Logic

Excellent article, thanks for sharing. I'll admit, I didn't know much about Shea Tierny or what he does for the Bills. I knew his name, but that was about it. It sounds like he's a great asset to the team. The Bills' front office and coaching staff, top to bottom, seems to be overstuffed with talented, high quality people. Another thing that stood out to me is seeing yet another person gushing about what a great man Brian Daboll is. I'm still surprised he didn't get a head coaching job this offseason, but I feel pretty sure that he's going to get one sooner than later. He seems to have a bright future as a head coach, given how strongly he is able to connect with players and staff.

About 2,600 miles or a 38 hour drive away, unfortunately.

This should be a fun test for our second string defense. Fields looked good in preseason week 1. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/08/19/justin-fields-back-at-practice-set-to-play-saturday/ The first-round pick will be back on the practice field Thursday and Nagy said he is on track to play this weekend. His entry into the game should come a little later than it did against the Dolphins last week. Nagy said he wanted Andy Dalton to get more snaps earlier this week and said on Thursday that the veteran is expected to play into the second quarter after playing two series last weekend.

I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE that the storyline of this game is "Bills QB Mitch Trubisky returns to Chicago to face his former team"....only Trubisky isn't our starter, he's our backup! Any time in the past two decades pre-McDermott, Trubisky would be our reclamation project/savior, upon whom we were pinning all the hopes of our season. Instead, he's just the guy we brought in as insurance for our newly re-signed superstar franchise QB. They times, they are a-changin'.

I guess the closest thing to an "average Bills fan" I can think of is my Mother. She has lived in Rochester pretty much her entire life. She was a casual, "normal" Bills fan all her life. Watched them when they were on, rooted for them, but could hardly name more than 3-5 players on any given team. They were just the regional team. You could hardly live in Rochester and NOT be a Bills fan. In retirement, she's gotten much more fanatical. Never misses a game. Had season tickets for a few years before giving them up because her bad knees couldn't take gamedays any more. Bought a bunch of Bills gear, has started to learn more about the players, etc...But even now, she can't name that many players, doesn't know their backstories or jersey numbers or what college they went to. Couldn't tell you the difference between Cover 4 and Man Free. Probably doesn't know what intentional grounding is. Still, she's in front of the TV every sunday, rooting on the team. Frankly, I think she has "the sickness". That is, she's in some sort of suspended animation ever since the Super Bowl years. Always believing the Bills are "one year away". It's like her life won't be at peace until the Bills win the big one. Ever see the movie Buffalo '66? It's like that. I think A LOT of people have The Sickness. Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith all seem to have it. Lord knows I have it. The particular and unique experience of seeing the Bills get SO CLOSE for four straight years, of having a team THAT great with THAT many Hall of Famers and still not sealing the deal. The never-ending sting of the inferiority complex that comes with living in perennially picked-on Buffalo that we feel will somehow find salve in the form of a Lombardi Trophy. The Sickness. It's real. On second thought, maybe my mom's not such a casual fan. I guess that's what I think separates average Bills fans from the diehard lunatics: The degree to which they have The Sickness. The more serious the infection, the greater the chance they can tell you where the 4th string tight end went to school and what his jersey number is. What an affliction!

Good question. I don't know the correct answer. I'd be interested to see data on league-wide injuries in 2020 vs other years.

I think the league is going to move more and more toward this. Rest all starters, use the preseason games as evaluation for backups and fringe players only. It was already moving in that direction, but then 2020 happened and showed teams that the lack of preseason reps really did not hurt the vets. Sure, some teams with new coaches in town will want more of their starters to play as they try to establish chemistry and a team culture, but by and large, I think the days of teams playing starters in preseason games is, for the most part, over. I said this recently, but I wish the NFL preseason was essentially the same as the NBA Summer League. Let the youngsters and fringe guys duke it out. In the absence of any kind of credible spring league or developmental league, this would be the next best option.

I just came in here to see if Trey Smith has been voted 1st team All-Pro yet.

https://theathletic.com/2776711/2021/08/18/hes-always-been-about-business-andre-smiths-path-to-bills-carved-by-wise-investments/ I'm rooting for this guy. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders and to be all about "the process". He smartly realized early on that special teams prowess is the best way to make himself useful and earn a roster spot. I like what I've seen from him so far on defense, too. Personally, I'd consider him a roster lock at this point.

Just some other bits and pieces I enjoyed from the article. It's articles like this that make me more than happy to pay for The Athletic.

This article by Sheil Kapadia is excellent all the way through. I try to read every single article that gets published about the Bills, and this still contained a bunch of stuff I hadn't read elsewhere. The quotes by Beane about the way he'll build the team moving forward (doesn't want to front-load contracts or kick the can down the road, will be looking to add veterans that are poor fits on their current team but could help the Bills) and by McDermott about embracing pass-happy offense ("we're gonna try to stay ahead of the league") were awesome. I also found it very interesting, and had not previously heard, that Beane and Allen golfed together in Buffalo this offseason and informally talked contract to get a feel for what each side was looking for, resulting in the six-year deal, which is somewhere between Mahomes' mega-long term deal and Watson/Dak/Wentz/Goff's 4-year deals. Great article.

