BisonMan

Every time I read one of these articles, it seems the author doesn't watch many (any?) Bills' games. He writes about Dawson Knox: "The Mississippi product is a reliable if unspectacular checkdown option" Seriously? That is just about the opposite of what you'd write about Knox. He led the league in drop percentage (unreliable) and is most noted for some spectacular catches...and ANGRY RUNS!!!!!! You'd think a guy with the same name (Knox), you'd follow him at least a little before writing about him.

Let's hope that gives us the upper hand this year with teams having so few weeks/days to prepare for the season: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29226084/we-ranked-nfl-teams-continuity-1-32-bills-chiefs-lead-way As many have written here, I'm hoping that the 3rd year for a QB that needed lots of development in the league allows Allen to shine and move to the top 3rd of the league at his position.

Hilton Auckland is my personal favorite. Awesome views of the harbor and a great breakfast buffet. Of course, the trip to the stadium requires 24-28 hours of flights to Bufffalo and then the drive from the airport. But, that sunrise on the harbor makes it all worth it!

Bass gets this barring a terrible pre-season/TC. Being cheaper helps but... Beane isn’t just building for 2020. Haush is on his last legs and is the K more likely injured given his age. Haush may have 1 season left but not here. Letting Bass walk means he gets picked up by one of the first teams with a failing or injured kicker. They can’t stash him on the practice squad to prevent this and I doubt they use up a roster spot for an KO specialist. Bass has 10+ years ahead of him if he performs. The Bills can’t let the next Dustin Hopkins walk. Hopkins was a Bill but now the Skins have this strong-legged 85% career kicker. ?

It looks like we won the off-season! ?

I don't like using stats entirely as a measure of progress/regression. For example, Tre White could become a complete lock-down corner this year and teams wouldn't even throw his way. If his INTs drop, we can't say he "regressed". Similarly, our WRs won't have regressed just because we added a new #1 and taken some receptions away from them. I do like the point someone made that Diggs could actually increase receptions for other players by moving the chains or by drawing coverage. The question is, are they actually playing worse? Quality of play is measured a lot more by non-statistical measures in many cases.

I assume they’ll get less targets/yards with Diggs on the team. However, I don’t consider this as them regressing in terms of their play. They may even be playing better and still rack up lower stats. Knox might also contribute to less production from these two, especially Beasley. That’s probably a good thing.

This team has done a lot this off-season to improve across of the weak areas, both offense and defense. I think the team is much better on paper than they were in 2019. I’m having trouble identifying a spot that’s weaker now than last year. So, an open question. Is there a starter that’s on the team now that you think is the most likely to regress in 2020? Of course, this is not accounting for injuries that might occur. My first thought was Trent Murphy but I think his game is pretty stable, if not spectacular, and not likely to regress. So, my pick is Jerry Hughes. He’s getting older and at some point, his speed will fall off. This could be that year for him. What players are you concerned about having a fall-off in performance from 2020?

Combining the prospect of a limited season due to COVID, the fact that nearly 1/3 of the Bills games are primetime (or likely to be flexed there) and that even many of the Bills 1pm or 4pm games will be the "national" broadcast...is there any sense in paying DirectTV for Bills games for those of us out of market? I'm thinking I won't be getting it for the first time in almost 20 years.

Mine are (in order of franchise importance): Ralph (no franchise...or league...without him) Bruce (best player at his position for any Bill) Jim (4 SuperBowls and led the most exiting team we’ve ever had) OJ...face chiseled off the mountain...replaced by Thurman. I shook OJ’s hand at a little league football pizza party in ‘72...still can’t get the blood out...

I concur...Doctor. I similarly had an incorrectly diagnosed issue. I had severe pain my my shoulder for a number of years (10+) from playing tennis. I worked for a few years with a ortho who gave me painkillers for a while then finally sent me for an MRI. The results came back and after reading the notes, she told me I had a complex set of issues that likely required complex surgery...that might not fix the problem. I asked if I could get a cortisone shot for the pain. She thought that would damage me more. Finally, she sent me to the Redskins ortho at the time (coincidentally). Great guy. I gave him the notes from the MRI. “No, I need to see the film myself.” Got him the film. “Yes, that’s what I thought. The person reading your film assumed you were younger. You have the typical shoulder of a 40 year old that played tennis. It’s just tendinitis.” Gave me a cortisone shot right then and there and prescribed PT. Never had an issue again. Played more tennis after 40 than I did the previous 25 years. Still on the courts today as I approach 60.

