SoTier

It's why the Bills went for it on fourth and two rather than kick a FG to go up by 5. Any lead less than 9 points late in the game, especially after the two minute warning, opens the door for the Chiefs to win or at least tie on a last second FG or TD. They have that mastered.

The Chiefs are simply not playing well ... and it's not because they've lost a bunch of key players to injury. They've been playing this way the entire season. All the media analysts expected that losing to the Bills would spark the Chiefs to come out and rout the Panthers. I think they were favored by 9 points over Carolina, and they barely escaped ... again ... looking like "the same old Chiefs" they've been all season, winning by luck rather than their own play. Fast forward to yesterday, and the Chiefs won the game against the Raiders only because the Raiders' FG kicker's foot hit the dirt before the ball on their last long FG attempt. When they get to the playoffs, the Chiefs are going to be going against good teams that are fully capable of not only sticking with them but of making their own luck with their own top personnel and excellent coaching. Somebody is going to knock them out before they get to the Super Bowl. Depending on the final seeding, the Chiefs might very well be 1 and done in this years playoffs.

I don't think it's the cold so much as it is playing good teams. The Fins have played 4 games against teams with winning records -- Seattle, Arizona, and Buffalo twice -- and lost all of them. They look like they're going to make it 0-5 against teams with winning records.

That's my point, too. I don't know where the idea came from that any place was going to get 6 feet of snow by Monday. As of this morning, the area from Erie, PA to Dunkirk and east are possibly going to get 18-24". Jamestown is forecast to get up to a foot by Monday but we're at an elevation of around 1200-1400 feet. Some people are panicking unnecessarily.

And this firm would provide executive front office services to multiple NFL teams? I don't think that's a path that the NFL will go down any time soon if ever.

The winds will be coming from the west and northwest which will put most of the snow well south of Buffalo, and probably south of the stadium as well. The winds will be coming over the narrower part of Lake Erie, so they aren't going to pick up huge amounts of moisture before coming over land. The huge snow amounts in the Southtowns (Hamburg, OP) from lake effect snow events occur when the winds come from a southwesterly direction that takes it over almost the entire length of Lake Erie sucking up moisture as it goes. All of WNY will likely get some decent snow. Some of us will get quite a lot. Places in the Boston Hills or along the Chautauqua Ridge will probably get the most but it's highly unlikely that even they will get 6 or 7 feet. It takes a specific set of circumstances to produce such massive snow totals, but not all of them are present for this upcoming weather event.

Not every lake effect snow event is the same.

You are suggesting a "GM by committee" structure for the FO with the committee being employed by an outside entity. That -- turning corporate control over to employees of another corporation -- doesn't seem a good business model for any enterprise to me, and especially for an NFL team, which involves a relatively small number of employees at the upper levels. Are any NFL franchises currently employing a firm to run their FO?

I think that forecasts of 4-6 feet are a bit extreme, especially since snow bands tend to move as the winds change directions. According to Storm Team 2 at 11 tonight about 1 to 2 feet of snow is expected between Friday and Monday with most of it falling in the southern part of Erie County and Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties, and the heaviest snow coming on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, the weather system that will spawn the lake effect will be moving out, which usually means the winds should be diminishing and coming more from the west/north west which will snow again well south of the stadium.

Woody picked Joe Douglas as his GM, who picked Saleh. Saleh wasn't a great HC but he was competent. The whole Aaron Rodgers fiasco was the result of poor decisions made higher up the corporate food chain than HC. Unlike most, I don't believe that Saleh was fired because he wanted to fire his OC, Hackett. I think he was fired because he refused to fire Hackett when others in the organization/on the team wanted to cover their asses by firing the OC. As it turned out, firing Saleh and relieving Hackett of his duties, didn't improve the Jests offense at all.

I don't think that either of the Lions staffers would be interested in the Jests. They will undoubtedly have better options than Woody Johnson's dysfunctional franchise. I agree, but Woody Johnson will undoubtedly pick the worst candidate. It seems to be what he does ... repeatedly.

Houston is playing pretty poorly, so I can't see them beating the Ravens. I think they play both the Steelers and Browns at home, which is a big plus for them. OTOH, if Jameis gets hot, he will shred the Ravens' pass defense. I can see the Ravens going 3-2 with wins against the Stillers and Texans. Houston will be the fourth seed, but they surely won't win 11 games. They are playing poorly on both sides of the ball. They play the Jags, Dolphins, Chiefs, Ravens, and Titans. They will probably beat the Jags. Maybe they beat Tennessee. They make the playoffs only because they win the AFCS where all the other teams are so far in the hole, they probably can't get to 8 or 9 wins even if they somehow started playing like juggernauts.

IMO, Johnson is trying to recreate the best years of his reign as Jests owner. With Tannenbaum as GM, the Jests went to back-to-back AFCCGs with Rex Ryan as HC and Mark Sanchez as QB. It was the Jests' version of the "Glory Years". Tannenbaum built the the best OL in the AFC at the time with D'Brickashaw Ferguson at LT, Alan Faneca at LG, Nick Mangold at C, Brandon Moore at RG and Damien Woody at RT. Ferguson and Mangold were All Pros in 2009 and Faneca a Pro Bowler as well. They had an excellent defense led by Pro Bowl DE Shaun Ellis and All Pro DB Darrelle Revis. Tannenbaum also traded up in the draft to take Sanchez.

