dave mcbride

Not really arguing with this, but one thing that doesn't show up in the stat sheet was the insane two-point conversion catch he made to put the Bills up 29-26 in the 13 seconds game. Totally broken play and he just ad libbed his way to a circus catch. Good take, and with regard to the topic of "playoff Diggs", not mentioning the Minnesota Miracle is bad arguing. Sure, it wasn't the Bills, but it was an amazing play and totally clutch.

Joe B is at camp every day and has been reporting on it regularly since it started. He's not making stuff up about Moore's performance in practice.

See above. If Joe B is correct, Samuel is a more likely cut than Moore. We'll find out soon enough.

According to Joe B, Moore is likely safe: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6560872/2025/08/19/buffalo-bills-bubble-watch-players-cut-roster-2025/ Firmly on the roster (40) QB Josh Allen, RB James Cook, RB Ty Johnson, RB Ray Davis, FB Reggie Gilliam, WR Keon Coleman, WR Joshua Palmer, WR Khalil Shakir, TE Dalton Kincaid, TE Dawson Knox, TE Jackson Hawes, LT Dion Dawkins, LG David Edwards, C Connor McGovern, RG O’Cyrus Torrence, RT Spencer Brown, IOL Spencer Brown, OT Tylan Grable, C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, DE Greg Rousseau, DE Joey Bosa, DE A.J. Epenesa, DE Landon Jackson, DT Ed Oliver, DT DaQuan Jones, DT T.J. Sanders, DT Deone Walker, LB Terrel Bernard, LB Matt Milano, LB Dorian Williams, NCB Taron Johnson, NCB Cam Lewis, CB Christian Benford, CB Tre’Davious White, S Taylor Rapp, S Cole Bishop, S Damar Hamlin, S Jordan Hancock, K Tyler Bass, LS Reid Ferguson. … Looking like a good bet to make it (6) QB Mitchell Trubisky, WR Elijah Moore, DE Javon Solomon, LB Joe Andreessen, CB Dane Jackson, CB Dorian Strong Trubisky has been the better of the two backup options over the last two weeks and seems closer than not to securing the job again. Moore has had a really nice camp and gives the Bills a strong backup option at slot receiver should anything happen to Shakir, and Moore could even play Z-receiver and return kickoffs or punts. Solomon has had a strong camp and is a likely core special teams contributor every week in 2025. Andreessen’s game against the Bears didn’t go well, but he remains the top backup middle linebacker and a staple of their special teams units, even if they brought someone else in. Jackson had some difficult moments in the preseason game against the Bears, but the Bills trust him in their system and he plays a lot of special teams. Strong has had some nice moments during camp, and though inconsistent, there is enough potential there to not risk putting him on waivers. … Curtis Samuel Samuel is the biggest name on this list, along with the most guaranteed salary of anyone, but it’s been yet another disappointing summer from a Bills perspective. Last year, he dealt with a toe injury for most of the practices and was an in-game afterthought for much of the season once healthy. This year, a hamstring injury suffered on July 25 has kept him from taking a single rep of team drills since. The Bills, who grew frustrated enough with linebacker Baylon Spector’s injury history to move on mid-camp, are likely feeling similar frustrations about Samuel. The receiver’s $6.9 million salary is fully guaranteed, but to move on, the Bills wouldn’t be taking on that much more to their 2025 cap. If they feel stronger about another receiver or two that have shown well during camp, they won’t let a guaranteed salary get in the way of keeping their best 53. Samuel needs a big week to secure his spot.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6560872/2025/08/19/buffalo-bills-bubble-watch-players-cut-roster-2025/ Firmly on the roster (40) QB Josh Allen, RB James Cook, RB Ty Johnson, RB Ray Davis, FB Reggie Gilliam, WR Keon Coleman, WR Joshua Palmer, WR Khalil Shakir, TE Dalton Kincaid, TE Dawson Knox, TE Jackson Hawes, LT Dion Dawkins, LG David Edwards, C Connor McGovern, RG O’Cyrus Torrence, RT Spencer Brown, IOL Spencer Brown, OT Tylan Grable, C Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, DE Greg Rousseau, DE Joey Bosa, DE A.J. Epenesa, DE Landon Jackson, DT Ed Oliver, DT DaQuan Jones, DT T.J. Sanders, DT Deone Walker, LB Terrel Bernard, LB Matt Milano, LB Dorian Williams, NCB Taron Johnson, NCB Cam Lewis, CB Christian Benford, CB Tre’Davious White, S Taylor Rapp, S Cole Bishop, S Damar Hamlin, S Jordan Hancock, K Tyler Bass, LS Reid Ferguson. … Looking like a good bet to make it (6) QB Mitchell Trubisky, WR Elijah Moore, DE Javon Solomon, LB Joe Andreessen, CB Dane Jackson, CB Dorian Strong Trubisky has been the better of the two backup options over the last two weeks and seems closer than not to securing the job again. Moore has had a really nice camp and gives the Bills a strong backup option at slot receiver should anything happen to Shakir, and Moore could even play Z-receiver and return kickoffs or punts. Solomon has had a strong camp and is a likely core special teams contributor every week in 2025. Andreessen’s game against the Bears didn’t go well, but he remains the top backup middle linebacker and a staple of their special teams units, even if they brought someone else in. Jackson had some difficult moments in the preseason game against the Bears, but the Bills trust him in their system and he plays a lot of special teams. Strong has had some nice moments during camp, and though inconsistent, there is enough potential there to not risk putting him on waivers. … Curtis Samuel Samuel is the biggest name on this list, along with the most guaranteed salary of anyone, but it’s been yet another disappointing summer from a Bills perspective. Last year, he dealt with a toe injury for most of the practices and was an in-game afterthought for much of the season once healthy. This year, a hamstring injury suffered on July 25 has kept him from taking a single rep of team drills since. The Bills, who grew frustrated enough with linebacker Baylon Spector’s injury history to move on mid-camp, are likely feeling similar frustrations about Samuel. The receiver’s $6.9 million salary is fully guaranteed, but to move on, the Bills wouldn’t be taking on that much more to their 2025 cap. If they feel stronger about another receiver or two that have shown well during camp, they won’t let a guaranteed salary get in the way of keeping their best 53. Samuel needs a big week to secure his spot.

