bargepole

Lots of fans on here already talking about a possible home Championship game against the Bengals next week, and SB appearance after that. Let's hope the team and the coaches aren't thinking like that. They have to be 100% focused on the upcoming 60 minutes of football against KC, lose that and there is no next week. We also saw from yesterday's games, that the deciding factor was Special Teams, not the O or the D. Could this be the story again tonight, in another low-scoring game?

Over 40 pages in this thread so far, and not a ball has yet been kicked. Anyway, good news, the court case which I was having to get up early on Monday for has now been settled by my clients, so I'll be staying up late on Sunday night / Monday morning to watch the drama unfold. I've got a small bet on Josh Allen to be the first TD scorer of the game, at odds of 10/1, which seems good value.

This might be the last time that the Bills play the KC Chiefs. They are under pressure to drop the name 'Chiefs' as it is considered insulting to Native American groups. One of the leading professional rugby teams in England is the Exeter Chiefs, who use a headdress image as their logo, and various other native symbols. Following complaints from various Native American groups, they are set to drop all that at the end of the current season, and rebrand the franchise for 2022/23.

I'd agree with those who say that Jodh Allen is the best QB in the NFL. But on the other side, Travis Kelce is arguably the best TE. However, in a tight game like this, it's not just down to how well the respective Offences and Defences play. The deciding factor could well be Special Teams - kick-offs and returns, punts and returns, executing an onside kick if required, and slotting long range FGs. Then there is the unknown factor - if 4th down an 2 comes up, will they play conservatively, or will they go for it? Will there be any trick plays that haven't been seen in the regular season? All of this makes it a fascinating prospect for late night Sunday viewing.

Some people on here are moaning about the 6:30pm (ET) kick off time. Spare a thought for us UK-based Bills fans, that is 11:30pm GMT, which means the game will finish around 2:30am Monday morning - or even later if it goes to OT, which is a definite possibility. And i have to get up at 6:00am on Monday to catch the train to London for work!

I don't think a third year on the PS will be of any interest to Christian Wade, or the Bills. It's really now or never this year for him, he either makes the 53-man roster, or is picked up by another NFL team, or else the dream is over. If he wants to stay in the US, he could probably get an offer of $50,000 to join New York in next season's Major League Rugby, but that would be peanuts compared with the $500,000 he could get from any English Premiership club, and we at Wasps would certainly welcome him back with open arms. Difficult decisions ahead. I'd say he needs to really shine in at least one pre-season game, so that the Bills see that they have to keep him.

He would have earned 3 to 4 times that much if he'd stayed in Rugby. Even more if he had gone to the French Top 14 League, where they have no salary cap. I'm surprised he agreed to sign as the 11th exempt player, meaning he gets no game time at all this season, but he's obviously made a career choice, and a big commitment to the Bills. Just hope it all pays off this time next year.

Damn, I forgot the Panthers were based in Charlotte. What about Raleigh, then?

This might be a silly question, but isn't there a league in the US below the NFL where the cut payers can play for less prestigious teams on smaller salaries? I find it hard to believe that a country the size of the US can only support 32 professional teams. English soccer has 92 professional teams, tiered in 4 divisions. I can thank of plenty of major US cities which don't have an NFL franchise - off the top of my head, Birmingham, Charlotte, Columbus, Las Vegas, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Portland, and so on. What do football fans do in those places?

That highlights reel shows that Wade is quite capable of going straight up the middle, and beating defenders to get past the line of scrimmage, as well as catching screen passes, holding the football properly and not losing it when tackled, or fumbling the ball. So he's not just there for the flashy runs into open space, he can do the hard yards as well. Anyone watching that, who didn't know he was a new recruit to NFL, would assume he was an experienced RB, that's how far he's come in a few months. If the Bills don't put him on the roster, other teams will be looking closely at that.

A view from across the pond .. To observers in England, the NFL season seems far too short, lasting just over 5 months. Just as we're getting into the excitement of who will qualify for the playoffs, then the playoff games, the Superbowl is upon us in early February, and it's all over until the following September. Surely there can't be, or shouldn't be, that much difference in quality between the first and second choice players for any given position, and with careful management and squad rotation, an 18-game season with each player playing a maximum of 16 games is easily achievable. For comparison purposes, the Rugby season is 8+ months long, with 22 scheduled league games, and the top 4 teams entering the playoffs. Then there's also the European Cup competition, with a minimum of 6 pool games, then playoffs for the top 8 teams. And some players will also be selected for their International sides, so can easily end up playing 30+ games in a season - and these guys have to stay on the field for a full 80 minutes of action in each game. The NFL millionaire players don't realise what an easy life they have.

