Richard Noggin

Are you suggesting that perhaps we don't? If you are, then by all means, state your case. We've got time to discuss it before Allen is back on the field. But nobody's got time for ambiguity (best case) or trollish teasers (worst case).

A reasonable counter to that perspective is to remember how our offense looked without Brown throughout this season. One could argue that they struggled to adjust to his absence early on (and struggled a bit for other reasons as well for a few games there), but then hit their absolute stride without John Brown in the lineup. 1. Diggs and Beasley are and should be the top two targets. 2. Defenses can try to specifically take away up to two passing options on a given play, as we've seen in the playoffs. 3. So when things get so matchup specific, the other targets need to be able to win against man coverage. Obviously it's a lot more complex than that, but then again, we've watched it essentially boil down to these kinds of isolated matchups. I have a few too many recollections of John Brown NOT winning his one-on-one opportunities when it really mattered most (against Baltimore in 2019 and in the playoffs both seasons). Love the guy. But I think Buffalo maximized his production in 2019, and he's no longer worth his contract given the reality of 2021's salary cap.

Haven't played in over a dozen years. Growing up is lame. I wonder how the gameplay is these days?

Still available at 30 right now are Owusu-Koramoah, Collins, and Bolton at LB and Toney at WR, Barmore at DT, etc... No trades draft (guess one has to be a Premium subscriber to unlock trades) netted crazy haul: Owusu-Koramoah Landon Dickerson Patrick Jones II Chubba Hubbard Tedarrell Slaton After the 5th round something glitched, but...that's a 5-round haul, no?

Consistently mocked in the 6th or 7th round. I'm at least interested at that price. Bills have five picks in the final three rounds, and realistically they need to find at least one or two eventual contributors (not sure how that desired and loosely defined "hit"-rate (40%) compares to NFL averages for Day Three picks).

Just now was the first time I ever actually looked at Spotrac.com. I've known about it second hand for a while, but finally followed the link myself. Thanks for linking it yet again. What an effing site. This list/spreadsheet alone is so comprehensive and analytic...it triggers that long dormant Madden Franchise Mode GM in me. On Madden 2005, when I was a grad student, I built a very long term Bills franchise, but I would simulate entire season schedules to skip ahead to the part I preferred: the offseason team-building stuff. Scouting and drafting and signing players and then developing them (and eventually flipping them for draft capital in the final years of their contracts). The two-year FA player comps for Romeo Okwara (DET FA) are especially interesting because the short list includes both Shaq Lawson and Jordan Phillips in their two years before leaving the Bills in free agency. Phillips tellingly grades out poorly overall compared to his similarly valued peers. His .31 hurry per game is abysmal. Okwara's hurries-per-game REALLY jump out (2.17) against that list (which also includes Harry Anderson and Carl Nassib).

Oh...they're a "thing" all right.

Tight End, silly

Yeah, define "close"

He's throwing his guys under the bus that he's driving, is what the saying implies. And I'm enjoying the ride!

I mean, life, amiright

Your avatar speaks to me.

Isn't Samuel more of a smallish and quick man-cover corner who can play the slot? Not really a McD scheme fit, to my understanding.

Fair. The Chiefs offensive skill position depth chart is probably better, or at least more explosive. But one could still argue, as Zerovoltz and others have, that while Mahomes has these matchup nightmares to work with at the offensive skill positions, his offensive line has fielded too many backups and JAGs. So maybe the question of who's receiving more or less "help" on the field, with respect to offensive talent, isn't so black-and-white. Then again, I believe Andy Reid is a MUCH better offensive coordinator than Brian Daboll. That's probably obvious, and that definitely "helps" Mahomes.

Brady's entire approach to playing QB, at least early in his career (and probably again now late in his career) runs completely counter to these younger, more physically gifted, transcendently talented, aggressive guys. Aside from a midcareer run with an HOF receiver, he always HAD to master the details and take what the defense gave him in a mostly boring, often sackless, efficient way. These new hotshot QBs with their athleticism, toughness, creativity, and nearly limitless arm talent, have to gradually reprogram themselves to play more within the limits of each play. That's historically proven to be difficult for most QBs to do consistently. I think both Allen and Mahomes lost in the playoffs due to a hard-wired reluctance or even slight delay in deciding to play efficient small ball. Probably also has something to do with coaching: offensive gameplans and passing concepts and progressions tailored to their strengths and all that. They might have to learn to temper their approaches more. To pick their spots. To preserve their talents at times.

