ny33

I completely agree; it was completely irresponsible to give Allen no help last year and start him behind an offensive line of practice-squad level talent. Many of his problems stem from how he was forced to take the game on his shoulders and try to do it all last year with zero help or mentorship. They’ve done well in addressing the roster since then, but throwing him into the fire last year was completely irresponsible and will continue to have repercussions on his development. Even Mahomes would have struggled on last year.’s team.

Other than Dawkins, Allen, and DiMarco, virtually this entire offense is new to the team. The free agency moves have been hits at good value, and we have space and flexibility next offseason. There will be plenty more lapses in execution. But the offense looks more coordinated each week. No idea why Allen can’t place deep balls even with time and space, and there’s no question that we needed to use Singletary more. I think that fans need to recognize just how bad last year’s offense was and appreciate that there will be growing pains. If we can’t hang with the Cowboys, Ravens, or Pats I’ll be more concerned, but I think there’s plenty to be optimistic about unlike past teams (Whaley’s refusal to move on from Manuel earlier, + the support around our rookie QB thrown into the fire, set the team back tremendously). I don’t think that we reasonably could have done better in the offseason relative to the rest of the league.

He looks decisive and seems to be going through his progressions with the result of a much-improved intermediate game. I see progress in footwork and in avoiding reckless “hero ball.” I don’t know what happened to his long ball, but if he manages to connect on a few, I imagine it will be a confidence boost akin to the impact the Foster connection made last year. We deserved a loss like this after the Jets kicker gave us the win. We’re generally still on the right track other than the run D and pass rush (might take more than next offseason to fix). I don’t think any GM could have handled the offseason much better. Last year’s offense was inexcusable. This year’s is a solid base, and we will be competitive if we nail the coming draft and free agency.

Going into Allen’s rookie year with no veteran mentor, offensive line or skill position talent other than McCoy is the case study in how to stunt your Wyoming rookie QB’s development. There’s also no excuse for failing to evaluate Benjamin’s work ethic/conditioning having worked with him in Carolina. Jones was also not the right tool for a team without any threats besides McCoy, and it’s more than simple hindsight to say that we should have taken a more physical talent like Schuster instead of a gadget player who was never going to be a primary option. But the off-season changes to the offense have proven to be as much as one could ask for in a single offseason. Beane has shown a strong draft track record and did well in free agency. I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to add 2-3 impact players in the upcoming draft and use our cap space to pick up a pass rusher/tackle from a solid crop of veterans. This will be a genuinely competitive team next year.

It’s not on Foster than Allen can’t throw deep this year. Tough loss, but if that clicks for him again we will be fine. I can live with the loss of the deep ball threat for now while the intermediate routes are much improved. He’s a second-year QB and has all the tools +mentality; as long as there is continual improvement, we should have faith.

I saw one bad drop from Brown (the right side hook route that went threw his hands). May have missed the other, but he otherwise looked precise on his routes (and the sideline first down catch was all a team could ask for). Hill is a rare talent. But I think the team will be in a great position to grab a few elite teams prospects at offensive skill positions early in the coming draft. I think it’s important to consider that this team gave a rookie from Wyoming the pathetic shell of Kelvin Benjamin, a gadget player in Zay, and little else (on top of no veteran QB mentor and a CFL-level offensive line) last year. Beane and McDermott completely failed to support our rookie QB last year. But I think they’ve done as well as could be expected this offseason and generally recognized their past mistakes. We could certainly use an elite pass rusher, LB depth, and a reliable offensive tackle, but this team can finally afford to take shots at elite skill position players early (which Manuel wasn’t good enough to spend a first round pick, let alone two, on Allen). If we get a physical rookie talent like Metcalf, the offense has competitive potential.

I’ve occasionally seen Beasley be tentative towards the ball in physical situations, but Brown has shown nothing but precision and drive to me. I’m very confident that the current receiver corps has the right mentality and level of skill to help Allen grow, but the team would be well-served to add a consistent physical threat early in the coming draft.

I am very, very, happy to only worry about Allen’s ball security in critical rushing situations (the fumbles on short conversion downs have to be fixed, but his passing play is so improved from the early season). He showed decisive play and improved reads/progression in the passing game. Washington is, of course, a disaster of a team, and I’m more concerned with the rushing defense than anything we showed offensively. I hope that a comfortable victory, along with the special play Singletary demonstrated today, gives the offense and Allen confidence going forward. I trust that the defense will be invigorated having had a rare chance to feel as if they do not need to do everything to take back control of games. Could we have played better in all aspects of the game? Absolutely. Do we need to improve execution in every element to be a truly good team? No question. But we are on point to be in prime position for winnable playoff game with a QB who has proven that he can lead and win, and that is so much more than this team has had in decades.

The 2017 Bills were a bad team. This year’s edition is much better, but plenty of bad teams make the playoffs.

