folz

I definitely don't knock Beane for not bringing in a 30-year old RB with almost 2,200 touches (no matter how good he is) when you're in a retooling year and already have Cook. We had a lot of positions to fill...didn't make a lot of sense to double-up on RBs (except through the draft). Last season, Henry had 1,381 yards from scrimmage while Cook had 1,567 yards from scrimmage. Doesn't seem like the best use of your resources if one of those two guys is on the bench at any given time. Yes, we're trying to win every season we have Josh, but we're also building towards the future and sustainability. Henry would have been a now move, not a future of the team move (building that young corps that we have now). Would Henry have put us over the top this year or next to win a SB? Who knows. But I'm really not second guessing the decision myself. And if Baltimore doesn't go on to win the Super Bowl this year, what does it matter (except that it's fun to watch...I'm happy for future-HOFer Henry to be having a huge season---finally on a good team...it's good for the NFL). Now if Henry stays healthy all year, keeps his numbers up, and Baltimore wins the Super Bowl, then maybe you can lament a bit. But let's at least see how things pan out first. What if the Bills get to the Super Bowl this year? Or at least make it farther in the playoffs than the Ravens. Will you still think the Bills should have gotten Henry? Plus, every fan base does the same thing all of the time. I just heard a Chiefs fan going crazy that the Chiefs didn't trade for Cooper instead of the Bills.

Come on home to Buffalo Joe. (not a good idea to bring Daboll back, imo.)

The other thing that's crazy (kind of in relation to Alpha's post and Keon's ypc as many have mentioned) is that he is fourth in receiving yards, but with only 27 targets. The three guys ahead of him on the list have 45, 60, and 60 targets respectively (Thomas, Bowers, Nabers)---and just behind him is Marvin Harrison, Jr. and he has 43 targets. There are 8 rookie WRs with more targets than Keon and another one with the same number of targets. Of the top 10 most-targeted rookie WRs, the average number of targets is 39, Keon has 27, but is 4th in yards and tied for 4th in TDs. Agreed. And though I loved his first interview after the draft, I did worry a bit that he might be that kind of dick/diva WR type (I don't know, something about his mannerisms---I didn't really know anything about him prior to the draft). But not at all, Keon seems humble (not about his skills, but about being a good teammate, etc.) and down to Earth. His post game interview this week displayed it well. The way he answered the question about if he helped Cooper know the alert play on Cooper's TD was so respectful to Amari. He always talks great about Josh and gives his other teammates their props, etc. And everyone who played with him/coached him seem to have great things to say about him. They went a little overboard about the whole Tom Izzo thing on the broadcast, but it's just another case in point that he's just a good kid. So happy he's a Bill.

To be fair to Worthy, he also has 47 rushing yards and 2 rushing TDs. So, total yards and TDs actually look like this: Total Yards TDs Worthy 245 4 Coleman 326 2 (should be three---darn refs) [Still like Coleman better though, especially for our team---and think he'll continue to have better overall stats as the year progresses. He definitely has the swag of a top-end receiver---hopefully his game continues in that direction.]

We really need to see both the front and back angles and compare the two. Did he never have possession (was it bobbling the whole time)? If he did initially get possession, was the initial left foot still on the ground when he gained possession? If possession was secured, and the left foot was down, did the ball start to bobble on his second step, or not until after that step? If the initial left foot is down, and he didn't bobble until after the second step, then wouldn't that be two steps down, and then the turn up field is a football move, as he crosses the plane. Anything after that shouldn't matter. Now if the first foot wasn't down, then it's an end zone catch and he has to "complete the catch," as it were, i.e. maintain possession with two feet in the end zone without going out of bounds. It's just hard to determine possession and that first foot from the end zone camera angle. Also, I'm actually still questioning whether that second/third step near the sideline was actually out of bounds. The ruling on the field was a TD, so there had to be clear enough evidence to overturn the call. Was it clear that his foot was out? I'm not so sure, or at least haven't seen a clear enough shot to show he was clearly out. If that foot is in bounds, well then, he got a fourth foot down after that and regained possession before his body landed out of bounds (and then held on to it "through the ground"). If that foot was in, it is an unquestionable TD. But I agree with a few others that back in the day...that's a TD all day, every day. It may not be with today's NFL rules, but that only shows that the current NFL rules suck.

