Richard Noggin

Thanks for not being a doosh with your spoiler. The need to click to reveal allows us to opt out. Take notes, spoilers. Edit: I was trying to quote the guy who embeds a spoiler ALERT in his tips.

Relax and enjoy the parts you care about.

You're really something.

I love parody accounts like yours. Hilarious stuff! Imagine joining a message board to crusade for a first-round running back...

I think you're right in that earning a LATE first round pick, which every team should strive to do, presents novel challenges each year. And this year's draft might be uniquely challenging once they get past the dozen-or-so blue chippers. Moreover, I'll bet the 32 NFL draft boards this year are more varied and subjective than ever before. We might see the pundits and fans alike caught off-guard by more picks this year, as the prospects' draft profiles don't have the same degree of standardization (which was already subject to considerable variance) that teams have grown accustomed to. We're likely all a bit more clueless than usual about the actual inner workings of this year's team-specific draft evaluations. Seems like this is a year to let the draft play-out in front of you. Some highly-rated talents WILL fall, seeing as the prospect ratings from team-to-team will be less consistent. The draft should NOT be about immediate upgrades in any year (QB aside). It's about long-term roster building for the most part. Gotta keep cool and patient. Unless of course one of those top-fifteen (in the Bills' eyes) blue-chippers plummets. Then maybe they deal up. But I don't favor that approach.

Trigger warning for the anti- crowd...

I just really hope the Bills don't trade up in Rd 1 for a RB. Etienne is not a transcendent talent.

I think you stopped reading before the end. The article details his new training regimen at Per4orm (some training facility), focused on burst and decisiveness. I'm not saying he'll be magically transformed, but there IS substance to the article.

Reading the article can clear up all your questions.

But enough about ScorpionZero

If you run into vehicle trouble whilst under the influence, you best abandon said vehicle and regroup. Everyone knows that.

I'm just wondering if @chongli sees what Yolo did there.

Don't hold yer breath

@machine gun kelly so the quantifiable evidence you look to for Star's effectiveness is the success of the front-7 guys around him? Is that an accurate representation/translation of your claim? So then, are you implicitly suggesting we should see on film Edmunds getting canceled out in the wash more often last year than previously? Maybe his tackles would on average be recorded farther downfield in 2020 than in 2019 (that's gotta be tracked somewhere)? And maybe Oliver, for example, records fewer TFLs? Is there statistical support for this kind of consequent dropoff?

Agree in principle. Most of us get too hung up on high expectations for drafted players in year one. The draft is much more about keeping the roster stocked with a pipeline of young, affordable talent who can become productive alongside the higher paid vets (and hopefully, eventually replace them). I guess guys drafted on day one should at least compete for starting roles in most cases. Day two guys should increasingly be suiting up and showing up on game days by the second half of the season.

I know you to be a deliberate, thoughtful poster. You claim Star Lotulelei does his limited job well. So my question is: how do we know that to be true? What evidence can you point to? I don't ask this to be obtuse or to passively suggest the opposite. I do sincerely wonder, however, how we can come to some kind of objective consensus on Star's performance as a Bill. Is it just watching the plays? Are there published, favorable grades on his play? I don't want to solely rely on McBeane's APPARENT judgment on his play. I want another source. Help me, Thurm. I know you value evidence and fair reporting.

Is it okay to admit that most of the plays highlighted early on in the linked video are in fact highly-interceptable throws? Roughly 8 or 9 of them. Then, beginning around 1:20 with the Colts game highlight, we get mostly contested balls, passes defensed, or miscues that don't exactly hit a waiting defender's hands. Definitely still another pass or two that coulda/shoulda been picked, but mostly just unsuccessful throws. My hasty tally for the highlight package is something like 9-5, interceptable-to-simply-incomplete throws. Allen absolutely holds the ball too long at times, eventually throwing ill-advised, telegraphed gifts at a target he's been staring down. Then again, that's how we also get those toe-drag swag plays from Gabriel Davis in the playoffs against the Colts, for example. Gotta take the good-to-great with the bad.

The mistake by the m'lake

We are all of us shocked by your lack of ethical fortitude.

Those are rookie numbers.

Weird hill to die on, but okay.

Imagine being a Brady apologist.

I'd mistakenly thought the Bills signed Sean Davis after his visit. Guess not. Totally agree that there is a roster hole there, at backup S, and another at boundary CB. They need someone, like Marlowe, who can either replace a starter if necessary or be utilized in 3-safety sub-packages. I don't know if Johnson is ready to step into that role, or if he'll remain just a (solid) ST guy. As for CB, I'll bet we can all agree they'll draft a guy in the first three rounds to compete with Wallace and Jackson for the #2 job. Heck, Tre was picked at 27. Another first rounder, with five years of term/manageable salary, to pair with him just makes too much sense. Question: do we like Cam Lewis as slot depth? And Siran Neal? I think we could do worse.

I seem to remember film analysis on a youtube channel (maybe Cover-1?) of our running game woes in the early part of 2020 when Ford was still in at LG, with much of the blame assigned specifically to the guards. I think Winters was in at RG for most of it (due to Mongo's injury). Before being injured, Ford was having serious issues executing the scheme, If I'm remembering accurately. For him to suddenly be an average or above average NFL guard would be a major boost to the Bills offense. He has yet to be that. Here's to hoping he takes a BIG step forward.

(Sorry if others have replied to this post already; I'm reading through the thread in order 27 hours later because I work too much.) Anyways, I'm sure you realize that there are 10 other Bills on the field with Allen on every play, and coaches calling plays for them...so the QB's success can be greatly helped or hindered by myriad factors. You're not wrong in boiling it down to Josh Allen's production. It's just that personnel decisions, play-calling, and the on-field execution of his teammates--within the scope of the specific plays, packages, and situations--HEAVILY influence "his" results. Football is the ultimate team sport. SO many interrelated moving parts on every play.