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Although the article is about quarterbacks, it provides an interesting - if not original - view of McD. Over the past 5 years, the Bills have the best point differential in the league. Yes, of course Josh contributes to that. But, still, it's impressive and suggests some good coaching is going on. But in the playoffs, McD can't beat Reid and Mahomes. I'm not big on what-if, alternate reality speculations. But when I read the article, I couldn't help but think how recent Bills history - and McD's reputation - would have been different if the Reid-Mahomes marriage never happened.

I hear you. I've been a fan since 1969. My earliest Bills memory is Mini Max Anderson getting popped and needing medical attention. The announcer said he might have swallowed his tongue. That terrified me because I was just starting to play football and didn't want to swallow my own tongue. From what I've found online, Anderson may or may not have swallowed his tongue, but he did break his jaw. His NFL dream lasted a mere two years. Inauspicious beginning to 55 years of fandom and I'm still waiting for my Lombardi. It'll be emotional when Josh makes it happen.

You're right, of course, Doc. But if we win a Super Bowl after decades of shattered dreams, I'm going to savor the moment. I won't be thinking about how many Lombardis we should have had by now or why we may not repeat. I'm just going to be good Zen Buddhist, live in the now, and cry with joy. For months.

I saw an article on 365 Scores that I thought was interesting. According to the author, Scott Kacsmar, the Bills lead the league in scoring differential since 2019: · Buffalo Bills +684 (no Super Bowls) · Baltimore Ravens +647 (no Super Bowls) · San Francisco 49ers +583 (0-2 in Super Bowl vs. Chiefs) · Kansas City Chiefs +574 (3-1 in Super Bowls) KC is 4th in regular season point differential but 6-0 in the playoffs against the top three teams. "That number for Buffalo (+684) is historic as it is the highest point differential in any 5-year span in the salary cap era (since 1994) for a team that made zero Super Bowl appearances out of it." The article is actually a QB ranking. Kacsmar was a nice write-up on Josh who he ranks #2. Some excerpts... While it took him some extra time to break out, Josh Allen has been the second-best quarterback in the NFL since 2020. People are going to point to Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers winning multiple MVP awards since Allen’s been in the league, but neither of those players has been as valuable, durable, or as consistent as Allen in the last four years. ... Since 2020, Allen has averaged 4,385 passing yards, 34.3 touchdown passes, 617 rushing yards, and 9 rushing touchdowns per season. Those are insane numbers. Steve Young for the 1998 49ers is one of the only quarterback seasons that comes close to hitting those averages as a dual threat... The Bills rely so much on Allen, who has responded with four straight division titles and advanced to at least the divisional round every year since 2020. But it’s past time that Sean McDermott’s defense has his back in one of these January matchups with the Chiefs... It's a good article. Worth a read. www.365scores.com/news/2024-nfl-quarterback-rankings-mahomes-tier

Maybe I'm just a homer but I agree. If a defense plays zone, he seems to have a good football IQ and will find the seams. If a team is in man and he doesn't get much separation (as Logic and others warn), he'll still be a viable target. He's a bigger guy with a good catch radius running routes for a QB who doesn't mind tight windows. It's probably worth mentioning that both Diggs and Davis were below the league average in separation last year. Coleman will be fine.

I agree with all of this. To clarify, I meant 'relevant' in terms of championship conversations. The Browns haven't been a championship contender much since the 1950s, and never again a champion. But if I had to pick the GOAT, it wouldn't be Brady. It would be between Jim Brown and OJ. Both were RBs back when offenses revolved around the RB and the best athletes became backs. And they were both heads and shoulders better than their peers. If I took off my Bills cap, the pick would be Brown. Brady was a great QB. But how much was he better than his peers: Brees, Manning, Rodgers, Farve, Roethlisberger, Warner, Luck, Stafford, Rivers, and so on? At the end of any regular season, you could make a strong argument that Brady wasn't the best QB that given year. Brown was the best RB every year he suited up and everyone knew it and there was no rational debate about it. Brady led the league in passing yards 4 times in his 23-year career. Impressive. Brown led the league in rushing yards 8 times in his 9-year career. The one year he didn't, he was hurt. Brown was relevant. The Browns were not (at least not how I use the term). That makes sense. Though if I was calculating win percentage for a QB, I'd only count games started. In any case, Lamonica was a winner - and it would have been better if he had won all those games for us. The problem, of course, is that we didn't have the supporting cast.

Here's the top three from Wikipedia... Something is wrong with StatMuse. It says Lamonica played 137 games. Pro Football Referense says he started only 88 games. Maybe StatMuse is counting the losses with the Bills where the Snake sat helplessly on the bench?

Neither did I until I looked up the list. What sucks about the list is that two of the winningest QBs in history are guys who have haunted the Bills: Brady and Mahomes. The Bills mafia would be a much happier place if those two had been in the NFC. And we had one of the winningest QBs in history on our roster but hardly played him before we traded him a way for Art Powell and a bag of peanuts.

I think Alpha's probably right and the biggest surprises have already happened. But if I had to guess, I'd say Mitch Trubisky. Somewhere in the NFL, a decent QB will be a surprise cut and we'll sign the guy to be Josh's backup.

I'm old but not old enough to remember him playing. But when I was a Browns fan, I read up on Browns history. With Otto Graham as their on-field captain, the Browns dominated the old All-American Football Conference (AAFC) in the late 1940s and won the championship all four years of the AAFC's tenure. Cleveland's run included the 1948 championship game when the Browns destroyed an earlier version of the Buffalo Bills by a score of 49-7. Their critics complained that the Browns were the best team in an inferior league and would crumble against NFL competition. Well, about that... the Browns joined the NFL in 1950, won the championship that year, and Graham was named the league's MVP. The Browns earned the right to play in the NFL Championship game 6 consecutive years after joining the NFL, winning 3 of them. They've had a bit of success in the 1960's with Jim Brown, in the 70's with the Kardiac Kids, in the 80's with Bernie... but have mostly been irrelevant since Otto's days.