He doesn't even need to throw a pick apparently. In last week's game Troy Aikman at one point said something like "Josh is getting lucky...defenders have been dropping the ball, he should have like 5 or 6 interceptions already this season." I mean, what load of crap is that. First of all, every Qb has some bad balls that probably could have been picked but the defender dropped them. Every QB. And guess what, they don't count as interceptions. Except for with Josh apparently. And secondly, he may have had a couple of close calls, but not enough to have 5 or 6 picks. He's been protecting the ball very well this year. Obviously Aikman does no research for his job...just parroting narratives. [Aside: Today's broadcast team was so much better than Buck and Aikman. It's funny to me that on almost all of the networks, their #1 teams are usually my least favorite announcing team they have.] Mahomes has definitely earned a pass from the media for a few bad games (due to the Super Bowl runs). But, I agree with the OP. If those numbers were reversed, at least half the media would be spinning negative narratives on Josh. Sugar-High Josh, Turnover Machine, he's playing Hero Ball, he's trying to do it all by himself, he's pressing, etc. I honestly do not remember another elite QB that it took this long for people to accept him as such. I mean Lamar was questioned as much as Josh during- and post-draft, but after his first MVP year, total acceptance. Lamar is now a two-time MVP and praised, while Josh still gets questioned, why? When over the last 5 years: Total Yards* Total TDs* Lamar Jackson 19, 214 118 Josh Allen 24, 003 164 (*Includes rushing as well as passing) And unlike with Mahomes, if you are going to bring in wins and playoff games: Regular season record Playoff record Furthest advance Lamar Jackson 62-21 2-5 1 AFC Championship appearance Josh Allen 67-32 5-5 1 AFC Championship appearance

This keeps getting repeated, but is it true? Has anyone (like Cover 1 or whomever) done a breakdown of Damar's play to this point or anything? Look, I'm not saying Damar is the answer at safety. He is no where near the caliber of Poyer and Hyde, we all know that. And we would all love for an upgrade there. But has he actually been a liability or do people just keep repeating that. I'm sure he's given up some plays, taken some bad angles, etc. But, he's also made a lot of really nice tackles and seems to at least usually be in the right position and keep everything in front of him. Now, I'm sure McD can't do everything he could do with Hyde and Poyer back there, due to Damar's lack of speed, experience, instincts, whatever. But, has he really been as bad as you guys claim? This is an honest question, not just a defense of Damar. Can you guys point some of these egregious errors out (multiple particular plays) where he has been a liability? As I said, I'm sure he's made some mistakes...my eyes just tell me he hasn't been as bad as some of you make him out to be. But, maybe I'm wrong

You mention Mike Edwards experience and success in KC, and the tweet talks about him being a ball hawk on two Super Bowl teams. That makes him sound pretty good. But, let's be real, Mike Edwards has been a career backup to this point, who got some playing time due to injuries. He has 28 starts total, now in his 6th year. That means, he has been a starter for only 30% of his career thus far. He only started 5 games for Kansas City last year. He has averaged 5 starts per year over 6 years (most of that coming in 2022 for Tampa with 12 starts---also due to injury---he came off the bench). I think the only reason anyone penciled him in as a starter for the Bills this year is because with the loss of Hyde and Poyer, we felt that the cupboard was bare at safety (and obviously he was picked up before Cole was drafted). It's not because he was some All-Pro safety, but because we knew we needed someone, anyone back there. Damar has been in McDermott's system for four years now. The safety position in McD's defense needs to be the QB of the secondary, know exactly what they and everyone else on the field should be doing. With all of the time that Edwards missed early, it's not surprising that MCD felt more comfortable with Damar than Edwards or a rookie. It's a complicated position in McD's defense. And obviously, Damar outplayed him to get the spot (talk in camp was that Damar was playing really well, while Edwards was still nursing injuries). There isn't as much time in-season (as opposed to off-season) to get young guys or backups up to speed as you are preparing your starters for the games. So, maybe Edwards just hasn't been able to show enough to unseat Damar (at least to this point). Edwards may have better ball skills (defending the pass) than Damar, but McD obviously feels Damar's knowledge of the system and sure tackling is the safer bet back there right now.

Here are two more shots. Look at the momentum of Taron's body between the images. Seems an obvious push off, imo.

I was just watching the highlights of the Jets game again and saw something that I hadn't noticed before: I know refs often won't make calls on Hail Marys or end-of-half, end-of-game plays, but it looked to me like there was clear offensive pass interference by Lazard on T. Johnson. He grabbed him and pushed him down, and kind of used the momentum to make his jump. That's why Taron is in such a bad/awkward position (not looking at/jumping for the ball). He was the box out player. He would have been in front of Lazard, blocking him out like for a rebound. But he was unable to do so because of the offensive pass interference.

Does anyone know what the original tweet meant by "rising" kicker? Has he been getting interest elsewhere or what not?

Don't feel bad OP. I gave Damar a little shout-out in the post-game thread and got piled on too. Look, we all know that Damar is more of a backup-level safety rather than a starter and I assume that Cole will eventually take over his spot. But, it doesn't hurt to give the kid some props for playing to the best of his abilities. He is a very good tackler and made a lot of nice tackles last night. He's tied for 2nd on the team in tackles (38), he's second on the team in solo tackles (28), with two tackles for a loss, 4 passes defended, and an interception in 6 games. He may not have the skills (speed/instinct) to be a permanent starter, but I'm not going to knock the kid for playing his heart out (no pun intended).

