mjd1001

I think the Dolphins are pretty good and not giving credit for how they are playing is taking them too lightly. I think the Bills are better overall right now....but not by a huge amount. Until/unless they falter, I think it is a mistake to not think they are a knocking on the door to becoming a legit top-10 team in the league by the end of the year.

I agree with the premise, but the problem is, what is considered overpaying? If you have a guy you are confident is a top 1- QB year after year...sometimes a top 5 qb. You pay him. You overpay him. That is the kind of guy you can get to the playoffs with an probably win in the playoffs as long as you do a good job with the rest of the roster. If you have no-one that fits the top 5 or top10 qb criteria....don't try to convince yourself he "might" get there or "IF" he just does a couple things different he will. If he isn't there already by the 2nd contract...then don't pay him that 2nd contract. If you don't have a top-5 guy (or top 10 at least), don't give that $15-$18 million dollar deal to a 'decent' starter...just start over and look for the next young guy.

I would have agreed with your statement last year, not this year. The pats secondary is not 'too talented', they are 'kinda talented', with most of that attributed to Gimour (who by the way isn't having his greatest year). That secondary is good, but getting old and showing signs of it.

Feed the ball non-stop to Beasley until they bring the safety up to cut that off..then when they do hit the other guys downfield. If they keep playing deep...just give Cole 10-15 catches per game.

This team is going to start to make me want to look forward to seeing the Sabres play.

A lot of it is on the players. Bad penalties during the play. Getting beat one-on-one. Missed tackles when they were in position. That is player stuff, not coaching stuff.

No, not at all at this moment. The only time I'd fear a QB is AFTER they show something major in the NFL. I don't care how good they are/were in college, it means very little to me unless something happens in the pros.

There is nothing 'not to get' at all. The Defense isn't solid so far...that is exactly the point.

I have no idea either...right now my 'feeling' is this is a 9-7 team by years end.

I don't get this move. Young QB's dont seem to get worse by sitting on the bench for a year. More importantly, why would you do it NOW when your current QB is playing pretty good and you just came off some good games? Now if he does poorly, he can take blame for 'ruining' a good season. Not much of a reason to not wait a bit longer in my mind.

Nope people don't need to 'check themself' Its a game, people are fans. Fans can comment however they want. If there is a set of rules for how people react emotionally being a fan, that defeats the whole purpose of it. So basically, we should only say positive things on this forum or nothing at all until after the Patriots game? You said this team has gotten to the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years....the other side of that is this team STILL has not won a single playoff game, getting there 2 of the last 3 years is no big deal. That said...the team is still leading the division and they CAN get better. I personally do not think this is a bad team...but to tell people how to react after the last 2 games....not a good look.

Pats fans are still in that delusional phase.....interesting to spend a few minutes on twitter, some of their message forums, and in replies to newspaper/online columnist articles... A lot of stuff like: -This is what happens when you can't practice for the better part of 2 weeks -Cam obviously is injured, maybe he needs to rest for a few games so he can be better for the playoffs -Can't let the Bills get too far ahead in the standings or it will make them harder to catch later in the year -I picked them at 12-4 before the season, now its going to be 10-6. The next few years for the Pats fans are going to be a struggle...

Not being tough enough and not being good enough are 2 very different things that people often get confused.

Its really a combination of what everyone is saying: -Philips is still not back to where you need him, Hughes is another year on the wrong side of his prime..and they miss Star in the rotations. All that equals worse DL play overall. -Edmunds is playing somewhat hurt...Milano is not playing much and when he is...he is playing hurt and less than 100%. Put BOTH of those things together, and you get what looks to be worse LB play. The solution is apparent....Star gets back and plays well...your LB's heal and can be on the field and be 100%.....and most importantly...the single thing this D-unit needs next year is an impact DE to replace Hughes. Not easy to do all that...but that gets you back to where you want to be.

