BarleyNY

This is who I thought he would be in the NFL. So glad he’s making a difference in games and that it’s for us. Thanks again, Detroit, for taking a TE right in front of us with Oliver sitting on the board.

First and foremost the NFL is a business. Star players and popular teams are going to get the benefit of some calls or no calls. It’s kinda like a permanent, extra home field advantage. Think of Allen’s first quarter slide against Dallas where he got hit. Can anyone imagine flags not flying if that had been Brady? The good news is that while it’s difficult to earn yourself into that position, it can be done.

I’m so sorry, Scott. That really sucks.

The OP seems to lack the belief that the Bills can pull it off, but ultimately it’s a legitimate question. The Bills have been playing disciplined football and Allen has shown improvement so let’s see where they are. I’m looking forward to it. (And I’ll take this opportunity to apologize in advance for jinxing the Bills with my optimism.)

3-7 and no QB. Denver and everyone else knew it was over already. The OP raises a good point. The bar is a little higher on Thursday. Time to see what the Bills are made of. A win against this Cowboys team in Dallas in prime time would be their most impressive of the season.

Booger makes Chris Collinsworth seem almost listenable. You beat me to it

I think that has a lot to do with the timing of the decision. Smart. Plus he’s awful so there’s that. And I’m sure there’s some hard feelings with some of his teammates about that racial slur he used. Not really a strong leadership move there.

I like having a player like Shaq on the team, but I’m not excited if he’s my starter going into the season. I’d offer him a solid deal for a 3rd DE. He can see what else is out there and if he gets a great offer, then good for him. If not, maybe he stays here and is happy with his role. We should start those talks before the season ends. We don’t need to make a decision about Murphy nearly that soon. We have cap space so we can wait until cut downs if needed. Waiting will give the Bills a chance to find an opportunity to upgrade via free agency and/or the draft before making their decision. The Shaq situation will also be settled and they can see what they’ve got in camp. It’s worth keeping Murphy around until cut downs if only as insurance against injury. Or who knows, maybe it is just taking him longer to recover from his injury than expected. In any event there’s need to rush.

It accumulates. The Browns basically did what you suggest. It can only be built up so fast though. That’s due to the minimum team spending requirements. The rollover is added to the baseline league salary cap for each team. Then that repeats every year.

ELO is heavily weighted toward recent performance, specifically the last 10 games. It shows that Allen has performed better of late (which also passes the eye test). That’s the important take away here. Well, that and that Brady’s performance is finally falling off.

Seems like that’s a good reason to start betting football

Yup. There have been a few teams trying to get their most expensive players under extensions before the new CBA hits and the cap takes a big jump up. Both the CBA and White’s rookie deal expire after the 2020 season. White’s option year is 2021. Normally I would think that a long term deal would get done after 2020, but there’s a chance that an extension gets done early due to that situation. White would get a very large chunk of cash sooner than usual and the Bills would save a few bucks overall. It’d be a good deal for both sides and could happen as early March 2020 when White’s third season is officially complete, though a deal could be agreed to prior to that.

I think you’re right that he will get paid more than he’s worth to us in free agency. Edited to add: That’s not to say that he isn’t worth a nice contract, just that he plays a premium position and I expect some team to get stupid. Shaq has developed into the player that I thought he’d be when he was drafted though. He’s a very good DE. He sets the edge and plays the run well. He can add a few sacks too, but that’s not his forte. The expectations from a lot of fans were for a Mario-in-his-prime kind of player. That was never going to be Lawson. He’s not going to be a double digit sack guy. He can be a very nice, productive piece to a defense as long as he’s not the guy they’re relying on to consistently pressure the QB.

I’d like them both re-signed, but it always comes down to the contract. If they hit free agency and another team is going to overpay, then you gotta move on to other options. That said, I wonder if either would be interested in something now?

Like I’d have it any other way

Please do not flex it. I have tickets and do not want to have to stay overnight on Sunday.

Agree. If we need a minimum of 3 wins in our last 6 games, this is one we need. That’s based on it being one of the 3 easier games (relatively speaking). If we drop it, then we have to pick up a W against a tougher team. The Pittsburgh game is really important. They’ve got a relatively easy schedule and a loss to us could potentially knock them out on record or tiebreaker.

Usually I’d like to see the Bills out the ball through the end zone on kick offs, but they should consider the situation and keep return teams honest.

Question on the charts (thanks for posting them btw). Green is a completion, White is incomplete and red is an interception, but what do the blue streaks mean?

Good for Allen. I am a bit surprised because I expected Jackson to get it after that game against Houston. Similar overall numbers (so it was deserved), but I didn’t expect Buffalo/Allen to get love from the national media over Baltimore/Jackson.

I agree on running Josh more. It’s a necessary risk to achieve team success. Agree on him needing to work on his play fake as well as ball security though.

Austin Pasztor has started in this league. I remember him with the Browns. He isn’t good or anything, but he does have some experience.

I am sure they’ll be chipping with RBs and TEs all day

Gotta disagree with the Miami defense characterization. Using DVOA, Miami has the 32nd ranked pass defense, doing a whopping 42.3% worse job than what would be expected from the league average pass defense this season. They’re also ranked 32nd overall and 29th against the rush. We beat a bad team with a putrid pass defense and Allen help us win that game. That’s what was supposed to happen. Good. But that game isn’t going to define Allen. Let’s see what he’s got this week. I’m sure there will be plenty to argue about regardless of the outcome. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef/2019

He sure does. He could get away with that if he was a fast third down back, but it’ll be a real problem for him as a bigger, slower (relatively) power back in the NFL. He won’t have an OL that’s blowing huge holes open for him in the NFL either. He is patient and shows nice balance and change of direction so he has a place in the NFL, but it’ll be as a rotational RB. He’ll be available later on day 3 unless a team reaches.