ThurmasThoman

If there are QBs to be drafted, QBs will be drafted. Realistically in the top 10, Arizona, Oakland, Tampa, New York Giants, and Detroit could all pick a QB. If Denver or Miami want in on that action, they would have no reason to deal with Buff and get the 9th pick. If someone leapfrogs in, and takes that 3rd QB off the board, I wouldn't be surprised to see Beane make a deal with one of those listed teams who didn't land a QB to move up--if Buff has their eye on someone in particular. All I know for sure is that it's a lot more fun to already have a QB, because no matter what Buffalo does, it's going to be a guy that can come on the field and produce out the gates.

I would say none of us know, because we don't know the philosophy of this regime. The Eagles and Ravens dealt away Super Bowl MVP QBs this offseason, while the Giants keep a much worse Eli around. The Dolphins stuck with a mediocre QB trying to develop him for 7 seasons, while the Cardinals are ready to move on from last years first round pick. The Rams and Browns are signing every big name player they can to a short term deal around a QB on a rookie contract, while the Chiefs are building through the draft (mostly) with theirs. The Cowboys might move on from Dak, the Titans might move on from Mariotta, and yet the Ravens look to want to go all in on the much inferior Jackson. The Pats get Brady to restructure, and surround him with no names that they buy low and sell high, and hoard compensatory picks, while the Raiders want to trade it all away and are unsure about Carr. Every team is different, and honestly--as much as we don't want to admit it as fans--it has a lot to do with US, and how likely we are to buy the product. The real question is, can Buffalo afford to wait on Josh Allen? Buf stuck with Fitz for 3 very unproductive and uninspirational seasons, but benched Tyrod in the year he took us to the playoffs, and traded him that offseason--he got less time here and did way more. It's marketing. Is Josh Allen what you want to build the brand, not the team, around? Winning helps, but it's not everything. He needs to put asses in the seats, eyes on the screen, and optimism in the air--regardless of record. And yes, there is a very real distinction between 11-5 with a "good" QB, and 11-5 with a QB that fans like and believe in--ask Doug Flutie and Jim Kelly their perspective on that question, respectively. Elway has a lifetime pass to run the Broncos into the ground because of the Helicopter. If Buf went 1-15 but Josh Allen won the 16th game of the year on a 99 yard, last second, fake kneel down scramble against New England to bump them from the 6seed and keep them out of the playoffs, diving the last 2 yards with a Patriot hanging on to his ankles? In a snowstorm? We'd love him. But if he lost the last game of the year to New England, at home, to finish 11-5 and lose the division, and the AFC was so loaded this year that it also meant missing the playoffs? Well--I've been on the internet since porn was pictures only, and I can promise you, more fans than not would start to hate him and consider him a choke artist. It's all context and perception, and it's different for every team, and some games are more important than others, and some stats are more important than others, and some wins are more important than others, and some seasons are more important than others. We won't know how he needs to do this year until he's done it and we see what the front office does about it.

Welp, grand opening, grand closing.

