Cash

1. Drew Sanders 2. Luke Schoonmaker

Big gloves!

Right, but most other AFC teams will have 9 home games to our 8. I mean, I get it, but I’m always going to want the Bills to have any advantage they can, or avoid any disadvantage. I’m not mad, I’m just crabby. 🙃 The Bills and Titans will both play at the same stadium, but not at the same time. Note that same applies to Chiefs and Patriots - they’re playing separate Germany games. Anyway, though I’m kinda annoyed, I also think it’s fairly cool. And I’m happy for our UK fans - especially the ones on this board! I’ll try to go to this game if possible, but it’s gonna be a long shot for sure. Right, but most other AFC teams will have 9 home games to our 8. I mean, I get it, but I’m always going to want the Bills to have any advantage they can, or avoid any disadvantage. I’m not mad, I’m just crabby. 🙃 The Bills and Titans will both play at the same stadium, but not at the same time. Note that same applies to Chiefs and Patriots - they’re playing separate Germany games. Anyway, though I’m kinda annoyed, I also think it’s fairly cool. And I’m happy for our UK fans - especially the ones on this board! I’ll try to go to this game if possible, but it’s gonna be a long shot for sure.

Agreed. Love Freddie, but I’m not sure if he’s quite at the level of WoF. Kyle Williams deserves it though. Also agreed with the other posters on Schobel. Dude was real good for an extended time, and would’ve been a big star if his teams were at all relevant.

If they do that, they need to be right. Otherwise it’s fair to criticize them.

Wow, great clip!

True! And we've seen him have a fair amount of success releasing after the initial block and becoming a checkdown option. I say let's get more of that, especially on early downs.

Great news! Here’s my lukewarm take: Hyde -I’m on record saying IF he can come back it takes our defense up a level. (Side note: it’s such a shame we’ll never get to see what this defense could’ve done at full strength, or at least more than a couple weeks of both Hyde & Von Miller) -As long as he’s in a non-contact jersey, I’ll keep my hopes low or medium. If he’s not medically cleared for contact, there’s no path to getting into a game. -If (when???) he gets cleared for contact in practice, it seems likely to me that he’ll also be cleared for contact in a game, and it’s on. -But even if he’s fully cleared, there’s a lot of questions. Is he in game shape? Does he trust his body? Can he play with confidence? But if anyone can pull this off, it’s probably Hyde. Crowder -Already in a regular contact jersey, which is great. I think it’s likely that he’s available next week if we advance. -Crowder isn’t difference maker like Hyde IMO, but he’s a nice player at an important position that needs depth and versatility. -Crowder was our best slot option against zone before he got hurt. Showed reliable hands and better speed/quickness than I expected. He’s one of those guys who can be a reliable chain mover if called upon.

My take is largely aligned with what Beane publicly claims his strategy is. (And for the record, I think Beane has generally been honest about this stuff so far.) My take roughly boils down to, "get difference makers where and when you can." Those can come from anywhere, but some routes are more likely than others. Free agency? Relatively not-hard to pay through the nose for one (e.g., Von Miller), but much harder to sign one for mid-tier money or lower. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer were two strikes of gold, but usually you get more the Roger Saffold or Quinton Jefferson types. As for the draft, difference makers have come from every round and UDFA, but they're much more common at the top of the draft. So what? So if I had access to the full wealth of scouting info that the Bills do - including formal interviews with players and informal info-sharing with players' coaches - I would approach the first pick something like this: Do I think any of these guys (projected to go around here) can reasonably make a difference for me both this year and over the course of a long career? If yes, how many? That becomes my pool of finalists. If not, then do I think any of these guys can either make a difference this year (but maybe has a lower ceiling), or make a difference down the road (but maybe has a higher chance of busting)? If still no, then I'm looking at high-floor guys that I think can contribute in some way (special teamers, niche roles, etc.), or lotto tickets. By lotto tickets, I mean guys with red flags but maybe a 1-5% chance of being great... "if he stays healthy" or "if he puts it all together" or things like that. Obviously that's a way simplified version, but that's roughly the gist. My point is, I'm not super hung up on position in the first round. HOWEVER, the lower the positional value, the higher the team's confidence should be in order to justify the pick. In the case of safety, Hyde and Poyer have been absolutely crucial to the success of our defense under McDermott, and I don't think either will be easy to replace. And frankly, this management team has earned my trust that they generally know what they're doing, and that they're capable of learning from their mistakes. So if they go S in the first round, they get the benefit of the doubt from me. Having said that, I know I'll be annoyed if they don't look to address both WR and OL with significant resources of some sort next offseason. And interior OL specifically needs some young blood IMO.

