Logic

My wife after I spend 11 straight hours watching football on Sunday.

When I was in Buffalo for the Titans game a few weekends ago, AJ Epenesa was eating wings two tables down from me. I didn't bother him or talk to him, but I came away with this thought: That guy is ***** enormous. In my mind, I considered him one of the "smaller" defensive ends on our squad. I don't know WHY I thought that, since he's listed at 6'6", 260 lbs. Anyway...I'm an idiot. The guy is massive.

Feels like just yesterday I was buying tickets to the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well shows in Chicago in Summer of 2015. That was supposed to be "the last time". Fast forward 8 years, and here we are again. Probably the last chance to see Bobby and the drummers doing their thing on the same stage and to soak up the Summer Dead tour experience. As always, its gonna be more fun than a grog in a glass of milk!

SERIOUSLY? I truly have no idea why. What is it about Kenny Pickett making his first career start on the road against the Buffalo defense that has bettors flocking to Pittsburgh? Weird.

I'd bet two loonies and a toonie that most of the starters are riding the bench by the 4th quarter.

The Rams and Saints both make more sense to me as destinations than the Bills. The Rams because they've been staying in regular contact with him and clearly WANT to re-sign him, and it's L.A. The Saints because he played at LSU and may want to return to Louisiana and to reunite with Jarvis Landry. Personally, I don't think the Bills are going to be willing (or able) to pay him what he likely thinks he's worth. AND, I don't think he's worth what he's going to be commanding money-wise at this point in his career.

Personally, I didn't view his comments as any kind of implication of Buffalo being the place that OBJ ends up.

I'd be willing to bet that Tavon Austin doesn't end up on another active roster the rest of this season. As others have said, if other teams wanted him, nothing was preventing them from signing him to their roster. Weird move by him.

I hear he's also a cunning linguist.

We'll always have "I LOVE YOU JOSH ALLEN" and "...DAD?!".

White isn't moving. If it gets to a point where we have a fully healthy cornerback depth chart, though, with White Jackson Elam Benford Johnson Neal Lewis all healthy... I would definitely be okay with them starting to seriously cross-train Benford at safety. Benford, to me, has the look of a player who's too good to be banished to the bench. Once White comes back, and with Jackson ahead of him on the depth chart and Elam starting to look good (not to mention having high draft capital invested in him), I think it might be a wise move to see if Benford has a long term future at safety. His strengths as a player -- instincts, anticipation, zone eyes, size, strength, and tackling -- all seem like they'd translate well to the safety position. And we know that our coaches aren't shy to play converted corners back there (see: Poyer and Hyde).

It seems like you did just fine describing it with words.

I understand the "respect every opponent" perspective, but barring catastrophic injury, I don't see any way the Steelers win this one. McDermott's defenses consistently dominate rookie quarterbacks. I don't have the exact numbers, but they OVERWHELMINGLY favor the Bills defense. Have the Bills under McDermott EVER lost to a rookie quarterback? Beyond that, we're talking about the 24th ranked scoring offense in the league going against a defense that has allowed just seven total second half points across four games. A defense which has effectively limited McVay's Rams, Derrick Henry, and Lamar Jackson. Forgive me for not believing that the insertion of a rookie quarterback is going to jumpstart the bottom tier Steelers offense enough to beat the Bills. I just don't see it. This week looks like a relatively sure win to me. The following two games, against the Chiefs and Packers? THOSE games we can wring our hands about. But the Steelers? I'm not buying it.

Yeah. Based on that list, Beane seems to have a simple checklist for offensive linemen: Is this man enormous? If yes, draft. If no, do not draft. I'm thankful that we have a good left tackle and center. The other three spots continue to be in flux, and they continue to throw ***** at the wall to see what sticks. So far, not much has stuck. I watch the Chiefs offense and it just makes me sad. Mahomes has an absolutely elite offensive line. I fully recognize that the Bills are much stronger in other areas -- namely across the entire defense. The Bills are the more complete team. Nevertheless, it's hard to watch the Chiefs offensive line and not want the same thing for Josh.

Fair enough. At the risk of sounding like ScottLaw...I'd be willing to sacrifice elsewhere on the roster if it meant upgrading our offensive line. I recognize that that would mean losing some defensive firepower. However, I trust this coaching staff to develop defensive players more than I trust them to develop offensive linemen. Obviously it's important to keep our defense top notch. It also seems important, though, to keep Josh Allen healthy and upright and to find a way for him to not have to account for 80+% of the offensive production every week. No easy answers, and I'm glad I'm not GM, but...I just can't shake the notion of wondering what Josh Allen and this Bills offense could look like if they actually employed a top notch o-line. One wonders if the opportunity cost of that theoretical increase in offensive production would be worth the loss of production the defense would suffer by losing a key player or two.

