BigAl2526

I don't expect to see any more Bills selected as modern era players in my life time. We had a 20 year playoff drought and were known for mediocrity for the first two decades of the millenium. There are Bills on the current team who will end up in the Hall of Fame, but most of them are relative youngsters with a number of years left in their careers. After that there is a waiting period. It is likely to be 10-15 years before any of the current crop of Bills stars get consideration for the hall of fame. Maybe I'll be around for the early part of that period, but my odds of surviving another 15 years aren't great. I'll try my best though.

I think two factors help voters in choosing coach of the year. One is overachieving and the other is the team looking to be ready for a deep playoff run at the end of the season. I think it goes to Shanahan in San Francisco. He's got his team poised to make a deep playoff run with a third string 7the round draft pick at QB. Pederson and Daboll have made a strong case, but I don't think they go too far in the playoffs if they make it there at all. I like McDermott and think he should get consideration, but the Bills were widely expected to contend for a Super Bowl, and aside from the psychological challenges of dealing with Damar Hamlin having cardiac arrest have not suffered more than the expected injury issues. It's tough to overachieve when you start out with those expectations, and as I said, I think overachieving weighs heavily in the minds of voters.

I predicted the game would not be played, so I'm not surprised.

This makes sense to me. The Bills have to plan on Hamlin being unavailable for the foreseeable future. The Bills need a safety on the roster in case Jaquan Johnson gets injured in a game. The market of available safeties is probably pretty dry at the moment. I checked a list of available safeties. There are a bunch of names, but not a lot of them are recognizable. Mayden spent some time on the Bills practice squad. That means he has at least been exposed to the Bills playbook. He played college football at Alabama, so he's had quality college coaching, and he happens to possess a very good combination of size and speed. He can play both safety spots and has experience at CB too. This is not to say Mayden is a great player at this point. He was a UDFA. He's almost certainly a project that needs to be coached up, but he's a warm body at a needed position with athleticism and upside. I don't think the fact that he was released from the PS means the Bills hated him. The PS has been used by Beane to keep the roster balanced and fortify positions as needed. If an area of the team is hurt by injury, Beane may decide he needs to add players to that position, and he'll drop players at another position Mayden may have been one of those drops. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the roster in training camp. If he can get coached up, who knows. . .

Although Hamlin is still listed as critical, I think the expectation is that he'll likely pull though. I'm also guessing that since his cardiac arrest was triggered by "blunt trauma" rather than a blockage and that the response was immediate, there is probably no damage to his heart, and once he turns the corner, his recovery may be rapid. Buffalo has certainly faced challenges this winter though.

I can't imagine that the league would impose those kinds of restrictions on teams in a make up match. I also can't imagine how the league would be able to squeeze a makeup up game in without screwing up the whole playoff schedule.

Agreed. Frazier has made adjustments in the past against teams that started out like a juggernaut. There's no way to know whether he could have done so this time or not.

My son was smaller than average until he was probably a senior in high school. He's bigger than average now, but he never had interest in playing. He did try wrestling. He got slammed to the mat a few times, and as a result, his knees were messed up for years. On balance, I think what he got out of wrestling in terms of self-respect and the respect of his teammates for trying something, that was a real challenge for him, outweighed the physical price he paid. I think the same is true for many participants in football.

I don't think it is possible to make completely remove the possibility of a catastrophic injury event from the game of football. There is a reason why this has never happened before. Apparently, it takes a perfect storm of circumstances, including a very small window in the timing of a hit (milliseconds), for that particular heart stoppage to occur. Frankly, I think the decision comes down whether football is abandoned as America's favorite spectator sport, or we accept that there is at least a minimal risk of catastrophic injury and death even after we have made it as safe as possible without destroying its entertainment value. It's kind of like flying a plane or driving a car. We can reduce risk, but we can't eliminate it all together unless we stop driving and flying. Well, I'm still going to drive, though not every day like I used to, and I'm going to fly if need be to take that dream vacation or visit family.

