BigDingus

Again, people forgetting about Reuben Brown.... I feel like it's almost weekly I have to bring him up. It's almost like my personal duty that people don't forget we had such an all-time great player on our roster for so long, yet he never gets mentioned because he came after the Super Bowl years & before the drought really picked up. The guy deserves a spot on the wall IMO. Even though Kelly was great, Bruce was clearly the best player at his position on those SB teams. Similarly, Brown was the best at his position on his teams, but people are going to remember others more. Out of all of those, I agree with Christie as the kicker too. The guy was clutch. If not him, then definitely Rian Lindell, as he was the most accurate kicker in Bills history. In regards to your other suggestions, I'd still take London Fletcher at LB or throw a healthy Sam Cowart in there. Also, forgot about Jay Riemersma....really underrated & deserving of a spot too.

One thing that I consistently notice each off season is the fan predictions always leave out a very glaring issue - players get injured. By now, we should all know how quickly 1 key injury can derail the outcome of games, let alone several piling up over the course of the year. Sometimes a roster looks great on paper, but dig a little deeper and see who's sitting behind who, and how that will impact the team in the very likely case a player goes down. Last year we had injuries to Jordan Matthews, Charles Clay, Tyrod Taylor, Zay Jones, Cordy Glenn, Shaq Lawson, Kelvin Benjamin, Nate Peterman, Tre White, John Miller, Brandon Tate, Nick O'Leary, and many more. Years prior, we had key people hurt for extended periods of games (which include many who I already named) like Marcell Dareus, LeSean McCoy, Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Marquis Goodwin, Ronald Darby, Stephon Gilmore, Eric Wood, Cyrus Kouandjio, Percy Harvin (ha), Aaron Williams, Nigel Bradham, Manny Lawson, etc. Every team has injuries, but many teams are setup far better than the Bills when it comes to replacing those guys & the production they bring. Anyone who says they have "confidence" in our WR corp as it stands is either lying, or just crazy. Same goes for the O-line... Neither unit was good last year, but at least the line had some positive attributes. In 2018, we lost all 3 of our best players in Glenn, Incognito and Wood. We're left with (potential backups in parenthesis) - LT - Dion Dawkins (Conor McDermott) LG - Ryan Groy (Wyatt Teller) C - Russell Bodine or Adam Redmond RG - John Miller (Vlad Duccasse) RT - Jordan Mills (Marshall Newhouse) It's already unstable as it is, but with the depth we have, we're are so paper thin that a single injury would essentially be a death sentence to whoever is QB. And our run game? We significantly regressed in 2017, and likely will be inferior to that in 2018. The WR group we have is again, even worse than last season. We've got - WR1 - Kelvin Benjamin WR2 - Jeremy Kerley? I mean, he's got the highest average yards per season at 388.......... None of the guys on our roster have been #2 guys in the league WR3 - Andre Holmes or Zay Jones? They've got the next highest average after Rod Streater, with 316 yards per season played, so....yay? Other potential stars: -Quan Bray, 3 years in the league with a total of 75 yards -Kaelin Clay, an even better prospect, as he has 85 total yards in 2 seasons. -Malachi Dupre, 1 year in the league, crowning achievement was being promoted to the active roster for week 17's game against the Dolphins. Didn't play a down. -Robert Foster, rookie, 4 seasons at Alabama averaging 97 yards a year. -Brandon Reilly, 1 year on the Bills practice squad, promoted to active roster for final 4 games, didn't play a down. -Rod Streater, had 2 decent years in 2012 & 2013, has done less than nothing since. Then we've got the other rookies, Ray-Ray McCloud, Cam Phillips, and Austin Proehl...Obviously most of these guys won't even make the roster, but the ones that do offer limited skillsets, no experience, or a combination of both. If Benjamin goes down, we are beyond screwed. And it should be noted that Benjamin has never started all 16 games in his career...so that's almost a certainty. And beyond the obvious, here's some other thin positions: QB - AJ McCarron, Josh Allen & Nathan Peterman: don't need to get too deep here, this one's obvious. A combined 6 starts between them, 4 coming from McCarron. Peterman had the record INT game and the snow game for the other 2. Allen was always touted as the "potential" guy who's stock was based solely on looks, arm strength and physicality, and not on-field play. By everyone's account, the most raw QB in the 1st round whose promise is based on if he can be developed properly. Needless to say playing with this line & this WR corps would do him no favors, so expectation is for him to sit, learn & start in the future. RB - LeSean McCoy: although he's generally reliable for most of the season, he's only started all 16 games 3 times in 9 years, including 1 season with the Bills (last year). He's easily our best player, but production has declined and will be 30 heading into the 2018 season. Behind him we have the also 30 Chris Ivory, who's better than Tolbert, but that's not saying much. Also has a history with injuries. CB - Tre White & Vontae Davis: even if just one goes down, that leaves us with next to no options. We have Breon Borders, Ryan Carter, Phillip Gaines, Taron Johnson, Levi Wallace, and Lafayette Pitts...a bunch of late round/undrafted rookies & practice squad fodder. Davis is also 30 & coming off an injury, so it'd be a miracle if our starting duo plays most of the season. And yes, there are other soft spots as well, but those spots are either covered better up front, or have more experience backing them. Every team has "needs" or positions they're weak in, but for a team many on this board are confident can make the playoffs, I can't see another playoff contending roster with nearly as many holes. People need to temper their expectations and remember to factor in injuries and depth. It's always a battle of attrition, but there are certainly teams that have positioned themselves worse than others in that regard. I'm hopeful Allen will become what the Bills want him to become, but when factoring in injuries & our limited depth, this year will likely only do him a disservice if he's the starter.

