Logic

Yes, but the assignments, techniques, and responsibilities for a 3-4 OLB are universes apart from those of a 4-3 OLB. The assignments, techniques, and responsibilities for a 3-4 OLB are much closer to those of a 4-3 DE. In short, Von Miller has always been an Edge defender. He has NEVER been an off-ball linebacker. They are completely different positions. Even though Miller has gone by the title "outside linebacker" in the past, what he was doing bore little to no resemblance to what Matt Milano does in the Bills' defense. It would be no different than asking Joey Bosa or Myles Garrett to play Milano's position. It would be asking a player to learn a completely new position. A total "fish out of water" situation. It would not be reasonable whatsoever to ask Von Miller to do this. Only, as I mentioned, very occasionally and in very specific situations, should Von Miller ever be asked to line up anywhere other than the edge.

If the question is "could he occasionally, situationally, once in a while, line up at OLB for special packages and rush the passer from that position?", I think the answer is "yes". If the question is "could he actually be a full time replacement for Matt Milano, taking on all the usual responsibilities of the position, including pass coverage, run stopping, etc", the answer is "certainly not. On the one hand, it would be asking a player to learn a completely new position, midseason, in his 13th year in the league. On the other hand, you'd be wasting the best skillset of an elite pass rusher by asking him to do other things". So...once in a while, as an exotic pass rush look? Yes. All the time, as an actual REPLACEMENT for Milano? No.

Bills 38 Giants 19 I anticipate Tyrod moving the ball better than Jones, Daboll having a trick or two up his sleeve, and the Bills defense taking a moment to get used to being without Milano, Jones, and White. Those are the only reasons I'm giving the Giants 19 points. They get a late garbage time touchdown and miss the two point conversion. Bills win going away. Kyle Allen is handing off to Damien Harris part way through the 4th quarter.

Yeah, I mean... There's a world of difference between saying "Any given Sunday. I like the Bills' odds in this one, they SHOULD win it, but I acknowledge that they could lose" and saying "I'm not confident in this one. Based on last week's display, Buffalo could struggle to move the ball. They'll be lucky to be a Wild Card this season". There's acknowledging parity and upsets and "any given Sunday", and then there's overreacting to a loss and saying that the Bills are gonna struggle to beat a team like the Giants. The former is logical and reasonable and I have no problem with it. The latter is reactionary, hyperbolic "prisoner of the moment" stuff, and you see a ton of it around these parts after a loss.

I actually would RATHER face Daniel Jones than Tyrod Taylor. The "Daboll and Tyrod return to Buffalo in a game no one expects them to have a chance in" angle is just too juicy to not be at least a little scary.

I have to admit I find the "we're fine at DT" talk a little confusing. In terms of number of bodies? Sure, we're fine. In terms of QUALITY? I'm not so sure. If Poona Ford was playing at the level that we have seen from him in the past, then sure, I'd agree. But based on his preseason play and the fact that he's been inactive for weeks despite the Bills fielding one of the worst (THE worst?) run defenses in the league, I just don't have much faith in him. I feel that maybe people are basing the "we're fine" talk on the potential of what Settle and Ford COULD be or what they've been in the past, not based on the actual level of play we've seen from both as Buffalo Bills in recent months. I'm not saying Harrison Philips would be a slam dunk improvement, either, but...to say that the Bills shouldn't be sniffing around for improvements at DT if said improvements come at a reasonable cost...I just don't agree.

I'll go ahead and disagree with those that say he wouldn't be an improvement over Tim Settle and Poona Ford. I think he absolutely would be. Settle has shown flashes here and there, but has not been nearly dependable enough at 1T. Poona Ford has underwhelmed since signing here, so much so that he hasn't been gameday active in weeks. Harry is better than both, IMO. He has been good for Minnesota. He also knows the system and the locker room and was well liked here and would be able to hit the ground running. I believe he'd cost about $4million. I doubt the Bills will do it, but I'd be happy if they did.