Nor would I. So far you guys have only seen a small fraction of what Wade can do. I will go as far as to say that he definitely will be on the active roster of one of the NFL teams, and Bills fans had better hope it's theirs, as they have been the ones training him in the ways of American Football. Otherwise they will see him making yards and TDs for one of their opponents.

The same applies in Rugby - it isn't just about running into open space with ball in hand. You have to be aware of the situation on the field, what your teammates are doing, and support the attacking play in many different ways. As a winger, you also have to be prepared to step in to the scrum half position when your regular scrum half is buried at the bottom of a ruck. Then you also have to perform defensive duties when the other team have the ball (there isn't a separate defence team in Rugby), this includes tackling runners, fielding punts, closing down space, and so on. So if he can do all that and be considered one of the best in one game, he can do it in another - the two are not that dissimilar, Walter Camp changed the rules of Rugby to create American Football only about 100 years ago.

Fast forward to Feb 2nd. The Bills, having had a perfect 16-0 record in the regular season, and cruised through the playoffs crushing all opposition, are now in the Superbowl against the Philadelphia Eagles. As the teams head for the locker room at half time, the score is Bills 31 - Eagles 0 (Wade 4 x TD, and a field goal resulting from a 70-yard punt return by Wade). So McDermott says "Christian, the boys have worked really hard this season to set up all those opportunities for you, and I'd like to take them into town for a slap-up steak dinner. Would you mind finishing up the second half on your own?" He agrees, and much later Wade arrives at the restaurant where his teammates are several beers to the good. "What was the final score?" asks McDermott. "We won 31-7" says Wade. "31-7?" queries McDermott. "How did they manage to get a TD?" Wade replies "Sorry, coach, but I accidentally tripped one of their WRs in the last minute, and was ejected from the game".

I don't know why everyone is talking about Wade ending up in the PS. That just isn't going to happen. This is what I said in the other thread: "According to the Salary Cap chart, Wade is already on a salary of $495,000, same as Singletary. This is roughly the same as what he would have earned if he had stayed in England playing Rugby. But I really can't see that he would be interested in cooling his heels in the PS, this is a guy who needs to be playing every week. He has said this in many interviews. If the Bills don't include him in the 53, and another franchise doesn't pick him, I can see him reverting to his original Plan B, which is to go and play rugby in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand or South Africa). So Sean McDermott has a decision to make - put him on the roster, or risk having Wade rip the Bills' defence to shreds wearing a Jets shirt." But it's not just about 50-odd yard spectacular runs. The bread and butter for an RB is surely to convert those 3rd downs into first downs, and keep the chains moving. Wade will give you that, he almost always beats the first tackler, and makes a few more yards before two or three guys gang up to stop him. He did that week in, week out, in Rugby, and the tacklers there were also elite top class professional players, no insurance salesmen or grocery baggers there. I also don't recall him ever spilling the ball in a tackle in Rugby, and that ball is slightly bigger than the one used in American Football.

According to the Salary Cap chart, Wade is already on a salary of $495,000, same as Singletary. This is roughly the same as what he would have earned if he had stayed in England playing Rugby. But I really can't see that he would be interested in cooling his heels in the PS, this is a guy who needs to be playing every week. He has said this in many interviews. If the Bills don't include him in the 53, and another franchise doesn't pick him, I can see him reverting to his original Plan B, which is to go and play rugby in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand or South Africa). So Sean McDermott has a decision to make - put him on the roster, or risk having Wade rip the Bills' defence to shreds wearing a Jets shirt.

