jrober38

This is all just your opinion. For someone who says the facts matter, this post is devoid of facts. There aren't high end defenses because the rules have changed significantly. Defenses can't play the way they could two years ago without drawing 15 yard penalties. Additionally, NFL scoring is at a record pace because the rules have changed significantly. The average NFL team is scoring 24.2 PPG right now, the most ever. This isn't complicated. Scoring isn't up because QBs suddenly got better. It's up because defenses can't play the way they could two years ago. Stop backtracking. What you said was they had a mediocre offense. Reality is it was in the top 10 in scoring. The Seahawks were elite on both sides of the football. They had hardly any flaws in 2013 which is why they won the Super Bowl.

Mediocre offense? The Seahawks had the 8th scoring offense in the NFL in 2013. #factsmatter

Then why are NFL offenses scoring more points than ever before? As you said, the facts matter.

The catch rule happened all the time. At least one game a week would have what is now a TD called back. The QB hit keeps the offense on the field. It's an automatic first down that bails out 3rd and long situations where the defense historically would have got off the field. All of these things reward passing. More passes are now caught. More penalties are called in the defensive backfield that result in automatic first downs. More penalties are called against the QB that result in automatic first downs. All of these rule changes keep offenses on the field longer, allowing them to score points because they have to punt less frequently. The result is obvious. More scoring.

The rules about hitting QBs and driving them to the ground are brand new. As is hitting a defenseless receiver. Those are both rules new for the 2018 season. They also made the catch rule simpler, making it easier to "catch" the football than it was 5 years ago. Sorry, but the rules are very different, and all the changes encourage passing the football.

And the rules have changed since. Can't touch the receivers the way you could then, can't hit the QB without threat of a personal foul call, and you can't hit anyone coming over the middle looking to catch the football. The Legion of Boom couldn't exist with the current rules. DBs can no longer play that style of physicality on the back end, and linemen can't hit QBs the way they used to be able to. The top teams in the NFL are all scoring more than 30 points a game. New England is down around 28 and I can't count them out. Otherwise there's no one in the NFL who scores less than 28 points a game who has any real shot at winning the Super Bowl.

I singled him out because he's the Buffalo Bills QB and this is a Buffalo Bills message board. Who am I supposed to talk about if not our QB? The top teams in the NFL all score upwards of 28 points a game. How on earth are we going to get there from where we are now?

The rules are a lot different now than they were three years ago. This is the future of the NFL, where defenders aren't allowed to play defense the same way they were in the past. You can't touch receivers, you can't touch the QB, you can't hit players coming across the middle. Everything done over the past 2-3 years has been done to encourage passing the football which results in more points. We'll see what happens this year, but it's hard to imagine anyone other than the Rams, Chiefs or Saints winning the Super Bowl at this point, and they're the top 3 teams in scoring. Pittsburgh and New England are probably good long shots, and they're 4th and 7th in scoring.

The rules are drastically different now than they were even three years ago. Scoring is up, QB Rating is up, everything about passing the football is up, and the Bills are chugging along with the worst pass offense in the NFL. They have great weapons, but he's made them all significantly better than they were just a season ago.

What I said applies to 50% of the teams in the NFL. Anyone who can't score 30 points or more a week is in major trouble going forward as the rules are set up more than ever to encourage scoring.

Teams with good offenses and good defenses can't beat either the Rams or Cheifs. Those teams look like they're playing a different sport than the one the Bills play. Hard to imagine Josh Allen ever leading an offense like that.

My guess is that's not how he's ever approached running a business during his lifetime.

The guy paying the Bills isn't going to like 10-20k empty seats and all the lost income that goes with not selling concessions and $10 beers to those patrons. Once it starts to hit Pegula in the wallet, he's going to care about the teams terrible performance.

Have you been on ticket master? There are thousands of unsold tickets to the Jets, Lions and Dolphins games. There are more unsold tickets than sold tickets in the upper bowl to the Jets games and with tickets going for like $10 on stubhub no one is buying those seats. Guaranteed there are 10k empty seats to the Jets and Lions games, and probably 20k empty seats to the Dolphins game. https://www1.ticketmaster.com/event/00005467B0618E66?brand=bills&artistid=805905&landing=s&camefrom=CFC_BILLS_BBC_PIP_PSO&f_hybrid_map=true&ab=efeat6505v1

"We're trying to develop a culture here. Culture, to me, trumps strategy. That's what I believe in wholeheartedly and it doesn't mean we have choir boys, it means we've got guys that love football and do the things the right way, for the most part," said McDermott. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/mcdermott-thinks-culture-is-more-important-than-how-a-team-plays/ar-BBNTmYO

Pretty sure the GM and HC hand picked the WRs and had plenty of time to make changes to the OL. Not trading away all their draft picks might have helped them upgrade their blocking. No one forced them to go all in on Allen or Edmunds.

McDermott said it himself - he values culture more than strategy.

Wrong. I want Allen to succeed. I want the Bills to be successful and contend for Super Bowls. I just don't think the current franchise make up at GM, HC, or QB are going to make that happen. I go to 4, sometimes 5 Bills games a year. This year has been the least entertaining team I've ever seen. I'm locked into going to the Jets and Lions games in December and couldn't have less interest in going to either game. I go to the games because I want to be entertained, and I want to see the team win. Neither of those things is happening this year.

Nope. The Bills should have tanked in 2017 and walked away from the draft with a franchise QB, another 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, and three 3rd round picks. We could have had a franchise altering draft. Instead we traded away almost all of our assets for Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds and went all in on two players. Exactly. Tyrod Taylor sucks. Josh Allen is worse. I get that a lot of people don't want to accept that, but that's not my problem.

Because we had a bottom 5 starting QB. Why is it worse this year?

Really? Me calling Josh Allen, who currently ranks dead last in pretty much every passing category for starting QBs, a long shot of being successful isn't being objective? Maybe you should look in the mirror. I get that you want Allen to succeed, but it probably won't happen. That's reality when you pick a QB in round 1.

I disagree. It was a huge gamble where they went all in on Josh Allen. They were so confident in him as a prospect, they traded the #12 pick (ie: #21 pick, Cordy Glenn) and two second round picks to move up for him. If he doesn't work out, you don't get another shot. You don't get off the hook for taking the guy every advanced analytic said would be a total bust and get the opportunity to do it all over again.

Or maybe they'll all be busts. NFL history suggests that's the more likely scenario. Mayfield was the guy I wanted. Never felt much for Darnold and thought Rosen's character issues were overblown. I'd have taken him at #7 over Allen, who I thought looked more like a 3rd round pick with upside than a guy you use a top 10 pick on.

Agreed. It was a huge gamble that probably won't work out.

You've completely missed the point. I'm looking at each guys FULL body of work. Allen looks no different now than he did at Wyoming. He's inaccurate, can't read a defense, leaves the pocket too early, walks into sacks when he doesn't feel where pressure is coming from, and just generally does very little to move an offense. This is the guy on tape for 2.5 years and 650 pass attempts at Wyoming. People are grossly underestimating how far he has to go just to be an average NFL QB. I'm not just evaluating Allen as a Bill; I'm evaluating him going back to his time at Wyoming and there's been no improvement of his play on a football field since 2016.