No, Diggs has never performed at big moments in elimination playoff games. Christ, people.

Yup. As a second stringer, Trubisky is above average. When you look at other teams' backups, you see why. There really aren't even 32 starting-caliber QBs in the league as it is.

Ah PFF. I don't really take that very seriously. They graded him poorly on pass defense in the regular season (but 9th out of 171 in run defense: https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/taylor-rapp/51172), but they did the same to Tre White in his best years and when the Bills essentially led the league in pass D (or were close to it). He was a first team all-pro on the league's best pass defense in 2019 but they didn't even rate him among their top 100 players. The Bills' pass D tends to fare poorly according to their metrics because they play off and allow a lot of short completions and focus on preventing big plays. Rapp played five quarters in the playoffs and Denver had 224 yards and the ball for 18:17. Anyway, you and I are going to disagree. He's just not that bad, and exaggerating his badness to catastrophize the situation isn't convincing. Mind you, I'm not saying he's *good*, and yes, the Bills need a better player at the safety position. But he did start for a good Rams defense for years and has a Super Bowl ring. If he's your second best safety, you're not in horrible shape. He's a league-average starter and barring injury is likely to have a ten-year career. He is a LOT better than Hamlin, of course.

Rapp played well vs Denver in the playoffs and came out early due to injury in the Baltimore game. He didn't play vs KC. He's not a superstar but he doesn't suck. He's a decent starting-caliber NFL safety. It's the other position that's the problem, although Bishop at least has physical talent and upside. Hamlin is not quick or fast enough to be starting in any NFL secondary.

If this was true, then top teams would be trading for players like Hendrickson all the time. But it virtually never happens. If you look at the teams who have been identified as potential landing spots, its Indy, Carolina, and Cleveland. I used to think like you that the cap doesn't matter, but the trades and signings that DON'T happen among top teams with expensive rosters put the lie to that. Also, the Eagles are currently $30 million under the cap. Why didn't the Bills go and get Davante Adams last season instead of Cooper? Adams is (and has been) a MUCH better receiver than Cooper, but the Bills opted for the latter because they felt they couldn't make it work with the cap.

It seemed everyone on D had an awful play vs KC, top to bottom. He did lead the team in tackles (a misleading stat, I know) that game and was in position for the INT (which wouldn't have mattered because there was a defensive penalty anyway). He started 4 games: Houston and then three of the four final games (Detroit, the first NE game, and the second Jets game). He did not start in the garbage-time finale vs NE but played a fair bit. He didn't play at all against Denver in the playoffs but played 66 percent of the snaps vs. Baltimore after Rapp went down. He started vs. KC. All I'm saying is that rookie safeties in this system have a lot to handle. Give him a little time.

