CincyBillsFan

You're ignoring a huge difference in O line talent between the top teams and the Bills the last couple of seasons. Hopefully that has been repaired enough to get Buffalo over the hump.

Of course if the Bills had drafted Mahomes we would all be big Mahomes fans and defend this elite, uniquely gifted talent from the passive aggressive cheap shots a few on 2BD hurl at Allen. As Bills fans we would be thankful that we had drafted Mahomes and we would be urging McBean to fix the O line and load up on high level play makers so as to fully exploit Mahomes elite QB play. At the same time an objective assessment of the situation would reveal that if Allen were the Chiefs QB they would be every bit as successful as they've been with Mahomes. Because Allen is equal to Mahomes as a QB.

Nitpicking Allen to death on a Buffalo Bills message board is weird.

I'm not "hyper sensitive" about anything "Allen related". I just can't stomach unfair, biased hit pieces on the 2nd best (soon to be best) QB in Bills history on a Bills message board. Allen does work with his new receivers - at OTA's. How do you know that Allen isn't doing "extra stuff". Pretty presumptuous of you to declare that he isn't.

Yes & No. Sure on Super Bowl Sunday it sucked when the last second ticked off the clock and the Bills had again lost the Super Bowl. But from early September to the end of January those 4 years were magical. Winning a lot of games, winning the Division, winning EVERY playoff game in every manner from historic blowouts to the greatest playoff come back in history, and winning 4 straight AFC championships. And even after that last SB loss it seemed to me like no one would ever match what the Bills accomplished. And over time this has been proven to be true. Fifty years from now they'll still be waiting to see a team match the Bills and go to FOUR straight Super Bowl games.

So you've been a "Bills fan for over 40 years"? A couple of comments on this: * As a Bills fan I never considered that I "suffered" through the 4 SB losses. I was frustrated and pissed off, but "suffered" - no that would not be a word I would use for the excitement of going to FOUR straight Super Bowl games, winning FOUR straight AFC championship games and watching a team with all sorts of future HOFers enjoy a decade of elite play. * Prescott was 2nd in TO's playing what 5 fewer games? That's why he was roasted. And for the record, Dallas didn't go 13 - 3, win their division or advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. And Prescott had a better O line and more top notch offensive play makers then Allen had. * By what criteria & evidence are you basing your claim that Allen isn't fully committed? The off-season is designed in part for these players to unwind, get healthy and clear their heads. No QB in the last 5 years has been more successful then Mahomes and what does he do in the off season? Make a lot of commercials from what I can tell.

If the Bills had their typical "drought" QB in 2019 they don't make the playoffs. Allen was a key component of that teams success and he had a great playoff game in the first two and a half quarters at Houston. There wasn't a game they lost because of Allen and at least two, Dallas & Pittsburgh, that they won on Allen's back. So instead of 10 - 6 the Bills would have finished a very droughtish 8 - 8 without Allen. IMO the Allen "regressed" trope is false and the data backs that up. I believe that in 2022 the Bills had by far the worst O line of the last 4 seasons and that includes 2019. A bad O line is the Achilles heel of even the best QB's as seen by Mahomes against TB in the SB. The reason we should be cautiously optimistic as Bills fans is that Bean's moves should have at least raised the O lines quality to the middle of the NFL pack. And given how well Allen and the O performed with one of the worst NFL O lines in 2022 we may be shocked at how good they are in 2023.

My guess is that they're not fans of the Bills but are posing as fans. What other logical explanation is there? A lot of the stuff these people post goes way beyond proper criticism of where & how Allen might get even better. Beck Water is a great example of a Bills FAN using a proper balance in his criticizing of Allen. But the stuff a lot of these people throw out about Allen is, pardon my French, BS.

It's not amazing to me at all given how so many of these "experts" predicted that Allen would be a draft bust on the order of Ryan Leaf. We all saw the incredible nastiness that NFL talking heads threw at Allen & the Bills after they traded up to take him at #7 in 2018. So I'm not surprised in the least that given any opportunity they throw shade at Allen. Allen failing, even now, would at least partially vindicate a group of "experts" who went on the record making what turned out to be the worst QB prediction in NFL history. That has to still sting. It is lunacy that Tannenbaum would keep Jackson over Allen. As for Burrow I live in Cincinnati and have all the respect in the world for him and consider Burrow a great, elite NFL QB. But Allen is better and if Allen had Burrow's weapons he would have at least one and maybe two SB trophy's. As for Kellerman ranking Allen as the 6th best QB - are you kidding me. There is only one QB in the NFL who could be seriously put ahead of Allen and that's Mahomes.

As long as Allen plays like he has the last 3 seasons the answer is NO on whether he deserves blame for the Bills failure to reach the SB. There will always be an undercurrent of "experts" who will jump on anything to move Allen down the QB rankings list. They claimed he would fail when drafted and they want at least partial vindication for what turned out to be among the worst predictions of a QB's success in NFL history. The problem for the Allen haters, and most of these people are exactly that, is that love or hate PFF having the 30th ranked O line (okay maybe it was only the 25th worst yet maybe it was the worst) and still putting up the individual and team stats that Allen put up is amazing. And a shout out to Dorsey to. The rookie O coordinator has taken a beating on 1BD but what he accomplished with a bad O line is pretty solid. As for Allen's commercial activities? Come on man, Mahomes, Rogers & Burrow are not exactly shy about their non-football elated commercial projects. As an elite NFL QB Allen was inevitably going to be featured in commercials. And I see no evidence from his production or the teams success to believe it has negatively influenced his play in any way.

