transplantbillsfan

How incomplete is that 6 pack? Are we talking one beer missing because he had a roadie on his way over to the party or 2 beers remaining on opposite sides to maintain balance while you carry it in?

So Milano is already out of concussion protocol? That's awesome news!!! I think our team MVP so far is between him, White, Hughes, and Haushka. Wait, so you can practice without a non-contact jersey in concussion protocol?

Allen has a much, much better chance of being a Franchise QB. Obviously.

Here's the thing: nothing long term is accomplished by starting Barkley for another game if Allen is 100% healthy. I assume, and sure do hope, that Allen risks no further injury. If that's the case, this is a mostly easy call. I say mostly, not entirely, because I stand by my belief that this move is a little riskier from the "now" perspective, knowing that this team still has an outside chance at the playoffs and that a single loss will eliminate us. Barkley would have been "safer," which is why I thought there was a decent chance he would start again. But I like this move by McDermott. It shows he has guts. Allen should have been named starter early in Training Camp. It still irritates me that he didn't and I think it cost us at least a couple of wins and stunted Allen's develpment a little. But now that he's seen the field, start him if he's fully healthy. If he absolutely sucks on Sunday, I'm betting there will be at least internal, but also probably external backlash against McDermott's decision to start him. I don't think that'll happen. I think Allen will look pretty good. In fact, I hope that what he said about "things were finally starting to slow down for me" back in the Houston game is true and this final 6 game stretch is one where we see him look like our QB of the future. Throw out whatever stats you want, but I think he's already looked a lot like a Franchise QB... just as a rookie. With an OL that got dramatically better against the Jets (thank you Teller!!!) and a WR corps that finally has some speed AND hands (except for the useless KB) and a seemingly revitalized Shady McCoy, I think we're going to be safe from falling into being one of the infamously worst offenses in the NFL. And I think Allen will lead us into an exciting offseason after getting this team to somewhere between 3-5 more wins. At this point, starting Barkley with a fully healthy Allen just doesn't accomplish anything other than driving up Barkley's asking price in the offseason. And don't you want Barkley back as our long term backup in case Allen gets injured or flops down the line? I do. But we invested waaaaaaayyyyy too much in Allen for him not to get a seriously long look. I don't think you can even talk about benching him until his 3rd season in the league. And despite what some others seem to be clamoring for--we absolutely will NOT be drafting a QB in the 1st or 2nd round this year. And I'm hoping we don't really need to until a very late round for a 3rd string developmental QB because we will have locked Barkley up long term as our backup, which we won't be able to do if Barkley plays a couple more games and plays really well.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. You said the playoff machine started yesterday. You were wrong and I corrected you and provided a link to prove it, as per CoC. Stop being such a baby.

Posted on Wednesday, page 4 of that thread. Looked like it was up from the previous week at the time, too. Thought about starting a thread, felt it was relevant in the "miracle playoff run" thread, though and decided not to add clutter.

If it just came up, why did I provide a link for it last week?

It's been up and active for a couple weeks now. I posted a link to a scenario of us getting in over in that "miracle playoff run" thread. Yesterday actually helped us. But I think the Colts get in.

Good stuff. That means he's gotta be fully healed. Can't wait for Sunday after that month and a half of a $h!+ show with the 1 week reprieve

Okay, just to clear things up, this was my very 1st post in this thread The primary reason Allen wouldn't start is because of worry about his injury. But Allen's injury risk is compounded by his inexperience, which so far this season has caused him to hold onto the football longer than he should and take more unnecessary hits than he should have. I want to see Allen play and get experience, but I don't want to see him get hurt. And I'm quite sure McDermott is very aware of that injury, as well. But if Barkley just sucked against the Jets, the pressure to put Allen in quickly would be even greater. This year has been one big experiment for the coach and GM at the QB position. Allen maybe could have played against the Jets, but the QB experiment continued with Barkley and, for the first time this season, it was successful. That, in conjunction with the injury, is, I'm sure, being weighed heavily here, despite what some here might think.

Right, which is the reason McDermott's "if healthy" add-on at the end of Monday's PC was noteworthy. Very true.

That doesn't mean it is fully healed or that he won't risk further injury. Allen is our future. His injury is to the same ligament that, if made worse, could require a surgery that would take more than a year to recover from. If he's listed as "full participant" tomorrow, I'll expect the team doctor's said there's absolutely no risk of making that injury worse. If that risk still exists, Allen will be limited and him starting in one week is very much rightfully in doubt.

#1- Look at what happened to Marcus Mariota today #2- The line hasn't been improving throughout the whole year, mainly the last couple weeks. They were willing to put him out there because their jobs wouldn't have survived keeping Peterman in for the whole season. #3- Again, look at ALL of their actions leading up to the season. They didn't want Allen to start right away. Even Beane acknowledged publicly he mismanaged the QB position. #4- I don't entirely disagree. I think you believe I want Allen to sit the rest of the year. Look at my very first post in this thread. #5- You're right. One more loss and we're completely eliminated. Whoever plays QB when we get that loss will wind up shouldering a ton of blame; as the old adage that "QBs get too much credit and too much blame" goes. And I doubt Kyle and Lorax were convinced to come back for one more season in order to lose games and help a young QB grow. And then there's the ever-moody Shady. Those are 3 guys McDermott considers as part of his "leadership counsel" or whatever.