I'd like to see him run more....not designed runs though....scrambles....when you play a team that gets good pressure, I have no problem throwing in a few plays where there is 1 or 2 reads only, and the '3rd' read is for him to take off and run...as long as he gets down to the ground early. As for last night....of course it could have been his shoulder that was hurt last week that kept him (and the coaches) from using more QB runs.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'fair weather fans' I don't think I fit into a lot of what you are saying...yet I actually admit at times to being a fair-weather fan. When the team is really good, I watch. If a game is going sideways really quickly, I'll often start to look for something else to watch. In the past at the end of the year when they Bills were out of the playoffs and playing out the final few games, I might watch..or I might watch a different game with playoff implications. By that definition, I am a fair weather fan, and I'm fine with it. However, I do not flip-flop on players that quickly, or my opinion of the coach. I think you might have individual fans confused with fans as a group. It probably isn't a lot of the same people saying a player is great one week and then a bum the next week. On a week where a player does well, you get a ton of praise from people who already like that player..and people who don't like him are quiet. However, that player has a bad week and the ones who like him are quiet...while the ones who don't like him speak up. It isn't individual 'fair weather fans' at all.....it is the circumstance of each individual game that allows for certain people to pick the opportunity to best speak up and voice their opinion..which really doesn't change for them.

how exactly is that flawed? Do you know the meaning of Flawed? I am not sure the Ravens would win, nor am I sure the Bills would win, therefore the reason I put a range of where they could be ranked.

Nuts? Maybe you don't agree, but it certainly isn't nuts. 3-8 'averages' out to 5.5...which I think is a fair place for them. 6 teams without a loss...and then throw in the Ravens to make it 7. One more team that someone MIGHT think is better than the Bills to make it to 8? You don't have to disagree with it, but it certainly isn't 'nuts'.

Power rankings are different than standings. They are the opinion of the writer or the product of some computer formula that takes into account more than wins and losses. I think the Bills could be anywhere from #3 - #8 right now. If they played Baltimore am I sure the Bills would win? No, therefore I don't....for the time being...have a problem with them behind Baltimore.

Dak keeps on putting up huge numbers, driving his contract demands further higher, yet the Cowboys keep losing...

As I just mentioned in a post above, I disagree also. If a player tests positive and has been with other players, it is likely they have been carrying covid before the test. The only prudent thing to do is removed the positive player/coach from the team and not play against another team until everyone else has 2 full days of negative tests.

I don't know if we have enough info yet to see if any pausing and shortening of the season is needed. If the NFL decides to 'pause' things for 1-2 full week after today, gather information and do what they can to lock things down, I'd understand it and not be opposed to it. Take a measured, cautious approach without going overboard. Doing nothing and considering nothing while plowing full speed ahead with the season may not be smart....but then on the other side, announcing you are going to be shutting everything down for weeks and weeks...might not be needed either. Again, more info is your friend...and the league office probably has more info now than anyone (fans and coaches of individual teams included) From what we have learned though, when you do have 1 positive test that is confirmed, you probably need to remove that person from the team and give it 2 more days of negative tests from the rest of the team before committing to playing. It seems someone can have Covid and not test positive for 2 days.

Washington is actually slightly better than I thought (still not good though). Eagles appear worse than I thought, but I still think they can turn it around a bit...and put together a 'decent' season. I do not like Dallas, and said many times on this board they are over-rated when people had them in the top 5 in power rankings..but if things go right for them, they can be a 10 or 11 win team. Giants? wow, they were awful yesterday.

I like Brown. To me, slightly better than even Murphy on it. Not that Murphy was bad at all, just I like a change of pace every now and then, as long as the change of pace is good, and to me Brown is good.

Sometimes I do start watching the Bills games at 1:20-1:30pm.....with the DVR recording the game. I won't do it on opening day, but I'll start up the game a little late...and then just fast forward through commercials and halftime and usually by the late 3rd or early 4th quarter I am caught up to real time. I know its not for everyone, but sometimes I just hate the breaks due to commercials and halftime..that by doing this I'm just about watching it 'live' but end up catching up to the end.