I don't see how the game will ever be played. It's been ruled out this week, and I can't see the league moving the playoffs back a week just squeeze it in. There is no way they could squeeze the game in between week 18 and wild card weekend without moving the playoffs back, because at least one of the two teams is going to have to play in wild card weekend. Maybe Sean McDermott can have a wrestling match with Zac Taylor to determine the winner. (sarcasm alert)

I think that with milder temperatures in Cincinnati, the Bills will open up their offense more, particularly with the offensive line being a bit healthier.

I'm not thinking about mathematical possibilities at this point. I can't imagine a world where Baltimore beats the Bengals with a back-up QB and the Raiders quarterbacked by Jarrett Stidham beat a motivated Chiefs team. I think Buffalo has to beat Cincinnati and New England in their last two games if they want a bye and home field. I'm also not fretting about who Buffalo might face after wild card weekend, should they gain that first round bye. I think that's getting ahead of ourselves. Then the playoffs are set, I'll start to think about matchups.

If Buffalo does not secure the bye, chances are good they will face Miami or New England. Had KC lost today, then a Buffalo win over Cincinnati would have guaranteed Buffalo the bye in round one. Unfortunately, KC won, but they were unimpressive in doing so.

Nor am I. He's always had great hands, and a knack for getting open. For Buffalo, his lack of a contribution on special teams was an issue. He's starting for the Giants, so that's not an issue for them.

I'm not getting my hopes up. It would be a huge benefit to the secondary though.

It's hard on elite QBs when opposing teams focus on taking away the deep ball. If you're elite, it's pretty much a given that you've got a very healthy ego. You know you're good, and you love making the big play. It's important to play with discipline though. If you play with discipline and win consistently with an effective run game and short passing game, you will eventually force the opposition to fill the box more. Deep opportunities will come.

Not being the student of the game that you and some others are, I was guessing in my assessment of Willis. You actually confirm my thinking. That doesn't mean he can't succeed eventually. Of course, his athletic gifts don't guarantee he won't bust either. It's probably going to be a lot longer before he enjoys much success as a starter than it was for Josh though.

Willis is a raw youngster. In some ways, I think he might be behind where Josh Allen was as a rookie. He may turn out to be a bust, I also wouldn't rule out the possibility of future success.

Well, the Bills have only lost 3 games this season to this point. Their three losses included two division opponents and an NFC team (Minnesota). That's how we got to that statistic. I'm actually impressed more by the fact that Josh Allen has surpassed Dan Marino's scoring record for the first five years of his career. He's now the all time NFL leading QB in scoring for the first 5 years of his career.

KC will be dangerous in the playoffs regardless of how they got there.

Tre White can be expected to make incremental improvements in his play from week to week, but it will probably be next season before he's 100%. What we can hope for is that he'll be better against Cincinnati than he was against Chicago. Hopefully, that will be good enough to get the win. As far as the running game is concerned, I don't see the Bills as a running juggernaut by any means. They are not going to have the same running game versus Cincinnati. On the other side of it, I expect Josh Allen will have better numbers in the passing game. I'm picking the Bills to win, but it is going to be a war on Monday evening, and nothing is certain.

It's easy to get caught up in one's own success. When you build yourself a tall, tall pedestal, you make it more likely that you'll eventually fall off. It's going to hurt when it happens.

Yeah, He was unblockable. His body just seemed to fall apart. Funny how some players will hold up for 20 years, and some fall apart after a handful.

Personally, I'm not a huge Singletary fan. He has some good games, and games where he spends a lot of plays running into a pile. A good share of that may be due to the O-line though. I'm not saying the Bills should get rid of him. I'm just not ready to give him a big money long term commitment. I like what I'm seeing from Cook, but he's a rookie in his first season, and it's taken a while to see him get untracked. I'll feel more confident about him if he comes out of the gate next season running with the same confidence and catching passes.

Will they let him use his cane to extend his reach on contested balls?