hondo in seattle

Don't know anything about Ahmanrean Brown but it's a sad day for him.

Theoretically then, we could get five 1,000 yard seasons from Cooper. (A man can dream, can't he?)

I would love that. If Josh gets hurts, the season is over. That Mahomes kid would be an awesome #2.

I'm puzzled. I searched this thing for 20 minutes and still can't find him.

I'm going to be an optimist for no particularly rational reason: We're going to enter this year's playoffs healthier than ever. Defense: with Oliver and Milano back, we'll start playing like a Top Five defense. Offense: with Cooper on board and Shakir and Samual both fully healthy, our passing game will improve significantly. Even Coleman will get better as the rookie adjusts to the NFL. With better weapons to work with, and an evolving understanding of the defensive schemes deployed against him, Brady will begin to look like an upper-tier coordinator. For once facing teams with more injuries to key players than we have, we'll make a run all the way to the SB. Go Bills!

I expected more 12 personnel as well. The old football truism is you put your best 11 on the field. I don't think Knox and Kincard are All-World but they're better than MVS, Coleman, Hollins, and Samuel. Then you add in that Brady runs a bit more than he passes, it seemed like 12 personnel would be an easy and sensible choice.

Some of the ire is contextual. We were spoiled by Hyde and Poyer who were among the best tandems in the league for a long while. As you say, Hamlin is a "serviceable starter." That's not what we're accustomed to and that's not what we want if winning a Lombardi is a goal. But Hamlin starting is not some kind of bad joke.

His birth name is Bishard. His mom and/or aunt (depending on who's telling the story) started calling him 'Buddha' when he was an infant because he looked like a baby Buddha. I guess they changed the spelling to 'Budda' to give it a twist. As a practicing Buddhist, it drives me crazy to see it spelled wrong.

Ripley's Believe It or Not... According to the Bills Wire, Hamlin was our 2nd highest graded defensive player versus the Jets. Hamlin was graded even higher than Taron Johnson who's impressive pick sealed the victory. Top Five PFF grades for the Jets game... Rapp... 76.4 Hamlin... 71.4 Groot... 70.7 Taron... 67.2 Cam Lewis... 62.7

This is probably why he hasn't been cut yet. Well, this and his contract. But Bass is only 75% this season (tied for 30th in the NFL) and seemed to fall into a funk at the end of 2023.

This is all true. But let's also remember that Beane and McD have built the defense to stop the pass first. Nickel has been our base since McD's arrival and we've run Nickel more than anyone. In my youth, a Nickel defense was called "Pass Prevent." The other thing you notice about Beane and McD is they don't want LBs who can't cover. To exaggerate a bit, our LBs are just larger DBs. Think of the big bruising, tough-as-nails, knock-the-snot-of-you LBs of NFL lore - guys like Dick Butkus, Chuck Bednarik, Jack Lambert... All Hall of Famers. Beane wouldn't draft any of them and if he did, McD wouldn't start them. They both want faster, rangy coverage guys as LBs. This stop-the-pass first philosophy works really well when your offense puts a lot of points on the board forcing the other team to throw to keep up. In other words, it worked better when Daboll was the OC and we scored a lot. It doesn't work as well when Brady is your OC.

I dimly remember when we called him Bass-o-matic.

Didn't Anderson miss kicks on purpose to work his way off the team?

Before the season, I made this argument... Samuel and Shakir are legit NFL starters. Between Claypool, MVS, and Coleman, we just need one to step up - just one - to have a legit starting trio of wideouts. I thought the probability of having a competent starting group was pretty good. Yikes! I was wrong. Two are now gone and the remaining guys haven't shined. Thank god for the Amari trade!

I agree with some of this but I don't see the number of WRs set in stone at 5. I'm guessing it was more about our particular circumstance. MVS was only nominally better than our practice squad receivers, or the WRs available on other PSs. What point would be served by wasting a 53-man roster spot on a PS quality player? On the other hand, if we had 6 good, contributing WRs, I think Beane and McD would go with six.

I notice what you're saying but interpretted it a little differently. In interviews, McDermott often seems like a cold fish. Very rational. Not emotional. Doesn't divulge much. Reading between the lines, I think he's excited to have Cooper but didn't want to denigrate his current receivers by saying what a great addition he is and so repeated his typical mantra about football being a team sport: 'It's never just one guy.' Deflecting the question about leadership was a little odd. Given that Cooper is a prominent player who's been in the league for 10 years, it seems unlikely that McD doesn't know what kind of presence he has in a locker room. And yet that's what he claimed - the only thing he knows about him is what he's seen on tape. My guess is that McD's heard some negative stuff. Not enough to veto the trade but enough that he didn't have anything positive to say when asked that question and so he deflected.

That's my worry. Can we trade for a new OC too?

5 Pro Bowls. A 265 yard game against the Texans in December of 2023 so not over-the-hill yet. Decent speed (4.42), good agility & route running. Can line up in any of the WR slots and create separation. Has problems with drops (9 this year already, 7 last year, 11 the year before)... some injury issues... What am I missing?

I get your reasoning and it makes some sense. But... Most 3rd round draft picks are jags. Only 29% of them become full-time starters for 4 or more seasons. Fewer yet become Pro Bowlers. Amari Cooper is a proven commodity with 5 Pro Bowls - including last year. I'd rather have a Pro Bowler on a short-term rental than another jag. We have enough jags already.

There were four Bills defenders in the area versus three Jets receivers. They needed to cleanly catch the ball. We didn't have the same requirement; we just needed to knock it away. The odds were decisively in our favor. And yet...

Good attitude.

And opened up holes for the RBs.

Or shorten it to 'Zhamar Jamar' which I love.

This is one reason why I'm not a huge McD critic - other than his failure to find a good OC. I don't think Beane has yet given McD a Super Bowl quality roster. So I don't know why there's a chorus to fire McD for not getting to the SB. Beane hasn't built a bad roster. But every year there are rosters with more talent than ours. I think of the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Beane gave Brady lemons. Shame on Beane. But Brady took the lemons and turned them into inedible prison slop.

If Beelzebub was sitting with me right now in all his evil glory and challenged, "If your prediction is right, I'll give you a fortune in Bitcoin. But if you're wrong, I'll make you push Sysyphus's rock up the Tartarus hill for the rest of eternity," I'd tell him that Joe Brady will have an awful game plan and the Jets will win. But Bub isn't here, so let's be sunnier: Bills 31 Jets 17