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I wouldn’t hold my breath hoping these are the missing pieces

The weird thing is that the defensive identity and the offensive identity are opposites. On defense it's "prevent big plays, force the opponent to be efficient and mistake-free." On offense it's "be efficient and mistake-free, don't hunt big plays." In other words we've tried to build the exact style of offense that our defense is designed to force the opponent into. Very bizarre.

I was always in the "just get Josh a decent running game and we'll be unstoppable" group. But I hade these visions of a great running game, similar to what we have now, and this crazy play-action and attack-style passing game that just gave teams fits because no matter what you guess you're always wrong... I thought Brady would get there, but now... I don't think he's interested in all that. This is all general philosophy and strategy comments...But I feel like they are being dictated by the Defense more often than not. I feel like they go into games and don't take advantage of what teams give them. In the NE game he runs into base Defense 12 out of 14 times...In the Atlanta game... If he dials up one or two plays specifically to burn their blitz...and that's his job vs the team that blitzes most in the NFL...that takes Atlanta out of everything they want to do. But instead they looked surprised and unprepared. No sneaky screen plays with Cook or Ty... The TD pass to Davis showed how easy it was to get that D on a well designed play... there's just not enough of it... I don't know...

Seriously. We could have found multiple WR1's for 2025. BTJ was gettable. Pickens was available. DK was available (and for the same price we basically got when Diggs left) We could have traded Diggs, got a second, used that second to get Metcalf and still had a WR1. No Justin Jefferson required and basically a net zero transaction despite a gap year in 2024 where we had to eat his cash. Diggs was great in his time in Buffalo. Had the greatest 4 year stretch in franchise history by a WR. Maybe JJ would've been just as good, who knows? But trading for Diggs isn't the reason we don't have a WR1 today. He's just not.

"You see that guy right in front of you? Don't cover him!" I can see how it would be a transition period for most competitors.

Definitely dont watch any different views that might undo your brainwashing!

Just for the sake of argument since it's probably unlikely that they admit that they were deliberately juicing ... ... PED effects last a whole lot longer than a six-week suspension, or even six months (the time of signing, when their suspensions became known). https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/effects-performance-enhancing-drugs-may-last-decades/ https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/scientific-research/long-term-changes-human-skeletal-muscles-after-anabolic-steroid The world anti-doping administration suggests 2 year suspensions may therefore be too short if the goal is to take away any advantage gained from prior PED use. I was only half kidding when I said that Beane is trying to exploit a market inefficiency in signing players recently busted for PEDs ...

"Keep it close and hope Josh pulls a rabbit out in the end"

Confused

He picked Babich over Butler (who was the DB savant) and chose wrong.

Is the bills defense really that difficult to learn that it takes this long for a rookie to get up to speed... and if it is what are they doing it's not working? ( I'm also not buying that the injury is so bad that he's been out this long they pulled him for other reasons is my guess)

I saw that. It was good, slightly syrupy though! John would have loved some on his pancake stack. I usually hate it when they turn a dead famous person into a saint but I've never heard a single person in Hollywood who didn't say he was a great guy. I'd heard Conan's story about meeting him as a student before and it just shows how nice he treated people whether they were famous or not.

Our team philosophy is "protect our defense from being exposed at all costs." We don't want to get in shootouts where our defense could potentially look bad, even when we have the best QB in the league. So, we run a boring, clock chewing system on offense to limit both teams' possessions, despite that undermining our own ability to rack up points. We don't want the defense to have to step up in the face of adversity. So, potential turnovers are avoided at all costs, even if it shackles said QB and neuters his greatest gifts. We don't want our defense to ever feel undermanned. So, we dedicate the lion's share of our assets and draft capital and cap space to constantly re-tooling that side o the ball, while we ask said QB to run through linebackers in week 5 in order to generate offense because he's playing with Fisher-Price weapons.

