WideNine

EJ was another one... all the tools, passed the eye-test, but could not grasp a playbook or read defenses. I was hoping he would pull it off early on, but eventually heard why his development was stuck in Neutral. Which brings me to another unsung part of Allen's game... his pocket presence. Knowing when (often) protection was breaking down and avoiding or escaping the pressure. Seems many of our failed attempts at filling the QB role were guys that did not have that - stood somewhat immobile in the pocket till they were sacked over and over. Tyrod did not have that issue, but could only take the team so far.

They just have to be consistent rather than reviewable. The officiating is all over the place. If they actually enforced PI's consistently then DBs would adjust to the way it is called and stop mugging receivers all the way down the field. Hail Mary's at the end of the game should simply be exempt from PIs, and relegated to the desperate scrum it should be. IMO teams that put themselves in the position of needing a miracle pass to win the game should not expect officiating help. Let the ball bounce off 5 guys wrestling around and land in the arms of someone 10 feet from the play. Those are the kind of plays that make the game interesting right down to the wire.

I think he was simply referring to not reaching for a need position ignoring the BPA at your current draft position. They moved up to address positions of need, but took what they felt was the BPA at those draft positions as well... Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds. There was no conflict. This year, if they stay at the 9th pick and the BPA is a defensive lineman, but they grab an o-lineman that has a late first or early second round grade that would probably be reaching for need. If they traded down picked up some extra picks and then picked up an o-lineman close to where his draft value was on their board that would be fine. I get what Beane is trying to say, but you also have to understand that not all teams have the same draft boards and grades on players so it is a bit subjective. That being said, usually if there is a collective wtf after a pick, and a lot of comments indicating someone would have been available much later, and the position/player drafted is a team need....then your team probably did not draft the BPA. Clear as mud.

Not going to say that the McBeane was not particularly motivated to try and salvage the KB debacle. Who wouldn't be in their shoes. They probably saw pretty quickly that KB had not only lost a step, but was showing all the catch radius of a T-Rex and far less compete for the ball than hoped for from a guy with TE size against DBs. But they did their best to salvage other problem children...Darius too when he felt he would get a pass. They sat him a time or two for the same reasons. They have been pretty consistent with their message, and I don't see a coach who has lost his team at all.

Agree. That muscle-memory is way important to Allen because he can launch it from bad platforms and often still get it near where it needs to go so there is probably a tendency to fall back on his arm strength too often. He also needs to keep working on those the pre-snap defensive reads to get a better idea where he can go with the quicker throws, when teams play off and take away the deeper stuff. I think that will come along gradually, it will just take more time behind center and in the film room. With the better mechanics and knowing where to go, the timing and placement get better, not that they were horrible to begin with. Those swing, flair, or wheel routes to the right could be ugly at times when he did not reset his feet or seemed to over-think the mechanics - yet he threw a perfect swing pass to Kyle on the right side at the end of the season, with a lot of pressure to not screw up Kyle's one career chance to catch an NFL pass. I like the kid's moxy, and I believe he's progressing. Now if he just had the support of a real running game, wasn't dodging and scrambling away from pressure .9 seconds after the snap, and his receivers held onto the ball we could maybe stack up some wins next year Good to see the kid is working at his craft.

If the NFL really wanted it to have the kind of transparency and governance as something like an Olympic event or such, they could start by having an independent Officiating body that has some kind of "objective" 3rd party oversight. The "We police ourselves and we find that we are awesome" mantra that they try to sell just does not fly. Doesn't work in business, sports, etc.. Fans should always keep the perspective that this is an entertainment business that needs to fill seats and generate advertising revenue that BTW also now allows gambling over outcomes. Not to be all conspiracy theory, but there are a lot of reasons that folks would have to slant the outcomes of games including as you mention above towards creating favorable outcomes for teams in new markets with large fan bases and there is very little "real" oversight to prevent that from happening by means of favorable calls or non-calls.

Brady can get away with his noodle arm because he knows who is uncovered, and they rest it with plenty of rushing reps. The whole NE game plan goes up in smoke if Mahomes and the Chiefs did not end so many early drives with punts, and rather put up some points. It was playing with a lead which allowed the Pats to keep running and eating up the clock. NE abandoned that later, but by that time the chiefs had to respect the play action and run threat they posed. NE gets calls at key times that gives them more chances than they need, but that Offside by the Chiefs negated what could have been the clincher. Sucks to be in the same division as Belichick....Welcome to our world Chiefs.

Wade hates the Pats, Tom will be hit early and often. Good luck Rams!

He had a tough 1st half, most don't wish him any bad will, and will get behind anyone to beat the Pats, but the Mahome love here gets obsessively old. A lot of good young QB's in the league now, and the Bills have one of them...just need to give him some tools.

Certainly figured something out against this NE defense

Tack on the fumble morphing into a never heard of before "tuck rule" just for Brady and the Pats to screw Oakland over, the "just give it to them" screwing over of Wade and the Bills then folks may start to understand why I concede no greatness to this team. They have had lots of help.

