Officially one quarter into the season what are your composed thoughts?

[frostbitmic]

The Golden Girls could turn our o-line into turnstyles and I fear for the life of Allen. Even when Allen gets rid of the ball his WR's have hands of stone.

 

When Shady is getting 5 carries per game you have to seriously wonder wtf Daboll is thinking when calling plays.

 

On defense they seem to be playing conservative and not playing aggressive. I think we blitzed twice yesterday, one resulting in a sack from our rookie safety. For the love of all that is holy, attack the offense like they did vs the Vikings. Forcing mistakes is a good thing.

[billsfan_34]

1 hour ago, Tcali said:

lets remember how schizo this team and coaching staff are. I expect a 7-9 season. expect a great game soon.

Lets also remember how bad the jets and dolphins are.2 wins right there.

The Jets aren’t that bad- just have a rook at the helm. We will be lucky to win again this season. GB was banged up and we couldn’t score! 

[RobbRiddick]

My thoughts can be illustrated thus:

 

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[longtimebillsfan]

3 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

Everyone here (and pretty much anywhere NFL related) loves to overreact to everything positively or negatively. After the bad losses the Bills should fire everyone and trade Allen for a 7th if we could be so lucky. After the Vikings game to quote Rodney Dangerfield from the end of Caddy Shack "We're all going to get laid."

 

Coaches will often say they look at seasons in quarters so after 4 games what are you composed thoughts and impressions about the team thus far? 

 

Positives 

1- The defensive turn around. 

After 6 God awful defensive quarters the team has been pretty good and consistent defensively. If this team has any hope of trying to win games and develop Josh Allen they will need a consistent defensive effort 

2- Josh Allen. 

Josh Allen has not looked good in 2 out of his 3 starts. But he has flashed athletic ability and he has put together some really nice throws. I think that considering how raw a prospect Allen was coming out of college it isn't surprising to see Allen come out and look very uneven. 

3- Young defenders. 

Phillips, Johnson, Milano, Edumonds, White, and the continued development of a young core of defensive players emerging gives hope that this strong defensive play can be sustained beyond this season. Hopefully Shaq gets added to that list of good young players. 

4- Zay Jones.

Zay hasn't light the world on fire but he is competently putting together a decent season, after Zay's mental breakdown and injury issues it is good to see him not only playing but probably becoming the teams best WR out of an abysmal core. I could honestly see Zay developing into a quality slot receiver. 

 

Negatives. 

1- Peterman. 

The fact that Peterman is one snap away from playing is unforgivable. The fact that this staff got fooled by per-season Peterman twice is horrendous. I don't mind having Peterman as a third string QB but why on Earth have they not explored a veteran backup option? 

2- The O-line

The Bills might have the worst O-line in football. I know the All-22 has been a bit kinder to the O-line esp in the LA loss (no word on the Green Bay loss as I type this) but watching this team you can see they are losing the battle in the trenches rather consistently in every game but the Vikings game. Playing a rookie behind this O-line is something that could seriously stunt Allen's footwork development. 

3- The skill position core. 

The WR core in particular is outright bad and might be the worst unit in the league certainly bottom 5. KB isn't doing much and Zay Jones putting together a decent season is probably the best thing going which says a lot. The rest of the team is Andre Holmes a JAG veteran and a bunch of young players not doing a whole lot. Clay and the tight ends are decent if you had good receivers but they have limited impact since the receiving core is awful. 

4- Shady might be done. 

Shady was/is a dynamic offensive weapon, one of the things that could have made the skill position core's relative weakness palpable is if Shady was still an elite weapon out of the backfield. With his injury and at his age/miles it isn't looking to good for him early. Granted this is only 25% into the season so there is still plenty of time for him to turn it around but it is sad to see him get off to such a bad start. 

