VW82

Wasn't Josh the highest rated fantasy QB after returning from injury last year? As long as he keeps rushing for TDs and breaking the occasional long one he'll be a decent match up QB at worst and potential QB1 for a lot of fantasy owners.

Liked the competitive nature that came through in the end but the man had four turnovers and could have easily had six or seven if not for all the drops by the Jets and the pick that got overturned. That was a D+ performance at best. If you don't take care of the football you don't win. Period. Josh did everything he could through three quarters to lose today and was bailed out by our defense and a few key calls/drops. It was hard to watch.

I never once said Duke can't make it in the NFL. I said he's not a great fit with Josh. Duke needs a QB who can throw in a tight window because he struggles gaining separation. Josh needs a receiver who can get open because he struggles with ball placement. Pretty simple. I disagree with your assertion that Josh will fail if he can't make ALL the anticipation throws that every other good QB makes. It's not that black and white. These guys all have their own strengths and weaknesses. We didn't draft Peyton. We drafted Cam. I'd much rather Josh pulled it down and ran rather than make an anticipation throw he isn't comfortable with, or just move on to his next read or check down. Play to his strengths. If we try and force him to be something he's not, then yes he will fail. I watched the practice clip from today. Nowhere did I see Duke getting open. I saw him make tough, contested catches on well placed balls where the defender had his hands all over it. Duke is clearly good at that.

Well to date he's struggled making decisions before seeing separation and has had way more success in the reverse using his arm strength to make up for time lag. The front office appears to have noticed based on the receivers they brought in this year (and toward the end of last year). As far as not succeeding without anticipation, surely we can agree that there are degrees to it. Barkley appears to have tremendous instincts in that regard. I'm not sure Josh needs to get to that level in order to be an above average player given his other talents. RE: Duke, he rarely ever gets separation so it's a bit of a moot point. Ball placement is the key issue with him, something Josh also struggles with. It's just not a great fit IMO.

The guys calling Bills games don't seem to think it's nonsense. Anticipation is one of the frequently mentioned areas for improvement.

I think Baldy highlighted that throw in one of his breakdowns. It was a great throw but perhaps even more impressive was Josh going through his pre-snap reads and making adjustments at the line prior to it. Development. I agree Allen will likely be better this year at "throwing guys open" but if we're being honest he was way behind the eight ball at it last year. Along with accuracy and ball placement, throwing receivers open probably won't ever be something he'll excel in. We just need him to get to passable in those areas so that when combined with his tremendous physical gifts he can be above average on the whole. In the meantime, it probably makes sense to pair him with receivers who compliment his skill set. For the reasons listed, I don't that's Duke.

I agree with the points about lack of separation and incomplete route tree but the bigger issue IMO is he just isn't a good fit with Allen. Josh needs to see the receiver separate to want to throw it -- that's why the Beasley and Brown signings were so key. Also, when you're not technically open ball placement becomes a much bigger deal which is something we can probably all agree Allen struggles with. I don't mind the idea of retaining Duke as a practice squad specialist who gets brought up for certain match ups or due to injury, but the idea that he can be an every down receiver for Josh isn't very realistic. I like him more when paired with Barkley but hopefully we won't ever have to see that in an actual game.

I would have rather traded Bodine somewhere else or taken the chance he'd sign somewhere else. I guess we must have been convinced he was signing there.

I can't believe we did this. If we cut Bodine and he signs with the Pats then so be it. 6th round pick is not worth the kind of intel he'll give our biggest rival. The last guy I want on that team is the center who's been helping groom our young QB. Very ballsy move by Beane.

He's the captain of our special teams. DiMarco is making the team on that alone though I suspect Dabol also has plans to still occasionally use i formation .

I don't think there are any WRs on the bubble. We're going to keep our top 6 and that's it, especially now with Beane saying they haven't ruled out keeping Kroft on the active roster (four TEs).

