Inigo Montoya

I think last year was just a confluence of circumstances where the Bills had the draft capital and it was a QB rich draft class and Beane felt he had to make his move and grab one of the top QBs. I agree completely that the cupboard is bare on the rest of the offense. Not the optimal situation to throw Allen into. I was a "let Allen sit a year" guy at the beginning of the season. As things played out, I think the Bills had little choice but to play Allen, and in retrospect, I think I was wrong and playing Allen was a good move. He has gotten better as the year has gone on. He didn't look good today, neither did the rest of the team. I do think he is going to be a baller and next year should show us what we have when Beane is able to put some talent around him. I agree that it's time for Shady to go. Every time he touches the ball it is a loss or 2-3 yard gain. He was a great RB for years but I think he is at the end of his career. Grab a mid round RB in the draft who can catch the ball and keep Ivory to be the pounder. Spend what you have to in free agency money and in draft capital to put an O- line in front of Allen and give him an opportunity to develop. I think the O-line has got to be the #1 priority this off season, not WRs. Give Allen a few seconds to stand in the pocket and we can get by with average WRs.

I'm pushing 50 now and I remember him when I was a kid calling the Sabres' games on the radio. We'd put the hockey game on the TV and turn the TV volume down and listen to him call the game over the radio. True Buffalo icon. Get well soon Rick!!!

Bell in Indy makes sense. That's the Indy Way. Stack the offensive, ignore the defense. Just ask Peyton.

I agree row_33, but I think what we are seeing now is likely Allen’s floor, and we are comparing it to Tyrod’s ceiling, and they aren’t that far apart.

I'm so glad Benjamin is finally gone. At times this year the only way KB caught the ball was when Allen threw it hard enough for the ball to get stuck in his rib cage.

Of course I'd love to beat the Pats this Sunday, but in the big picture it really doesn't matter. It was a helluva run, but the sun is finally starting to set in Foxboro and the Bills are on the upswing. Maybe not next year, but definitely by the following year there will be a changing of the guard in the AFCE. It will be the Bills and Jets battling for the division title with the Pats and Phins wandering in the desert. I think the Bills will be the team to beat.

Agree 100% bills11. If you get a chance to rewatch that touchdown play, look at the pocket Allen has to throw from. It stood out to me because he never seems to have a chance to set up and deliver a "normal" pass. On this play he is actually able to set his feet, step into the throw, and he isn't about to get hammered a split second after he releases it. If Beane can put a quality O-line line in front of Allen and he has a real pocket to throw from, he is going to tear this league up.

If you watched the game today and didn't see a strong passing game from Allen, I just don't know what to say. The completion percentage is meaningless without context. There were drops as usual, passes thrown away that should have been thrown away, and even the passes that were simply incomplete the majority of them were accurate passes that the DB simply made a play on. I remember thinking as I was watching the replay of the Foster touchdown that Allen looked great standing tall in the pocket, a pocket which actually held up for him and allowed him to step into his throw and not throw it on the run and off balance for a change. If we can get an O-Line in front of him and give him a pocket to sit in he is going to tear this league up. This was by far Allen's best passing performance yet. The completion percentage doesn't tell the story today.

I am not a stat guy, but Allen had the usual WR drops on good throws and Allen threw the ball away several times when there was nothing there instead of forcing the ball into a bad situation. I think that was the right play. I thought he threw the ball really well today. Even balls that weren't "dropped" were on target and the DBs just made some nice plays. I think it was his best game throwing so far.

I'm always hesitant about getting the shiniest toy in free agency, it never seems to work out well and you always end up overpaying. Mario Williams, Suh, Haynesworth come to mind, but I'm sure there are others. This team has lot of holes. I'd rather get a bunch of solid young NFL players coming off their rookie contract than a couple of over priced all stars. We are not just one or two players away from contention, we need a lot of help on this roster. Continue to draft strong, bring in good quality lunch pail type players on reasonable contracts, and build the right way for the long term.

No, thankfully, my father’s soul is now at rest. I’m married to Buttercup’s hotter, younger sister, Cinnamon. ?

That was definitely my best day. I avenged my father, rescued a princess, and became the next Dread Pirate Roberts. The day the Bills win the Super Bowl will be my second best day...

As a long suffering Bills fan I've never liked Brady, but there is no knocking the guy's ability to quarterback. It will be a good day in the Montoya household when he finally decides to hang up his cleats.

I think he just lost his will to compete. Not sure if he has some personal issues that he's dealing with, maybe he's battling depression and feels lost and just can't make himself care about football right now. Maybe the money was his primary motivation to play football and he thought he had enough and was set for life and didn't want to risk his health anymore, ala Albert Haynesworth. Who knows what the real reason is? What's clear to everyone is that we didn't get the same KB that played in Carolina. I'm glad the Bills finally moved on.

Today was the first game all season where I believed the Bill's best chance to win the game was to put the ball in Allen's hands. Forget the final score, today was a great day to be a Buffalo Bills fan.

