Logic

I sort of don't see what other choice they have. Too many teams and coaches are concerned about the opposition learning their calls and checks and so forth by so clearly being able to hear their communications. They could play music instead of fan noise, I suppose, but they've got to do SOMETHING.

People act like it's impossible that the Bills could have a bad season. It's not. I happen to think they'll have a winning record, but it is COMPLETELY within the realm of possibility that they won't. They DO have a really tough schedule. They WON'T have the usual home field advantage. Aside from those two factors, we also just don't know how they'll react to being pre-season favorites and getting four primetime games. It happens ALL THE TIME in the NFL that a young, hungry, upstart team starts tasting success and getting some positive press, and suddenly they don't quite practice or play as hard, and they fail to meet expectations. Do I think that will happen to this squad? No, I don't. I think they're still hungry and view themselves as underdogs, and that McDermott and Beane have built the type of team who won't fall victim to this phenomenon. But until we see them actually start playing well now that expectations are higher, we can't know for sure that they will. 7-9 is absolutely not out of the realm of possibility.

Imagine taking the time to start a thread making fun of the man who was the starting QB for the Bills the year they made the playoffs for the first time in 17 seasons. Couldn't be me.

Bills never made sense as a suitor. Bucs make perfect sense as a suitor.

Denzel Mims says he thinks he'll "definitely" be playing week 1. The thing that Jets fans don't seem to grasp, though, is the degree to which Mims having missed the ENTIRE training camp/offseason period will greatly hinder his effectiveness and ability to contribute on offense. Even in the best of times, it's hard for rookie wide receivers to make a big impact in year one. Add in the amount of time Mims has already missed due to injury, and you have to think it's going to take a while for him to be fully up to speed in that offense. One of the Jets beat reporters (maybe Connor Hughes?) was saying that he didn't expect Mims to play a ton of offensive snaps. That he'd only have a certain, limited package of plays on which he could see the field, simply based on all the time he's missed. I just don't see how the Jets are going to move the ball and score many points against the Bills defense in week one. Le'Veon Bell, Chris Herndon, and Jamison Crowder are their healthy "weapons" at the moment. Bell, until further notice, is not the Bell of old. Reports out of Jets camp have Frank Gore performing better than Bell. So that leaves Herndon -- an admittedly good player, if he can stay healthy -- and Crowder (a steady but not dominant or game-breaking slot receiver). I see the Bills holding the Jets to field goals at most.

Never pay running backs....UNLESS they’re generational talents like Christian McCaffrey. Is Mixon on that level? We shall see. The Bills most expensive RB is Taiwan Jones. Draft a 3rd round running back every three years. Rinse and repeat.

If the players want to boycott 1 game, 2 games, all games...that’s their right. I am not in a position to pass judgement on the peaceful actions other grown men feel are necessary in order to bring attention and change to causes that are important to them. As much as I love the NFL and would miss watching it, the fact is that NFL players are, above all, human beings. As such, if any or all of them skip any number of games, I support them. Some things are bigger than sports.

Thanks. I know what you meant. I just thought it was absurd that you’d say there isn’t a far right party with power in the US. The 2020 GOP and Donald Trump are about as far right as it gets.

Um, what now?

Willing to give away other people’s babies...now THAT’S fan hood!

So many of the things said in this thread indicate WHY the NFL is doing what it's doing. Why the message "end racism" is still necessary. In a league where 77% of the players are black, and the vast majority of them are all telling you "RACISM STILL EXISTS IN THIS COUNTRY AND BLACK PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING AND DYING BECAUSE OF IT", your response is that racism ISN'T real or isn't a problem?! You tell them "Just shut up and put your body on the line for my entertainment". No. THAT line of thinking is the problem. RACISM is the problem. The existence of racism in the United States in 2020 is not your typical political issue, where there are two sides, and both are reasonable, and "hey, we all have opinions!". It's not like taxation rate or economic policy. The existence of racism in the United States in 2020 is an empirical FACT, the likes of which it is nearly impossible to imagine someone actually doubting the veracity of. The simple statement "end racism" should have 100% approval. The fact that it is actually upsetting people is just so beyond the pale ridiculous, and it is proves the necessity of the "end racism" message to begin with.

While I am still excited, I am definitely less excited than usual. Part of it is that I still fear the NFL won't be able to get through a full season due to COVID, so I'm subconsciously guarding myself against the letdown. Part of it is that the lack of fans in the stands and the overall weirdness of this season makes me feel like it will always have an asterisk next to it to some extent. Part of it is that I'm just so bummed that in what looks to be the best Bills season in a quarter century, the NFL is all jacked up. The stars seem aligned for this to be a big year for our team --multiple prime time games, possible AFC East title, you name it-- and for COVID weirdness to rob Bills fans and players of the culmination of this rebuild is a cruel cosmic joke. Part of it is that I (probably) won't get to attend any live games. Part of it is that my usual workplace Fantasy Football League is not happening this year due to layoffs and COVID-related football uncertainty. All in all, I'm still excited, but less so. I AM extremely excited for the direction of this football team and for the years to come. At some point, the NFL will return to "normal", and when THAT happens, my usual excitement level about football will return.

You just proved my point further.

The fact that there are people who have a problem with a simple, non-controversial, non-partisan message like "end racism" shows why that message is necessary.

I have no interest in indulging your desire to insert politics into this thread.

