Billl

Mahomes played without three and a half first stringers, but most of them were out for all or the majority of the year. Allen had his entire line healthy. Advantage Mahomes, obviously. 🙄

And those players who played in their absence are called backups. So to repeat the question, do you think Mahomes line of mostly backups gave him an advantage over the line that was protecting Allen? When Kansas City brought pressure, Allen took big sacks and put the ball into harm’s way. When Buffalo brought pressure, Mahomes dodged it or got the ball out immediately.

Tell that to Mitchell Schwartz, Kelechi Osemeli, Laurent Duverney Tardif, and Eric Fisher.

Do you think Mahomes had a better line what with 4 of 5 starters being out, or do you think he did a great job of reading the defense pre snap, identifying mismatches, and making quick decisions? Josh looked confused. He changed plays consistently, but the defense adjusted as well. He was under pressure, but he also missed plenty of throws that were there and got lucky with a couple of terrible decisions that could easily have been interceptions. I can't think of a single play where Mahomes made a bad read or missed a throw. When Buffalo blitzers got a clean shot at him, he shrugged them off and hit big plays. When Kansas City blitzed, Josh took huge sacks. Both guys are Favre physically. Mahomes is turning into Brady mentally to go with it.

Rings aren’t the end all be all, but they certainly matter. If Rodgers had 3 and Brady had 5, you could have the discussion. If Rodgers retires with 1 and Brady retires with 7, you can’t. If Mahomes wins today, the discussion will start warming up. If Brady wins, I don’t think Patrick will ever be able to close that gap.

Allen finished ahead of Mahomes in the MVP vote. Seems legit.

If Beane is going to take a RB, it should be in the first round. Normally I’m against taking them high, but if he’s going to try for a third straight year then he needs to stop screwing around and take the top guy. You can’t keep wasting early picks on failed RBs when that’s literally the easiest position to find. Go get the top one in the draft or just say screw it and bring in a dozen UDFAs. Adequate RBs grow on trees. Fournette and Bell were outright released early in the season. Now they’re in the Super Bowl. There’s no excuse for not having someone capable even if you never draft any.

That’s true, but does it work both ways? I mean it’s just as true to say that Josh should be stronger because he’s bigger. Josh is agile for a guy his size, and Patrick is strong for a guy his size. You can make a case for either of them. The statement made was that Josh is inarguably the better athlete, and I’m saying that you can make a case for either of them. The case for Mahomes is that he’s better at football than Josh and he’s good enough at baseball to have been drafted out of HS. They’re both elite athletes in their own ways.

I was replying to a post that said Allen was inarguably a better athlete than Mahomes. Now you’re saying you don’t care about athleticism that isn’t directly related to football. That’s your right, but it’s sort of a weird take.

I think Mahomes has better acceleration and lateral agility. Allen is maybe stronger, but I’m not sure that’s true. Josh is 12 pounds heavier and 3 inches taller, so he’s not as thick. I’ve seen both drag defenders, though Mahomes definitely picks his spots more carefully than Allen does. If you look at what PM does in the playoffs running the ball, you get a better idea of what he’s capable of when he really needs it. He’s got 4 rushing TDs in 7 games vs Josh’s 1 in 4 games. The run against the Titans in last year’s AFCCG was an all time great QB run. Josh is much more of a freight train once he gets going. He’s also a tremendous athlete. I just don’t know how you can say that he’s inarguably a better athlete than Patrick is when PM was good enough to play professional baseball as well as football. They’re just very different types of players. It’s going to be fun watching them but heads over the next decade plus. I’d much rather argue about Mahomes vs Allen than whether my team should trade picks for a guy like Wentz or Darnold.

Josh is inarguably more athletic than the guy who’s been drafted in both the MLB and NFL drafts? Mahomes played shortstop and pitcher with a 95 MPH fastball in HS. Did I miss Allen getting drafted by the NBA or something? Josh is a hell of an athlete, but so is Patrick.

That would be a terrible pick. (Because I want him in Kansas City.)

Forgot about that. Either way, the stopwatch is going to have a big impact on Harris’s draft stock, IMO.

