PoundingDog

But the Eagles are not there because they spend all the money on one guy. They drafted pretty well when they had the chance - Jalen carter, Jordan Davis, Cooper DeJean for examples. A friend of mine working for a sports agency had a chance working along side a former GM who did consulting for them. He said the simplest way to look at the money perspective is 22 starters averaging $10 million each for the season, which would take up $220 million. The rest of the cap $50-60 million taking care of the rest 32 guys on the roster. If you have a super star, like Allen who will be counting $60+ million in 2026, then you need to find 5 capable guys in the 22 starters to make next to nothing. For Justin Jefferson who is making $35 million, you are asking 2.5 guys in the 22 to make next to nothing. Guys making next to nothing but is capable of starting are typically your 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks. Every year you get to draft 3. Allowing 1/3 failure rate (which is really an unrealistic drafting record), you are talking about 3 year of good drafting to make it work. How many starters the Bills have that makes almost nothing? If don't have enough from your draft, you have to fill from the scrap yard. We are lucky to find guys like Edwards. But the more likelihood is guys like Poyer, White who really should not be your starters. Note the signing of Joey Bosa is not a scrap yard move. You paid for a quality starter and he gave you just that, at least so far.

I view it differently. We all agree this team is not super talented that can blow away opponents, overcoming mistakes. But they are capable, especially in AFC. The only bad match up is teams that can run the ball on our D consistently. Yes we won against the Ravens but 8 out of 10 we'd lose. Atlanta game and Miami game fall into that category. The other factor is pretty much like Allen and McDermott has been saying: turnovers. Everything stays the same and we just reduce the turnover by 1 or 2 in the Patriots and Texans' game, we'd win. To me, the recent turn of the team's fortune is the result of 1) better run defense, thanks to emergence of Thompson and overall emphasis of run blitz and fits, and 2) the uptick of defensive turnovers offsetting our own turnovers. We have full control of 2) for improvement. The Danger for facing a strong defensive team like the Texans is that those team have better players on D which usually leads to better chances of creating turnovers. I'm willing to bet anything that if the Bills don't allow a team to run all over us, and the offense eliminates turnovers, we can't be beat. Josh/Cook/Kincaid will have a chance to eventually outscore the opponent.

Uh-uh, notice that Shakir has been looking back at Allen for a few seconds before the throw. A good covering linebacker should turn his head which would potentially intercept the throw. In fact I think Terrel Bernard did this to Stroud last year. Now in no way I dismiss Allen is great in recognizing the situation and throw the ball. I saw this many time Mahomes did similar things throwing to Kelce in the past when we marveled the chemistry between them --- fact is, at their heyday, Kelce would look back the first time and the ball would be there no matter how close the defender would be to him, almost un-defendable. When watched live, I thought Allen threw a prayer and got answered. The replay showed clearly it was a lot more than a prayer. An interesting question is if it were not 4th down, would Allen still throw that ball? My answer is more than likely not. The better option is actually #14 behind Shakir but that requires a higher degree of throw to get over the guys around Shakir, but not too high for #14 and Allen really had no time to set up for that throw. Just the amount of processing going thru a QB's head and instinctively knowing exactly when to throw before the defenders crashing down to him, you can safely say very very few guys has what Allen has.

If I can draft a Roquan Smith with my 1st round pick, I'll keep it.

Sorry I don't see the Bills pay any receiver north of $35 million a year. Especially when Allen's cap hit is going to be around $60 million next year and beyond. That's the reality for teams like the Chiefs, the Ravens, or you will be looking at the roster structure of the Bengals -- cheap players on defense MUST work. The best route is drafting WRs, and I think we should take Rams model: numbers. I'd like McDermott and Beane to take some chances on "non-process" characters like Antonio Brown, George Pickens types so that we get them in the years they work to establish themselves and then trade them away. Not every player you draft that shows talent, even great talent, should be retained thru an extension. To me, that strategy needs to change or you will miss out some talent that could push us over the top.

There are many of them, I just picked a not too technical one here from Thad Brown and Carl Jones. A few notes I want to point out. It is noticeable the Bills have been focusing on taking away the best weapons. Metcalf in the Steelers game and Chase in the Bengals game. The difference is when Mecalf was shut down, the Steelers were cooked. The Bengals still had Higgins (healthy) and Gesicki, which made life miserable unless, I guess, you have the Texans defense - actually I'm not so sure how it would go if Bengals offense would play Texans defense in snow. Naturally, Jones mentioned he's wondering what would the Bills do against the Pats, specifically, Diggs. Very good point on the pass rushers reducing their moves to one, especially the first half. This is where we really missed Bosa and the disappointment on Rousseau whose game is built on power. Burrow was on his game, and with the weapon he has, it is HARD to stop. 2nd half, the Bills took chance on blitz. You win some, and you lose some but the point is you HAVE TO take chances then. By the same token, I'd say the Bills offense had to take chances on all those 4th downs. I myself and many in the media believed that is not sustainable, which I still believe 100% true. Against the Bengals in the situation we were in that game, it was the right move. But it should not be the right move against teams like the Pats that has a decent defense. The point about Lewis, I see why the Bills claimed Slay and it is unfortunate he won't report to address maybe the biggest weakness in our pass defense. Maybe the new Safety they signed could help. I don't think they gave enough credit to Thompson. In this defense, good to solid play of your MLB makes a big difference. The run defense requires everyone doing his job and we are getting that under Thompson vs Bernard.

