finn

Ok, so what about his size? Along with JJ Taylor and Boston Scott (I never heard of them, either), Harty is the shortest player in the NFL at 5'6". Even Beasley is 5'8". And at 170 pounds, you can tackle him with two fingers. I'm not saying signing him is a bad move, necessarily. But his size makes it a risky one.

....or a fumble. Or he'll catch it and stay inbounds so the clock runs out. Or he'll step out of bounds in the end zone and watch the ensuing interception and return as a passive bystander. It won't take much for Harty to be an improvement.

I wonder if Beane was so frustrated by the McKissic betrayal that he overcompensated by drafting Cook and also signing Hines, when one would have been adequate.

Yeah, I was joking. Forgot the smiley face. 😄

Davis alone for a 2nd. Davis and McKenzie for a 4th.

Cosell really liked Terrell Bernard. We'll see if that works out.

All the more reason to draft a tackle who can handle speed. Spencer Brown couldn't handle my grandmother.

I blame that injury 100% on Beane. He assumed Spencer Brown would be starting quality and Quessenberry would be an adequate backup. Instead, they were two of the five worst tackles in the league in pass drops. It was just a matter of when Allen would get injured, especially with another spectacularly poor judgment of his, bringing in Saffold to start at guard. I suspect Beane realizes that he blew it and, arguably, doomed the season for the team, since that injury was the inflection point of the season. We'll soon see if he's learned that he needs more than journeymen, low draft picks, and has-beens to protect the most important player on the team.

I wouldn't be surprised if he signs with another team as DC or position coach, after a short, face-saving interval.

Hey, don't mess with the national narrative. Allen has regressed. Yes, he had incompetent receivers and a girls tennis team for an Oline, and a damaged elbow limiting him. But, hey, Mahomes had a hangnail in October, and Burrows had a stomach ache at least once, I heard. So altogether, it was a level playing field.

So that's two season-long starters on the OL who ranked among the very worst in the league, including backups. Do we really need to look further to explain why the Bills were stumbling by the end? Or how terrific other elements of the team were to makeup for the high school varsity quality of Brown and Saffold? I prefer the second frame. What other team did as well with players as base incompetent?

So is the pain that limited him gone by now? Is the injury healed? I heard he isn't getting surgery, but are we looking at another season with Allen limited to deep throws?

Which also doesn't give us a chance to see what they can do (Wyatt, Hodgins, possibly Elam). McD seems to think the downsides of playing young players outweighs the upsides. That is obviously the case often, but you look at, say, the KC rookies and you wonder if he's got it backwards in some cases. I remember when Marv Levy refused to put Henry Jones in at safety in one of the early Super Bowls when they were getting clobbered in the secondary. And then when Dallas was running the ball down our throat in the fourth (I think) Super Bowl, he refused to play Parella and other big young DT we had on the bench. I can believe Shakir had his weaknesses, for example, but was he so much worse than "Drop" Davis or that walking disaster, McKenzie?

My reply is the same. GM's should be judged on outcomes, not on how well their choices reflected popular opinion at the time. Most people thought Ryan Leaf and Jamarcus Russell were great picks when they were drafted. The GMs who took them blew it. They don't get a pass because they went with the consensus. As it turns out, the Bills depth sucked: OT, OG, C, LB, CB, S, WR... pretty much everywhere it was tested. You think that's ok because in August ESPN though they had the best depth in the NFL?

I wouldn't let Beane off the hook that easily. Yes, Davis looked ready to step into the #2 role, but Beane didn't have a backup plan in case he wasn't ready, just like he had no backup plan if Saffold and/or Brown failed. As it happens, all three did. The GM doesn't get a pass because his judgment matched the consensus on a fan forum. He's got to do his homework. He didn't. Not on those three, or Araiza, or Bernard, whom he obviously overvalued. I'm not expecting perfection. But I'm not impressed by Beane's recent performance.

Teams, especially playoff teams, are close enough that luck is a big factor. Injuries, the way the ball bounces, how the refs are inclined, the weather, flukey missed tackles and turnovers.... the list goes on. All that is normal. What's different in sports, especially ones as hyped and over-analyzed as the NFL, s that everyone thinks the outcomes of lucky moments reflects ability on the part of the lucky team--and lack of ability (or character, etc.--on the part of the unlucky team. If Gabe Davis makes that catch in the Jets game that hit him in the chest in stride, the NFL world would have exploded over Josh Allen. Injured, beset behind an incompetent line, he throws a dime 60 yards in the air to pretty much win the game, one of the most clutch and impressive throws of the season. Instead, the throw is forgotten, and all of Allen's negatives from that game are highlighted.

They had to use him to block because Beane assumed Brown would be adequate at RT and he wasn't. So two positions were impacted by Beane's misjudgment. Arguably more, since with Knox blocking instead of running routes, teams could take Diggs out of the game with impunity. A cascade effect.

Yes, I wait. You wait, too?

Is going 13-3 and having roster holes the following year somehow incompatible?

The Bills situation is not good. Roster holes everywhere, half the cap tied up in four players, a measly six draft picks, no money for free agents. I wonder if the best strategy is to go all-in on offense in the draft: WR, OG, OT, TE. Sign Edwards but otherwise make do on defense. Give Allen the protection and weapons he needs but has never really had. Let him compete--fairly compete--with Mahomes and Burrow.

I had the same thought. You look at KC with Reid and Bienemy, then you look at what we have: a rookie OC (last year), green as hell, at least in comparison. It's like assigning a newbie jockey to ride Secretariat.

Quick aside: The same talking heads that claim Mahomes is the living embodiment of god almighy, GOAT in training, etc., note in the same breath that he was throwing to wide-open receivers all game (and season) long. Yet somehow he's far better than Allen, who had to dodge the Saffold- and Brown assignments every drop-back, hit Davis or Mackenzie on the chest because they can't get open, and watch as they drop it. But Mahomes has two rings!

Put Mahomes or Brady or any QB you idolize on a lousy team. Are they suddenly not a great player or not the best in the league? Conversely, is a journeyman QB on a great team who wins the Super Bowl a great team because he has a ring? Your reasoning is deeply flawed. Intangibles? Like what? Leadership? The team loving him? Work ethic? On what "intangible" is Mahomes ahead of Allen? Good looks? You're mindlessly repeating the media mantra. People like you would dominate in the "poll" you mention, yet another worthless metric. I'm not disparaging your character. But I do doubt about your ability to think critically.

All true except the second one. Allen is better in pretty much all categories. The only reason it's an argument is that Mahomes has Reid and a real line, and Allen has Dorsey and garbage.

Last year during the Feliciano/Ford debacle, I posted that Beane's top seven picks should be (in order) guard, guard, guard, guard, guard, guard, and guard. He didn't draft any guards. He might not draft any this year, either. That's fine if he can sign quality veterans. Who did he sign? Saffold, Hart, and Van Roten.