Football is the only major spot where an offense possessing the ball willingly gives it up when it is not taken from them by rule, as opposed to actively trying to score. No matter how much analysis is done on the cost/benefit of going for it every fourth down, the trend from high school to college to the pros is to punt it away and play it safe. No matter if the coach is analytical and methodical like Belichick, or freewheeling and cutting edge like Peterson or McVay, this is one trend that no one is willing to buck. Also, football is the only major sport that can't end with a final score of 1-0. Not that this is something to strive for, I just have always found it interesting. So this rule fixes both of those, and please, hammer me (pause) with the drawbacks or the reasons why this is idiotic... because at first I thought it was pure ridiculousness, but now I'm not so sure. As the kids say "change my mind". There are no special circumstances to consider, no contingencies, no need to differentiate across different levels of the game. Just like the title says: all failed fourth down conversions are worth 1 point for the attempting offense. Advantages: 1) Virtually no team would punt outside their 40 yard line, which would eliminate a good chunk of punts from the game entirely. The punt has become a boring play--too many fair catches, too much directional punting, not enough action. The NFL seems to hate special teams plays as it is, and I don't know how much they're concerned about injuries on punts (probably less, because blockers can line up so close to the kicking team) but this would go a long way towards mitigating them. 2) It incentivises a "risky" behavior that we all want to see more of, and allows for more strategizing/second guessing. With the way the game is trending, everyone loves offense. We all hate when the punting team runs out on the field. This could lead to more stalemates at the middle of the field (between the 40s), where defensive teams could trade blows and still have something to show for it. Or imagine a scenario where Buf takes it to midfield against the Pats and has 4th and 2--go for it, fail, get a point. Maybe the Pats kick a field goal, but it reduces their net score to 2. Even if they score a touchdown, it reduces their net score to 6, and if we drove deep into their territory on the next drive, it could be a 5 point game with another failed conversion. 3) The ending of games becomes wild. Let's say a team up 8 possess the ball on their side of the field. They're stopped on 1st through 3rd down, but their opponents are out of timeouts. Go for it and win by securing the extra point? But now your opponent has the ball deep in your zone, they could turn around and kick a field goal and then go for an onside kick? I'll use this space to keep adding advantages I can think of, and addressing any concerns. These are the kind of threads that the offseason inspires, what can I say.

They secured the bag, now they need to repair the brand. Agent Rosenhaus is thinking about AB's next contract. If Buffalo doesn't chart up in the next 2 years, Beane will be out of a job, and Buf could be a team looking to sign AB--that's the agent's objective. AB's objective is to play well, keep his mouth (mostly) shut, and look good. Beane's objective is build a winning team in Buffalo. Not everyone will see eye to eye in this scenario, and none should be expected to act selflessly. This is politics. This is football. This is life.

Having kids changed my perspective on sports. A) it made me care a whole lot less, because Sunday afternoon is 1/4 of a weekend, so those are prime hours to spend doing things with them. B) everyone out there is someone's kid, so i know how proud their parents must be of them, so i don't want to see anyone get hurt and i want a good, clean game and dont begrudge anyone their success, even if it comes at the expense of buffalo. C) living in new england, being witness to the greatest sports dynasty in history, and surrounded by passionate fans who wear their jerseys all year long like buffalo in the 90s, trying to prevent a young boy from going in that direction--to instead cheer for a historically inept franchise that had a half decade of success a quarter century ago--is an exercise in futility. although he wears bills gear and cheers for them, hes still too young to really grasp the concept of it all, i would never, in a million years, teach him to "hate" the patriots. if he picks that up from me, by osmosis, so be it. D) i go to a lot of minor league sports events with him, and i clap for a good play regardless. im not going to boo some 20 year old minor leaguer who dekes a defenseman on his ass, or throws down a rididculous windmill, or pitches a complete game no hitter, just because he was drafted by a team that has a minor league affiliate in a different city than the city i just traveled to which is close to my house, to watch them play a minor league game. E) you begin to realize that the people who are so passionate as to feel hate in sporting situations are, by and large, losers who argue on the internet too. and while thats fun from age 12 to about 25 or so, and i recognize my son will do it too, at some point you have to grow up and stop doing that. and as a father, its best to set an example and laugh at people that do it, so my son knows theyre losers and nothing to aspire to.

