finn

They might have chosen a more cheery title. Why not just "Four-Time Losers"?

Well, as with life in general, the hair-pulling and regrets do have the benefit of helping avoid similar mistakes in the future, at least supposedly. Maybe evolution selected for such a high-degree of guilt, bitterness and regret in our species because it takes that much to penetrate our thick skull to not make the same mistake twice. I assume Beane has an outcomes-assessment review in place where his staff considers why they made the mistakes they did, going back years. I'm sure it's more efficient than hundreds of pages of posts declaring how idiotic certain picks were. But, given the thick-skulls theory, maybe reading through the thorough roasting here is what it would take to persuade him not to draft players like Boogie Basham and Cody Ford. In any even, go Keon! I really, really do not want to spend the next ten years despairing how we could have had Ladd or Xavier.

I noticed the tackles. The interior seemed competent to me, but not stellar.

Yeah, but what message is he sending that's worth missing all these early but still important practices? "I'm really serious, guys! I really am mad now!" It's just so juvenile. If anything, Beane is less likely to sign him if he holds out, and I see why. He loses nothing by coming to mini-camp and gains a lot, including Beane's good will. Some of these athletes have the minds of 14-year olds.

Makes me smile to think we have the polar opposite of this at QB now. The only way Josh Allen goes out of bounds short of the marker on fourth down with the game on the line is in the air as he throws it on target thirty yards down the field across his body.

I wish we could have found a way to keep him. But he wasn't going to start, and he's too good to be a backup. One of the few real weaknesses on the team right now is backup linebacker. Williams is great, but Baylon Spector is either bad or injured.

What makes you think McGovern is top 5? Not challenging you, just genuinely curious. I had him as a slightly above-average player.

I wasn't diehard until the Kelly era, but I remember OJ smashing a snow ball into the TV camera lens on Thanksgiving day when I was a teenager.

Before the rule change, the success rate of online kicks was like 15% AND teams didn't need to declare them. That gave the option real excitement. But at 6%, everyone knowing it's coming? No, that's pointless. They need to think out of the box, something equivalent to pulling the goalie in hockey. High risk high reward. Maybe an 75-yard field goal attempt.

Well, let's not get carried away.

I think I participated, too, unless there was another online Bills group circa 1995. I got in my first flame war with another poster and was really surprised how mean I got, knowing my identity was concealed. That was sobering.

I'm optimistic, too; no reason not to be. The only reason for concern in my mind is how he played when he was presumably recovered from the injury, especially in the playoffs. He looked gun-shy to me, afraid to take a hit. Understandable, but if it's the case, I hope he's gotten over it, since Beane drafted him for his physicality. Allen mentioned he (Coleman) had put on some muscle in the offseason. That might help both physically and psychologically.

Exactly. This point is not surfacing enough in response to the avalanche of "The Bills scored more points than anyone, so why improve the offense?" type comments*. They were +2 in 2023 and 0 in 2022. The very low number of turnovers on offense is surely an artifact of Brady's emphasis on running the ball and Allen's maturity. But even if the trend is real, the unusually low number could easily be an outlier. Meanwhile, a very poor defense held its own by getting the ball back. Again, this was likely a point of emphasis (I think Babich even said so). Long may it continue. But just a few more turnovers by the offense and a few less on defense will likely make a dent in the W-L totals. I'm not raining on the parade here. I realize you can't take turnover differential away and say "See? Mediocre team." They're a key reflection of the overall quality of the team. Still, they're not a factor you can usually rely on year to year. Given how explosively important they can be--turning the entire momentum of a game--a +24 differential can take you a long way. Cut that in half, say--still a healthy number--and, well, you hope that Beane's moves to improve on both sides of the ball bear fruit. I really, really do not want to see the AFCCG in KC yet again. *I realize there's reason to think the offense might be better.

The league giving KC eight prime-time games suggests it once again will ensure KC wins enough games to secure home-field advantage.

