Logic

This. If Allen can sling it for 2,340 per game, I'll grudgingly concede that he's a franchise quarterback.

I don't know man. 37,500 yards in a season seems a bit lofty.

Fine. Forget Marlowe. Everyone last year had Siran Neal penciled in for playing time and Bush was an afterthought. Instead the opposite happened. Would it really surprise you that much if Kurt Coleman -- a guy who knows the playbook and is a proven contributor in the NFL and isn't THAT old at 31 -- gets playing time over 6th rounder Jaquan Johnson? Or if Coleman makes the roster while Johnson goes to the practice squad? I like Jaquan Johnson a lot, but he's a sixth rounder. C'mon, man. Meanwhile, Kurt Coleman has started over 80 games in the NFL and had his best seasons under Sean McDermott. It won't exactly be shocking if he leaps a late round rookie on the depth chart.

Please do! Always nice to meet TBDers. Generally speaking, the earlier it is in the season, the more likely I am to be at Cheerful Bullpen. And if you ever need any tips about what to eat/drink/do in Portland, shoot me a message!

People probably didn't think Bush had a good chance at making the roster last year over "bright young prospects" Neal and Marlowe, and yet...

This is one of those afterthought signings that barely makes a blip on anyone's radar but turns out to have a crucial impact on the Bills defense. Coleman knows and has produced in McDermott's system and should replace Bush seamlessly. I had though that Siran Neal and maybe even Jaquan Johnson would overtake Bush this year anyway, but now I'm not so sure. Coleman is a borderline starting level safety in the NFL.

Yeah, the bar DOES get less and less busy once the Bills are eliminated from playoff contention. It was nuts in week 17 of the year before, though. That's where I watched the Dalton miracle throw and the Bills breaking the drought, and man, what a scene. It IS gonna be strange to have the Bills play on Thanksgiving. I've been (half) joking that it's kind of gonna ruin what is otherwise usually an enjoyable, relaxing holiday for me. ? Gonna watch that one at home. Got NFL Gamepass. Some weeks I do Cheerful Bullpen, some weeks I watch at home. Turkey Day seems like a logical "at home" choice for that one, on account of close proximity to pie.

The Cheerful Bullpen in downtown Portland. It's the official Bills Backers bar. It's great. Labbatt Blue on special (not usually available in most places on the west coast, generally speaking), wings, beef on weck, Shout song after every touchdown, raffles and prizes, the whole deal. Only weird part is that games start at 10am on the west coast. That's a great thing in a way, because it allows you to watch the whole game and then still have a Sunday afterwords. Or to watch the early and late games and STILL be done by 4. On the other hand, it means you're ordering a beer with your morning omelette at about 9:30. Or I mean...I guess you could just NOT order a beer with breakfast, but....ya know.

Nope. I was born and raised in Rochester, which would be a "Yes" in your poll. These days, though, I reside in Portland, Oregon. I see maybe one other Bills fan per month during the offseason.

This was my worst nightmare on draft day. It's bad enough that I knew the Bills weren't going to draft Mayfield (which is who I wanted the most, but was someone I knew wasn't a Beane/McDermott guy). Once all the reports started coming out that the Patriots would trade up for him, I was terrified. First of all, it would be SO Belichick after years of accumulating and hoarding draft picks to suddenly give up the farm for a QB. And you know what? He'd be proven right and hailed as a genius AGAIN for all eternity because Mayfield would have absolutely KILLED IT in New England. I mean...just look at how well he played last year on a dysfunctional Cleveland team with all-time bad coaching. Now imagine him in the McDaniels offense. Sheesh. I was also confused because it seemed like the Bills tried to trade up to two but Gettleman wouldn't budge. It didn't make sense to me, then, that the Patriots, who picked much lower than the Bills and had less compelling draft ammunition, could somehow pull it off. I wouldn't have put it past Belichick to find a way, though. In the end, Mayfield wound up going somewhere where I can safely sort of enjoy his great career and douchey antics from afar. Having to face him twice a year and watch the Pats dynasty go another two decades would have been unbearable.

