blacklabel

This kid is really something….a putz comes to mind…perhaps schmuck as well. The arrogance is really something. He’s basically trying to say he’s the grand savior of the team and if they wanna continue to allow him to save them then they must pay up. It’s clear some of these kids haven’t realized how unimportant they really are. You play a game, dude. You’re not saving the world. At the end of the day what you do is really not that special. Get over yourself.

I was a wee lad in the late 80s right when the Bills started getting good. I can remember Ronnie Harmon dropping a game winning (or tying, I can’t recall for sure) TD pass in the divisional round against the Browns. I also think that was the game where Don Beebe got dropped on his head. Those are definitely some of my earliest Bills memories. But back in those days I picked a favorite team based on uniform colors lol. One year it was the Bengals because I dug the orange and black but then Joe Montana and John Taylor made me sad on Super Bowl Sunday. The next year I picked the Raiders because well, silver and black. And then Jim Kelly and the Bills decimated them in the AFC Championship game and I got tired of the family teasing me so at halftime of that game I took off my Raiders shirt and said OK, I’m a Bills fan now, and have been ever since. I’m sure I have plenty of favorite moments over the years but right now my favorite thing is just the progression of Josh Allen. After watching this team struggle to adequately fill the QB spot for 20 some years I can’t even describe how awesome it is that they’ve finally found their guy. I know coming out of Wyoming there were questions and concerns but during his rookie season you could just see there was something about the kid. I kept coming back to the term “gamer” and the sense that if this kid is always gonna give you a chance to win. And just his ability and skills are nearly unrivaled right now. His arm is ridiculous, he can kill you with his running ability, he’s nearly unstoppable when the play breaks down and he starts creating on his own, he’s improved every single year and the craziest part is he maybe hasn’t quite reached his ceiling yet. So yeah, seeing him come along and turn into the All Pro he is has been my favorite thing. My favorite player from the past has always been Jimbo. I’ve still got a handful of signed cards from him when my dad would take my brother and I to camp when it was still in Fredonia. I also loved Thurm and Bruce. Over the years some other favorites have been Fitz, Stevie, Lee Evans, Fred Jackson, Kyle Williams. I really loved the Sammy Watkins pick, really thought that dude was gonna be a star. Wrong on that one haha. I thought Karlos “Pudge” Williams was gonna be a good one too. And I wanted so badly for JP Losman to become the guy but meh, stuff happens. Right now I could list the whole team as my favorites. They just seem like a really tight knit group and you just wanna root for them. Obviously love 17 but also 13, 14, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 49, 50, 55, 58, 60, 71, 73, 88, 91, 99. As for TBD, I wasn’t real active on it until the Bills website shut down their forums in lieu of their social media. I’d been poking around in the old Bills forums since like 2002. It was a bummer they shut it down. But TBD has become a great alternative. It was pretty flippin’ rough following the divisional round loss this year, yeesh. But it’s been better over the last week or two as we now have free agency and the draft to blabber about. Go Bills!

I’d be down for this. I haven’t bothered to pay much attention to Kirk and some of the more higher priced FAs because I don’t think Beane will be in the mix for those guys. But, he does make a splash every other year or so and maybe this year he sticks to his guns in re-signing some of their own FAs, while finding some bargains and then maybe making the splash by maneuvering around the cap to bring in Kirk.

No. He's a coach that challenges his players to be the absolute best they can be. Competition breeds excellence. You've gotta earn your spot here and I think most players respect and appreciate that.

It's so odd that a city that truly couldn't care less about the NFL has two franchises. Ugh.

I saw this on the NFL subreddit this morning. Apparently he never followed the Cardinals social media accounts to begin with. He probably hired a social media manager or something and they wanted to restart his account or whatever. I guess it's also a tactic used in contract negotiations. Agent tells the player to distance themselves from team on social media, team may start to think the guy is considering asking for a trade or in Murray's case maybe a career change. Who knows.

He saw Josh sling three of ‘em in 2020. That was a game where I felt he went to another level. He’d been good but people were like, “Saleh will shut him down.” Nope!

Aaaaalllllvvvviiiiinnnnn!! This is behavior unbecoming of a chipmunk.

“How in the hell did you get the beans above the frank?!”

I never thought much of the Dennison bite. IMO, it being McDermott's first year as a HC, I think he just wanted to surround himself with experience.