 

Overall the Bills are who we thought they were a team that mortgaged veteran players to get out from under contracts and accrue draft capital. They then spent that draft capital on two trade ups to acquire Allen and Edumonds (Cordy Glenn and picks 21, 22, 53, 56, and 65 for Allen, Edumonds, and a 5th round pick.) Those trade ups and the massive dead cap really crippled the teams ability to build a more complete roster. If you trade away a lot of productive veteran players for draft capital (Which also incurs short term dead cap) and then do two big trade ups with that draft capital then there are going to be massive holes on parts of the roster. 

 

The Bills are looking to be who we thought they probably were.  A team that has some key pieces in place but will have to wait until the dead cap clears in order to build up other parts of their roster. 

The Bills are doing better than I imagined.   I figured they would be 0 - 4 at this point in the season.   I was not expecting a win before mid-season.   Allen is a work in progress.   He will have his good days and bad.  Fans needs to cut him some slack.  The hand wringing and panic are laughable.  Give the poor kid a season to learn the game.   He is showing maturity and poise.  He will make a lot of mistakes.   But he is our future.  Don't give up on him so soon.

[Success]

I don’t care how nutty it sounds - I think we can still make the playoffs in a weak AFC.

 

This was the worst part of our schedule, by far.  I think our defense can be a top unit.  If the offense can just figure out how to be average - and we saw that last week - we can compete with anyone in the AFC, except possibly the Chiefs.

[longtimebillsfan]

8 minutes ago, Success said:

I don’t care how nutty it sounds - I think we can still make the playoffs in a weak AFC.

 

This was the worst part of our schedule, by far.  I think our defense can be a top unit.  If the offense can just figure out how to be average - and we saw that last week - we can compete with anyone in the AFC, except possibly the Chiefs.

I really like your optimism.  After what happened last season, anything is possible. 

[Tcali]

1 hour ago, billsfan_34 said:

The Jets aren’t that bad- just have a rook at the helm. We will be lucky to win again this season. GB was banged up and we couldn’t score! 

we shall see

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

The Buffalo Bills are what I thought they were 

 

A team trying to get young on offense and defense while maintaining the mainstays on the D to try to keep the games from getting away.  

 

So far I'm not a fan of Leslie Frazier solo play calling 

[QCity]

As expected. Well no, actually I didn't expect them to beat the Vikings. 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

My composed thoughts?

 

Well, I'm thrilled they picked up one win in the first four. I expect them to be much more competitive going forward. Having 5 of 7 on the road to start is ridiculous. I can't remember another team with that kind of nonsense to deal with.

 

 

[Boatdrinks]

Pretty rough sledding at QB, with a few glimpses of good play. Defense seems to be getting it together. The offense is the worst we’ve seen since at least 2001, with very little talent. In essence, a throwaway year of Josh Allen starts with no reinforcements arriving until 2019.

[Helpmenow]

Feel bad for #95. No playoffs again.

[billsfan_34]

1 hour ago, Tcali said:

we shall see

Hindsight is always 20/20 for sure

[Big Turk]

My thoughts are this team has the worst talent on the offensive side of the ball as a unit in the NFL.

 

Allen is being put into a situation that really sucks for him. Its hard to judge what he is doing when the surrounding cast is this pathetic.

 

Edmunds, Johnson and Phillips on D are bright spots in this years draft class.

 

Our OLine coaching is terrible. Its one thing to get beat physicslly due to lack of talent. Its completely another thing when dudes are running free because they arent being coached properly on who to block and their assignments when certain things happen. Its a joke. Basically anytime the defense doesn't just rush 4 defensive linemen straight ahead the OLine looks clueless.

 

We will not win more than 3 games this season and will draft in the top 3.

 

 

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

6 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

Close to what I expected with the defense being the best unit on the team that will hopefully congeal into a top ten unit as the season progresses.

 

The offense I knew would struggle given the supporting personnel that is very poor (OL and WR in particular) with a very raw rookie QB.

 

...probably just me, but the pre-season through the first 6 quarters leave me questioning as to whether Frazier is the right guy to formulate the defensive game plan and adjust with some consistent fluidity throughout the game based on the opponent's offense....

