Brand J

Any AFC playoff team can beat anyone. They can also lose to anyone.

The journeyman Sammy Watkins.

I’ve had enough of Davis.

Where has Ed Oliver been?

Downtown to John Brown!

Zone doesn’t work very well if players can’t anticipate/recognize receivers running into their area and take that option away. I see too many flat-footed defenders standing there staring at the QB, waiting to see where the ball is going so they can go and tackle.

Boogie Basham and crew should be DESTROYING Conor McDermott, but he can’t get past him.

It’s what he always does. Seldom will break up a pass, but mostly a reactionary player.

Edmunds always late

It’s okay to admit that Josh Allen has not played like a top 3 QB in the league. As much as Nick Wright is hated, the numbers he brings up which ranks Josh 28th overall since week 6 is valid.

Mahomes is famous for those loopty loops in the backfield and almost always gets away.

Remember when some wanted the Bills to forfeit the rest of the season? 😅

I reeeaallly wanted KC and CIN on the same side of the bracket, but oh well. If the Bills manage to beat them both on their way to the franchise’s first Lombardi, it’d probably be the most impressive Super Bowl feat given the adversity they’ve had to go through this year and the opponents they’ve had to overcome.

I already addressed Bates and Teller - both were bad evaluations by the coaching staff. Many people sitting on their couch wanted Bates to get more PT while I never wanted to see Teller go. I liked what I saw in his first start against the Jets I believe it was. Anyway, you - as well as I and the rest of TBD - can sit on our couches without being in the meeting rooms, on the field, around the players day after day, down after down, and claim this rookie is better than this veteran, yet the coaches don’t echo your(our) thoughts. Their number one priority is to win and based on the wealth of information they have that we aren’t privy to, they make informed decisions based on who gives the team the best chance to win. I could nitpick your conclusions about each player based on the amount of information available to you at the time, but I already know it pales in comparison to our coaching staff, so why bother. My original point, which has never wavered, still stands - the coaches do not believe that Elam is one of the team’s best corners right now and that’s reflected in his lack of playing time. His rookie status doesn’t carry nearly the amount of weight you and Banana seem to think it does. If he was a better player he would’ve supplanted Dane Jackson long ago. Period and end of story.

Haven’t been following along. Do we want the Titans or Jags?

Sure, the coaches are purposely playing inferior players because… well… I don’t know, their jobs and livelihoods aren’t based on wins and losses. C’mon man. The younger player wasn’t the better player at that time. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp. The veteran knows how to execute what is asked of them better, hence why they’re on the field. I didn’t say they weren’t wrong to keep Dane Jackson out on the field rather than go with Elam. It’s clear, like those younger players you referenced, the coaches trust that Dane will do what is asked of him more consistently than Elam will.

There’s a ton of politics in sports, but there is one constant, no matter the league: if you’re an exceptional player, you’ll play. Doesn’t matter what background you are, what race, or how many years you have in the pros, if you can play, you’ll play. It’s increasingly difficult to find players at the end of each round who are able to step in and immediately help a team like the Bills. They’re out there, but there’s a bit of luck involved in hitting on them. We haven’t drafted any true blue chippers since Allen. Rousseau may prove to be one, it’s still early, but it’s not like we’re drafting Justin Jeffersons, Jonathan Taylors, and Micah Parson caliber players only to play vets ahead of them because they’re more experienced. The staff - right now - believes Dane Jackson gives them a better chance to win than Elam. That’s all there is to it, no matter how much we dislike the situation. Elam has a say in it, of course. He just has to be better.

Look, I don’t disagree that I’d rather have Elam on the field than Dane Jackson. If a player is gonna get burnt, I’d rather it be the one with the higher upside and more investment. If Sauce Gardner was the pick rather than Elam, I have no doubt he’d be on the field ahead of Dane Jackson. The team isn’t reluctant to play rookies, but that rookie has to earn his time on the field. The staff has to believe in him. Elam’s playing time or lack thereof thus far suggests the staff doesn’t think he’s ready yet. It has little to do with his rookie status keeping him off the field.

Again, the rookies have to show they belong on the field. Edmunds was a starter off the bus. Same with Tre White and Groot. If you think the coaches believe that Elam gives them a better chance to win than Dane Jackson, but still aren’t playing him because he’s a rookie, you’re delusional. The latter players you mentioned became more deserving over time, but at the time, the team believed the veteran gave them a better chance to win. I don’t know why this is so difficult to grasp. The coaching staff doesn’t believe that Elam is one of their better corners right now and that’s why his involvement hasn’t been to the level we thought we were getting out of a first round corner.

In all cases, the Bills believed - at that time - they were playing the better player. The rookie has to prove them wrong and at this point, they don’t think Elam is better than Jackson, no matter how many times Dane gets roasted. The Bills are in the business of winning, careers are on the line, money, etc. It goes back to my original point you disagreed with - if the Bills believed Elam was one of their better corners, he’d be seeing significant minutes. There’s no mental gymnastics around that.

I disagree there. I’d say they’ve misjudged some of their own (Teller and Bates specifically), but I don’t recall better talent consistently riding the bench in lieu of more experienced players. Perhaps you could cite some examples…

I’d be shocked, SHOCKED, if KC fails to win this game with a bye and home field advantage (until the AFCCG) on the line. No way do they lose to a middling Raiders team.

If the Bills believed Elam was one of their better corners, he’d be playing significant minutes. Period.

And now Elam’s journey to playing time gets even longer…

Flip a coin to determine the winner of the Bills and Bengals and be done with it.