That's always the thing with the Bills, so you're not wrong. I will only say that Allen hasn't been "too hyped up" since week one of this season. Even in the loss to the Jags, it wasn't "sugar rush Josh" that led to the Bills' downfall. Even when things got desperate, he continued to play under control and within the offense. He didn't get crazy or force anything. Can it happen? Yes. Any given week. Do I think the Giants have the defensive talent to make it happen? No, not particularly.

I do not believe that the Pats are trying to tank. Rather, I think that Bill Belichick is trying to follow the same blueprint that led to a Pats dynasty in the early 2000s, and it's simply not working any more, but he's stubbornly clinging to it anyway, and it will be his downfall. Very good defense, good running game, game managing pocket passer. That was always the blueprint. People talk about the lack of weapons on the Patriots offense, but it's ALWAYS been that way under Belichick's watch. For the best years of the Pats dynasty, they were trotting out guys like David Givens, Deion Branch, Bethel Johnson, Antowain Smith, Kevin Faulk, and Christian Fauria. Yes, they eventually had the Moss, Welker, Gronk years, but those were not the years during which they were at their best as a team. It was only the pivot back to focusing on elite defense that led to a second set of Super Bowl wins for the Pats. The first problem is, the game has changed drastically since then. Football has become so much more tilted towards offensive production and the passing game that now you DO need some weaponry. The other thing you need is a true franchise quarterback, which leads us to... The second problem: Mac Jones is not Tom Brady. He's not even Drew Bledsoe. The third problem is, Belichick has been slow to adjust to the changes in defensive football. The move toward undersized, speedy defenders instead of big, thumping old school grinders is one that Belichick has been loathe to make. He's finally doing it, but it's taken a while. And finally, the fourth problem: This is a different era of athlete. The hard-ass "Patriot Way" stuff, the gruff, grumpy, mean, "no one gets to have any fun under my watch" stuff doesn't work with people in 2023 the way it did in 2003. We've heard more and more NFL players speaking out in recent years about not wanting to go anywhere NEAR the Patriots because things are so miserable there. I suspect we're seeing the end of Bill Belichick's storied coaching career. I don't think Robert Kraft will continue to put up with the Pats coming in 3rd and 4th place in the East every year. Soon enough, we'll see a new coach and GM brought in and a roster stripped down and rebuilt.

Nope. The Bills don't need another Edge. You're not taking Von or Floyd off the field more than needed. You're not stunting the growth of Rousseau and Epenesa, who have both been playing well. So where does Frank Clark fit in? The Bills could use a 1T, a WILL, a corner...but not so much an Edge.

Pet Semetary. I was NOT ready. Scared the ever-living ***** out of me. That sister with the spinal meningitis skittering to the door. "Raaachhhhellll" Ugh. Still gives me the willies.

Much of the discourse around the Bills this week has reminded me why I tend to stay off of forums and social media in the week following a Bills loss. Overreaction city. The Bills are good at home. The Bills are good in primetime. The Bills are good against the spread. The Bills are way better than the Giants. Bills win, Bills cover, Kyle Allen plays the last 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. Go Bills.

I wanted to say "she has a face for radio", but that's a nice Women's History Month post, so I won't. I won't say it. I'm better than that.

The McDermott and then Beane hires were a tremendous stroke of luck for the Buffalo Bills. I'm telling ya, we're one great coaching hire (and subsequent GM hire) away from really being up ***** creek without a paddle, as far as ownership goes. Put another away: God help us if Beane and McDermott ever depart and/or if Terry decides to take a more active role in running the team.

Remember the time they faced the all-green Jets, completely disregarding color blind individuals and causing mass outrage in the process, not to mention making the rest of us who CAN see color want to barf? Good times. I like the notion, but... If the marketing team watched 13 seconds and the Bengals playoff game and then stuck with the plan of "we'll wait 'til they win a Super Bowl"...they must just hate money.

