BillsFanSD

Honestly, this is about right. Tre is awesome and can't be replaced, but our D is still above average. If Allen and the O can get it going with our real o-line, we'll be fine. If not, it probably wasn't happening anyway.

Fun trip. Spent most of the day yesterday at the WW2 museum, which was way better than I had expected. Today we had a nice breakfast and took in the parade for the southern classic. The the voodoo museum, the death museum, some bar hopping, and then we'll head out for supper in a bit. Fun city to visit for a weekend, especially considering the W. Edit: Oh yeah and we took in Rent last night. I'm really not the target audience for that one lol.

CB was an area of need even before this injury. Now, I think it's practically essential to invest in the position since Tre's recovery is going to have some uncertainty associated with it. Don't care whether that happens in the draft or free agency.

I know that injuries are random and can happen to anybody -- hell just ask any Saints fan. But man, we knew CB depth was a problem for years and just didn't address it. I love Beane, but this seems like a roster management error.

This is a big game. Next week is a huge game. Perspective.

Yeah I haven't been in a bar that packed since college (I'm 49). Not a mask to be seen. Enjoying my triple-dose of Moderna.

Great time so far. We made it down to the parade at Ryan's pretty much immediately after checking in and dumping our luggage. I figured this was just going to be a bunch of fans milling around, but marching through the French Quarter with a band and police escort was really cool. They needed like four times the bar staff, but it was the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday so let's cut everybody some slack I guess. Now we just need to kill a few hours before going out for Thanksgiving, and do our 1/11th to get this nonsense sorted out.

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I don't think guys in 3rd and later can really ever be considered "busts." The fact is that you're going to miss on most of those picks. A guy like Moss is certainly disappointing, but "bust" is way too strong a term. The only person who really qualifies in my opinion is Cody Ford. Although we're getting close to being able to make a call on Epenesa too.

Allen isn't the problem -- he's the reason why we still have a winning record and still have a good shot at the division title. Put a replacement-level QB under center and we're probably sitting at 3-7 or something. As others have noted, our problems boil down to a complete inability to run the football (almost entirely an o-line problem) and a general inability to defend against teams that feature a power running game. I don't feel that bad about the latter. Lots of teams don't defend the run well these days because so few teams are built that way. It makes more sense to build our defense around beating the KCs and NEs of the world, so I can live with some struggles against teams like IND and TEN. But the offense's struggles are just unacceptable IMO.

Has it actually been confirmed that Brown is out today? I thought he could potentially be available if vaccinated with a couple of negative tests.

Does Josh Allen have standing to sue someone for malpractice? Or gross negligence or something?

It's absolutely ridiculous that a rookie third rounder is so important to our offense.

I think Allen is likely to retire as the Bills all-time best QB. But right now, that title belongs to Kelly. Likewise for Bass. He shows a ton of promise, but he's not Steve Christie. At this point, he's not even Ryan Lindell or Stephen Hauschka. I hate to comment on the DBs -- White, Poyer, and Hyde are all outstanding, but how many of us really study DB play? I don't think anybody else on our team is even within eyesight of "all-time" status. Not that a guy like Oliver (for example) can't get there, just that it's not even up for discussion at this point. Yep. Think about some of the linebackers this team has had over the years. Fletcher. Conlan. Talley. Biscuit. Spielman. Paup. Spikes. I'm probably forgetting some guys, but that's a really elite set of LBs even if some of them spent good chunks of their careers with other teams. Milano is really good and I like Edmunds too, but come on.

The Patriots are playing very good football, and Jones is much further along in his development than most rookie QBs. They're a legit team that's only half a game back in the division with two games against us coming up in December. Do I expect New England to win the AFCE? No. Would I be surprised at this point if they pulled it out somehow? Honestly, no. What I'm hoping at this point is that we can "figure out" Mac Jones. It seems like he's about due for the kind of defensive change-ups that create growing pains for young passers. If that happens, we should be able to pull away pretty easily. If not, this is going to be tight the rest of the way.

I know we have an embarrassment of riches at WR, but I'd like to see more of Gabe Davis, and I don't mean next season.

It was worth shelling out for a round trip flight during the most expensive travel period of the year, several nights in a hotel, and game tix just to see the game without Collinsworth.

Honestly, the Bills deserved to lose yesterday considering how badly they played. If they had beaten Jacksonville by 3 TDs, which they should have, then the officials wouldn't even be an issue. That said, there's no serious doubt in my mind that we win an ugly and worrisome game with halfway-competent officiating. Just something as simple as not flagging Boettger for an imaginary false start probably would have done it. No need to "fix" every single bad call -- just one or two would have been enough.

Why stop at McDermott? The only logical course of action is for the Pegulas to sell the team to owners who promise not to lose to Jacksonville. It starts at the top . . .

We allowed a grand total of nine points. Nine. Giving up a 55 yard FG attempt was not the problem. If the other team scores only nine points, we should be winning by multiple TDs. This loss is 100% on the lack of offense. That's it. With just mediocre offensive production that FG, the lopsided officiating, etc. don't matter.

This matches my recollection of 2018 too. Everybody was happy that the drought was over, but that 2017 team had no upside and no sustainable future and everybody knew it. So we did a tear-down that really wasn't all that bad -- the 2018 Bills had their share of fun moments during an otherwise forgettable season -- and it was pretty clear that the FO had a plan and knew what they were doing. All of this looks great in hindsight because we picked the right QB (and got a little lucky that six other teams passed) and generally made good moves during the rebuild. But there was not a lot of angst about the state of the roster in 2018. 99% of us knew that that season was all about setting the table for Allen and hoping that he would develop into a franchise QB.

Just read this a few minutes before coming over here. Nice article. More than anything, I agree with the "moves that make sense" metric. One of the things I like about Beane is that he doesn't make splash moves for no reason. For example, Beane isn't the sort of guy who signs a past-him-prime diva WR on a one-year deal to pair with a QB who doesn't want to throw more than five yards downfield. He and McDermott have built this team methodically and intentionally. You get what they're doing with each draft pick, each trade, and each FA signing. It's so nice to know that your FO has a coherent plan in place that goes beyond "sell more season tickets this year." When a particular move doesn't work out, it's a lot easier to swallow when you at least understand the reasoning behind it.

Maybe we can get them to throw in . . . eh, never mind.

In the modern NFL, an elite QB is pretty much a necessary condition for long-run success. I don't think a guy like Allen (or Mahomes, or Herbert, etc.) is tradeable at any price.

Not gonna lie -- I was wondering if the Bills might sign somebody off the street after week 1 last season. Glad I wasn't running the team at the time.