Did you ever see that old Steve Martin SNL bit "If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season"? Well, anyway....my one wish this holiday season would be that the Bills' top offseason priority would be to build a premiere offensive line. They could literally spend their first three draft picks on offensive linemen and I would be thrilled. For as good as Josh Allen has been so far in his career....imagine if he had an offensive line as good as Mahomes has. Imagine if he had a running game he could depend on. I know there are only so many resources to go around, but my god, I can't think of anything that would help this team more than finally taking the offensive line seriously. If it's an issue of money, then fine, just use a few premium draft picks on linemen and have cost controlled options there for the next four years.

I'm definitely not going anywhere near a 14.5 spread. Away from the betting world, though, I'm fully comfortable in a Bills win. There are certain game profiles that you can look at from a mile away and know that the Bills are going to win. At home against a rookie quarterback making his first start is one such game profile.

Nonsense. What a ridiculous thing to say.

It's become pretty clear that Devin Singletary needs to be the bell cow back going forward. Let Cook be the change of pace and, at times, third down back. If you want a third back active, call up Duke Johnson. I've seen enough of Zack Moss. I've been a huge supporter of his and have been adamant that this would be a big comeback year for him, but I'm ready to take the L. Zack Moss is a walking one yard carry. Opposing defenses must be absolutely PRAYING that the Bills take the ball out of Josh Allen's hands to give it to Zack Moss. Singletary FTW, Cook to give him breathers, and Duke as a reliable third option. Trade Moss for a bag of Doritos or a 2029 seventh round pick, I don't care.

These aren't your father's Steelers. The 14.5 spread is the MOST an opponent has been favored by against Pittsburgh since at least 1978. The Steelers always seem to play us relatively close, regardless of the talent disparity. Still...everything about Kenny Pickett making his first NFL start on the road against this Bills defense spells big Buffalo win. And I agree with those above me: Rest up, big Ed. Rest up, Gabe. Rest up, anyone who's nursing a serious boo-boo. Bills by a billion.

Another year, another spot at the top of the 4th down decision making rankings (2nd tweet). And heck, they’re also quite good at converting 1st downs (1st tweet). It’s almost as if Sean McDermott is actually pretty good at coaching, despite what the “trends” are telling us 😉

I don't feel as though listing him as the 6th best quarterback or so in the NFL is disrespecting him. Personally, I haven't seen him do enough yet to say that he's firmly in the top tier or two of NFL quarterbacks. His career trajectory suggests that he will be at some point, but until I see him win a playoff game or two, it's hard for me to say he belongs with the guys mentioned above him. I also haven't seen Herbert single-handedly take over games the way that the guys above him can, at least not consistently. Going case by case with the guys I listed above him: I don't think he's on the same level as Josh or Mahomes currently. I don't think he's on the level of first ballot Hall of Famers Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. I don't think he's the galactic, unstoppable force that Lamar Jackson (who has already won a league MVP, by the way) can be at times. He and Burrow, to me, are in the "next great QBs" tier. Likely to ascend to the top of the mountain with the other guys, but not there yet. No disrespect intended.

I agree with this. I WILL say, though, that to me, it's Josh and Mahomes, and then everyone else. If you're breaking QBs into tiers, Josh and Mahomes share the top tier all by themselves. As recently as last season, I would've put Brady and Rodgers in that tier, but not this season. For me, it would be something like... Patrick Mahomes Josh Allen ----------------------- Aaron Rodgers Tom Brady Lamar Jackson ----------------------- Justin Herbert Joe Burrow ----------------------- Russell Wilson Derek Carr Dak Prescott

Shaw, I see that your retirement from writing the Rockpile Review is going about as well as Tom Brady's retirement from football! 😅 Only kidding, of course. Always happy to read what you have to say. I'm surprised to hear that the Ravens' stadium wasn't absolutely rockin' yesterday. It certainly didn't sound very loud on TV. Kind of strange, considering all the factors you mention. Huh. My main takeaways from the game were threefold: Opposing defenses have gone back to the old tactic of blitzing Josh Allen and playing tight man coverage on the Bills' receivers. Unless and until they show they can beat it with consistency, this will continue. Luckily, Dorsey dialed up some good answers yesterday -- particularly the empty set screen to Singletary at the two minute mark of the 4th quarter that got them into really safe field goal range. I'm optimistic the Bills offense will pass this test -- again. The second half defense has been elite this season. Just seven points allowed in the second half through four games, and against four really good offensive opponents, to boot. Elite. The lack of plan for Cook is bizarre to me. I agree that he hasn't been making the most of his opportunities, and maybe hasn't been earning himself any more, but...he's supposed to be this homerun pass catching threat. Where are the go routes against linebackers split out wide like we saw at Georgia? Where are the screens, the Texas routes, the swing passes against linebackers in man coverage? Maybe he needs to take better advantage of his snaps, but I'd also like to see the coaches do a better job of trying to take advantage of his unique skillset. Happy Monday and GO BILLS!