Hamlin's RAS score: 6.98. Lewis: 4.5. It's impressive the Bills went as far as they did last year with these two playing such big roles. Not saying they should have been cut, but you don't want this level of athleticism in your starters.

Evidently, that was just a rumor.

He's a unicorn, but his improved accuracy didn't just happen; he made it happen by committing himself to an offseason program with Palmer (forgot his first name). If Lance, Richardson, and other big-arm, athletic quarterbacks have shown similar single-minded devotion to improvement, I haven't heard of it.

I can see a future starting lineup of Benford, Hairston, Bishop, and Hancock, with Strong at nickel.

Last year's secondary play was mediocre at best, and McDermott likely has some responsibility for it. Hamlin playing back in the end zone, Bishop failing to contribute, Douglas fading, Elam not ready at all despite three years of development, Rapp no more than adequate... You can make excuses for McDermott all day long, some quite valid. But how long are we going to give him credit for being a genius with the secondary because of Poyer and Hyde? Could it be that Poyer and Hyde were just ready to come on when they did? Anyway, if he can't develop the players he has now, the benefit of the doubt stops and the doubt begins. EDIT: Sorry mods: Didn't mean to divert the subject of the thread. Best-case scenario for Casey Rogers is the practice squad, which is a great best case with the current depth at the position.

At least he's not as skinny as Kincaid.

J.D. Williams was fast, too, and we know how that turned out.

Greatness isn't PPG or YPG, as I'm sure you're saying. It's making the plays in the clutch. Last year, despite the 4th down blitz, Allen threw a catchable ball. Kincaid dropped it. The year before, Allen threw a perfect ball to Diggs. Diggs dropped it. In the 2022 regular season, Allen threw arguably the most beautiful and clutch ball of his career against the Jets, a 60-yard dime to Davis with the game on the line. Davis dropped it. Lesson: the Bills need more clutch receivers, aka great receivers, in the most accurate definition of the word. I happen to believe Shakir is one, and that he would have made that catch in 2023 in the end zone if Dawkins could have held his block a microsecond longer. I also think Ty Johnson may be clutch, as Hollins proved to be, surprisingly. (Naturally, Beane dumped him.) Palmer? Coleman? Samuels? Knox? Ronnie Harmon, out of retirement? If only Allen could play quarterback AND receiver...☹️

You might be right. I'm thinking that if McDermott fully cedes control over the defense AND this year's draft picks make a difference, they can do enough to push the team over the top. That Baltimore game was pretty heroic on their part. I'm assuming that was all Babich and no McDermott, and that might be unfair. Like all Bills fans, I'm just fed up with the annual fold against KC, and it really does see that Reid is getting the better of McDermott, as you say.

An excellent point, if I had claimed that Allen can lift an otherwise mediocre team. But that's not what I said. I said Allen is capable of lifting an otherwise very good team that has stumbled in the playoffs every year because McDermott is just not a playoff coach. He finds a way to lose, every year. A defense that steps up, as you say, will certainly help, just as it did a few years ago when one of the best in the league. But the players (and maybe a few key coaches) need to overcome the fecklessness of their head coach, to basically marginalize him, induce him to go stand in the corner once the playoffs start. Led by Allen, I think they're finally ready to do that.

I think this Bills team, with a better secondary and d-line and a settled identity on offense, can beat anyone. On the other hand, even with this new team, I can also see them losing to Chiefs, Ravens, and Bengals in the playoffs, with the advantage of having Allen once again neutralized by the disadvantage of having McDermott. My hope for the season rests on this: I think Allen is finally going to prevail over the ineptitude of his head coach. I don't think he can play much better than he has, but I sense he is finally fed up. This is a fully realized, enormously talented player at the absolute peak of his career who will not longer tolerate losing. McDermott will haplessly steer this team to second- or third-best every year if Allen lets him. But I don't think Allen will, not anymore.