Who took the video?

That's a lot of praises here that matches to most traits Kelce has. Yes there is surprise effective, efficient and reliable receiving that no one expected from him in NFL. But at the end o the day, his lack of quickness and natural receiving skills (like contested catches) will ultimately limit his ceiling from a receiving TE perspective. Kelce, even a couple of years ago, is hard to cover one-on-one: overwhelming majority of the LBs don't have his quickness and most of CB/safeties can't match his size. Kincaid, in my mind, will beat almost any LB covering him, but can be beat by some bigger CBs/safeties. I think there are a lot of LBs can cover Hawes one on one, and quite a few safeties can make it really tough for him on contested balls. With all that said, he's a rookie already exceeded the expectations by a lot. A better assessment will be next year this time to see what kind of improvement he made ... and how he fares when there is more attention paid to him by defenses.

Well, Jaguars losing out is another avenue for the Chiefs

They were going to be a delay of the game 5 yard penalty of the extra point. You can argue what matters of 5 yards for a kicker. I'm with McDermott that for Prater, it matters and 4 point lead vs 3 point lead is huge. Someone pointed out on the TO for the 3rd and short, the defense alignment was going to have Chase uncovered. Ultimately it resulted #39 on Chase to the sideline, but you'd never want to leave Chase uncovered fora potential TD. There is really no good choice when you know your defense can't stop the other team. But the onside kick chance is so low, it is really not worth it. taylor almost got what he's hoping for which is getting Bills to 3rd and 15... I actually was hoping for play-action on the 1st down. and Kudos to Josh holding onto the ball on the 2nd down sack (not throwing the ball away to stop the clock). I'm pretty sure had Josh not getting the 1st but close, McD might go for it.

What about Allen? I noticed Allen's escape-ability is not as he was in the past this year, just a little. It is natural for all of them , Mahomes, Allen, and Jackson as they age. In fact I think Mahomes and Allen are quite similar in terms of quick decisions and getting the ball to where it needs to be of street football style. There are slight differences. If we include Burrow in the discussion. Throw a football ball from a pocket; Burrow > Mahomes > Allen > Jackson. Extending plays to throw a football: Mahomes > Allen > Jackson > Burrow Running the ball in a QB scramble: Jackson > Allen > Mahomes > Burrow All of them are paid big bucks so you know the team they are on have to suffer somewhere in terms of paying for talent. You can see why the Bengals have to have weapons for Burrow but the defense never had the talent. Mahomes had the benefit of a few HoF talent on offense and defense before he joined the team to win it all. I'm of the opinion Jackson himself is good enough to carry the offense by himself and he has to have a HoF talent like Henry to make it into contention. The Bills unfortunately started bare before Allen arrived (the best inherited talent was Kyle Williams, that's it!) and really haven't found a compliment HoF candidate thus far.

Anyone ever played competitive sports should know this. When you face someone or a team with the same casts you have beaten before vs someone you have never done it carries a very different psyche. This is not a one-off kind of situation like you are facing a Daniel Jones who happens to have a super year. This is a Joe Burrow who is a top 3 QB in the league when healthy and his offensive weapons that are going to be there for the foreseeable time Allen and the Bills are in contention.

Teams are active looking for answers against you, especially when you have success. Cook is superb in short spaces finding a crease and it looks like defenses are increasing the effort at going after the ball instead of merely trying to tackle him. To me it is a concern because when we go into the playoffs, the quality of defense we are going to see and like someone said, the volume and critical plays Bills' offense is placed on his shoulders.

Antonio Brown is not a good human being, but can't deny his football instinct and knowledge. He once said "when I (on a route) look back at the QB and he has the ball in his hand, it's too late." In this case, Hopkins was WAVING his hand, it is WAY TOO LATE. Lamar has come a long way throwing the ball in NFL, but he's still far behind many in term of anticipation and situational actions. His end of the game time management was atrocious yesterday and this is not the first time, second time, third time ...

In the Josh Allen era of the Bills, the goal has quickly risen to Superbowl aspirations. Two hurdles have stopped them time and time again. The biggest one is the Mahomes and the Chiefs. They are now able to beat them in the regular seasons and have come close to the playoffs. The other is the Burrow + his weapons and the Bengals. The Bills has never come close in beating the Bengals both in the regular season and the playoff. They clear the first hurdle of beating them today. I can see in Josh's face and the players. Sure the Bengals is not the Bengals of a few years ago. I think they are the best offense in NFL right now; once they are rolling, it is almost impossible to stop. The Bills are not the Bills a few years ago. The fact the Bills are able to match the offensive ouput is a lot of factors. Josh Allen may not have the talent he had in the past but he showed you he can still make plays. McDermott looked that he learned the lessons to not so hardheaded in trusting his defense and was willing to gamble on Josh Allen. The defense barely made enough plays to cover up the mistakes the offense made. I owe an apology to Benford. He's playing at pro-bowl level in the current streak that I never thought he ever had, and I'm not just talk about his flash plays - he's coverage was great. Though I still don't see him being a true #1 corner in the league.