JGMcD2

Julian Hill? Darren Waller is on the IR.

Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? “They still barely got past Baltimore.” Yeah - I’d hope it wasn’t a cakewalk. No one “blows through” playoff teams for four straight weeks. Sorry if dismantling one of the league’s best defenses (Denver) the week before skewed your idea of what postseason football looks like. This version of the Bills offense averaged 29 points per game in the 2024 playoffs - better than the much-hyped Joe Burrow offenses, which average 23 across seven postseason games and never topped 27. The 2x MVP Lamar Jackson Ravens average 19, by the way. Even Jalen Hurts’ “high-flying” Eagles check in at 30. Welcome to the NFL playoffs. It’s supposed to be ***** hard.

Let’s not get things skewed. Baltimore and Kansas City are still Top 5 teams in the AFC, and quite possibly the NFL. Especially the Baltimore team we faced week 1. The Colts, Patriots and Broncos schedules may look better by SOS after 8 weeks, but they’ve had cupcakes left and right.

I mean, if you’d like to compare Tom Brady to Joe Burrow in order to make your point, that’s fine. How do you think Tom would have done with Chase and Higgins?

Did I say Burrow was crappy? Do I think the 10-7 Bengals Super Bowl run was completely on the shoulders of a QB who threw 5 touchdowns to two picks in four games? Probably not.

Burrow has won exactly one playoff game where the opponent scored over 20 points. If the Bills defense held teams to 20 PPG (it’s actually 18 in Burrow’s 7 playoff games) in the playoffs Josh would be 10-3.

We saw it when Jake Browning had them on the cusp of the playoffs in 2023 when Burrow went down. Burrow threw 5 touchdowns to 2 interceptions in their four game run to the Super Bowl in 2021. His defense allowed an average of 20 points in those 4 games, while his offense averaged 23. He came into the league with a silver spoon in his mouth because of the Heisman and National Championship win. He’s extremely talented, but he’s also part of the reason why his team is terrible. He’s always hurt and he took a fat contract, while also pleading with ownership to pay his two WR fat contracts. They don’t and can’t have the components it takes to win football games.

Why in the world are you acting like 31 teams made a trade and Buffalo sat out? The Jets and Cowboys were the movers and shakers this trade deadline. What a feat…

They’re don’t, they objectively do not.

They're also getting 2nd year receiver AD Mitchell back. Popular guy on this board in the 2024 draft, went 52nd overall (2nd round) to the Colts.

I remember looking last year at the past two seasons because people kept saying Josh’s rushing TDs weren’t real TDs just like Hurts. I want to say like 70% of them were from 2 or more yards out.

Quality depth is much different than a quality starter - I wouldn’t have spent a few minutes on researching my post if the person I was responding to had said “quality depth”.

3 quality starters is quite the embellishment. There's also a serious financial component will all three of these players. Michael Carter II: Pro Football Focus ranks Carter as the NFL’s third-worst CB regular this season. Per Pro-Football-Reference, he has been charged with a whopping 19.5 yards per completion and a 109.7 passer rating as the closest defender. Jaire Alexander: After seeing injuries keep him out of over half of the past two seasons, Alexander was dealing with a knee issue in Baltimore’s training camp, but he found his way off the injury report in time to debut in Week 1 of the season. Alexander had an extremely poor showing against Josh Allen and the Bills, and the Ravens reacted by making him a healthy scratch for the next three games. He was active again in Baltimore’s Week 5 home blowout at the hands of the Texans and again the following week against the Rams, but he didn’t see the field in Week 6. After the team’s bye week, Alexander was made a healthy inactive for their last two games. Jaelan Phillips: Phillips’ base salary for 2025 ($13.25MM) made him one of the more expensive options in terms of finances, even with a portion of that figure already having been paid out. To help facilitate this deal, Miami is taking on money. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports the Dolphins are retaining some of Phillips’ remaining salary in return for a higher draft pick.

I mean, in defense of Beane, most of the people questioning his personnel decisions are probably the same folks who think they can tell what someone is thinking from a ten-second clip of them sitting alone in a press box on national television. I wouldn’t give much credence to those people either.