I think you're misremembering the latter part of last season a bit. I don't recall him notably screwing up much if at all. Obviously, he was bad versus Houston, but that was one game very early in his career. I'm not saying he's going to succeed, by the way. I just think it's too early to write the book on him. Safeties have a lot of mental responsibilities in this defense, which I suspect is one of the reasons why I think McDermott prefers vets/guys who have been in the system a while. Shifting from the Pac-12 and missing most of camp was always going to result in some mental errors last season. He IS physically talented, though -- far, far more than Hamlin. I think we should give him some time. Let's see how he's playing when we get to around week 9-10.

On that play, yeah, but in watching his snaps again, he was mostly fine. Obviously, that's a big play that he gave up, but Hamlin did him no favors on the back end (not that it's an easy play, but man is Hamlin slow/non-quick).

I am not giving up on Bishop yet based on a preseason game. For a rookie, he played reasonably well down the stretch last season and, after a poor start, definitely got better over the course of it.

The only starters who saw any time last night (and it wasn’t much) were Palmer on offense and Bishop on D. That is it.

This is simply not true. He wants a LOT of money. Rather than saying the cap doesn’t matter, show me a path to getting there, bearing in mind the restructures they’ve already done to get under the cap.

Yeah, 100 percent. Basically uncatchable.

People really need to look at the Bills cap situation. They have the least amount of space in the entire league. They can’t obtain Parsons at this point. https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space

The Bills have no cap space - the very least in the league. Theu bought their Hendrickson in the form of Bosa, and they’re just hoping/praying he remains healthy. Because when healthy, he’s definitely as good as Hendrickson. The Bills cannot make this work given their cap situation. Plenty of teams can, though.

Lots of good nfc candidates with space: https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space Seattle makes some sense. The Vikings, Bucs, and Rams can make it work too. Now, after looking at Tampa’s d-end depth, they make a ton of sense because they are actually a SB contender. They should go after him.

Perfectly stated.

The story has been updated. Robinson is fine.

That's a different stat than the fourth quarter one. Regardless, you'll get no argument from me that Mahomes isn't the best.

Chicago’s passing yardage was 31st in yards and 31st in net yards per attempt, and they were 25th in passing TDs. The offense was dead last in total yards and 28th in points scored. He didn’t throw many picks, true, but he was sacked an ungodly 68 times (11 percent sack rate, which is just unacceptable for a qb) and fumbled a lot. Unless he starts to to read the field more quickly and get the ball out, he has a pretty grim future in front of him: repeated poundings that increase the risk of injury. Not saying he can’t do it, of course. From the Athletic’s qb tiers analysis: ‘Williams entered the 2024 draft as the consensus No. 1 quarterback. He enters his second season facing questions about his ability to process and play quickly after taking 68 sacks, third-most in NFL history. "I think that will come in time," a GM said. "Maybe it is a little bit like Josh (Allen) early in his career, where he has so much good other stuff that you will live with some negative plays, and as he gets more snaps under his belt, that part will come." Most evaluations reflected some skepticism. "He's got the talent to go up, but in terms of processing ability and getting the ball out of his hands, it was the worst we played against," a defensive coordinator said. "He just holds the ball forever. I'm thinking, 'The ball should go right there! Throw it! Throw it!' And he did not throw it." Voter after voter raised the same concerns. "He is definitely a 1 talent," a head coach said. "I just think it's going to take him longer than Jayden Daniels. He is not playing fast right now. There is something there. His processing to me was alarming watching the tape." Some thought new coach Ben Johnson would have to adjust expectations accordingly. "You saw signs and ability, and I also think you saw signs and ability that scare you," another coach said. "Nervousness in the pocket, inability to see and play on time. But I do not know yet if that was him or coaching. Parts of me wondered if you could get it done with this guy, but it's good enough to make you think you have a chance." Voters aren't necessarily betting against Williams, but they aren't betting on him, either. "He's very talented," another defensive coordinator said. "Ben is more under center. Caleb is more of a gun quarterback. That dynamic is going to be interesting to me. I would not be shocked if the kid plays well. Ben is good. He can adjust. I'm sure they will find a happy medium somewhere."’

Maybe. It also suggests that the Chiefs are pretty much never down by more than one score late in games. So much of this stat depends on point differential going into the 4th. If you’re down 23-10, you’re likely to lose no matter how well you play. 13-10? Not so much.