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

[Chris66]

Im surprised at McDermott and Beanes inability to evaluate offensive talent.

[Rob's House]

!@#$ it, man. Let's go bowling.

[corta765]

I thought this was a 4-5 win team so truthfully its on schedule.

 

Positives:

Defense- Looks about as expected after the first 6 quarters disaster. They seem to have a solid core in the works with Milano, Edmunds, White, Poyer, Hyde, T. Johnson, and Phillips. Add a good pass rusher or two and the defense could be scary.

Dabol- The tape has showed he has tried his best to scheme with a ball of yarn and not much else. The all 22 tape shows so real creativity we just don't have the parts or QB to execute it.

 

Negatives:

Offense- The Bills seem so content being a offense from the 1970's with the talent they have it blows my mind. Every piece of the offense outside of Dawkins and maybe Ducasse is a train wreck. McCoy can't run, we never can pass for any true yards, there are no WR's, etc.. its awful

Allen- The kid is in a no win situation with no much to work with. They should've brought in a vet like Keenum or Bridgewater to start so he can learn because he is making the same mistakes as college and against GB single handily held everything back with his play. Obviously he is a long term project and like I said he has nothing to work with WR wise, but he is as boom or bust as they have said with not enough boom and no consistency to really see.

Beane- It's great to have cap and picks to work with but you have to have something to build to add to. The offense has literally nothing minus two o-line man. Beane could've been a bit more aggressive to add a WR and an O-line man so things were more stable plus a true veteran QB.

FA Signings/Trades- Davis money could've been used towards the offense, Star has been a disappointment, and in general outside of Hyde/Poyer they really haven't had much success adding players like Jordan Matthews or Benjamin.

Overall Plan- I liked that they wanted to draft a QB finally, BUT then a guy that needed time was thrown to the wolves with no support. We will truthfully learn not much this year to judge Allen because we need to see him with weapons and support. It's a growing year in a sense but a wasted one that we have to pass the buck another year or two more to see if he is real. If he isn't for real we wasted time we could've got a replacement. Perhaps Beane's plan to hit ground zero with cap will work long term, but the team has become a joke nationally for how they approached everything at QB and offense.

[sugashane69]

To me we are worse then I was hoping for.  I'm worried with no help for a young QB (wr,OL) he will be ruined after this season never to be the same.  Allen is taking a butt whoopin game in and out!  I know he makes mistakes but we dont have playmakers!  I think McDermott needs to help Frazier out with the defense a little and Daboll I'm sorry to say so far is starting to remind me of Dennison!  Go with your players strengths!!!!  We need to spend some money ... I'm trusting the process but maybe they should tweak it a little!

[NoHuddleKelly12]

23 hours ago, Jerome007 said:

Except for the Oline and WRs, which are clearly among the bottom of the league, it seems the strengths and weaknesses have been all over the place. Hard to recall a more uneven start to a season. The 2nd halves of Chargers & Packers games, and of course the Viking one, is so different then the rest we'll need  4 more games to know the "identity" of this team!

 

As for Allen, I can't believe all the doom'n gloomers burying him already. We need a lot more games to know. Man I hate these negative hacks that just want to either troll or simply spreed their miserable outlook and hope  they are "right".  

Has anyone taken a look at the Jets and/or Cardinals boards to see what kind of measured, composed thoughts and insights their fan bases are up to?

[MJS]

I see the potential, but the team seems to have a tough time putting the pieces together each week. Allen is a rookie that needs some time to develop, although he has some obvious physical abilities and is a gamer.

 

I am a little concerned with Daboll and the complete lack of a running game. We'll see how that goes.

 

The defense looks solid and I think they'll play better as the year goes on. They need to find a way to start fast instead of playing better in the second half of the game.

 

I predicted 7 wins, and with the brutal first 4 weeks behind us, I could still see that happening. But I would also see them only winning a few more.

 

I am excited for all the cap space and draft picks next year. Hopefully we can get our true #1 WR somehow, and some better offensive linemen.

[C.Biscuit97]

This team is super boring and we’re fully on board with the EJ Manuel development of Josh Allen.

