Logic

Or the hospitality tent...

The battles for starting guard spots seem to have taken shape: Long vs Feliciano at LG Spain vs Teller at RG May the best men win!

This. In season one, he was still working his way into the starting lineup. In season two, he was making as many plays as any linebacker in the league, but JUST when he was starting to get name recognition, he got hurt. I look forward to Milano claiming his rightful spot as one of the five or ten best weakside linebackers in the game this season. The Edmunds/Milano duo (can Joseph step up and make it a trio?) will be terrorizing the opposition for the next decade in western New York.

Outstanding! The Foles era off to a great start in Jacksonville, just like the ODB era in Cleveland and the Bell era in Jersey. Is it too much to ask for the guy you paid $478 Billion to to show up for OTAs?

I was sooooo glad to find out that Jackson was never even CONSIDERED by One Bills Drive. I did not feel like going through the "he can run, but he must learn to be an actual QUARTERBACK completely from scratch!" song and dance with him. Although, ironically, I suppose people could say the same thing about Josh Allen...

......we do?

You know what's crazy? Out of the five 1st round rookies QBs of the highly celebrated 2018 QB class, Josh Allen is the one undergoing the LEAST change and is arguably the BEST set up for growth and success. A case could be made for Mayfield, but even he has a new head coach (even if said coach was already his OC last year). But the rest? Rosen is on a new team AND his third offensive coordinator. Darnold has a new head coach and new offensive coordinator, not to mention a bunch of organizational dysfunction. Jackson has a new offensive coordinator and apparently didn't even know it. It's refreshing to see a Bills rookie QB be out in front in terms of continuity and structure around him.

Everyone jumped on the Lamar bandwagon early because the Ravens made the playoffs. I'm telling you, I think this kid's going to be a bust. He is NOT an NFL level thrower right now. Unless he makes serious strides, I see him having an RGIII level career.

Boy is it sad what people consider "too long to read" these days.

I'm with you here. Year two is so big for young quarterbacks. Once defenses start taking away the long ball and playing contain to keep Allen in the pocket, what will happen? Will he learn to read the defense, take the checkdown, take the 3 yard gain? Will he actually utilize Cole Beasley, who I expect to be open most of the time due to the attention that must be paid to Foster and Brown? There are big questions Allen needs to answer on the field before any reasonable person can say he's a surefire franchise guy. In keeping with the theme of the post, I'm optimistic, but hopefully not hopelessly so!

Thanks for taking the time to write that, @Shaw66. I count my self as a hopeless optimist,,as well. I use the words "relentless optimist", since I like to think I have SOME hope. It looks like you have some hope, too. I'll just say this: I've never experienced real, sustained success from my favorite football team. Not really. I'm 32 years old. That means I was 3 when the Kelly Bills started dominating and I was 8 or so when they finished. My very first football memory is of crying because the Bills just lost a Super Bowl. I didn't even really know what that MEANT at the time, but the adults around me were all pretty upset, the feeling in the room was of pain and loss, and I knew this was very bad news. I started paying closer attention to football and to the Bills, started really knowing the names of players and really watching the games, about the time Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie came along. In other words, right in time to witness the worst era in the history of Bills football. It's been a long and disappointing 20 years, obviously. Imagine this: I don't know what it's like to root for a team that has a franchise QB! Think of that. 20 years of investing time, energy, heart, soul, and money into a team that has not, at any point during that period, had consistently high quality quarterback play. Out of 20 seasons of being a football-obsessed Bills lunatic, I've witnessed only 4 winning seasons. 4 out of 20. What I'm trying to say is that I literally don't know what it's like to root for a winning team. I don't know what it's like to expect the playoffs, and a legitimate shot at the championship, every year. I don't know what it's like to enter each offseason knowing that the QB position is taken care of, so we can just focus on upgrading the team around him. I don't even know what it will feel like or how I will behave. Graciously, I hope. Hopefully, the scars of the past 20 years of bad football will stay with me, so that the pain of those moments can make the success taste all the sweeter. Call me crazy and hopeless, too, because I see what you see. I see the ownership, management, coaching, and players all lining up perfectly. I see a quarterback who has the potential to be an all time great. I see a shiny new stadium on the horizon and a long term future in Western New York. I really can't believe it. Can it really be true?! The day that the Bills win the Super Bowl, I will drop what I'm doing and fly to Buffalo. To be in that city post championship victory...to witness THAT parade?! Wow. Wouldn't miss it for the world. Can't wait.

I thought this was going to be about UDFA Bills signee Tyrel Dodson.

Kramer: Well I just got it. Spector gave it to me , he's giving everything away...becoming a minimalist. George: Is that the guy who likes fat women? Jerry: Doesn't the fat fetish conflict with the minimalism?

