WideNine

Ok then. That's your opinion. If you don't like the use of football IQ I will just say it is dumb to dance around celebrating before a play is whistled dead. Maybe even more stupid to include plays where you are doing that in your highlight video. That's my opinion.

I saw that play first and did not discount it. Love that kind of hustle. Just questioned the football IQ of someone who celebrates while the play is still live, as that happened on a few of his highlight clips.

I think folks are looking at LT and Center in FA for a few reasons: Dawkins took a step back last year and may be a better fit at guard so could be moved inside. This draft is deeper at Guard and RT than LT and Center, and the few better LTs and Centers probably should not have early round grades, but will go off the board any ways to fill needs on cap-strapped teams. Not saying they are bad players, just that they will go sooner than they should, so the Bills cannot count on them falling to them as BPA. Filling with a free agent would help to inject some veteran stability on the line, not looking for retirement age prospects, but those that have seen enough to calm the troops. For someone like this, I would expect he would have to clear medical checks and have some clauses that protect the club and the player to a degree if the same injury forces an early termination of his contract.

Miller was clearly a liability last year. Rarely have I seen an offensive linemen look so lost regarding who he should be blocking. Defenders were able to get into his body and drive him back quite often as well. His footwork was terrible, cemented to the ground and often lunging off balance - some of that was late realization of who he should pickup, some of that was just bad technique. There were obviously some questions around how the coaching was being done, maybe more tough love was needed - I dunno but Castillo was let go so there was the thought that he was not coaching these guys up very well. All that being said, an offensive line has to operate as a unit, if you do not trust or know how the guy next to you is going to block and you start trying to compensate it all goes to pieces in a hurry and everyone looks bad. Think of a guard trying to pull on a play where the center can't get anchored and is driven back 3-4 feet; the whole play becomes a train wreck. My vote would be to drop most of the under performers back to the PS, and give fresh blood (free agents and rookies we pick up in the draft) a shot at filling the holes. That gives Bobby Johnson a chance to correct technique and see who can be salvaged and who cannot. Johnson worked under some pretty successful o-line coaches, in Indy last year, and under D'Alessandris on Buffalo's Chan Gailey staff. Most remember how boring Chan was, but the Bills ran the ball extremely well under Gailey. I expect a quantum leap in the performance of this unit next year.

I think most of us can agree that it sucks to have a team in the same division as Belichick, but in a way the Bills can think of that as an advantage. Iron sharpens iron so to speak. If you wanted film to help your rookie QB see how opposing teams were attacking his tendencies or flaws in his game, I don't think there is a better, more merciless teacher out there than Belichick. Sure athletes have to have short memories and overcome failure, but those games should be gold to Ken Dorsey when looking for the best film to use to teach situational awareness, what an opposing team was willing to give up to take away something his QB normally leans on as part of his game habits, how to exploit those situations better, etc.. Sure Belichick will change things up and disguise things each time we meet up with that team, but I expect the scope of what he is able to do will become narrower each time the kid faces off with him. Teams like the Rams with Goff who rarely run across a coach on the opposing sideline who can really expose their flaws are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to stretching their skill set and it shows when they have to line up against NE. So in a sense, having rookie QBs who have not reached their ceiling yet (I feel this way about Allen and Darnold) play in the toughest division in the NFL is a good thing - the day they get past NE is the day they are probably ready to face off against any defense in the league.

Probably a bit old fashioned, but there we're a lot of clips on his highlight reel where he was busy mugging the camera "flexing nuts" while the play was still going on and the ball was still bouncing around on the turf. Bugs me a bit...play to the whistle then pat yourself on the back. Just could envision him doing something completely Billsy, like dancing around beating his chest while a Patriot player picks up the loose ball and runs it in for a score. I have a good imagination for all the things my Bills could do wrong.

To make these kinds of deals is why the Raiders formerly of Oakland exist.

That motley staff reminds me of the first dinner my wife tried to make me when we were just dating. Instant scalloped potatoes, tuna fish, water chestnuts, and marinara sauce - horrifying. I didn't even try to fake that I liked it...I gagged and scraped my tongue off with a fork like a 2 year old. Some things are never meant to be brought together.

The kid can ball, when I first looked at this class of WR's he caught my eye and I said this about Williams "Some others: Preston Williams - hard to tell what you have with that Colorado offense, but the kid good size, ran good routes, used outside, inside, and on sweeps. He gets behind defenses, catches with his hands and has pretty tough RAC."

