Logic

I think this season will be the Shady/Gore farewell tour, at least in Buffalo. Next season, I believe we see Devin Singletary as the lead back. As far as his backups? More draftees, free agents, or perhaps a Christian Wade who has had a season to marinate on the practice squad.

Except, of course, for the fact that they began running at during the regular season LAST year, as well.

I'll be honest, I'm not so sure they cut Wyatt Teller. He played quite well against the Colts, and he acquitted himself decently last year when starting games that mattered, too. I don't think Beane/McDermott are the types to give up on 5th round picks so soon. Would they dare keep THREE interior backup players?

Anything is possible, of course, but I really don't think Foster is getting cut. Did anyone read the recent article from The Athletic, where Beane said he thinks Foster is an ascending player, and where the thesis of the article was that Foster stayed in Buffalo all offseason, that his work ethic has continued unabated, and that he's still doing everything "the right way"? Stranger things have happened, but unless he absolutely bombs the rest of the preseason, I expect him to be on the opening day 53.

People still buy beer in the stadium?! Weirdos.

Agreed. He had two bad throws all night: The overthrow on the Zay deep pass and the underthrow to Zay where he put it in the dirt. On the other hand, Zay also dropped what would have been a sure touchdown, which would have had Allen at 63% completion for the night with a TD. So long as our defense finishes top 5, like it should, the Bills have the talent -- and Allen is playing well enough, it would seem -- to win 10 games.

Nope. He's the 4th WR on the depth chart. He's making the team.

Agreed. You can't truly judge an NFL draft class for a few seasons, but early returns on this one are HIGHLY encouraging. For that matter, I thought he killed LAST YEAR'S draft, too. Allen and Edmunds will be the offensive and defensive cornerstones of this team for years to come.

Only thing is, I don't expect Bodine to make the final 53. It's clear he's not the coaching staff's preferred option at backup center. The guy who DID start the game in place of Morse last night -- John Feliciano -- acquitted himself reasonably well. Between he and Spencer Long, I'm not as worried about backup center as I once was.

This is absolutely going to be a thing for Buffalo. Now, more often, when they come out in empty sets, I expect it to be 21 or 22 personnel. Like the Pats, the Bills want to force the defense to come out in base, then spread the field and make things difficult on the linebackers. HOWEVER, they DID run a lot of full on 10 personnel toward the end of last season, and it often allowed Allen to do a lot of damage. If the defense plays zone, Allen likes those odds. If they play man, it likely gives him a great opportunity to run the football, as all the defenders have their backs turned to him. Brian Daboll is an excellent playcaller and uses tons of modern concepts and personnel groupings. As much as anyone in the league, I'd say. He may not have been known as a very cutting-edge guy in his previous stops, but his second stint with New England and his time with 'Bama appears to have done him a world of good. I'm so, so happy we have him.

I feel differently, too. What I saw was an offensive line that opened absolutely NO holes for Shady. I then saw McCoy try to press and overcompensate by always trying to make something out of nothing. Admittedly, that part's on him. Still, I'd put it at 90% o-line being awful and 10% Shady not hitting the few holes that WERE there with authority. Like others have said, there are NO excuses this year. If he's anything other than a top end starter, you get rid of him for whatever you can, because Singletary is the feature back of the future, and Gore/Yeldon would be perfectly adequate backups/mentors for the youngster.

I bet Joseph's career goes just like Siran Neal's: Year one: Real quiet, gets some special teams snaps throughout the season but not much else, is a total afterthought on defense. Year two: Has a great training camp. Staff entrusts him with more responsibility and playing time. He becomes a contributor on defense Also, he may eventually be the heir apparent to Lorenzo Alexander, but before THAT can happen, Corey Thompson (another second year youngster) has a thing or two to say.

I read recently that he is most often deployed in the slot. When the Bills are in three-wide, it's been Brown, Beasley, and Roberts. When they go to four-wide (which they have apparently done quite a bit this spring and summer), Zay comes in as the second slot receiver. Myself and some others have been shouting since he was drafted that Zay's best spot is in the slot. Perhaps the Bills are finally realizing this.

