The Cincinnati Kid

It has been deleted from my memories. I don’t have the bandwidth for heartbreak. I don’t even know any of my ex-girlfriend’s names anymore. 🤷‍♂️

Free Agency is for lower tier players and vets who are beginning to age out. Bills resigned Shakir, Roussou, Bernard Gilliam, Ferguson Hamlin, and Allen (again) this offseason. Oliver, Milano, Dion, Brown, Epanesa, and Knox all somewhat recently signed second deals with the team. If you’re doing it right you draft, develop and resign your own players. It doesn’t always work out but the core of this team is made up of draft picks or UDFAs by McDermott and Beane. Rapp, Douglas, Jones were the 3 starters on Defense who were not drafted by the Bills. Edwards, McGovern, Cooper, and Hollins were the 4 on offense. Certainly other FA signings play but the core are all Bills UDFAs or draft picks. Even Bass was a draft pick and Ferguson was a Bills UDFA.

Most NFL players are not superstars. Most are NFL caliber players and a good chunk are bottom of the roster guys. Is what it is.

2024 - 491 Rush Attempts (Brady) (2023 - Skipped due to OC Change) 2022 - 430 Rush Attempts (Dorsey) 2021 - 461 Rush Attempts (Daboll) Diggs was falling off. Kincaid and Shakir out paced him through the last 10-11 games of 2023. Cooper was not the same guy he was a few years ago and played through a wrist injury basically from the day he got here. Samuel was injured all season and had his best season with Brady as Carolina’s OC. We do not have and have not had a true speed threat (outside of MVS who also wasn’t good). The only way to win football games, outside of dreams, (or any team sport contest) is to accurately evaluate the players you have available and then put them in positions to be successful. Sometimes that’s Ty Johnson against a linebacker. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO CATCHES THE BALL AS LONG AS IT IS CAUGHT. The conversation about if Brady can get the ball to the WRs is just so siloed and glaringly wrong. The point is to win the rep. If that means Shakir on whip route for 8 yards then that’s great. If it means a deep ball to Gabe Davis, fine. That works, too. You can only throw to Jefferson or Chase if you got them. Buffalo doesn’t. We have guys who are tough for defenders to matchup against. They’re just not the X.

Ok. A few things… We have had this conversation and it’s silly. So there is that. Joe Brady throws exactly 0 (zero) passes in the season. The goal of a passing play, any passing play, is to put eligible receivers in areas of the field or in matchups where they will be open to catch a pass. Eligible receivers are WRs, TEs, RBs, FBs, and sometimes OLs. Allen (who does throw the passes) completed 63.6% of passes thrown to eligible receivers. Most fans get so obsessed about “a number 1 receiver” or “can Brady scheme our WRs open?” That isn’t the point. The point is to use the whole group of eligibles to stress the defense and find the open player. I was a Varsity OC for several seasons, which is nowhere near what the Bills and Brady are doing, but it’s not nothing. We ran a spread O and didn’t give a hoot about anything other than Identifying our BEST matchup pre and post snap and completing that pass. An offense is most successful when they take easy yards. So, as KirbyJackson pointed out somewhere, if the Bills had a guy on the outside like JaMarr Chase then Allen would likely go there more because we would win outside more. As the Bills are currently constructed our best eligible receivers aren’t alphas on the outside. We have Shakir, Ty Johnson, Kincaid, etc. who win their matchups inside and against backers and we take those wins. *Who* catches the ball doesn’t matter. That the ball is caught and progresses up the field is what matters. Hence “everyone eats.” Does that satisfy the requirement to present an argument, @hondo in seattle?

I would like to see overtime as a full 10 or 15 minute period and eliminate the sudden ends to the game. An offensive play in place of an onsides kick would also be my preference, outside of the original rules with overloaded side and absolute destruction of the receiving team’s players.

Golly. Also:

I love it when people talk about NFL coordinators not knowing how to get the ball to different positions. Apply for the job, let me know how it goes. Brady literally had JaMarr Chase, Justin Jefferson and Jow Burrow at LSU where Brady was the, wait for it, PASSING GAME COORDINATOR. Something tells me he might just know what he is doing. But yeah, guy who has never watched coaches film, let’s talk, AGAIN, about how Brady is just sitting in the booth licking an oversized candy lollipop. 🍭

Championship!

I don’t know man. They don’t seem want Amari Cooper back and he and Kupp are exactly the same right now. Older WR that is slowing down who was once a great separator and probably is more likely a Toby Keith song than an actual weapon on the outside. Extrapolate all you want, the reality he isn’t playing 17-21 games in a season. I’d rather get younger and more explosive than older and fading.

You can only have 53 players. So Kupp wouldn’t be our top outside receivers because of Coleman and Palmer and at best he is our 3rd slot behind Shakir and Samuel. Maybe 2a/b with Samuel cause they’re both always hurt. Still, Samuel has more explosiveness at this point so I’ll stick with my guys. Kupp will end up in Seattle or NE to help depleted WR rooms and QBs who are good but need help. We don’t need him in Buffalo, especially at this point of his career, which is clearly declining.

🤔

Agreed. Thanks for posting the video interview!

Sign Juszcyk for his fullback skills, ok fine. Sign him because his wife also comes to Buffalo? Yep.

So I did like 8 minutes of this and love the guy. On my way to get his Brown Jersey.

This has “Get in there nice and deep like” vibes. 😂

Especially with the team around him. Take care of the ball, run cook and play good defense.

I’ve entered my information, but at 39 years old in May, despite a legendary college career (in my mind), I do not expect a call on draft weekend. Again. For the 15th straight year. But without hope, what do we have, right?

Wake me up when the offseason ends. This is dumb. Josh is great. MVP, in fact. Just enjoy the ride. It won’t happen again. Allen is 1 of 1. We can bicker about completion percentage, interceptions, fumbles, playoff losses and clutch moments, but why? I choose to enjoy watching the best player in the history of the Buffalo Bills while he plays for my team. I’d love a super bowl, but ultimately it doesn’t do anything more or less for me than watching my Team have an amazing season year after year because of Josh.

Not without “Nancy Kerriganing” his knee.

I think we all have to ask if a player is in our personal lore and tie to the team. For me, it’s Kelly, Thurman and Reed from when I was kid. Then it was Flutie, Bledsoe and Moulds paired with Price and Henry. I loved Freddie Jackson and Stevie Johnson with Fitz. And now Allen, Dawkins, Milano, Hyde, White, and Poyer. I don’t have any connection to Ferguson, Kemp, OJ or those guys. So they’re not really on my Wall of Fame for the Bills. As much as it’s an organizational honor, it’s pretty personal, I think.