BisonMan

You're either an awful husband or you have a great wife. If I subjected the Mrs. to four hours of football programming...well, it wouldn't last one hour. I was a HUGE Raiders fan as a little kid and Fred B. (Erie, PA boy) was my favorite player. I had a large poster of him on my wall. My parents were pissed when we tried taking it off the wall and the the sheet rock it was stuck to came down with it. ?

Yeah, this is where predictions and betting odds tend to diverge. Odds-makers know certain teams draw more bets regardless of the actual likelihood of them winning. The Boyz tend to draw a lot of money in bets compared to a team like the Bills so they will get less favorable odds than the Bills until the money evens out. I think it’s comical that anyone looking at the teams would really think the Pats have a better chance of winning the SB than the Bills after having lost Brady. But, I get the betting odds being the same because of how people see the teams.

According to a tweet from Fan Duel A bit shocked that the Ravens are that high as I think the league has figured out their offense (thanks in no small part to McD and the Bills).

They picked a Marvel character (some obscure) for each team: https://247sports.com/ContentGallery/Marvel-NFL-Helmets-For-Every-Team-129350013/#129350013_3 The Buffalo Bills are now the Buffalo Rhinos (which makes no sense). FYI, Rhino is a Spider-Man foe. I like the Cleveland Things and the Tampa Punishers. They could have left the Titans as they were as the Titans are already in the MCU.

I think I only counted 6 players in this evaluation that were considered “stars”. If you’re in the top 20% of rookies in the first round of an NFL draft, that says something (depending on what you think of the evaluators). Oliver certainly had a good year. I think a lot of people hyped him to break Donald’s rookie sack record to falling short of that was, to them, a disappointment. I never compared him in that metric as I was just hoping he would make it clear he belonged in the 1st round and was on his way to being, at least, a solid DT for the Bills for the foreseeable future. He certainly did that...and more.

This. The Bills' draft strategy is to be competent or better at every position going into the draft and never reach for need. Knox in 2020 is highly likely to be better than any 2-4th round draft pick this year at that position. Knox has a ton of upside. He has the ability to make the spectacular catch so his skills are not really in question there. He drops a lot of "easy" balls though. That's a concentration issue, not a skills issue. He'll be a stud, IMO.

I think the primary reason Knox didn't get any targets in college was due to the WR corp at Ole Miss. He was playing with DK Metcalf and AJ Brown and Ole Miss ran a vertical passing game focused on those guys. Knox we just a decoy. Both WRs appear to be studs in the NFL already.

With all the discussion about Diggs (rightfully so) and how good our WR group is compared to those around the league, I think Dawson Knox is not getting his due. I think Knox, with just one year in the NFL, is set for a breakout season. We quickly forget that he didn't get many balls thrown to him in his college career. He caught just 15 passes and 0 TDs behind a complete stud WR corp at Old Miss. The Bills recognized this diamond in the rough but, I think, also realized that he wouldn't become a solid catching TE in his first season. Nonetheless, I think he had a great rookie year (28 catches and 2 TDs). He was 15th in the league in yards per reception. Did he drop a bunch of catches? Yes. According to Fox Sports, he was 3rd in drops with 10 (~25% drop rate, yikes). However, it's not like he had a lot of opportunities in game time situations in his career. If Knox can clean up the drops this year along with having a much stronger receiving corp, Knox is likely to have a breakout year. Instead of off-season workouts, the Bills should just ship him 25 footballs and this:

The Bills can sell tickets to practice just so people can watch Diggs go one-on-one with Tre White. Both of these guys are going to be getting better every day with that type of competition. Scary thought...if you have to play the Bills this season.

Cole B. is both slow and light! Slot receiver skills are not about top speed or size but short area quickness. Beasley is obviously a good slot receiver by NFL standards and, IMHO, underutilized in the Bills' offense (I still can see him wide open for a TD on the last play of the Ravens' game). Still, a pretty cool graph.

Hard to believe this match would ever be close. Serena typically gives up a lot of games in the 1st set to players and then mows them down. She’ll even lose the set to good players but it makes no difference in the end. Serena is simply the best player that has ever played the game. I think her fitness has suffered since the birth of her child but she remains physically and technically dominant. Only players with comparable power have a chance to beat her. Niomi Osaka is certainly one of them. Serena does complain often about perceived injustices but so have a lot of players. However, she’s the only one I’ve ever seen threaten a linesman (“I stuff this ball down your f&*king throat!”) for calling a foot fault. Even McEnroe never went that far.

