Ethan in Cleveland

Three players I will watch without the ball Phillips Edmunds Ford Will be very interesting to see how they play.

Those are two different things. Having Matt Ryan who can throw for 400 yards a game doesn't translate into wins. Having Jamis Winston who can throw for a ton of yards a game but throws high number of interceptions doesn't translate into wins. There are only two measures of a QB that translates into wins. TD:INT ratio and YPA. Allen is a star because he can get to 300 yards on 28 to 34 attempts where other guys might take 40+ attempts.

They don't. Win loss record for 2020 in 300 yard games was 74 wins against 64 losses. That's a 53.6 % win rate. Hardly overwhelming and Allen's 9-0 record accounts for nearly the entire difference. For 2021, it's 1-1 so far.

Agreed Meanwhile people are glossing over the #2 WR with a foot injury. I remember reading countless posts this off-season on how Sanders would be an upgrade over Brown due to availability.

Agree. They have a tough schedule on paper. Easily could miss the playoffs. Their division games will all be tough and if any team can go 4-2 in the division they have a good shot of winning it. I doubt anyone sweeps the AFC North.

Lead his team to the playoffs three years in a row and have similar stats to Russel Wilson's first three years. And that is with Greg Roman as his OC who has a very interesting track record of getting guys to play well early but being unable to develop a true NFL high level passing attack. Ravens upgraded their WR unit. And has been pointed out, more of the offense will need to flwo through Jackson. Interesting to see how it turns out. Also agree with others, Ravens are not my concern. Cleveland and KC are the obvious threats and I worry more about up and coming Chargers than I do the Ravens and Colts.

He signed a three year deal this off-season. Very unlikely they will redo it to pay him more. Diggs is the most likely guy to get a significant pay raise after this season. And of course there is Edmunds but that would be an extension not a reworked deal. That will be an interesting negotiation. Fitzpatrick is better than Jamal Adams and certainly better in coverage. The Steelers valued him enough to give up a first round pick. However many teams don't value the safety position, let guys walk or trade them away, and go cheap by playing rookies.

Their star center and guard retired and was cut due to injury respectively. Im sure they did not expect Decastro who was on a possibke HOF tragectory to be gone and I suspect they didn't expect Pouncey to retire at only age 32. That said you are correct they had time to address this like the Chiefs did. Makes no sense given this is Ben's last hurrah.

Yes common and often repeated but not based in facts and refuted by actual statistics. Supply and demand. If Peters is hurt too same could go for Richard Sherman.

Agree. Texans have to be the worst run organization in all of sports and that includes the Sabres.

Christ sake I'm so sick of posts like this.. Jackson has a career passer rating of 102.6 and it was 99.4 last year during a supposed "down year". He has a nearly 4:1 career TD to INT ratio. So is your post ignorant, racist or both?

The media likes winners and hates losers. Simple as that. There is no bias for or against Buffalo.

Epenesa wasn't ready to play lat the start of ast year. He was too thick around the middle and too slow so they asked him to lose weight. Rousseau looks like a beast already and Epenesa has looked better. It's a rotation and I expect Rousseasu to get as many snaps as Hughes and Epenesa and Addison to have similar snap counts as each other. I too think Basham is a healthy scratch for the game.

As much as I rip on Edmunds I actually am not worried about him. He was terrible last year and I don't really think he can play worse with the talent he has. I am optimistic he will play better this year. He is a year wiser and he is healthier. Also Klein came around and started to play well later in the season. It will be interesting to see how McD and Frazier mixes in Klein and Milano with Edmunds. Late in the season he started to move Edmunds outside and played Klein at MLB. As much as I want to see Edmunds move outside permanently, I didn't see any impact plays from him lining up outside. Will be fun to watch.

I agree with everything you state. I however would counter that sacks is a credible stat. The two top teams in sacks last year were also the two top teams in points given up. It's not an absolute correlation but 3 of the top 5 sack total teams were also 3 of the top 5 in points given up. Bills were middle of the road in both sacks and points given up last year. If they convert 8-10 hurries into sacks it will be transformative for the defense. I would also add, the WR's can only get so far down the filed in a 2 or 3 step drop. So you need to teach rush and get your hands up on the DL and the DB's and LB's need to sit in the short zones. McD's defense should be perfect to counter the short passing game approach.

