Shaw66

QB is BY FAR the most important position on the field. When you see an opportunity to get a franchise QB, you have to take it. MLB is a distant second, but it's still the second most important position on the field. At the end of the second round, you get a Preston Brown. In the middle of the first round you get a Smith, an Edmunds, a Keuchle. Those were smart team-building moves.

Did you watch the Rams game last night. Did you hear what they said about Watkins? I'm paraphrasing, but they said the Rams let Watkins go and picked up Brandin Cooks, a Belichick castoff, because Watkins can just go deep, and Cooks is a serious threat over the middle. I was as big a Watkins fan as anyone, when he was drafted and all the time he was in Buffalo, but I've come around to recognizing that he's just a slightly shinier version of Lee Evans. He has the tools, but he doesn't produce. He played on a great offense last season, he was healthy, and he did very little. Fans always seem to think they know better than the professionals who run the teams. Two successive GMs and coaches have said "I don't need him," and you still think he's some kind of star. Maybe he will be, but so far he's been nearly a bust.

Absolutely dead on. And one more thing. If the Bills had used their picks to draft top offensive linemen, they would have kept Taylor for one more season. Taylor and McCoy behind a good offensive line would have been at least as good as they were last season, and maybe better. That would mean having the 20th pick in the first round, and there's no way you can find a franchise QB. Bills would have had no capital to trade to move up. 2018 was the perfect time to make a move toward the top of the draft to get a QB. As you say, you must take the QB when the opportunity arises, because those opportunities don't come along too often.

Maybe. Haven't seen enough to know what Allen would have done. All I know is that there's a higher likelihood that Allen finds a way to deliver that ball than Peterman.

Another thing about that video: I said this all last season when Taylor was the QB, which is that the Bills should protect the passer not by forming a pocket that the QB steps up into. They should form a line and keep the pass rush in front of them. In particular, they should not let the DEs circle wide - if the DE is going to beat the tackle, let him beat you to the inside. Why? Because if the DE beats your tackle to the inside, he's coming straight up field at your QB, not around the outside. If you have a Taylor (or is you have a Russell Wilson), you keep the pass rush in front of the QB and you give him escape routes to each side and backward. Wilson does it all the time. Brees does, too. When you form a pocket, you force your QB to move up and then squirm around, trying to find a way out. And if your line isn't very good, that pocket gets small in a hurry, and your QB is trapped. On this play, the Bills formed the line, not a pocket. Peterman stepped up, when he would have been better off to step back. I know that stepping up is the classic way to do it, but that's the point at which you have to consider your personnel instead of just the theory. Seattle and New Orleans figured this out years ago and let Wilson do the unconventional thing. A standard pocket is trouble, especially for a small QB, and Seattle lets him run from trouble. Allen doesn't have a height problem, but he's already shown he has the mobility to get away from the rush. On this play, if he were trained to step back, he would have had the time to make the throw. When his line gets better, he can step up, but until that happens, put the guy into position to make plays.

I couldn't hear the audio, but it's clear looking at it that Peterman didn't have time to make the deep throw. He was in serious trouble. Your point is the important point: Nate's essentially a rookie. Allen's a rookie. Allen has the physical ability to have hit the slot receiver on the left for a decent short gain and also the physical ability to have gotten out of the mess and found the deep man; Nate doesn't have that ability and can't learn it. Whatever marginal edge Nate may have in the experience department is easily outweighed by the things that only Allen can do. When I watch the video of all of Allen's throws against the Ravens, I see a guy who looks the top 10 QBs in the league - pocket awareness, escapability, quick release, accurate throws. Darnold was excellent last night, and Allen looks the same. I agree, but that anticipation throw is really tough for a rookie to make (and I consider Peterman a rookie). Rodgers would launch it, but rookies generally don't have that confidence. However, it seems to me that what a smart rookie does, what I could imagine Allen doing, is as you say, recognize at the line that what the defense is giving him and be prepared to bail out of the pocket early to buy the time necessary to find Kerley. Allen has the ability, the arm strength, for example, to back pedal a few steps to buy that time and still get enough on the ball to reach Kerley downfield. If not backpedal, escape left or right just a few steps and then throw. Point is, the thinking at the line is "I've got my man in the seam, I need time to verify before I throw, and I might need to move to get the time." The problem, of course, is getting your rookie to do all that thinking. The important point is that when both Allen and Peterman have mastered the thinking, only one of them has the physical tools to make the throw. People may blast me for this, but Allen already can make throws like Rodgers does - all kinds of positions, all kinds of pace. He needs to learn to think like Rodgers, and the only he can learn that is on the field.