Great article on The Athletic today from Ted Nguyen, who is not a regular Bills reporter and who does a nice little breakdown. If you're a subscriber, check it out. Great little video breakdowns and a pretty fair and balanced take on Allen, reasonably listing his strengths, weakness, and areas of improvement in his rookie year. I'll post a few snippets I thought were interesting, but it won't begin to cover all the ground that Nguyen does in his article. https://theathletic.com/1072179/2019/07/17/teds-film-room-josh-allens-rookie-year-in-review/ ...Allen also threw many passes that were just slightly off and made life harder on his receivers. In Weeks 1-9, Allen ranked tied for 32nd in percentage of attempts that were off target. This didn’t improve much as the season went along. In Weeks 10-17, he ranked 31st in percentage of throws that were off target (34.81 percent). ...Another area where Allen didn’t show much improvement throughout the season was his propensity for turnovers, which he also struggled with in college. In Weeks 1-9, he fumbled the ball four times, threw five interceptions and ranked 31st in turnover-worthy play percentage (3.93 percent). In Weeks 10-17, Allen fumbled four times, threw seven interceptions and ranked 28th in turnover-worthy play rate (3.67 percent). Out of his eight fumbles throughout the season, he only lost two but that’s more of a matter of luck. Learning how to take care of the ball has to be one of his biggest priorities heading into next year. ...Allen’s definition of what is open is different from most quarterbacks because he has the arm strength to fit the ball into tight spaces, but it’s a line that he has to learn how to straddle better. You don’t want to stop being aggressive but you also don’t want 12 interceptions in 320 attempts. His 3.8 interception percentage ranked 32nd in the NFL among quarterbacks who threw at least 14 times per game. ... [After returning from injury, Allen] was much better against zone coverage, as he was throwing passes as windows opened rather than after they opened. In Weeks 1-9, his PFF passing grade vs. zone ranked 37th but in Weeks 10-17, his rating against zone jumped to 26th, which still isn’t ideal but is much better given the circumstances. When he combined his ridiculous pass velocity with anticipation, he was able to beat zone coverage in ways that very few quarterbacks could. ...Going back to college, Allen has had trouble identifying blitzes and reacting to them, but he improved throughout his rookie year. In Weeks 1-9, his passer rating vs. the blitz was 54.3. In Weeks 10-17, his rating vs. the blitz climbed to 71.4. ... As the season went along, Allen also started completing more “big-time throws” (BTT). PFF defines a BTT as “best described as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window”. This is imperative for Allen because although he’ll miss the occasional throw because of his inaccuracy, he has the arm talent to make up for it by making BTTs. In Weeks 1-6, Allen only completed 4 BTTs, which ranked tied for 31st. In Weeks 11-17, he completed 12 BTTs, which ranked tied for 9th. ...Overall, Allen was a much more skilled passer than I anticipated from watching his college tape. He made touch throws, threw with anticipation and stood strong in the pocket. Most importantly, he made strides in the mental side of the game as the season went along. His accuracy is still a problem but cleaning up his mechanics should help. He may never be a precise passer but if the Bills weaponize his athletic ability, he could still be extremely effective.

I'm curious to know why people think Edmunds can be a productive full time edge rusher. He's never done it. He was an OLB in college, yes, but not an edge rusher. I'm not saying you can't have a package of plays where Edmunds lines up on the edge. I'm not saying he definitely can't do it. But his definitely being productive there full time? Where's the proof that he can do so? I think people underestimate the conundrum that a MLB with Edmunds' size and wingspan presents for opposing offenses. We saw on numerous occasions (some of which are shown in Baldy's video) that quarterbacks threw balls that they THOUGHT they could get over Edmunds, but they couldn't. The best example all year was his interception of Tannehill in the second Dolphins game. Watch that play again in slow motion. There is no WAY Edmunds should be anywhere near picking that ball off. The fact that he did so shows exactly why he will be such a dangerous threat at middle linebacker. Put it this way: There's no proof that, as an edge rusher, he'd be anything better than average. Maybe he could, but he didn't do it in college, and there's no proof that he could do it in the NFL. On the other hand, we know FOR SURE that he can be an elite MLB, because he showed at the end of last year that he is already on that trajectory. 120 tackles, 2 sacks, 2FFs, 2 INTs, leading the team in passes defended....All as a 20-year-old rookie playing the position for the first time in his life. Like Micah Hyde says, Edmunds has gold jacket potential as an MLB. Does he have that as an edge rusher? If so, on what evidence are you basing that claim?

It may sound crazy, but the loss of Taron Johnson really hurt the run defense, too. Johnson is a fearless and productive tackler. Whenever the Bills were in nickel personnel, he was almost like a third linebacker out there, in terms of run support. His return to the starting lineup this season will be an added boost to the run defense.

Clearly Edmunds should be moved to OLB ?

I don't suppose you'd be able to direct me to that report? I don't doubt that it's true, but I must have missed it. I'd be interested to read it.

If you know how to use the Bills, they can be pretty damned good. Allen is a hell of a scrambler in the game, and throwing bullet passes and long bombs with his arm strength can be lethal. Coupling that with a diverse zone defense and manually controlling Tremaine Edmunds and prowling the field for picks will equal wins. As much as I was able to find success with the Bills in '19, they should be downright deadly in '20, what with Smokey Brown on one side and Foster and the other and Beasley in the slot, not to mention the improved o-line. Should be fun.

