Rochesterfan

Not sure I agree with the ratio - I think his personal pass to run ratio will be 1:1 and the teams pass to run ration will be 1:2. I do agree 20 throws a game max is about right. They will be a low scoring, FG kicking machine. They really need to get their holdout back in camp because they need every defensive player they can get.

So Last years KC offense wasn’t explosive? I am pretty sure it was more explosive than the Pittsburgh offenses and he produced less than our current RBs. Bell gives the offense no respect because he has not produced in 4 years. Our GM went after him to replace our #4 back last year and obviously doesn’t feel the same way as Bell has no offers and now Bell threw a highly respected HC under the bus and the KC players are even calling Bell out for a lack for not understanding he was the problem. Once again troll - fix your title to the correct name because we all know: Levon, Levon likes his money He’s made a lot they say Spends his days counting In a garage by the motorway and in his stupidity he cost himself NFL opportunity and nearly 14 million more.

I think in both cases the Bills knew the players were good and were good/great while here. Gilmore wanted out and wanted to go to a team were he could achieve personal accolades and he did that in spades. Woods wanted to return to family on the west coast and McD granted that request. In my minds eye - how the Bills handled things and their return was terrible, but they were not players that the Bills got rid of before they blossomed - they were a couple of the best players the Bills had during a period that the Bills were bad and players wanted out and therefore would not sign extensions or were looking to be way overpaid to be here. I think they fall into a different category where the Bills recognized the talent, but could not retain nor convince the players to stay. There are a long line of guys that fall into that going back in the drought to Winfield/Clements, Pat Williams, etc.

This is a football forum and if you want to have your ideas and thread be taken seriously- at least spell the name correctly of the player and if you make a mistake- own up and correct it. The title is on you fix it and then maybe people can talk about your ridiculous thoughts on a washed up player that has not been good for over 4 years and has blamed every team he has been on as an issue. Maybe the two of you could look in the mirror for the problem. 🤦‍♂️

Yes - teams make mistakes, but getting rid of Teller and Thomas when they did were not mistakes. Teller played for the Bills in 2018 and struggled to pass block. The team could see some ability run blocking, but Teller was 1 dimensional (a guard only) and struggled with the single most important function the Bills were looking to grow - passing. They traded him to Cleveland where in 2019 with a ton of injuries in a balanced offense - Teller was one of the worst guards in the league and was anticipated to be a 2020 camp cut. What Changed? 2020 brought in Stefanski and Callahan and a run first offense that fit Teller. When Cleveland was behind and trying to pass - Teller was still a liability on the OL. So yes if you pick up Teller after his year in Cleveland and put him on the Bills in the AFCCG where we were playing Boettger our #6 guard at the start of the season - maybe we are better, but Teller does not get there on a pass first Bills team and he would not be a starting guard on a pass first team. The stuff about Thomas is just plain wrong. He does absolutely nothing at all for this team and is a liability. He does not fit the Bills profile at TE and he produced yardage based strictly on targets. The Bills TEs were more efficient and better as a group than Thomas on average - they just had a different role. Alex Smith as a QB makes TEs a high priority - he has done it his entire career - including a year in KC with no WR receiver TDs - only throwing TDs to TEs and RBs. Even on the current roster Thomas doesn’t make the Bills squad because his role as a split out receiver was handled by Beasley and McKittrick (LOL). In addition Both were gone multiple years and multiple coaching staffs before they broke out. It was not a mistake made because you can’t always wait for these guys - They may have helped last year in one game, but it most likely costs the Bills games in both 2019 and 2020 and they do not achieve the playoffs and other records with them here. It is also ok to acknowledge that players must have proper fit to grow and become talented and if that fit is not in Buffalo - they never develop in the same way. Teller was bad in Buffalo and Cleveland until a 180 degree shift in offense game planning to a power run and run first offense. Without that shift, Teller is not a top end guard. Thomas took 5 years to become a legitimate pass catching TE, but during that time he could barely see the field. He finally broke out with a QB that utilizes the TE more than just about any QB on a team that lacked WR depth and talent. Even then his TDs, and Y/R were less than the Bills underutilized TEs. If the Bills wanted a split out TE - they would Split out Knox, but they use the TE more out of the H-Back role as a pass protector - something Thomas can’t do at this point. As a pass catcher split out - Beasley was significantly better and putting Thomas in that role just takes away catches from a better player - HARD PASS.

