msw2112

He is going through the motions to collect this year's paycheck, but is definitely playing to not get hurt so that he will be healthy going into free agency. He got banged up pretty badly making a catch over the middle against the Chargers last year. At that point, the team was in the playoff hunt. He's not going to let that happen again on a team that is going absolutely nowhere. As a fan of the team, I don't like it, but I understand it as a "business decision." You can argue that playing poorly in a contract year will result in a lesser deal next year, but getting a serious injury would cost him a lot more.

I haven't watched as much NFL this year as I would like, but I have seen bits and pieces of all 5 of the 1st round rookies this year. I have seen missed reads, inaccurate throws, interceptions and pick 6's (not as much from Jackson, because most of his snaps are running plays or gadget plays and not really "regular" QB snaps). Just about what you would expect from rookie QB's on poor teams. I have also seen some positive plays made by each of them. Just about what you'd expect from NFL players with first round talent. It's just too soon to tell who will ultimately succeed and who will ultimately bust. Jackson and Allen have played the least, so there's even less to go on for them. I think we'll have a better idea on all of these guys (except maybe for Jackson, if Flacco stays the starter in Baltimore) at the end of next season.

In my opinion, a "tank" is a rebuild in which the franchise intentionally makes moves that will insure maximum losses and thus result in the best draft position. This is what the Sabres did before they drafted Jack Eichel. I don't think the Bills are doing that. They are clearly rebuilding, but also trying to perform the best they can with what they have while they rebuild. The problem is that what they have, on offense, is not very good. They didn't plan on the retirements of Wood and Incognito, but when they happened, they didn't invest a lot in the position because they knew it was a rebuilding year and they didn't want to get saddled with bad contracts. They also didn't think that McCarron and Peterman (and Benjamin) would turn out to be as bad as they are. That may speak to poor personnel evaluation, but given that they are rebuilding, I don't think they wanted to invest a lot of money, as they goal was to clear cap space for the future. So in short, all tanks include a rebuild, but not all rebuilds include a tank. This is a rebuild without a tank. They are not trying to lose games to improve draft position, but they are making roster decisions (or a lack of them, as the case may be) with an eye towards future seasons, not this season.

He's a young QB with the potential to be a serviceable NFL backup. Likely not starter material. The coaching staff has put him into situations where it would be very difficult for him (or any young, inexperienced QB) to succeed and, predictably, he has not succeeded. The majority of his NFL snaps have come in road games against top defenses (Chargers last year, Jags last year, Ravens this year, Texans this year). In the one home game he started (Colts, last year, in the snow), he did some good things that helped us win the game. He's even completed a few good passes in his miserable road games (the one at the Chargers on which Benjamin got hurt and the TD against the Texans). I hope he bounces back and has a good game on Sunday. And if he doesn't and is ultimately released, I won't lose any sleep and I will wish him well.

It's a rebuild and the Bills are terrible, so I am not at all concerned about our fate Monday night. It is what it is. I do, however, have two comments about this thread: 1) Some of the posts are hilarious and are cracking me up 2) Who is going to be the first to mention Freddy Jackson? Forgive me if someone did and I missed it. I've hear he's available and in great shape. (So is TO).

I'm not saying that every move these guys have made is the perfect move and I agree that they have handled the QB situation poorly this year. But people are completely overreacting. This is a a bad football team that was bad last year and had some breaks and snuck into a winning record and a playoff berth. This year, it is even worse, as there is even less talent on the roster and the team knowingly moved on from a mediocre starting QB. Anyone who thought differently is delusional. They are intentionally getting rid of the dead weight, shedding bad contracts and building through the draft. They drafted some potentially good players last year (Tre White and Milano, for example) and this year (Allen, Edmonds, Phillips, Johnson) and have 10 draft picks next year. They are not "tanking" like the Sabres did, but they are trying to win with a totally depleted roster that was totally depleted by design. Nobody told us to expect any suffering, but that's the reality and it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I have not been to Buffalo in a few years. I'm going to be in Buffalo next week and plan to pick up tickets to the game Monday night. I fully expect us to get blown out, because we are a bad football team and New England is a very good football team that was in the Super Bowl last year and has been in the Super Bowl picture for the last several years. It would be really preferable if there was not a riot. I do hope there is a lot of noise and the house is rocking, as it has been on Monday nights in the past (when we also had a bad football team). That would make for a fun evening, regardless of the outcome. The Giants are a bad football team. The Cardinals are a very bad football team. That doesn't make New York or Arizona a bad place or the people that live there bad people. Nobody in those markets is talking about a riot. The Bills are a bad football team, but Buffalo is a great town with great people. The team will improve in the coming years and it will still be a great town with great people. Please have some perspective.

