Einstein's Dog

Beane said "it starts with protecting Josh" and he tried to keep intact the very good performing line from the end of the prior season. They spent for Bates, brought in Saffold, and hired Kromer. And while you may not have liked it, a lot of analysts did, much like this Fantasy Football Index article that had the Bills offensive line ranked as the 5th best heading into the season. The writeup says " 5. Buffalo Bills - A line that improved over the course of last season might be even a little better now. Dion Dawkins and Mitch Morse return as anchors of this unit, and they'll be fine with Spencer Brown at right tackle. It's at the guard spots where there should be some improvement. They added Rodger Saffold, and he's been a good road-grader guard for years. The Titans released him, but it was a cap-driven move; Saffold is 34 but has played at least 15 games six years in a row. At right guard, they plugged in Ryan Bates late in the year and liked how he played. The Bears tried to poach him with a four-year deal worth $17 million, buth the Bills matched the offer to keep him around."

I agree that you have outlined what was the plan. But now it needs to change. The following has happened: 1. The platoon of McKenzie and Crowder is blown apart. And Shakir does not fill the Crowder/Beas role. 2. The pass-catching RB screen game is not at the level we hoped. Not only the RBs, the connection/chemistry is not there. Josh's passes often times seem too lofted, with too much hang time, so the opposing LBs can react. Josh was much better with the darts to Beas. 3, One thing you forgot is that their plan also happened to be cost effective /cheaper (Beas at the time was thinking around $6M I believe). That large expense looks gone now. They should be able to get Beas at a discount rate. other comments I don't diss McKenzie, although he had a rough patch he's pulled out of it. I worry about our depth at slot. For the Beas is washed crowd, what exactly is washed out? Beas was not a speed guy, he is a gut it out, find the opening and dive The leaving of Beas was largely economic - see Smoke. The Bills were not going to pay what those two wanted at the time. Beas needs to make the move and call the FO, like Smoke did, to show he now understands the business side -and the Bills valuation was not an insult

Any idea how Smoke came back? Did Smoke contact the Bills? When Smoke left there seemed to be some frustration. From the looks of the press conference that looks to be old news, filed under the business side of the sport.

If I were GM I'd be strongly considering bringing back Beas for the stretch run. Seems like Beas at this point would come back cheap and healthy. Beas knows the playbook. With Crowder injured we're now thin at the slot.

Technically it is 8 points from being undefeated and 11 points from being 11-0.

To the OP, I agree, the vast amount of criticism of McD is unwarranted and kind of bizarre. I think as mentioned by others it comes from an early formed opinion that is hard to change. Kind of like the Josh detractors for so long. However, that said, I hope they do a look back on who called the final timeout with 7 seconds left. Just idiotic, call it with 3 seconds left like is done routinely and have the kick be the last play of regulation. Fix that. On the other side, i would have been upset if the Bills did what Detroit did and didn't run the ball on that third and one. I think the Bills were lucky that they stop the clock on the review and don't seem to restart it. They put back 10 seconds on the clock and didn't restart? I don't know if the Bills would have called a TO or not in that situation, probably not. Anyways, IMO, Detroit should have run the ball.

You're entering into the ridiculous territory of internet doctor now. Not all ACL tears are the same and there is no set timetable. You don't know that he is not limited. And you don't know how he is feeling afterwards and what his personal doctors are saying. Your last sentence doesn't make sense. You can ask him just about anything, but don't expect him to tell you what his personal doctors are saying.

And when you say "doctors" you mean team doctors, right? Because Tre's personal physician's opinions have not been reported. And if you read between the lines you can deduce there is a difference of opinion.

Why do you totally discount the possibility of Tre changing his mind? Seems possible to me that eventually Tre may feel his knee is up for it. And have you considered it might not be an "excuse" but an actual concern? There exists a real conflict of interest in a team doctor and a coach somehow being the party responsible for determining if Tre is ready to hit the field.

Vikings fans should be afraid. They may not be aware of the off-shoot Bills jinx - that an incredibly lucky/fluky victory over the Bills can tailspin your season (ask Arizona fans). Minn is on its way down.

Why are you assuming it HAS TO go from "push" to "shove"? Certainly a possibility is Tre will eventually feel comfortable enough to play, simple as that. He may, or may not, have psychological issues to get over. It might be he doesn't feel 100% and doesn't feel the knee is ready. And he may feel he is the best judge of when he is ready. It seems the longer he sits out, the more you will use it to justify your already concluded view.