Why do you guys even care about this *****, honestly? Think about it like this--let's say you were sitting down to play a game of poker with your friends. And you were all sitting down an hour before you play. And your wives are there. And somones wife says, hey, Mike, what are you going to do on the first hand. If you said "well, I want to establish the pace early and let people know that I'm more of a bluffer than anything else, so I plan on putting money into the middle regardless of what I get dealt. I'll try to take a few pots early like that, and then settle in and watch what everyone else does. I'll wait til the first 2-3 guys are eliminated before I start bluffing on pots again, but in the interim, I'll only bet big if I'm holding decent cards." OK, great mike, follow up question: any tells you're willing to let us in on? "Thanks sue, yeah--you might notice I bite my right cheek when I'm holding face cards, because one thing I've noticed about myself is, I tend to be suckered in to betting higher on those, even though statistically, the yield isn't much higher. So if you see that, I'm likely holding Js Qs or Ks. But I only throw money after the Ks, so that's when you know I'm actually working with something." That sounds crazy right? Right? Right? Do you see why reading into Beane's comments isn't just useless, it's an exercise in psychosis, because you need to start building assumptions on which statements are lies and which are half truths? I know that "it's the offseason, just let us have our fun", but no. I won't. I don't mean to piss in your coffee, but hold your mug steady because I just woke up and I have a bit of a split stream--and I'm going to piss in your coffee. This thread is ***** USELESS.

I was in high school--a sophomore, to be exact. My parents went out that afternoon, and I don't remember where they went. But I was home alone and on the phone with (somewhat) of a girlfriend when the play happened, because I called her up in an absolute state of euphoria after the Christie kick. That game really affected me. High school is a complicated time as it is, what with hormones, and growing up, and all that, but... I was very sad for a good chunk of time after that loss. The Bills were special to me then, more special than they are now, that's for sure. The Kelly retirement was just 3 years prior to that, and the Flutie phenomenon was so out of the blue. We were so BAD the year Todd Collins (Billie Joe Hobart?? BARF!) was the starter, that it was inconceivable that Doug freaking Flutie could save the franchise so quickly after that. It makes sense to me now that I'm older--even in Kelly's twilight years of 95, 96, 97, those teams were no pushovers--so the talent was there that a middle of the road QB could achieve middle of the road success. But as a youngster, the thought of the team ever winning, after losing 4 super bowls and my hero retiring, was just unthinkable. And when they started 0-4 the year Flutie took over, it just added to the magic. So, long story short, that 99/00 year felt like they had a real shot to do something great. The game itself was different then, and not just because I was younger. It felt more like the wild wild west: not so much polish, not so much hype. They should have won that game man. One super bowl in that era would have meant more to my life than if they win 10 in a row starting next year. I don't think that's only because I was younger then, but.. the world was different then. I'm not saying them winning a super bowl wont mean something when it eventually happens, but, it would have been really special if they had pulled it off so close to the failures of the 90s. Brings me back, it really does. Part of me is almost glad it played out the way it did, in some sick sense, because the pain is so... cool? I can't lie, the pain, and the memories of that game, are a better story than probably all but the Patriots first SB are for Pats fans. It's part of the eternal misery of being a Bills fan, yes, but it's just so unique to us to have THAT degree of heart break. Phew. Makes me sick. It really does.

Because they're new owners and want to put people that they are philosophically inline with in positions of power to make consistent decisions at all levels of their multi-billion dollar organization that they took over a handful of years ago? You say that Russ was good, and he was--at the job he did for Ralph. But that was for a miserly owner that lived out of town and went from wanting to micromanage everything to investing all his power in Russ. Russ was the defacto, well, everything for the Buffalo Bills. He would represent them at owners meetings. He had the biggest dick at OBD, so anyone he hired or promoted to be close to him was going to be extremely loyal to him. The Pegulas not only had to restructure, they fired Russ. I would venture a guess that his lieutenants were still loyal to him and not fully on board with many of the Pegulas decisions, or were actively undermining them in certain situations where everyone needed to be on the same reply. Honestly, if you said something like this: "I know a lot of the people that Russ had in charge and they were talented. He was talented. The Bills obviously has no choice but to fire RB but it wasn’t wise to clear out veteran sports business people like Popko. Those people know WAY more about the business than Terry & Kim Pegula. You should be embracing people like that to learn from, not firing them." at a meeting, or too the wrong person, you would have a target on your back too. It's "toxic" (I hate that word, because it's used too much in business now, but it applies here.) The Pegulas need people loyal to them, not Russ. And unlike many, many people here, I think Russ did a fantastic job with the Bills, and if it wasn't for him, we honestly might not have this board and the Bon Jovi owned Los Angeles Bills could be the hot name in the NFL.