Probably a 3 - 13 season. But hey, if it's like a Peyton Manning 3 - 13 rookie season, I'll be fine with it.

Allen isn't going to win it, and Peterman would have to make a huge leap to win it, so odds are it's McCarron. Really shocking analysis, I know.

So if in our imagination the Bills won a Super Bowl, while simultaneously we pretend the Cavs lost an extra NBA Finals, we can pretend the Cavs are the worst team in the 4 major sports? Yay! Make believe is fun!

Now's the time of year where people get most uptight! During the offseason when the Bills find themselves without an incumbent starting QB, that's when the message boards really get feisty. Hell, I remember the JP Losman vs Kelly Holcomb summer as a particularly fun one! Drafting a QB in the 1st round was always going to get fans riled up in some way.

That's the laziest, worst, most inaccurate comparison I've ever seen. It's clear you didn't watch anything on either QB while they were in college. Mahomes is far more athletic, more accurate, can read a defense, played against better competition, put up great numbers regardless of who he played against, and although he was in a spread, so was every other Texas Tech QB the last 20 years, yet none of them got drafted before the 5th round if at all. Graham Harrell put up better numbers than him, yet he was a practice squad guy for a couple years, then out of the league. Kliff Kingsbury, same thing. There have been so many, yet Mahomes gets drafted round 1 when nobody else was even considered worthy of a roster spot? Maybe you should recheck your analysis to understand why (that means watching the games). Also, Mahomes carried those teams with next to no help on either side of the ball. They had to throw all over the place since TT's defense was ranked 128 of 128 in 2016...so dead last. Mahomes didn't have big play makers like Crabtree to lob the ball to, and had the ability to make his own changes on the field. Along with his 41 passing TD's his final year, he had 12 rushing, all while playing through injuries just to keep competing. To put it in perspective, Mahomes had the same amount of TD's in one year as Allen had in his entire career at Wyoming.

I think the luck aspect comes from the fact they had the worst chance of any of the AFC teams to make it going into that weekend. I believe it was a 10% chance, and after our win, only bumped up a little bit. Considering the odds, they were "lucky" to have made it, but they didn't just "luck into" the playoffs.

I have yet to find anyone in real life, whether it's the people I work with in law enforcement or the countless military friends & family I know, that actually felt they were being disrespected. The closest I ever heard was one of our Sergeants during briefing make a joke about "entitled" athletes thinking we're all gunning for them, but that's it. Hell, if anything, our department has made sure to really crack down and extensively train everyone in policy and procedure to make sure there aren't any cases of abuse of power or excessive force. And that's not a bad thing, as we all should be held accountable and treat everyone fairly. On the military side, my wife's friends get more agitated by the people that bring up the "disrespecting our troops!" than anyone kneeling. It's annoying that people decided to take a protest and spin it to directly mean "those guys hate our soldiers!" when none of it had anything to do with the military. Edit: And no, just because I stated this doesn't mean anything about where I stand politically. You don't have to be a liberal or conservative or whatever-the-hell to just state the obvious.