It's amazing that he has a leg after seeing the details of what happened to him on the ESPN E60 "Project 11" special. After the flesh eating bacteria got done with him, they had to transplant muscle from his thigh and ass onto his lower leg. Amazing surgery, to be sure. I also highly doubt he'll be cleared by a team to play unless they need a mid-season backup and the free-agent cupboard is bare. If this guy was healthy, he would have been an obvious choice for the Patriots this season. I think he fits the mold of what they are looking for very well (accurate and mistake free).

Saves on college tuition...too soon? We have inherited a cat and have a Golden Retriever. This is a recurring theme in our home. However, our cat is too old for this maneuver so he just tries to scratch the dog's eyes out.

Watch the ESPN special on this: “E:60 Project 11”. I started a thread on this and the YouTube link is in the thread. It’s both amazing and disturbing.

RE: Amputate or not My niece had her ankle crushed in a car accident a number of years ago (warning: never ride with your feet on the dashboard). She had multiple surgeries to try to fix it. Nothing worked and she was in constant pain. She finally decided to have her lower leg amputated. It was an incredibly tough decision but she didn’t regret it. However, living with a prosthetic is no picnic either. Smith made a tough call and things could still go sideways. I loved how in the middle of some of the worst of his experience he asked his wife, “Do you know how lucky we are?”. That helps put things in perspective for anyone watching this story. I hope it works out and he can live the normal life...of a multi-millionaire! ?

With almost no new content on sports these days, I took a shot at watching the ESPN "E:60 Project 11" special last night on Alex Smith's recovery from his leg injury (multiple compound fractures). It didn't hurt that his wife was shown in the previews. ? Warning: the show is incredibly graphic. Smith allowed cameras (still and video) to record his progress from the first days of the injury through the last two years. What he went through is amazing and I can't believe he still has a leg. He likely won't play another down in the NFL but his story is really incredible and he seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Find and record this if you can.

Brady's skills are good pre-snap reads, timing, and accuracy which allowed him to continue to succeed with depleting physical skills. The Pats also covered for this by improving their running game and offensive line. By some reporting, Stidham took a large percentage of the practice snaps last year to help him learn and to preserve Brady's arm. That likely makes him better than what one would expect for a 2nd season player making his first starts. Word is that he is accurate and throws with timing. His ability to read defenses at this level is where the rubber will hit the road with NE this year. They do have a great defense and a good running game (Bills 2016?). Minimizing mistakes by Stidham will be paramount and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pats run or just throw screens on 3rd and long (5+ yards to go), followed by a punt so they can rely on their defense. The Bills will perform much better this year against the Pats defense for a couple of reasons. First, Josh will be better at reading defenses. Second, the offensive line will improve as it returns intact. Third, the Bills have a better backfield this year as Gore was on his last legs in 2019. Last, the Bills WR corp should be markedly improved with Diggs and better concentration by Knox (reduce the drops!). We may even have a better kicker in 2020 who can boom them from beyond the 50!

This says a lot about how McBean feels about their roster. They likely don’t see a need that outweighs the value of a backup QB at this point in the draft. They probably thought that any other 5th rounder they would pick wasn’t likely to make the roster anyway. If he develops above expectations, he become trade bait in the next couple of years (ala Jimmy G). If he hits a relatively low ceiling, he’s a career backup. That’s a win-win scenario. It’s not a question as to whether Fromm starts, it’s whether any other pick on the board is likely to make the team. If not, then this is a great pick, even if it’s a risk. There is too much high side value in having a backup QB on a rookie contract. That could save 5+ million in cap space alone. My 2 cents.

Jerry Hughes will tackle her after the whistle. ?

MILF pick?

