CincyBillsFan

The local sports media down here in Cincinnati has the Bengals staying put and taking Chase. And this has only strengthened over the last week. Given the connection Burrow had with Chase at LSU I think this would be the best pick for the Bengals.

I watched it frame by frame and Zimmer didn't touch the ball. Before it got close to Zimmer's hand the ball wobbles. It looked like it got hit by a gust of wind that knocked it a bit off course. I think we forget how difficult it was throwing the ball in those gale wind conditions that night.

Now I get why you want to ignore deaths and focus on cases! And inadvertently you just told us why tracking cases is not the best approach to judging how the pandemic is playing out. And this is because case numbers can be impacted by non-covid factors like testing frequency; testing sensitivity (it can be adjusted) and who you test. Deaths are a little more permanent and less easily manipulated.

I'm sure this discussion is about to be squelched, probably as it should be on a Bills message board. But: * I've worked in science long enough to recognize when someone doesn't know that the hell they're talking about in science * and DEATH RATE is really the most important parameter, no? After that it's ICU rate, then hospitalization rate and finally cases. Not sure how you can call that moving the goal posts.

I hate the Dolphins as much as the next Bills fan but this isn't accurate. Going by deaths per one million citizens, Florida is in the lower half of US states (#23). That means 27 states have a higher death rate then Florida. And given Florida's age demographics and the constant flow of millions of tourists into the state this is an extraordinarily low covid death rate. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ In fact seems to me that the two states that take the prize for getting hit the hardest by covid are New York & New Jersey: Deaths per million Florida = 1579 New York = 2631 New Jersey = 2790 Wow, it's not even close.

If you have been vaccinated why is this important? Check this site out for a real time read on vaccination numbers! You can see what's happening for the whole country and each individual state. Nice graphs to. At the rate we're going it's possible we'll be at full herd immunity by July 4. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state

Quoting % increases from smaller numbers is disingenuous. And starting with the onset of February winter breaks in the north central and north eastern USA to the National Spring Breaks of March/April there has been a massive flow of tourists to Florida. That Florida isn't seeing a bigger jump in cases is actually reassuring. Worst case scenario is full herd immunity by early September best case scenario will have us at herd immunity by July 4. Either way we'll be seeing packed, rocking stadiums for the NFL's opening week. Anything else would b going against the science.

It's ticked up a bit but is still less then a third what it was in December/January.

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.