One thing I'm reasonably sure of about the 2020 NFL season is that there will be a slate of games played week one. After that, who knows. Its nice to know that if things go south quickly, we're at the very least going go get to see the Bills absolutely destroy the Jets.

I've been reading Jets forums and camp reports just about every day. Most Jets fans are convinced that this type of injury rash is happening all over the league. I disagree. While there are lots of soft tissue injuries so far this year, I haven't seen any other team suffering the same level of bad injury luck as the Jets so far. I remember when it used to happen to the Bills every single year, and I thought it was just dumb luck. Then the Bills brought in a completely new strength and conditioning staff and nutritionists and spent a bazillion dollars building state-of-the-art training and rehab facilities at One Bills Drive. Lo and behold, Bills players stopped getting injured at such high rates -- knock on wood. Anyway...in 12 days, the Bills actually get to play these jokers. It's gonna be a laugher.

Because he's a turd. Also...holy hell is that 2011 draft depressing to look at. I know WHY we took Dareus. We desperately needed to get better at run-stopping at the time. But holy cow...could've had a All-Pro at Edge, DL, WR, or LT who'd still be playing at a high level. Misc Approx Val Passing Rushing Receiving Rnd Pick Tm Player Pos Age To AP1 PB St CarAV DrAV G Cmp Att Yds TD Int Att Yds TD Rec Yds TD Solo Int Sk College/Univ 1 1 CAR Cam Newton QB 22 2019 1 3 8 104 104 125 2371 3980 29041 182 108 934 4806 58 1 33 0 Auburn College Stats 1 2 DEN Von Miller LB 22 2019 3 8 9 98 98 135 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 380 2 106.0 Texas A&M College Stats 1 3 BUF Marcell Dareus DT 21 2019 1 2 7 56 46 121 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 255 37.5 Alabama College Stats 1 4 CIN A.J. Green WR 23 2018 0 7 8 68 68 111 0 0 0 0 0 11 93 0 602 8907 63 Georgia College Stats 1 5 ARI Patrick Peterson DB 21 2019 3 8 9 85 85 138 1 1 17 0 0 7 34 0 10 64 0 395 25 4.0 LSU College Stats 1 6 ATL Julio Jones WR 22 2019 2 7 8 94 94 126 0 0 0 0 0 19 118 0 797 12125 57 Alabama College Stats 1 7 SFO Aldon Smith DE 21 2015 1 1 3 27 25 59 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 141 1 47.5 Missouri College Stats 1 8 TEN Jake Locker QB 23 2014 0 0 1 15 15 30 408 709 4967 27 22 95 644 5 0 0 0 Washington College Stats 1 9 DAL Tyron Smith T 20 2019 2 7 9 84 84 131 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 USC College Stats 1 10 JAX Blaine Gabbert QB 21 2018 0 0 2 16 7 56 842 1498 9063 48 47 177 631 3 1 -16 0 Missouri College Stats 1 11 HOU J.J. Watt DE 22 2019 5 5 8 98 98 112 0 0

Right on. Former 3rd rounder with a big arm who had a good college career. As coach McDermott says, he also has a great mind and temperament for the position, enough so that he told Webb that he can be a great coach himself one day. Pretty cool.

Yep. Fromm's a goner. Even IF they keep 3 QBs (possible, due to COVID), the third will be Davis Webb. Fromm would seem likely for the practice squad, and I sincerely doubt anyone claims him on waivers. Honestly, though, he's not even a lock for the practice squad. The only thing working in his favor is that Beane spent a 5th round pick on him.

I see people saying he’ll take Taiwan Jones’ spot, but I highly doubt that. Jones is a gunner. Smith is not. More likely, it means the possible end for Vosesn Joseph. Corey Thompson and Tyrel Dodson seem locked in as the top two backup LBs on defense. They likely figure that if they keep a sixth LB, he needs to be a special teams asset, and a Joseph is not. Maybe Joseph makes the practice squad.

While I was elated to hear the Bills got Stefon Diggs, I was a little sad that they were gonna be missing out on such a great WR class. If it turns out that they got Diggs, waited until round four to take a wideout, and STILL got one of the better ones in the class in Davis, I’m ready to build the Brandon Beane statue. And then if Hodgins somehow ALSO turns out to be a player?! Wow.

I cannot ever remember a wide receiver being talked about as consistently and glowingly as Davis -- including all of the guys listed above. And it's not just that he's catching balls against no-name CBs who are soon to be bagging groceries. As far as I can tell, he's beating Tre White, Levi Wallace, etc, and doing it relatively routinely. There was also the high praise that John Brown gave him, saying he knew the playbook better than ANYONE ELSE on offense. The reporter asked Brown "so have you guys been helping him, then?", and Brown laughed and replied "no. You didn't hear me. HE has been helping US". That's high praise and speaks to Davis's intelligence and ambition. I firmly believe that Davis his played his way from "will rarely see snaps this season" to "we've got to figure out a way to get him some snaps every game, because he's too good not to". At the very least, if Diggs or Brown miss any time, I feel extremely comfortable knowing that Davis can step into the lineup and produce.

Bills fans, on the whole, remain way, way too sensitive about Josh Allen. It's okay to say he had a bad throw or a bad day overall or both. Josh Allen is a work in progress. Getting mad or offended anytime someone reminds us of that is silly.

Bass will be just fine. His Meemaw set him up for success with this sage advice: