BigAl2526

The good news is Buffalo does not have to remake their whole roster. I doubt they'll be able to re-sign Poyer. I don't think there are a lot of other key veterans they need to re-sign. They need to do some roster tweaking, but they can probably do most of what they want with the resources they have.

McKenzie has been a big disappointment. I didn't think Crowder seemed to have much chemistry with Josh back when he was healthy. I'm glad he may be available, but Beasley's chemistry with Josh is immediately evident.

Frankly, in comparison to Hyde, Crowder is an afterthought.

Honestly, I don't think this is as much about Miami doing the right thing as it is about the league imposed concussion protocol. With Tua having already played in two games after sustaining a concussion, I'm sure the league is keeping a close eye on Miami. Miami may be trying to do the right thing at this point, but I don't think they have any choice in the decision of Tua this weekend.

Miami will have to play the game Sunday without Tua, and possibly without Mostert. Unless Buffalo completely "discombobulates," they will beat Miami handily. The following game will most likely be against Cincinnati. Having Hyde back and healthy would be absolutely huge in that game.

I think they're trending in the right direction, but they aren't quite there yet. Josh is still making some big mistakes, and the defense is not as dominant as they were at times early in the season. A big part of that is the absence of Hyde and Miller. I think Buffalo will get past Miami. Then they will have a huge challenge as the likely face Cincinnati in round two. Cincinnati had their way early on in the aborted game. McDermott and Frazier will have their hands full trying to stop them in the rematch.

I agree that O-line and WR are priorities. In round one, though, Buffalo is in a challenging position. Likely picking in the las five picks (hopefully the very las -31st pick) the top talent is going to be well picked over. This is not a particularly strong draft for the offensive line, at least at the very top. A lot of mock drafts have projected O'Cyrus Torrence to the Bills. Some, however, don't think he is a first round value. Moreover, he's pretty much limited to a power blocking scheme as he is kind of slow afoot. The Bills like to use zone blocking at least some of the time and I think that is where Aaron Kromer's strength lies as an offensive line coach. Al in all, that seems to make Torrence a less than perfect fit. A few others have projected Andrew Vorhees too the Bills, but he is even less of a value in round 1. The same quandry exists at WR. There is only a handful of first round WRs in this draft - maybe three. They may all be gone by the time Buffalo picks. The one who might be around, Jaxon Smith-Njigba lacks any truly elite characteristics and has played mostly in the slot, at least through 2021. He's got good hands, body control and short area quickness, and I'd be OK if he were the Bills' pick. The real value late in the first round might be at safety. Poyer will be a free agent after the season and the Bills still have a tight cap situation. Both Hyde and Poyer are on the wrong side of 30 and it does not look like the successor of either one is on the roster now. I think there is probably better value both for WR and interior offensive line from the second round on in the draft.

There is very little separating the top five teams. No team is an unbeatable juggernaut. Week to week circumstances will affect the order in the eyes of observers. That's just the reality of the situation.

If voters consider team performance over a multi-year period, I agree. Is there a precedent for them doing that?

It would be a huge mistake for the Dolphins to fire their coach. I would love it. Let them keep hiring new coaches every year or two and they'll be stuck in a pattern of missing the playoffs for years.

I've gone through training for CPR training both with breathing and compressions only. I guess the simplified it because too many people screwed it up when trying to do both, and the no breathing method works. I had thought that once Hamlin turned the corner, his recovery would be pretty quick. I don't really think he'll be back for the playoffs at all, but if he chooses to continue his career, I think he'll probably be able to do most of his off season routine and will be back at training camp next summer. I heard the doctors said that once he's breathing on his own, he could probably leave the hospital pretty quickly.

I think the TV networks would scream bloody murder if the league tried to push the playoff schedule back a week to accommodate a makeup Bills/Bengals game. There is no possible way to squeeze a game inn between this Sunday and Wild Card Weekend. It would be patently unfair to the team or teams that ended up having to play four days later, and playing 3 games in the space of 8 days. The reaction of KC fans is moronic.

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.