BillsFanForever19

Right now, I'm just of the mind that it was just Week 1. It was gross, for sure. But good teams sometimes take a few weeks to put things together. We're far from the only good team to have lost in Week 1. I find it hard to believe that after the past few years that Josh just can't play anymore. He's got to put it together quickly, but he's still a top QB in this league. So I'm just taking coach speak to heart. "We're on to the Raiders". Last night happened, but don't dwell on it too much. I'm not going to start panicking after 1 bad game.

We're far from the only good team that lost Week 1. And historically, Week 1 has been a bit of a Wild Card in the NFL. Some teams have it all together out of the gate, just to come back down to Earth midseason. Some good teams don't start cooking for a couple weeks. It was a gross loss. No two ways about it. Josh looked TERRIBLE. But it's just Week 1. Let's wait until at least Week 3 before we self destruct.

We deserve to lose this game.

Josh needs to stop throwing missiles that deep downfield when he's under duress and without his feet underneath him. Both picks he's just wildly launching it without his feet under him or locked in.

Can Jordan Phillips stay on the field?

Did not know you could step on the line of scrimmage, launch in the air, throw the ball beyond the line midair and it's legal because your feet were last at the line. You learn something new every day.

So far doesn't seem to be any Practice Squad call-ups either.

Or Bernard simply holds it down.

He's entering just Year 2 of a complicated Defense in which he got a total of 43 snaps on Defense as a Rookie. Wayyyyy too early to assume he's a "wasted pick".

Interesting nothing came of this on the Bills side. From the sounds of his agents tweets, it seemed like for a time we were going to let him go. But that never happened. Wonder if he's still being paid and what the plan is going forward.

Very good post. This is the kind of thing I'm constantly talking about that gets me into hot water with some posters. On one hand, this is a place to talk about our opinions and views on players and what should or shouldn't be done. On the other, if it doesn't line up with Beane and McDermott's motus operandi, which is pretty clear entering their 7th season here, it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, it's more about how they view players, their investments and plans in them, and their track record of how they handle situations. I tend to weigh that over a personal opinion, my own or someone else's.

Well, you handled it better than I expected 😆 Bernard is the starter and will be the starter until if/when he proves he can't handle the job. The plan was always to see if he could handle the job after spending a 3rd on him last season. Kirksey is going to be brought along slowly and eased in. He's not going to start unless Bernard flames out. And honestly, we shouldn't be hoping for that.

I expect him to play. But if he doesn't, Edwards started in the last Pre-Season game while he was out. Fairly positive it would be him.

What about on Thursday?

I don't think it's going to happen that quickly or that cheaply. Shaq and Jordan got decent contracts from other teams, but nothing like what Edmunds got in Chicago. If it doesn't work out in Chicago, another team will still pay a good amount for him based on his attributes, thinking they can make it work there. Maybe that team will be us. But it's not going to be a Phillips or Lawson situation where he comes back for pennies without competition from other teams.

I mean, it's all good to have hopes and wants. But I really think you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you honestly think Kirksey is going to Start Week 1. He's coming off injury, didn't have any offseason, needs to learn the playbook, and is coming to a new team with a coach that is notoriously slow when it comes to bringing new players along. Is it likely Bernard and Dodson will under perform and lead McDermott to start Kirksey in the future? Yes. Week 1 though? I wouldn't hold my breath. And as far as game planning goes, the Jets are going to run the same offense and plays regardless of whether it's Dodson, Bernard, or Kirksey.

Not surprising there's no AJ Klein. The plan was to evaluate Bernard and Dodson this season (Bernard in particular) and use Klein as a steady veteran safety valve if there were a problem. With Bernard missing all of the Pre-Season and Dodson performing poorly, they felt they needed a better veteran presence and a player they could count on more. So they got Christian Kirksey. This made Klein expendable.

Exactly this. Matt Milano is an All Pro Outside Linebacker playing the game the way he's been playing it. Why would we mess with that and ask him to do anything but play the way that made him an All Pro? It's insane to me that people want to mess with Matt Milano because they think the guy behind him in Dorian Williams might be better than the guy alongside him or in this new case, Christian Kirksey. Kirksey has to learn the playbook and the calls being called to him regardless of whether he's calling them or receiving them. It's going to take time. People are going to need to learn patience. McDermott doesn't rush new players into the lineup. It just is what it is.

Kyle Allen has been working with Jordan Palmer for as long as Josh has. That's how Josh and he became friends. He's a Palmer disciple. So there's a bit of a bias there. Not to say it was said on air. Just to say Kyle is one of his boys, so it doesn't shock me to hear him speak glowingly about him.

Outside of your takes, which are rather pessimistic when it comes to guys in this Draft outside of Kincaid, I think your forecast of length in the league on guys is too short. A good TE often has a very long career. It's not odd to see guys play into their 30's. Kyle Rudolph was in the league last year at 33. Greg Olsen was playing at 35. Jimmy Graham is playing this year at 36. If Kincaid is what he says he is, he'll be in this league longer than 6-8 years, barring major injury. If Torrence is a starter for a few years, he'll definitely be around longer than 4-5 years. Especially with the middle of the road play league wide at the Offensive Line. Cody Ford, a complete bust, is entering year 5 this year. A guy like Bobby Hart was entering year 9 before he was released.

When one asks a question pertaining to another thread, why not just direct them there? And it's not something I frequently do so I'm not quite sure why you said "will you quit it already?!"

The Dorian Williams pick is a head scratcher to everyone because everyone was singularly focused on the MLB position. But we also had a need at OLB. The fact is that outside of Matt Milano, we had ZERO OLB's on the roster. So while the MLB's we had were underwhelming, our LB core consisted of 4 MLB's in competition (Bernard, Dodson, Klein, Spector), 1 OLB (Milano), and a Special Teams player who is only technically a LB (Matakevitch). In Rounds 1 & 2, they valued getting a weapon and a starting Offensive Lineman over the MLB position, especially with what was on the board at both picks. When Round 3 started, there were 3 MLB's that could have theoretically pushed Bernard and Dodson and maybe won the job in Drew Sanders, Trenton Simpson, and Daiyan Henley. After them was a MASSIVE drop off in talent in which they felt were probably long term developmental prospects that wouldn't be able to compete and unworthy of selecting in Round 3. All 3 guys got drafted by pick 86. At that point, MLB was out. So looking at the roster, with no MLB on the board left they felt could challenge Dodson, Bernard, Klein, or Spector in Year 1, and having taken care of the last weapon and the last piece of the OL - what was the only real hole left on the roster? An OLB behind Milano. Milano has stayed relatively healthy. But when he's needed a breather or some time, to this point we've had an insane drop off there when he isn't in the lineup. And going into this season, we literally had nothing. Now in Williams, perhaps we have a player that can keep things rolling when Milano needs a breather or God forbid gets hurt. Long story short, Williams was drafted as an OLB. Everyone is confused by it because our MLB's are pedestrian and we were focused on that position. But OLB was a need and that's what he was Drafted for.

He signed with Washington's Practice Squad today.