Agreed. I would love for Knox to fill that gap to some extent. The key difference, of course, is that Knox usually catches the ball behind the sticks instead of just past them. But he's so good at turning upfield immediately and either breaking tackles or at least falling forward 2-3 yards on a consistent basis. Those are chain movers, too.

Terrible news. Hoping for the best for Murphy and his family.

While I technically agree with OP, I think it’s mostly a pipe dream right now. That quote of Hyde’s came across to me like typical athlete motivational thinking. “Historically no, but…” I.e., he thinks he’s a supernatural healer until proven otherwise.

Has anyone suggested “Sin City Suicide” yet? I like the ring of it, and it highlights that it was a self-inflicted loss.

1. Sanchez criticized Singletary for not scoring, but then seconds later started pontificating about how the Dolphins should've pushed him into the endzone. So my takeaway is that Sanchez was just talking in the hopes he'd say something smart. 2. It's true that even a short FG isn't a given in those conditions. It's also true that tackling one of the fastest players in the NFL isn't a given in those conditions, and the Dolphins have 3 of the fastest players in Hill, Waddle, and Mostert.

Cool, thanks! The Snow Game in 2017 is the only time I genuinely liked the red jammies. Tomorrow night shouldn't get to that level of snow, but we're currently forecasted for 6-10" during the day and another 3-5" at night. Should give us a good viewing experience!

Not sure I trust "gridiron-uniforms dot com" as a definitive source. But we wear the red jammies once every year it seems, so they very well might be right. If this is confirmed true, I must insist that we get heavy snow during the game. IMO, that's the ONLY acceptable backdrop for those otherwise hideous getups. This concludes my TED talk; thank you for attending.

No, never. The Super Bowl has always been a neutral site game and host site has only ever been decided based on economic reasons. There have never been any on-field stakes associated with the Pro Bowl. You might be thinking of baseball, where (for a few years about 15 years ago), the All-Star game decided which league would have homefield in the World Series.

Yup! Drove me insane every time. And it felt like after every loss, he started his postgame presser with, “We had a great week of practice.” Took me years to get over that and realize that yes, practice does actually matter, but only if you know what you’re doing.

What a bummer. Doesn’t mean the quest is over - not even close - but it undeniably lowers our ceiling, and frankly it just sucks. Why can’t we catch an effing break one of these years?????

I’m not concerned at all - at least not yet. McD has a history of this sort of thing, and if usually works out fine. (Example: Mitch Morse was a healthy scratch once, back in around 2019 or so.) Very plausible that this was either a reward to Rhodes for great practice performance, or an attempt to light a fire under Elam, or a bit of both. And it (hopefully) reinforces a key message to the team: the best players will play, regardless of draft position or pay. Coaches pay lip service to that all day, but people won’t take that seriously unless their words match their actions. And for the record, I think Elam was only inactive because he doesn’t play much special teams. I don’t think the coaches are willing to dress backup DBs who aren’t heavily on teams.

Counterpoint: Dunking on Pats fans is a lot of fun. I don’t ever want to stoop to their level and go around starting sh**. But when they try to talk smack, I think it’s very appropriate to point out how delusional they are.

I was pretty high on IH when we drafted him and again last preseason. After seeing him a bit more this year (mostly in preseason), my take is that he belongs in the NFL but doesn’t really move the needle. Good contested catch guy, but he has to be because he doesn’t get much separation. With the right opportunity, he could put together a pretty decent career, but I’ll be surprised if he’s ever a star. I definitely wish him well, and if he gets cut again I’d be happy to get him back.