He's not dragging his feet. Tuesday or Wednesday is the time you'd expect the coach to announce such a change. Especially McD, who does nothing hastily. His discipline is to complete all of the film review of the prior game, get the opinions of all the coaches with a say in the matter, and to decide only after that. Then he announces the decision in the next regular press conference, unless he has a tactical reason to say nothing.

No. Posterman.

No, it's not clearly false. You just aren't listening. McBeane have been very clear, completely clear, so clear that anyone with a brain couldn't possibly miss it: As far as they are concerned, the most important quality in any player is character. Is the guy a good teammate? Is the guy an intense competitor? Does the guy have values? Is the guy about football 24-7-365. If the answers to those questions are "no," McBeane don't care how big the guy is, how fast he, how high he can jump. From that standpoint, McDermott probably does believe that his roster is better than it was when he got to Buffalo. The two most obvious examples are Waatkins and Dareus. They had demonstrated over and over, before McDermott came to Buffalo and after, that they weren't true team guys - they believed in their talent, not their teammates. You may not agree with that approach, but that is how McBeane approach roster building. Oh, I misunderstood. You're where I am; that is, you want a coach who wins, and if you have one who wins, you'd rather that he said something interesting in the press conferences. I agree with that completely. Last season I stopped paying much attention to McDermott's post-game press conferences. Once in a while in the off-season, on the other hand, he actually does say some interesting things. Beane is amazingly open in his pressers. He's worth listening to.

I'd rather employ a coach who's smart. McDermott knows that holding press conferences is a requirement of his job but it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the success of his team. He knows there's only downside in press conferences, so he's decided to say nothing in them. He's all smart enough to know that he's relatively inexperienced in press relations and that if he succeeds in his job and makes the Bills a winner, he will learn more about how to handle the press. Then he may begin say something of more substance. Until then, he has enough trouble on the field; he doesn't need to add to it by getting the press riled up saying "yes, but last week you said 'blah, blah' and now you're saying 'bluh, bluh.''"

I disagree that anyone can know that McDermott is doing a bad job. EVERYONE agrees that the Bills have limited talent. They did last season, too. McDermott went 9-7 with that talent last season. He didn't become an idiot in the past eight months. People have been complaining about how bad the talent is for months around here. Then this supposedly undertalented team gets blown out and suddenly it's the coach's fault. This team fell apart mid=season last year, and McDermott pulled them together. It was a magnificent job. The Bills lose one this season and you guys think he's a failure. It's a long season. The fact that people are disappointed with the team doesn't mean we should throw all rationality out the window.

Oh, my. It's begun.

OP is a nice assessment of what they did. It probably was necessary, as it was unlikely they could win with Taylor, Dareus and Watkins as their core. They will be judged on how they used their draft picks - betting the ranch on a QB and MLB, instead of building a line and taking the QB who fell to them. I like it. Allen and Edmunds haven't disappointed - they look like they can grow into real winners, and if they do, Beane will have filled the two most important decisions in one season. Next season he drafts and signs linemen and receivers, and the Bills may be in business. And 2018 isn't over yet.