I read this, was a little surprised where Josh was ranked but it also said something like if one vote was different then Josh and Joe would’ve been tied at the one spot. Seemed like Burrow got a lot of praise for his vision and decision making. He does see the field well and he, much like Josh, make you feel like you’ve always got a chance with them in there. The thing that separates Josh from the two of them is how good he is when a play breaks down. He also has an insane knack for eluding pressure. There have been so many times you see defenders swarming him and you’re like, “Dang, they got him” only for him to squeak outta there, spin around, deke a guy out of his shorts and then fire a rocket 30 yards down the field. Burrow doesn’t have that element. He needs a clean pocket on a consistent basis and that OL rarely gives it to him. Titans scored nine sacks on the kid last week. I can’t see how KC’s front four is gonna be contained any better. And some of y’all thought losing Quinton Spain was a mistake. Dude got his hind quarters handed to him all day last week. I don’t feel I’ve seen quite enough of Herbert to make a solid assessment but he seems prone to flukey/weird stretches at times where his decision making goes out the window. I’m obviously biased but I’ll pick Josh Allen a million times over. Since his rookie year I’ve had the feeling that the kid is simply a gamer. It might not always be pretty, but at the end of the day, he gives you a shot to win. And since then he’s just gotten better and better. I’m not one to get into my feelings too much over this sport but after how he played in these final two games, my mind flipped a switch from, “Man, I just don’t think it’s in the cards for the Buffalo Bills to win the Super Bowl, not in my lifetime anyway” to “Josh Allen and the Bills absolutely WILL bring a Lombardi trophy home to Buffalo, he’s simply too good for it not to happen.” I’ve never had that sense or feeling with this team ever, but now I really feel it. I just don’t think he’s going to be denied and he’s going to get it done. The flip side of this feeling is I started feeling it with 13 seconds left…had they won, I honestly believe they would’ve taken it all. I think they would’ve beaten Cinci to a pulp here at home and it doesn’t matter, give them the Rams or Niners, they would’ve beat either. They were on fire offensively and I believe the D would’ve found a way to do just enough. Dang it. Now I’m sad all over again.

Brutal takes all over this board. I get it, it sucks, people wanna vent. McDermott is going nowhere, as it should be. After 17 years of futility and constant upheaval and new coaching staffs and front offices every 2-3 years, he and Beane have come in and made this franchise a year in and year out contender. They've built this team, they've reshaped the culture, and they've been in the playoffs (and won playoff games) four out of their five years here. I expect some retooling this off-season but the core elements are there and they are going to bring it home one of these years. It's going to happen.

Yeah it's called competition. Josh Allen is too effin' good not to bring the Lombardi home one of these years. It'll happen, last night made me truly believe that. Everyone's bummed beyond belief today, I get it. But they're a great team, they are gonna be in the mix for a long time.

As far as I can tell they plan on making it an open air stadium, however, most of the seats will be covered in some fashion. I don’t know if they’re doing something like the old Cowboys stadium where there was a roof over everything but the field or what, but you’d think they’d go with the retractable roof like many of the new stadiums. To me, the weather advantage stuff is overblown and you can get more all year round use from a stadium with a roof.

i challenge you! I don’t care if you’re a dog, knuckle up, bucko! You’re about to get a furious fury of flying fists….of fury!!

Bills offered him an extension, he chose to go to Miami for slightly more money. Played one year for them, then they traded him to Houston and then from there he was traded to the Jets. Seems like he’s just been bounced around a bunch and hasn’t gotten his footing anywhere he’s landed. He was pretty solid his final year here in Buffalo. Good against the run, which they could use, and he was coming along as a locker room leader.

He has some fair points about the analytics. But also, I don’t think there are coaches who are coaching and strategizing strictly under what the analytics tell him. It’s another gear to help move the machine forward, has to work in tandem with the other gears though. The entitled stuff kinda sounds like every older generation. You can’t write off every young guy with limited experience, though. Sometimes people figure their stuff out at a younger age. McVay is a good example of this. Didn’t have the most experience but his understanding and intelligence for the game was more than enough to make up for the lack of experience. As usual, his hiring started a trend where teams in need of a coach were looking for the next hotshot young coordinator. Happens every year. One year it’s the experienced guys who have had a head coaching gig before that get all the interviews, then next year it’s the coordinators looking for their first shot at HC, and then one year the trend is hiring coaches from college, etc, etc. There’s definitely something to be said for experience but you could also argue that the train is gonna pass you by while you’re out gaining experience and by the time your shot comes around you’ve fallen out of touch and your coaching style no longer relates to the players. I’d say any teams looking for a new head coach probably should find a balance of someone who does have experience but can also keep up with the constant change of the game and apply new age techniques with old school tried and true coaching methods. Something like that.

Yeesh, I really wonder what he said. Poyer did get asked what was said but he responded with, “I’ll keep that between the lines.”

Despite not getting home for the sacks, last I looked he was still near the top of the league in QB pressures. I felt at the start of this season this could be his last as a Bill. They do love having a vet presence in each position group so I could see them working out some kinda deal to keep him on in a smaller on field role but still there for the young guys to learn from.

