Having had a lovely time yesterday at the Bills game with Pax, Lux, Melissa, and our friend David, it is time for my yearly Buffalo Bills season prediction blog. The misery is never quite the same twice.
QBs-Tyrod Taylor, bless his heart, will be best quarterback we've seen since Drew Bledsoe...while he's healthy. In the 8-9 games he actually plays he will make thrilling runs, throw well-touched long balls, and generally do lots of winning. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a bunch of games in which EJ Manuel is going to be in charge of the fourth quarter. I think this will be EJ's best year yet. That still won't be very good, though, and he isn't going to be retained at the end of the season. His stats will look okay and he'll have played enough decent football to get a contract somewhere else, but we'll all remember him in terms of "if only he hadn't taken all those sacks at the end of the Jets game..."
RBs-LeSean McCoy will also struggle to stay healthy, but I think this is his smartest year of running in Buffalo. He will follow blocks and choose correct lanes, and he has at least another year of 4.5 yards per carry in him in a Greg Roman system. Either Jonathan Williams or Gilislee will get publicly berated by the coach for fumbles. Karlos Williams will get picked up by the Pats and then cut a few weeks later for oversleeping.
WRs-Sammy Watkins' legacy of the 2016 season is going to be making some pivotal catch/no-catch that ends up being called "the Sammy Watkins play." Whenever it's shown on TV people will talk about what a talent he is, "despite playing in Buffalo." Whoever plays WR3 probably won't make the team the year after. Sammy will have way better numbers when Tyrod is in than when EJ is playing, and the yardage totals will be as follows--1) Sammy, 2) Clay 3) McCoy 4) Woods, although Woods might be the second most important member of the receiving corps because of his blocking.
OL-Cordy Glenn will again be quietly dominant. Rex will trade away a draft pick at some point in the season to acquire a former Jet who isn't very good. People will start to talk about the end of Eric Wood's career. John Miller will take a big step forward, and the OL will probably be the best part of the offense. (Especially when Tyrod's in.)
DL-The defense will briefly be better without Dareus than with him, whenever he comes back, and conditioning issues will probably mean that he spends some time on the injury report also. Somebody like Douzable will probably be the name you hear most often for the first couple weeks, and Jerry Hughes will have 9 sacks, leading the team.
LB-Possibly a hot mess outside of Preston Brown, who I really like. Look for guys named Lorenzo Alexander and Randell Johnson to be in trouble attempting to cover Rob Gronkowski, even if Brady is out.
DB-Stephon Gilmore will have more interceptions but fewer shut-out games. Darby will sophomore slump, but Robey-Coleman will have a great year. Look for Corey Graham to be particularly awesome. Lots of up and down with this group--either a complete shutdown of the opposing offense or getting torched for 300.
Special Teams-Carpenter will miss at least three extra points, but have a much better year with field goals. Schmidt will punt a lot.
Coaches-Around election season Rex will say something about Trump that grabs national headlines.
General Outlook: 8-8, 3rd in AFC East to a tie-break with NYJ. The drought continues.
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