Weirdly, Sipe has attained something Josh hasn't: an MVP award. Sipe was fun to watch during the short-lived Kardiac Kids era. With Sipe and their playmakers, the Browns were never out of a game. Eleven 4th quarter (or OT) game-winning drives in two years.

The best has to be Otto Graham, no? If I'm not mistaken, he's the only Browns QB in the HOF. Winningest QBs in NFL history: Graham... .814 Lamonica... .801 Mahomes... .771 Brady... .754 Jackson... .753 The Browns are kind of like the Bills - a bunch of great RBs but not many great QBs. But Bernie had his moments.

I was both a Browns and Bernie fan back in the day. Hated Belichick for cutting him. Wish Kosar the best.

I rarely watch college ball - not even bowl games. I mostly count on you guys to inform me about draft prospects. As a 65 year old guy, this is what I do on Saturdays: I meditate at 6 am. Then I gear up the husky and head out to the mountains for a 10-18 mile hike/trail run, typically with 2,000+ feet of elevation gain. Then I come home to rest, read, and write. Sometimes my wife and I go out to dinner at a restaurant we've never been to before, maybe even sample a cuisine we've never sampled before - most recently, Uyghur. Even the mafia has lives outside of football.

Growing up in Cheektowaga, the first game I ever saw on TV was not a Bills game, but a Browns game - back in the days of Leroy Kelly, Bill Nelson, and Paul Warfield. At the tender age of 9, I was a dual Browns-Bills fan and that lasted until 1995 when the treacherous snake, Art Modell, moved the Browns to Baltimore and called them the Ravens. I never really connected with the reconstituted Browns when they were formed 3 or 4 years later.

I played both "flanker" and "split end" in high school. On Sundays, I rooted for my favorite "halfback" - OJ. In my dad's time, there were other positions we don't hear much about anymore: "safety man," "wingback," "setback," "monster back"... Nowadays, we have wills and sams, h-backs and nickel backs, X's and Z's, slot corners and box safeties. Nose guards are now called nose tackles. "Defensive halfbacks" later became "cornerbacks" and are mostly called "corners" now. "Wedge busters" were made extinct by rule changes. It's funny how the positional names morph over time. When I think about "Edge," I think either about a DE or OLB who specialized in rushing the passer.

Moon had an arm! Threw for 500+ yards once running Houston's Run-and-Shoot offense. Undrafted out of UW but his pro career earned him recognition in both the CFL and NFL HOF.

As a former Browns fan, I remember him well and loved to watch him play. Sort of like CJ Spiller, if given space he was a dynamic scatback - though his stats don't jump off the page. He was an excellent receiver out of the backfield. And an exciting return man who held the NFL record for kick return yards for a while. Never attained 1,000 yards in a season as a RB but did as both a KR and receiver.

I guess somebody had to.

Over. I'm not excited by this trio and not confident in their production. I don't think any of them will hit double-digits. But I think/hope/pray that combined they'll produce more than 20 sacks - though I don't think it'll be much more.

A few names come to mind... I love watching RBs in action, so Jim Brown is a favorite. His off-the-field behavior wasn't always commendable, but on the field he was a force of nature. From my humble vantage point, Brown and Simpson were the two greatest running backs of all time. Drew Brees. I'm a Purdue alum so I followed Brees since college. And in the pros, he did what you want a QB to do: sling the ball. He threw for over 5,000 yards four times and more than 40 TDs twice. If not for Tom Brady and his rings, Brees with 80,000 career yards would be in the conversation for greatest QB of all time. Earl Campbell. This guy was a human battering ram. I loved the way he sacrificed his body for his team. For younger fans, think of King Henry - only tougher & better. Paul Warfield. When I was young, I fancied myself a wide receiver, and I was a Browns fan even before I was a Bills fan, so Warfield was my first football idol. He was such a graceful, athletic receiver who had been an all-conference RB in the Big Ten. Diggs averaged 11.1 per catch last year. Warfield was a deep threat who averaged 20+ yards/catch for seven consecutive seasons playing on two different teams. It didn't matter who was throwing him the ball; he was going to get the ball downfield.

Alpha, I personally didn't go bonkers. In fact, I didn't publicly say a thing. But I did silently think you were a bonkers homer optimist who saw an upside that wasn't there. Maybe it's too early for a mea culpa but I'm cautiously hopeful that you were right all along.

Agreed. Up to the midpoint of last season, I viewed Shakir as a jag. Nothing special. Borderline starter. Now I'm reassessing. He looked like a good starter during the second half of the season. Then again, I thought Gabe was a jag until that monster game against the Chiefs in the playoffs. I reassessed after that performance and shouldn't have. But Gabe outproduced Diggs in individual games here and there. Shakir, on the other hand, outproduced Diggs for a huge continuous chunk of the season so I'm hopeful he can continue his upwards trajectory. Last 10 Bills games: Receiving yards: Khalil Shakir (462) Stefon Diggs (422) Targets: Shakir (37) Diggs (80)

This is my worry. Well, one of my worries. My bigger worry is if Brady knows how to scheme guys open. If he does, I think Shakir's efficiency and production do scale up nicely.

And when he shines, he's better than all of them. Let's hope a healthy arm, better biomechanics, and a Joe Brady-designed scheme can improve the shine-to-struggle ratio.