hondo in seattle

I agree, Shaw. The Bills have built something that's difficult to do: a team that's in the hunt perennially. I appreciate that. Still, when I'm lying on my deathbed many years from now (or maybe tomorrow, who knows?), I don't want to think of the 1990s and 2020s as the two periods in my long fandom that we had a good team that was never quite good enough. But with Beane, McD, and Josh, I think we'll be contenders for years to come so I still light incense to the Gods of the Gridiron in a hopeful spirit. Maybe this is finally the year...

I agree with every word of this and I'm grateful for Beane and McD. And yet, we still don't have a Lombardi. As Shaw66 says, this is a seriously good football team. And that's both a joy and a problem. Good is the enemy of great, as they say, and we're not great. We've never begun a season as the best team in the NFL, or even the AFC. There are always concerning injuries and/or roster holes, not to mention some questions about the coaching staff. So what do you do with a GM/HC who win lots of games but no trophies? Say thank you and hope for next year? Replace them with guys who - odds are - wouldn't be as good? It's a conundrum. I'll say this... Every year with Beane and McD, we have a legit chance. For 17 prior years, we had no chance at all. I like having a chance, so I'll roll with them. But I do wish each of them was just a little bit better.

I love the OP's confidence. His realistic prediction is we get to the SB. His optimistic prediction is we win it. My optimistic hope is we win but my realistic prediction is that we sadly bow out in the playoffs again. I'm not convinced were the best team in the AFC though I do think this team's roster may prove better than last year's. We'll see.

If you were there and know what happened, please contact the police.

Is my memory failing me? Wasn't McGee the CB who would blanket receivers but let them catch the ball anyway?

I wouldn't want to see OJ's face anywhere anymore, but I'll mention he did kick returns his rookie year and bit afterwards, finishing his career with an impressive 30 yards per return average. And I think Pete Gogolak deserves a mention just because he's the guy who popularized soccer style kicking in the NFL. After playing for the Bills, he went to the Giants and remains to this day their leading all-time scorer. For the youngsters in the cheap seats, before Gogolak NFL kickers would approach the ball straight on. But I agree with the OP, Tasker, Pike, and Moorman are all obvious choices. I'm not sure who I'd add after that. Bobby April is a good option if we're considering coaches too.

Mini Max Anderson... I was 9 or 10 watching what may have been my very first Bills game and Mini Max got hurt. One of the announcers said he swallowed his tongue. The concept freaked me out and I ran to my mother and asked if that was even possible. For years, I was afraid of swallowing my tongue.

I'd probably go if I wasn't 2700 miles away.

I remember this game. Then again, how could you forget something like this. What was weird is that this was when our offense was on fire so you'd expect if we did something spectacular with scoring it would be because of Kelly & the Boys. This was (almost) all defense and ST.

DL is one of the position groups I'll watch most in preseason (along with the WR group) because I'm excited for it, but anxious and uncertain too. I get the Kyle analogy and hope this season proves you right about Ed.

For me both Oliver and Rousseau are at the good-not-great level. After that things get interesting. Bosa could return to his former glory. Or he could spend the season on IR. Who knows? I never watched Hoecht very much, but I know that he's a very smart and versatile player who can play DE, DT, and LB. That means when he's on the field, the offense doesn't necessarily know what defensive alignment we're in, assuming we switch him around. He could be an interesting X factor. Ogunjobi seems like he could be a good depth piece though PFF only graded him a 49.4 last season. And then there's the rookies. If everyone is as good as we hope, this will be the best DL we've had in a while. But if our fears materialize (Bosa is hurt, the rookies play like rookies, Hoecht's versatility is misused, Ogunjobi deserves his 40s PFF score, etc.), then our entire defense will struggle. I'm hoping for the best but right now it all feels iffy to me.

And no great players, unless they're weirdly looking at Bosa as a 17-game player in the prime of his career?

Oops. I'm drawing a blank and embarrassed to say that I don't remember that game. Mostly what I remember from the late 60s until Kelly is a lot of losing. OJ's gridiron brilliance was the big bright spot for me - I loved watching that man run - but of course that was unredeemably tarnished by his later behavior.

