CincyBillsFan

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a topic of discussion I'm saying that in my somewhat limited experience visiting other NFL message boards and living in another NFL city the obsession shown over the Bills not selecting Mahomes seems excessive. I mean how many threads are we going to have on this topic? And it's true that Mahomes would have been the #1 pick back in 2017 if they knew then what we know today BUT you can say that about EVERY draft. I mean just off the top of my head I bet McCaffrey would have been picked ahead of Forenette if they knew in 2017 what we know today about both RB's. And I bet the Bengals would have picked anyone BUT WR Jon Ross at #9 knowing what they do today.

I also think the legacy of winning 4 straight AFC championships is safe. The Pat's remind me of the 1993 Bills in that they're clearly sliding but have one last gasp left in their dynasty. I think the fall off in the Pat's and particularly in Brady's play next year will be dramatic. Best I see for the Patriots is 10 - 6 and a wild card next year.

A bit selective in the stats there C.Biscuit. Let's look at Mahomes full stats for that 2017 game: 22 - 34 - 284 yards - 0 TDs - 1 INT 7 carries for 10 yards, no TD's Not bad but nothing to write home about either, particularly given the talent around Mahomes in that last game in 2017. I would argue that Allen had at least 4 games with TOTAL stats equal to or better then that. I agree that other fan bases would look at this thread and all the other Mahomes threads on a Buffalo Bills message board and think we're lunatics but not for the reason you think. They would think it's nuts that so many Bills fans obsess over Mahomes. They would wonder why 2 years after the 2017 draft we are still crying about not taking Mahomes or even weirder fantasizing about what might have been if Mahones was wearing a Bills uniform. And I say again that if I had a choice between exchanging Allen for Mahomes OR keeping Allen and getting Hill & Kelce I would keep Allen & take Kelce/Hill in a heartbeat.

Good take. People keep forgetting that an honest appraisal of Allen after his rookie year would show that he was a better QB then what Mahmes showed after his rookie season. Now the main reason for that was that Allen got the opportunity to play most of his rookie season and Mahomes did not but the conclusion remains the same: Allen in his rookie year showed more then Mahomes did in his, particularly in Allen's last 6 games. Now do I think Allen will match Mahomes in his 2nd year? No I don't because I don't see any way that the Bills can replicate the offensive talent that Mahomes had at his disposal. However I do believe that at the end of next year Allen will not be very far behind Mahomes in his QB play. And I suspect that absent injury these two will be slugging it out over the next 10 years to see who is the best QB in the AFC (along with Sam Dranold).

The Bills PR department isn't spinning anything. It's fans who trust what they saw with their own eyes. A least for me my optimism is based on the outstanding progress made by Allen over the course of the season, the Bills solid foundation of a defense and a whole lot of CAP money.

I'd rather have Hill & Kelce to be honest - they are so good it's amazing. To be fair ask us after next season.

Damn freaking Romo calls every play before it happens!

As much as i don't like the Pats he didn't touch the ball. For the integrity of the game they have to overrule that call - the replay was clear.

And I was enjoying my beer & wings until you posted this!

Those sideline shots of Belicheck makes him look like a grumpy old Buddha who is just dying to scream "get off my lawn punks"!

The music to start with!

More Bud Light commercials with the King and less of that bizarre commercial with all those people in colored jump suits running around some buildings!

Calm down folks it's one possession. It's natural that Mahomes would be a bit tight. Goff also started slowly today.

I submit that when playing at home in the AFC championship game with one of the best offenses in the NFL you take the KO, grab the lead and ride your crowd the rest of the way. By deferring they played right into the hands of the Patriots.

So the refs miss TWO penalties on that play - pass interference AND targeting a defenseless player! Now I know we shouldn't complain about the refs but come on this level of incompetence is unacceptable. Now watch for the make-up calls.

It's absolutely sarcasm ShadyBillsFan. But the fact you couldn't be sure is a testament to the whacked out way in which every aspect of Allen's game is picked apart in hopes of furthering the "Allen is a bust" agenda. Like I've said in other posts I welcome constructive, fair criticism of Allen. But so much of what passes for criticism of this guy just seems absurd to me. Sorry for the misunderstanding Putin but I was just following up your sarcastic post with one of my own.

You win first price because no Bill has come close to being underutilized like Lamonica was. Oh what might have been had they kept the mad bomber! And yes we're showing our old age here!

