Logic

Honestly, this deserves its own thread rather than to be buried in this 58 page thread. I know it would just get merged back into this thread anyway, so I won't bother, but... A very cool and informative graphic.

I wish this post from the Onion would stop being repeatedly usable.

There is simply no way for you to definitively know that.

To be fair, you were the first one to "open the conversation to factors of the shooting" in this thread by mentioning mental illness.

There is zero chance this thread isn't gonna go off the rails and get either moved or deleted, I fear. At any rate...I wish I felt even 1% shocked when a new mass shooting happens in America. Alas...

Given his connections to Sean McDermott and the fact that he was unable to stop the Kansas City Chiefs in the biggest game of the year, he feels like a perfect fit for the Bills.

Just put in a ticket request for Pearl Jam in Portland, OR on May 10th. Would normally try for the two Seattle shows at the end of the month, too, but will already be in Vegas for Dead and Co at The Sphere on those dates. The Ten Club tickets are $185 a piece. Such a number should be shocking, but unfortunately, it's not. I fear the days of getting into a concert for any big time band for less than $150 a ticket are over.

I would've assumed there was a clause in his contract prohibiting him from playing with wild animals in the offseason. Must have a really good agent.

Agreed. I've always been a fan of teams that elect to wear white at home anyway (and I happen to like the Bills all-whites better than any of their other uniform sets), but it especially makes sense when the weather is hot.

I would like for the Bills to stick with their current uniforms for the foreseeable future. Ideally, stick to all-whites for road games and blue over white at home as much as possible. Further, I would like for them to put the standing buffalo to bed for a while, and to make the 90s jerseys (both home and away, since this is apparently now a thing that's allowed in the NFL) their throwbacks for the next five years or so. The fans are absolutely clamoring for it. Why not take advantage and absolutely print money? Then, after five (or however many years) of bleeding the 90s jerseys for all they're worth, retire those again and bring the standing buffalo jerseys back, but this time both home and away iterations. They'll feel more special after some time away and will be a welcome sight. I liked the home standing Buffalo jerseys, and I miss those. As for the all-white standing buffalo jerseys, they're the best in the sport. Who says no?

Five pages about a potential backup QB signing. Gotta love Bills Mafia. My stance on Trubisky (or any other backup QB) is the same as its always been. When asked why Peyton Manning's backup wasn't getting more reps in practice, former Colts OC Tom Moore once said "Fellas, if #18 goes down, we're *****. And we don't practice *****". That's the situation here. If #17 goes down, we're *****. I just can't bring myself to devote much attention to the issue.

It's gonna be a long offseason.

I look forward to the expert tax advice that's likely to manifest in this thread. One ought to always heed the financial advice of fellow internet football message board members.

Yep. Allen said he threw this one as hard as he could. Also, arm strength is so often misinterpreted as "how far can you throw it?", when in reality, some QBs with mediocre arms can still throw it really far. Instead, arm strength is REALLY about how HARD you can throw it, i.e. how quickly you can get the ball from point A to point B, which shows up more on things like outs, slants, comebacks, and threading the needle between defenders. Watching that Allen pass to Kumerow, you understand how his arm strength allowed him to make that play, whereas guys like Tua and, say, Bock Purdy, likely wouldn't have had the mustard to make it happen. Arm strength allows guys like Allen to get the ball to his receiver on things like quick outs and Cover-two honey hole shots in a way that other quarterbacks who don't possess that arm strength simply cannot.

Here's that throw. Just in case anyone wanted to enjoy the next 40 seconds of their life a little bit more:

Pat Mahomes is on pace to be called the Greatest of All Time. Given his age and career trajectory, there's every possibility that he matches or exceeds Brady's ring total. As much as I love Josh Allen, and as much as I personally believe that Allen is as good as (if not better than) Mahomes, until the Bills start winning rings and Josh starts winning MVPs, I have no choice but to concede that Mahomes is NFL QB1 and may go down as the All Time QB1. The sooner others accept this, the better. We can all "woulda, coulda, shoulda" and discuss coaching and surrounding variables and blah blah blah til we're blue in the face, but facts is facts: Mahomes is the best QB on earth right now.

