Tyrod's friend

He looked bad. Which NFL MLB do you think covers a quality, 340 catch slot receiver on that play? SD knew that TEd was cheating on running plays. Took advantage. We'll see if every other team will counter-attack what the HC did in the second half. But he looked consistently bad. Maybe. He's been in 6 contests and frankly I've seen two or four plays that indicate some ability and can counter that with around 20 or 30 that show he's not even in the vicinity of an NFL linebacker. I'm not a gloom and doom guy. I never even liked Josh Allen and I think he still shows potential. But you have to show us SOMETHING.

I was just about to put up a different thread, but glad to see this one up there. How about a different question? Historically, has any regime ever had four former Pro Bowl players simply quit unexpectedly (and you could add Darius - who quit in a different way - to 2 offensive lineman, a WR and a CB that all left without notice) and survived? That is a total of five Pro Bowl players. They also traded away a fifth Pro Bowl QB.

Well, by the time Mike Pouncey signed we had already used the dollars for both Trent and for Star. I believe we also had already signed Bodine. So ... yeah. I'm thinking that there would have been no reason for Pouncey to have wanted to sign with us because at that point we didn't have the capital to do it. My read on the NFL is that players generally go where the money is, especially players signing contracts in the $7.5MM per year area. They sign where there is expressed interest and interest is expressed in dollars. Seems pretty clear to me that the Bills made absolutely no effort to get anything but crap to build up the offensive line. You can have a different opinion. But the dollars were spent early and hard on Dline (March 15th) and that was after they had traded away their top offensive lineman (March 12). We made ourselves NOT be an option. This is rhetorical, yes? Yes, shortly after he signed the contract. Not that those two things are related.

Last year, the Rams signed an All Pro left tackle in Whitfield. So there's that.

We spent more than $50MM on Star; another $15MM on Trent. Don't sign Trent, and don't sign Bodine, and you had the money for Pouncey. Why is this so hard to understand? The cap space was there to sign Mike Pouncey this offseason. We just didn't. We signed two more defensive linemen instead - this was despite the fact that the offensive line lost three really good starters.

Mike Pouncey, three time Pro Bowl center, signed a two year, $15MM contract with the Chargers. Not signing him was a decision; it was valuing improvement in the defensive line over improving our offensive line. Sorry, but you are wrong. It was entirely possible. We settled for a center that has NEVER been any good.

hmmm. perhaps you don't create the holes to begin with? Perhaps you retain some draft choices so you can bring in offensive lineman? Perhaps you don't allocate to one defensive tackle? Perhaps if you had even a little bit of money, you put it to work where the biggest holes occurred last offseason, and sign an All-Pro center instead of Russ Bodine?

Opening day, the last year we drafted a QB in the first round. In case you forgot, his first name was two initials.

As the saying goes, you are entitled to opinion but not to facts. The Bills offensive line blew up in the offseason, and they literally did nothing to improve the play. Then they stuck a project rookie QB behind it. Signing Bodine instead of Pouncey makes the world of difference, and this team literally blew stacks of bucks on two defensive linemen that as yet have done jack. No surprise that they were going to continue to act against the cap. The surprise was that they f'd up the money they did spend so badly that they are forcing bad performances on the field. Attacking the cap is NOT tantamount to accepting lowered performance on the field. That just makes fans feel better when their front office f's up.

I don't accept that as truth - certainly to the extent that you are at a 75-6 deficit in six quarters. Perhaps you don't draft QB AND MLB projects in the first round. Perhaps, just perhaps, you actually address the offensive line constructively instead of making it worse. Perhaps you sign players like an All Pro at Center instead of a career bust from Cincinnati. None of those things would have impacted the cap situation. Pouncey wasn't outside of our cap situation, if we weren't so infatuated with NFC players (particularly former Panthers). It could have been Rosen; and perhaps one day Edmunds will be a player but he's terrible right now. Those decisions would have substantially alleviated pain of cap $$$. Look, the Chargers played 4 rookies on defense today, and that was without a high quality DE. Their personnel decisions this offseason have sucked and THAT'S the reason we are feeling cap pain. Nothing more.

Bolden, overblown? Hearing that the GM said he was completely wrong on AJ McCarron? Marcel Darius failing to be motivated? I don't think Davis, himself, was going to change the arc of our team. I agree with you there. and I believe in a process, and you don't change that willy-nilly. There are a couple of veterans that are here very much because they believe in the process. But Vontae Davis signals to me that the DB believes there would be some undercurrent among veterans where it would resonate. No member of the team today would even for a second admit to that, but I think that is a truth.