[row_33]

i'm prepared for the Titans to kick the living bag out of the Bills on Sunday

 

anything better actually happening will be welcome

 

 

[C.Biscuit97]

Just now, row_33 said:

i'm prepared for the Titans to kick the living bag out of the Bills on Sunday

 

anything better actually happening will be welcome

 

 

It will probably be a close game.  The titans aren’t that good. 

[Drunken Pygmy Goat]

Composed thoughts?

 

This team is about what I thought this team would be since April. Growing pains, new system on offense, little talent across the board, especially at WR.

 

This was expected. The Bills were making the hard but necessary move to shed bad contracts and bite the dead money bullet in 2018, while getting some important rookie experience in the meantime. Fans might not like it now, and it might be hard to watch and frustrating at times, but the end result is what I'm looking forward to. Unfortunately that won't be this year. But I knew that, and I'm "fine" with that. Just make sure that you properly execute the plan along the way. 

[Lofton80]

Impressed by the core they have added through two drafts, most of the young guys contribute and should improve.

 

Specialists- Punter and kicker are both above avg.

 

Disappointed- The offensive line is brutal. teams will keep sending extra rushers until the Bills figure out a way to stop it. Way too many free rushers right up the middle.

Dawkins is not doing as well as last year. DuCasse would never start for any other team, Miller has been brutal and Mills has actually been adequate. I hope they use their likely top 5 pick on the Alabama OT and kick Dawkins to guard.

 

Teams are crowding the line so Shady is never going to break lose until they can keep the QB upright to stretch the field.

 

The receivers are a collection of #2, #3 and #4's. No one to put fear on a defense.      

 

Basically, the offense needs about 5 players not on the roster today to improve.

 

Defense has been better the last few weeks. The short fields they have been forced to defend do not help.  

[billsfan_34]

18 hours ago, matter2003 said:

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.

 

 

Truth for sure- Allen doesnt stand a chance right now. I think Daboll and Castillo are brutally awful. 

[C.Biscuit97]

15 hours ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

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.  

Allen is the lowest rate qb in the entire nfl.

[Buddy Hix]

4 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

Allen is the lowest rate qb in the entire nfl.

It's the narrative that a lot of fans are taking, that the poor play by Allen is entirely due to the bad line and bad WRs. But watching the all-22 you can see that Allen is just as much of a contributor to the poor showing as everybody else.

[benderbender]

I’m still not panicking because it’s only preseason

[iinii]

22 hours 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.

IF I had the right six numbers I would be on a beach somewhere with an umbrella drink in a Tiki bar full of hot babes.

iF the Chargers would have had Bosa that game would have been worse.

IF Tommy Boy doesn’t play NE still wins both. 

IF Puff Daddy and Company don’t get off the bus cause they are too blazed up we might beat the Jags. 

IF 9-7 gets in the playoffs which of the next 12 are 8 wins? 

 

[RochesterRob]

  Pretty much doing what was supposed to take place last year which was bottom out.  50+ million in dead cap pretty much says it all.  Right now they are bargain hunting guys such as our new DB that can allow our focus to shift to fixing the offense during the next offseason.  I hate writing off a season but that is what is in store for now but the expectations are going to be much higher come May 2019.

[Buddy Hix]

9 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

He is. He should be on the bench and learning from the sidelines as a veteran starts and shows him the ropes this year.

 

That plan went to **** when they traded Tyrod, signed McCarron and then dumped him for steady Eddie. Good call McBeane.??

Yeah, I’m pretty cheesed about the entire situation. (Pardon the pun, it’s the only good thing I got from my trip to Green Bay)

[RussellDopeland]

Composed Thoughts? 

I think Peterman compares favorably to Drew Brees.

Peterman is a pox on humanity!

Allen looks terrible; we should've drafted Rosen!

Allen is gonna be a superstar!

Allen is a fawn in headlights.

Edmunds looks lost.

Edmunds is the next Wilber Marshall.

Benjamin is healthy and should have a breakout game this week.