C'mon Crowder over Beas by a mile. Beas was going off a cliff. And odds are Beas would be hurt now anyway - or playing like a cripple. I was all for a WR in round 1. I too, hope the FO tries for one next year. But for this year the FO may not be done, if they add OBJ, they may have, for the stretch run, dare I say, the best WR unit the Bills have ever had. I believe you vastly overestimate the ease of creating an excellent defensive line. Now that we finally have one, the vast majority of posters turn a blind eye to this key development.

And to add to the correction, it's really going to be hard to get that Miami loss seeing as they aren't playing this week

1. KC loses. A KC loss with a Bills win puts the Bills back in the driver seat. 2. Jets loss. Want to get the division back. 3. No more injuries...time to get more people back not lose anyone else. 4. I'd like to see more involvement of the short swing pass to the RB- Cook/Hines or even Singletary. I think this should become a staple of the O. 5. Large victory- I want to get back to crushing teams- gets the team hype and makes viewing for me less stressful.

Thanks for the info. This would mean tickets will be dirt cheap for those of us out of towners that are thinking about popping into Detroit for the game.

After we crush GB then: Kumerow + Moss + 5th (maybe 4th) for AJ Dillon

Not a bad idea but KC sending us anyone this year is a stretch.

The problem with K Hunt is the beyond portion. He is about to enter FA and wants to get paid. For the OP, I think an RB would be helpful. If done right, not just for the remainder of this year but to cover next year as well (Singletary will be FA). My hopes: Top Choice -AJ Dillon (you heard it here first)- you get the remainder of this year and all next year on his rookie contract. Can get the tough yard. During next year if he is a fit you could then extend. I think he is good and also would be great thunder to the upcoming lightning of Cook. Then the rentals. For these rentals I hope Beane keeps it around the 5th he got for Ford. Probably have to wait out the Rams because they pay more than most and apparently want one. K Hunt - excellent back but can't give much because FA next year and don't want to be the big bidder D Montgomery - another rental C Akers - seems like it would be hard to deal w Rams because of how little they value draft picks. But seems like he needs to go and a low draft pick (and of course throw in Moss).

You seem to judge a TEs worth solely on yardage statistics. That's a mistake. How much do you think D Knox would get in Free Agency? J Smith got $12.5M last year, as did H Henry. D Njoku was franchised at about $11M. Knox's deal is right in line with these "elites".

The Bills FO has justified the deal to me, because they are the best team in football at the moment - and Knox is a part of that. D Knox is a home grown player....offers continuity...Process guy..team player...is a true Bill. Looks like Knox will be the best TE in Bills history. They gave him a fair market deal a year early, that's what smart FO's do. They avoided the stat hunting problem, the annoyance on a winning team of an individuals usage problem (see E Moore). If the FO didn't give him a fair deal at the time they did, they would be looking at getting a TE this offseason. J Smith and H Henry had already gone for $12.5M.

Another problem is next year our RB room looks weak. Sure I think Cook will improve but I think Moss may be done and Singletary is a FA. It would be nice if the FO could pick up an RB that would not only finish out this season but be here for next year as well. It would help build year over year continuity. It's a downside to the Hunt pickup, Hunt will want big bucks for 2023, so he really looks like a half season rental.

First - Alpha said kick her in the head. Hunt did not kick her in the head. Second, 100% opposite of the team? What planet do you live on? You don't think the majority of the current Bills have had parties with women? McD and Beane probably know more, no one said they didn't (Alpha didn't). So why don't you stop the condescending "Maybe just maybe" bit. And on top of that there were rumors in the past of the FO looking into acquiring Hunt.

I'm not giving up hope. My preference is K Hunt. The hope is Beane is playing it the way he does, not budging from his price (maybe a 5th). Cleveland might be holding out trying to get more. But if no one else goes to them they might come back to us. The competition looks to have dried up some. SF is out, NYJ probably done now w the trade. The only screw ball team I can think of is the Rams who just have a different view on the value of draft picks ,and were allegedly trying for McCaffery.

On the positive side, the Jets trade for Robinson makes it a lot less likely they are involved with Hunt. Plus the price of a 6th for an RB where they get another year of cost control might help keep the price for Hunt reasonable.

I guess I should retract the "I don't see anyone" because you may be right - the Rams just do things a little different. I should rephrase it to "I don't think Beane would do that". It gives up too much of the future for a slight increase in the present. The reported 2nd for CMC came with a low cost this year and a contract to manipulate for the future.