I like that developmental issue theme. Nice. I don't buy the defensive candy take, but I have a different view that gets to the same end. I think McDermott may regularly over value his offensive line solutions. Many people have speculated that he appointed his friend as offensive line coach, and that his friendship may get in the way of his evaluation of what he has. I wonder whether Castillo is telling McDermott that the line will be fien with Miller, Ducasse and Groy when a more objective evaluation would say they need a lot of help. One way or another I think for two years McDermott has been operating under the notion that the offensive line personnel they have will be "good enough," and that evaluation has, for two seasons, looked to be wrong.

Good comments, especially about the downhill thumper.

I'm believing in the process and sticking with 7-9. Get Allen in there and the Bills will have an above average offense by the end of the season. What? Did I just say that? Yes. I looked at the video of all of Allen's throws. He was better than I remembered. Kerley, Jones, Holmes and Benjamin are more than good enough to craft an effective passing attack with Allen throwing. As that happens, Shady will be himself. This offense will be good. Not great, but good.

Thanks. That's well put. I was beginning to wonder if I was seeing things, with all the comments I got about my comments about him. He isn't a hitter. With time he should get better, but because he isn't a hitter he doesn't look like he'll ever be a great run stopper. I'm not worried about it, because I agree with the comments that he will improve. He'll put on some weight and he'll learn to read the plays better.

Fair enough. Maybe my expectations are too high.

Yeah, maybe. I was surprised to see his stats. I'm not a professional, so I don't see as much on the field as some might. I do know, however, that when I watched him or saw him, he wasn't doing well in the running game. What is impressive about him is his speed. A few times he closed beautifully. I'm fairly confident the problem is age and experience. He has to have the experience to let himself go, to attack instantly as he sees the play develop. It will come. But yesterday it seemed to me that he wasn't contributing what he should. He was in good company. I agree. My point is that you saw NO teams that were close to mid-season form. They just aren't. And that's what makes the early season games so challenging. It's like being a pitcher and having to find a way to get guys out when your best stuff isn't working. So, yeah, teams LOOKED ready, because the stuff they brought to the game worked. And I'm not saying it was luck, but in some sense it was. If those teams had had different matchups, they might not have looked so good.

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66 Nightmare The Bills opened the 2018 NFL season losing 47-3 to the Baltimore Ravens. The Bills were horrible. In all three phases, pretty much the entire game. In the NFL, no teams are ready for opening day. They haven’t installed enough, they haven’t practiced enough. Still, the games count, and the mantra in the NFL at this time of year is “find a way to win.” You won’t have your best game; some things will work for you, some won’t. Some things will work for your opponent, some won’t. At least, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Not for the Bills on Sunday. Nothing worked. If I’m not at the game, and if it isn’t on local TV, I watch the Bills at my local sports bar. I buy my wife lunch, we watch the Bills and other games. My wife likes football but isn’t a Bills fan, except through me. Nevertheless, I get a running commentary during the games. Before the end of the first quarter against the Ravens, over a vegetable quesadilla, my wife was calling for a change at quarterback. She knows good quarterbacking when she sees it, and she wasn’t seeing it. It looked the same to me, over nachos. Quarterback? One thing we learned in this debacle is that Josh Allen needs to start for the Bills. Not because he was lights out against the Ravens; he wasn’t. But if you’re going to have a QB on the field with limited experience, and the Bills are, a QB who just doesn’t get everything that’s going on on the field yet, and neither Peterman nor Allen does, then you may as well play the guy who can make plays. Allen throws better, Allen has better pocket presence, Allen runs better. The Bills have two incomplete quarterbacks; they need to play the guy who can win games despite his inexperience. The Bills game was on a screen beside the Patriots game. My wife complained. “It isn’t fair to put them side by side. The Patriots do everything right; the Bills do nothing right.” By the time she made the comment I was well into my second beer, but I was still smart enough not to argue with her. One thing I noticed on side-by-side screens: Kelvin Benjamin is not Gronk. As a rookie, Benjamin had good hands. He seemed to catch everything around him. Either my memory is faulty or Benjamin forgot something. He’s gotta catch balls with his hands, and he doesn’t, not enough. At least not against the Ravens. Oh, and Robert Foster was as billed – stone hands. Brian Daboll’s debut as offensive coordinator was, well, maybe it’s best not to search for an adjective. Daboll’s job is to send his team onto the field with something that will work. Nothing worked. Running backs had no holes. Quarterbacks had time to throw, sometime, but rarely could find open receivers. Yellow flags flew. If you don’t have overwhelming talent, and the Bills certainly don’t, then you have to win with scheme. There was no scheme visible. The offense was unprepared. Nothing worked. Nothing worked for the defense, either. The Ravens don’t have the best receiver corps in the league, not by a long shot. But those guys were open, wide open, all afternoon. The Bills looked confused, all afternoon. Joe Flacco had no trouble. Tremaine Edmunds? Long way to go against the run. He should get some kind of award for standing beside the pile, after the tackle, more than any player in the league. For heaven’s sake, can’t the guy HIT someone? He can run with receivers, but he can’t be a middle linebacker in the NFL if he isn’t going to stick someone once in a while. He needs to watch Milano fly to the ball and stick his shoulder into guys. Milano was one of the few bright spots for the Bills. “It looks like the Bills aren’t trying,” my wife said. “It looks like they aren’t running fast,” That hurt. McDermott’s team is supposed to heart, and it there wasn’t much heart on display against the Ravens. Get mad, please, and hit someone! What now? My wife has a theory: McDermott started Peterman so that when he switches to Allen, whatever Allen does, no one will want Peterman back. All part of the process? It starts with Allen on the field. We’ve seen this before. Last season we saw a team that was just as bad, for three weeks. That team figured it out and played some good football down the stretch. They need to figure it out again this year. Everything needs to be fixed. Does McDermott have a process for that? GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

