If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
All: The new Billszone site with the updated software is scheduled to be turned on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. The company that built it, Dynascale, estimates a FOUR HOUR shut down, from 8pm Pacific, (5pm Eastern) while they get it up and running. Nobody will be able to post in any forum until they are done. Afterwards, you may need to do a web search for the site, as old links will not work, because the site is getting a new IP address. Please be patient. If there are bugs, we will tackle them one at a time. Remember the goal is to be up and running with no glitches by camp. Doing this now assures us of that, because it gives us all summer to get our ducks in a row. Thank you!
Re: So where do we stand after today's bloodletting?
This is the earliest ever that OPiV has ever made a "Is this the Worst Team of the Drought" type thread. Therefore, I fully expect the Bills will win the whole thing this year and then OPiV will start a is this the worst Superbowl Championship Team ever thread
- - - Updated - - -
and look up that is this worst team of the drought thread, it was a hoot. I'd enshrine it in the hall of fame, or spam. I'm torn on the issue actually.
Beane said yesterday that bringing back Tre and Hyde are still on the table.
and that would be a stupid thing to do, its clear that the defense isn't good enough with them so why go back to something that didn't work, use younger and players with upside...
and that would be a stupid thing to do, its clear that the defense isn't good enough with them so why go back to something that didn't work, use younger and players with upside...
I agree on 1 hand but if you can get them on the cheap than why not?
Bart Starr, 27, year 6.
Len Dawson, 27, year 6.
Johnny Unitas, 25, year 3.
Roger Staubach was 29, but only year 3 in the league.
Bob Griese was 28, but year 6 in the league.
Ken Stabler was 31, but year 6 in the league.
Terry Bradshaw, 26, year 5. Jim Plunkett was 33 and in year 9. Joe Montana, 25, year 3. Phil Simms was 31, and year 7.
Doug Williams was 32, and year 7.
Jeff Hostetler was 29, but year 5.
Mark Rypien was 29, but year 4. Steve Young was 33, year 10.
Troy Aikman was 27, year 4. John Elway was 37, year 15. ** Kurt Warner was 28, but year 2. Trent Dilfer was 28, year 7.
Brad Johnson was 34, year 8. Peyton Manning was 30, year 9. Drew Brees was 31, year 9.
Eli Manning was 26, year 4.
Joe Flacco was 28, but year 5.
Tom Brady was 24, year 2.
Nick Foles was 29, but year 6. Matt Stafford was 34, year 13.
Patrick Mahomes, 24, year 3.
So of the 27 quarterbacks listed, 17 (63%) had already won a league championship/Super Bowl before 28 years old or/and within their first 6 years in the league. Something Josh didn't do, obviously.
Of the remaining 10, seven (70%) won their title with a team other than the one that originally drafted them. I guess if you're rooting for Josh to win his first trophy with a different team he can still be on track.
Of the remaining three, Elway won two conference championships and played for a Lombardi in his first 6 years, something Josh didn't do, obviously.
That leaves Phil Simms and Peyton Manning as the only two quarterbacks in Super Bowl history that have accomplished what Josh needs to if we want him to win a Super Bowl for Buffalo.
Not impossible, but extremely rare.
Nice try in denying the undeniable.
It is irrelevant if ANY QB "had already won a league championship/Super Bowl before 28 years old or/and within their first 6 years in the league" in respect to the subject at and and the totally absurd premise Opi put forward that the Bills have "wasted Josh's prime".
The FACT is that an overwhelming percentage of Super Bowl winning QB's (not to mention all those that got to the SB but lost) were the same age as Josh or older...in close to half of them over 30 years old.
Winning a "league championship/Super Bowl before 28 years old or/and within their first 6 years in the league" does not make it more likely that a QB will do it again.
But that's not the point. The idea that Josh is "past his prime" is silly beyond measure and profoundly ignorantly DUMB!!
Re: So where do we stand after today's bloodletting?