I'd just like to take a moment away from the AB speculation to thank the Steelers for being the anti-Rams, and going all in on a fat, POS QB at the end of his career and axing the talent around him, keeping only the mediocre coach who believes in him (that said talent hated)--instead of just doing the easy thing and drafting a new QB who would inherit a team loaded with talent, and giving him an up and coming HC to work with, because they would have the pick of the litter for coaches, because they're the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know they'll figure it out sooner rather than later, and have JuJu to make it work, but sigh of relief for them "moving on" from the best RB and WR in the game to appease an over the hill QB.

This isn't how it works.

I honestly don't think Lamar Jackson could spell "NFL". You saw what happened in the wild card round when there was enough accumulated evidence to build a game plan around his tendencies. I expect him to have a terrible second season and be out of the league in a few years. Listen to an interview with him, or even just look at his eyes. I know this is a new world where everyone needs to be nice to everyone, and abject truth's can't be spoken, but the guy is (as we used to say) as dumb as a box of rocks and I'm very, very glad that Buffalo didn't select him and force feigned optimism on their fans for 3 years.

Josh Rosen will never be a good QB in this league, ever. He will never be a succesful professional athlete.

Well, the best analogy I can give is to consider a chef. Say you are opening a fine dining restaurant and you hire a guy who went to a great culinary school. You interview him, and he has a great grasp of flavor profiles, building a menu, what's trendy in the culinary world, what's dated, what works well, what doesn't--and you can talk food with this guy for hours. He's green, but you like what you got. Now let's say the restaurant hasn't opened yet, so you work with him to build the menu. And wow! This guy GETS IT. You spend late nights going over the menu that you're creating together, talking concepts that other chefs (like McCaron) just don't get. He really blows you away with the way he instantly grasps that when you say "seasonal", you mean apples in the fall and fiddleheads in the spring. The more time that passes, the more you like him. And what's best? He's there ALL the time. You show up at 6 because the range needs to be repaired, he's there working on the menu. You leave late because you were getting the blinds measured and he's there practicing his souffle. Now you bring in the line chefs, and you watch him command the line. Are there bumps? Sure. He takes awhile to get his footing under him, but soon enough, everyone from the pastry chef to the sous chef is clicking with him. It looks good. One last test before you open your doors--a soft debut for friends and family. And he KILLS IT. Timing is perfect, dishes are on order, meat temps are spot on--everything is clicking. This is the point, right here, where Bills fans, in hindsight, think McBeane should have brought in an AppleBees chef JUST IN CASE something went wrong, so the restaurant could stay afloat. And this is the point where Bills fans think McDermott should have spent practice time getting that AppleBees chef up to snuff on the menu, instead of getting ready for opening night. Now--we obviously know when the restaurant opened, Peterman took a ***** in the deep fryer and served it to the Queen of England. But the only one who should get blamed for that is Peterman. The restaurant owners did all they could.

Oh god, it's been a few years. I saw him post on a few sites a handful of times about life in the NFL. He was coy about it, but everyone figured out pretty quick it was him. It was mundane stuff, and as far as conspiracies, he said that he was into like, ancient aliens/atlantis tier stuff (as opposed to political stuff) but didn't "go public" with it to protect his earnings. IDK, it could have all been a lie and it very may well have just been some bozo pretending to be him, but what a boring ruse that would be. It is the internet though, so who really knows? Either way, it was endearing, and I always figured it was really him, and it changed the way I post about players (and people in general) online, because now I just assume they read it.