Doc - not sure that is totally correct. If I remember correctly and maybe I am wrong, but I believe Hopkins beat out Lindell in 2013 and then was injured just before the start of the season - leg injury. Carpenter had been cut by Miami and was signed to fill in and has a career year. That allowed the Bills to IR Hopkins during the season. He beat out Hopkins in 2014 though and Hopkins went to NO on the practice squad before getting a chance in Washington.

Are you talking Dustin Hopkins from the 2013 draft - multiple FOs ago. The miss on Hopkins was so long ago and had no bearing on the other events. The Teller trade gave additional ammo for Diggs and the extra 6th was used on Bass, but both occurred 9 months after the Teller trade - the Teller trade was not made in anticipation of those moves. Hopkins would of been nice and had beat out Lindell, but got injured just before the start of the season. The Bills were forced to bring in Carpenter - who has a career year in 2013 and beats out Hopkins in 2014. Hopkins finally emerged in 2015. The Bills totally recognized Hopkins talent - which was why he won the job before the injury. Kicker is a hard place to hang onto a guy after injury - when his replacement goes 33 of 36 and has most kickoffs for touchbacks.

Well he immediately used it to sign our first round pick as that happened immediately afterwards. He is also working on extensions for Tremaine and Josh - so he could roll it over. He could be waiting until camp cut downs as he has typically signed 1-2 veterans that get cut out of other camps. He could be looking at a couple of players. There are a bunch of options or he could be waiting on a trade. This rumor has been going on so long - I think there is less smoke/fire and more embers that certain FOs are trying to stoke. If the Bills really wanted Ertz - this would have gone down with the draft. Now it is just a waiting game - as I don’t think the Bills really want a trade - I think they are looking for a cut and sign.

What the heck are you even talking about with this. Yeah Dabol struggles to evaluate talent - that is just ridiculous. First go through with Thomas - which this will be like the third or fourth thread about him - what makes you think anything he did in Washington would have translated to Buffalo. The Bills spent multiple years teaching him the TE position and recognized he was not a TE that was going to develop into the style of TE they wanted. Do you really think the Bills in that offense last year with Diggs, Beasley, Brown (when healthy), McKenzie, and Davis target Thomas 110 times - nope - not a chance. More than likely if even making the team (which I doubt) he would get similar to the 60 targets that Kroft and Knox got. If you look at the combined stats for Knox and Kroft - they averaged better Y/R than Thomas, similar catch %, and same number of TDs. The difference was in the targets Thomas saw twice as many throws because Smith uses the TEs more than Allen does typically and Washington had significantly less talent at WR - therefore needing to use the TE more. Thomas on the Bills (same issue I have with Ertz) just does not move anything because without huge (WR type) targets of 90-120 targets - their numbers are right in line with Knox/Kroft from the last 2 years. You want to compare Thomas to someone on the Bills - the position/player you are comparing is Beasley and Beasley blew Thomas out of the water. Thomas on the Bills would be an even poorer blocker than Knox was and they would not have lined him out wide because they used the TE as an addition Blitz pick-up to give Allen more time. Teller has been discussed over and over and it is just a stupid argument. But the part that really gets me is this great run blocker. Do people honestly believe on a pass first team that Teller (pass blocking is a huge weakness of his) even makes the Bills OL. Then for the argument that Thomas and Teller would of made the difference in the AFCCG - you know what would of made a difference having any of our 3 top guards fully healthy, or any of our top 4 WRs healthy. Teller and a random run game makes nearly no difference for a pass first team and Tellers struggles in the passing game meant when we were behind - he was more likely to be a problem than a solution. Look I get it sometimes good players move on and shine and get better. In this case neither player got better the after the Bills moved on - both players stunk in 2019 after the Bills moved on. They both fell into ideal situations that came about last year. Neither player after their 2018 seasons in Buffalo deserved to be here and neither player based upon their 2019 performance would have made last years roster. Wish them luck and move on - it is ok to do that and recognize fit means a lot for players. 🤦‍♂️

That is great news - we can always use a punt catcher on the team. A great use of special teams resources. 😂

Family guy is basically the Flintstones right. Space Ghost - kind of like Mr. Magoo. You wouldn’t know the difference. Yeah right 😂

