SoTier

Andy Reid wore that "he can't win the big one" label for years in Philadelphia. Then he went to KC, found his future HOF QB, and went on from there. Tony Dungy wore that label for years, too, until he and Peyton finally won the Lombardi. There's a lot of luck involved in any SB win. Consider that in NE's greatest season, 2007, when they won 18 games in a row, a pass that David Tyree caught on his helmet, cost them the Super Bowl --- and an historic perfect 19-0 season. Manure happens. The law of averages says that the Bills are due some good luck at the end of the season and in the playoffs, especially when it comes to injuries on defense. Maybe this is the year they get some.

Exactly this. If the Bills can stay relatively healthy this season, I don't see any reason for them to not be able to win the AFCE and go on from there. Hopefully, they can have better luck in the playoffs in 2024 than the 2021 and 2023 teams had, especially with late season/playoff injuries. The team will look different on both sides of the ball and play a more diverse style of offense, but that's not a step backwards. It's an adaptation to what DCs have and are doing in response to the rule changes that favored passers and pass receivers. IMO, making defenses worry about both the run and the pass coming from formations that feature the same personnel is the Bills' aim with their new offensive pieces.

A lot of Appalachia (western PA, eastern KY and TN, western VA, NC and SC) were originally settled by Scotch Irish (Ulster Scots) immigrants in the late 18th and early 19th century who brought their version of English with them. Conditions in Ireland were never good for either Catholic or Protestant lower classes, so there was a lot of emigration, which probably explains how "criks" are also found in the UK and Australia. Industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century lured a lot of migrants out of Appalachia to the more prosperous large and small manufacturing towns in the Midwest and the Great Lakes. The "Hillbilly Highway" refers to some of this out-migration to cities like Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and yes, Buffalo, after WW II for well paying jobs in the steel and automobile industries. A lot of people in the Jamestown area have their roots in West Virginia because their grandparents or great grandparents came to work in the furniture factories that once dominated Jamestown's economy.

Starting QB Jack Kemp was injured during training camp IIRC. Shaw was coming back from a knee-injury suffered the previous year, and the rest of the OL was trash. The Bills ended up going through 4 other QBs in 14 games: Dan Darragh (rookie), Ed Rutkowski (eventually became Erie County Executive), Kay Stephenson, and Tom Flores. They finished 1-12-1 and used their #1 pick on OJ Simpson.

Sadly, I think you might be right. The Diggs we saw on the field and along the sidelines in the second half of last season wasn't the Stefon Diggs whom Bills fans cheered for the previous three seasons. Maybe he was hampered by some nagging injury that was never revealed or maybe he just slowed down enough that he couldn't be what he was before. In either case, his frustration showed, and maybe in a new situation, he can regain some of his previous form.

Totally agree. To end up with the #3 pick when you have a desperate need of a franchise QB is great. To have the #3 pick and have a really good prospect available is priceless. From everything I've read about Maye, he has the most upside of the 2024 QBs as he's only 21 and was only a starter for 2 seasons.

Actually, most QBs have always "all over the map on deep throws". There's just too many factors to get right to make "bombs away" a successful strategy long term. It's also been tried before. Ever hear of "Air Coryell"? Under HC Don Coryell the Chargers had their own Maserati in Dan Fouts. In Coryell's 8 year tenure, the Chargers made the playoffs 4 times and the conference championship twice but never made the Super Bowl ... and this was back in the days before FA and salary caps made it really hard to pair a super QB with a bunch of really good WRs.

Well, for a guy supposedly that dumb, ol' Terry has done pretty well for himself ... 4 SB rings, HOF, and a second successful career in broadcasting.

Actually, it can easily be a problem for any team. At the end of the 2024 SB, the Chiefs' D was gassed and barely summoned up the energy for the next play.

Cry me a river. I've been a Bills fan for 61 years, which is most likely longer than you've been alive. The Bills failed to make the playoffs in 37 of those years. They had 31 losing seasons, including 5 seasons with only 1 or 2 wins. In the last 40 years the Bills have never been as bad as they were in the 1970s and 1980s, although the later years of the Drought under Russ Brandon and Dick Jauron came close. Because you're unhappy because the Bills haven't advanced to the Super Bowl in the last few years, you're throwing a hissy fit. Guess what, it could be a whole lot worse. You could be a Jests fan. To quote Mick Jagger, "you can't always get what you want".

Is protecting the D a bad thing? Playing D against teams that can make long scoring drives with regularity can wear a defense down if their own offense can't stay on the field long enough to give the defense a breather. That's the problem with a quick strike offense -- the defense is always on the field.

Is the offense "forced to play small ball" or is that what they want to play?