Benjamin is fat, lazy, and with hands of stone!

Vonate Davis is an upgrade over EJ Gaines.

Burn in hell, Vontae Davis!!

McDermott is the coach who ended the drought- he's the perfect elixir for the franchise.

FIRE MCDERMOTT!!!

Mahomes...blah, blah, blah....Mahomes....blah, blah, blah.....

 

[SoTier]

The Bills aren't likely to win another game this season unless they luck out and play a team in a trap game situation after they (the Bills) embarrass themselves by making another mediocre team look like Super Bowl contenders ... or unless they play another game in a snowstorm.

[Dr. K]

On 10/1/2018 at 11:24 AM, Bangarang said:

The offense is as bad as expected. Not sure why Peterman is still on the team. I’d also prefer if McD took over the defense full time. It’s pretty clear this team has little to no talent and I’m not sure I trust the ones who tore it down to build it back up.

Why are people still even mentioning Peterman? Peterman has nothing do to with the miserable play that we saw against the Chargers and Packers. He has nothing to do with the gaping holes in the roster that Beane and McDermott deliberately created in order to draft Allen and Edmonds. He has nothing to do with the fact that the receivers on this team are terrible and the offensive line is spotty at best, and two of their three running backs are 30 years old. 

 

At this point I am just hoping to see some improvement form the younger players, in particular Allen, though whether he is going to pan out or not is a question I don't think anybody can answer. They might win a few games if the defense improves and they create turnovers. But I'm not seeing more than five wins tops. The tale will be told in the off season when Beane and McDermott try to improve this roster through free agency and the draft. Everything depends on them making good personnel choices, and based on their track record that's also a dicey proposition. 

Edited October 2, 2018 by Dr. K

[Hapless Bills Fan]

21 minutes ago, RussellDopeland said:

Composed Thoughts? 

I think Peterman compares favorably to Drew Brees.

Peterman is a pox on humanity!

Allen looks terrible; we should've drafted Rosen!

Allen is gonna be a superstar!

Allen is a fawn in headlights.

Edmunds looks lost.

Edmunds is the next Wilber Marshall.

Benjamin is healthy and should have a breakout game this week.

Benjamin is fat, lazy, and with hands of stone!

Vonate Davis is an upgrade over EJ Gaines.

Burn in hell, Vontae Davis!!

McDermott is the coach who ended the drought- he's the perfect elixir for the franchise.

FIRE MCDERMOTT!!!

Mahomes...blah, blah, blah....Mahomes....blah, blah, blah.....

 

 

That's actually an apt summation of the last 6 weeks on this board.

[Bangarang]

8 minutes ago, Dr. K said:

Why are people still even mentioning Peterman? Peterman has nothing do to with the miserable play that we saw against the Chargers and Packers. He has nothing to do with the gaping holes in the roster that Beane and McDermott deliberately created in order to draft Allen and Edmonds. He has nothing to do with the fact that the receivers on this team are terrible and the offensive line is spotty at best, and two of their three running backs are 30 years old. 

 

Probably because he is absolute trash and shouldn’t be on an NFL roster. Not to mention the fact that our starting QB can’t stop getting sacked and is one hit away from Peterman seeing the field again.

[PlayoffsPlease]

1 hour ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

Allen is the lowest rate qb in the entire nfl.

This is directly a result of never having open WRs

[Gray Beard]

19 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

 

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. 

I truly believe Allen will turn out to be a keeper. He seems to have the work ethic, the desire to be a leader, and probably a higher talent ceiling. His height and overall ruggedness are also significant advantages, as long as he stays healthy, which is a big concern to me given the hits and twisting tackles that he has been subjected to. 

[swnybillsfan]

6 hours ago, SoTier said:

The Bills aren't likely to win another game this season unless they luck out and play a team in a trap game situation after they (the Bills) embarrass themselves by making another mediocre team look like Super Bowl contenders ... or unless they play another game in a snowstorm.

i think they will get a couple more wins. the vikings game showed us that they are capable of playing a damn good game if everything goes right. the other three games have shown us that our margin for error is miniscule. i am just hoping to see flashes and growth.