He may have more to lose/gain at the combine than anyone. If he can run a 4.45, he’s going mid to late first round. If he’s 4.55, he could fall. The Bills need speed on both sides of the ball, but particularly on offense. The AFCCG highlighted that. For all the complaining about coaching and play calling, the difference in the game is that one team had burners and the other didn’t. Kelce was killing Edmunds and even White all day over the middle, but Frazier couldn’t do much to help because Hill and Hardman (even without Watkins) were hitting them for massive plays when they got loose. If you watch the “behind the game” videos, the Bills players weren’t talking about Kelce killing them. They were marveling at how damned fast Hill is. You can’t teach speed, and the only way to counter it is to ‘cheat’ by trying to anticipate routes, shading one direction, etc. When that fails, you wind up over pursuing, and it’s off to the races. Buffalo has nobody like that on offense, particularly when Brown is out. McKenzie is fast, but he’s more of a gadget guy. If I’m Beane, I’m drafting speed. Outside of Diggs, he’s brought in a lot of slow players. Beasley, Moss, Singletary, Davis are all slow. Go get some dudes who can make teams pay for mistakes with 6 points instead of 15 yards.

Harris is a better prospect than either of those guys.

I was a heavy bettor on the Bills last year. Now I want them to win as many games as possible as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of the Chiefs. I like the team, and you fans deserve a title.

Mahomes, Jones, and Kelce are all locked up long term. Hill has 2 more seasons on his deal, but he’s not going anywhere. Who’s leaving?

For those saying he should have been more aggressive in the championship round, what are some examples of when he should have pressed it? The FG at the end of the first half seems to be the obvious opportunity. What else should he have done?

That’d be a hell of a secondary. Still think Wallace would be worth retaining even if Beane added Rhodes if you can get him for $3mm AAV or so.

I find it interesting that you could watch Kelce catch 13 passes on 15 targets for 118 yards and 2 TDs and come away thinking that Dawson Knox, a guy who had 24 catches on 44 targets for 288 yards an 3 TDs on the SEASON (not to mention 2 lost fumbles and a dropped pass that caused an INT) is an adequate weapon for Allen. I find it interesting that you watched the fastest player in the league catch 9 passes on 11 targets for 172 yards in that same game and came away thinking that Gabe Davis, a possession receiver who ran a 4.54 and had 0 catches on 3 targets is a viable weapon as a Z receiver. I find it interesting that you watched another track star in Mecole Hardman break off a 50 yard run and catch a TD from the slot in that same game and came away thinking that Cole Beasley, a 32 year old possession receiver coming off a broken leg is a viable weapon in the slot. It’s not that I think all these guys suck, but none of them are viable second options, especially for a team that relies so heavily on the passing attack. You’ve got Diggs who is awesome and then a bunch of slow footed guys in Singletary, Moss, Knox, Beasley, and Davis. I think a pass catcher with speed is the biggest off-season need. If Josh is the franchise, how are you going to run him out there with one great skill player and nothing else?

I see Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Kansas City (in that order) as the most likely candidates. I would put Tampa and Buffalo in the next grouping with maybe a few other teams like Miami and Los Angeles.

Beane needs to draft and/or sign 2 WRs or a pass catching TE. Hard to count on a 32 year old Beasley coming back from a broken leg, and Brown seems unlikely to be retained. Diggs is great, but he can’t be the only playmaker on offense, especially with a mediocre at best running game. I expect Buffalo to be a contender next year, but there’s going to be significant roster turnover needed.

I just rewatched the game, and Mahomes keyed on Edmunds the entire game. If his first movement was to drop back into coverage, Mahomes threw underneath him. If he stepped up, Mahomes threw behind him. When he was in the right spot, Mahomes moved him to the wrong spot with his eyes or a subtle pump fake. It’s pretty clear that Kansas City saw on film that Edmunds could be manipulated and exploited that advantage all day long. Frazier tried mixing it up a few times, but that only made things worse. They called a blitz on the first play if the second half, and Hill broke off a long catch and run. They tried pressing Hill with Johnson and helping Edmunds, and Kelce ran a clear out that Hill exploited and took for a 71 yard catch and run. They manned White on him, and it looked like my 8 year old trying to guard my 14 year old. Buffalo couldn’t get any pressure with their front 4, and there’s no workable game plan for slowing down Kansas City that doesn’t involve whipping them up front.

In the 3 years with Nagy, the Bears are 28-24 with a +122 point differential. In Fox’s 3 seasons, they were 14-34 with a -238 differential. I don’t know that Nagy is great, but it’s hard for me to understand how a pathetic coach was handed a team that had just bungled a draft and made them respectable. Put Watson or Mahomes on that team instead of Trubisky, and things look very different.

I’ll admit, I had no idea where you were going with the Antiques Roadshow thing, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t turn into a solid analogy. Also well said.