Back to the subject at hand, and as Opi is whining about it not being about him (of course it is...but I digress) and that he "started this thread ABOUT THE STATE OF THE TEAM"
The lame idea that Opi is trying to foist on us is that the Bills have gotten WAAAAAAAY worse and our biggest competitors (in the AFC, that's all that matters to get to the SB) with the unmistakable suggestion have gotten WAAAAAAAY better.
I'm suspect that Opi saw this because he is one of the few that subscribe to the best sports site, The Athletic, but certainly will avoid bringing it up because it makes his premise look as foolish as it is.
Austin Mock presented an UNBIASED assessment of how much each team has improved or gotten worse after the start of free agency (his model is current up until March 20, 2024) by assigning an (again) unbiased numerical value to each team's gain and loss of players.....
There’s still plenty of time for teams to reinforce their rosters ahead of — and after — April’s NFL Draft, but with a majority of the big moves likely in the books, it got us wondering: Who’s had the best offseason so far? And who’s had the worst?
To help answer those questions, we turn to my NFL Projection Model. The primary purpose of this model is to project the outcomes of games, but the foundation of the model is built on evaluating players. Using different advanced metrics from TruMedia, Pro Football Focus and other sources, I can assign a value to every player in the NFL. How can this value be interpreted? Think of it as how much a player would affect the point spread of the expected winning percentage of a single game.
After assigning a value to every player, I went through every team transaction this offseason and calculated the value added or lost (up through March 20). Since I’m only looking at how this affects each team for the 2024 NFL season, this does not factor in length of contract or money spent on contracts. It’s also important to note that this process only assesses players who are changing teams. Players who have re-signed with their team aren’t included because that player’s value was already included in his team’s projection.
The table below shows how many points a team added or lost in the offseason. The best way to think about the values is like a team’s point differential. For example, the Chicago Bears had a minus-19 point differential last season. So far this offseason, they’ve added 26 points of value throughout a season, which would have them projected for a plus-7 point differential.
Here is his data...I highlighted the minus in red, and bolded the four best teams in the AFC for ease of reading for those that are too lazy to read the whole post....
ATL - 52.4
CHI - 26.2
PIT - 20.5
DET - 13.8
TEN - 9.5
CLE - 4.8
CAR - 4.2
TB - 3.8
MIA - 3.2
HOU - 2.7
JAX - 2.7
IND - 1.8
GB - 1
SEA - .9 BAL - .5
SF - -.8
LV - -.8 BUF - -1.1
NO - -2.4
NYJ - -2.6
LAR - -3.4
NE - -5.4 CIN - -5.7
NYG - -7.6
ARI - -9.7
WAS - -10.6
PHI - -11.1
LAC - -11.3
DAL - -12.8 KC - -15.8
DEN - -26.6
MIN - -41.7
Of course, changes in QB's have the biggest effect. Plus this is only a metric of the VALUE of change in players and not the relative quality of each team before those changes.
The most critical competitors the Bills (KC, Baltimore & Cincy) Buffalo is doing quite well in comparison, and overall, the quality of the Bills players they lost vs gained is pretty much close to a wash.
Baltimore and the Bills are pretty close in only a very slight reduction in quality of players.....BAL is minus .5 and Buffalo minus 1.1 points...both teams in the middle of all 32 teams (14 of which got a positive points change)
Cincy and KC, on the other hand, had significant downgrades of player quality changes especially when compared to the Bills.....Cincy is minus 5.7 and KC a whopping minus 15.6....third worst of all 32 teams.
In other words, Opi's hand wringing of THE SKY IS FALLING is mostly bullcrap, and shows his severe ANTI-BILLS bias that is undeniable and insufferable.
Yes, I started this thread ABOUT THE STATE OF THE TEAM, not about myself.
You make it about you when you throw out these "so-and-so got better while the Bills got worse" definitive statements. And you do it every year, get burned and still keep doing it.
and that would be a stupid thing to do, its clear that the defense isn't good enough with them so why go back to something that didn't work, use younger and players with upside...
Not necessarily. Tre missed all but the first 4 games and Hyde was a decent player for the Bills. The problem against the Chefs was missing (in addition to Milano who was lost early in the season) Bernard, Benford, Spector and Rapp.