1. I was born and raised in Buffalo and am a huge sports fan. My grandfather and father were/are also Bills fans. 2. The bonds created from being a Bills fan are second to none. It connects me to many family and friends who live all over the country, and it is often the perfect excuse to meet in various cities for road Bills games. If we are not traveling, we connect on Sundays via text message. I made numerous friends at the Bills bars in Chicago when I lived there and I have also gone to Bills bars in various cities while traveling and the camaraderie among everyone is amazing. No matter where in the country you go, you are always welcome. Most recently, I was at Octoberfest in Germany last week and wore a Bills hat to see what would happen. Sure enough, I got a shout out. From out of nowhere, I heard someone yell "Bills Mafia!" 3. I have several. I was at the "Greatest Comeback" game and decided to stay for the 2nd half. Enough said. There was also a home game against the Broncos in 1990 when the Bills were down 14-0 and scored 3 times in less than 2 minutes (blocked kick for TD, pick 6, etc.) - it is the loudest and craziest I have ever seen the stadium. https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2010/9/30/1703600/september-30-1990-bills-score-20-points-in-77-seconds I also have a lasting memory way back in the early 80s, when lots of home games were blacked out. My brother, friends and I would play touch football in the street and listen to the Van Miller broadcast on a portable radio. One such Sunday we beat the Pats on a hail mary pass from Joe Ferguson to Roland Hooks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Hooks . I have many others, but these are the top ones! I would be curious to know if anyone else on the board has memories of these last 2 games that I mentioned (the "Greatest Comeback" game goes without saying).

I agree with this previous post. A couple of years ago, we won our meaningless Week 16 battle and were rewarded by dropping a few slots in the draft. In the final weeks, if the team is out of the playoffs and trending down, it is better to lose and improve the team's draft status. Play some of the young guys, let them develop, and see if anyone emerges. At that point, you are playing for the future. Week 2 or 3 is WAY too early to be thinking about draft position. You want to see if you can either win enough to make the playoffs OR develop a positive culture for the future and develop young players (or ideally, do both). I loved the win yesterday and think it gives us something to build on. Losing to improve draft position can be discussed in December. I also agree with the earlier post that says that you can get great players even if you are not drafting in the top 10 (see White, Tre) and you can get lousy players while drafting in the top 10 (see Bills, Buffalo for most of the last 20 years), so where you finish is not as important as how well you draft. Of course, if you pick higher, you have more top players to choose from and should theoretically be in a better position to pick a better player. I don't think this team is going to make the playoffs this year, but I will be in Green Bay on Sunday pulling for a Bills win!

In college at BC, Milano was the "viper" in DC Don Brown's defense. The viper is hybrid linebacker/safety position that is the key to Brown's defense. He usually puts his best athlete in that role. I think that BC's defense was #1 in the country Milano's senior year. Brown left BC and went to Michigan, where Jabril Peppers (Heisman finalist, 1st round pick and starting safety for the Browns) became his next viper. I was really excited with the Bills drafted Milano and it is great to see him fulfilling his potential, as he did in college. Hopefully, he can maintain this level of play and have a successful career. For a 5th round pick, the returns are looking pretty good right now.

I was impressed by Mayfield, but Darnold was the savior 2 weeks ago, until other teams got regular season film on him and started game planning for him. Based on what I have seen so far, Mayfield is the most game ready, followed by Darnold, followed by Allen. As to physical abilities/raw talent, it would be Allen, followed by Darnold, followed by Mayfield. Lamar Jackson looks like a great swiss-army knife type of player, but needs a lot of work to be a viable NFL QB. He's incredible athletically. We haven't seen anything from Rosen yet, but as putrid as the Cardinals' offense is, perhaps his time is coming soon.

And the Pats cut Corey Coleman to make roster space for Gordon. Coleman now cut by 3 teams in a matter of a few weeks, and if I am not mistaken, 2 of those times he was cut to make roster space for Gordon.