Agreed. Go watch the Bruce Smith sack highlights and count how many of those sacks led to turnovers. Many of them did. Hell there were probably 5 or 6 in one season where he never even touched more then the QB's arm/hand and caused a fumble. Pressure the QB in any way possible. I've been posting that for years. They have better pass rushers than at any time since Mario Williams was here. They should be able to get consistent pressure with the front four letting them drop more into coverage. Dropping more into coverage means it will take longer for a guy to get open. Frazier blitzed more last year than he has ever done. If the young guys pan out he won't need to nearly as much and that is a good thing.

Both can be true. There is no doubt the rules changes have helped the offense. However, modern NFL QB's have been training to play QB in passing offenses since middle school. That wasn't the case in the 1980's. They were running the option in HS and college. Very few pro-style offenses in college let alone HS back then. The number of good quality QB's is just greater than it was in the 1980's and certainly in the 1970's.

That's an average time to throw the ball. What matters is getting pressure when the down and distance is in favor of the defense. Hurries matter but Frazier is wrong. Sacks do matter and he would take a sack over a hurry almost every time. Sacks lead to QB fumbles and loss of yards. An incomplete pass is good but a tackle for loss is better.

Week 1 pick: Three best options look like Seahawks over the Colts, Rams over the Bears, and Packers over the Saints. I will choose the Rams. I think they beat the Bears at home easily.

Can there be any other answer than 1980 Bills-Dolphins? 89 Dolphins and the 2003 Sam Adams 31-0 beat down of the Patriots are great games but there is nothing to compare to tearing down the goal posts, Fred Smerlas dancing with fans, and the start of a great season.

Excellent work: My edits: 1. WR - Remove Beebe and add Jerry Butler. I include Diggs. If you remove him because of the two year rule then I keep an extra RB - Fred Jackson see below. 2. RB - Remove Fred Jackson and add Joe Cribbs. This is the hardest group. I loved McCoy and it is no knock on Jackson. But Cribbs was a dual threat RB much like Thurman. Had he stayed with the Bills he would have been an all-time great. Any all-53 must have Gilchrist on my team as did the OP! 3. DE - Add Schobel. He is the most underrated Bill. Move Paup to OLB. He didn't play DE. 4. LB - Moving Paup to LB means Milano is off the list. Conlan was overrated and with Fletcher and Spikes you have two Inside Backers. I would add 6 time All-star Mike Stratton. I too leave off Talley - he's on my list of most overrated Bills. 5. TE - Warlick is the only decent player in the history of the franchise. For that reason I have only 1 TE and that let's me keep an extra OT - Dawkins. 6. DB's - think you nailed it. Henry Jones was not a superstar but he was quite good. You could make a case for Milloy but Jones played more seasons with the Bills.

Brady and Montana are the best ever at QB. Kelly may be on the outside of top 20 soon. But right now I have right around 15. Here is my top 10 Brady, Montana, Manning, Favre, Elway, Marino, Brees, Young, Rodgers, Staubach for 11-15 I will start with some old-timers Unitius, Graham, Roethilisberger, Aikman, Kelly I have Kelly better than Dawson, Starr, Fouts, Bradshaw, Wilson, Tarkenton, and Warner(he doesn't even belong in the HOF but he is on some lists for top 25) for now

Donald is a great great player and one day may surpass White and Bruce as best DL of all time. But no one is moving past LT. He changed the game of football. No one ever schemed to block a linebacker before LT. No one ever run blocked the backside of a play before LT started running them down.

That is why I list Jerry Rice first. He is so much better than any other WR to ever play. As for Brady I was in the Montana as GOAT camp up until the last few years. Bruce had two games a year against Marino. But in general the quality of the NFC was much better than the AFC, so I would not discount the opponents White had to rush against every week.

Agreed on letting Phillips go. I would have picked up Lawson's 5th year option and jettisoned Murphy. Lawson was the better player but McD loved the PED cheat.