WideNine

I am not blaming Beane for not filling the NT hole this offseason - he addressed an aging DE situation and plugged the holes he could while making the logical gamble that Star would adequately fulfill the remainder of his contract - which he may still do. Star is going to take some heat for skipping a season because of Covid concerns, yet not getting vaccinated, showing up to camp and promptly ending up on the injury report missing the first game. Other guys on defense are earning those checks - even Edmunds whom we would all like to see pull his game together with getting off blocks, the gap fits, and tackling, shows up and has played through some painful nagging injuries that took time to heal - so I critique his game or the scheme and how he is used but I never question his heart. If anything with OBD, I do think there was a trend to overpay for some ex-Panthers, but who can question that the overall job with the franchise has been solid.

I agree, but to be fair, he did make a home workout video. Trending in the right direction? Well, we still have our offensive machine in place, and I am hoping Horrible Harry's knees hold up with the strain of the extra pounds he put on to better anchor the middle. Go Bills!

I think the Steelers are a well-coached team. I expect them to run a lot and use quick passes; maybe leverage their TEs to eat the clock and make Allen cool his heels. Ebron is worse than Knox with the dropsies so it will be interesting if they lean on their rookie TE Freiermuth they invested that 55th pick to nab. He is supposedly a much better blocker than Ebron too so could give those outside zone runs a boost. TEs have been an Achilles heel for our defense so we will see if they have made any adjustments to better counter them. Big Ben is not what I would consider a mobile threat so they are going to need to jump out in front and stay that way for that keep-away game plan to really work. If and when we get up on them, Ben will have to take more deep drops and hold the ball, I would expect sacks and turnovers with the kind of talent Beane has pumped into the DL. I am pretty stoked... seems like it was the longest offseason ever.

The geek in me would have them play League of Legends "Rise" - Glitch Mob (among others). The lyrics just fit... IMO "Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains Welcome to the war, we've only begun, so Pick up your weapon and face it There's blood on the crown, go and take it You get one shot to make it out alive, so Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your bones, go and take it This is your moment, now is your time, so Prove yourself and... RISE, RISE Make 'em remember you RISE Push through hell and RISE, RISE They will remember you RISE Welcome to the climb up, reach for the summit Visions pray that one false step lead the end, so Higher and higher you chase it It's deep in your blood, go and take it This is your moment, take to the skies, go Prove yourself and... RISE, RISE Make 'em remember you RISE Push through hell and RISE, RISE They will remember you RISE So get along, so get along, go Get along 'long go a lil' harder So get along, so get along, go Get along 'long go a lil' harder And as you fight among the death beneath the dirt Do you know yet? Do you want it? And when the giants call to ask you what you're worth Do you know if Win or die, you'll Prove yourself and... RISE, RISE Make 'em remember you RISE Push through hell and RISE, RISE They will remember you RISE Prove yourself and RISE, RISE (Pick up your weapon and face it) RISE (It's deep in your blood, go and take it) RISE, RISE (Higher and higher you chase it) RISE RISE, RISE

QB - it isn't even close. NFL salaries reflect this too.

If our last meeting was any indication, I think we take this game. Last time we met, the Steelers opened the game with a lot of pressure packages that Allen had to work hard to beat. The defense kept us in it. Once we got up Pittsburgh had to gamble less and paid the price as Allen carved them up with Diggs. I suspect they will get to Allen a few times in the 1st half, but he is not the same QB he was a year ago, or two years ago, etc... Allen and Dabs will see what they are doing and with the weapons we have on offense, more quickly counter than we did in our last meeting. I am also optimistic that our defense can bring a lot more pressure off the edges and be a bit better with our run gaps up the middle. I will be curious this year to see how many teams try to hit us with more 4-man fronts and 3-deep coverage looks that the Titans and Chiefs were successful using against us. The Chiefs also took a very physical approach to laying back and taking shots at our receivers. It is no coincidence that Allen has worked very hard at ball placement and hitting our receivers on the run so they are not sitting ducks. Not every team has the horses up front to pressure QBs and Daboll should be able to script game plans that will force those teams to bring the extra defenders into the box. Getting amped up for this season - Go Bills!

Sensationalism on a TBD post? Never. I think folks have been pretty rational about what Knox does well, and where he needs more consistency. If competition is about improving positions, then getting a TE that other teams fear because he does not drop or fumble the ball away is a key component to force them to lose sleep figuring out how they will match up with him. We need that kind of consistency from Knox - I can't speak for most fans, but I am less concerned about being "right" about a player than having a player prove me wrong by turning the corner and becoming what the team needed him to be.

Lots of points do not directly correlate to wins. Teams that rack up a lot of points often are giving up a lot of points and have offenses that can score that are put in a position where they have to race to play catch-up. Allen had to put up a bunch of points because our defense could not close the door on most teams when we had the lead. I am hopeful that our defense will be improved - particularly their penchant for pissing away leads and also for getting teams into 3rd and long plays and letting them convert and move the chains. If we can win the turnover battles and get more stops it will not take a bucket load of points to put away teams and McD is not the type to run up the score if he has padded his lead and can run out the clock and slow things up, snap the ball at 0.00 on the play clock, and play keep away.