Ooops and a snicker from the paid refs.

Preaching to the choir. Been pounding that drum to all the stat-happy folks. The Bills are going no where till they can beat NE. Just pointing out that flashy doesn't mean anything. Strong defense, strong running game, field position, and eating up the clock is not a new thing to Belichick. And he has made Mahomes look very flawed and human in this game... He is good at that.

And yet they are winning. We may have to re-think what great means. 350 yards of offense and loads of highlight reel stuff means squat. It's what is on the scoreboard.

Not nearly enough, it's a bread and butter play for NE...they love to use those pick plays on their shallow crossing routes and bubble screens. Never seen them get a flag for it though....Kraft must have missed a payment.

Never realized how much he resembled Forest Gump after he grew a beard jogging across the US. Uncanny....just needs a different cap.

Simply worth taking a shot. The guy clearly loves the game and could not give it up even when he fell off the tracks and a way of getting back to playing in the States looked pretty slim. That kind of desperation can lead to a lot of soul-searching and we could do worse than getting a guy who loves the game, and does not shy away from contact - can guarantee part of the "we will give you a chance" includes some Special Teams gunner tryouts. Nothing lost on making a move like this - I wish him well, in his personal life as well as this shot with the Bills

My perception and concern is not how often they blitz, but rather when. It seems that when we have the lead our defense tends towards the conservative and I cannot count how many times our "D" seems to lay off the gas and piss away a lead towards the end of a game. That and our gap control and run fits frankly suck... not sure if I am sold on the concept of d-linemen occupying blockers to free up linebackers as it seems like the running backs hit those gaps with a full head of steam and either our linebackers whiff on an arm tackle or get carried 5 yards deep. I prefer defenses that attack the gaps and play on the other side of the LOS - especially when trying to stop the run. Granted, I may be oversimplifying things and would welcome some all-22 review of our defensive alignments of the many times our defense got ran over last year.

Can't wait for them to sink into some kind of pit of obscurity. I can mentally kind of wrap my brain around folks saying things like the appreciate having seen Brady play, but all the scandals, cheezy borderline cheatriot moves, and officiating slant has soured me on the times they just perform well as a football team. Getting kicked in the teeth twice a year for almost 2 decades has done a number on my feelings for the team too, even when we had teams capable and in position to finally win against them, you just knew they would do something to "ef" it up. As far as admiring them... I'm not there yet.

I lost track of what happened to him, but thanks for the info. Looked it up, he was up to 400 lbs, but lost 70 lbs and was able to start at guard for them for 8 games. Had a blood clot near his heart and was released after that one season, was a bit tragic and also very Billsy thing that WOULD happen to the guy we picked. That was definitely an issue they should have picked up on when researching him as a prospect. I don't expect a miss like that to happen again, but I don't see a clearly dominant o-lineman that should go that early. That being said, an early run on not dominant, but good, low-risk o-lineman could change some boards, it will be interesting to see what happens. There are not a lot of QB prospects this year and there are teams that have QB needs: Miami, Jags, Giants (maybe can wait), Broncos, Red Skins. Arizona I am sure would prefer to trade down and hoard picks - they have a lot of holes to fill. After that there are a few teams in front of us who may reach for o-line help... could happen. I see the Bills staying at 9 and grabbing a defensive player McDermott is drooling for, though I would rather they trade down grab some extra picks and take Hockenson before Belichick does and then focus on solid o-linemen, DT, and receivers.

McKinnie went too early to the Vikings that year too. He struggled to play up to the level of where he was drafted...was a regular media whipping boy; although they got far more miles out if him than we got out of Williams. I did hear that Wlliams tried to get back into the NFL, tried out for the Skins. I think he was tipping the scales at 400+ pounds. I do worry about taking an offensive lineman who is not simply dominant that high. Feels a bit like we are reaching to address needs.

My bad... I should not have said anything and just moved on to discussions that interest me more. I like to focus on the Bills future, rather than the Chiefs, it's a broad football forum so post what you want. Honestly, it is all good.

Who is this Darnolds you speak of? This.

Bigfoot riding a unicorn.

There are a lot of folks and the media that would prefer that the Bills stay in the cellar, same with the Browns. I think both organizations have found their guy to build around and it is about time. What surprised me watching the clips (outside of the obvious mugging of our receivers) was how little separation that group was getting, and how the allegedly inaccurate Allen was putting the ball time and time again where only the Bills receiver had the chance to make a play on the ball. Usually with the pocket collapsing around him and Allen scrambling to avoid defenders. Also can't get over how he can throw so many accurate passes from so many bad platforms. He rarely has time to set and step into throws, can't imagine too many of his passes being off if our line gives him more time next year to step into his throws. Of course it would help if they could also pick up a player or two who can get open AND catch the ball.