So as I said - it has nothing to do with liking my own QB better. Coming out as a draft pick - watching him do predraft coverage with media and do the chalk board stuff - Mahomes seemed like a butthead. I was on record that even if we drafted him - he was not a guy I could find myself rooting for. The more stuff I have seen in both the media and on the field - I feel just as strongly. He would not be a guy I connect with as a fan. He just isn’t. Much like Rex as our HC - I would root for Mahomes if he was on Buffalo, but I would only be rooting for him because I am a Bills fan. Maybe more of his personality would actually shine, but what I see - I think he makes for a terrible face of the franchise. On the other hand - I loved Josh Allen in the pre draft stuff - before he was even drafted. He seemed to have a great personality, ultra competitive, but fun loving and a real outgoing soul. I was rooting for him before we even drafted him because he just seemed like a real great guy. Going into that draft - my biggest fear was Allen going #1 to Cleveland and us getting stuck with Baker or Darnold. Both Baker and Darnold seemed like ok guys, but neither had the personality that I wanted to see leading my team. I want to root not only for my favorite team, but it is so much better if they are great guys that you want to root for also. That is where Josh is. I have tons of guys across the league (and occasionally on the Bills) that I can’t stand. There are all types of people that act like Kareem Hunt and go after women, there are guys that are to full of themselves (Rodgers), there are out and out bad guys (Ray Lewis, Big Ben, and Hernandez as extreme cases) - and I can’t stand these guys no matter what team they are on. There are also tons of players like Tre White, Josh Allen, Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, Aaron Donald, McCaffrey, etc - that seem to love the game and have a great fun time out there playing. Even a guy like Nick Bosa and the comments and things said during after the Bills game just seemed like fun and I tend to rather watch and root for those players.

CEH is nothing special. The RBs put up worse yards and receptions than the previous year and when CEH was injured - their UDFA on the roster put up better numbers. He is a name and nothing else.

Look as we do not know any of these guys personally - we can only go by what we saw in interviews as a player and especially pre draft. As we were looking for QBs - I tried to watch every interview, every QB section talk, everything available about these guys pre draft and I never liked the way Mahomes came across as a person and a leader. Mahomes just seemed very one note - and was not a guy I wanted - even if he is the best in the game. As a person and a leader - I would choose Josh 100 times out of a hundred because he is exactly the kind of guy that I love to watch play, root for, and see grow. To me it is very much like Kelly and Marino. Marino was the better “QB”, but was never a guy that I could like - he just seemed like a jerk, but Kelly fit the mold of a guy that I could root for - everything about him appealed to me - even when he was being a total tool - like calling guys out - there was just something n his make-up that I could get behind. Josh is that same way and even better - he seems humble, but wants to win - willing to do anything for his guys. Mahomes just does not do that for me - he didn’t in stuff prior to the draft and since he has been in the league. Much like when Rex was here - I would root for a Mahomes led Bills team, but he would not excite me as a fan - so even if we never beat the Chiefs - I would still not trade Allen for Mahomes because I personally love being invested in Josh.

Don’t really care - I love Josh and can’t stand Mahomes. I will take Josh 100 times out of 100. I don’t care who is better - it is about having our guy and that is all I am concerned with.

I really hope so - if not 🤦‍♂️

Not surprising with the leagues COVID protocols.

Not surprising with the COVID protocols. I just did not see anyway without near 100% vaccination rate among the players.

Why is Julio a better deep threat than Corey Davis was last year? They have very similar Y/R and catch % - the only reason Julio is a bigger name is because in Atlanta with Ryan he was targeted nearly 2x as often because it was a passing offense. The other difference is that Davis is 26 and healthy and Jones will be 32 and coming off a season with leg/Hamstring injuries. Basically under Smith - Tennessee was a run first - play action pass team that threw the ball almost 250 times less per season than Atlanta the last 2 seasons - just think about that Atlanta was throwing the ball on average 16 times more per game than Tennessee. That gives Julio Jones a lot more targets than he will see in Tennessee. Henry as we often see gets better and better as the game wears on and his carries go up. So yes - I think there is huge potential that Julio Jones and a new OC get away from what worked and try to utilize more Julio and passing to justify the trade and the big name. It has the potential to be exactly what happened with Beckham in Cleveland where they tried to force feed him balls and it cost their previous HC a job. Then Stefanski comes in and the offense struggles in the passing game - Beckham gets hurt and suddenly they focus on running and spreading the ball out and get better. It is my opinion and yes the trade helps the Titans, but it does not make them a better offense than last year and it really has potential to take the ball away from Henry and put it in Tannehill’s and that to me is a potential step back.