This is one of those rare occasions where I agree completely with ScottLaw. Bills fans are too sensitive about people criticizing Josh Allen. Let the man prove them right or wrong with his play on the field. We don't need to ruthlessly attack anyone who dares to disagree with the notion that Allen is a guaranteed elite player.

As others on Twitter pointed out, he didn't state his opinion with much conviction. By saying "If he succeeds, its because they put enough talent around him", he's hedging his bets. He can now claim to be "right" either way. Also, try as I might, I can't seem to find any background info about Aaron Schatz. I get that he runs Football Outsiders, which as far as I can tell is just an analytics website. What is it about Schatz that qualifies him to know what he's looking at any more than any other football fan? It's great that he can extrapolate numerical data or spot statistical trends, but why should I believe that he knows how to evaluate quarterback play any better than my Aunt Marcy?

Spencer Long working as a starting guard is extremely telling to me. I envisioned the staff preferring that he be the swing backup to all three interior spots. Knowing that they like him enough to ensure that he gets some starting LG reps this early -- even though Morse and Bodine aren't on the field -- tells me that they believe he can start at guard for the Bills. I agree with them. I'm high on Long's potential to return to his pre-Jets form, when he was an above average guard for Washington. I'm also intrigued that they have Spain working at RG. He has, if I'm not mistaken, been a left guard his entire career. If Long, Spain, and Ford all win starting roles and perform well, the Bills will have fixed the offensive line in just one offseason. Here's hoping.

One thing that really impresses me about McDermott and his staff is that they recognize shortcomings and failures and fix them. They don't waffle, they don't hem and haw, they just make the change when it's warranted. Rick Dennison, gone. David Culley, replaced. WR and RB coaches, gone. O-line coach, gone. Tyrod Taylor, replaced. O-line talent, upgraded. On and on down the line. This coaching staff makes mistakes. All of them do. The fact that they are quick to recognize said mistakes or non-working components and act quickly to fix them is crucially important and bodes well for the future. The difference between the first half and the second half of last season offensively is night and day. The scheme itself evolved, the offensive personnel evolved, the formations and the times that they were used in the games evolved, and what they asked of Allen evolved. I think really highly of Daboll. The ONE aspect of his playcalling that I'm still not sold on is the running game and usage of LeSean McCoy. Yes, I expect that offensive line improvements will help in a big way. But the failure of Daboll to effectively involve McCoy in the passing game last year was egregious, too. A weapon like McCoy should not be getting 7-10 touches a game, as he sometimes did last season. Daboll HAS to find a way to get McCoy involved. His ability to utilize his running backs and improve the running game as a whole will be absolutely necessary if the offense (and Allen) are to succeed this season.

Yeah. It's clear to me that you need coverage AND pressure, not just one or the other. All the pressure in the world won't matter if your corners can't cover their guys. Likewise, all the great coverage in the world won't matter if the opposing QB has an eternity to sit in the pocket and wait for someone to get open. You need pressure, you need coverage. Not sure when it became an "either/or" proposition.

Right on. I hope he gets paid. I suppose it won't be in Buffalo. I think the staff has hope/faith that by this time next year, Dawson Knox is ready to settle in as the Bills' long term starter at tight end. As such, it's hard to see them committing big cap dollars to Kyle Rudolph.

The addition of a guy like Mik'Quan Deane -- rather than pursuing a "name" player like a Kyle Rudolph -- tells me they're fine rolling with Knox, Sweeney, and Croom until Kroft comes back healthy. Hopefully the rooks can get up to speed quickly.

I really wouldn't WANT to wear #32 in Buffalo. That's some bad ju-ju right there. P.S. I hate that Devin Singletary is #40. There hasn't been a good #40 at running back since...Gale Sayers?!

It's real simple, and there aren't two sides to it: Jerry Hughes is a very good edge rusher. The Bills improved their team next year by re-signing him. Letting him walk away while he's still highly productive would have been silly. NOT liking the play of Jerry Hughes or the fact that the Bills re-signed him is also silly. If you look at Jerry Hughes and think "that guy's just not a very good edge rusher, and the Bills shouldn't have re-signed him", then you don't know what you're looking at. Opinions can't usually be wrong, but that one is. Any questions?

I'm having a hard time seeing how you got your screenname. Anyway...Sounds like a 3-4 month recovery window. Probably will start season on PUP list, will resume play around week 4. Honestly, though, not having your presumed starting TE for all of training camp is not a tenable situation. Beane should be on the phone to Minnesota and get Rudolph in here ASAP.

What the Bills SHOULD do: Trade for Kyle Rudolph. What the Bills WILL do: Re-sign Jake Fisher Ugh.

I don't even buy it, to be honest. He said publicly multiple times "I'll play wherever a team wants me to play". He's also known as an extremely dedicated, professional, and coachable player who is mature beyond his years. Do I believe his preference by far was to play LT? Of course. Do I believe he told teams "don't even draft me if you aren't going to play me at LT"? Nope.