I am also very high on our D and McD's scheming. As an aside, that's the part I find most hilarious about the Ed Oliver angst -- the idea that our awesome defensive head coach who does nothing but hit on picking players on that side of the ball, including guys taken way down in the draft (D. Johnson, Milano, T. Johnson, Joseph)...that he'd whiff with the number nine overall pick on a stud DT. Just LOL. I promise you Oliver is going to be good. If the pedigree doesn't convince you, or the comments from the other players, then you can still count on McD being awesome picking defenders as strong evidence he's going to be good. That is all.

I was one of the people sort of saying this under the context of we have so many RBs, WRs, and TEs this year that there is going to be a numbers crunch, and having to occasionally split Knox or Sweeney out wide in the red zone in place of Duke might be the least painful alternative. Would we prefer to cut Sweeney? Or cut Yeldon given how rickety our RB corps looks? McBeane did a much better job bringing talent in quantity this year. There will be hard decisions. Duke is one of them.

Bet he makes a comeback in two years -- maybe for Indy, maybe for someone else. Sometimes these guys just need a year or two off to get healthy and start feeling like themselves again. He's only going to know whether that itch to compete is completely gone once he truly gets away from the game.

Remember Edmunds vs Rivers last year? There are going to be growing pains with Oliver. He’s undersized and is going to get pushed around some until he figures some things out. Thankfully we have a very deep dline rotation which should be motivating for Oliver to do that sooner rather than later.

He made some positive plays early. That scramble on the first series when we were backed up was what gave Zay the opportunity to forget to look for the ball. At first I thought Allen might have gone early but after watching it again I agree it's 100% on Zay. Allen made two drive killing mistakes in his first four possessions. His teammates messed up on the other ones. Offense needs better starts if this team is going to be good. Actual game planning will obviously help.

I recall and yes you called it but I still think it wouldn't have been the correct move. We couldn't predict for sure that we'd be successful bringing in so many new receivers with his talent. Also, having Zay through this off season and camp had the added benefit of one good culture guy in the receivers room that really knew the offense. I'd argue that on its own is worth the 6th round pick or whatever we might have got for him.

The problem with that is Zay, Foster, and McKenzie were the only NFL wrs on the roster in Feb. Imagine if we'd traded him (assuming Zay was even tradeable) and FA hadn't gone as planned? I still think Zay gets this season to sink or swim. Foster looks like the guy far more entrenched in the doghouse.

I started to come around to the idea we might cut Zay after that first play to start the game but there are too many iffy guys on the bubble. Foster has four total targets in three games (all came in the same game, one catch). Duke over Foster seems reasonable to me. Do we like him over someone like Wade? I also think we have to consider Dawson Knox when debating how many receivers we'll keep. Surely McD/Dabol has plans to eventually split that kid out wide.

The difference is we've seen it pop up and be problem in the real games more for Allen than those other guys so it's harder to ignore. There are reasons for optimism too (I still think he's got something cooking with Beasley) but so far he's very up and down.

Everyone seems overly focused on the INT which was brutal but it was his overall start to the game that makes me nervous. He wasn't great to start game one and even though his stats were solid in game two he was off target on some easy throws (Beasley/Shady) out of the gate. This is the same trend from last year. Lots of times Allen is able to overcome it and find his rhythm later in the game but the frequent shaky starts are worrisome and probably a bigger sign that something isn’t quite right than Josh making the occasional horrible throw across his body into triple coverage.

Shady is still the best player on the team and Gore is going to be really helpful when healthy.

That PI ruling might have been the final nail in Ray Ray's coffin. Mackenzie and Duke are both too far ahead now.

So you're pinning that first 3rd down to start the game on Allen? Perhaps he shouldn't have thrown it but it was on the money and Zay wasn't even paying attention despite the fact the play was designed to get him the ball. Yes, officials agreed to decline the interference penalty. Why are you being so confrontational? Let's enjoy the game.

Dropping passes and offensive PI penalties are usually a bad thing. Nice to see the catch held up though.