Look at their defense - I think it is a potential weakness. I also think losing their Run balanced OC and bringing in a potential #1 WR throws some of the balance of the offense out - similar to what happened to Dallas and Cleveland when they brought in #1 WRs and got away from their run first offenses and got worse. Julio Jones averages similar Y/R to Corey Davis and similar catch percentage. He is a bigger name, but he is not necessarily a better receiver any longer. The biggest difference was in Atlanta he was getting 160-170 targets a year. Corey Davis was getting 90 targets and AJ Brown was getting around 100 targets. If Jones gets the targets that went to Davis or Brown he will be right around 1000 yards and AJ Brown will be in the same spot - basically the same as last year. If they try to force him the ball to get numbers like Atl - then he is taking plays away from Henry. It is the exact opposite argument to why the Bills should not be trying to get a big time RB - in these cases you are taking the ball out of your best players hands. For the Bills, anything that takes the ball out of Josh hands takes points of the board. For Tennessee, anything that gets them away from Henry and a running attack and puts the ball in Tannehill’s hands changes that team and not for the better. If they maintain their current running game and basically use him as they did Davis - they will be fine, but they would have been better to have the younger more explosive player. Julio would of had more potential impact in KC, Buffalo, or LA than he will in Tennessee or Baltimore. I think this move almost brings the Tennessee offense back to last year and their defense is not as good - so I think they will be in a dog fight for that division. I think they are probably the 3rd tier with Baltimore, Indy, LA, and Miami. Good enough to win their division potentially and beat any team on any given week, but if they play a better team and get their best they are not good enough. Everything needs to fall just right for them.

I just don’t see it. They lost major pass catchers on offense and replaced Davis with Jones. They lost their OC who was a huge part of their rushing and play action game. The new guy just got handed a WR weapon - so immediately it puts more pressure on the team to use him. The Titan made the 2019 AFCCG and we beat them n Tennessee that year. Last year we had to play them will game planning for 2 teams with no idea which players were going to be cleared until right up until game time - where several starters suddenly got cleared. Last years game was a joke and means nothing plus with everything they loss they still are not even the favorite to win the division over the Colts. Adding Jones may help or it may be exactly like what you saw with Beckham in Cleveland where the OC tries to gameplan things to get him open and involved and then it backfires as they get away from what they do well. In the end - it is whatever - they may be better - they may be worse - they may be a team we have to deal with or they may be a team someone else has to deal with. Whatever - I will take my chances with what we have got and see where we end up.

Why - is much older Julio Jones a significant improvement on Davis who they let walk. Maybe slightly, but now they have a wr that they will feel the need to feed the ball - especially with a new OC. I look at it as the best player on that team by far is Henry and you are now taking handoffs and gameplans and shifting them to Tannehill and that is the 8 -10 best player on the team. Julio Jones is good, but Tannehill is not as good as Matt Ryan and you are potentially changing the entire dynamic of the offense from a grind it out - smack you in the face offense to an offense that features WRs with a very average QB.

Anything that takes the ball out of Henry’s hands and puts it into Tannehill’s hands makes Tennessee a worse team. I think this is like when Beckham plays in Cleveland and the offense is actually worse that when he is injured and out and they become a Running Back focused offense with play action to the remaining guys.

I really wish all of these alternate leagues would just take a step back - form 1 well funded league that could actually survive more than 1 - 2 seasons and come up with a proper business model in alternate cities away from the NFL and treat themselves as they are - a second class, last resort feeding ground. Make it fun and energized and sustainable, but they all want to be first and fast.

I don’t want to get to involved because this is such a touchy subject, but I believe the first sentence is the biggest part of this. The NFL was trying to use a simple, inexpensive agreed upon way to diagnose loss of cognitive function for people without a baseline level and without baseline tests. The race norming was based upon older medical studies done that set baselines to be used in medical settings - it was not from my understanding created or developed by the NFL. The NFL needed some type of baseline to judge these older players, quickly to determine loss of cognitive function to group them into settlement groups. That was what was agreed to through the settlement and now it is going to be changed as it should. The problem is many players with minimal or no loss of cognitive function are also trying to get a piece of the settlement and once the money is gone it is gone - so both sides need to do everything they can to properly group players without spending a ton of money on things like MRIs and brain scans and the such that will quickly eat through the settlement money. The entire race norming debate is very racist in its make-up, but I do not really blame the NFL for using it as they needed to have a functional baseline for players and that was what science had developed and was being used. As we get to the current generation of players with all of the concussions testing and baselines created for each player - they have a better system in place, but that is not available for players from the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. The NFL should be able to take their concussion testing data and create a new more balanced cognitive test, but it is still going to be generalized and it is still going to favor certain people over others - I just hope it is not race based.