WGR

‘There are a lot of reasons the Bills could re-sign Lawson. They have the money, he is only 25-years-old, he is coming off a career-high season with 6.5 sacks, and he is a favorite in the locker room. A lot of those same reasons are why many other teams may want to spend a lot on him too. Pass-rushers always get bigger contracts than maybe they should be valued at in the open market.’

‘McDermott will now begin searching for a replacement for Teerlinck. One in-house candidate could be Aaron Whitecotton, who served as the team’s assistant defensive line coach under Teerlinck for the past two years.’

‘I thought it was interesting that McDermott said that while he was with the Carolina Panthers, they let a few too many of their leaders get away one offseason, which hurt the locker room and the overall team’s growth. Both men have always made it a point to have at least one veteran leader in each position group room and want to make sure they continue to do that. With the retirement of Lorenzo Alexander, they want to make sure they don’t allow that leadership void to be an issue.’

‘Here is our first, and perhaps way too early Bills mock draft for the 2020 offseason…’

‘”I’m happy with the season I had,” Lawson said. “I had a career-year this year and it’s only up from here. Only have to get better.”‘

‘Of the 11 players signed to the reserve/future contracts, 10 of those players were on the practice squad, including players like wide receiver Nick Easley, cornerback Cam Lewis, wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III, quarterback Davis Webb and running back Christian Wade. The only player that was not brought back from the practice squad was offensive tackle Brandon Hitner.’

‘Defensive End Shaq Lawson, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March said he would like to come back to the Bills, but obviously that will be decided between the team and his agent. He said the team not picking up his fifth-year option last offseason gave him motivation to have a great year and he feels he put his best foot forward and played well.’

‘The two teams exchanged punts before Houston would end it. The Bills looked to have Watson in their grasps for another sack, but the Texans quarterback escaped and found former Bill Taiwan Jones for the pivotal play, as Jones took the ball down to the Buffalo 10-yard line. Ka’imi Fairburn would finish it off, as his 28 yard field goal gave the Texans the win and kept Buffalo from claiming their first playoff win in 25 years.’

‘On their lone possession in the overtime the Bills actually got as far as the Houston 43 yard line before that drive died. Dawson Knox whiffed on a block on QB sweep, Allen threw a ball too low for Cole Beasley to catch and then a questionable blindside block penalty on Cody Ford essentially killed the drive. You know what happened after that.’

‘It’s difficult for me to look at this as a failure on the part of the defense. Seven sacks of Deshaun Watson, a forced fumble on their All Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins after shutting him out the entire first half and several big stops on third down. But, it’s equally as difficult to ignore their failure on 3rd-and-18 in overtime that would have put the ball back in the hands of the offense then the subsequent missed tackle on Watson when they defense had him dead to rights, just to watch him squeak away to find a wide open Taiwan Jones. That play will replay in my nightmares.’

‘The Texans came into the game as the worst red zone defense in the NFL, but the Bills couldn’t capitalize when they were in close. They were only actually inside the Houston 20 twice, and scored the first time, but were also at the 22 twice and the 29 once and came away with a field goal each time after that, finishing with the one TD overall. Just one touchdown on one of those trips would have most likely won the game.’

‘”It would just be great for our entire organization, our fanbase. That’s the first people that I think about and everyone that’s been here for so long and everyone who’s rooted for this team for so long. It’s the most loyal and passionate fanbase I’ve ever been around, and I’ve been around some good ones. To me, for [general manager] Brandon [Beane] and myself, and I don’t want to put words into Brandon’s mouth here, but just joining the situation in the last two-and-a-half years, at this point, I would just feel and think about the people that have been around here for so long and feel good for them more than anything.”‘

‘The Texans defense has been bad this year against the run, but particularly the last two months. Since their bye in week 10, over their final 7 games, the Texans have allowed an average of 168.6 yards rushing and a whopping 5.36 yards per carry.’

‘For the Texans, head coach Bill O’Brien said star defensive end J.J. Watt will play “quite a bit,” but wide receiver Will Fuller will be a game-time decision. Fuller and four others were listed as questionable for the game.’

‘If someone like Allen can handle the pressure in the regular season, producing at the highest level of any quarterback in the fourth quarter (as he has)?’