CincyBillsFan

Another great point addressing the lack of great catches by the Bills receivers last season. I assume you're talking about the perfectly placed ball by Allen that should have been caught at the Dolphins 5 yards line. The play was ruled a catch but overturned on review. Yet it should have been caught and likely would have led to a Bills win. It really bugs me when folks claim that it was Allen's bad pass and not Clay's drop that mattered most on the play against Miami. I say BS! You can't evaluate that play without taking into consideration the amazing way in which Allen avoided being sacked TWICE on that play. That he did not throw a perfect pass under those circumstances is not in the least bit surprising. That an NFL TE making $9,000,000 per year was late adjusting to the ball AND couldn't make a knee level catch that NFL receivers make all the time was the real issue here. Sure, Allen took responsibility and was clearly pissed that he hadn't thrown a better pass. But that's why we're excited about next year - this kid gets what leadership looks & acts like. But IMO that play was on Clay, NOT Allen.

This is exactly right. The best catches I can recall were the Demarco catch on the wheel route against the Chargers and Fosters catch along the sideline against Miami. And neither of those were ever going to make the ESPN highlight reel. Yet almost every time I watched a game on TV I saw WR/TE/RB's make circus catches. IMO the LACK of great catches by the receivers was a bigger problem then the drops. And when you combine the two, it explains why Allen completed less then 60% of his passes.

Good WR's were not exactly abundant in this draft. The Bills added two starting caliber WR's in FA and have a 3rd starter between Foster & Jones. The two UDFA WR's the Bills just signed are intriguing. I'm betting one of these guys not only makes the team but see's playing time at wide out. Throw in the CFL guy who may be a lot better then we think and the Bills are okay at WR. Frankly OL & TE were much higher priority's then WR and they seem to have fixed both those areas.

And evidently didn't miss a game!

I love the pick. As others have noted he is great value at #9 and fits a need. I also think he is an example of the new type of DT that will percolate through the NFL over the next few years. A little undersized but very explosive off the ball, great hand strength and a knack for creating havoc by deeply penetrating the O-line. I think we're moving away from the days of the behemoth DT's that only needed to tie up space so LB's could make plays. As an added benefit the guy looks tailor made for Buffalo. I love the way he waded out into the Bills crowd to high five & hug folks. Seems like the Bill's brain-trust does seriously look at personality types in making their selections.

My beer consumption goes up significantly when I'm watching the Bills. At first it's the excitement of the upcoming game & expectation of a win that triggers over consumption. Then it's angry frustration as the game proceeds that triggers over consumption. Then with a disappointing end I try to drown my sorrow triggering over consumption. I've just never tried it after eating a Thanksgiving feast.

Looking at the schedule I'm seeing 10 or even 11 wins. The way you get prime-time games is to make the playoffs on a regular basis. Until we do that there's no point in getting upset or being surprised by our lack of Monday & Sunday night games. I'm not a big fan of the Turkey Day game at Dallas. It's not that the Cowboys worry me, they don't play all that well on Thanksgiving. Rather it's the late start of the game that gives my stomach the heebie-Jeebies. I'll have to break out the Tums as we'll slam the big feast before the game and then suffer through a nerve wracking game. Why "nerve wracking"? I expect this to be a very important game from a playoff standpoint. Question to this board - is it possible (or advisable) to drink lots of beer AFTER a huge Thanksgiving dinner while watching the Bills? Also is any one going to watch the game WHILE eating dinner. And with the NFL's short halftime breaks would it be possible to finish the feast up during halftime?

Since 1986 there have only been 3 other QB's who in the off season had me excited for the new season to roll around and they were Jim Kelly, Drew Bledsoe & Doug Flutie. That's 33 years and only 3 guys. So yea Allen has got me chomping at the bit for next season to get started. Sure he has a lot to improve on but with that being said in roughly 11 games this kid has produced more spectacular highlights, both running & throwing the football, then any other Bills QB not named Jim or Doug have in over 30 years. A lot can still go wrong and as a Bills fan part of me dreads that Allen will implode and suck. But the chances that we have a special talent at QB hasn't been this good since Kelly first walked out on the field. Bottom line is that I would rather be optimistic now only to have my hopes crushed later then be pessimistic during the off season and then have my hopes crushed.