If to the Bills, could explain why Yeldon is inactive.

Milano might be the best LB in the NFL.

What a route.

Hell of a play by Wallace. Did anyone else notice how he restrained his celebration? I think McD had a serious talk to the team about discipline last week.

He plays best when he gets the ball out quickly and looks at 2-3 underneath targets. Let’s hope that he can do that well and gets support from the line and running game today. I’m more worried about Sanders+ 2 TE sets than anything. Milano and Tre are the two most irreplaceable players on the D, from my perspective.

In what world would John Brown not be owned, at minimum, after week 1?

What makes you think Wallace is a fit in the slot? I think he’s been very good in the outside. You can never have too many CBs; I think K. Johnson is a solid flex option, but wouldn’t mind adding a big CB in the draft to help against guys like Hopkins in the end zone.

"I will get it right, and do whatever is necessary to accomplish that." "We will continue to identify and add expertise to our team." "Everyone will participate in educating sessions starting in the next month."

Boston was out because he was a heavy steroid user (as with Merriman).

Most of the team should be in place in 2020. We’ll be in a position to draft whatever skill position/OL we think we need most or trade up for a guy like Jeudy (think Falcons for Julio). In the ‘21 offseason, we’ll lose some guys, but Beane has shown more than enough to give me faith that we can continue to handle the draft and free agency better than the vast majority of teams. If Josh is a little more under control and we can add an impact WR/TE/RB in next year’s draft, I would be disappointed to see this team win fewer than two playoff games. Again, I think Foster is a hell of a player, and 6 games is a promising-enough sample size, especially given the o line and surrounding talent with a rookie QB last year; it’s not like Jones, as the “stat-filler” given that someone has to get targets and catches, was anything close to that. Knox has played 6 games in the NFL. Josh has 16 under his belt. We have 9 players new to the starting offense (none of whom were on the team last year) and the o-line is clearly beginning to gel better. Don’t be surprised if these Bills start putting up 30 points consistently 5-6 games from now. No offense should improve more from week 1 to week 16 than ours. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/2008.htm Is this offense worse than the 2008 Giants? I don’t think so. And our defense is better (ex. pass rush). Either way, this is the first time that Bills fans should be legitimately excited about a team in this millennium.

To clarify, if Allen keeps turning over the ball, we will lose to teams like the Bengals and Jets. If he stops doing that, I believe that this team can win the Super Bowl. This year. Probably contingent on Foster being who I think he is- the same guy as the end of last year, who averaged 78 ypg over the last six- and that McDermott and Daboll want his foot/groin etc. fully healed (just like Singletary’s hamstring, better off waiting for a complete recovery as aggravation risk is high) before he sees the field much.

No one. Just saying that the Bills needed to replace him with a physical outside receiver like Metcalf or Duke, differences between them notwithstanding.

Sure, but no doubt that a QB like Allen can’t do much with a generally-unexceptional Jones deep and outside/on contested catches that Zay struggled with physically and under the pressure. It made little sense to take Jones over Smith-Schuster at the time based on fit and the need for a physical wideout. For the record, I think Jones will have a decent and long career as the 4th receiver on a team with a veteran QB (e.g. the Pats’ value from Amendola-types). He’s improved significantly and I think fans have something of a confirmation bias regarding his drops combined with the high rate of drops in the end zone/3rd down that fans remember. On catchable balls, he was fine after Foster emerged and with the veteran talent we added this year, but Allen’s inconsistent velocity and deep accuracy just don’t work without a burner like Foster or Brown.

The early recognition that Jones wasn’t cutting it and the leap of faith to start Duke shows that they recognized the need for such a WR. If Duke keeps it up, I’ll be fine with having Ford over Metcalf this season. In contrast, Jones made no sense for the Bills with regards to his skill set or outside role, and it’s very hard to make the case that he would develop or succeed in Buffalo compared to the other guys available who had some elite measurables (whereas Zay is average in most regards and valuable to a deep team as an extra slot/midfield threat).

He’s not on the block. I don’t see why Tampa would trade him; he certainly isn’t producing and hasn’t played well overall, but it would be foolish to trade a TE like Howard when Arians needs Winston to feel as comfortable as possible and have options beyond Godwin/Evans.

We should win the game, but just expect Allen to put us in a position to lose a game we should win at least one or two more times this season (flip‘em like the Bengals and Jets games, but vs. a better team). Would happily see some more growing pains early on if he is consistent vs. the AFC teams down the stretch. Allen is a winner. I’m just saying that games like Cin/NYJ/Pats were hurt more by his mistakes than we gained from his clutch drives, and in his second season we will see a few more close ones that should probably be blowouts or comfortable wins if Josh makes too many inexcusable mistakes. I’m thrilled with his development, but expect to see one or two that we should win go the other way thanks to a turnover or two. Agree that 9-13 wins is the range for a healthy team.