Easy, tiger. Bills Mafia appreciates your tenacity, but you might be guilty of overreacting here. Mahomes is awesome. Allen is awesome. Along with a few other young guns, these guys are evolving the QB position to some extent. But in the playoffs they both ran into opposing defenses they could not overcome. And interestingly, they showed some very similar flaws in those games, perhaps due to being schemed against very similarly. Because they're similar players. But Mahomes has been demonstrably better in his three years than Allen has been in his. Maybe in 2021 Allen makes yet another leap and surpasses Mahomes. There are some factors lining up in his favor (Mahomes's health, for one). So relax. Allen is awesome. But he's not the league MVP yet.

I do not agree with the bolded, although I do agree with what follows. The NFL is so incredibly variable, with possible permutations for the outcomes of each season, for each week, each game, each play, each practice, player, coach, ref, etc., in a kind of fractalized infinite regress of variables. So to maximize the potential for consistent and sustained success, it's best not to focus on countering a specific opponent in the short term who will inevitably change profoundly over a long enough timeline, and possibly could be very different next season. It's better to simply improve in whatever specific, achievable ways are possible each day, each week, each season, etc. Continue to strive to become the best version of the Buffalo Bills, all the time. Now, the obstinate outlier in all this variance is, of course, the franchise QB. They tend to transcend. They tend to sustain. To carry over. So there is room for some tailoring of the process to account for what's likely to be a long term, consistent barrier: Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs overall will change considerably in both the short and long term. That opponent is not a static entity. But I'll admit it's likely that Mahomes and his talents, traits, tendencies, etc. will stick around. One never knows, though, now does one now does one now does one. (Shoutout to my favorite author, DFW.)

That's the impression one gets. The point is not wrong, of course. Just maybe...stale.

You've made this point at least a...few times.

I can explain that I was wrong, apparently, in thinking that player retirement automatically results in cap relief for that player's team. If Star retires this off-season, for example, then the Bills end up without his services AND a big dead cap hit that they can't get out of (until of course we consider whatever the eff Brees and the Saints just did). For more specifics you'd have to watch the podcast. Thompsett is pretty active in the chat during the broadcast, brings some serious cap smarts, and lets me know I'm wrong, much to the delight of all of us conversing.

With respect to this very myth about retirement and salary cap implications: Cover-1's Greg Thompsett set me straight last night via chat during their streamed salary cap podcast. I incorrectly commented that an unexpected Star Lotulelei retirement (a minor/mostly unfounded concern that nonetheless did come up and wasn't laughed off) would, on the bright side, provide cap relief for the Bills. Turns out that is not the case. Retirements can and do sometimes create sudden depth chart holes AND salary cap dead weight. Come to think of it, for example, didn't Eric Wood's sudden retirement trigger some poopy cap implications?

The douche in Tampa Bay USED TO have the best functional pocket mobility I'd ever seen. That guy, despite being a gangly mess, could sidestep a single rusher or step up into a lane and then deliver a strike with startling efficiency. He was elusive within the structure of the pocket.

I'm not sure you know what that word (fact) means. But I kind of agree with you.

I don't disagree with the points you're making here. But it still stands that the Lions thinking is pretty clear with respect to trade compensation and a QB the GM might actually like. Both teams get to start over with new QBs whom they apparently want. And the Lions get a lot of draft capital.

Their new GM helped to draft Goff in LA. It is possible that he actually likes Goff as a QB, at least in the short term. So the TWO 1st rounders plus a QB he likes probably made it an easy choice for the Detroit GM. The contract is whatever. They were already paying a QB, so now they're paying a different, younger guy, who they ostensibly like, and they have future firsts to build their roster. You don't have to agree with the assessment of Goff to understand the thinking behind the move.