I saw no issues with his arm after the injury. My guess is that what you perceive was Allen trying to take a bit off some of his throws. During his time off he realized he didn't have to throw missiles every time. For example: * The 75 yard TD pass to Foster against Jacksonville. While he's being engulfed by 3 Jaguar D linemen he gets of a 45 yard throw. * Several throws against Miami including BOTH TD passes and that dart he threw from the end zone to convert a 3rd & long at the sideline. * Several throws against the Jets where he converted 3rd & long situations. On just the 2nd play from scrimmage Allen connects on an 18 yard throw that was an absolute steamer of a throw. * He also threw some darts against Detroit. And there were others. Again I think the Allen you saw after the injury was putting a lot more touch on the ball then just trying to throw it threw a wall. As an aside the reason his % completion didn't go up as a result was that he was also throwing the ball away a lot more post injury to avoid the sack. The reduction in his sack numbers shows that.

They might win a playoff game! At the very least pick a brewery near a Skyline Chile and you could bulk the linemen up nicely. With spaghetti, cheddar cheese, brats and beer - who needs nutritional food. Stop at one of Jeff Ruby's steak houses and gorge on some prime beef and you can get all the protean you need.

Wow they have a cryochamber that can reach minus 198 degrees F! I wonder if they thought about freezing their best players in the off season and doubling the length of their careers? Also we could steal Brady's football and put it in this thing. Imagine Edellmen trying to catch what would truly be a ROCK. Hell, the ball might stick to Brady's hand and require amputation to get it off.

At first I thought there's no way I can pick one play. Then I thought about what was the most amazing game the Bills ever played and I kept coming back to the playoff comeback win against Houston. So I figured it had to be a play from that game and while I thought the Beebe TD catch was big I'll go with the successful onside kick executed right after that TD. That led to the Bills cutting the Houston's lead from 35 - 3 to 35 - 17 and suddenly the corpse stirred.

Great picture!

I'm not even going to throw out any qualifiers - Josh Allen is going to be a great NFL QB. I can't explain it logically or use fancy metrics to support my opinion here. It's a gut feeling that I have after following he Bills for 50 years and watching a lot of NFL football. Allen has the physical tools and the IT factor - he passes the look test. If he QBed the Jets or Dolphins I would be sick to my stomach thinking how this guy was going to "Brady" us for the next decade. I expect big things next year and beyond.

I'm looking at 11 - 5 5-3: Bills Away games: Titans (W), Cowboys (L), Browns (W/L), Steelers (W/L), Giants (W), Jets (W), Phins (W), Pats (L). I see the Bills either losing to Cleveland or Pittsburgh but not both. 6-2: Bills Home games: Broncos (W), Ravens (L), Eagles (L), Bengals (W), Skins (W), Jets (W), Phins (W), Pats (W)

I loved the pick and came to 2BD to see how many other folks loved it and got pretty depressed. Back then I was a lurker so I couldn't jump into the argument. I'm a big college football fan and watched a lot of those late night Wyoming games on espn when Allen was QBing. It was must see TV if you were a football fan and Allen's antics back then were a lot like what you're seeing with the Bills. Jaw dropping runs & passes; fiery disposition, wth was he thinking passes and skill players dropping balls all over the field. I remember one game in his last year at Wyoming where his WR's dropped 3 perfect passes in the 1st quarter alone. What impressed me was that Allen never lost his cool about it. He didn't show his receivers up. What's funny now is that I remember thinking as I watched those games that wouldn't it be cool if the Bills drafted this guy. He would be a steal in the 4th round! So yea even though we had to trade up to take him in the top 10 picks I'm glad they drafted him because IMO he is the real deal. His pre to post-injury improvements in every facet of his game give me a lot of confidence in his future. And for those concerned about Allen's accuracy, just remember it matters who you have around you. Cam Newton went from a career 59% completion average to a 68% completion average in 2018. And it asn't because he suddenly got "accurate". It was because he had a guy in the backfield named Christian McCaffrey who was worth dumping the ball off to.

Good luck to him though I still haven't forgotten about his dropped TD against NE. Sorry but that was a catchable ball for an average NFL TE.

