CincyBillsFan

I would also note that the indecision on the part of the Bills front office did Allen no favors: a brand new OC; a WR as a QB's coach; and a vet QB that DIDN'T want to mentor Allen. The front offices faith in Peterman to be able to hold the fort until Allen was ready was deeply misplaced. As a result Allen didn't take many reps with the 1st team and then is thrown into the starting job in only his second game.

I'm thinking Miami would be a better fit. Florida has totally reopened and the number of cases have plummeted from their high in January.

I found this to be useful and provide reason for optimism. It tracks daily vaccinations not only in the USA but in each state. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state They set the herd immunity threshold at between 70% - 85% vaccinated. There is a nice graph that has the dates when we reach these milestones - 70% in early August and 85% is by mid September. For the record this seems like they set the bar to high as they don't include those naturally infected. Bottom line though is that the stadiums should be full and rocking for opening week in 2021.

The best thing for society is to return to normal ASAP. That was the position of Dr. Henderson the former CDC head and the man credited with eradicating small pox. His greatest fear was the collateral damage unleashed by over zealously shutting down society and altering normal human behavior through social distancing & community mask wearing. The fact is that a combination of those naturally infected and those who will have received the vaccine by September 1 is almost certain to lead to effective herd immunity. For this reason we should have full stadiums for the NFL 2021 season.

The purpose of the vaccine is to protect individuals and push a community into herd immunity. What folks forget is that those who have been previously infected with covid achieve a similar outcome to being vaccinated. Herd immunity is a COMBINATION of the vaccinated and naturally infected people. Most virologists believe that 65% to 75% of the population needs to be either vaccinated or naturally infected to reach herd immunity. There have been over 31,000,000 Americans confirmed to have been infected by covid. The CDC believes that you can multiply this number by 3 - 6 times to get the actual number of people infected. Using the smaller number and you have almost 100,000,000 Americans with some level of immunity. Combine the 100 million with how many people will be vaccinated by August and there is no reason not to have full stadiums in the fall.

This is spot on. Every other team in the AFC East has a huge question at QB the Bills have an elite top 5 QB in Allen. The Bills have an elite top 5 play making WR in Diggs. Does any other team in the East have an elite top 5 offensive play maker? The Bills have a proven top 5 GM & Head Coach. Only NE matches the Bills at HC.

Allen's comments on the vaccine were well thought out and reasonable. I'm not sure why this in anyway is controversial. BTW I just got vaccinated so you know where I'm coming from.

I agree. On the Jets board and even here there is a false narrative that Allen had it great when he came to Buffalo and Darnold had it terrible in NY. IMO Allen had it worse in Buffalo his rookie year then Darnold did in NY. I would challenge people to check out both offensive rosters and tell me I'm wrong. While folks like Colin Cowherd continue to peddle the false notion that Bean/McD did a great job with Allen from day one the objective truth is that they screwed up big time his rookie year. It wasn't until mid season when they brought in Barkley & Anderson and cut the dead weight at WR did the Bills brain trust start to the right thing. For sure in Allen's 2nd year Bean & McD hit their stride and they haven't looked back. At that point Allen was given the tools to succeed. But in his rookie year all credit goes to Allen because management & coaching did precious little through the first half of that season.

I would rather have Allen and it's not close. The reasons: * Allen is the real deal. He will be an elite QB for ALL of those 4 years. Lawrence should be great but there are no guarantees. * There will be a development curve for Lawrence. At least one and probably two seasons. So the 4 year window quickly becomes a 2 year window. * It's not my money. And given the likley jump in the CAP over the next 4 years there will still be plenty of room to maneuver even with Allen making 40 million/year.

I don't see that given the NFL TV revenue projections going forward the Pegula's wouldn't be able to structure Allen's contract similarly to Mahomes. My guess is that the Mahomes contract will serve as a template for Allen's deal. As a franchise QB Allen is unique on the team and the Pegula's will adjust what they do in his situation as it will benefit them and the team to do so.

Yes they are but as I told my Bengals fan neighbor we Bills fans aren't worried because Allen is a lot bigger then Burrow so he can survive Hart's impressions of a world class matador.

