MPL

Someone once told me, "it's just business... don't take it personal."

Thanks! Just to be clear... we're talking about the health and happiness of the Bills, right?

99% chance that this tweet has absolutely nothing to do with football.

Can March 16th just hurry up and get here? I need resolution! Also, my son is due to be born on March 16th... so, there's that, too.

I believe you mean Chosen Anderson...

I like the idea of adding Hendricks or a similar FA instead of trying to resign Edmunds and overpaying. I think we can get similar production for way less money. People seem to be wising up to Edmunds' up-and-down play over his tenure and his history of giving up big plays. Even Gregg Rosenthal at NFL.com is talking about Edmunds being overvalued in FA: "Edmunds made a big jump in his coverage ability in 2022. Considering all the big plays he gave up in his first four seasons, though, it's fair to expect some regression. He also was in an ideal system surrounded by great players in Buffalo, and recreating that in a new setting will be difficult. It feels like paying him now would be like buying his stock at an all-time high."

Ah, man, I sure do love big-name free agents with questionable knees.

I don't know. Someone once told me, "time is a flat circle."

I'll put it like this: 4 years ago, we were two years into the McDermott era. We had a 9-7 drought-breaking season and 6-10 cap management/retooling year under our belt. I don't think I would have predicted in the spring following the 2018 season that this team was about to embark on 4 of the most thrilling seasons I've experienced as a fan — which dates back to when my memories first started sticking (roughly 1992). In that sense, McD has exceeded my expectations in every way. Am I disappointed in how each of the past 3 seasons have ended? Sure. Is some of that on McD? Probably. Playoff football is a whole different beast. It seems like the difference between winning it all and getting bounced is a razor thin margin — a flip of the coin, a weird bounce of the ball, a miraculous catch. Over the years, I've watched a lot of really great football teams not win the Super Bowl (the 07 Patriots, the 98 Vikings, every Bills team that ever made it) and I've watched a lot of not historically great football teams win it (the 07 Giants, the 2011 Giants, the 2017 Eagles). I will say, my one fear is that after this past season, this team could start to hit a psychological wall — a little subconscious doubt that starts to creep in. I guess this is why most teams that win the Super Bowl do so while the head coach and starting QB are both within the first five years of their tenure together (at least, that seems to be the recent trend). So, long answer, but McDermott has exceeded my expectations, but I also acknowledge the possibility that the current version of this coach/team won't get over the hump. I don't believe that this possibility justifies blowing things up at this point. My expectation is that 2023 is going to be a step back while we get the cap under control and 2024/2025 will be our next — and maybe final — opportunity with both McDermott and Allen. After that, who knows?

Sometimes it feels like half this board would be thrilled to trade Gabe Davis for Isaiah Hodgins straight up.

Wait, you guys are telling me I had a choice in becoming a fan? Boy, I've got to go do some soul-searching.

Between Davis and Thomas, we ought to be able to finally get 2 fully healthy ankles!

Carr on the Jets is probably best case scenario compared to the possibility of Rodgers or Lamar Jackson. I think Carr is good and would make the Jets better, but he just doesn't scare me. Then again, Rodgers on the Jets could be a total circus. So, shrug.

I don't know. We can get this kind of production from Gabe.

All I want to know is why Patty Mahomes felt like he needed to fake an ankle injury throughout the playoffs. Like, you're great, dude — we get it. You don't have to pretend to be injured so you can pull-off some kind of faux Michael Jordan flu game.

Great. This outta go well.

Careful, you're setting yourself up for an "Isaiah Hodgins" conversation.

I want to believe that winning just 1 super bowl would make everything better — that 1 super bowl would make future seasons far more bearable in the anxiety department. Like, if we had a super bowl win in the bag, I could just be like, "ah, we didn't win it this year, no biggie." But, I just don't know, guys. I mean, look at Eagles fans. They finally got their first super bowl win 5 years ago. Are they happier? No, they're still the same old angry, aggressive Eagles fans. I'm starting to think that maybe a Bills super bowl wouldn't actually bring us any lasting happiness and maybe we just have to do that work for ourselves.

I saw this on Twitter and can't claim it as my own thought... but guys, come on, Cole Beasley is on this team and Jordan Poyer is married to Rachel Bush.... If there was a COVID vaccine cover up, we'd know about it.

There has to be a real possibility that Mitch hangs it up this offseason after getting his 6th concussion, right?

I don't know, guys. This one is close, too: Chargers 2004 -> Lost in Wildcard round // Bills 2017 -> Lost in Wildcard round Chargers 2005 -> Missed playoffs // Bills 2018 -> Missed playoffs Chargers 2006 -> Lost in divisional round // Bills 2019 -> Lost in Wildcard round Chargers 2007 -> Went to AFC Championship, lost to NE // Bills 2020 -> Went to AFC Championship, lost to KC Chargers 2008 -> Lost to Pitt in divisional round // Bills 2021 -> Lost to KC in divisional round Chargers 2009 -> Lost in divisional round to Jets // Bills 2022 -> Lost in divisional round to Cinnci Chargers 2010 -> Missed playoffs. // Bills 2023 -> Tune in to find out Is Sean McDermott closer to Marty S or is he more like Tony Dungy? Is Josh Allen more likely to win a Super Bowl or have 9 children?

FWIW, I was exhausted, too. I was barely clapping by the end of the year.

In defense of Beane... the offense was seemingly unstoppable by the end of last season (and even at the beginning of this season). They didn't punt in like, 4 out of 5 games. It was the defense, primarily lack of pass rush that was this team's achilles heel. So, Beane went out and got Von Miller and for the first half of this season, the Bills pass rush was top 2 or 3 in the league. Then Von got hurt and everything went to *****. I can't blame Beane for that. I don't know what happened to the offense this year. They got derailed at some point (some point out the Green Bay game) and never really got seemed to get it back. I remember at the beginning of the season saying that Josh was reading defenses pre-snap as well as Brady or Manning. He was efficient, always knew when to go to his hot reads, and knew when to take the big shots downfield. By the end of the year, it felt like Josh was not reading defenses well, and this felt most apparent in both playoff games. Against Miami and Cincinnati, Josh struggled to identify free rushers off the edge and both teams had success with blitzing Josh (something that was a death sentence to defenses in 2020 and 2021). I don't know what went wrong this year. It was probably a myriad of things all working together. For most of the year, I felt the o-line wasn't good enough. But then, yesterday, I watched Joe Burrow carve us up with 3 starters out on his o-line and it became very apparent that a QB who is reading the defense well can overcome a bad o-line by helping them know where pressure is coming from and getting the ball out quickly. Well, it also helped that Buffalo had never played on snow before and couldn't get their footing. I don't know what to feel today. I hope they invest heavily in the o-line and finally make a commitment to adding a running game. I'd like to see this team built more like Philadelphia. Anyway, I forgot what this thread was even about halfway through typing this.

I was between the ages of 4 and 8 during those years, so highly impressionable. The biggest lesson I took away is that life is unfair and nothing good will ever to happen to you. My first kid is due in two months. Wish us luck!

Benjamin Solak needs to chill.