YattaOkasan

I agree that they are the best team in the conference (not much argument otherwise imo), but I don't know that I agree with this statement. As mentioned in the OP they have had a lot of close games (like 17 one score games in the past 2 years, not all with Mahomes). They have been damn near unstoppable for parts of a game but at this point there seem to be two trends. They will be hot and cold during a game, and they are good in close games. To me this further indicates the need to be able to run the ball against them. That should hopefully cool them off when they are in one of their hot streaks, and also shorten the game if they start off cold.

Fair take. The part where I feel best about Allen is his improvement in the pocket. You probably dont have the time (its probably like 36 hours), but I had been watching all the @Cover 1 breakdowns from his rookie year through last year. They capture a historic progression from Allen as a raw prospect to what he was last year. Allen always had a lot on his plate, but he got better at being a QB over time (particularly this past year). So I can appreciate that you don't quite know what he is, but from those videos I feel pretty comfortable that he will be that mobile pocket passer.

I just don't want to compare the two. The reasons they will have success, and what they need to do is so different that its not a worthwhile comparison. Josh needed to cut down on the bad plays and continue making the crazy plays. Jones needs to be able to push the ball down the field. I would also say the two were at very different points in their careers at the time of the first preseason game. What are the odds that going into TC Jones has thrown more balls in competitive situations (even though Josh is older)? He would presumably have a lot of elite camps Josh didnt.

haha i get the point that its first preseason game. I actually dont disagree with the points you were making (i dont understand the as usual since we have had good discussion in the past), but dont compare allen to jones. Those two are very different. Plenty mobile QBs have had long careers (McNabb, Young, Cunningham). Data says QBs are just as likely to get hurt running the ball as standing the pocket.

There’s defenders of the realm which is by the same maker as pandemic but is much more difficult. Pretty good challenge just to beat it (I’m batting less than .500).

Might mix it up with his game changing Steelers Pick 6!

Could that be related to the heat but just before practice. Like guys that didnt have enough fluids so kept them out as a precaution (maybe didnt recover well enough from saturdy)? I feel like our training department has hit that level of sophistication.

There was lightning that caused the TV blackout on Diggs first TD (not if you tuned into the Miami Mafia livestream). So that tells me it wasnt super sunny.

I’m surprised no one said trade. For Addison you get 6 mil this year with another 2 mil dead cap this year and for butler you get 4 mil. If we keep everyone healthy I am taking anything I can get for these two. https://overthecap.com/player/mario-addison/1185/ https://overthecap.com/player/vernon-butler/4742/ Dimarco? He was a bit dinged up but not sure if it counts. Also he was on the leadership council. confirmed https://www.google.com/amp/s/billswire.usatoday.com/2020/03/23/buffalo-bills-restructure-patrick-dimarco-contract/amp/

I’m rooting for an Addison trade. I think we don’t have the dead cap in that situation. With how our numbers are stacking up, if there are no injuries I would take just a 7th. to the quote below. I agree but would replace the Titans with colts. I don’t know that the Titans had much of anything on defense which makes the loss that much more frustrating. Particularly against the chiefs you need to run the ball effectively to beat them.

He honestly reminds me of Josh a lot. Doesn't have a ton of reps, but has very good traits. If he turns out like Josh is still very unclear.

Pretty interesting, but doesnt it show how good Roberts was? They concluded Jets and Bills were getting the most out of our units.

To be fair he cut his drop % in half last year, and its pretty well documented how he worked on it this year. As mentioned by the media in a couple places he has been catching well this TC. It is something that everyone is gonna harp about when it happens too (similar to how we would have to see repeats of Josh's rough throws even in good games last year).

Not sure if I missed it the first time but the at least equal was where I'm at. That means they are pretty good at a lot of other position groups (cause I think were pretty good). I also agree they will be tougher for us this year (even said in this thread I wouldnt be surprised if they take a game from us this year) simply because of how good they are against the pass and their strength of running is our weakness. I don't know how much of their offseason improvement will translate to their record though as I see the Jets providing much more trouble for them (whereas we should scorch their awful secondary). I appreciate you were trying to pop some bubbles of folks laughing at the Pats. I am still getting some schadenfraude out of similar their offseason talking points have been to our talking points of the past 2 decades. So while I think they will be better this year (and again Im a bit skeptical it will translate to their record), I think it may be a rough couple years for them.

I am coming around to McKenzie being return guy. Mostly cause of the improvements hes shown as a receiver. If hes committed to returns in that way then I think he may have learned a lot from Roberts last 2 years.

Again appreciate the discussion. I think I can stay objective after having watched our performance. If anything its the Pats performance I would lack perspective on. I think it boils down to imo the Pats seems to be getting a lot of projection this year. #2 OL is pretty great example of this. They are essentially saying Trent Brown > Joe Thuney right? Unless, (and the data probably does say this) they thought they were the #1 OL last year (that would be laughable). I do feel its pretty objective to say we are better at off ball LB and the secondaries are very similar (thats not even talking about Gilmore). DL is probably the spot with the most variance for each team (I think you would agree with this). Even if I concede OL, this is pretty far off from "they are better at every other positional group." I dont know what FO is doing but they strongly think we had the better line last year https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/basic-offensive-defensive-line-stats/2020/offense

Thanks. I had listened to a Joe Marino podcast that went position group by position group for the whole division, and he made points i agreed with. I dont think anyone in the east has a good RB group. Looking more I might give their OL a slight edge for interior play but Tackle is a wash and I think we are better at C. I dont understand off ball LB being better where we have Milano and Edmunds. They have Hightower and JAG. I found those defensive rankings pretty laughable. We were 12th in DVOA last year with a fair number of injuries to our core LBs. I think we return to top 10 pretty easily.

Better at every position? There are a lot of draws to me. OL, RB, DL, and Secondary would be draws for me. I would give us the advantage at off ball LB. Obviously they are better at TE as their room is pushing for best in the league. Maybe they have the advantage at DL if youre bullish on Van Noy and Judon but I'm liking what I'm hearing about our dudes.

It’s schafenfraude for us. Really who’s trolling who?

You literally said point me to where I have debated the QBs. You don’t seem to agree with the OP. So I chuckled at that.

I also found the response about not debating QBs in this thread funny.

we were 12th in DVOA for the year, and we were clearly trending up at the end of the year. does that make you feel better?

Dare I say we have the 2 best QBs in the division?🤣

Expectations last year were pretty high (not as high as this year admittedly), and they responded really well to being the favorites to win the division. I feel good they can rise to the challenge again.