From all of the scouting reports on Allen, we know that accuracy has been a problem for him in the past. It will get better with experience, coaching and hard work/practice, but will probably never be his greatest strength. He's also rookie playing in his first couple of games and he is trying to process a whole lot of information that he has not had to in the past, so I wouldn't make too many judgments on what we have seen in the last 2 weeks.

You left out one of the best, but most painful, games in the history of the rivalry. January 4, 1981. AFC Playoff game. Chargers score long TD with 2 minutes to play to beat the Bills 20-14. This is the game when Joe Ferguson gutted it on on one ankle and the Bills were in control until the fateful Fouts pass to Smith. I was a kid at the time, but remember seeing the play and feeling like I just got punched in the gut. Little did I know that I would experience that same feeling so many times in the 35+ years to follow. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1981/01/04/fouts-50-yard-pass-to-smith-ousts-buffalo-20-14-in-afc/432bf4c0-4062-402c-9b8d-ea9bfcd23b1f/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b1c02bcdcee8

Most teams do.

I agree with the Darnold comment above. I only watched a few minutes of the Jests game last night, but I did see the play where Darnold threw a bomb down the left sideline to Robbie Anderson for Darnold's first NFL TD. His line gave him ALL DAY to get that throw off. I don't know if Peterman has the arm strength to make that play, but Allen certainly does. It's going to be a while before a Bills QB has that kind of time to throw. I was a believer in Peterman earning the job and being the stopgap, but I have been proven wrong. I didn't love the McCarron trade at the time and now I really dislike it. This coaching staff and I have something in common - we both overvalued Peterman.

I live in Phoenix and from this list, the one I know the best is Pullano's. They have good food: pizza, wings, beef on weck and other red sauce Italian food. Their wings are among the best in Arizona and among the best I have had outside of Buffalo. The owners are actually from Michigan, not Buffalo, but I suspect that they got some of their menu ideas from their customers. I have lived in Michigan and nobody there knows what beef on weck is....It's in a strip mall in a middle class to working class part of town and the crowd fits that mold. Very nice, down to earth people, including the owners, the wait staff and the members of the Bills club. Everyone will make you feel welcome and comfortable. It's a family friendly atmosphere. In full disclosure, I have Sunday Ticket and record most games on my DVR and watch them a little bit later in the day, as the games start very early out here and I have a lot of family commitments in the morning. In the past, I have watched Bills games at the Bills bar in other cities, including Chicago (both of them), New York City and San Diego. The Chicago and NYC bars are in more "upscale" neighborhoods and have more of a "white collar" crowd and the San Diego bar is near the beach and has more of a "blue collar" crowd. Bills fans of all walks are great people and I enjoyed each and every one of these experiences. As to the other Phoenix bars: a few years ago, I went to Santisi Brothers to watch a game and couldn't find any Bills fans there. They show all of the NFL games and it is not exclusively a Bills bar, whereas Pullano's definitely is. The other one I know something about is Bottled Blonde. This is a huge sports bar in the "party district" of Scottsdale. This place is not a family atmosphere, but if you want to see smoking hot bartenders and waitresses (and who doesn't), this is the place for you. I haven't been there for a game, but I have been there to drink. I highly doubt it is exclusive to the Bills. I'm sure that Bills fans gather there to watch the game, but I don't know if they are an active "chapter" of Bills Backers. Pullano's is definitely that. All of the other places are in the East Valley, which is far from where I live (in Central Phoenix), so I don't know anything about them. My recommendation is this: if you are with your family, go to Pullano's. If you are single, go to Bottled Blonde. Also, with 16 weeks of games, you may want to try both. Good luck, enjoy and Go Bills!

The ranking is appropriate for right now. If Peterman plays well, he can change the conversation.

I'm assuming this is a joke designed to stir the pot....

I agree with those who say he should have challenged it. Your Rookie QB made a good play and potentially got a rare first down. If we challenge and win, you might build some confidence for the offense (and the young QB) and it would provide more snaps to evaluate them. I also agree that McD's in-game decision making was suspect last year and it would be beneficial to the coaching staff to practice their challenge "process," which clearly needs some work. I also agree that we were fortunate to win the Indy game and had a number of lucky things go our way to help pull out that win. Better game management may have allowed us to win without needing the luck. (And I am a big McD supporter).