[GreggTX]

The Pegulas wrote off the next couple of years back when they decided to dump Rex and Whaley and rebuild the entire organization from top to bottom. From Brandon to the punter. Amazingly, some people still don't get it . They're all whining because they aren't winning now just like they were whining for a rebuild 2 years ago. Get over it. I'm getting tired of reading this crap. We'll have a TON of cap space in 2019 and 3 high draft picks for a 2nd and even bigger influx of talent. All according to plan.

[TSOL]

Im expecting that by 2020 we will be in position to get  back to one of those 7-9, 8-8 or dare I say, 9-7 seasons  

[Jerome007]

10 hours ago, RussellDopeland said:

Composed Thoughts? 

I think Peterman compares favorably to Drew Brees.

Peterman is a pox on humanity!

Allen looks terrible; we should've drafted Rosen!

Allen is gonna be a superstar!

Allen is a fawn in headlights.

Edmunds looks lost.

Edmunds is the next Wilber Marshall.

Benjamin is healthy and should have a breakout game this week.

Benjamin is fat, lazy, and with hands of stone!

Vonate Davis is an upgrade over EJ Gaines.

Burn in hell, Vontae Davis!!

McDermott is the coach who ended the drought- he's the perfect elixir for the franchise.

FIRE MCDERMOTT!!!

Mahomes...blah, blah, blah....Mahomes....blah, blah, blah.....

 

 

9 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

That's actually an apt summation of the last 6 weeks on this board.

 

It sure is ha ha

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 hours ago, PlayoffsPlease said:

This is directly a result of never having open WRs

 

You don't watch a lot of all-22 do you

[KD in CA]

44 minutes ago, GreggTX said:

The Pegulas wrote off the next couple of years back when they decided to dump Rex and Whaley and rebuild the entire organization from top to bottom. From Brandon to the punter. Amazingly, some people still don't get it . They're all whining because they aren't winning now just like they were whining for a rebuild 2 years ago. Get over it. I'm getting tired of reading this crap. We'll have a TON of cap space in 2019 and 3 high draft picks for a 2nd and even bigger influx of talent. All according to plan.

 

But I don't wanna wait for the plan!!!  I wanna be 7-9 NOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!   ?

[PlayoffsPlease]

7 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

You don't watch a lot of all-22 do you

I do.  Never is always an exaggeration.  But Allen completes quite a few passes when the WR's are open , before the line collapses.   I think his percentage of good passes (can't do much about drops) when the WR's are open (reasonable NFL window) and the line Oline protects, is up to snuff by NFL standards. 

[Ayjent]

On 10/1/2018 at 6:52 PM, John from Riverside said:

Except for last year

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

 

Of course its the rookie qb

 

Give it up

The other guy is much worse and I don't think there is anything to debate there.  Honestly, they could find another guy that currently unsigned or on a practice squad to be a better No. 2 option in case Allen is struggling too much or gets injured.  No one should want to see Peterman taking regular season snaps in a meaningful game. 

 

I don't think that they will pull the plug on Allen if he is struggling, because that isn't exactly a confidence builder.  I see some traits that I'm not sure are that easy to coach out of some one.  The main thing that bothers me about Allen is his pocket presence, including how long he holds the ball.  His pocket presence is skittish and I've yet to see a QB prospect go from skittish to smooth in the pocket - the only guy that looked somewhat skittish and made good that I can think of is Rodgers, but he was nowhere near Allen's level of skittishness).  That is really a natural feel thing because it is an instictive trait on what to do when danger arises to a large degree - sure you can work on getting the ball out with rhythm and getting better at reading defenses to overcome it, but defenses will sometimes confuse and then that's when these traits show up again.  I was a little disappointed in the way he was so flustered and struggled to bounce back from what happened earlier, he didn't show much composure in forgetting the past and doing the best he could from that point on.  However, the entire Offense looked that way so I won't put that all on Allen, but he does get the most touches on the ball and the offensive action goes through him so he has the biggest impact on the Offense.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Ayjent

[Wayne Arnold]

20 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

He is. He should be on the bench and learning from the sidelines as a veteran starts and shows him the ropes this year.