How has "bombs away" worked for the mighty Fishies? According to one analyst, they may be the fastest team ever after adding more offensive speed in the draft. They certainly are spectacular when they stomp on bottom feeder defenses but when they run into a team with a good defense, they crash and burn because when Ds stop their WRs, they don't have many real answers. I want the Bills to be able to move the ball however they want to move it no matter what the opponent's defense or the weather does. Winning football games is much more important to me than having Allen set passing records. My guess is that that's Allen POV, too. He doesn't like to lose.

If a team is going to copy cat another team, shouldn't it be the best one, not another also-ran? The Chiefs have won back-to-back Lombardis since they traded away Tyreek Hill. Plain and simple, teams paying an elite QB cannot afford really top end WRs not on their rookie contracts, so their WR rooms are going to be of modest quality. What has Miami won with all their vaunted speed on offense ... aside from being able to beat up on lesser teams? They won only 1 or 2 games against teams with winning records in 2023.

The best prospects (not necessarily the best actual NFLers) are found in the Top 100. Going into the draft, the Bills had 2 picks in the Top 100, #28 and #60. They came out of Day 1 with #33, #60, #95. If the Bills hadn't traded back, they probably would have still taken Bishop at #60 but KC would have gotten somebody, maybe maybe somebody a lot better than HIcks, with #95. Don't assume to speak for all Bills fans. I have no problem with the Bills getting KC's third round pick when the Bills had no interest in Worthy, the player the Chiefs wanted.

This is the most hateful post I have ever read on TSW. It far surpasses all the other venomous and stupid bull manure that you've posted here in the last few days. Your hatred of Beane and McDermott suggests a level of anger bordering on mental instability.

I don't think that Beane had any interest in Worthy because however fast he is, he's slightly built -- at 6'1" and 172 lbs he's a smurf who's unlikely to have a long NFL career -- and I think Beane always wanted a big outside WR. The optics are "bad" only because people don't look at the whole picture rationally. The Bills traded with KC because they didn't have a particular player they really wanted at #28 plus Chiefs gave them their third round pick in order to swap #28 for #32. Not only did the Bills gain a top 100 pick, but the Chiefs lost that pick. That's a win any way you look at it.

Why not? The Chiefs' WR room last season consisted of Mecole Hardman, Richie James, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice, Justin Ross, Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Montrell Washington, and Justin Watson. Who were Mahomes' primary WRs in 2023? Hardman, Rice, Valdes-Scantling. The Bills under Ralph Wilson's surrogate Russ Brandon the Bills' primary objective was to make the team as profitable as possible. One of Brandon Beane's first acts as GM was to fire most of staff involved in scouting and talent evaluation. Pre-Beane, one of the Bills highest ranked talent evaluators, Tom Modrak, worked part time ... from his home in Philadelphia. Not all GMs and FOs are created equal.

This post really troubled me because I had a hard time deciding on which emoji to use on it. I settled on "Dislike" but "Vomit", "Eyeroll", "Disagree", and "HaHa" were all good candidates, too. Apparently, the Bills not drafting the prospects they wanted has unhinged numerous members of TSW.

Awesome post!

There's much more to it than that as to why fans are wrong on many picks. Even with access to medicals and interviews, teams also are wrong on picks. Success in the draft demands a lot of serious investigation, good instincts about people, and some luck. Draft prospects are not robots, which makes picking A over B a whole more complicated than totaling up Combine performance, YouTube highlight videos, medical reports, interviews, etc. The people evaluating prospects aren't robots either.

The "crik" vs "creek" thing is something that is endemic in WNY. We don't even think of it, especially people who have never lived outside of the area. Even if you've lived outside of WNY for several years and learned to say "creek", when you move back, it sneaks back into your speech because you hear it all the time. When I lived in Nebraska and the Albany area for more than a decade, I said "creek" but "crik" came back into my everyday speech in a relatively short time.

I don't think that NFL players, coaches or FO staff bring the same emotions to rivalries as fans do. After all, there's only a few hundred players, fewer coaches, and even fewer executives/owners, so they all know their peers. Many, notably players and coaches, frequently change teams. I think the pros' rivalries are more like friendly rivalries between/among siblings or good friends. Antipathy between players or FO personnel is based on personal interactions rather than on the outcomes of games. People who work at Ford don't generally hate people who work at Chevy unless there's some personal bad blood. Fans' rivalries are often tinged with anger, bitterness, envy, frustration, etc. that stem primarily from winning or losing football games. We fans hate the organization, the players, and the coaches -- unless,of course, those who come to our team.

He made "Manifest Destiny" (US spreading all the way to the Pacific) a reality. However, the acquisition of the Mexican territory ignited the battle over expanding slavery into the new territories which eventually resulted in the Civil War. There were more military deaths (600+ K) in the Civil War than in all other US military actions combined, including both World Wars in the 20th century.