I know. But still, the long period after our brief AFL glory was mostly characterized by misery. From 1967 to 1987, we went something like 118-196-3 (.377) and were 0-3 in the playoffs. Despite a few moderately good years, I think it's fair to call that extended period of time the Bills Dark Ages. Kelly and company were the Rennaissance and that was an exciting time.

When I was a broke college kid, a friend won $17,000 in an injury lawsuit and wanted to buy me something. I refused to accept his generosity at first. It just seemed wrong that I should benefit from his injury. But he explained, "You know I'm going to blow this money on stupid sh*t in less than a week, anyway. You might as well have something to show for it because I won't." I let him buy me a genuine Wilson NFL football. I hope the 100k bought you some good memories but with the booze, maybe it didn't.

Delta Force is culture-centric. It doesn't seem to affect their selection process or priorities in any kind of negative way. Being culture-centric isn't a problem; it's a strength.

The old timers will appreciate this game more than the youngsters because we lived through some rough years before this game. The Bills won the AFL championship in 1964 and 1965 and then sucked for the next 20+ years. We didn't win comebacks. We let other teams win them. Then this happened. It was like a sign from God: this was a different Bills team. This team was going to the Super Bowl.

I swear on some of those deep passes, Fitz didn't throw to designed spot as much as he threw it up for grabs and trusted/hoped Stevie would find a way to get under it.

Well done. Ultimately, all these things are subjective. What you decided to measure, how you weighed things, your scoring system, etc. means this is opinion, not science. But still cool, especially with Josh on top.

Every weekend, I run/hike with the puppy anywhere from 9 to 18 miles in the mountains of Northern California. And every time I do, something hurts, whether it's my feet, ankles, knees, quads, or whatever. If I were a professional athlete, they'd call my pains "injuries." I'd get examined, treated, and put on a recovery plan. But since I'm just an old nobody, I keep running without labeling or treating them. This is my way of saying, I think Max will be fine.

I get the joke but... A lot of players, especially the marginal ones who get signed in the spring, bounce from team to team. So while the Panthers only account for roughly 3% of the players in the NFL at any given time, the number of players who once were on Carolina's roster is roughly (I'm guessing) 10% of the league. With a spring roster of 90 guys, we should expect about 9 ex-Panthers on the Bills at this time of year.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Our beginning-of-the-year roster always has notable holes. Injuries then make the roster worse. Still, McD generally gets good production out of our battered defensive players. Until the playoffs, when good coaching can't compensate when faced with equally good coaching and better rosters.

My ideas are vague because it's hard to get into the heads of McD, Babich, and Brady. Offense. I think Brady wants to grow and evolve. I think he's probably generally happy with the run/pass mix and the run game in general. I think Hawes is interesting because Brady clearly likes putting big blockers out in front of his backs which might give Hawes some playing time. I think Brady's big hope is to create a more dynamic, chunk-play offense. I think we'll see more from Samuel and Kincaid, obviously, because they'll (hopefully) be healthy this year. I think Brady will try to get Moore involved to use his quickness & speed. He'll have more yards receiving this year than last because he fills a niche on the Bills. I hope for a better screen game but don't expect it. I think Palmer has a typical Palmer year - good but not special. Defense. I think it'll be much like any other year with slight differences. I think, inevitably, we'll see rookies getting more playing time than usual. I think there will be more of a focus on stopping the run but certainly not an abandonment of the nickel as the base D. I wouldn't be surprised if we blitz more. I'm interested to see if they do anything unconventional with Hoecht as a hybrid DE/LB.

Didn't they do the same thing with Josh? He's rated #1 over the past four years, if I recall correctly, but projected 4th going into this season.

Sure, maybe. You could make a good argument. But that offense was loaded. Hurts had a great year and the receiving corps was one of the best, so it made it challenging for defenses to focus on Barkley (or anyone else). As for his excellent yardage totals, obviously Barkley played more games that than the all-time greats like Jim Brown, OJ, and Walter Payton. Additionally, today's defenses are built to defend the pass. Teams nowadays play nickel (i.e. what used to be called "pass prevent") most of the time and LBs are primarily agile coverage guys not the bestial hunter-killers of the past like Chuck Bednarik, Dick Butkus, and Jack Lambert. I also think the voters finally realized Josh has been one of the most valuable players in the league for a few years and him not getting the award yet was a travesty. For me, all things considered, Josh deserved being named MVP.