Eh, none of these decisions are made in vacuum. Coaches have schemes and playbooks, which they work on all offseason WITH their quarterbacks. They no doubt had a good feeling about Peterman at the end of last year (Colts game), throughout the offseason, during camp, and definitely through preseason (which we all did). You see the interceptions, but McD saw his grasp of the terminology and offensive concepts, which is more beneficial to a young team breaking a huddle than just having "a vet". In game action, it fell apart, but you don't know how that is going to play out until the bullets start to fly. 10 out of 10 times I would have the Bills do it the exact same way, and he was picked up by a rebuilding, young team pretty quickly. With a sport as complex as the NFL, there are rarely clear cut cases of "he sux, wurst ever lol". As for wideouts, JuJu looks great with AB split out as a primary target, but who's to say he would look that good in Buffalo? Again, Benjamin is more of the same--a guy brought in that understands the language of the offense and can be where he needs to be when huddle breaks. Notice the drama surrounding him was Zays mom basically saying her son had to tell him where to line up? His conditioning and drops weren't the deal breaker (in all likelihood), it seemed to be more of a case of him grasping the evolving offense. Again, he was picked up quickly too. I like everything I've seen from this administration so far, aside from their infatuation with McCoy. I hope he's gone soon, he's the only piece that seems misaligned from their stated intentions--but that might be because of salary reasons, of which I would have no idea. He's washed though, no two ways about it. Better production can be had for cheaper. I want to edit this to say that I am ALSO infatuated with McCoy, and have seen him around the internet on various conspiracy theory websites. He's a cool dude, so he might be to the offense what Kyle is to the defense. If that's the case, I hope he retires as a Bill. He just never struck me as that type of player, but he's older and I have been wrong about many, many things in life--I hope this is one of them!

I agree, this is a great post. The AFC East has some intriguing storylines going forward for the first time since... oh IDK... Sanchez was QB for the Jets? The Gase/Darnold combo in NYC, the rebuild in Miami with another NE coach, Buf hopefully rounding into form, and the defending champs trying to make another run. For years it seems like the 3 teams that arent the Patriots in the division have been stuck in purgatory and unwilling to clean house. Buf made the jump, now the others have followed suit. I'm incredibly interested to see how it all plays out next year in our division! Football season can't come soon enough.

I'm at the age where I genuinely don't dislike other teams, including divisional rivals. I don't want to see guys get hurt, and love watching a good game, regardless of who's on the field. I can truthfully say that if the Bills are playing the Jets, and the Jets win, the loss doesn't emotionally impact me in any way, shape or form, and if they make some good plays along the way, I can appreciate the skills on display from the opposing team. I recognize that view is in the minority on this site, but this is a site for Bills fanatics, so I don't expect anyone to agree with that luke-warm take. I also think Brady and Beli are the GOATS, and was actively rooting for them to win another super bowl from whenever it was that Buffalo was eliminated from playoff contention--somewhere around week 10 if I remember correctly, lol. With that being said, from your user name, to your posting style, to the fact that you're on a division rivals message board, you seem to be the antithesis of that frame of mind, and are here purely to antagonize other people with your words. If I was a mod, I would ban your IP address from this site, because I can't imagine you contributing anything of value to any coversation that takes place on here. If that's not the case, then I apologize, but are you truthfully saying that you can't see any potential for disaster with the interpersonal dynamics of the leadership team that the Jets have employed?

ummmm.... and here's literally the most important part of the article, that op for some reason left out: 3. New York Jets: Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming. Allen's opening handful of games in Buffalo were brutal at best, and strangely, the injury that shelved him for a month proved to be a godsend. He looked like a different, considerably more confident quarterback in November and December than he did in September and October. The Jets moved up before the draft to guarantee themselves a top signal-caller, and they get one in this re-draft.