[Mark92]

7 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

Everyone here (and pretty much anywhere NFL related) loves to overreact to everything positively or negatively. After the bad losses the Bills should fire everyone and trade Allen for a 7th if we could be so lucky. After the Vikings game to quote Rodney Dangerfield from the end of Caddy Shack "We're all going to get laid."

 

Coaches will often say they look at seasons in quarters so after 4 games what are you composed thoughts and impressions about the team thus far? 

 

Positives 

1- The defensive turn around. 

After 6 God awful defensive quarters the team has been pretty good and consistent defensively. If this team has any hope of trying to win games and develop Josh Allen they will need a consistent defensive effort 

2- Josh Allen. 

Josh Allen has not looked good in 2 out of his 3 starts. But he has flashed athletic ability and he has put together some really nice throws. I think that considering how raw a prospect Allen was coming out of college it isn't surprising to see Allen come out and look very uneven. 

3- Young defenders. 

Phillips, Johnson, Milano, Edumonds, White, and the continued development of a young core of defensive players emerging gives hope that this strong defensive play can be sustained beyond this season. Hopefully Shaq gets added to that list of good young players. 

4- Zay Jones.

Zay hasn't light the world on fire but he is competently putting together a decent season, after Zay's mental breakdown and injury issues it is good to see him not only playing but probably becoming the teams best WR out of an abysmal core. I could honestly see Zay developing into a quality slot receiver. 

 

Negatives. 

1- Peterman. 

The fact that Peterman is one snap away from playing is unforgivable. The fact that this staff got fooled by per-season Peterman twice is horrendous. I don't mind having Peterman as a third string QB but why on Earth have they not explored a veteran backup option? 

2- The O-line

The Bills might have the worst O-line in football. I know the All-22 has been a bit kinder to the O-line esp in the LA loss (no word on the Green Bay loss as I type this) but watching this team you can see they are losing the battle in the trenches rather consistently in every game but the Vikings game. Playing a rookie behind this O-line is something that could seriously stunt Allen's footwork development. 

3- The skill position core. 

The WR core in particular is outright bad and might be the worst unit in the league certainly bottom 5. KB isn't doing much and Zay Jones putting together a decent season is probably the best thing going which says a lot. The rest of the team is Andre Holmes a JAG veteran and a bunch of young players not doing a whole lot. Clay and the tight ends are decent if you had good receivers but they have limited impact since the receiving core is awful. 

4- Shady might be done. 

Shady was/is a dynamic offensive weapon, one of the things that could have made the skill position core's relative weakness palpable is if Shady was still an elite weapon out of the backfield. With his injury and at his age/miles it isn't looking to good for him early. Granted this is only 25% into the season so there is still plenty of time for him to turn it around but it is sad to see him get off to such a bad start. 

 

Overall the Bills are who we thought they were a team that mortgaged veteran players to get out from under contracts and accrue draft capital. They then spent that draft capital on two trade ups to acquire Allen and Edumonds (Cordy Glenn and picks 21, 22, 53, 56, and 65 for Allen, Edumonds, and a 5th round pick.) Those trade ups and the massive dead cap really crippled the teams ability to build a more complete roster. If you trade away a lot of productive veteran players for draft capital (Which also incurs short term dead cap) and then do two big trade ups with that draft capital then there are going to be massive holes on parts of the roster. 

 

The Bills are looking to be who we thought they probably were.  A team that has some key pieces in place but will have to wait until the dead cap clears in order to build up other parts of their roster. 

I disagree that Allen has looked bad in 2 of 3 starts.  I would say against LA he looked like a rookie with potential ( that's good in my book). He looked great against Minn and obviously didn't look good at all yesterday.  I think you have to look at who he has been playing against and with.  We all knew the fist 4 games were going to be tough for any rookie QB.  Allen is RAW and we all know it but it's hard for him to develop when our o line can't buy him enough time.  And when they do Allen discovers that nobody is open because our WRs can't get separation.  Give Allen Clevelands WR and O line and I bet he looks better than he has.  

