SCBills

One would hope Benford/Hairston and Bishop help change this. If by the Bengals game, Max isn’t getting most of the snaps, I’ll be at a loss for words. I will acknowledge that Tre seems to be playing better lately, but that’s a game we need Hairston/Benford vs Chase/Higgins.

I think another good game by Gabe gets him signed to the 53 or an agreement that happens in two weeks. A good season by Gabe likely means Bills/Gabe work out a deal for next year. He made some money in Jax and I think he just wants to play where he’s comfortable.. which is here, with JA. Id be shocked if he stays healthy and plays well, then isn’t on our roster next year.

Not for nothing, but if the team was so ready to be done with Keon over this, why didn’t they just move him at a the trade deadline? There are teams who liked him in the draft and likely think he just doesn’t fit with Allen or is miscast outside. Im guessing they had to see Gabe get right and Keon was the insurance plan if he couldn’t?

The problem is, when it comes to fan criticism, is the fanbase/content creator community overwhelmingly disliked or were meh on guys like Elam, Keon (don’t fit what we do) and Carter, Jackson (just aren’t good enough) and here we are with 4 recent premium picks and nada, nothing. You can’t predict injury, typically, but it’s pretty obvious we need more from early round picks … and we need more early in their careers .. not year 3 and then we have to make a decision to pay them. Nevermind another a recent high pick in Kincaid, who’s good when on the field, but can’t get on the field because A) Struggles blocking DE/LB’s and B) Is made of glass.

I think they have hope on 3rd and longs because Benford is starting to look like himself again, Hairston clearly looks like he belongs out there and Cole Bishop is turning into a stud Safety. If all 3 of those guys continue to gel and we get anything out of Poyer/Hancock and Johnson/Lewis, this secondary can cover. The DL needs Sanders to become what they drafted him for desperately. To be that passing down pass rusher from the interior. They also need Bosa to get healthy and Rousseau to take a jump that maybe is never coming. Dorian Williams in the Hoecht role has some promise, but we need Sanders to come on so Solomon can go back to DE4. He just gets stonewalled too often in that interior pass rush role.

No idea why people think Burrow coming back wouldn’t be a huge help.. Maybe he’s not fully healthy and rushing back, maybe they still lose .. but Flacco is a backup QB for a reason and after a few games, is now doing what backup QBs do when pressed into action for more than a few games. Nevermind the juice that team (should) have if Burrow returns, along with it being at home where the crowd will likely be electric.

Late 2nd Cook. Late 2nd Torrence. Jumped NE in the 3rd for Brown. Three pretty massive building blocks around Josh Allen. Signing Ty Johnson. If only Beane could do at WR what he’s clearly capable of doing at OL/RB.

Beane should get a ton of credit for Josh Allen and building an elite OL with the help of Aaron Kromer. James Cook was a home run of a pick with the multiple trade downs and still getting one of the best RB’s in the league and then extending him on a somewhat team friendly contract compared to what Cook would get on the open market. After that, it goes downhill pretty quickly. Some hits in the mid/late rounds but those guys don’t have the ceiling of early round picks .. which is why we have extensions for guys like Shakir and Benford and they’re simply good to very good, but not elite players. Hes left Josh out to dry at WR and I don’t care if Josh liked Keon or not .. the staff should know Josh needs separators. See guy open, arm cannon the ball to the WR. He’s not an anticipation/jump ball QB. The philosophy for drafting Kincaid made zero sense and has been evident in the fact he plays like 30% of snaps per game as a big slot. He cares way too much about spending money/draft capital on the upper middle of the roster as opposed to getting an elite guy … evidenced once again by valuing a late 1st this coming Draft over getting Josh Allen a WR the caliber of Waddle. I will say, to his Defense, the DL - if they stayed healthy - might be a Top 5 group in the NFL. But given how obsessed he is with getting it right, how do you lose two players and it becomes a massive liability? We desperately need more from the DL and we can’t even rest Bosa to get him right because our trade up early 2nd RD pick at DT is having to play DE snaps? We also lost Jackson, but he was destined for a redshirt year anyway as a 3rd round pick. The bigger issue is we can’t rest Bosa, because our 20M per year extension EDGE doesn’t rush the passer well enough.

Perhaps. But let’s say the Ravens split with CIN and split with PIT, then split NE/GB.. That’s 9-8, assuming they beat the Jets this weekend. And with CIN playing them twice, they have as much control over how this plays out as you can possibly have. Steelers could easily lose to the Bears, Bills, Ravens (1x) and Lions. So even if they split BAL and beat CLE/MIA, that’s 9-8. Not sure how the tiebreakers would play out. Again, extreme long shot for CIN, but they’re not out of it … yet… and with those remaining schedules, you can see why Burrow, if right, would demand to play.

The winner of the AFC North could very well be 9-8 After this week vs the Jets and Steelers vs the Bears, if the Bengals can beat the Pats, you could have both BAL & PIT at 6-5 with the Bengals at 4-7. Bengals have split against the Steelers and have 2 left against the Ravens. Steelers final stretch after the Bears have the Bills, Ravens twice and the Lions. Browns and Dolphins in addition. Ravens after this week. Steelers twice. Bengals twice. Pats and Packers. Bengals staying contention not only would likely mean Burrow comes back and they beat NE.. it also means they stay in the race to make the Ravens schedule far tougher on paper than it looked a few weeks ago and potentially beat them on Thanksgiving Night … which would make them juiced up for our game, but I’d take it if it means handing NE & BAL losses. Bottom Line, if Burrow can play, he’s coming back on Sunday. They seem far out of it, but if they can win these next two games, the math changes very quickly given the PIT/BAL schedules. Hopefully we put a wrench in that equation the following week, but not before they help us out.

Maturing is realizing Brandon Beane is the man we should want fired, not Sean McDermott.

Bills have Palmer and Shakir on multi-year deals. They have the rights to Shavers past this year. Id be willing to bet that if things go well with Gabe, he’s back next year. Thats 4 WR’s and we’re likely looking for another WR in the Draft, FA or trade to play meaningful snaps with them. Keon is looking like a guy who might just be emergency depth this year and then flipped for a 5th before the Draft. Im hopeful he can be something for us if/when called upon, but if he’s inactive again, he might only get back on the field as a Buffalo Bill due to injury.

With Ed Oliver and Michael Hoecht, I honestly think we’re the best team in the NFL, provided we take the restrictions off Allen when it matters. Stabilizes our run defense and our pass rush would be filthy. Hopefully Ed can pull a Burrow and suprise us by getting back early on the field Week 17 or 18 to get ready for the Playoffs but I doubt it. Feels like a Micah Hyde situation in which we hopefully actually make it to the point where he can return.

Very true, but I’m not sure I’d love to be the team playing the Bengals, even without Chase, on the day Burrow comes back at Paycor Stadium with the team knowing they need 7-0 maybeeee 6-1 to win the division. That place will be electric if he plays. Huge game for us, honestly, because we can end their playoff hopes in a few weeks and in the meantime have them take down NE and BAL. If they somehow beat NE, that Thanksgiving game is going to be wild.