Exactly. Fans of the other playoff contending teams are all worried about their teams facing the Bills.

I guarantee that being robbed by some "South American gang" doesn't feel any different than being robbed by some local gang.

So, there wasn't crime in the US before "South American gangs" became the latest foreign criminal bogeyman -- Chinese gangs, Mexican drug cartels, Russian gangster, etc -- in the last thirty years and getting rid of "South American gangs" will end crime in America? There are no criminal Americans? FTR, how do you propose to identify and locate these "South American gangs" and then "just get rid of them"? I can't speak for other states although I think that probably most states have them, but in NYS, counties have public on-line GIS databases which list all properties with their tax info including owners and owners' addresses. These databases have search functions based on owner's name or street or specific address, but it wouldn't be hard to target an upscale street in a particular town and just check out each address to find the one(s) you are interested in.

Understatement ... Cook at the end of the 2nd, Bernard late in the 3rd, Shakir in the 5th, Benford in the 6th ... all outstanding starters. Getting 4 starters of their quality from a single draft is amazing. Elam has been a disappointment, but 7th rounder Spector is a useful player. Without outside issues, 6th rounder Araiza likely is the Bills punter rather than KC's. Of their 8 picks in 2022, only 1, Luke Tenuta, failed to make the Bills. He's currently on the Cardinals PS.

The Browns smacked the Ravens a couple of weeks ago, and they get them again. If Jameis is on like he was against Pitt, he can easily smoke the Ravens' suspect pass defense. Absolutely. Pitt cannot score TDs in the red zone. They've won 2 games without scoring a TD so far.

I prefer the Steelers to take the AFCN, so I should root for them, but Browns are my third favorite team behind the Bills and Steelers. Now that Watson isn't playing, I can root for the Browns again. I'm torn.

Looking at the second chart, it seems to me that the quality of the QB, the quality of the kicker, and the quality of the defense are three big factors in determining how conservative or aggressive a team tends to be. There are other factors as well, probably opponent and game situation being most important. KC has a great QB not playing his best, a great kicker (with Butker at least), and an excellent defense. They can afford to be conservative. Pittsburgh has mediocre at best QB(s), an excellent kicker, and a great defense. They have to be conservative. The Bills have a great QB, a pretty good kicker, and a pretty good defense. They can afford to be aggressive. The Lions have a great QB (at least this year), a pretty good kicker, and a pretty good defense. They can afford to be aggressive.

There was some discussion of this when the Bears fired their OC. A number of analysts explained that OCs started young QBs with plays they were familiar with and good at so that they had some success. Then they added more plays and more complexity as the young QBs mastered the easier stuff. These analysts used CJ Stroud last season and Jayden Daniels this season as examples of how play calling could help a young QB. They felt that that was not what Chicago was doing with Caleb Williams. IIRC, Brady, Warner, and Purdy all got their chances because the starting QBs got hurt. Most young QBs in the same situations don't succeed, though. Part of it is the coaching they get but a lot of it is also their natural ability IMO.

The NFL finally forced Snyder out prior to the 2023 season, so the new regime was in place last season. They got Daniels in their second draft. Posters on TSW are always whining about how the Bills are "wasting" Allen because they've failed to get to a SB, but Burrow is in a situation where his talent is really being wasted. He's lighting up the league but his team can't win games because there are so many holes on the rest of the team. That said, I don't put Cinci in the same category as the Bills, Lions, and Commanders used to be or as the Jests are now. They're more like the Dolphins and Colts and maybe the Falcons. They aren't good but they aren't perpetual bottom feeders, either. Teams don't really expect many QBs drafted after the first round to become franchise QBs, but when one you drafted looks like crap on your team but goes on to have a decent career elsewhere like Geno Smith, it's just more evidence of incompetence. Woody was the ambassador to the UK during the first Trump administration (seasons 2017-2020) which didn't improve the Jests all that much. Why would another stint as ambassador change anything with the Jests? It's wishful thinking on the part of Jests fans IMO.

Long time bottom feeder franchises are like leopards. They don't change their spots. The only way for these franchises to become winning football teams is regime change from the top down. That means new ownership as well as the removal any left over major decision makers remaining in the organization. Changing GMs, HCs, and players might get a winning season or two or even a WC game every decade or so, but there's no real sustained improvement because the way the organization is run isn't conducive to building a winning football team. Three examples: Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, and Washington Commanders.

How will that help? They've whiffed on 3 top five QBs in the last 15 years: Sanchez (2009), Darnold (2018), and Wilson (2021) plus a 2nd rounder in 2013 (Smith). Smith and Darnold have gone on to become decent starting QBs, which is only more embarrassing because both looked like something nasty you don't want to step in when with the Jests.

Actually, the Bills' window has probably widened. Woody Johnson still owns the team, and his boy Aaron is solidified as second-in-command.