I thought Beane would make a bigger move for a WR in the offseason after letting Diggs go. But when they didn't, I was one of the guys saying/thinking that the WRs/overall weapons we had could get it done. But, I am in no way opposed to this trade at all (and will eat some crow from/for the guys that kept pushing to get a better WR). Losing Shakir for a couple of weeks really kind of made it even more clear. Of course part of it is on Brady too. I mean why has he been using Mack for deep shots and red zone when that's not his skillset? But I'm all on board with Cooper being added. We pay almost no salary. Low cap hit. We can sign him or move on next year. The seventh round we gave up is in 2026, so that almost has no value really. So, we gave up a third and got back Amari and a 6th next year. And if it is true that if he walks next year we would actually get a comp. pick for him, then it really is almost like getting him for free. Great move by Beane. As to his drop issue, I looked up his catch percentages out of curiosity. Cooper has a career 61.1% catch percentage. But let's take a closer look. Since going to Cleveland, his catch percentages over those three season have been: 51.9%, 56.3%, and 45.3%. Pretty bad. But that's with Cleveland with QBs such as Watson, Flacco, Jacobi Brissett, P.J. Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Jeff Driskel. 17 of his 38 games in Cleveland were quarterbacked by the guys not named Watson and Flacco. And let's face it, even with the two of them: Watson stinks and Joe was old. In his 7 seasons prior to joining the Browns (not counting his rookie year), his catch percentage only fell below 63% once. He had two seasons over 70% catch percentage. And those 7 years combined he had a 65.4% catch percentage. So, over 7 years with Cowboys and Raiders = 65.4% catch percentage Two plus years with the Browns = 55.5% catch percentage. Just FYI.

I'm not sure what you saw tonight specifically (please explain if you want to). I saw one coverage assignment that might have been Damar's mistake, but other than that, he led the team in tackles (with a lot of nice solo stops) and was in on the hit that prevented one of the almost-TDs. I'm not saying Damar is the answer, and we all expect Cole to take over at some point. But I thought Damar played tough tonight, so I wanted to give him a shout out. 🤷‍♂️

The only thing worse than the refs tonight was the call from the booth. Aikman is atrocious. At one point Buck said when Josh was asked about his INTs being down, he humbly replied something like, "I've thrown a few, they just haven't caught them." And then Aikman turns that into a rant (I'm paraphrasing), "yeah, he's still trowing a ton of bad balls, he's just lucky the defenses aren't catching them this year. He should probably have like 5 or 6 interceptions already." What? Has he even watched another Bills game this year? Ugh. Also, amidst the praise for Rapp, Davis, Johnson, etc. Wanted to give a little shout out to Damar Hamlin. I thought he played a really nice game tonight also. Go Bills!

Yes, but this is Josh's seventh year, and he hasn't played the whole season yet. In Patrick's 1st seven years, he started 96 games and had 231 total touchdowns. In Josh's 1st seven years (to this point), he has started 98 games and has 234 total touchdowns. So, you can't use the Mahomes didn't start his rookie year excuse. Josh has only 2 more starts than Mahomes in their first 7 years (not a whole season) and Josh has 3 more TDs. Now, maybe if Mahomes had two more games, he'd be a couple of TDs ahead of Josh. But it doesn't really matter. Either way, it shows that Mahomes and Allen are in a class all of their own right now, and Josh is not second tier...he's right there with Patrick. Now by the end of the year, Josh will have way more TDs than Mahomes in their first 7 years, and at that point you could say, well the gap is only that big because Mahomes barely played his rookie year. But right now, it's pretty darn even.

The horrible roughing the passer on AJ gave the Jets 3 points (almost 7). The terrible call against Spencer made the Bills punt rather than having a first and goal, taking at least 3 if not 7 points off the board for the Bills. Would have been a different 2nd half if the Bills were nursing a 6-13 point lead instead of being tied. The Hail Mary and the refs kept the Jets in this game. Otherwise the Bills would have coasted through the 2nd half.

We're up to 7 or 8 Fire McDermott threads. Come on guys, you can get it up to at least 10.

I'm fine with Mack out there as a blocker and possession receiver, but why are they throwing him the ball down the field? Those targets should go to Coleman or MVS.

No question they should have played for overtime. And the team was completely flat the first half. Doesn't make me want to fire everybody though. Some of you guys expected us to be terrible this year, yet seem mad/surprised that we haven't pulled it all together yet. New offense, new receivers, no Shakir (Josh's security blanket and our best WR). We'll bounce back and get better as the year goes. Glad to see rookie Dwayne Carter ballin' out. See you guys next week....I'm not sticking around the board this week. Eeesshh!