[Scott7975]

I pretty much expected this.  One thing I didn't expect was blowing out the Vikings.

[VW82]

Josh Allen is having a rough go of it out there and is making everyone around him look really bad in the process. I get everyone else on this board thinks it's the opposite, but I assure you our QB is the root of the problem right now. Let's hope he figures it out, and fast. 

[Gray Beard]

7 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

It looked more like Losmans 2nd start against the Bucs. He was awful. Much like Allen was yesterday. Very similar starts.

I just had a scary thought. What if Allen is Losman 2.0?

[John from Riverside]

2 hours ago, Helpmenow said:

Feel bad for #95. No playoffs again.

Except for last year

5 minutes ago, VW82 said:

Josh Allen is having a rough go of it out there and is making everyone around him look really bad in the process. I get everyone else on this board thinks it's the opposite, but I assure you our QB is the root of the problem right now. Let's hope he figures it out, and fast. 

Yes....because the other qb also faired so well

 

Of course its the rookie qb

 

Give it up

[VW82]

7 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

Yes....because the other qb also faired so well

 

Of course its the rookie qb

 

Give it up

 

Just so I understand you correctly, you're suggesting that because Peterman was terrible for one half (and was also terrible last year on a team that made the playoffs), that means that it's really everyone else's fault, and not Allen's?

 

Here's a hot take for you. Last week Allen played well and we won by a lot. This week Allen played terribly and we lost by a lot. Perhaps the performance of our young QB is determining more of the outcome than you think.

Edited October 1, 2018 by VW82

[John from Riverside]

Just now, VW82 said:

 

Just so I understand you correctly, you're suggesting that because Peterman was terrible for one half (and was also terrible last year on a team that made the playoffs), that means that it's really everyone else's fault, and not Allen's?

 

Here's a hot take for you. Last week Allen played well and we won by a lot. This week Allen played terribly and we won by a lot. Perhaps the performance of our young QB is determining more of the outcome than you think.

You said the team is losing because of its rook qb....I present to you that we dont WIN last week without that rook QB...your trying to shed that as a bad light on Allen when what you shoudl be doing is looking at what he is capable of as he gains experience.

 

Right now this team has virtually NO playmakers on offense

 

Your not doing that....and your looking like a clown

[Toledo Bill]

Coordinators and line coach need to go. Maybe that might shake things up.

[Nitro]

For a rebuilding season no surprises.  There is some young talent to build on.  O line has been a unit in flux for a long time.  Need at least three new guys.  Add two WRs and the team will be turning the corner next season.  Bills will be players in the free agent market.  No big ticket guys but players that fit specific roles.  

[VW82]

22 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

You said the team is losing because of its rook qb....I present to you that we dont WIN last week without that rook QB...your trying to shed that as a bad light on Allen when what you shoudl be doing is looking at what he is capable of as he gains experience.

 

Right now this team has virtually NO playmakers on offense

 

Your not doing that....and your looking like a clown

 

You appear to have completely missed my point. The only clown-like thing going here on is your reading comprehension. 

 

I agree we beat Vikings in large part because of Allen (and because Vikings no showed). I straight up said that. But we also lost to Pack mostly because of Allen too. This isn't about the Oline, or WRs, or play calling to nearly the degree that you or most other posters on here are making it out to be. It's about Allen looking like white Cam Newton for a half one week, and then next week he's making Ryan Leaf look like a HOFer.

 

McD is talking about multiple hands in the cookie jar wrt the sacks, and the need for better pre-snap reads to put our O in better positions in the first place during his presser today. Who do you think he's talking about there?

 

I just don't get the need to praise Allen when he does well, but then blame everyone else when he's atrocious. Some of you guys sound like soccer moms. 

