dave mcbride

Yup. The other thing that should be factored in: the Jets (the Bills' primary divisional threat now) lost a game they had ZERO business losing. Just a mind-blowingly bad loss. The division should be tied today but it isn't because the Jets decided to Jet. I watched that game, and the Jets had 15(!) penalties called against them. Plus it's pretty clear that Nate Hackett is a bad OC.

Yup. Gase was bad.

He was a backup there because Purdy. But according to everything I’ve read, he was good there and ran the system well (and played pretty well) in his one meaningless start at the end of the season.

I always thought he had real talent but was trapped in bad organizations. He’s a good player.

That IS funny, but I'm not sure it's funnier than the prospect of cutting the starting QB only to learn that you can't field a team of 53 players on minimum-salary contracts!

"Should the Browns cut Watson after this season, his dead cap charge would total $172 million, according to Over the Cap (https://overthecap.com/player/deshaun-watson/5596). If the Browns took this on, they couldn’t roster an entire team of players—not even on minimum-salary deals." https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2024/9/26/24254717/cleveland-browns-deshaun-watson-gambit-has-failed

The year before last (2022), the Giants were 4th in rushing yards, 4th in rushing TDs, and 5th in rushing yards per attempt. They had a ton of injuries at QB last season which really hampered the run game. The point is, Barkley isn't just a little better than what they have now at RB; he's a lot better. I don't think Singletary is a bad player by any means, but the talent differential jumps off the screen when you watch the two and Singletary's fumbling probably is the reason they're 1-3 as opposed to 2-2. Barkley has a very low fumble rate.

As I understand it, the Giants desperately tried to trade up in this year's draft to 3 but couldn't get the Patriots to budge. Thoughts on this? I personally think Florio is right, but I don't know what the cap situation was for them. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/giants-miss-saquon-barkley-badly

Injuries can and do happen in the NFL, so let's not be too certain that all the current receivers on the Bills team will be healthy at the deadline. You're not getting serious late-career Julio Jones and AJ Green vibes with Hopkins at this point? I am. Hemingway: “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” That's my feeling about these late-career receivers, and OBJ looks like another strong candidate for the suddenly-bankrupt club.

Re point 4, don't forget the Commanders game from 2 weeks ago, which may have shaped their thinking. They lost points by going for it in Commanders territory instead of kicking (which they had to do because they had no kicker). It cost them the game. Point is, there may have been a recency effect on that decision process last night. It's also kinda funny that they kicked 5 FGs and lost and lost a game two weeks ago where they scored three TDs and the opponent had 7 FGs and no TDs (first time that's happened in NFL history). If only they had 7 instead of 5 FGs!

Yeah, there will likely be a game before too long where he airs it out 43 times and throws for 378 yards. The Bills will be behind and he'll need to air it out. The Bills aren't going 17-0, so you know it's coming eventually. 3 games -- with 2 blowouts -- is too small a sample size.

Taking offense? Huh? That's not the case at all.

I honestly think a new thread about the entire ensemble of pass catchers might be more interesting given how important TEs are to many of the best offenses in recent years (SF, KC, Brady's Pats, Baltimore). It's interesting to compare those teams that are more WR-centric (Eagles, Dallas, Green Bay, Chargers, Miami, etc.).

Josh actually played right field (and pitcher) in HS. I don't know because we haven't had enough time to see how good Samuel, Hollins, Coleman, Shakhir, MVS are in combination with arguably the best QB in the league at the moment throwing to them. I'll reserve judgement until after 11-12 games or so. It's a long season and guys like Samuel have been playing with garbage QBs their entire careers. We don't know good Coleman is either, but so far he looks pretty solid. Shakhir is obviously a good player. That's been established.

In two of their three games, they’ve had barely any passing yards in the second half, so I am not sure that matters. If you look passing yards per attempt, passer rating, and adjusted net yards per attempt, you’ll see that the Bills are at the top of the league. I do realize it’s only three games, so I’m not saying things can’t change for the worse. But it’s better to focus on the passing stats that are truly indicative of a good passing game (especially adjusted net yards per attempt).

Note the overall offensive rankings and the production of the non-slot WRs of this recent NFL team: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nwe/2016.htm

Literally, that entire piece about QB singles hitting in The Athletic WITH ACTUAL LONG AND DETAILED QUOTES FROM JOSH ALLEN said it all. All the rest, including our ex post facto analyses, is noise, IMHO.

All fumbles. What happens when a ball is fumbled is totally random and impossible to predict, so the best thing is to never fumble at all. I wouldn't count on the luck of the bounce if I were a head coach. I'd want a guy who didn't fumble at all.

He's a pretty good player. But the fumbling is a real issue. You can accept QBs fumbling and throwing INTs because the risk/reward ratio is so different in the passing game, but when a rusher is averaging 4+ yards per play, you need to be almost completely turnover free for it to work given the low reward in terms of yardage. Allen, for instance, is averaging 8.7 net yards per passing attempt so far this year.

Now I see! My bad. I do like following how former Bills fare. McDermott rightly hates fumbling by RBs, and Singletary had 13 in his years here -- which is too many. Running plays are supposed to be safe plays and you do them in part because you're far less likely to turn the ball over despite gaining on average close to 3 yards less per play than if you pass (assuming the team has a decent qb).

Not sure I'm reading you correctly, but this is a good NFL board as well as being a good Bills board. If you're not interested in other teams or how former Bills are faring, why post in or even read such threads?

One thing I did not like seeing: Elam failing to nab a sure pick six on a terrible Jones pass.

He used to play for the Bills and now plays for a former Bills OC. He was signed by the Bills' former assistant GM.

He now has 16 going back to 2023, and his fumble against the Commanders game quite possibly cost them the game. His fumble vs Cleveland this week while the Giants were moving the ball also let Cleveland get right back into it. Seems like a problem! https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/devin-singletary-focused-on-ball-handling-after-two-lost-fumbles Singletary is fourth in RB fumbles going back to 2019, and the only people who have more are Melvin Gordon (a devout fumbler), Dalvin Cook, and Austin Ekeler. Singletary - 16 fumbles on 1,114 touches going back to 2019. Ekeler - 18 on 1,233 touches Cook - 18 on 1,225 touches Gordon - 17 on 826 touches James Cook has 5 on 440 touches, which ain't great (although zero this season so far on 49 touches). Latavius Murray, on the other hand, had 4 on 1,157 touches going back to 2017. It's likely why he was able to hang around for so long. RBs with a fumbling rep are an endangered species in the NFL. McCaffrey has 12 on 1,803 touches. Derrick Henry has 17 on 2,243 touches. Saquon has only 6 on 1,562 touches. Anyway, 16 on 1,114 touches is a lot.

I'm dorky enough to think that Groot is the wrong nickname for Rousseau and that instead it should be "The General Will."