The owner can hire the wrong personnel and set the organization back for years, like Haslem in Cleveland: they're humans, they make mistakes that affect the outcome of the games. The GM can pick the wrong coach, or run his own draft and take the wrong QB, like Whaley here: they're humans, they make mistakes that affect the outcome of the games. The coach can hire the wrong assistants and mismanage the clock and his timeouts, like Rex: they're humans, they make mistakes that affect the outcome of the games. The player can run the wrong route at the wrong time, or the quarterback can throw it to a spot where the receiver isn't, like Peterman: they're humans, they make mistakes that affect the outcome of the games. The referee can be told to swallow his whistle because it's championship weekend and the league doesn't want the boys in stripes determining who goes to the super bowl because of some ticky tack foul: they're humans, they make mistakes that affect the outcome of the games. Maybe mistake is the wrong word. Maybe things just happen. And some people think those things should happen one way, and other people think those things should happen another way. But it was fun to watch, and next weekend, there will be something new that is fun to watch. It's supposed to be entertainment, and it's entertainment based on people reacting, to the best of their abilities, to constantly evolving situations and stimuli, in a timed scenario, with oppositional forces vying for control. The mistakes are part of the game, they are the game. They are the show. It's just a different type of emotion that bubbles up inside you, but you're watching to feel those emotions anyways. No need to sue anyone over it, that's for sure.

Third season for Leslie Frazier, I like that continuity too. He's my favorite coach on the roster.

Bingo, nice name btw. Bills fans look at players that Buffalo "missed" in the draft, and imagine a world where Gronk is a Bill and the Bills are winning. Patriots fans look at players that Buffalo drafted, and imagine a world where talent didn't go to die in a poorly managed organization, and then thank the lucky stars that guys like Hogan, Gilmore are there to contribute to a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance.

Yes! Well said gentlemen. Josh won't break if he talks to someone about his craft, don't worry.

Do you hold yourself back from stealing purses off 75 year old ladies in the dairy aisle at the grocery store too?

In my opinion, a lot of the problems that players face post-retirement could be solved by the lotto winner question: annuity or lump sum? If, out of the next CBA, teams agreed that they would only hand out "lifetime contracts" it would be good for EVERYONE--league included. For example: Josh Allen signed a 4 year, 21.2 million dollar contract at age 22. Let's define a "lifetime contract" as one that runs until the player is old enough to draw from Social Security: 62. The Buffalo Bills give Josh Allen a 40 year contract with a 529,725 dollar a year annual salary, which they should be mandated to distribute bi weekly (which would come to roughly 20 thousand a paycheck). Every new contract he signed would simply add to his biweekly paycheck, as if he were getting a promotion. So to continue this example, let's use Russell Wilson's next contract as an example: 4 years, 87.6 million. If Josh Allen signed that deal, it would be a 36 year contract, or a 2,433,333 annual raise. His new paycheck would be 93.5 thousand more dollars, meaning he would take home 113,500 a week, for life. These lump sum payments, in my opinion, are destroying players lives. The sense of loss and failure from losing not only your job but your ability to lose money ON TOP of losing all of your money and being reduced to living like ***** knowing you used to be a multimillionaire... it's enough to make a man crazy, or to drive them to suicide, or to overeating. And the owners should want to do this. Not because of morality, but because of economics. A, they would get to hold on to their money for decades longer, so all gains on it would be theirs--some of the contracts would pay for themselves just by market returns over their lifetime. So it's a win/win situation financially for players and teams (and I think the owners would have to pay the money into a trust that they couldn't withdraw from but which payed dividends out, but as for who would control how that money was invested--who knows). On top of that, B, I predict you would see much better health-related outcome measures for players after their playing days ended, because income streams are guaranteed. They can coach youth football, work in schools, be charitable in the communities where they played, join the country club and learn how to golf because they can afford to be a member there when they're 45--basically, the little things in life that give us all purpose that you can't access if you're a former athlete because you're broke and have no saleable skills, and you're ego is destroyed because you used to be the BMOC, now you're a failure. Let these guys be BMOCs for their entire lives, and you can start to sweep away this nasty little image problem that the league is forming for its post playing days.