It is irrelevant if ANY QB "had already won a league championship/Super Bowl before 28 years old or/and within their first 6 years in the league" in respect to the subject at and and the totally absurd premise Opi put forward that the Bills have "wasted Josh's prime".
The FACT is that an overwhelming percentage of Super Bowl winning QB's (not to mention all those that got to the SB but lost) were the same age as Josh or older...in close to half of them over 30 years old.
Winning a "league championship/Super Bowl before 28 years old or/and within their first 6 years in the league" does not make it more likely that a QB will do it again.
But that's not the point. The idea that Josh is "past his prime" is silly beyond measure and profoundly ignorantly DUMB!!
The facts I presented are undeniable.
If it's irrelevant that Josh is trying to accomplish something that only two quarterbacks have done in the entire history of the Super Bowl, then it's even more irrelevant what QB's have won championships at 28 years old or later.
But I agree, Josh isn't past his prime. Although at this point it appears we have seen his ceiling in 2020.
YardRat Wall of Fame #56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
If it's irrelevant that Josh is trying to accomplish something that only two quarterbacks have done in the entire history of the Super Bowl, then it's even more irrelevant what QB's have won championships at 28 years old or later.
But I agree, Josh isn't past his prime. Although at this point it appears we have seen his ceiling in 2020.
Please, we haven't seen his ceiling yet. And his prior ceiling would have been 2021. His performance towards the end of the season and playoffs was amazing.
Please, we haven't seen his ceiling yet. And his prior ceiling would have been 2021. His performance towards the end of the season and playoffs was amazing.
If he was as good this year as he was in '20, he would have walked off the field against KC with the lead again instead of throwing the ball to the wrong guy at the wrong time.
YardRat Wall of Fame #56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
Please, we haven't seen his ceiling yet. And his prior ceiling would have been 2021. His performance towards the end of the season and playoffs was amazing.
I agree that his ceiling hasn’t been reached. His remaining growth is between his ears. There’s no guarantee that that growth will ever happen unfortunately…but if it does and it finally clicks for him we’ll be bringing home 2-3 chips not just one.
If he was as good this year as he was in '20, he would have walked off the field against KC with the lead again instead of throwing the ball to the wrong guy at the wrong time.
Right. Let's say Diggs scores on that play (not even close to a sure thing). That leaves the Chefs with ~1:50 and 2 TOs. You remember what happened in 2021 with 13 seconds and 2 TOs, right?
I agree that his ceiling hasn’t been reached. His remaining growth is between his ears. There’s no guarantee that that growth will ever happen unfortunately…but if it does and it finally clicks for him we’ll be bringing home 2-3 chips not just one.
Right. Let's say Diggs scores on that play (not even close to a sure thing). That leaves the Chefs with ~1:50 and 2 TOs. You remember what happened in 2021 with 13 seconds and 2 TOs, right?
- - - Updated - - -
Give him a good OC. Then we can talk.
OC aside most of his glaring mistakes haven’t been due to scheme or receivers running bad routes or etc, they’ve been due to stupid decisions that he made. He alone needs to recognize that, take accountability and work diligently to greatly reduce them (he’s human so he’ll make mistakes, he just can’t continue to make them in the volume that he has been if the team is to progress).
Right. Let's say Diggs scores on that play (not even close to a sure thing). That leaves the Chefs with ~1:50 and 2 TOs. You remember what happened in 2021 with 13 seconds and 2 TOs, right?
- - - Updated - - -
Give him a good OC. Then we can talk.
I don't think anybody would expect Diggs to score on that play. Get the first, extend the drive, kill clock. It was the right throw at the time, not the wrong one, and that's the point. Also why I stated leave with the lead, not necessarily the win.
Josh underperforms and it's Daboll's fault. Then Dorsey. Now Brady. There's a common denominator here and it isn't the OC.
YardRat Wall of Fame #56 DARRYL TALLEY #29 DERRICK BURROUGHS#22 FRED JACKSON #95 KYLE WILLIAMS
Comment