GunnerBill

If the Bills win out they are almost certainly in. Either as division winner if Miami drops 1 more or as a wildcard. If they win the next two and lose in Miami the path is very narrow. We have a lot of rooting for the Titans to do.

Aren't they likely down Chase as well now though? I think it is Bengals or Browns for the wildcard. Not sure I see a path where it is both. The Jags / Colts / Texans tussle is more interesting to me. I can see a route to two of those making it. And Denver are still in it. Although I think they have to win out from here and luckily from our perspective if we win out then they are stuck behind us despite the tiebreaker.

Exactly. 0.01 for originallity. Next week Peter tells us teams who missed the playoffs just lost too many games.

Only for very brief periods. With those two the seriousness of the limitations showed even within the Shanny scheme. That isn't to dispute that he is the best Quarterback hider in the NFL. He totally is. And by a long way. But the fact Purdy has made it last for a year does suggest he is better than Mullens and Beathard.

I feel the same on Purdy. We saw who he was when Samuel, Williams and CMC were out. It is elite players that win in this league. And the elite players on San Fran do not include the QB.

Totally agree. The game this year has been about what your guys can do once they have the ball in their hands.

Eagles cheating? Surely not?

Yea that is an option for them. Though I think he'd still then be hireable on a level transfer by a team who wanted to make him a playcalling DC by the rules....

I'm going to start a thread on who was the slowest and shortest receiver to play in the NFL. Spolier alert: He played slot receiver for New England.

Yea, I am not as strident as I was on "McDermott must not be DC in 2024" a couple of weeks ago, but conscious that could be recency bias too. But Bobby is gonna get a shot sooner or later in this league. He has the pedigree and contacts of his dad's time in the league and his work as safeties coach and then linebackers coach for the Bills has been stellar.

Sounds to me like they have given up on the idea of Milano returning this year. Which probably is the sensible long term decision. Also gotta say if you told me pre-season Dodson and Bernard were it at linebacker I'd have said we are in serious trouble. Props to both and to Bobby Babich.

Douglas was one of the worst players on the field in the Philly loss. So the people raving over him should slow their roll slightly. Although, granted, he has played well in the other games. My point on Ty Johnson was that he was a JAG and I'd rather have rolled with a young guy. He had a good game on Sunday but tbh you coulda had any running back there and they would have succeeded. Until Sunday as a change of pace guy he had never broken 20 yards in a game or 4 ypc for the Bills. If thinking he is a JAG is a bad evaluation there is certainly no evidence to back that up yet. I always admit when I am wrong on players - have been plenty. I think Douglas has proved to be better than I expected him to be but I don't think he is even close to being a stud. Nor do I think Williams is Mahomes. But I am confident he is a different level of talent compared to Baker and Kyler.

The one I am higher than most on is Ewers. I need to dig more into Daniels, barely seen him. I think Williams and Maye are comfortably my top 2, but with that asterisk on Daniels I'd currently have Ewers as my #3.

He does play for the most overrated coach in football..... I am 100% confident in saying Williams is another level talented compared to Baker and Kyler.

It's a rugby union running maul.

Yea the offensive production earlier in the year was not acceptable. Because at OL, at TE and at RB they have upgraded / developed.

Yea Bates is a fine backup who you can definitely get by for a game or two with. But as we saw last season when teams gameplanning against you get to really break down his film they can identify and expose his weaknesses and while he doesn't become a liability he definitely gets shown as below average. I think it was the same with pre-injury Ike Boettger. I am fine with Bates being their kind of "baseline" at center if Morse moves on but I'd like them to make an attempt at an upgrade on him - whether that is a vet or a draft pick. Ideally I think you pick a young mid round center and if Bates starts the first 5 or 6 weeks but then gives way to the new guy fair enough.

He signed for "top 5" money but he was only in the top 5 for a year and the market exploded after a year after he signed. He is now the 25th best paid tackle by AAV. Value wise Dawkins contract is one of Beane's best IMO. I share the concerns about extending again with bigger cap hits down the road, for a guy that is at his age and has his weight issues. It is certainly risky. But I agree they will do it because it is one of the easier cap moves available to them and they love him as a person and a leader.

I don't love pushing money down the road with Dion because of the weight issues and some of the inconsistencies. But we are kinda damned if we do and damned if we don't. What I will say is he signed for "top 5" money at the time he signed this deal and he has outplayed that contract value IMO with inflated salaries since.

He reminds me of a slightly slower CJ2K. It is his vision and his feet I think.

I am somewhere between. He isn't "very good" or at least he isn't consistently. His best is very good but he is inconsistent. However, I don't think he is easily replaceable. There are at least 12-15 LTs starting in the league I wouldn't even consider over Dion. I am not completely opposed to upgrading him, but if you are doing that it is with an early draft pick IMO. I have always thought the answer was draft a kid and slide Dawkins into left guard. I think you could still do that and kick McGovern into center to replace Morse but not sure I wanna mess with the guards after the year they have had.

I am NOT insisting that. You are willfully misunderstanding the point. I am done here.

I will not be content. This thread is not about contentment. Why is this so hard for you to grasp?

IT IS NOT ABOUT SATISFACTION WITH RESULTS!!!!! FFS this should not be that ***** difficult. It is about appreciation. The concept is different.

They will disagree that we shouldn't appreciate what we have? Will they? I don't think they will. Not anyone sensible. They might be disappointed and think we underachieved this season but one concept is big picture the other is immediate. They are not the same. Oh don't pretend there aren't dozens of threads on this board where we can and do discuss and critique the team's performance game to game and season to season. This thread isn't about that. It's about zooming out and looking big picture.