Kirby Jackson

Because if they each win their division you’d likely play both (assuming they win). Ravens will be the 4 and Chiefs 2 or 3. There’s no reason to create a poll asking people to pick an option that would be easy to select. The entire point of the poll isn’t “which is liklier?” It’s “which option do you prefer?” Denver stinks. Lol, they’re the worst 8-2 I’ve ever seen. We’d beat them by 3 scores. We beat the Steelers 8 out of 10, New England 7 out of 10, Chargers without their OL 7 out of 10, Jags 8 out of 10. The Colts are the only one that scares me some (Texans too). If you can’t beat those teams though, you don’t deserve it. I think Ravens/Chiefs are both coin flips. That’s just my opinion. It looks like the group is pretty split.

This is obviously the dream scenario. 100% of people would pick that.

The Ravens are currently the betting favorite to win their division. Us being the 1 seed actually helps those teams in their strength of record. In this scenario you’re assuming those teams win, you’re picking between 2 home games against the hardest teams vs. 3 road games against less accomplished teams. It’s a tough decision this way. It’s split right down the middle.

As a Pats fan, you might think that. If you said, “would you rather play at New England 3 times or home to Baltimore & KC” it’s New England. It’s definitely not an easy question. That’s why the voting has been close. The Bills and Chiefs have 10 battles with the Chiefs winning all 4 in the playoffs. The Ravens battles are less frequent but still often. The Bills have had the upper hand in the playoffs. Both of those games would be a coin flip. The Bills would be a clear favorite in all other games. It doesn’t mean that they’d always win and obviously would have to win an extra game. It’s would you rather play 3 road games where you’re the favorite by a few points (I understand they could have a home game) or 2 coin flips at home?

I wonder what the odds would be of going to the Super Bowl in scenario A vs. scenario B? We need an oddsmaker on here. 🤣🤣

That’s how I voted too but could be swayed. “Who scares me the most?” “Are you more likely to beat the Ravens & Chiefs at home again, or at Pittsburgh/Indy/Denver” I’d pick path 2 (at least at this moment).

FWIW, it’s a super interesting question. That holds especially true when factoring in the Ravens would almost certainly be the 4 seed if they won the division. That means you’d play both the Ravens and Chiefs as your 2 games (assuming KC beats the Colts or whomever).

This came out of a conversation in another thread but got me thinking. Would you rather be the 1 seed AND have the Chiefs & Ravens as division winners OR be the 5 seed & the Chiefs & Ravens both miss the playoffs? For me, I think that the Bills are the AFC favorite in either scenario but curious as to what others think. P.S. Try to leave out the emotions/nostalgia of “it would be really cool to play the AFC Championship as the last game at Higmark.” Let’s keep this as, “what is the easier path to a title?”

Maybe. If the Ravens lose at the Vikings this week (possible) and the Steelers beat the Chargers (possible), they are separated by 3 in the loss column. They’d be tied with the Bengals. They can still make up that ground but the margin for error would be basically nothing (especially if they split with the Steelers). If the Chiefs lose to the Broncos next week (possible) they’ll be functionally 5 games behind the Broncos!! Now they’re looking at a WC slot. The AFCE is taking one of those spots. That leaves 2 more between Jax, Chargers, Texans, Chiefs & AFCN. A loss next week and they’re probably only about even money to be a playoff team. There is a realistic world where neither the Chiefs nor Ravens are in the playoffs. If you told me that that the Bills would have to be a WC but Baltimore & KC would be out, I’d sign up for that. Obviously, I’d prefer the 1 seed too but the Bills would be the AFC favorite in that scenario.

This year is as good as it gets from a Bills standpoint. Keep rooting against the Ravens and Chiefs (Texans too). If we go to the playoffs and are competing against the Colts, Broncos, Patriots, Steelers, Jags and Chargers, sign me the eff up.

I like it.

Bills - 41 Miami - 20

It’s about percentage of cap to a position group. You have to redeploy those cap dollars to WR. You’re paying Dawkins and Brown. In this scenario, you’d be paying Edwards and McGovern too. Torrence is in line for a big extension that would kick in for 2027. So, to answer your question, yes you can’t pay Torrence but can pay Higgins.

I agree with all of this. At the same time, not one of those guys belongs at the spot where they are on the depth chart. The Bills have a starting caliber slot receiver. He is probably a top 5-10 slot in the league. Put him aside for this conversation. They then have 2 guys that would be low end 2’s on the outside or decent 3’s (excluding slot) in Palmer/Moore. Coleman should slot in behind those 2. Samuel is a gadget guy. Shavers is ST. So they are missing AT LEAST a number 1 (and you could argue a number 2). They need either a number 2 or an elite field stretcher. I threw out a hypothetical trade this morning that I think I like. Torrence & a 2nd or 3rd for Tee Higgins. You can’t pay Torrence what it will take. Invest that money into retaining Edwards & McGovern. Play Anderson or another young guy at RG. Humor me and let’s pretend the Bills do this. In 2026 the room would look something like Higgins-Palmer - Shakir as the starters. I’d have Moore/speed guy that can return kicks drafted in the mid rounds behind them. Coleman as a backup inside and outside. You can dump Samuel and use Moore to fill the gadget role. That room is infinitely better than this. The Bills can get more out of the WRs than they have. They have, unequivocally, a bottom 3 WR room in the league. Both statements are true.