No sources, just logic, and an understanding of cognitive development based on professional research and the experience of 15+ years of experience working with teens and young adults 7 or 8 hours a day every day of the week. That's why I prefaced what I said with "probably," which you conveniently left out. At some point in the very near future, absolutely. Might be this week. Might not be. Got things to ponder... maybe the most relevant and important thing is what happened today to another QB

I think you're being naive if you don't think McDermott is heavily weighing all options and considering reasons for them here.

What part of what I said do you not understand? What % of an NFL stadium nowadays would you say consists of fans with sense? Why are you turning green?

No, it's not our most likely shot at the playoffs. We're now 2 losses worse than the teams holding the #6 seed. We're 4 losses worse than the Patriots, who I believe have the 2nd easiest remaining schedule.

Very nice gesture.

Yes, we can beat them. Don't know if we will, but we can.

If I oversold it, you’re underselling it. Barkley had that performance with just 10 days on the team... that’s pretty damn impressive. 2 TDs (3 of his passes actually resulted in TDS), 0 turnovers, 9+ YPA, 232 yards passing all in 3 quarters of play. No, I actually don’t think I oversold that now that I think of it considering the circumstances—that was a great performance.

And I hope Mariota’s reinjuring of the same elbow today that he ALSO injured early this season with a UCL injury gives McDermott some pause before just throwing Allen back in.

#1- The UCL injury is worrisome to me. It's not a common injury for QBs. It's a common injury for pitchers. And Allen was a pitcher. If the doctor's say it's 100% healed and no further risk of injury, this no longer concerns me. #2- Connected with #1, our OL has been a lot worse this year than I thought they'd be. Allen was the most sacked QB in the NFL for a time there. It's part of why he got injured. There's been some improvements lately, but I think they need more time to gel. #3- Connected with #2 and #1, while I wanted Allen to be named the starter all Summer, as I've already said, it was more because of his competition than him. I think Allen is our Franchise QB, but I also think has a bit to learn in terms of pre and post snap reads and reacting quickly to them. I don't question his ability to do it. I question whether the talent around him on offense right now is most suitable for that portion of a rookie Web's learning curve. #4- Barkley did the pre and post snap reading last week and made quick decisions and did it successfully. Anderson might be a good mentor and might be able to preach those things, but he wasn't exactly successful in doing it, and there's something to be said for seeing it done well and up close. #5- Barkley had a great game last week. History tells us it was a fluke, but regardless, all of the players on the Buffalo Bills saw that game up front and personal. Allen better play well against the Jags because otherwise you risk losing some guys in the locker room. Remember, even though none of us fans really think the Bills are still in the playoff race, they technically are if they win out. And with the ease of the upcoming schedule, you better believe most of the Bills players are still thinking "hey, we still have a chance!!!" If the Bills play Barkley and lose, the players will pretty much get it because of the game he had against the Jets. If McDermott goes back to Allen and he underperforms and we lose, players might not publicly question McDermott, but they will be internally. There are other reasons... these are just some that I've already brought up, but see, it didn't boil down to gettin booed

I don't think Allen is mentally fragile. Look at my track record posting about him. That's one of the reasons I grew to like him. But facts are facts. Once you start Allen, you can't bench him until you suspect he's a bust. You weren't around since you're new to this Bills fan thing, but we've seen a bad mishandling of a 1st round rookie QB in Buffalo recently. If you start Allen and he absolutely sucks, all you can do is hope he can shake off rust and rise to the occasion. Barkley could afford another week or two or 3 of growing and adapting and developing. And for the record, I don't think Allen is going to suck when he plays. And I don't think he has sucked. Then again, I didn't think we'd get absolutely demolished by the Colts or the Mack-less Bears at home. It's riskier starting Allen next week. Maybe not a huge risk, but definitely riskier. No need. Read my previous posts. Hell, you don't have to go back further than less than a week ago... some of which I've said in this thread. Why do I have to restate something I've already stated?

I absolutely acknowledge that I thought Allen should have been named the starter immediately, but it was purely because of MY OWN feelings that McCarron and Peterman were utterly inferior competition. But just because I was right, I don't then also think that McDermott and Beane also felt the same way. They couldn't see the forest for the trees. McDermott started Peterman because he thought he was better than Allen and because he thought he gave the 2018 Buffalo Bills the best chance to win. He was a complete moron for thinking that, of course. But he thought it, nonetheless. Oh boy.

See, here's what you're not getting... playing Allen at home is riskier than playing him on the road. On the road, they always boo the opposition. At home, when fans boo, it's a true test of a player's mettle because you know you're playing terribly. It's a fact of human physiology that your brain isn't fully developed until you reach 23. It's probably the biggest underlying reason that people make the argument that rookies should sit and learn. 80,000 jeering fans can maybe push you over the edge at such a young, impressionable age when you're so used to being the Apple of everyone's eye, as most of these NFL starting QBs are. Barkley starting at home--potentially sucking and getting booed at followed by Allen starting on the road in Miami with everyone automatically booing--is less of a risk than Allen getting his 1st start in a month and a half and possibly shaking off some rust against a great defense. Fans will boo terrible play, no matter who's under center. Do you watch games on mute?