Logic

On offense: Bills are 1st in PPG, Ravens are 26th in PPG allowed. On defense: Bills are 7th in PPG allowed, Ravens are 11th in PPG scored. The Ravens defense allows the least rushing yards per game. However, they also give up explosive passing plays at a high rate. Just like last week against Jacksonville, I'd like to see the Bills lean into a pass-heavy gameplan. While the metrics, rankings, and specific matchups seem to favor Buffalo in a lot of areas, the fact is that this game is in Baltimore, in front of a fired up home crowd for "Blackout Night", with a Ravens team that should be feeling pretty desperate at 1-2. My head says the Bills are simply better than the Ravens, and Josh usually looks good on Sunday Night Football, and the Bills will win by a touchdown. My gut says it's gonna be one of THOSE games, weird things are gonna happen, and the Ravens will find a way to pull out a win. 27-22 Ravens

I'm a little bit surprised to see so many people taking this placement as a NEGATIVE. The Bills have a great front office. So do some other teams. It's an informal poll, and shouldn't be taken as gospel. The Bills aren't always gonna place 1st in everything, and teams like the Ravens, Eagles, 49ers, and Lions DO have great front offices. The takeaway should be that the Bills have a top 10 front office, and that multiple executives/sources/whatever hear the question "best front office in the league?" and list the Bills among their choices. Besides, in this poll, "front office" doesn't just mean Brandon Beane. They're also ranking the head coach, and Sean McDermott is coming off a string of playoff exits and mounting "can he reach the big game?" questions. I think the Bills' ranking is reasonable, but to each their own.

You know I've joined the "Bills need more talent at WR" bandwagon and have been on it all offseason. I still think the Bills need to add talent at WR, early offensive success notwithstanding. That said, I just don't think Hopkins is the guy. I think they're consciously trying to build a culture and mindset of selflessness and hard work in the receiver room, and I don't think Hopkins fits what they're looking for in that regard. I'm not saying he's a low character guy or a diva or anything like that. I just don't think he fits what the Bills currently seem to want from an intangibles standpoint. I'm still in favor of them bringing someone in, just not necessarily Hopkins.

He no longer seems like a fit for what the Bills are doing in the passing game. It seems to me that the Bills want their Sacrificial X receiver to be a great blocker and a selfless player. Hollins is that guy. From all perspectives: effort, selflessness, play style...I don't see the Bills wanting to take on Deandre Hopkins. Now if they can flip a late day three pick for Marvin Mims to add some speed and explosiveness to the Z, I'd be all over it.

If any of you know Matt Harmon, he's a guy that really studies WRs. You may have seen his Reception Perception charts, which look like this: Anyway....He just released an episode of his podcast wherein he discusses with Nate Tice (another guy whose football opinions I love hearing) the perfect type of receiver in the modern NFL. Essentially, he argues that in order to combat the current trends in defensive coverage, it is less advantageous to be a big-bodied, traditional alpha outside receiver, and less advantageous to be pigeonholed into one receiver position or only have one or two calling cards to beat defensive backs. Instead, Harmon says, the ideal WR for this current moment in the NFL has a diverse skillset, YAC ability, blocking ability, inside/outside versatility, and being effective from the slot (while still having enough size to be friendly to the QB against zone). His top example? Khalil Shakir. He says of Shakir: "Where he's so perfect for the modern NFL is that he has no tendencies as a receiver. He can line up in the slot, he can line up outside, he can line up on ball, he can line up off ball, he can be in motion, he can catch the bubble, or he can block for the bubble. So if you can beat tendencies by lining up inside and outside and lining up everywhere and having that versatility...I think that's more valuable..." You can skip to about the five minute mark of the podcast to hear the start of this discussion.