Edited October 1, 2018 by VW82

[Mat68]

The defense is starting to come together, the offense is a mess.  The main problem is I dont believe McDermott understands enough about that side of the ball to help.  The offense looked completely differant and generic compared to the one vs Minnesota.  It was the second half offense not the one in the first half.  Maybe McCoy playing is a strain on the play calling and are too focused on him and are failing to get the overall offense in rythem

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

46 minutes ago, VW82 said:

Josh Allen is having a rough go of it out there and is making everyone around him look really bad in the process. I get everyone else on this board thinks it's the opposite, but I assure you our QB is the root of the problem right now. Let's hope he figures it out, and fast. 

 

Riiiiiiiight

[John from Riverside]

14 minutes ago, VW82 said:

 

You appear to have completely missed my point. The only clown-like thing going here on is your reading comprehension. 

 

I agree we beat Vikings in large part because of Allen (and because Vikings no showed). I straight up said that. But we also lost to Pack mostly because of Allen too. This isn't about the Oline, or WRs, or play calling to nearly the degree that you or most other posters on here are making it out to be. It's about Allen looking like white Cam Newton for a half one week, and then next week he's making Ryan Leaf look like a HOFer.

 

McD is talking about multiple hands in the cookie jar wrt the sacks, and the need for better pre-snap reads to put our O in better positions in the first place during his presser today. Who do you think he's talking about there?

 

I just don't get the need to praise Allen when he does well, but then blame everyone else when he's atrocious. Some of you guys sound like soccer moms. 

Is anyone saying that Allen is playing great when the rest of the team is not playing great?

 

Funny.....It seems to me that ppl are lumping Allen right into that and deservedly so....but to BLAME him for the ineptness of the offense is comedy......straight comedy

[BADOLBILZ]

 

Glad they took a chance on a young QB.........but they passed on two QB's in 2017 who have been very successful.

 

I think McDermott and Beane have poorly handled the roster.   From the moment McDermott arrived a lot of proven-wrong decisions already and I doubt their ability to replenish the talent by the start of the 2020 season.

 

Like some of the young defensive players they've added but we need to keep in mind that it's an offensive league and it's really hard to play consistently good defense year-in and year-out for a reason.   Drafting defensive players is kinda' like picking the low hanging fruit.    You can re-build a defense overnight in FA.   Offense is harder to build but more enduring.    It's concerning that they are so far away offensively.

[DuckyBoys]

Pretty much what I expected besides the running game being basically non existent

[Helpmenow]

What has changed after wiping everybody out

[Buddy Hix]

I picked this team to go 2-14, as it was pretty apparent that the stripped down roster has very little talent, so I’m not shocked at the poor showing on the field.

 

My main thought is that “the process” looks flawed and poorly planned. Why draft a raw QB and put him in a situation like this? A system that doesn’t help him, a team that doesn’t help him, and put him in there...

 

And the focus on the defensive side of the ball is also perplexing. This is a scoring league, yet this team seems to think building a good D is more important than building a solid O. Look at the signings, money was spent on the D at the expense of helping the franchise QB. And it also doesn’t help that the signings were awful...Star doesn’t even play half the game, Murphy gets little pressure and Davis quit.

 

[Lfod]

The team really needs an infusion of talent and playmakers on offense. I never liked the idea of starting Josh Allen on a team without an offensive identity to build on. I have changed my mind because it looks like he is that identity the offense must be built on. 

 

It's not really a secret that this team has some problems. I don't even want to make a list because it would be a long one. 

 

I hate to say it but forget about winning. It should all be about Josh Allen. The games should at least be a learning experience if you can't be competitive. 

 

The season will still have a story to tell. At least we had that Vikings game.....

 

[PlayoffsPlease]

At this point the only gigantic problem is the truly horrible play of the WRs.  If they were average at getting open, the Oline play and Allen would be more than adequate.  But asking the oline to protect Allen for 4 seconds while the WR's get enough separation to give Allen a 1 foot by 1 foot window 30 yards down field really doesn't work.  