DirecTV sent out an email this morning to Sunday Ticket subscribers indicating that they are doing a test of the streaming system tonight and that Sunday Ticket Subscribers can stream tonight's game for free. The email was not very clear about where to go to start the stream. It mentions it can be done on Apple or Android operating systems and that you can log in with your DTV username and password, but it doesn't indicate WHAT link to use or WHAT App to use. Kind of frustrating. I am on West Coast time and will be working at kickoff time and likely in transit and not get home until well after halftime, so I don't know that I will have time to even bother with this. (Of course, in reality, I will probably try to stream it on my phone while sitting at my desk right at kickoff at 4 PM). UPDATE: I just investigated and it appears that tonight's games can be streamed on the "regular" Sunday Ticket app on an Apple or Android tablet or phone. For those that have it and are out of market, that's how you can watch tonight's game live. NFL Network will rebroadcast all of the games at a later date and time. I have not looked up the Bills-Bears telecast yet, but my DVR is pre-set to records all Bills games, so I'm covered.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a Peterman lover and I think Allen is our long-term starter at QB. That said, Peterman has had a great preseason and has shown himself to be more decisive. He makes his reads and gets the ball out much more quickly than Allen at this point. Given that this OL is not providing the QB much time, Peterman is the better choice to start right now. Given more time, there is no doubt that Allen can make plays with his arm that Peterman and most other NFL QBs can't. Assuming McCarron is healthy, I would make the same comparison. Peterman makes his reads and gets the ball out much more quickly than McCarron. I have not seen any of training camp, but what I have read is that McCarron is holding onto the ball too long. I did see the first half of the Cleveland game, and McCarron was completely ineffective and unable to get the ball out quickly, just like Allen in the Cincy game. When Peterman played with the 1s against Carolina (who I think has a decent front line and pressures the QB), Peterman got the ball out quickly and was successful.

This looks like a good deal for all parties involved. The Jests get a 3rd round pick for a backup QB and don't end up paying much in the way of his salary & bonuses. The Saints get an NFL QB with starting experience who has shown that he has come back from injury and can be effective. With Drew Brees getting up around 40 (I don't know his exact age), Bridgewater becomes a legitimate future option. For Bridgewater, he gets an opportunity to sit behind a Hall of Fame QB, with an opportunity to show his wares in practice and potentially re-sign and become the future starter. If Brees gets injured, Bridgewater's opportunity comes even sooner.

The starting defense looks terrible and the starting O-line looks worse than that. In addition to seeing nothing positive so far out of Murphy or Star, Vonte Davis looks pretty bad too and no doubt much worse than EJ Gaines looked last year (when he was healthy enough to play). It's only pre-season, so I am willing to give the front office the benefit of the doubt, but there are some things to be concerned about. As other threads have pointed out, and anyone who has watched the last two games will attest to, the starting OL is probably cause for increased concern....

It's too early to say whether Allen will be successful. You can't predict an NFL career on two preseason appearances. So far I like what I see. He has the physical skills, seems to have the desire to put in the work, and so far, is demonstrating the "football smarts" that it takes to be a successful NFL QB. EJ Manuel had the physical skills, work ethic and was a smart kid in general, but lacked the "football smarts" - the ability to quickly process information on the football field, react to it and execute the proper play. Tom Brady is a good athlete (he was an excellent high school and college baseball player and was drafted by the Montreal Expos), but he was not and is not as athletically gifted as numerous other quarterbacks who have played in the NFL, including EJ Manuel. He has a great work ethic. He's a smart guy, but probably not as smart as a guy like Ryan Fitzpatrick. What separates him is the innate ability to process information quickly on the football field, react to it and execute the proper play. He may be the best ever in this area - it's hard to argue otherwise. To make one other comparison, Doug Flutie had great football smarts, but was limited by his physical stature, whereas Rob Johnson had the physical skills, but lacked the football smarts. Fitzy has the smarts, but lacks the physical ability. Getting back to Allen, let's hope he has the complete package. Time will tell. Go Josh and go Bills!

I was surprised that there were no photos from the Bisons playing there between the departure of the Bills in the early 70's and the opening of (then-called) Pilot Field in 1988. That's the era of the stadium that I remember most. Despite this omission, I enjoyed the photos. I was too young to see the Bills play there, but my father and grandfather used to go to Bills games there in the 60s and early 70s.