Only the Music City BS (I was 13), and NEARLY the Cowboys MNF game. I teared up, but didn't cry for the latter.... I was just so pissed that we collapsed in such epic fashion on our first MNF game in 13 years, all while I was living in Dallas & went to a bar with a bunch of Cowboys fans hoping to pull off the upset (we hadn't won a game I believe, and they were undefeated). But yeah, besides those 2, the Bills tend to enrage me more than make me want to cry. The McKelvin fumble to lose against the Pats, the choke job on national TV against Brady Quinn, the throttling we got last year on TNF against the Jets...pretty much any nationally televised game the Bills find a way to blow it.

I never cared, and still don't, regarding what players do & don't do for the anthem. Kneeling was never disrespectful before this, now suddenly it shows contempt for the country? Uh what? And the fact a US Army Ranger is the one that proposed that as a form of peaceful protest, shows there was never any intent to disrespect the country. On top of that, since I was 16, I have only missed 3 Bills games period, and not one single time have I ever seen a person at the bar, my house, or wherever I'm watching suddenly get up and stand when the anthem came on... Were they all disrespecting the country? No.. The funny thing is there were only several people, all backups and no-names, across the league still kneeling when the POTUS brought it up again...then suddenly half the league starts doing it in response. Did anyone really give a s*** that 3rd stringer Joe Whats-his-face on the Titans was kneeling off screen? No...but all of a sudden because of phony outrage, and players getting ticked, half the league rebels & does it. My wife is in the military, I'm in law enforcement, and I come from a family of both, yet I seriously never once thought "OMG! That guy kneeled! He hates the US and all I believe in!" But man, do I have to hear about it every second on ESPN radio (and every other outlet) from all the people supposedly upset in my defense...

As much as I wish the Bills would have a new stadium built to play in, I know it's not feasible. Buffalo just doesn't have the population or they high-end demographic that could really justify the expense, and using tax payer money is always a raw deal for the locals. If the population of the metro area consisted of more wealthy people, with a large upper middle-class and higher, it would probably be ok even if the population was small. But since the average income is so low, and there isn't a high demand for luxury suites or corporations to shell out a lot of money for large groups of season tickets, a new stadium would probably not attract the amount of money needed to make the investment worth it. And unless there's a roof tacked on, the stadium still won't be full during the winter just like every other year (people tend to believe that we always sell out regardless of weather, or if we have a winning team, but even during the Kelly era, plenty of seats remained empty at that time). I think the best bet would be going for a cheaper, smaller, better quality venue like Pittsburgh. Even adjusted for inflation, the Heinz Field costed only $529 million to build. Or we could attempt something like the Cardinals, which built their stadium for $661 million (adjusted for inflation). Either way, just due to being in NY, the costs will be higher, but there's no reason the stadium has to hit $1 billion or get anywhere close to that.

Unfortunately, nothing Allen does in OTA's, mini-camp, voluntary workouts, practice, etc. will be impressive, as he has never had a problem with that aspect (his draft stock alone is proof of that). It's what he does on the field that is concerning, so until he looks impressive on the field, it's hard to get excited. The entire reason he was picked so high was based on his POTENTIAL and what he COULD do if developed properly. It sure wasn't for his win-loss record, play in big games, stats, All-Conference selections, accuracy, or standout college career. Even though people love to say "Preseason games don't matter!" I'll be impressed if he performs well even if it's against 3rd stringers. As long as it's on the field against NFL competition, it'll go a long way towards proving he's worth the hype.

Well... Allen's completion percentage just went up 4% with this news. Guess he might actually hit 60% this year!

A good game? Wtf are you talking about?! You must LOVE Tyrod then, as he puts Johnson to shame. Rob Johnson - 10 of 22 passing (45% comp.) for 131 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's, 6 sacks & 3 fumbles, with a 64.8 passer rating. DAMN! Killer game he had! Yup, he did everything he could to win that game! How many coaches have you ever seen bench the QB that lead them to a 10-5 record, a clinched playoff spot in week 16, had already lead them to the playoffs the year before, and replaced them with an unproven guy who was hadn't won jack, was always injured, and had averaged 122 yards a game up until that point in his career? ZERO. In 6 games the year before (1998), Johnson was sacked 29 friggin times! In Flutie's 10 games that year, he was sacked 12 times.........Johnson was bad from start to finish, Flutie actually did something. But yeah, try & justify the ridiculousness that was that decision. Johnson the injury-plagued statue was never the "good" option for that game, even if our team did everything it could to win.

