BillsFanSD

Yep. We had first and goal from like the 8 yard line or something with ~8 minutes remaining, down 4 points. We came away with nothing. That was the ball game, as it turned it out. We had another shot later on, but that was our best chance. More on topic, I live in Vikings country, and I vividly remember Vikings fans telling me what a cancer this guy would turn into. Besides Allen, I don't think there's anybody on this team I like more than Diggs.

We don't need Von Miller to go 14-3 or whatever and win the division. We would do that without him. Miller is here for one reason: a championship. Frankly I feel like the first 17 games should be all about easing him into the defense so he's fresh and ready to go when it matters.

Yeah, but we're probably not going to make re-signing Motor a very high priority after this season. He's fine, but I'd rather just draft a RB occasionally and ride them for a few seasons on their rookie contracts before letting them walk in FA. Rinse and repeat.

This seems like a very team-friendly deal even by the standards of 30 seconds ago. We'll need to see what the cap hits look like over time, but on an annual basis this is going to look like a bargain-bin signing in a couple of seasons.

Yes. Strongly. I'm 49 and I have no particular connection to western NY. My wife and I both grew up in Indiana. I casually liked the Bills in the late 80s because they were an entertaining team with a lot of big personalities. And they were on television in my area quite a bit because they were good and also because they were in the same division as the Colts at the time. After they lost SB 25 the way they did, I got especially invested in the team and went from "casual fan" to "fan" and then to "diehard fan." I mean, now most of the memories I have about the Bills involve watching mostly-meaningless games with my son during the drought years. I am absolutely loving this particular team, in part because they're just an easier group of players to root for than those 1990s teams were. (Let's be honest -- some of those "big personalities" were hard to take at times). But if it weren't for the SB run, I'm not sure I would be quite as fanatical about this franchise.

My son and I used to play "What would people say if Josh Allen had thrown that pass" whenever we were watching non-Bills games. Certain members of the sports media seem to think that Allen is the only guy to ever throw back across his body or try to drill one into double coverage. The game against the Bengals early in year 2 was the game that showed me that Allen is one of those guys who simply refuses to lose games. Now granted, that was not his best game, and they needed a fourth quarter comeback in part because of some of his mistakes. But that last drive was absolutely clutch. It also included Knox trucking those guys.

I was opposed to drafting Ettiene last year, but I've changed my mind on this one for the same reason that Buscaglia cites: This is spot on. The two-high shell gave us and a bunch of similar teams real problems, and those problems mostly went away when we showed the ability to punish that defense by running the football. Now, could we build on that success by strengthening the o-line and teeing up more Singletary? Yeah, probably. But Singletary has a low ceiling and I don't see him in a Bills uniform once he's off his rookie contract. This offense could be flat-out unstoppable with a higher-end RB, especially if he can run routes out of the backfield.

I doubt it. I think we got incredibly lucky that McBeane knocked it out of the park with the Allen selection. We have an elite franchise QB who is going to keep our team in championship contention for the foreseeable future and a culture that attracts high-profile FAs. But if we had taken Darnold (say) and he flamed out here the way he did in New Jersey and Carolina, we'd be right at square one with the same mess of a roster that we lived with through the drought era. I assume we would have blown up our front office and coaching staff back in January, and a bunch of us would be trying to talk ourselves into drafting Malik Willis somebody. This franchise would be in a radically different place today if the Giants and Broncos didn't have their heads up their asses back in 2018. Then again, we got unlucky with Rob Johnson, JP Losman, and EJ Manuel, along with all the other assorted schlubs we put under center. It was just a matter of time until one of those QB selections finally worked out. Glad it was Josh.

Allen's first year was pretty rough, but he showed flashes of legitimate talent throughout the season, starting in Minnesota in week 3. He got markedly better as the season went along. I remember feeling very good about his trajectory at the end of the year even though he was nowhere near a finished product by that point. Allen was legitimately good in year 2. Not great, but solid. They were winning games in his second year because of Allen, not in spite of Allen. He still had too much "hero ball" and "sugar rush Josh" in his game, but he was an above-average QB who led his team to a playoff berth that they earned on their merits as opposed to just lucking their way into it like in 2017. People who say Allen was "bad" in year 2 are just being obtuse IMO. And then of course he's been lights-out the past two seasons. To be frank, Allen has exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were pretty high after his first two years.

This seems like one of those very rare trades that makes both teams worse. KC needed the All-Pro player to get back to the super bowl, and Miami needed the draft picks to find a QB. Weird trade.

The cool thing is that you could make this exact same post on any random day and people would assume that they knew what you were talking about and that you were probably right.

Josh's contract is looking better and better every day.

This is actually a pretty good nominee.

I actually do think Star is the worst FA acquisition of the Beane era. He's a perfectly okay starter, but he was getting paid to be better than that, and then you have to factor in his game-day availability which seems unreliable at this point. I know we can point back to guys like Kelvin Benjamin, Vonte Davis, and Josh Norman, but those guys didn't cost much and were mainly just warm bodies who were signed as place-holders while we built a legitimate roster. I'm pretty sure Beane and McDermott expected Star to be a real cornerstone of the D-line, and that never happened. (Edit: I know we traded for Benjamin -- I was thinking of player acquisitions a little more broadly than just FA.)

Guy seems unhappy with the Ty Montgomery signing.

Nobody bats 1.000 at hiring, and if Star is the worst FA signing we ever make we'll be doing really well.

On the outside, I am laughing at New England and their fans. But on the inside, I'm laughing even harder.

I like Phillips and I know Zimmer has potential, but we seriously upgraded this position.

No, it was two teams that each feature an elite, tier 1 QB playing at the top of his game. I know it's been a couple of years since you've seen what that looks like, so I can see why you'd be confused. Wait, what am I talking about? You got a close look at high-quality QB play during WC weekend.

Love it. Miller makes our D-line and entire defense that much better. Fantastic addition to the locker room too. I wanted him when he came out of college, and I feel like it's kind of come full circle by getting him here as he closes out a HOF career. We don't need Von Miller to make the playoffs. We're already a playoff team, and we'd get back to the postseason with or without him. We didn't sign Von Miller to win the division. We would probably win the division next year regardless. We signed Miller for one reason and one reason only -- to win a super bowl. And he signed with us because in his judgement Buffalo has a better chance of winning the super bowl than the team that just won the super bowl. Not sure how a person could be unhappy with that.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

I liked the signing, but whatever. His loss.

Sounds pretty close to JK Dobbins -- a lot of fans wanted us to draft him a few years ago. Any relation?

Busy day in the NFL. Glad we've already got our guy under contract.

TBH, I don't want to open the season against the Rams. We all know that we should have closed the season with a win over the Rams. I don't need to be reminded of that constantly heading up to week 1. I want to wake up Monday morning happy about being 1-0 after trouncing the Jets or whoever in a laugher, not spending my Friday playing what-might-have-been after beating the Rams.