I actually do recall that being in the rumor mill around the time of the 2012 draft. Buffalo was one of the teams Russ visited with the most in the lead up to the draft. They talked with him at the senior bowl, at the combine, had him in for an official visit, and attended his pro day. They were definitely interested. I wanted them to draft the guy. I’m just a fan but after watching the game for so long you can get a feel for players who just have it. And seeing his college tape, that was the vibe I got, height be darned or whatever, this dude has poise, presence, accuracy, solid arm, etc. The Bills were rumored to be targeting him in the 4th round, which is where a ton of other teams also had him ranked. Seattle and maybe a couple other teams had him ranked in the third and that’s where they took him. A few years later they were targeting another QB in the 4th, Dak Prescott, but Dallas took him before Buffalo could use their second 4th round pick on him. Their Plan B in that situation was ol’ Cardale Jones.

Jim Kelly used to do that as well. Darryl Talley would say they couldn’t take the field until they heard Jim calling up the dinosaurs. And then Jim said as his career went on, he wouldn’t get as nervous and sometimes he’d have to fake it just to get the guys out of the locker room lol.

I think I said this on the Bills subreddit, it’s just my take but it makes me wonder. Ever since McDermott took over in 2017 this team has embraced the underdog role. In 2018 when they had practically no major talents and a project at QB, they still embraced that role and despite going 6-10 (with a 3-13 roster) they were still fired up on the sidelines any time a teammate made a play. They were still the underdogs heading into 2019 and they fought their way into the playoffs. They got a taste of success, even with that, I believe they went into 2020 with the same underdog mentality, but they played exceptionally well and nearly made it to the big dance. They’ve been seen as a top team since the 2020 season ended and headed into 2021 as favorites to win the division and represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. At times this season I’ve felt like there has been a lack of fire and focus. I know they preach humble and hungry and they’re a hardworking team but I wonder if they’ve struggled adapting from being the underdogs to the top dogs. They need to expect their opponents best every week. It’s now most of their opponents as the underdogs who wanna come up and beat a good team. Hearing the Jags players say the Bills seemed to have no heart was a bummer. They appeared to be in a similar state of mind for the Indy game. They were just like, dang it just isn’t our day, let’s get out of here with no injuries and focus on the next one. The McKenzie fumble really seemed to take all the wind out of their sails. It was like they saw it and thought “ah crap it’s gonna be one of those games.” I’m also feeling like they’re taking too long to make adjustments and that’s on the coaching. Daboll bums me out sometimes because I believe he has this unshakable focus and desire on being an extremely multifaceted offense that can adapt and change based on whatever defense they play. It’s like he looks at a defense and thinks, “OK, they struggle against a power run game, so that’s what we’re gonna dial up this week” despite the fact that they really aren’t the most well-equipped team to operate a power run game, but Daboll will wanna do it anyway because he believes that’s his key to exploiting the defense. I know you’ve gotta have a varied playbook but it’s been said Daboll’s system is already one of the most expansive and complicated in the league. And if you’re jumping around and switching up philosophies week by week, you’re gonna get players who have to think too much and that leads to poor execution. Sometimes I feel like they get away from what they naturally do well because they have a specific plan, even if they haven’t been able to successfully execute said plan. And defensively, I kinda miss the more aggressive looks and disguises we saw more of during the second half of the 2020 season, which is what you’d think they’d try when Star isn’t in there, but I don’t feel like we’ve seen that much of it. It’s also been kind of disheartening to hear from fans at the game saying the Bills sideline is DOA once they’re behind. Not sure what’s up with that, maybe they’re just more subdued than usual or something. They just seem so confused when they’re down, like, “How are we not beating these guys 45 to nothin’ yet?” I dunno, whatever it is I hope they figure it out. You also wonder if the vax stuff hasn’t caused some rifts between teammates and/or coaches.

I mean, if you’re getting cut from a team that has like, almost nada talent-wise, that’s probably not a good thing.

These takes come from the same type of people who would've been crying had Beane let someone like Milano walk out the door. Milano's trash? They're an entirely different defense when he plays. They chose to keep their core team together and some of those dudes are injured right now, simple as that.

I wouldn't put this on Beane. He isn't out there executing the plays. I think part of the reason is that all the way through last season the Bills embraced the underdog role proudly. They wanted to be that team that could come up and surprise you. But now they're the big dogs and I think they've had trouble adjusting to that role. McDermott, if he isn't already, has to be preaching to them to expect their opponents best week in and week out because now the opponent is the underdog that wants to come up and knock off a good team. Beyond that, I'm assuming some of y'all weren't around for the Donahoe, Levy, Nix, and Whaley years. Beane and McDermott have built the most complete team in a long time. Is every move and every draft pick a home run? No, and if that's your expectation then it doesn't matter who your favorite GM is, you will be sorely disappointed. I'm not pitchforking anything right now. Stay the course. I think the off-season might see some changes at some assistant coach positions and I think it'd be wise for them to invest in a top end guard as well as another solid DT so they aren't so reliant on Star and Ed.