Nobody outside of Buffalo EVER would be dumb enough to seriously think starting Rob Johnson was a good move. The fact 46 people said Rob Johnson just shows how much denial still exists in this fandom. When your starting QB leads you to a 10-5 season and clinched a playoff birth before week 17, you do NOT pull a switcheroo and throw in an unproven guy to start your playoff game! In what f'n world does any non biased person think that makes sense? NOBODY outside of random deluded Bills fans would be capable of the mental gymnastics required to make that leap. Besides the obvious skill/talent disparity, you instantly cause turmoil in the locker room and lose your credibility as a leader. You have one guy that your team went into battle with game after game, respected, followed and played for, suddenly get yanked and replaced with a guy who had done nothing but lose games & get hurt, and hadn't earned anyone's respect. Oh, and you really think a week or two of 1st team reps is good enough for the players to get a sense of all the ins and outs of that QB's play style? Is their timing going to be anywhere close to as refined and ingrained as the guy they went through OTA's, minicamp, practice and 15 games with? And the fact that they knew the starting QB did nothing wrong to validate losing his spot on the fly makes it even worse! You have people on these boards that couldn't even grasp the logic behind starting Peterman in the San Diego game, when Tyrod had actually been playing like garbage, wasn't half as successful as Flutie, and it was a REGULAR SEASON GAME against a team that had a losing record! Yet somehow pulling your starter who didn't s*** the bed several straight games, had already clinched a playoff birth (and lead you to one prior), and doing so in a PLAYOFF GAME makes sense? The stupidity of those people is baffling. It doesn't even matter if the Music City Miracle happened or not, or if the Bills had won the game! It was still so asinine that it's a point of what not to do to this day! How many coaches have you seen pull a turd move like this since then (or even before)? NONE. You know why? Because it doesn't make sense on any rational level. If you would seriously make that move (and apparently 46 of you would), your opinions on football are irrelevant. /rant

If I were Foles, I'd prefer to stay in Cleveland too. You're basically the hero of that city, played lights out, and have a chance to be a major contributor on a stacked team if Wentz can't play for any reason. You also have a coach that works his system around the players he has instead of the other way around, which allows you to perform to the best of your abilities. And he already has experience going to play for a dud coach in a dud system when he played for Fisher in St. Louis. Why go through that mess again when you know you're only being singed as a bridge guy? The second you do something wrong, or a game goes poorly, the blame goes to you & the fans who have no allegiance towards you will be calling for you head. Screw that.

I know you're being sarcastic, but considering he threw for 1 TD & 8 INT's against Power 5 schools, I don't think his redzone percentage would look that good against the teams those other QB's played against. So were the DB's he played against. So were the linebackers he played against. So were the D-lines he played against. So were the coaches he played against. And in the MWC, he wasn't even voted as one of the QB's to the All-Conference team. Lol that means other QB's from those crappy schools with their crappy lines and their crappy WR's somehow managed to outclass him. The talent he played with doesn't matter when everyone else has a level playing field.

And where did he finish everywhere else? Simply not throwing interceptions & dumping it off all the time will certainly increase your passer rating. But leading the 30th-32nd ranked passing offense every year he was the starter shows he was pretty underwhelming in every other category. And he had ample talent on both sides of the ball, and he had a team that was projected to compete for a playoff spot since they were "just a QB away" from being great according to experts that offseason. Kyle Orton was 8-6 with this team, with the Bills finishing 9-7 on the year. Tyrod came in and did nothing special. Then every year from there he got worse and more timid. But yeah, he was so "efficient," and was better in 1 specific category that doesn't reflect how good he actually was as a QB. It's a myth Tyrod was efficient. He lacked situational & game awareness. If it's 3rd & 13, you're down by 2 scores, and there's 5 mins left in the 4th, how efficient is it to throw the ball 2 yards downfield to the RB without going through your reads? What about when the opposing team keeps marching down the field all game, scoring drive after drive, all while you go 3 & out because he won't even ATTEMPT to throw to the 1st down marker? When you see you're down by over 20 points late in the 3rd quarter, is it really "efficient" to dump it off & punt just so you don't risk throwing an INT? If he had ANY sense of urgency whatsoever, and played like he wanted to win, Tyrod could've been very good. But the fact his record was 3 - 23 in games we went down by even ONE point at any time in the 4th quarter just further highlights his inability to make the necessary plays required of the position. He rather run 3 yards and lose the game than try to throw for a crucial 1st down & risk making any mistake. Weak.

