Sammy Watkins' Rib

I do think it is funny. I've heard so many of the talking heads predict that our window is closing, or that our window is closed now. Many of these talking heads predicted our window would be shut this year. Quite a few predicted the Bills would miss the playoffs and when we were 6-6 they most have been jumping for joy at their prognostication skills. How in the heck can a team's window ever be closed with JA as the QB? The Bills lost in the weirdest of ways to mediocre/bad teams this year, not once, or twice but three times and still found a way to win the division and finish as the 2 seed. While missing their best defensive player. The Bills are not going anywhere anytime soon. Exactly. The Colts with Peyton were never a dynasty. But they were a damn good team for a long time that won one Super Bowl and two AFC titles. I'll be happy if the Bills achieve the same. The AFC is so QB dominant right now. Expecting more than 1 Super Bowl ring probably isn't realistic.

Yes. Trading up for a WR always works out.

I’m assuming Travis Henry played in the Senior Bowl back in the day. Probably the leading rusher.

Wow! Brutal. That is even worse than my 1-6 start. We both were at the 2008 and 2011 games too. I commend you though for resisting the urge to go to another game now that we have JA. Surely, we would have loss this year's Chargers game somehow if you went. Let's get you to every game next year! Phenomenal record since 91.

If it comes out he was injured but wasn’t on the injury report most weeks wouldn’t that be a problem for the team? Not sure what the penalties are for that though. Team might refuse to acknowledge an injury to not be penalized. Personally, I don’t really think he was injured. And what about the second half of 2022? Was he injured then as well? I don’t recall anyone thinking he was injured last year. He also hasn’t really had great postseason performances 3 years running now too.

Fair question. I think the fairest way to compare the early careers of the two QB's is to single out River's first 4 years as a starting QB, he sat for his first two years and took over a ready to win now team. Allen, of course was still developing his first two seasons in the league into the QB he would become over the last four seasons. Efficiency wise they were actually the same QB in the regular season through prime four years of each players six first seasons. They had the exact same passer rating of 96.3 Both also had respectable QBR's during this time period all though I would say Allen has the clear edge as Rivers did have one season with a sub 60 QBR and Allen's QBR's are pretty consistently higher than Rivers. Rivers QBR seasons: 2006: 67 2007: 55 2008: 63 2009: 77 Allen QBR seasons: 2020: 77 2021: 61 2022: 73 2023: 70 Phillip Rivers first four seasons starting, years 3-6 in the league: 64 games 96.3 regular season passer rating 14803 passing yards 216 rushing yards 15,019 total yards 3,755 yards per 16 game season 105 passing TDs 2 rushing TD's 107 Total TD's 44 INT's 33 fumbles Josh Allen 2020-2023 66 games 96.3 regular season passer rating 17,540 passing yards 2,470 rushing yards 20,010 total yards 4,851 yards per 16 game season 137 passing TD's 37 rushing/receiving TD's 174 Total TD's 57 Interceptions 37 fumbles What pops is the volume Allen has put up. The game was different back in 2006-2009 but was it so different that Allen would average 1,100 more yards per season on average? And Allen's 174 total TD's over a 4 year stretch is NFL record I think. Rivers of course didn't have to put up huge numbers because they relied on LT early in Rivers career. But that shouldn't be a knock on Allen. And I am not so sure Rivers became a better QB both by volume and efficiency once that running game with LT went away. Allen also really separates himself from Rivers in post season performance. Through each players first six seasons in the league Allen is 5-5, Rivers was 3-4. Rivers had 8 passing TD's to 9 INT's with probably a sub 80 passer rating in the playoffs. Josh Allen through his first six seasons, 21 passing TD's to 4 INT's and 100 passer rating.

L - 2007 vs. Denver (Kevin Evrett game and season opener) L- 2008 @ Arizona (Bills were 4-0 going into the game but it was fools gold. Trent Edwards knocked out of the game) W- 2009 @ Carolina (One of the worst games I've been to. Bills offense only totaled 167 yards of offense but they won! Carolina had 4 turnovers. Byrd's rookie season was one of the lone highlights of the year). L- 2010 @ KC (Game went to overtime and nearly ended in a 10-10 tie before KC kicked the game winning FG with no time left). L- 2011 @ Chargers (Don't remember much. Bills were whooped). L- 2012 @ 49ers (Same as the Chargers game the year before. Bills whooped and don't remember much). L- 2014 @ Raiders (This was a critical game as playoffs were looking likely if the Bills could beat a 3 win Raider team. Carr made at least one crucial 4th and forever conversion and the Bills went on to lose). It was a rough 1-6 start for me. With original plans to visit every NFL stadium things kind of fizzled out. But then.. W-2021 vs. Dolphins (Halloween game. Brother got married at the tailgate and Bills pulled away after the game was tied 3-3 at the half) W-2022 @ Rams (By far the best game I have ever been to. Season opener at So-Fi) W-2023 @ Chargers (Weird game where the Bills turned the ball over in the weirdest of ways like they had done in too many games this past year. Luckily the defense held in the final minute after Allen was able to lead us to the go ahead FG). Amazing what drafting a franchise QB will do.

Brady also has the head to head Super Bowl win. Mahomes is probably going to need 8 rings to clearly pass the GOAT. That means he'll probably need to go to about 12 Super Bowls. I sure hope he doesn't come close to that as long as Allen is still playing.

