Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘In the final NFL rankings, it looks like it had a tremendous year as Buffalo ranked No. 1 in fewest passing yards allowed, No. 2 in total yards allowed, fourth in first downs allowed, and eighth in third-down defense. But, as we all know, points are what matter, and the Bills ranked 18th in that category, one of the main reasons being that they were terrible in the red zone as teams scored a touchdown 70.8 percent of the time they drove inside the 20, third-worst in the league.’

‘Allen knows that with $90-million in cap space and 10 draft picks, GM Brandon Beane will be making over the roster like an episode of Flip or Flop. He hears everyone saying, “You need more talent around you.’’ But his response? “I love the guys we got. I care about all of our guys,’’ Allen said. He knows change is inevitable in the Not For Long league. But it’s nice when a guy doesn’t throw his teammates, even soon-to-be ex-teammates, under the bus. Leadership doesn’t take time off.’

‘“There are times when we didn’t play well enough on special teams and we’ll dive deeper into that as we get into our evaluation in the next couple days here,” he said, which, when reading between the lines, wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement for Crossman.’

‘”He’s come a long way,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “I think everybody forgets, especially if you’re around him all the time because he’s so big, that he’s 20 (years old). He’s still growing into his body, believe it or not. But mentally, this was a big step. A lot was asked of him that was not asked at Virginia Tech. For all that was thrown at him, I thought he really progressed.”’

‘When McDermott was asked about the play of the line during his season-ending press conference Monday, he said, “There were sometimes in the game, in particular yesterday (against Miami), where I thought we played well. There were some other times throughout the season where I didn’t think we played well enough. We were out of sync up front. As you’ve heard me say before, the game is won or lost up front. We did a good job in winning the line of scrimmage on both sides yesterday, but not enough throughout the season, in particular, on the offensive side. That’s an area that we have to look hard at this off-season.”’

‘It was no secret that the three position groups that performed the poorest this season were the offensive line, the wide receivers, and special teams, so these moves don’t come as a surprise.’

‘Allen accounted for five touchdowns in the victory, passing for three and rushing for two. He completed 17 of 26 passes for 224 yards and carried the ball nine times for 95 yards while becoming the first Bills quarterback since Jim Kelly in 1991 to account for five touchdowns in a game.’

‘If I were running the show, I would hit free agency hard in the search for offensive line replacements. Josh Allen is already in place, so the Bills need to surround him with linemen who can immediately start and raise the level of play way above where it was in 2018. Drafting someone means a learning curve, so fill two or three spots, if possible, in free agency.’

‘“In the context of where we’re trying to go, yes,” McDermott admitted. “I’m not a good loser in terms of 6-10. That keeps me up at night and wakes me up awful early. But where we’re trying to go, and what I’ve been around in this process, once in Philadelphia and once in Carolina, and what it takes to get the organization where we’re trying to go, I feel like there’s been some small wins — albeit not on the scoreboard enough — that has us going in the right direction.”’

‘“It’s all about coming up with something that makes sense and is fair, and it’s hard to do because I’ll be 36 next year,” said Alexander. “If I was 26 or 27, it’s a clear-cut multimillion-dollar deal. But what do you do for a 36-year-old? From their perspective, they’re trying to guard themselves. Is he going to get hurt, when will he slow down? From my perspective I haven’t shown any signs, so there’s a natural collision there where we have opposing views of something. That’s natural anytime you’re negotiating. So we’ll try to find something fair and if we both agree upon it, it’ll happen.”’

‘“Obviously very excited about it,” Anderson said as he and his teammates cleaned out their lockers and bid farewell for the offseason. “Been talking with them over the last few weeks, but the decision is one I’m very happy with. I enjoy it here, my family got to come out, and that was a huge part of it. So, the kids will enjoy a little bit of snow next year.”’

‘Since he joined the Bills as a fifth-round draft choice in 2006, the team compiled a gruesome record of 76-120 and appeared in just one postseason game, which it lost last January in Jacksonville. Through all the losing, Williams just plugged away on every snap he played, always doing his job no matter what the scoreboard said.’

‘In other words, he played the way most rookie quarterbacks play, especially those who wind up on sub-par teams that lack enough talent to enable the player to succeed. After all, not everyone gets to be Russell Wilson landing with the Seahawks, or Ben Roethlisberger going to the Steelers, and enjoying immediate individual and team success as rookies.’

‘Clay, who has one year left on his contract, has endured a miserable season and he finished with just 21 catches for 184 yards and no touchdowns. In his first three years with the Bills, Clay averaged 52 receptions with a high of 57 in 2016, and his best yardage season was 558 yards in 2017, even though he missed three games due to injury.’

‘Williams’ years in Buffalo weren’t so much a career as a beautiful marriage between a hard-working, humble, tough-as-boot-leather kid from Louisiana and a blue-collar city in western New York.’