If it weren't for NY state having such high taxes and construction costs, it'd be a done deal by now. Plenty of new stadiums in the last 10 years have gone up for under $1 Billion, it's just that they have the luxury of not being located in New York. $1.4 Billion for a new stadium is absurd for Buffalo. Metlife was $1.6 Billion, and was the most expensive stadium ever built (but also had 2 teams paying for it), yet a new stadium for the Bills would cost $1.4 Billion???? That's just unnecessary. I doubt it. There were empty seats during the glory years while going to 4 straight Super Bowls, especially in the winter. And with Buffalo being even smaller now, it's unlikely we'd get much better turnout with higher prices.

I hope you're right. There's nothing in his college career hat makes me believe he will be as good as either of those 2, but I'm hopeful the Bills find a way to turn him around. Stafford played in the SEC and got better each season, while putting up impressive numbers against good competition his final year. And Big Ben was a beast in the MAC, just killing it through the air. Allen didn't do much of anything in the Mountain West, didn't play as much as those 2, and took a step back his final year. I'm not really confident he can read a defense, but REALLY hoping he will learn. He has a great arm for sure, but for a team that wants to pound the ball, he will have to learn to throw those short - intermediate routes, as well as get his timing routes down quickly. I also hope he learns to release it early, as he won't be able to step back & get much time to throw with this O-line losing its 3 best starters. And he better be able to take a hit, because chances are he's gonna get smacked around a lot due to that awful line.

Currently Use - 1. Thurman Thomas (Authentic-Away Game Jersey / Signed) 2. Jim Kelly Home (Official / Current Style) 3. Custom Home (Official / Current Style) ****Old**** 1. Marcell Dareus (Home / Replica / Current Style) 2. Marshawn Lynch (Home / Ugly Navy style) 3. Drew Bledsoe (Home / Ugly Navy style) Purchased for Wife - 1. Jim Kelly (Home/ Current Style) 2. Custom Home (Current Style) ****Old**** 1. Sammy Watkins (Home / Current Style) 2. Marshawn Lynch (Home / Ugly Navy Style) So yeah...just buying retired players from this point on. Got tired of my jerseys being irrelevant the year I buy them. Bought the Dareus one for myself, and the Watkins one for my wife before this season. Both got traded. FFFFFFFFF that. Not even gonna chance getting an Allen jersey. He's already got a ton of red flags, don't want to jinx it even more. Just gotta work on getting Bruce and Reed jerseys next.

In terms of pure skill, it was either him or Bruce who were the best players on the team. As much as I love Jim, he was significantly behind those 2 overall. Jim gets the most recognition being the QB, but he wasn't ever close that dominant at his best. Thurman was an absolute beast, and rushing numbers could've been even better had he not been so damn good in the passing game too. His numbers the following year were just as good as '91. He had 1,487 rushing, 626 receiving and 12 TD's. Only problem was he fumbled a decent amount that season. Man I miss watching him play

To be fair, they can say the same about us. The Bills have been equally inept at drafting and developing QBs, and as a franchise have been in the dumps just as much overall. Hell, both of our total win/loss records are neck & neck, with us barely edging them out. Since 1960, the Bills have a .467% win percentage, going 409-467-8 overall. (#23) Since 1960, the Jets have a .454% win percentage, going 397-479-8 overall. (#26) Since the merger, the Bills have made the playoffs 15 times in their history. They are 12-15 in those games, with 4 Super Bowl losses. The Jets have made the playoffs 14 times in their history. They are 12-13 in those games, with 1 Super Bowl victory. We both have 1 HOF QB in our history, with our's being better and their's being more iconic. Other than that, we've had mountains of garbage and a few decent-above average players. If we were putting together a top 5 list of Jets & Bills QB's (without Kelly & Namath), it'd probably go: 1. Vinny Testaverde 2. Joe Ferguson 3. Ken O'Brien 4. Drew Bledsoe 5. Chad Pennington (or Doug Flutie, toss up) Anyway, I was bored...just wanted to throw out how similar the two of our franchises are in terms of historical success & ability to develop QB's lol

I think all fans "support" him and WANT him to do well, the only problem is he's shown the least out of all the 1st round QB's and against the worst competition. He's got the most red flags & questions marks, and it's very, VERY hard to picture the Bills being an organization capable enough to turn him into a franchise QB. With our history of developing QB's, and a lack of veteran QB's on the roster for him to learn from & sit behind, it's an almost monumental task ahead of them to get this right. But I'll be there supporting him, cheering him on, and believing in him all the way. It's just a huge risk they took, and it has people nervous.