Slow times at TBD to draw out the strict followers of the Tao of grammarian Joseph Wright. Not sure why I drew out this character flaw with my casual comments about our new rookies. "'Unique' is often cited as a word that should never be modified, as its original meanings were "being the only one" and "unequaled." But 'unique' has another meaning, "unusual," and it's common to modify the word when it's used this way." - Merriam Webster ....as in Rousseau has a very unique skillset (very unusual or very uncommon) in regards to his length combined with great hand use, ability to bend, and ridiculous stride. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I could not disagree more. Rosseau has a very unique skillset and physical gifts you cannot teach. Basham dominated in college and the only knock is that he needed a push at times. Rosseau, if he had not opted out last year likely would have been an earlier 1st round pick. Basham will do well with the veterans around him pushing his ceiling. Both have shown they can get into the backfield and make stops behind the LOS where the Bills have struggled a bit. Both are in good situations to grow and this FO generally gives their early round picks a few years too develop. Waaaay to early to judge how effective they will be for this team, but makes good talk show fodder.

So your policy take is continued affirmative action towards education. That is a good place to start as I believe in investing in our youth. As with all policies and reparations I do believe that we have to be responsible and ensure that they are prescriptive and working - fit for their intended purpose. Have the reparations made to date been effective at closing the education gap? My family moved to an affluent community in MN partly because of the school system. I assumed they were the recipient of more funding because their composite test scores led the state. I was surprised to learn that the N. Central school which was primarily comprised of black students and had less overall students had nearly double the state and federal funding yet was dragging the bottom in test scores and having kids stay through graduation. Clearly reparations in the form of tax money investment was not the panacea that many assume leads automatically to successful outcomes in education. Which begs the question, what can and will work to help close the education gap?

I don't see how any of the above blame-game goes beyond the psychology of guilt and some kind of attempt at a never-ending application of original sin. How does any of that lead to an actual plan to help close the education gaps seen with black men? Black men trail all ethnic groups as well as black women in completing HS education. Education has proven to be the best indicator for increasing wealth, wealth increases societal influence... There is no magic wand that makes the world a fair place, but education is the best way to level the playing field.

Are you saying there are no privileges associated with being a minority or defined as a protected class? What system is affirmative action? Do you feel minority guilt for being a benefactor of job or education opportunities based solely on ethnicity? What responsibility and/or accountability do minorities have towards their own success closing the education and wealth achievement gaps?

History has a tendency to repeat itself - unfortunately. The Rochester Riots - by McKelvey (City historian 50's-60's) This is an interesting bit of WNY history. It is interesting to note the challenges that arose with the influx of black residents and how the city of Rochester tried to meet those challenges and how those efforts often fell short - you get the distinct feeling "we have been here before". This one section below from the author in particular should grab our attention as historical deja vu: "A series of loosely related incidents shattered the community's apathy. The trouble started in August 1962 when Rufus Fairwell, a 28-year old *****, suffered two fractured vertebrae in a struggle with two police men who attempted to arrest him as he closed the service station at which he was employed. Alleging that Fairwell had refused to identify himself and then had resisted arrest, the officers had taken him forcibly to headquarters, where as Fairwell claimed he was further beaten and mal treated. Popular indignation mounted when the grand jury cleared both Fairwell and the two policemen of assault charges." I had written about a 7 page manifesto that dove into human nature, tribalism, the importance of finishing education to close achievement and wealth gaps, the positive impact that male role models play in children finishing school, police reform... Even I thought it was a bit too much reading and reference material to inflict on you folks - and coming from me that is saying something.

Nice to see guys that do their homework and I do not mind if there is some bias there - I agree with most of it. We were outcoached and had no answers for Kelce, and Allen is not as calm and cool in the big games (yet) as Mahomes, but the big stage was newer to Allen and he seems to be getting more and more comfortable playing on it as he continues to lead this team into more playoff/postseason appearances. So I am OK with that observation and that Allen is steadily closing the gap. I think Mahomes is more comfortable in bigger games, but he also was not facing the same level of jail break pressure that Allen was either. Tampa rattled Mahomes and got to him quite a bit. No QB looks sensational when running for his life and most (if not all) will make mistakes and turn the ball over in those situations. They are absolutely spot-on regarding Kelce. The Bills coaching staff needs to UP THEIR GAME when it comes how they play the better TE's in the league. I know they believe in their system, but when that system consistently gets burnt by good players at one position, they need to show that they have that growth mindset they keep talking about and adapt their strategy to better meet the challenge. At least they need to mix their zone with more physical play on Kelce to disrupt his routes and timing in and out of those zones. Up to now I have mostly seen our coverage against TE's playing 2-3 yards off which is a mistake. Often I have seen them covering TE's with smaller guys and they probably should have LB's and Safeties on them.

