalating it by knocking the woman to the floor and kicking her. Hunt's wrong-doing is both disgusting and indisputable.

This story was already posted on the Robert Foster thread - I know, I posted it! But it's a great story and I'm glad to see it getting its own thread. I may have started tearing up a little when I retold the story to my wife. So many bad things grab headlines. So many good things often go under the radar. What I wrote yesterday on the other Foster thread: My early impression of Foster was that he was a useless speedster who couldn't track & catch long balls. After reading about him buying shoes for a West Seneca teen, my current impression is that he's a great young man. I'm rooting for the kid.

My early impression of Foster was that he was a useless speedster who couldn't track & catch long balls. After reading about him buying shoes for a West Seneca teen, my current impression is that he's a great young man. I'm rooting for the kid. https://www.al.com/sports/2018/11/robert-fosters-act-of-kindness-drawing-attention.html

It's good to see two youngsters on the list - bodes well for the future of football. Brees ought to be in the GOAT conversation.