I did not read through all five pages of this thread, so maybe this has already been said, but... Couldn't literally EVERY SINGLE NFL TEAM say "what if our backup QB gets injured"? I mean...if both your starting QB AND your backup QB get injured and you're down to your third string guy, your season's going nowhere fast.

I wonder what the signing of a guy like Jones vs, say, Sam Young, who has started a bunch of games in the NFL, means. Does it mean that they have faith in Connor McDermott or De'ondre Wesley to be a capable swing tackle? Does it mean that they envision Ford at RT once the injured guards return, which will push Nsekhe back to swing, thus not necessitating any major additions at tackle? I can't help but read into what this signing might mean...

I hear ya. I'm only repeating what I've read repeatedly from multiple different beat reporters, TBD members, and analysts that have been to Bills practices. I know the book on him coming out of college was that he wouldn't be a part of you passing game. However, based on the amount of work he's been getting the passing game so far through camp and the amount of plays he's made within that framework, I'm suggesting that he may pleasantly surprise us all and may prove the doubts about his receiving ability to be ill-founded. As for less than ideal athleticism? I don't see that at all. Less than ideal speed and size? Sure. But he's got outrageous lateral agility and stop-and-start ability. Guess we'll all see in a few nights, eh?

Someone else already mentioned that he's shown some good flashes and spent time with the ones. One thing that person did NOT mention is that out of the three main running backs, Singeltary's been the most involved -- and has made the most plays -- in the passing game. Don't be surprised if he winds up the 3rd down back and/or winds up having a Kamara-like involvement in the offense.

You poked fun "at his wife" by insinuating that he wasn't tough because he tore a quad. It's fine, maybe class and humor aren't your strong suit. I'm sure you have plenty of other strengths.

Poking fun at a player tearing a muscle is just such a gas. You should probably be a standup comedian!

Right. Because tearing your quad is an indication that you're not tough. GTFO with that garbage.

I'll wait to see if this continues once Feliciano, Long, and Morse return to health. It may not be permanent. If it turns out that the Bills drafted a mauling, tone-setting right guard with All-Pro potential with this year's 2nd round pick rather than a good right tackle, then so be it. There are worse things than drafting a highly talented offensive lineman with an early round pick. Oh, and one more thing: Anyone saying that the Cody Ford pick was a bad one is being silly. He hasn't played an NFL down yet, he's played guard for ONE day so far at a time when the o-line is hit hard by injury, and you want to call him a bad pick? Can the season just start already?

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Well those certainly are words. But anyway, if you want to play video game football with current NFL rosters, it's literally the only option. That's why people still play. Not that hard to figure out.

Madden 20 is broken. I've been playing this game for 20 years, and this is the most frustrated/dejected I've ever felt after my first day playing it. I played two online games and then frustratedly turned the game off. I refuse to play it again until there are some serious patches/updates, because there's too much wrong with it right now for it to be at all enjoyable. The physics are whack, the tackling is piss poor causing plays where running backs break like 10 tackles on the way to the end zone, the zone coverage is awful, and basic things like challening plays are still broken. Most egregious? At the end of my second game, I was down 1 point with the ball in field goal range. There were 10 seconds left in the game, and my opponent called a timeout. The screen said "timeout" and went to the play call screen, but the clock didn't stop, and the game ended without me even having a chance to kick the ball. That's right, a timeout at the end of the game didn't actually stop the clock. Basic stuff. The game is broken.

I just felt that with Beasley on the roster, Ray Ray's skillset would be redundant. I felt the Bills were looking for a "size, catch radius" option to complement the smurf corps. Looks like I was wrong. All they seem to care about with their receivers is "can you gain separation?" and "can you catch the ball?". With that in mind, they don't seem to view having guys with size as being particularly necessary. The only place I see this POTENTIALLY being an issue is in the red zone. But you know what? The Patriots don't seem to have a problem converting in the red zone, and they don't do it with big WRs. I realize we don't have Tom Brady behind center, but we DO run the Patriots offense, more or less.