1. Why OC Brian Daboll is encouraged for Josh Allen in his second season
In 2018, Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll finished his first season as an NFL offensive coordinator since 2012. Daboll had to work on developing Josh Allen while managing the Bills' offense as a whole. Needless to say, Daboll is encouraged for the future of the team.
Daboll sat down and spoke with Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic to discuss Allen's development and building an offensive identity for next season. One question asked was what he saw improve from the rookie quarterback over the course of the season.
"Everything. You get here in the spring and you get a playbook that looks like this (big). You have to do a good job as a coach of taking stuff out and making sure they understand the boulders and then working on the pebbles as you keep on going. But just his confidence, his ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage, his leadership, his physical fundamentals, footwork, drop mechanics, throwing mechanics, his read progressions, his decision-making. That's what you hope to get is to improve every week. You don't want ups and downs, you want steady progression."
Daboll gave Allen the ability to adjust plays at the line of scrimmage early on due to his study habits, his vision on the field and his understanding of the game. Part of that could have been the ability to work with veteran quarterbacks like Derek Anderson and Matt Barkley. The experience that they brought, Daboll compares to a coach learning from Bill Belichick. The group got along well together on and off the field and the lessons learned by Allen were invaluable.
Here's why Daboll thinks Bills fans should expect even better things from Allen this year.
"Learning a playbook is like learning a new language for the most part. You come from one system and go to the next. You call this formation this, but we call it this. You call this protection this, but we call it this. You have to learn. That takes time to learn, too, and then to apply all of the applications to it. At least we have a baseline to start from."
2. Jim Kelly surprises the UB basketball team
The University at Buffalo basketball team defeated the Ohio Bobcats by a resounding 47-point margin of victory on Tuesday. The Bulls won 114-67 and that could have been because of one special fan in attendance. Bills hall of famer Jim Kelly made the trip to Amherst to watch the No. 25 team in the nation play and even spoke to the team after the game.
"Nick (Perkins) has been my man. When you're a quarterback you always love the big guys," Kelly said about UB's 6-8 senior forward. "I was a high school hooper recruited to Indiana…University of Pennsylvania but our dream was to always take care of mom and dad. I know a lot of you guys want to make it to the next level and take care of the people you love. My dream came true, but it was because I worked my a** off to be the best."
Kelly is the second Bills hall of fame member to speak to the team this season, after Thurman Thomas spoke to them earlier.
3. Where does Buffalo rank among top football cities?
WalletHub released their rankings of best and worst cities for football fans across the country, comparing cities with at least one college or professional football team across 21 key metrics. Metrics range from number of teams to ticket prices to fan friendliness. Out of the over 240 cities ranked, Buffalo found itself at number 22.
Buffalo was ranked in between Baltimore and Tampa with a score of 37.22. The main draws of Buffalo include average ticket price per game and accessibility to the stadium where they rank at number two in each category. Among midsized cities, Buffalo finished fourth behind Green Bay, Glendale and Cincinnati.
The top five cities were Pittsburgh, Boston, Green Bay, Dallas and New York. Pittsburgh had the highest score with 63.49.