As Bills' fans, I think we grade our GMs on a "Billsy Curve". Given the history, if our GM can walk and chew gum, he's a Top 10 GM! It's pretty obvious that a GM has to manage the Cap well, but teams with aging stars tend to overpay for a final run (potentially to save their jobs). So, I give Bean credit for having the smarts to take the bullet early in his tenure and the luck to have an owner and coach who are on the same page. That seems a bit rare today. I think Bean's actual player moves can be questioned but he has a pattern. He drafts high-potential players at the top of the draft (Allen, Edmunds, Oliver) and over-achievers in later rounds (Singletary, Milano, Knox). I like that strategy. I don't think he's ever shot for a top player in FA or in a trade, with the exception of Diggs (and maybe Morse?). Diggs breaks the pattern because, I think in his mind, the Bills are really close to making a run. Other FAs have been relatively solid "fit" players for holes in the team who he's expecting to backfill with draft picks. So, I think Top-15 is about right for him.

You can tell he's pretty raw in the video. He makes a ton of throws off his back foot (and this is his highlight reel!) and consistently throws behind receivers on any type of crossing route. We still see those tendencies today from Josh. At that level, his arm strength made up for a lot of mistakes. The fact that his receivers were slower than they are today made his poor throws catchable in JUCO. A quicker route runner and those throws are 5 feet behind them. He did throw some beautiful long balls and drop-in-the-bucket sideline throws in that compilation. BTW, can we get some of those receivers on the Bills? There were some pretty good over-the-shoulder catches and adjusted catches that I haven't seen Bills' receivers make for a while. Of course, it helps that they were often "junior-college open". ?

I'm a fan of the free market, especially in the entertainment industry where not many get hurt when it's unfair. Smith draws eyeballs so ESPN thinks he's worth them money they pay him. It's not about whether he's wrong but whether he's entertaining, which he often is on both counts. A couple of days ago he was bemoaning the Bills because they fail at crucial times (a sentiment I read on this forum often but he didn't say "Billsy") but he used last year's season finish as an example because "they lost their last 3 games" of the season, including losing to the Jets. Anybody paying attention knew the Bills sat their starters in week 17 but Smith was too caught up in his point to think of that. Smith is first and foremost a basketball fan/columnist. That's his sports passion. Kellerman's is boxing. So, I take their opinions on the NFL with a pillar of salt. Ryan Clark, IMHO, is one of the best football commentators on TV. He's both knowledgeable and funny. He knows how the players think and doesn't shy away from criticizing players that he thinks are doing stupid s#%t. In this case, when he says he "doesn't like" Allen, he's obviously speaking from a player perspective, not a personal dislike. A lot of football analysts don't think much of Allen, even if they've seen him play. I'm personally still on the fence with Allen. As to the question of "who's the best QB in the AFC East?", I think that's tough because none of them are clearly Top 10 talent. I can't confidently say that Allen will outperform the other QBs in the division this year but all of the excuses he might have had are gone. It's prove it year for Allen.

I've seen a lot of mock drafts, including some that go through the 2nd round (which I think is ridiculous). I also see a lot of chatter about which position the Bills will draft for this year, including RB, EDGE, CB, OLB, etc. I think the reality is that the Bills feel pretty good about their current roster and one of the reasons they were willing to trade away later round draft picks this year for Diggs. Those guys weren't likely to make the team anyway. So, my question is: Is there many (any?) positions on the roster where the Bills won't pick the Best Player Available (BPA) with their 2nd round pick? Would they really reach for a player to fill a need with that pick, or even their 3rd rounder? The only position where I think they wouldn't pick is QB. Any others you think they would avoid the BPA at pick 2? If so, why?

My assumption is that there will be no vaccine available anytime during the NFL season and probably not until late Spring 2021. I do think there will be some treatments that will provide a significant reduction of symptoms in the most severe cases (like serum therapy). However, these likely won't be available for those with more "mild" symptoms, which for COVID-19 are pretty severe. Being an outdoor stadium helps here as there is a slightly lower change of spread there but, because the Bills will be REALLY GOOD this year, I'd expect the stadium to be more occupied than not. Sellouts will be rare and tickets will be cheap on the aftermarket. I personally would not take the chance on getting it by attending a crowded event unless I know I've already had it. ? So, that's a NO. ?