 

That plan went to **** when they traded Tyrod, signed McCarron and then dumped him for steady Eddie. Good call McBeane.??

 

It’s all part of their master plan! #TrustTheProcess

[CodeMonkey]

The Bills are pretty much where I thought they would be.  Except that I was hoping Allen wouldn't have been put in before now.

[row_33]

1-3 was expected (6-10 is my usual pick for 20 years)

 

i would not have guessed which one they won....

 

1-3 should be par for each quarter of the season schedule

 

 

 

 

[KD in CA]

I'm a Bills fan, what are 'composed thoughts'?

[DCOrange]

Just some thoughts in no particular order:

• The season is basically going as I expected it too, though the win over the Vikings was surprising to me. The defense was worse than I expected to start the season but appears to be settling in the past couple weeks. I still think it likely shakes out as an average defense by the end of the year, which paired with the putrid offense, should put Buffalo firmly in the discussion of a top 5 pick.
• I'm pretty pleased with the flashes of good play that we've seen from Tremaine Edmunds. He's been inconsistent, and at times, an outright liability, but I think that was more or less to be expected given how young and raw he still is. I think a lot of people were placing unfair expectations on him coming into the season; it's okay that he's likely a downgrade from Preston Brown in the short-term.
• I'm a little disappointed with the play of Josh Allen to be honest. I've been high on him for two years now, and I knew he had some flaws that would likely be present once he hit the field, but I was hoping to see more progress out of him than I've seen to this point. He still has the same mechanical issues throwing to his left that he had in Wyoming and doesn't appear to have made many strides overall. I still believe that with his toughness, desire, and physical tools, he'll ultimately develop into a very good QB, but I was hoping for more than I've seen so far.
• The offense in general is so incredibly devoid of talent right now. Kelvin Benjamin seems to have gotten worse as he's gotten healthy for some reason. Zay Jones continues to be a pretty terrible football player. The other WRs have been as bad as one would expect. The offensive line has probably been slightly better than I expected to be honest, but is still quite bad. Chris Ivory has definitely been better than I expected him to be, but I still think it was a pretty poor move given his contract and given how deep the rookie class was this year. I also still desperately want this team to acquire a receiving threat out of the backfield. Guys like Nyheim Hines were there for the taking but for whatever reason, the Bills don't seem to value having playmakers out of the backfield. Needless to say this side of the ball needs a massive infusion of talent in the offseason. Unfortunately, there aren't really any top-notch free agents to be unless they decide to release McCoy and bring in a new highly-paid RB like LeVeon Bell. To me, the plan for the WR position has to be to acquire two veterans and then also draft a WR early. Something like Randall Cobb, Chris Conley, and N'Keal Harry would be great IMO. I also like Tyre Brady as a Day 3 sleeper candidate.
• I still question Brandon Beane's ability to properly utilize the assets that he's helped to create, but I think we pretty much have to give him the shot. Buffalo hired him knowing that this was always the plan so I don't really see a good reason to deviate from that now.

[HansLanda]

Composed thoughts: The entire front office knew this was a rebuilding season. The Pegulas are giving McBeane time. In an interview, Beane said during his interview with the Pegs that he laid out how he would address the short and long term. From salary cap to getting foundational players. Sticking to his word at this point.

 

Either way, everyone gets fired after 2020 season if Allen flames out; 2030 if he doesn't (or if they find some late round gold).

 

I just hope Allen's best NFL career highlight IS NOT him jumping over Barr. 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

I see the defense getting better every week and playing at a high level by week 8. Allen's development will be impossible to judge because of how poor the O-Line and WR's are. 

 

I really want want to see this offense play with more intensity. If everyone played with the intensity that Allen played the Viking with this offense might have a few good weeks, just a few as in 3. 

I also feel like the Bills opened up the full playbook to Allen and he was not ready for it. Like the Bears did with Trubiski they need to cut the playbook in half and let Allen play to his strengths.