A few things on this thread: Awesome throw by Allen to give Duke a chance at that catch John Brown would have been out of the end zone by the time that pass to there ? Duke would have had to make a tough contested catch on that ball and, if he did, would have been all over ESPN that night. Most NFL receivers don't catch that ball with the DB hanging on them but a few elite ones do more than 50% of the time. DK Metcalf was a projected top 10 pick but fell to late in the 2nd round. It wasn't obvious to NFL GMs/Coaches that he was a top WR talent...but he obviously had the abs to be a top pick. ? Prior to being cut, Duke might have been a pre-draft darling to some but, like Metcalf, we don't know how the actual NFL would have drafted him. Much of the thoughts on Duke are in comparison to other Bills' receivers. That's a small and talent-limited pool. He doesn't compare to Beasley because he's not a dedicated slot WR. So, it's really just in comparison to Brown, et al. Not a great talent pool. The Bills obviously need to upgrade. I think, in comparison to the current roster, Williams should likely have gotten more opportunities to play. This is especially against blitz-happy defenses where you expect either quick separation or the ability to make contested catches. Beasley gets quick separation, the rest of the smurfs don't. I seriously wonder if the Bills coaching staff had "Kelvin Benjamin derangement syndrome" this year. Duke has a similar projection (Big body, wide catch radius, not fleet of foot) to KB. Given the abject failure of KB, is it any wonder that the Bills staff was none too keen to put another player like him on the field?

Sorry, been a Bills fan for 50+ years. Saw my first game live at War Memorial. O.J. took one 90+ to the house that day. I can disagree with people about the rules of the game and still be a strong supporter of the Bills. Frankly, it’s not reasonable to assume everyone who has a opinion that doesn’t align with yours is not a fan of the team. BTW, nice handle...prepare to die. ?

Yes you can as long as the runner isn’t defenseless. I think it’s cheap in this situation because Allen wasn’t trying to lunge for a first down or anything.

The QB is a runner here and can be hit like any RB in that situation. Helmet to helmet is fine on a RB (happens most runs) but is a penalty if the runner is being held in a vulnerable position and can’t defend himself. Clearly not the case here.

Blindside blocks are not blocks in the back. They don’t require the guy to get “blown up” or get knocked down. Read the rule as it has been posted a number of times in this thread.

I just watched both replays again. Can’t agree with this from MP. It clearly looks like he lead with both shoulder and forearms on this play from an up-field position. Pretty clear penalty under the rules and hard to miss at that point by the ref. A dumb and unnecessary block as well because Allen was already clear if the defender.

This is clearly a penalty. I yelled at the TV right as it happened. Ford was coming back to make the block and hit the defender with his shoulder. That’s a textbook crack back block under the rules. It always get called when it’s at the point of attack like on this play. All Ford had to do was push him with his hands or just run in front of him and it’s legal. You can’t initiate contact forcibly with your body from up field. This was one of many O-line blunders that cost the Bills the game.

RIP, Sam. I remember him pulling a prank on the team when he was HC of Tampa. Rumor had it that Jimmy Johnson was going to get hired to replace Wyche. What does he do? He invites Johnson to play a come into the team meeting as the GM was asking Wyche to turn in his playbook. Johnson starts in with lecturing the team on getting tougher while wearing a Bucs windbreaker (which was Sam’s). It was hilarious. I wish I could find the video of it from ‘95. Here’s a link to the story: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1995-09-07-9509070043-story.html He was one of a kind. ?

A little long, but worth the watch if you’re interested in how teams can and have beat the Pats when they blitz. Warning: Lots of props to Gilmore in here.

From an age/production perspective, he’s the best FA pass rusher available. JAX could still tag him but it looks like they have CAP issues. They might try a TAG-and-trade though, IMHO.

I had recently moved into my girlfriend's house and we watching it in our living room. I remember falling to my knees as the kick went right. I told her he would likely miss it because he hadn't made a kick over 40 yards on grass all season. My fault? ? I watched the next one with her family and decided it wasn't my fault. It was hers. ? So, we broke up. Watched the next one from a bar at Club Med in Turks and Caicos sans girlfriend. Didn't help. ? Watched the last one with another girlfriend. Decided it wasn't her fault and married her. The Bills never lost another Super Bowl. Our 24th Anniversary is in May. I hope we never lose a Super Bowl as I can't afford the alimony. ?

That's what I like most about this guy's analysis. While watching one of the plays where Josh bailed from the pocket, I was thinking to myself that he panicked. As that thought bubble was leaving my head the guy immediately tells me why bailing was the right move that the average viewer wouldn't understand. That's next level mind reading...and great analysis you don't see on TV. I especially liked the reaming he gave Smoke Brown for a terrible route on the last play of the Raven's game that could have tied the game. Also, I watched the Monday night game between the Packers and Vikings and specifically watched the QB's passes and imagined it was Josh each time. There were a number of pretty terrible throws by both QBs that missed open receivers by a wide margin. Josh makes those throws and they're on the next day's highlight (er...lowlight) reel. I agree that both Rogers and Cousins have earned more leeway in their play given their success but the "narrative" for Josh won't change until he's holding up the Lombardi Trophy next year.

I like how he analyzes failed plays. He’s not a Bills homer.

“The kids call this docking”