I did not participate in this thread very much myself as I thought and still think Allen's accuracy issues were way overblown. Was he pretty raw as a QB coming in - absolutely, he was a multi-sport kid who did not really blossom into a QB till he was in JUCO. From his interviews he said he was 5-11 as a sophomore in HS and regarding speed, when playing baseball he laughed and said his Spanish teammates called him La Tortuga (The Turtle) because of how slow he was. He was not some kind of 5-star football recruit for a big D1 school so of course Allen is a project - reasonable folks when judging Allen's performance should expect to see a talented athlete and inexperienced QB with a very high ceiling who is learning how to play the QB position at an NFL level. To that end (on a steep learning curve) I looked for and saw clear progress game to game with probably close to the worst o-line and supporting cast on offense that I have seen the Bills field in years. He not only met my learning curve expectations, I had no idea he had the pocket presence he did avoiding the rush and extending plays, or could flat-out run past linebackers and safeties - bonus points. I look for Allen, his QB coach, and Daboll this year to start improving his short game. I really do not expect accuracy to be an issue, his biggest challenges will be the anticipation that precedes good footwork, so pre-snap reads of defensive alignments and knowing where to go with the ball when teams are giving up easy completions underneath. He needs to continue to work on looking off safeties, but his ability to hit the home runs will always be there. If he improves on getting the ball out quickly on shorter routes it will help cover some of the flaws of the Bills o-line as they inject new talent into it and they need some time to improve as a unit and gel. Rarely have I seen a rookie be expected to carry a team so much. To be fair to Rosen, I think he was in a similar situation Zona's o-line and offensive weapons are pretty bad too. That being said, I just don't see the level of "hope he fails" directed Rosen's way. I really did not understand the amount of derision from the talking heads like NFL's Rosenthal who's initial comments below were pretty bad. I expect some of that after a draft and they are paid to make those judgments. Then it got weird, and he stalked Allen throughout the year with plenty of comments and tweets where he seemed determined to try to prove his original negative bias and yet you heard nothing from him when there were games where Allen was clearly the best offensive player on the field and led the Bills to victory. It seemed petty and unprofessional to me. Losers Buffalo Bills: This season, the Bills used significant draft capital to trade up for quarterback Josh Allen (moving from 12th overall to seventh). The kids would call that hustling backward, especially when Allen has an uphill climb just to surpass previous Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor's level of production. Josh Rosen has clearly displayed a more obvious NFL skill set. Allen is reminiscent of a souped-up version of another Bills first-round quarterback: J.P. Losman, a player with accuracy issues who was a star in the pre-draft season because of his measurables. Losman was taken 22nd overall in the 2004 NFL Draft and proceeded to compile a 10-23 record in Buffalo.

Not an exact science. I take a very broad view of sleeper pick, but basically someone my team picks up that I think should have gone a couple rounds earlier, or is not even mocked to go in the draft, or actually goes undrafted. Off or under the radar prospects. Best if no one picks them up and your team can grab them as an undrafted free agent. When you look at the UFAs the Bills have picked up, who have not only started, but excelled...they are doing their homework; although last year I think Daboll gave them a Bama cheat sheet.

Truth is there are also a lot of decent athletes at those smaller schools too, but you are right regarding the competition. That is why talent evaluators are looking for someone who is clearly dominant. There were not too many folks that knew there was a NDSU till Wentz came out of it. Didn't go D1 till 2007 and the Missouri Valley Football Conference is not exactly the SEC. This kid earned a NFL combine invite and that is done via a committee so someone saw enough or had the right connections to give him his day in the sun to see how his measurables stack up against the D1 prospects.

Now that was a real sleeper. You wonder how some of these kids never make it to D1 schools...academics maybe? Watched his Hudl clips (that brought back some memories), and the few Malone University clips. Considering the competition was looking for a man among boys - found one. Used all over the place and on kick returns. His combine numbers will be interesting as he covered ground in a hurry. Last time I checked the 100 yards at the Benson Hall of Fame field was the same distance as Alabama's. The Bills have some good history with small school prospects.

Another good option, which I think is the book on receivers this year. Maybe not an A. J. Green in the mix, but more than a few that could turn into solid NFL starters. A football program being shut down in Canton Ohio, that is so wrong. Don't know how many game clips this kid will have, but will have to look him up....now I am curious.

Sorry I missed this and pretty much said the same thing

OK, that kid has some jets, so the book is he fights the ball a bit and not a polished route runner...hmmm. I liked they way he turned into the grain on that goal-line jet sweep. Did not strike me as a player afraid of some contact - worth taking a look at for no other reason than that speed. An added bonus would be if he could field kicks, if he got some open field in front of him look out. That would certainly fill a need area for the Bills, flip the script on the lousy field position the offense was often given, and provide a ST weapon they sorely missed last year.