75 points in 6 quarters, and we want to make a comparison to a likely HC of the year candidate? OK. Seems like good timing for this question.

One of the things that Bortles does now, is something Allen should adopt - Bortles has this way of stepping forward in the pocket and throwing even while it looks for all the world like he's about to run. I said this in pre-season and I'll say it for a long time. If we are lucky, we'll see a ton of those 4th down boondoggles over the next 15 years. It is who he is - he is a hero in his own mind. If the talent approaches the image he'll still throw 25 interceptions in a bad year.

I thought the NY Mets would win the National League East - I had Amed Rosario as RoY. That was pretty stupid. Still have hope on deGrom. Seems like I've been wrong about our RT as well. Mills has hardly been the worst lineman. Plenty I'll stick by as well, notably that you don't get past losing 60% of your offensive line, that the Browns would take Mayfield #1 overall, sit him for a year and have him take over a playoff team in his second year, and that Bills fans would get sick very early this year on national media pointing out the importance of not turning the ball over and playing good defense.

whole thread is re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. Wasting time talking about the 7th WR on a team with really bad WRs.

I don't know whether or not it will have helped Mahomes, but the Chiefs let the veteran start and play the full year and made the playoffs. Seemed to work out OK for the Chiefs. Giants kept playing Eli, let Davis Webb grow behind him. I think that will do better for Webb. I'm a big fan of what Baker Mayfield could do in this league. Starting Tyrod is the right thing to do. I don't think it's a shut down case for either argument. He played a controlled, great game. It will be fun to watch him improve and there's a lot more of that in his future.

Look at the screen to Shady - maybe the second play of the game. As McCarron is releasing, the two of them are out there facing off against two CBs that are 8 yards downfield. At the end of the play they've taken wrong routes - both of them - and Bodine has missed his block and Ducasse is 10 yards downfield looking for someone to block. If it was another team I'd have been laughing. (edit: by the way, when I looked at the game tape a second time, I was surprised how often Ducasse was at the second level and not finding anyone to hit.)

OK, so I don't have a PFF subscription, but just doing some looking he's not "pretty darn good" according to them - unless you are only looking at rookie OTs (pretty limited population). Frame of reference to the guy he replaced? He was pretty darned good and one of the best pass blocking LT in football. Guess you don't need a pass blocking LT when you have a 30 year old running back that has nearly 2800 touches in his history (and now, legal problems to boot). Guess I'm not as set with Dion Dawkins at LT as you are. I bring this up because I truly believe many Bills fans they have an acceptable replacement for Cordy Glenn. They could be seriously surprised. Now, move that guy inside, you've got a lockdown Pro Bowl guy. I think he's a great player, I just think you are asking too much of him and that look of Garrett on your QB should get burned into your retina. There's a reason Daboll had his players practicing chipping on DEs, and it's not because your LT is "pretty good". Dion Dawkins is rated the 28th best OT in the league this season and the 2nd-best rookie OT, according Pro Football Focus, with an 77.2 overall grade

TE tried to chip Garrett on Dawkin's miff.

Look at the nature of the plays he made well - they were situations where it unfolded nicely in front of him like the tackle of the WR in the flats or hitting that one hole nicely. That's almost never the case in the NFL especially at MLB. I don't know if he is having problems processing information, that could certainly be the case and maybe time will make it better. And some part of him really does look like a paper tiger, not a thumper.

The problem on that play is Edmunds had clear vision to the play. he's going to be in that position about 3% of the time in the NFL. If you can't see what's wrong there, you are freaking blind.

I hate to say he didn't improve this week.

I don't see a starting NFL linebacker out there in Edmunds - not even close. It isn't as early as it used to be - it's like his vision is impaired and he's not understanding what is in front of him. On top of that, on the little I saw of him in coverage he also looked like he was getting beaten - badly. The plays he made - WR tackle - he had a clear view to the play. I thought that first Browns drive was us playing 11 on 10.

I'm sure Bills fans noticed that the announcers weren't talking about how brilliant Dabol was in having the RB/TE chip on DE. Note again that 88 completely whiffs on Myles Garrett. Doesn't mean that Dawkins didn't get owned. Bad play across the line.

And they shouldn't be starting in their first year, on the road, against a premier defense. Please point out to me the other NFL teams that started a 5th round QB in their first year, because I'm pretty sure I can come up with a stack that didn't. It makes the Charger argument irrelevant as could possibly be. What is amazing to me is that after 15 years of getting our brains beaten in by Tom Brady, Bills fans have missed the clear, simple, obvious way to winning games: Throw to the open man.