Confession: Baker is who I wanted in the 2018 draft. I thought his attitude/moxie/whatever-you-wanna-call-it was exactly what Buffalo needed at that time. Obviously we'll never know how things would've turned out if he had been drafted here, but...I'm obviously pretty okay with the guy we wound up with instead. Two interesting things about Baker Mayfield: One is that the Browns VERY NEARLY took Josh Allen 1st overall instead of him. There were rumors right up until draft morning of the Browns building being split and some pushing very heavily for Josh. Instead, as we all know, the voices that wanted Baker won out, and the rest is history. Two is that he had a pretty great rookie season, which led to instant stardom and him being in a bazillion TV commercials. He looked to all the world like the next huge NFL megastar QB. And then his sophomore season happened and, well...things went downhill in Cleveland, culminating in his ouster from the team, temporary journeyman status, and his current career resurrection in Tampa Bay. This was the latest example of "don't judge a QB after a great rookie season until he's able to replicate the success in year two". Opposing defensive coordinators have an offseason to study and to take away what you do best, and year two often doesn't go nearly as well as year one. Anyway...I like Baker Mayfield. I'm glad he's doing well in Tampa Bay, and I hope he continues to do well in his career.

Agreed on not being concerned about Cook in the passing game moving forward. In fact, I'd like to seem get even MORE involved in the passing game. Once Joe Brady came aboard, we started to see more wheel routes and isolation matchups on linebackers where Cook went deep. We also saw him more meaningfully and consistently be targeted on swing routes. I think there's actually a lot of meat left on the bone with regard to usage of Cook in the passing game. I think he can be even MORE productive there with a full offseason of Brady installing his own offense. It is my hope that Cook continues to be heavily involved in the offensive gameplan as a pass catching target.

Agreed. Overall, it seems likely that the Bills are going to be undergoing a big youth movement this season. It already started to happen on offense the past couple seasons, and now it's about to happen on defense. There's no choice. The salary cap is going to FORCE them to go young. As such, it only makes sense to infuse youth and fresh ideas into the coaching staff, as well. One could say "well, I'd rather have long time, veteran position coaches to teach all of these young guys", but that's not the approach the Bills' staff seems to be going with. They seem to be saying "we're gonna bring in young, energetic coaches to connect with and teach the young players we're bringing in". I'm excited about what I perceive to be a turning of the page on defense. I think that with the departure of Frazier last year and the impending departures of Hyde, Poyer, and maybe Tre White, a pretty big "era" of Bills defense is about to end, and a new one is about to begin. The old ways weren't working when the Bills got to the playoffs, so bring in the new. Let's see what a new generation of coaches and players can do.

I like Cook a lot. He had 1500 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns. That's a VERY good running back season in the 2024 NFL! What I'd like to see going forward to get as much mileage out of him as humanly possible is this: 1. Draft or sign a high quality RB2. Yes, I like Ty Johnson. He's a very good RB3. I'd like a 1b to Cook's 1a, solely because with Cook's size, I'd like to keep him fresh and healthy. Cook, while talented, is also not a great red zone running back, and having JOSH ALLEN SMASH be your primary red zone run play is not sustainable long term. 2. Draft and sign downfield receiving threats and spend the offseason scheming up the deep game and attempting to fix the "no explosive plays" problem that crept in this season. As the downfield passing game opens up, there should be more room for Cook to operate in the running (and short passing) game. And lastly...has anyone else noticed that the dude seems to have loosened up, dropped his shoulders, and actually smiles and seems to be having fun now? Love that. The future is bright for James Cook. It'll be even brighter if we get him a complimentary back and a deep passing game.

I like that the coaching staff is being infused with youth (Brady, Babich) and outside additions (Curry, Addae). I won't pretend to really know enough about any of them to wax poetic about their chances of being good coaches or valuable additions to the staff, but any time our coaching staff wants to inject youthful energy and fresh opinions, I'm always in favor.

Haha. More of a Jeff Chimenti guy myself. The way that long white hair blows in the wind....

Just curious: Which shows are you going to? Did you get the tickets through pre-sale and, if so, how was your experience? In my case, there were three of us, all trying on different devices, for tickets. Each of us picked a date. Even though we were all in the queue quite early, I was the only one who got tickets. My two friends were shut out. I was able to circle back an hour later when they dropped additional (more expensive) tickets and get a second date. We're in for May 30th (200s section, great seats) and May 31st (awful seats in the 400s, but much cheaper). You?

That depends entirely on what kind of Wednesday night you're lookin to have.

Some good stuff on condensed formations (with explanations, diagrams, video explanations, and so forth) at the links below. https://www.americanfootballmonthly.com/Subaccess/articles.php?category=&article_id=5647&output=article https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-football/film-study/2019/02/102363/film-study-by-incorporating-more-bunch-and-compressed-formations-ohio-states-offense-opened-up-in-2019 https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2018/6/18/17419694/building-the-offense-for-patrick-mahomes-condensed-formations