You kind of have it reversed in regards to Curtis Samuel. His rookie year he broke his ankle and missed 7 games. And his 2021 was a wash due to a groin injury that lingered. So, that's two seasons where he missed a lot of time. In his other 5+ seasons, he has played in 81 of 85 games.

Kind of a sad perspective to have dude. Are there guys in the league that are all about money? Yes. Are there guys in the league that are criminals? Yes. But there are also a ton of good guys in the league. Just as there are criminals and greedy people in every profession and every group of people (maybe not to the same percentage, especially due to the amount of money we are talking about, etc.---but still). If you can't see the difference between how a guy like Stefon handles his business and how a guy like Josh handles his business, then I don't know what to tell you. And yes, these guys are still human beings. You can pretend that because they are on your TV screen and they make a lot of money that they don't have feelings, etc. like the rest of us. But it's just not true. Just look at Jim Kelly's journey for one. These guys aren't untouchables that aren't affected by life like all of the rest of us. And there is a HUGE difference between a guy quitting on a team for an entire year, causing ill feelings, and forcing his way off of a team (for a second time---patterned behavior) than a bunch of guys who had just gone through the most tumultuous and emotionally-draining season an NFL team had ever experienced and not quite having the fight left in them, no reserves left to draw on. What Stefon did was quitting. What that team did wasn't quitting...they just weren't in the right emotional mindset and energy-level to execute at a high-enough level (like they were used to). And if you think that a teammate and friend dying on the field in front of them (all of them knowing they put themselves at that same risk every week) is just a convenient excuse for fans. I...I...have no more words.

I wholeheartedly agree that Kincaid needs more touches. And we should probably be taking a couple more shots with MVS and/or Coleman down the field (to keep defenses honest---though again, due to the blowouts, it wasn't really necessary in the first 3 games). MVS is obviously a package receiver rather than a consistent contributor, which is ok with who is ahead of him. I think Hollins is fine. Kind of what I expected from his role. Mostly a blocker with a couple of targets per game (though I wish he would get his catch percentage up a bit). Knox is an interesting question. I agree he shouldn't just be used as a traditional #2 TE. But, again, there are only so many balls to go around, especially with as little as we have needed to pass thus far. It will be interesting to see if Brady can take advantage of the fact that we have two good TEs eventually. There may be certain opponents that it would be effective against. And then hopefully Shakir is back soon, Samuel comes on as he gets healthy, and Coleman progresses as the year goes on (Josh and Brady trust him to do more). We are still in the learning curve of the season. Brady's offense is new. How defenses react to it is new (which will take adjustments along the way). Josh has 4 new receiving targets that he's still building rapport with. With all of the changes, there is no question that we should actually get better as the year goes on. The big question right now is the whole "will defenses catch up to the offense and be able to nullify it." First of all, teams need the personnel to do so. Not every team would be able to do it even if there were some type of blueprint. Secondly, with what I have seen from Brady thus far, I think he can adjust and adapt. In the first three wins, we played each team very differently. It is kind of like the old New England offense, the game plan is tailored to each opponent...rather than stubbornly sticking to doing things one way. So, I don't think there will be some type of blueprint that will work for everyone. Sure, it will be tougher going against teams with a great pass rush and/or secondary. But that's par for the course for every offense. And this offense wasn't meant to stretch the field vertically. It is meant to stretch the defense horizontally (to create space for guys like Cook and Shakir to get into the open field). Take what the defense gives you. Run the ball. Move the chains. Though as I said, a few more shots down the field to keep the defense honest would help. And if defenses get out of the 2 shell or zero coverage that is so popular right now (especially against the top QBs), then you unleash Josh's down field game (big chunk plays). I guess I just have confidence in Brady to get it done (despite making probably the worst single offensive play call in the history of the Bills last week).

A lot of people seem to forget (because it's kind of been under the radar), but Curtis Samuel has been dealing with a turf toe injury since camp. It's been about 4-5 weeks since the injury. So, I wouldn't be surprised if they were bringing him along slowly due to that. Maybe we'll see him a bit more this week with Shakir out. As to Knox, he's just fallen down the target list a bit. When everyone is healthy, he's basically the 5th or 6th target (Shakir, Kincaid, Coleman, Samuel, Cook). Either way, it is kind of hard to get a full picture yet since all 4 games have basically been blowouts (3 in our favor and 1 against). Yes, the team looked bad against the Ravens, but it' only week 4. Let's see how they respond before jumping off the bridge after one game. 4 games thus far...and the everyone eats thing worked 3 out of 4 weeks. Let's see where it goes.