They’ve drafted perfectly well — they just haven’t lucked into an elite player while consistently picking in the back third of the first round. Few teams do. If you define “early-round picks” as Day 1 and Day 2 selections, their track record holds up just fine: Josh Allen Tremaine Edmunds Ed Oliver Greg Rousseau Spencer Brown James Cook Terrel Bernard Dalton Kincaid O’Cyrus Torrence That’s 9 of 17 Day 1–2 picks from 2018–2023 who are above-average NFL players — including three elite ones (Allen, Cook, and Brown) and another two or three (Oliver, Rousseau, Kincaid) who are significantly above average. It’s also worth noting that judging a draft class in less than two years is unreasonable; the most recent groups are still developing. You can also include Harrison Phillips, Devin Singletary, Dawson Knox, AJ Epenesa, and Dorian Williams as solid depth pieces or average starters. Across six drafts, they’ve really only missed on three early-round picks: Kaiir Elam (1st), Boogie Basham (2nd), and Cody Ford (2nd). For comparison: Chiefs (19 early-round picks) — misses include Breeland Speaks (2nd), Dorian O'Daniel (3rd), Clyde Edwards-Helaire (1st), Lucas Niang (3rd), Skyy Moore (2nd), and Felix Anudike-Uzomah (1st). Eagles (17 early-round picks) — misses include Andre Dillard (1st), JJ Arcega-Whiteside (2nd), Jalen Reagor (1st), and Davion Taylor (3rd). I can assure you — 90% of the league would love to have our draft record.

This is an absolutely wild take 😂

Pretty sure Josh tweaked his ankle early in the 4th quarter on the 3rd and 1 sneak. He came out of the pile gimpy and then handed it to Cook the next two plays, both of which he was hobbling a bit. Took two sacks right after those handoffs.

And he did, as he always does. He doesn’t have to like it, do you love every part of your job?

Imagine being asked the same questions over and over again 18 straight weeks plus training camp.

I was specifically countering the poster who was trying to make the case that the Steelers’ defense is some sort of measuring stick through the first four weeks of 2025. I didn’t really have much to say about the Patriots’ offense - though that poster was hyping them up for moving the ball against Pittsburgh, conveniently ignoring the five turnovers they committed when claiming they could move the ball at will against Buffalo. Let me get this right... the jury is still out on Buffalo because they played well against weak teams while missing multiple defensive starters, and at the same time, your argument is that the jury is still out on the Patriots’ defense just because they got a starter back after performing poorly against weak teams? Make it make sense. I’m not convinced this is the best team Buffalo has faced. They played the Ravens at full strength, and Baltimore is on another level compared to New England. I’m pretty confident that will be reflected in their record by the end of the 2025 season, assuming Lamar Jackson gets healthy.

The Steelers defense that ranks bottom-5 in yards allowed per game (382.5) and bottom-third in points allowed (24.5)? That same unit let the Justin Fields-led Jets, the Sam Darnold-led Seahawks, and the Carson Wentz-led Vikings move the ball at will. Meanwhile, Buffalo ranks 9th in yards allowed per game (290) - and that’s even with the 400+ they gave up in Week 1 against Baltimore. Since then, no opponent has topped 300 yards. The Bills just held those same Fields-led Jets to 150 total yards and 10 points, a week after New York hung 300 and 32. I’m not saying it’ll be a blowout, but the idea that New England walks into Orchard Park on primetime and rolls up offense just because they did it against Pittsburgh feels… questionable.

And at one point in time Pittsburgh had never done it? Or had been doing it for 1 year? How do you think traditions start? Lol

I’d push back on that. Traditions usually form organically - look at “Renegade” in Pittsburgh. “Mr. Brightside” is something the players enjoy, the fanbase has embraced, and the players themselves participate in. That’s exactly how traditions take root. It wasn’t manufactured - it grew naturally.

Vikings, Browns, Steelers (x2), New England and Packers won't be a cakewalk. They should beat Miami, Chicago, New York and Cincinatti (x2).

He's on pace for a very typical Josh Allen season. He's just done it for 5 years in a row, so we don't think too much about it. Projected 2025 stats: 70% completion percentage 4,097 passing yards 30 passing touchdowns 4 interceptions 675 rushing yards 13 rushing touchdowns 2024 MVP season: 63.6% completion percentage 3,731 passing yards 28 passing touchdowns 6 interceptions 531 rushing yards 12 rushing touchdowns His career 17-game average: 63.5% completion percentage 4050 passing yards 30 passing touchdowns 13 interceptions 636 rushing yards 10 rushing touchdowns