That's what I thought at first, too, but that wasn't it. They just stopped making noise. Not saying the fans don't care about the team. Everyone knows they're passionate. But I thought they let their team down when it came to noise. And to think they were booed off the field at half-time. I didn't know that, but that's terrible.

Philadelphia has this reputation about their fans. Maybe they're passionate, but they don't support the team. It seemed to me that the Eagles fans were awfully quiet last night. I didn't see the first half, but in the second half, a really tight game, the season opener on national tv after their team won the Super Bowl, and there wasn't much noise. New Era would have been rockin. Where it was really apparent was on the Falcons' last drive, Eagles up 6 and needing a stop to win the game. As Bryant came to the line of scrimmage, the noise began to build for several seconds, then the ball was snapped and the noise stopped. Atlanta would go back to the huddle, everything was quiet, and as they broke the huddle, the noise began to grow again. If that drive had been in Buffalo, Bills up 6 with a minute to go, the noise wouldn't have stopped. It would drop as the play was run, and then it would begin to build again immediately after the play, with a lot of noise all the time the opponent was in the huddle and getting even louder as they set up to run the play. Did anyone else notice this? I'm really looking forward to hearing that noise again.

Nobody wants to go to Foxboro.

I agree. I think that's what McD saw last season and why he gave Peterman the start. Ugly as that start was, I don't think it changed McDs mind. He had no choice but to go back to Tyrod then, but it's a new season and he's seeing the same things in Peterman that he liked last season. I seriously doubt it's ego.

You call his generous. Yours is miserly. I agree about QB but do you have to inflate the numbers? 5 ints, not 6. At QB the Bills have better upside than with Taylor, but downside too. Benjamin is most definitely a true number 1. Maybe not the number 1 you want, but 1000 yards and 8 TDs a season, 14 yards per reception are fine numbers. If he's healthy he's a very big upgrade over last season. Jones will be better. Most importantly, if the QB is better, the receivers will be better. Edmund's better than Brown? Probably He went be as good against the run, but he will be an asset rather than a liability in pass coverage. Throwing against Brown was close to an automatic completion. He just couldn't get to the spot. Still, I don't disagree that there's plenty to be concerned about.