The funniest thing to me are the people who claim they don't care a lick about Madden or that it's silly, but still feel the need to comment in the Madden thread EVERY SINGLE YEAR to remind us how cool and superior they are.

No offense, but anyone who knows even A LITTLE BIT about playing defense in Madden would shut that nonsense down with ease. I'm not saying there aren't ways to be cheesey and game the system, because there are. But there are also ways to stop most things, and the good/legit opponents far outweight the cheesers when I play online. YMMV.

Yeah. I feel it went from the good/intentional kind of silly to the "this is ridiculous and not in a good way and I'm just rolling my eyes" kind of silliness.

Short of pulling out the old NES and firing up Tecmo Super Bowl, Madden is the only thing going if you want to play NFL ball on a console. I agree that in an ideal world, EA Sports would not have an exclusive NFL license and 2K would still be making NFL games. But, reality being what it is, Madden will have to do. It has made big strides the past couple seasons since being taken over by new people (still under the EA umbrella). Still not perfect, by any means, but it's hard to make a 100% accurate/perfect video game rendition of such a complex sport.

Has anyone talked about Dark on Netflix yet? There have been two seasons so far, and both were phenomenal. It is imperative that you watch it in German with English subtitles, rather than with the dubbed English audio, which sounds silly. If you don't mind dense subject matter, it's a great watch. Can't wait to see where season 3 goes.

I thought this season was mostly dog****. I was a big fan of seasons 1 and 2. I anticipated season 3 with great excitement. It was a total letdown from my point of view. **SPOILERS BELOW** By and large, my main complaint is that the camp/silliness factor was turned up to 11 (heh) this year. It took away my ability to suspend my disbelief. Yes, I realize we're already talking about a show whose main subject matter is multi-dimensional monsters and telekinesis, but they ventured too far astray in to the realm of unbelievability this season. The whole deal with the kids in the Russian base? I mean...really?! No one else found that over-the-top and silly? The Terminator knockoff character that they just never explained other than "he's a Russian bad guy!"? The turning of Hopper into an over-the-top cartoon? The wasting of both Will and his Mom as characters. Will, despite having all this depth and backstory to him, is just used as the "my hair is on end, the monster's near!" trope. His mom, despite ALSO having depth and backstory and being played by a very capable actress, is basically just THERE in season 3. What's her purpose? The climactic battle in the end was paced weirdly and wasn't very exciting. And presumably the entire city saw this giant monster and/or heard the fireworks and loud noises coming from the mall? Where were the police the whole time? The National Guard, the army? Bueller? Bueller? Again, I realize this is just supposed to be a fun little sci-fi show. Previously, though, it had attained a great tone and had successfully mimicked the "small town kids fight a supernatural force while coming of age" outline of The Goonies, ET, etc...This year, though, I felt the tone and pacing were uneven, the writing and directing were hit and miss, they mishandled some major characters, and they ventured too far afield into silliness and camp. There were good parts (the sassy little girl, the New Coke bit, the Neverending Story song, etc), but I disliked more than I liked. I'll check out the start of season 4 to see where they're going with it, but they really lost me this season.

Jordan Poyer at 80 is the answer to the "biggest snub" question. I can live with White and Hyde's ratings. I haven't looked yet, but I'm willing to bet that Mitch Morse dropped a bunch of rating points from last year simply for signing with the Bills.

The Colts game is always the one I think of as being most pivotal in that season in terms of the Bills making the playoffs. I know that's silly, because obviously ALL wins were necessary to make the playoffs. But for some reason -- I suppose because that game swung back and forth so many times and was SO close to going the other way -- this is the one I come back to. I remember being so irritated by all of the snow on the ground, because the Colts were awful that year and I just KNEW the Bills would've beaten them handily had the weather not been a factor. Instead, I knew the snow would be leveling the playing field. And sure enough, the Colts almost won. The critical factors? Vinatieri's missed kick toward the end (by inches!), the two point call you mentioned, and most of all: Nathan Peterman and Kelvin Benjamin. We would not have won that game without Kelvin's big sideline catch followed by his toe-tapping end zone catch right before halftime. It was really the only thing of note that he contributed in his entire time as a Bill. And in fairness to Peterman, both of the aforementioned passes were right on the money, which was no sure thing based on the wind and Peterman's lack of arm strength. Crazy game.

The fans don't want this. The players don't want this. The ONLY group that wants this is the owners, which is a group of people who are already incredibly wealthy. They just keep trying to fix what isn't broken. The NFL is the most popular sport in America, and they're hellbent on ruining it in the name of lining their pockets even more than they already do. It's incredibly sad and a real shame to watch.