I'm drinking the koolaid AND following it up with a Whiskey chaser and saying 11 wins!

And when given time to sit in the pocket Allen had a number of memorable throws. Specifically watch replays of his TD throws against Jacksonville, Detroit, Miami & the last TD throw against Miami at home in the final game. He sits in the pocket and throws very accurate passes down field. Even in situations where the pocket collapses around him like the famous Jacksonville TD pass or his last TD pass against Miami, he seems oblivious of the pressure. In fact I can't recall a single inaccurate pass when he was able to sit in the pocket after he came back from his injury (I'm sure there was one I just don't recall it). My sense was that on a lot of plays Allen faced IMMEDIATE pressure up the middle and was forced to roll out. These were not cases where he abandoned the pocket to early these were cases of move or be sacked. In many of these situations he connected with accurate throws down the field. Again watch his highlight tapes to see what I'm talking about. Shoring up the Bill's pass protection up the middle was the #1 need on this O-line IMO. And they've done that with their FA signings. This is why I expect to see a huge jump in Allen's accuracy & passing production. That extra second is going to be the death of opposing secondary's.

I get that. But how often on 2BD do we see folks comparing Mahomes passing production in his 2nd season to Allen's in his rookie season? By my reckoning it's just about every time the two QB's are mentioned in the same thread together. The reality was that Allen was thrown to the wolves while Mahomes enjoyed the luxury of being properly prepared for becoming a starting QB in the NFL. And let's not even go into the gross differences in surrounding offensive talent Mahomes enjoyed compared to Allen. Bottom line is that I remain optimistic about Allen's long term future as the Bills QB. I believe that he and Mahomes will be two of the best QB's in the NFL over the next 5 years.

The Buffalo Zoo made me a Bills fan. I grew up west of Rochester and twice a year my family made the trek to the big city zoo in Buffalo. Some of my earliest memories are of these trips. When I was this young I wasn't interested in football though my dad watched the games on Sunday. But when I started to get interested in pro football at about 8 years old it only made sense to root for my dad's Zoo team!

Bingo! Funny how so many people seem to miss this little fact. It's also funny how in so many of these threads the pessimists on Allen pop up with their snide comments. IMO it's simple, Allen improved significantly after he came back from injury. Now with improved talent on the offense; a year under his belt where he was baptized in fire and a whole off season to focus on further improving his game you would have to be clinically depressed NOT to be optimistic that he'll be even better next season.

Making the playoffs next year is a realistic goal. Ditto for expecting to see a significant jump in the quality of Allen's QB performance. That Allen showed such a clear improvement post versus pre-injury gives us every reason to be optimistic about his continued growth. I think the Bill's FO has had an amazingly productive off season and has dramatically improved this team in the offensive areas it desperately needed improvement. They are now free to draft the best players available rather then trying to meet an immediate need. Throw in the fact that neither Miami or the Jets look greatly improved and NE is bound to slide as it continues to age and the Bills are perfectly placed to make a run at a divisional title.

As others have noted I would go with Jack Kemp. My reasons: * He QBed the Bills to 2 league championships. Their only league championships. * He's had the longest time to impact the franchise with his playing days being in the 1960's * As a nationally recognized congressman and a cabinet member of a presidential administration Kemp and his days as the Bills QB were routinely linked in the press thousands of times. It was an association between a former player and a team that added to the reputation of the Bills franchise in ways that winning & losing football games never could.

AB has done us a favor and let us know why he would have been a terrible addition to the Bills. The man has NO imagination. Sure there are better football destinations then Buffalo on the surface. But dig down a bit and AB would have seen that the Bills are a team with a young QB who just might be elite. Even better this QB is a gun slinger which is what EVERY top WR should want. Dig a little further and he would have found a team with a very good defense, solid owners & coaching, and a lot of cap room to sign more then just his expensive ass. If he'd have kept on digging he would have noticed that Buffalo is an alright place and that as he entered the later stages of his career he could have revisited the college experience with passionate fans making a Bills game more like an SEC clash then a pro game. But alas he appears to have the imagination of a rock. The thought of him coming to Buffalo and bitching & moaning when Allen missed him on a pass or when he saw a snow flurry in October would be truly depressing. Much better that we draft our own late round WR gem.