You guys are nuts. He has played, what, 10 minutes in 2 NFL games? In Rugby, he is used to playing a full 80 minutes taking part in offensive and defensive plays. He will be at least as fit as any NFL player. A few years back, we had an American boy, ex-College Footballer, who came along to try out for my local Rugby club. For 2 minutes, he was the best player on the field, bursting through tackles and making a lot of metres (yes we have to make metres, not yards, so it's even tougher). But after that, he was looking to the sidelines for the oxygen mask - sorry pal, there isn't one, you just keep going. If they keep him as an RB, I can see some special plays being devised involving him and Josh Allen - one of them making the initial run, then offloading the ball to the other to finish it off (what you Americans quaintly call a 'lateral'). That will have the other teams' defence coaches scratching their heads.

Well, after the second pre-season game, it seems that your head coach now has a clear indication of which players make the 53-man active roster. They are: Josh Allen Christian Wade 51 others to make up the numbers. There you go, sorted, no further discussion required.

I can 100% guarantee that if things didn't work out for him in the NFL, and he wanted to come back here, Wasps would have a new contract ready to be signed before he even got off the plane. Not only was he a top tryscorer, but opposing defences were so worried about what he might do that they overloaded his channel with extra defenders - leaving gaps elsewhere for his teammates to run into. If he makes the 53 and gets a few starts, I can see that happening to teams playing the Bills. It would be nice for a change to watch a Superbowl in which it wasn't a foregone conclusion that the New England Patriots would win.

Any player can kick the ball at any time in Rugby, it doesn't have be called as a pre-set play. When the ball lands, it is still live, and either side can compete to catch or recover the ball. But you wouldn't pick Wade for his kicking skills, he is best at running with ball in hand, and beating would-be tacklers. On the subject of transferable skills, a few years ago I was at Twickenham for the annual Rugby match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The Oxford right winger was an American who had played College Football, and he was running close to the sideline with the defenders closing in on him. He suddenly stopped, raised his arm, and fired a 50-yard quarterback pass across the field to the left winger who caught the ball in an unmarked position, and scored.

The big difference between Rugby and American Football, is that in Rugby, we don't have different sets of players for offence, defence, special teams etc. The same 15 players stay on the field for the whole game, except when substituted by one of the 8 players on the bench. In all the time I watched Wade play at Wasps, he hardly ever missed a game through injury, and was rarely substituted during an 80-minute game. He was often hit by, or tackled, some really big guys, but would bounce up again like a rubber ball. If there's any way he can make the 53 (and I'm as confused about the rules as everyone else seems to be), your head coach really should roll the dice, because you may just have a weapon that the other 31 NFL teams won't be used to defending against.

Thanks for the welcome. I do often watch NFL games, which are shown on Sky Sports here in the UK, usually late on Sunday nights due to the time zone difference. One thing I can never quite understand, is when it gets to the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, and the team which is leading have the ball, they can eat up the clock by 'taking a knee for three downs. That seems to me to be deliberate time-wasting, and they should change the rules to penalise that.

i must admit, I have no idea about the intricacies of how NFL teams select their 53-man active roster, or under what circumstances PS players can be promoted to the active squad. But I can tell you this. When he was playing Rugby for us at Wasps, and we needed a score, there was only one call from the playbook - "Give it to Christian'. As I said on another thread, you Bills fans ain't seen nothing yet, this guy will do things that most others can't do. Sure he has a lot to learn about your game, but in simple terms. when he has the ball in his hand, with defenders to beat and the goal line in sight, he will get there more often than not, regardless of which set of rules he's playing under.

A top class international Rugby player will make about £500,000 a year ($600,000). Wade was, for reasons of perceived poor defensive ability, never rated by the England head coach, hence only one cap. So he would have been on about £350,000 ($420,000). But he didn't make the switch just for money. His girlfriend lives in New York.

I've been watching Christian Wade playing Rugby at Wasps for many years, and can tell you that the 65-yard touchdown was only a fraction of what this guy can do. You guys really don't know yet what a fantastic prospect you have signed. There's a reason he was the all-time third highest tryscorer in the Premiership - he has incredible speed, reflexes, and an ability to step of either foot, which makes him very difficult for defenders to get hold of and bring to ground. He scored many tries for Wasps which no other winger would have scored from the position where they received the ball. He is obviously at a disadvantage having not played college football like the vast majority of NFL players, but I believe he will bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to your game, and if you put him in in the regular season squad, rather than cooling his heels in the practice squad, you just might end up with a better than 6-10 record, into the playoffs, and who knows, a shot at the Superbowl.