I don't think there's really any reason to be negative about this ranking. The Bills have -- informally -- a top 10 front office in the league. That's a good thing. People speak highly of our GM and head coach. That's a good thing. ...But I do agree the Bills should be ranked higher than the Arabs.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5777310/2024/09/26/nfl-front-office-rankings/ The Athletic polled 40 league insiders, including 35 high-ranking executives and five coaches, to compile the NFL Front Office Rankings. Respondents, who were granted anonymity for both their votes and conversations discussing them in exchange for their candor, were asked to submit their top-five front offices, in rank order, based on each franchise’s football operations side. (Respondents were not allowed to vote for their own team.) The results favored stability, with eight of the top 10 teams featuring general managers who have been in place for at least five years. Four of the top six teams, including the top two, promoted their GMs from within. “Ultimately, it’s about results,” the high-ranking exec added, “but how you operate day to day is about your process. (Do) you have a sound process in the draft, free agency (and with) contract structure? Are you matching your aggressive roster building with maybe the life cycle of your team? All of those things go into what (makes) the best front offices.” The scoring system: First-place votes were worth 10 points, second-place seven, third-place five, fourth-place three and fifth-place one. (One respondent split his fifth-place vote among two teams.) 9. Buffalo Bills Total points: 33 (appeared on 9 ballots) Owners: Terry and Kim Pegula General manager: Brandon Beane Head coach: Sean McDermott Beane arrived from the Carolina Panthers in 2017 and, with McDermott, has morphed the Bills into a perennial contender. He traded up to draft quarterback Josh Allen in 2018, built up the roster around him and gave Allen the resources and time to develop from an unpolished QB into one of the league’s best players. “Beane is the best GM in the NFL,” one executive said, adding he “understands people and culture.” After three consecutive losses in the divisional round, Beane and the Bills traded wide receiver Stephon Diggs and moved on from aging, expensive defensive stalwarts. The early returns appear positive for the 3-0 Bills. “I think Beane is a top-five GM,” said a general manager. “He is super smart, number one. It’s never about him. If you look at the drafting and free agents they have signed, how patient they have been with the head coach, got the quarterback right — that was a 50/50 deal. I’m a big fan of him. I’m a big fan of his coach. He’s got all the right stuff, in a tough market, by the way. This is not a place free agents are clamoring to go to.”

I'm sorry, I know I'm not the first one to make this joke, but... Has there ever been a more perfect name for a Sean McDermott player than Will Clapp?

The things that stood out to me about Soloman on draft day were: 1.) He may be shorter than you'd like, but he's 246 lbs. He's thick and stoutly built. He also has a massive wingspan for his height. It's not like he's light in the britches out there. 2.) He is not the type of EDGE the Bills usually draft. He has more dip and bend and pure pass rush to him than the types they typically go for, which is a great thing, because with Rousseau, Smoot, and Toohill in toe, they already have plenty of edge setting and run stopping. They NEEDED an athletic pure pass rush type. I hope he follows Von Miller around and soaks up every piece of information and wisdom he can.

As soon as I heard that this guy was one of the all time sack leaders at Troy (ahead of Demarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora) and learned about his wingspan, I thought "forget the 'undersized' label", this kid is a steal and he's gonna be a legitimate pass rusher in the NFL." Lo and behold -- and with the obvious caveat that it's early yet -- that appears to be the case. Below are the career sack leaders at Troy. Note Soloman's name in all three categories.

I'll say this, too: Organizational stability and a GM and HC that work well together are a huge part of this, too. Other teams draft good players, but when there's turnover at HC, the new guy coming in often wants different types of players or scheme fits than the last guy wanted. So even if a player that the GM drafted is a good one, he's maybe not a fit for what the new coach wants to do, so they have to start from scratch, put square pegs in round holes, etc. The fact that Beane and McDermott have been able to work together for so long has allowed Beane to know exactly the type of players McDermott wants. And the fact that McDermott has job security means those players have a chance to thrive, grow, and play well when their number is called. We should not take our organizational stability for granted. It's a very rare thing in the modern NFL. You could probably count on one hand (and still have fingers left over) the amount of organizations as stable and consistent as ours, from ownership to GM to HC. It's awesome.