Yea and Allen couldn't hit the broad side of a barn even if he was trying to. You want proof of this? Remember after running for a 30 yard TD against Miami in the last game? Well Allen looked like he was going to throw the ball into the stands to a deserving fan but he didn't and you know why? He didn't trust his ability to get the ball to a fan even in a sea of fans! And if you slow down the video and look closely at his footwork in the end zone it sucked and his upper body throwing mechanics wern't all that great either. Anyone who knows metrics could see he wasn't going to get the ball to a fan with those throwing mechanics. Now I know the usual Allen apologists and Bills homers will respond and say that Allen was scrambling for his life from his own team mates trying to congratulate him on the TD but I say enough with the excuses - you don't see Mahomes making them do you! And if Rosen had run 30 yards for a TD his awful O-line would have been all over him to and yet he would have easily hit a fan in the stands.

But if you consider this season as being 2 mini-seasons for Allen he did improve his TD/INT ratio: Pre-Injury Allen was 2 TD/5 INT Post-Injury Allen was 8 TD/7 INT That's a huge improvement and bodes well for further improvement next season.

Outstanding news! I also like that it happened quickly. My guess is that this guy will be a great sales person in influencing FA's to sign in Buffalo.

As others have pointed out one of the things forcing Allen to throw downfield was the number of times the offense was in 2nd or 3rd and LONG. Negative yardage running plays on 1st down; numerous holding penalties and false starts tended to leave the Bills in a lot of long yardage situations. In fact looking back over Allen's highlights you see excellent pocket presence and accuracy on throws he made on 2nd & 3rd and long. But if folks want high completion percentages and lots of check down passes re-watch the Anderson/Peterman games where you can gorge yourself on all those 8 yard completions on 3rd & 13! There's a reason the top QB's have high % completions and YPA: they have the play makers at TE & RB to turn those dump passes into something electric. They also have very dangerous deep threats which opens up the check downs. BTW, I think we're actually doing okay with our deep threats. Now we have to up the play of our TE's & RB's.

That would be an inaccurate description of what we all saw AFTER Allen came back from his injury.

I may be off base here but another way to think about accuracy versus completion percentage is that one is almost entirely on the QB while the other relies as much on the offensive scheme being run; the defensive scheme being run (prevent defenses are great for boosting ones completion %) & the quality of the receivers. Another way to look at it is let's say I play WR for the NO Saints this week in practice. We can all agree that Drew Brees has the highest % completion in the NFL. So stick me out there and get one of the Saints CB's to cover me. After throwing 100 balls to me Brees will likely have a % completion average of about 0. Does that mean he was inaccurate? Of course not.

But he lost a step which is hard to blame on Allen. And maybe next year McCoy can get back to where he was as recently as 2017. And it's not just the RB's we're talking about here. TE's play a crucial role in providing outlets for QB dump offs. While I think Crooms can develop into a moderate to deep threat receiving TE the Bills desperately need a big blocking TE that can release as the QB is flushed out of the pocket for the dump off. Funny how ALL four of the championship teams have this kind of player.

Thanks for doing the hard work to quantitate what a lot of us saw while watching the games. Allen does not have accuracy problems. In fact after coming back from his injury he repeatedly demonstrated exceptional accuracy AND touch. What he needs to work on are his footwork/mechanics in certain situations and to better read defenses both before & during a play. Given his intelligence & work ethic this should be something he can accomplish in the off season. And for the record until Allen has check down skill position players that are a threat to break a 5 yard dump pass into a 15 yard gain (see McCaffrey or Gurley) Allen would be better advised to throw the ball downfield. I suspect that the kids attitude will always mean his percentage completion numbers will suffer a bit as he favors making the longer throws. I'm more interested in seeing Allen's yardage per completion go up then his percent completion rate go up. Watching Mahomes in the playoffs has only reinforced my opinion that when throwing the ball Allen actually resembles the KC gunslinger. Now I know that's sacrilege to a lot of posters here but Mahomes succeeds because he puts the ball where his skill players can make a play. Remember the 2nd & 18 play where Mahomes hit Kelce across the middle for a 17 yard play against Indy? On that play the ball was low & out in front of Kelce but he made the catch. Now think back to the Jet's game where this board argued over a couple of pages that Clay didn't drop the pass but that Allen needed to make a perfect pass. IMO the pass that Allen threw to Clay in that game was better then the one Mahomes threw to Kelce. My observations were that a lot of Allen's throws were more then good enough.