It's an interesting idea. Not sure either side would want or go for it. But if they did, the appeal from the NFLPA side would be that the 5th year options are fully guaranteed. Obviously for a 2nd round pick who became a breakout star, that still represents a pay cut. But if a 5th-year option was added across the board, setting it to the 32nd pick at least makes it somewhat "fair" for the player. I think the problem is that most teams have a pretty good idea of a player's upcoming market value, and they would only pick up the 5th year option if it represented a pay cut. So like others have said, this would be something the NFLPA would fight against. Having said that: Sports unions are often willing to bargain away the rights of undrafted players (who aren't actually union members yet). So if the proposal didn't apply to guys currently on rookie contracts, but only future draft classes, it could potentially be on the table.

Great OP and great thread! The only thing I'll add is that I don't think it's as straightforward as Kumerow being the #3 outside WR. I think it's more likely that he's the primary backup for Davis, since he's the closest match on the roster to Davis' skillset. (Good blocker, tall, more about straight line speed than burst or wiggle, etc.) It also might be relevant that Davis was a late scratch. Kumerow could step in for Davis, and while it's a downgrade for the offense, Kumerow can at least fill the same gameplan roles Davis was meant to. If they'd known from the start that Davis wouldn't play, there's a chance they go in a different direction with the gameplan accordingly. But I'll go on record and say that if Diggs misses time, it won't result in Kumerow stepping in like he did last night.

Ah, Saint Doug! Fond memories. We put on a real clinic in poor leadership during those years. Some highlights from memory: EJ Manuel probably shouldn't have been a first-rounder, but St. Doug did him no favors. (Stark contrast to the current regime's handling & development of Josh Allen.) One example: I remember reading a breakdown of our 1st down run/pass % with EJ vs. with Orton. With EJ, we were running something like 80% of the time on first down, whereas with Orton it was closer to 50/50. There's a mountain of data suggesting that 1st and 10 is one of the best times to pass and lowest risk for a QB. God forbid we get the young guy some easy 5 yard completions on 1st down to build his confidence and set up manageable 3rd downs. When Marrone (an SU alum) was hired at Syracuse, he proclaimed it his "dream job". As an SU fan, I was excited! I figured that if he makes it, we'll have our football version of Jim Boeheim. Whoops! Turns out his dream was to work there for a few years, then get hired by the Bills. At his intro press conference, Marrone even had the audacity to declare that coaching the Bills was his "dream job". Marrone is a man of many dreams. Also at his intro press conference, Marrone made a big deal of saying he needed to hire experienced coordinators. That worked out fine on the defensive side, but didn't really line up with bringing his henchman Nate Hackett over from SU. Hackett only had something like 2 years of coordinator experience at the time, and only at the college level. And SU's offense was more sturdy than worldbeating - it's not like Hackett was a hot commodity at the time. Hackett's performance as a HC may change my mind on this. But for now, I still think that the offense might have been okay if Marrone had left Hackett alone. For example, in our first(?) preseason game under Marrone/Hackett, our O looked great. Bill Barnwell wrote an article breaking down our offense, and raved about a few of the innovative play designs. Did we run any of those plays ever again? Nope. Did we show any of that creativity or innovation in the regular season? Nope. We pretty much went with a bad run up the gut on first down, then a bad play on second down, then 4 verts on third down. Seriously, I think we called 4 verticals at least half of our pass plays. And finally, the infamous New Year's Eve opt-out. Marrone had a clause in his contract allowing him to opt out if ownership changed, and still collect his $4 million salary for the following year. (He had a good agent apparently!) The deadline was Dec 31, and the announcement came that night. I remember seeing the news while out at the bar. I announced it to my friend (also a Bills fan), and we both just shrugged and said ok. I hadn't been actively rooting for Marrone to opt out, but I didn't feel an iota of upset when the news broke. It worked out great for us! It didn't work quite as well for Saint Doug, though. I think Marrone thought he'd be a hot commodity on the coaching market - his agent kept planting stories alleging that the Jets would snap him up. Instead, Marrone had to settle for being O-line coach of the Jaguars. No word on whether that qualified as Marrone's "dream job" or not.