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

I should buy stock in ulcer medicine!!!

  

[K-9]

A request for composed thoughts? After a blowout loss where we looked bad? I give mad props to the OP for off the charts optimism. 

[billsfan89]

3 hours ago, Gray Beard said:

I just had a scary thought. What if Allen is Losman 2.0?

 

Losman and Allen share a somewhat similar draft profile. Both were big arm QB's, good mobility, came from not so good teams, they both had good scores on the Wonderlic (Losman scored a 31 and Allen scored a 37) and they even shared some accuracy and footwork concerns. But Allen is a different beast than Losman. 

 

For one Allen has maybe the strongest arm to come out of college since Cam Newton or JaMarcus Russell and arguably has one of the strongest arms to ever be scouted. Losman had a strong arm coming out of college but it was not unreal like Losman's. Another big difference is the intangibles. Losman was thought to have a bad attitude coming out of college. Allen's intangibles are thought to be very good. Another significant difference is Losman's throwing motion was a bigger concern than Allen's. There are also some small differences in favor of Allen as he is three inches taller and just a bigger overall player. 

 

Although the accuracy and college production issues were less significant in the case of Losman so there is some positives in favor of Losman but I think that overall they aren't very similar coming out of the draft. Allen is a lot more raw coming out of the draft but Allen also is a much higher ceiling player. Losman had some very positive attributes coming out of college, he certainly was a bit more polished a product, but he was not nearly as tantalizing as Allen and came with big attitude issues to boot. 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

9 hours ago, K-9 said:

A request for composed thoughts? After a blowout loss where we looked bad? I give mad props to the OP for off the charts optimism. 

LOL.  So true, so true 

[Dopey]

Composed thoughts?! I'll give it a try.

This is what I expected, considering what we have lost talent-wise over the last year1 or 2. I am not mad, though. This regime explained  their 1st major goal was to get their QB. Then work on the cap issue(dead money too). Guys, this is a rebuild and was going to be from the get go. This was to be expected. My only hope is that we see it through. Give them a couple of more years. We have 10 picks coming up and we will have a ton of $ for free agency. My only concern is that we seem to do well with FA/traded defensive players brought in vs. FA/traded offensive players. The offensive players are just that: offensive, WR's more than anything.

Edited October 2, 2018 by Dopey

[Bring it]

Their not as good as I hoped but about what I expected. Defense is by far the better of the two but they have some holes. Cornerback has not been solidified other than White. Lb has some issues at times. Milano makes some plays and then will give up some, same as Edmunds but there is great potential there! Especially Edmunds! Man he got to Rodgers QUICK on that sack!!! The pass rush needs Alexander to be at least somewhat effective. 

 

Now on the Offense! Things are tough right now for Allen. Ideally when you play a rookie you want to have an experienced o-line, especially center. At least one very good receiver, many times it’s a tight end. A productive, solid run game. All running a scheme that is not brand new to everyone! Allen has none of those!! Mahomes has all of those plus more. He sat a year and the scheme is very familiar at least to the whole offense. I would argue that Darnold and even Baker have better situations RIGHT NOW.

Things will get better if they push thru and keep working, but probably not till at least mid season. They need leadership to come from somewhere on that o-line.To me a center has to be a top priority this off season.

 

The only conclusion I can come to with KB is he must be playing hurt. He has a hard time not only catching but holding onto the ball upon contact. This is just not like him at all! Zay appears no better than last year as far as route running and YAC. Holmes is a decent 3rd receiver and that’s it.Foster.....yikes!

 

Allen has been a lot of what I expected! Young....sometimes I find myself saying “how did he do that?” Other times it’s “why did he do that?” Two things going forward! Hope he can stay healthy because he took a beating on Sunday!! And, I want to see him learning from his mistakes and progressing! Like Edmunds is doing! Those two could be good, REALLY GOOD!!