Well said. Give the man a chance to put an offense together when he has some players who are better able to execute his scheme. We all know the offensive cupboard was pretty empty when Daboll walked in here. It's great seeing some of the young guys starting to develop with their playing time and hopefully many of them will continue to develop over the last third of the season and be real contributors next season. I think it's clear to most that the "Process" was to get their franchise QB and build the defense this season. I suspect next season it will be time to build the offense. Let's see what Daboll can do with a legit offense before we cut the cord on him.

Hey C.Biscuit, It's a good question, and I'm not pretending to be an expert here by any means. My understanding is that a lot of Allen's issues had to do with the mechanics of his throwing motion. Palmer has been able to help clean that up. According to reports that I read, Allen's mechanics looked better at the Senior Bowl than they did at Wyoming, and he had better mechanics at the Combine than he did at the Senior Bowl, and better again at training camp than he did at the Combine. I think that is because of Palmer's work. I have to admit that I'm not sure when Palmer started working with Allen after the end of Wyoming's season but I know it was definitely before the Combine. If Allen can become just a little more accurate with his throws that will pay huge dividends. Learning how to read defences, how to slide in the pocket to avoid pressure, and deciding where to go with the ball is a separate skill from the mechanics of throwing the football, and to your point, I have no idea if Palmer can teach that. If Palmer can't, then maybe that's where Daboll steps in or another coach steps in and Palmer can just focus on Allen's mechanics. With Culley's years of experience teaching the wide receiver position, I always though he was a curious choice to be Allen's QB coach. For the most important player on a franchise worth 1.5 billion dollars, it might be worth it to pay a little bit extra for a mechanics coach and a quarterbacks coach if that's what they need to do to give Allen the best chance to reach his potential.

I don't understand why the BIlls don't just mail Jordan Palmer a blank check to be the quarterback's coach for Allen and the Bills. He seemed to do a great job between the draft and the start of the season working with Allen. Of all the places this franchise can spend money, it seems like over paying for Palmer might be a smart move. There is no "cap" on coaches salaries. If Allen continues to develop with Palmer's help, then every penny of that money spent will be a bargain. Leave Daboll in place for another year to see what he can do with an offense with some talent on it, bring in a real, accomplished quarterback coach to help Allen develop, and move Culley on to some other position. Culley has spent all of his time in the league as a wide receiver's coach, maybe that would be a better fit for him in this organization.

Of all the players we let walk from Buffalo over the last several years, (Sammy, Gilmore, Darby, Dareus, Tyrod, Goodwin, Glenn, Stevie Johnson, McKelvin, Kiko), the only one I really regret the Bills not resigning.... is Robert Woods.

Nice to watch Josh Allen and the Bills taking out the trash in Orchard Park today.

Worth a flier. I could make a snarky comment about the quality of our WR corps right now, but what’s the point? We all know the mess we’re in. He might beat out Croom for emergency QB duty too. Get on it Beane!

I think VW82 has a good point. We just can't assume that Allen is our franchise QB. Time will tell. Where I might differ from VW82 (and I don't want to put words in his mouth) is that I don't think that we will be able to pull the plug on Allen after just this season if he doesn't develop as much as we'd like. It might take more than a single season for him to develop ala Manning and Favre. Look at Goff, a total bust his rookie year who blossomed his second because of better coaching. I also think it is fair to point out that Allen doesn't have the strongest supporting cast right now to help his development. I don't think that is making excuses for him, just stating a fact. Like many here, I would have preferred Allen sit the entire year and learn behind a vet QB like Mahomes did, but here we are throwing him into the deep end of the pool and yelling at him to move his arms and kick his feet. I am a big McBeane supporter, but if you want to lay the lion's share of blame for this situation at McBeane's feet, I think that's fair. We live in an impatient society where everyone wants results immediately. You cook some meals in a microwave and others in a crock pot. It might be that Allen is more of a crock potter. It will be worth the wait if he develops. I'm willing to give him an honest chance to do so. One season with this supporting cast is not a fair chance in my opinion.

Josh Allen is exactly who we all thought he was coming out of the draft, a freakishly athletic QB with a howitzer of an arm and good leadership skills who was going to need to work on his accuracy and need some time to develop his game. Now that he is playing, all these incredibly knowledgeable national media types are pointing out that he is a freakishly athletic QB with a howitzer of an arm and good leadership skills who needs to work on his accuracy and needs some time to develop his game. Their next earth shattering expose will be about how water is wet.

I would move Shady in a hot minute for a 2nd round pick. Ivory is a pounder and Murphy looked great in the preseason so the cupboard wouldn’t be bare. This is a rebuild. Shady is an older running back with a sizable cap hit. If I were Beane, I’d thank Shady for playing hard for this franchise, wish him all the best, and then grab that pick.

The reason the Bills won is that I posted a thread two days ago saying that playing the Bills was like having a quasi-bye-week. I will be posting a similar thread next Friday evening as well... : )