Just tragic. Rest in Peace 🙏🏼🙏🏼

It was the right move at the time and the right move with the benefit of hindsight. Can you imagine if it was Jalen Reagor instead of Justin Jefferson?!? It very easily could have been that. Diggs gave the Bills the best receiving season in franchise history, the best 4 year window in franchise history and made them the most dangerous offense in the game. He took a really, really good team and made them elite. That offense wins a Super Bowl or 2 without the defensive failings. If the opportunity presents itself this offseason to trade a 1st for Tee Higgins (for example) you do it. You do it even if Carnell Tate or Jordyn Tyson or Chris Bell or whomever has a great career. You need the sure thing while your window is open. As an aside (this just popped into my head so don’t crush me if it’s absurd) but what about trading Torrence + a 2nd or 3rd for Higgins? The Bills can’t possibly give another OL a huge deal. They can probably get McGovern & Edwards back for roughly the cost of extending Torrence. The Bengals would get a high end OL plus some draft capital. The Bills could plug in Anderson or Lundt or Grable or whomever at that spot. They have fantastic OL depth still. They’d get their X receiver & still have plenty of draft capital to address other needs (including a speed receiver).

Just made a Ray Davis anytime TD scorer bet on DraftKings. He’s +1000. I didn’t have any boosts but I recommend everyone jumping on that just in case. If Cook is out that number goes way down.

It’s kind of like those great Warriors teams. They won 4 championships. They are the greatest shooting team of all-time. They shot the lights out from 3. If they shot the ball to their standard, they won. If they shot the ball at a top 5 or top 10 level, you could beat them. They didn’t lose often but if the game didn’t play out their way, they could get beat. This Bills team is obviously good. They’re the Super Bowl favorites for god’s sake. With that being said, the recipe to beat them isn’t complicated. Everyone knows it. Can you do it? That’s a different story. If a team is having success running and stopping the run, the Bills can’t just flip the switch (at least consistently). In the Diggs years they could. They could beat you more ways. To @NoSaint’s point, you will have to win 3 or 4 games in a row against great teams to get a championship. Your margin for error is nil. That’s tough when you have clear flaws.

Good question. Um, he’s the best of the bunch. He absolutely makes them better than they are today. I’d also probably try giving Moore more routes (no pun intended). Maybe you can cobble together just enough to keep defenses honest. That way you can still run the ball and work the underneath stuff.

For me, there are 2 clear flaws and it has been exposed multiple times this year (in wins and losses). The guys on the outside can’t get open and they can’t stop the run. I won’t say that they’re “easy” to defend because they have scored a lot. They’re easy to game plan for though because there are certain areas that you don’t need to defend. The Bills can absolutely win the Super Bowl but there is a formula that’s fairly limited that needs to play out for that to happen. They NEED to play from in front. Their offense can control the clock and run the ball. The defense can get after the passer and don’t have to worry about defending the run. The fear is, you get behind in a playoff game (let’s say Indy). Now, your defense, which was allowing the most YPC since like 1960 until last week, needs to stop Taylor and that elite OL. You can’t just play to your strength of running and ball control offense because it takes too long to close the gap. Now, you’re forced to throw to trash WRs (except Shakir), TEs who will be the focus of the defense and RBs that you refuse to throw to. It is not that the Bills aren’t great or that they can’t win. It’s they aren’t multiple enough to win in a variety of ways. One move, even someone like Shaheed, makes them more likely to win in the above mentioned situation. They can make chunk plays. They can keep safeties away from the LOS. There is a trickle down impact.

He’s one of my least favorite players in the league!! I’m a yes

I’ll say, the Bengals have just done a bad job. The Eagles paid 2 top WRs and won the Super Bowl. It’s a Bengals issue not an issue of having 2 top WRs. Would the Bills be better of with Landon Jackson or Tory Horton? You can point to the successes but we shouldn’t applaud the Bills for using a 3rd on a guy that can’t get a jersey (2 years in a row).

Jets

He hasn’t done a good job with a lot of them. He’s specifically been bad at WR. In a year, he traded Diggs, a great WR draft, he traded down twice and took Keon. He couldn’t have believed, “this is the best way to get a number 1 WR.” If he would have went up and been wrong, so be it. He didn’t value the position enough and still doesn’t.

No but the Bills were one of many teams trying to acquire a WR. 2 guys got dealt so that’s the value that we know. I would have paid that price for Shaheed but Denver didn’t, New England didn’t, Bills didn’t, Baltimore didn’t, etc.. Seattle did. All of those teams should be considered contenders. Again, I would have paid that price but no NFL GM did.