Gross. It's bizarre that the Bills continue to NOT give in to the demand for 90's throwbacks. It would sell sooooo much merchandise. A 90s throwback Allen jersey? That thing would be flying off the shelves. They MUST be holding out for dramatic effect, and they're gonna announce them in 2024. Right? RIGHT?!

Did you actually read my whole post? Because the sentences you quoted directly address your question. Here. Let me re-post it: "There's the thesis statement 'Dalton Kincaid is not providing the production many of you thought he might thus far this season', and then there's...whatever it is that you posted. There are ways to inspire genuine and productive discussion, and then there are ways to instigate arguments and outrage and be a troll. Guess which one of these routes you took?" My issue is not with the topic itself, which I agree merits discussion. It was with the topic title "Elite slot WR Kincaid", which goes on to call the player a "dope" and refer to him as "a better version of Tommy Sweeney". The topic is fine. The post was a troll job.

Sometimes the coaches get outcoached. Sometimes the players get outplayed. We can spend all week looking for deeper meaning -- were the playcallers too slow to adjust? Were the receivers or the protection more to blame? Was it injuries? International body clock? -- but at the end of the day, the other guys get paid, too. The Bills have a good offensive coordinator and a cast of offensive players that are highly productive most weeks. The coordinator was out-coordinated and the players played poorly. Blame it on whatever you want. It happens sometimes. I'm not taking it as a season-long indictment on anyone or trying to overreact or paint the picture bigger and with more colors than it deserves. It was a bad week. The Bills got outplayed and outcoached and lost. On to the Giants.

Troll post. I'd say "don't feed the trolls", but it's clear that people have already done so for eight pages now. The thesis statement "Dalton Kincaid is not providing the production many of you thought he might thus far this season", and then there's...whatever it is that you posted. There are ways to inspire genuine and productive discussion, and then there are ways to instigate arguments and outrage and be a troll. Guess which one of these routes you took?

I'm not trying to say that Zack Moss is great, or even above average, but....he's averaging 5.0 yards per carry and 111 yards per game this season. He just had a 165 yard, 2 TD game where he averaged 7.2 yards per carry. If that's "below average" and "serviceable", then get me a few more below average, serviceable running backs on this Bills roster, please.

Devin Singletary and Zach Moss both always seemed like rhythm/opportunity backs, not timeshare guys. That is, both of them always seemed most effective when they were given a steady dose -- and the lion's share -- of carries. When they could get into rhythm. The more sporadically they touched the ball, the worse they seemed to do. Now obviously in the 2023 NFL, where many teams employ running-back-by-committee, and where pass-first offenses often relegate running backs to single digit carries in a game, this isn't always possible. There are also plenty of running backs for whom this is NOT the case. So...blame whoever you want, but having two guys who do best as bellcows in Moss and Singletary, and then refusing to use EITHER of them as such, seemed to mitigate the effectiveness of both and, thus, to limit the Bills' run game. Happy to see Moss doing well elsewhere, and I hope Motor does, too.

I'm not sure if anyone has said this yet, but... I'd like to see it be Dorian Williams' time. I'd like for the Bills to just put the rookie out there for the next three games against subpar to bad offenses and let him get his feet wet and let the game slow down for him. In the meantime, if they want to re-sign Klein to the practice squad or inject Tyrel Dodsen with gene-mutating X-men serum or whatever, that's fine, too. But for now? I'd like to see the uber-athletic kid they spent a 3rd round pick on get a shot to replace Milano. In the immediate term, he's going to make mistakes. But if you trust the rest of your team, and you recognize that you're going to need someone in December and January that's playing WILL at a high level...let's see what the kid's got, eh? Let him get his hiccups and mistakes out of the way now and learn from them, and let's hope he can ball out come big game time.

If you were to ask me "who are the two most important defenders that the Bills can least afford to lose to injury for most of the season?", I would have said Milano and Jones. Absolutely brutal.