I thought that kid looked pretty good on the game clips I watched - talent is there. Had that domestic charge with the girlfriend though...and that may keep him off some boards

We have all beat the big WR names around for a while, how about the later round guys who could be gamers? Mine is Jalen Hurd out of Baylor. 6'4" 230 with 77" arm span. A bit raw at the position as he transferred from Tennessee where he was one of their top featured running backs - yep, a 6'4" running back. A lot of questions around this kid and his fallout with the Tenn coaching staff (which for what it's worth went through an overhaul afterwards), minor knee operation, so I will be curious what his combine numbers are. You watch the Baylor film on this kid and he is a baller...trying to remember if I have ever seen any other 6 foot plus WR's pounding it between the tackles before....none come to mind, but he was willing to do that on a limited basis for the Baylor coaches who used him all over the place.

So as a fan of the Tide, any thoughts about those Clemson players your team went up against? Lawrence got the lion's share of the write-ups, so wondering if anyone else stood out to you in that game.

It is a bit annoying to me that months ago I was all in for TE Hockenson. When doing mocks on our College board, was initially looking at Fant who was getting the write-ups in Iowa games as an option, but this other Iowa kid just jumped off the screen, better blocking, a bit taller, smooth in his release and routes - a baller. Every scout site I looked at had him as the 4th to 8th best TE in the draft and I was thinking if the Bills land this kid it will be a steal. Now, most mocks I see have him going in the first, scout sites list him as the 1st or 2nd best TE available...fansided just released an article saying he should be the first offensive skill player taken. And WTF. So I don't think he is going to fall out of the 1st, and I don't think the Bills will grab a WR or TE in the 1st. My gut tells me they go d-line and o-line which both need upgrades, but kind of bummed out before the draft even happens. Have to convince myself he will be terrible for THAT other team as I already could envision Allen's scrambling with Hockenson as an outlet as a difficult thing for teams to defend. Oh well, the team will get better around Allen, I am pretty confident of that at least.

Also there was a long stretch where the Patsies were insanely bad, they were the joke if the NFL. In an era without free agency where teams could lock down and build upon their talent, and they had so many early or #1 draft picks, folks were baffled why they could not field a winning team. Belichick turned that franchise around, but they have also been extremely stable as an org (ownership, front office, and coaching)...certainly helps.

Some of that is based on a long history of NE getting odd or favorable calls. Younger guys may not remember "just give it to them", or the PI on a Patriot Hail Mary, Wade walking the Bills team off the field before the game was over, or Oakland forcing a Brady fumble to seal a playoff win only to have it turn into an incomplete forward pass which turned into a bizarre tuck-rule as the NFL tried to manage the fallout. There is plenty of history of rules being bent or broken in favor of NE. Regardless of opponent, the Bills for years had a particularly bad relationship with the NFL's officiating org...particularly after Ralph lead the key votes to implementing instant replay which the NFL Officiating body was opposed to. I think it has been less so over the past few years, although we still have plenty of head-scratchers where they just need to let the teams play. If anything, I would think the NFL would want to generate some buzz and excitement for the Rams in LA, so I don't think they would be on board for any kind of conspiracy although there were a few calls they did not get right.

Gotta love this TE class. I wish Nauta was a bit taller to better high point the ball, but he catches with his hands and is a competitive gamer that steps up in big games. Decent blocker too.

Throw in concentration lapses and dropped balls and the profile is pretty complete. Is a couple buckets of Popeye chicken from his listed 170, was listed at 158 a year ago I think. Is fast, but goes down if someone sneezes on him. Disappeared in bowl games and the Sooner QB's leaned more on Lamb as their go-to guy. Not sold on his speed to separate or break away, but N'Keal Harry seems to catch contested passes...reminds me of Boldin when he first came into the league. Metcalf would be next...unless red flagged for the neck injury. Tough sell this year as I don't see any WRs that really separate themselves from the pack. Could also be a product of poor schemes and weak QB class. A team could just as easily spend their early draft coin on the better TE's in this draft, value-wise. That is why I see the Bills going defense, unless they trade down to the lower picks in the 1st...then it is anyone's guess.

To be fair to the old and bitter folks...more than a few posters here sound like they live in mom's basement playing Minecraft, do you see me complaining? It's the off-season, may as well talk about how officiating in the NFL blows.