I'm not sure that's relevant in the discussion of whether Allen's career is more like Rivers or more like Brees. Even if Allen for some reason only has a 10 year career he will have accomplished more than Rivers did in a 17 year career. Like I said, Allen is a border line HOF'er now after just six seasons in the league. He's likely a lock after next season.

Of course, Mahomes was tied 4th. This isn't that hard. Two QB's tied for 1st. Three QB's tied for 2nd. One QB alone at 3rd. Three QB's tied for 4th. He tied for the 4th most INT's in the league. Put it this way, it would not make sense to say Allen tied for the 5th most INT's in the league right? Allen had the second most INT's in the league.

Allen's comp if we are talking careers and not playing style, is Drew Brees. To my knowledge, only one other QB in NFL history has had 3 straight 40+ TD seasons and that was Drew Brees. Allen has 4 now, breaking his tie with Brees. Brees also never won a league MVP despite a couple of monster statistical seasons. Brees also didn't make it to his one and only Super Bowl until his 9th year in the league. I've seen the Rivers comp thrown around, but I think that is a disservice to Allen. Rivers is a borderline HOF'er after a 17 year career. Allen is a borderline HOF'er after six seasons. In 17 seasons, Rivers has a 5-7 playoff record. After only six seasons, Allen has a 5-5 playoff record. I can't even imagine how horribly south things would have to go for Allen and the Bills if Allen were to only add two more playoff games to the resume over the next 10 years. Also, Rivers playoff passer rating is 10 points lower than his regular season passer rating. Allen's post season passer rating is 8 points higher than his regular season passer rating.

That year was the turning point in Brady's career as I recall. Up until that point he had the rings but never had dominant statistics. Up until that year, I always thought Peyton was the better QB but he just wasn't on the better team. I often say Mahomes is Manning and Brady rolled into one so far in his early career. He has the stats and the rings.

He's worth every penny of that $30 million per year too which is even crazier.

Maybe he can be a bit like Deebo? Both were SC Gamecocks. Deebo draft profile 5'11" 214 lbs. Legette before the combine 6'3" 227. But if reports are true that he is a couple inches shorter then he is closer to Deebo's frame and build.

For four straight post season exists now in the divisional/conference round the Bills had to have a near perfect offensive performance to win. That is the problem we should be focusing on, not one single play where it is debatable or not if Allen should have thrown to the wide-open receiver in the endzone or the wide-open receiver on the shallow crosser. Not guarantee the Bills get a TD on that drive still if he does dump it short. When winning requires AT LEAST 43, 39, 28 and 28 points every single time the Bills play the real competition in the post season, that's a problem. The Chiefs and Ravens just played a far from perfect offensive game on both sides and either team could have won with 20 points.

Bills started to go push tush heavy the final 5 games of the year. Of Allen's final 5 rushing TD's on the season, 3 or 4 of them may have been tush pushes. Before that majority of Allen's rushing TD's were well outside the 5 yard line on average.

He had 8 total from the 3-1 yards out. One from the 3 yd line, two from 2 yd line and 5 from the 1 yd line. For whatever reason, 5 out of the 8 rushing TD's scored, and his final 5 rushing TD's scored on the year were all from the 3 yard line and in, and all came in the final 5 games of the year. Up until the Dallas game Allen's 10 rushing TD's on the year were from an average distance of 8 yards out. An argument to your counter-argument, does a RB who scores 20+ TD's on the year ever get dinged for the TD's they scored inside the 3 yard line? I've never heard of discounting a RB's goal line rushing TD's as a thing.

Didn't he lead the league in passing TD's that year as well? And like 1,200 rushing yards?

Lamar is literally going to win an MVP because his defense picked up the 49ers QB's five times. Freaking MVP voters.

So true. I hadn't watched much Ravens this year before watching the entire game today. It was eye opening how different Lamar and Allen are as runners. One is decisive, the other is not to put it nicely. If Lamar ever figured out how to run decisively, he would be unbelievable. But I'm guessing six years in if he hasn't learned to do so yet then he isn't going to learn.

Well that I agree with. They are all garbage.

I'm glad you mention this because it is my biggest gripe with Lamar. Dude is so freaking indecisive both behind the LOS and even beyond when he runs. Even when he finally does run, he somehow runs indecisively too. Dude is the fastest guy on the field for the most part and he runs like he is not. Total opposite of Allen. Allen runs like he thinks he is the fastest guy on the field.

Like Joe Flacco being hot until he throws back to back pick sixes right? The bottom line is nobody believes Rudolph was the long-term answer and that includes for the 2023 season. It was only a matter of time until he turned back into a pumpkin. God help the Steelers if they go into the season with Rudolph as their 2024 starter. If the answer is Rudolph, Pickett or Trubitzky, then it is time to re-evaluate the question.

Come on Chan's do you think Rudolph is a good QB? Be honest now. It didn't matter if they had Trubitzky, Pickett or Rudolph. Steelers offense is below average. Their defense is their strength and the Bills offense handled them as they should. The Bills defense held the Steelers offense to their averages.

I'll give it to you that is funny. I'm just happy @Mikie2times has finally come around to this playoff defense sucks take. Not sure why it took him so long though.