Christian Benford: Best corner in the league.

Rousseau and Benford both need to be extended. They look like two of our top five defenders for this new era of Buffalo Bills football. I was thinking just today about how excited I am about the Bills' young offensive and defensive cores going forward: Rousseau, Oliver, Carter, Epenesa, Solomon, Bernard, Williams, Benford, Bishop on defense. Josh, Dion, McGovern, Torrence, Brown, Shakir, Kincaid, Coleman, Cook, Davis on offense. And to think, the Bills took their cap medicine THIS year, and enter 2025 with not only these exciting groups of players on both sides, but also 10 draft picks and a healthy cap situation. The present and future are both very, very bright. The window is WIDE OPEN.

No. But the journey to get to that win will be less aesthetically enjoyable.

I am upset. That would have been one of the best uniform matchups of any two teams all year. What a missed opportunity.

Are the Ravens in all-blacks? Because if so, the Bills really ***** up and ruined a great uniform matchup by not going all-whites. If the Ravens are wearing white pants, then I'm fine with Bills wearing blue pants.

I'll tell ya what: That first half of football by Josh Allen on Monday night made ME pretty solid!

Julie Bowen from Modern Family (pre Botox). Always wanted to buy her a milkshake and dance the Watusi with her at the Enchantment Under the Sea Ball.

Not bad for a T-Rex

Perfect. Love it. I'd prefer the Bills be underdogs in all remaining games, and that experts always pick against them. This team irrefutably plays better when they're underdogs and can play the "no one believes in us" card. It's been proven year after year. As for the predictions themselves, I just think it's funny that everyone has the Bills scoring 20, when Baltimore is allowing an average of 26 points a game and the Bills are scoring an NFL best 37.3 points per game. When the #1 PPG offense in the NFL goes against the #26 PPG defense....it's gotta results in the Bills scoring a season low 20 points, right? Weird.

This. It's actually been a REMARKABLY consistent pattern: Early season: "First in DVOA! We look amazing! Which hotel near the Super Bowl stadium should I book a room at?" Early to mid season: injuries hit, offense and/or defense stagnate, a few last minute Billsy losses mount, "fire McDermott" threads start Mid season: Galvanizing moment or game (sometimes related to a players only meeting and/or bye week), team strings together a bunch of wins Late season: Team rides into the playoffs on a multi-game win streak, everyone says "we're peaking at the right time!" (defense may or may not be decimated by injury) Playoffs: Mahomes rips out our heart and throws it into the compost bin and does the Griddy with Brittany and Jackson and Taylor while Kermit-talking his way through his Super Bowl MVP victory speech. I swear, you can set your watch to it.

Deja Vu all over again...

Every time I see Stephen A Smith, all I can think of is him breaking down Pokemon (and this Twitter post that goes with it):

Yeah. This season and seeing all these young guys contribute and make plays -- it's really changed the outlook on Beane's drafting and UDFA acquisition. I know that many -- myself included, at times -- feel that Beane's strength is in overall team building and contract structuring and things of that nature, but that he sometimes is lacking in the "drafting good players" department. Things sure are looking a little different on that front at the moment. Granted, I'd still like to see a higher "homerun" rate", but...I can't just ignore the contributions of so many of his draft picks on this roster right now. Good drafting, roster building, and player development: the benefits of a steady and high quality front office. As for SVPG: McGovern has thus far surpassed my expectations, seems to be one of the leaders of the OL, and is playing at a high level. He's only 26 and is theoretically just now coming into his prime. Whereas I had previously viewed him as a one to two year stopgap and SVPG as the future at the position, if McGovern keeps playing the way he is, I don't imagine he'll be leaving the pivot any time soon. I still like SVPG as a prospect, though, and I love knowing that we have good interior linemen (Alec Anderson is impressive, too) in the pipeline.