Seriously, how good is Allen to put up the numbers he did with the 30th rated O line and only ONE elite play maker. Are you really saying that if the Bills had the Eagles O line and the Eagles had the Bills O line last season the Eagles would still beat the Bills? NO. FREAKING. WAY.

I'm sure Allen is devastated that in every game next season he may have to take a couple of more deep shots to Diggs. It must be killing him to pass up that 5 yard check down to Cook to keep Diggs happy.

Bengals game was a disaster for the offense for two primary reasons: * The Bengal's played great defense * The Bills O line had their worst game of the season. Allen was pressured on half his drop backs. Do you remember what happened to Mahomes in the Tampa Bay SB under similar circumstances? In the Miami game if Knox holds onto that TD and Shakir makes that catch on a perfectly thrown 55 yard haymaker the Bills have the game wrapped up at half. I think the Bengal's pass rush was on his mind. He was pressured on half his drop back pass attempts. Thank you. And we Bills fans should know this as we watched our HOF QB Jim Kelly get a lot of help from fellow HOF and all pro level players during the Super Bowl run.

Did you watch the drives Allen orchestrated at the end to win the Chiefs, Ravens and 2nd Dolphins games?

Bingo. If over the next 3 seasons Allen plays EXACTLY as he has the last 3 seasons he will be more then good enough to win a Super Bowl. The key to the Bills wining a Super Bowl is not Allen getting better it is: * elevating the O line from being one of the worst in the NFL to just being average. * redirecting resources away from the D in order to add quality skill players I think Allen is equal to Mahomes and better then Burrow and I think Burrow is great.

Good points. And of the modern QB's I suspect Allen might actually do the best in a football world of Bruce & Reggie.

First, I like McD and approve of the contract extension. But that being said Allen did beat Mahomes in that 2021 playoff game by leading TWO epic 4th quarter TD drives. That KC was able to get a FG with 13 seconds left is on McD and the coaching staff. And no one will convince me otherwise. So your basic premise is false IMO. Second, the 3 QB's you mentioned - Mahomes, Burrow & Watson - all benefited from offenses that were stacked with talent in organizations that pushed the majority of their resources to surrounding their elite QB's with play makers and an effective O line. By any criteria Allen has had much less to work with then the 3 QB's you brought up. This is my biggest issue with McD. He and Bean have focused on the D at the expense of the O and it has not led to a SB. It has led to the Bills being one of the top 4 teams in the NFL over the last 3 seasons and winning 3 straight division titles. From what I can see this has started to change and will lead to a SB berth in the next couple of seasons. So to part ways with McD over his failure to reach the SB in the face of his clear success is dumb. To blame the failure to reach the SB on Allen is dumber.

The Bills. Sure KC & the Bengal's will be right there with them and the Jags & Chargers might make some noise but I think the Bills have had a sneaky good off season and improved in the places they needed to get better in.

If we're winning and fighting for a Super Bowl Diggs can talk all he wants - it will be like background music.

It really is this simple. Sure I B word about their decisions like the best of Bills fans but the reality is that this is the 2nd best Bills organization in the last 56 years. How big of a sample size are we dealing with here?

The Bills have been using the lions share of their resources to try to create an elite playoff defense and it has failed. This has included grossly neglecting, until this year, their Offensive line. The Bills #1 need going into this season was to improve their O line. It was by far the worst O line of the leading Super Bowl contenders. The Chiefs were able to part with Hill in part because they had a first ballot HOF TE that is one of the top 5 offensive players at any position in the NFL. Who is the Bills equivalent of Kelsey that Allen could fall back on in the event they part ways with Diggs?

I disagree. As you say, both teams are good but the Bills beat Miami 2 out of 3 times last season and have won the division 3 years in a row. Based on that history and the fact that the Bills had at worst a modestly effective off season it's ludicrous that a local Buffalo radio station would place the Dolphins above the Bills in a PRESEASON poll. This has nothing to do with being homers it's a simple expectation that a local Buffalo station would give the local team the benefit of doubt in a PRESEASON poll. I stress "preseason poll" because if the Dolphins get off to a better start then the Bills it would be appropriate for GR to rate Miami higher then the Bills. But until we see the Jets & Dolphins in action the operative word here is MIGHT be better. For now a local station should use history & the off season as their guide.

IMO that was the biggest reason we lost that game and not Allen's fumble & INT late in the game. We had a 27 - 10 lead late int he 3rd quarter AT HOME and our all world defense allows a RB to run off tackle for an 82 yard TD.

Man did this not hold up well over time! Now the only way Allen doesn't carve NE and Belichick up is if there's a hurricane hitting the stadium. But I love the Cowherd show: it's entertaining and somewhat informative. To his credit Cowherd admits when he's wrong, which is often, and highlights his screw ups in a weekly spot called "Colin right/Colin wrong". For the record I think his insight on the value of offensive minded coaches over defensive minded coaches is spot on and quite compelling. I also think he's wrong about the Bills because they're the exception that proves the rule. Bean has significantly improved the O line & RB room and we should see it this season.

Cowherd isn't wrong here but IMO he downplays the additions to the O line and running game that the Bills did do this year. What it will come down to is simple, if the guard play significantly improves and Brown makes the leap then McD will have solved the O line problem and the Bills will be formidable this season. If the new O linemen don't improve the guard play and Brown continues to struggle then Cowherd is 100% right and heads should roll at One Bills Drive.