Specifically, Allen reminded me of our last few first round QB busts, EJ and JP. Good arms, great athletes, 10 cent heads. Obviously, that turned out NOT to be the case with Allen. He's not only exceptionally bright, but also has an iron will. He simply will not stop until he's the best quarterback he can possibly be. That separates him from most. Josh Allen's success taught me one thing: there is no statistic -- analytics or otherwise -- that can measure the heart of a man.

I know hindsight is 20/20, especially when it comes to the NFL draft, but... Here are some of the players chosen in the second round after the Bills picked Zay Jones: Marcus Maye, Curtis Samuel, Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Tomlinson, Zach Cunningham, Juju Smith-Schuster. And in the 3rd round? Chris Godwin, Alvin Kamara, and Cooper Kupp. The Bills didn't do too bad in that draft overall, obviously, netting franchise players at LT and CB and an above average LB in the 5th round. Still, it's hard not to think about what this current Bills offense would look like if you added Dalvin Cook or Alvin Kamara or Chris Godwin to it. 😳

I've said this before on this forum, but... The split second between the words "Josh" and "Allen" coming out of Roger Goodell's mouth on draft day felt like an eternity. I so badly wanted the pick to be Rosen in that moment (I preferred Mayfield and Darnold, but both were off the board), and I was initially so despondent that the Bills had chosen Allen. I was an idiot. I mean, I'm STILL an idiot, but....boy oh boy, was I wrong. It is unquestionably the happiest I've ever been to be so wrong in my life. As for Rosen now? Well...I'm just not sure he's going to get many more opportunities. After you've flamed out with three teams in so short a time after being a 1st round draft picks...not sure how many teams are going to keep taking swings at you.

It just baffles me that people can look at world class athletes in their 20s being so heavily impacted by COVID -- Dion Dawkins, Von Miller, Tommy Sweeney come to mind, just to name a few -- and still conclude that it's nothing to worry about. Absolutely mind-boggling. Glad Dion is the road to recovery. Hopefully, as coach McDermott says, this serves as a teachable moment to others.

Thanks for the writeup. Good, as always. I respectfully disagree about AJ and Dobbins. I thought Epenesa had some bright moments both last season and in the game against the Lions on Friday night. There was one snap, in particular, where he and Rousseau met at the quarterback and it looked like they were gonna split him in half. Now that he's dropped some weight and no longer looks like a 5T and seems to have gained some burst, I think he has a bright future. I also feel like good Edge Rushers are so much more important to team success than running backs. I also haven't seen enough from Dobbins to make me feel like he'll be a substantially better pro than Zack Moss. On the other hand, I have an edge rusher pick that I second guess as well, but for me it's Boogie Basham. I bought into the "we couldn't pass up the value, and edge rushers are so important" logic on draft night, but in retrospect, it's hard not to think Creed Humphrey or Aaron Robinson or Wyatt Davis wouldn't have helped this team more. Obviously, if Basham turns out to be a quality contributor, then I'm an idiot. I mean...I'm probably an idiot regardless, but I digress. Oh, and If you're looking for a treasure trove of lyrics to pull from in your weekly writeups, it's hard to imagine a reserve more vast than Bob Dylan. Maybe that's too obvious, but it'd sure be a lot of material to work with.

That article makes me feel kind of funny.....like when we used to climb the ropes in gym class.

To those saying Tre’s ranked too low… you’re not wrong necessarily, but remember that this list comes out every year and is mainly based on the play of the previous season. If the lists were static and the top 20 or so guys were always the same, it wouldn’t be very interesting. Rankings move around a lot based on specific season-based performance. With that in mind, as good as Tre is, 2020 was not his best or most impressive season. The top 100 list is very “what have you done for me lately?”.

Agreed. It's just that to me, Duke is a roster longshot. He doesn't contribute on special teams, so he really needs to dominate his reps on offense if he wants to make the team. I didn't feel like he necessarily did that tonight. Same with Hodgins. In fairness to Duke, though, I agree that the sideline "incompletion" looked like a catch, and he also roasted his defender in the 4th quarter but Fromm overthrew him.

Stock up: Rousseau, Epenesa, Horrible Harry, Andre Smith, Matakevitch, Josh Thomas, Devin Singletary, Bam Johnson Stock down: Entire offensive tackle room, Olaijah Griffin, Duke Williams, Dane Jackson Load him into a cannon and fire him into the sun, never to be heard from again: Bobby Hart

I've been plowing through Kim's Convenience on Netflix at a rapid pace. Funny *****.

Agreed. Last year there were no preseason games at all, and quarterbacking around the league was still at a high level. If anything, I'd say the 2020 preseason-less year shows that preseason games aren't necessary at all for established players. Their only real purpose seems to be settling position battles and determining the 53-man roster. It would be cool if there could be some kind of Summer league like the NBA has, where rosters of young guys and hopefuls face off against each others, while the established starters and stars of the league don't have to risk their bodies in meaningless games.

Sean McDermott has a certain, um.....AFFINITY for wrestlers.