Great post but I would add that it's not just narrow championship windows that require a franchise QB' You need one to create a dynasty. IMO Rogers with GB is a perfect example of this. The Packers would be going on a decade plus of mediocrity without Rogers. Sure they only have one SB win but they're in the conversation every year and that's because of Rogers. You could throw in Pittsburgh, NE and NO into that category to. Especially with NE as we've now run the experiment of who was most responsible for their run - Brady or Belichick. I think we now know the answer. Hell, this isn't anything new. Back in the day the great dynasty's all needed great QB's. Back then the players didn't have much mobility so you had to develop that guy. But if you didn't you sucked most years.

You bring up a good point. Could the timing of these women coming forward be more about their feeling that Watson isn't as popular in Houston since he started pushing for a trade? It would be pretty hard to come forward and accuse an elite QB in a football crazy town at the height of his popularity. It's a little safer when the shine has come off and the QB is tarnished.

I live in Cincy and as long as Burrows knee is okay, and so far we're hearing down here that he's on his way to a 100% recovery, there is no way they would swap Burrow for Watson. First, most Bengal fans see Burrow as having a higher upside. Second, that rookie contract is mighty attractive to a team that has a lot of holes to fill.

Memo to Bills fans - It's AWESOME that the rest of the AFC East is scrambling to get better to knock us off our perch as Beasts of the East. Quit worrying and just enjoy the ride. We've waited long enough to get in the front seat. Now check out the amazing view while riding shotgun.

I still think this discussion begins and ends with Allen. Had the Jets gambled and took him off the plate at #3 and we had drafted either Darnold or Rosen my guess is that we would have seen the following records: 2018 = 4 - 12 2019 = 7 - 9 2020 = 6 - 10. Without Allen we don't sign Diggs in 2020 and signing Beasley/Brown would have been wasted with Rosen or Darnold at QB. It's frightening how close we came to making it three lost decades.

Or it means that we have drafted very well over the last few years. Particularly with respect to our QB.

I never fully appreciated how great a throw the pass to Knox was until this video. The pressure in Allen's face was insane and to complete that kind of deep throw with touch reminded me of Mahomes. Thanks for posting this.

And games are not won in March either. Frankly the Bills are exactly where we dreamed they would be one day - using FA to fine tune a very good football team. This includes NOT making big splashes in FA that only served as opium for the masses of Bills fans hoping for a turnaround. I think that's what some fans miss. They're literally in withdrawal.

I found this quote from the Wyoming football message board and I think this guy nails it: https://www.wyonation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21349 Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:46 pm They're making it extremely difficult to NOT cheer for Buffalo. The Buffalo message board isn't crazy about this move because they don't understand it. They wanted Ertz with zero cap space instead. He's a replacement for their back up tight end and I think he's going to give Knox a challenge on passing downs. He's competition for Knox and a damn good reason for Knox to start holding onto the ball. He's not going to fumble like Knox. He's not going to drop the ball like Knox. He does get open. Seattle used him as an H back a lot, which means Daboll can do the same thing and get a lead blocker to make the run game more effective. He can fake the run block with him and run wheel routes to him. I have reasons to believe Hollister might take off. Wilson didn't have a lot of receiving options or a very good line. Josh does. The defense has to cover Diggs, Davis, Sanders, Beasley, Knox, the back out of the backfield and account for Josh running the ball. Hollister is going to be the 4th or 5th priority for the defense. He's going to thrive in those conditions. Josh already feels comfortable looking for Hollister when plays break down and Hollister knows what Josh likes to do when that happens. I think this chemistry is over-looked. I think Jacob has the ability to turn into a security blanket for Josh like Novacek was for Troy Aikman. Damn this is exciting. I might have to buy some Buffalo gear.

I actually think the Bill's running game missed DiMarco this season. Hollister looks to be a replacement for both Lee Smith & DiMarco at about half the cost. It's actually brilliant on the part of Bean and Hollister having played with Allen in college is a bonus.

My understanding is that the thinking goes like this: * Trubisky has a solid preseason. He will take most of the snaps. * A lot of NFL GM's will be paying close attention to what's going on in the Bills training camp with respect to Trubisky. So say he has a solid training camp. * Then the fall roles around and a good team's starting QB goes down. At that point what might Trubisky be worth in a trade? Especially if the Bills like what they saw from Fromm in TC & PS.

Blocking

Looking at these predictions and then thinking back to the message board battles about Allen in 2018 and you realize how much things can change in a short period of time. That we can seriously believe 5000 yards and 40 TD passes is doable is simply amazing and very cool.

In 2019, his best season, he had 41 catches for 349 yards and 3 TD's. Which would be a big upgrade over Smith.