Any of our TE's to have some kind of a breakout year.

And to your last point I very much agree - I have PTSD every time I see a DT story as he was covered ad nauseum and tweeted like a leaking faucet. Just too much, too sensationalized, too divisive, for way too long. Time to move on folks.

Agree. I do have to point out that many of the "so-called" news outlets folks mention are just crawlers that troll and link to other news sources so it is hard to say they lean one way or another. If they seem to, it would have to be based on their distribution of stories from left or right leaning sites as I am not sure they have their own reporting staff. For instance, MSNBC's page has links to stories from FOX news, The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Hill, The Washington Examiner, USA Today, Reuters, NBC, Wall Street Journal, Politico, CNN, and bunch of junk from entertainment outlets that I really never read and then clutter the whole works with ads (it's all about the revenue). Reuters (which does it's own reporting) looks pretty anemic when you hit their site by comparison, but I think that is just the absence of most all of the other crap.

That was a good catch. Was not aware that they broke out the site bias by topics. Also, if I were going to be a bit more serious about this AP site it seems designed to lead folks into their main stream content so.... click bait. My point about fake media reports is less about subjective political policy takes which always tend to lean one way or another and are ripe (just as this forum is) for confirmation bias. Rather I was more focused on debunking things you can actually check like the wind turbine melting because of the hot weather (false), or that vaccinated individuals shed and spread Covid-19 (false). I still find the need for such sites humorous, but as Beasley has proven, folks are gullible. Most media bias survey sites consider AP News fairly centrist on the whole. Here is another site that has pulled the outlets into a chart. Media bias plotting (graphs... not conspiracies) I think most land where you expect them to if you have tuned into them for a bit and listened critically. Reuters is another of my favorites and they land in the middle and unlike most of the others give far less priority to mixing divisive opinion pieces (usually tied to conservative or liberal think tanks and/or super PACs) into their main stream coverage.

Alignment could just be that for those stories cnn and msnbc were factual - it happens. As to Associated Press bias: All sides media bias checker

Not "real news" help for those easily mislead by social media A kind of week-by-week of what really did not happen😂

This. I think that two and three-deep safety look will still be something that he will have to adjust to more. Having legit speed on both sides of the field with Sanders (not having a healthy Smoke last season hurt) will help a bit with challenging that coverage, but he will still have to pickup his short timing route game to challenge those heavy-nickel/LB/safeties playing the shallow zones trying to get Allen to hold the ball longer till his receivers running deeper routes run into the zones at the sticks where the safeties are waiting. The defense against Allen was to take away the quick hitters and remove the home-run deep shots he prefers against man coverage to get him to pull the ball down to either try to escape or have to reset to try to find deeper off-schedule targets that were blanketed. That was problematic against teams with better fronts and pass rush who could force him into mistakes. Allen's numbers could take a dip while he actually plays better ball. It sounds counter intuitive but if he can leverage more running game productivity and balance to slow up pass rushers as well as hit more short passes that pick up YAC it may not be reflected in the gaudy QB numbers that win awards, but would likely help this team take the next step against teams with better defenses. I do think our defense will be better so that is a wild card - better defense, more opportunities to score.

Not sure you understand. Folks are saying his play has been underwhelming - to date, and I said I am not overly-concerned that our defense cannot handle Tua. I am not that concerned with Tua's play although Gesicki (like every other capable TE) has given our defense fits. The other reason I am not as concerned with Miami is because Allen seems to play some of his best ball against them too - hard to be an offensive threat while cooling your heels on the sideline. Bust is more of a summary judgement and takes a few years of seeing if a QB's play is trending in the wrong direction. As another poster pointed out, Allen started out with the "bust" label already in place from much of the NFL world and no few Bills fans. Each year his play has trended in the right direction and the only question that remains is how much improvement remains till he reaches that ceiling where great QBs move from macro-level improvements to just being able to tweak and refine their game?

It is nice when a college QB can step right in and be successful right away and I always lean towards giving QB's a long runway to grow into their NFL roles and being more patient than most, but I did not know what to think of Tua last year - too much hype comes to mind. I was underwhelmed by his abilities and was not sure if it was lingering issues from the hip surgery or what, but he just did not look sharp. I thought he would bring in all these elements of rushing, extending plays, and hitting guys off platform but not so much. I was glad they benched Fitz in favor of Tua as Fitz always played us tough. I don't see our defense playing scared or on their heels facing Tua or any of the current AFC East QBs. I was a bit surprised when we took on Kyler Murray. As one of the newer generation of QBs I never followed him much and the guy struck me as kind of a pouting diva so did not care to follow zona games, BUT that smurf can ball out. It was like the Bills were defending a Tyreek Hill who could throw. He just has that zero to "he just ran past me" change of direction, quickness, and speed that he combines with a pretty quick release and decent touch when he throws. Tough to defend. There has been a bit of a changing of the guards with a lot of good young QB's stepping up including our own. Although, the 43 year old goat still held the Lombardi trophy... yet again last year.