" We didn’t need Justin Jefferson in 2020 to have a WR1 in 2025". Seriously? We lost a first round pick, gained a head case ( Then lost him a few years later for NOTHING) and are once again having the never-ending conversation that ANYONE with NFL knowledge is having. I have friends that follow other teams that constantly are asking me " Who is the #1 WR on Buffalo these days?". It's EMBARRASSING to be in this situation. Why do you think Josh has to put on his Superman cape! I'm starting to think that Beane is not only Josh's Kryptonite, he's the Francises as well!

They’re both legit NFL players, but they’re not real difference makers IMO. Can’t hurt, but not sure how much they’ll help.

Assuming they take the full 3 weeks to get him ramped up, that puts him on track for the Buccaneers game. I figure they take a week or two to give him a few series a game and assess where he's at. To me, his first start would be against the Steelers. With the Bengals the following week. Tough assignments but it's baptism by fire in the NFL.

I see it as the opposite of lackadaisical tbh We've decided to minimize what we do best in an attempt to make up for areas where we're deficient. It's zero margin for error football and the reason it feels like we're always one play away from tipping into mediocrity is because we basically are

Positive sign, I don't think this means much in terms of playing this week. Probably will want him to at least get the full 21 days of practice outside shot he plays against KC but even then do you want to throw him in the fire on a big stage when you can give him another week?

Rapp is the worst player on the field. I don’t what happened. Maybe he lost his mojo- he is nowhere the player he was last year. Get him off the field. Start Poyer if you have to. Sure better options would be nice, but Poyer is big improvement over Rapp imo.

Agree with your first bit, not so much the second bit. I'll break it down. "In 2022, we extended Diggs and had an ascending Davis (coming off his 4 TD KC game), but they needed a future Slot guy and the signed Crowder and drafted Shakir (who has been a big hit for them out of the 5th round)." 100% true. The corollary to the ascending Davis + Diggs extension meant that the clock was ticking on losing Davis almost assuredly after his rookie deal. Which was only 2 seasons away. And Diggs was extended well before the draft. This left us EXTREMELY top heavy at WR. We had Digg+Davis with a 2 year window and basically nothing behind them. Now, DURING 2022, we famously, desperately, brought back Beasley and Brown midseason to give the WR room more juice. This is the most damning piece of evidence that WR needed to be addressed. Our own GM was dumpster diving with former Buffalo players well past their era. It would be like if we brought back Jordan Poyer/Tre White this year and then didn't address the safety and CB positions in the draft next year. Unconscionable, but exactly what happened prior. "In 2023, Diggs was on his first year of his extension and Davis left some real question marks about his long term future as a WR2. They start looking for a Davis replacement in that draft, and they tried to trade up more than once and got rebuffed which led to a 4 pick WR run in front of us. They went with the best pass catching weapon on their board still in Kincaid." This is true, but there's other rounds besides round 1. Jayden Reed was a second rounder, Rashee Rice was a second rounder, Marvin Mims a second rounder, Tank Dell a third rounder, Josh Downs a third rounder, Tre Tucker a third rounder etc etc. Again, they know they likely aren't backing up the Brinks truck for Gabe Davis at this point. Shakir has proven nothing thus far. They are completely top heavy, again, and they bring in two jokers that are somehow worse than the corpses of Beasley and Brown in Harty and Sherfield. The train is coming down the tracks. We are 1 offseason away from our backs against the wall in terms of needing to basically nail a starting WR pick. Also minor point, but 2023 Diggs was not on the first year of his extension. He was extended with 2 seasons left. He didn't play a snap on his extension for the Buffalo Bills. "2024 - the Diggs relationship with the team deteriorated to the point that not only were they not going to pay Davis to stay, they had no choice but to eat $31M in dead cap for an "addition by substraction" move with Diggs. This resulted in the team unexpectedly needing to replace both WR1 and WR2 in the same offseason and in a draft where they were already missing a 3rd round pick, and had a lot of turnover on the defense too with cap cuts aging guys out. " So this was all pretty predictable. We knew guys would get old and need to be replaced, this happens for every team. Sure, the Diggs disaster was probably not expected BUT Diggs or no Diggs we put ourselves in a scenario where we needed a boundary WR desperately in the first 2-3 rounds. And post-Diggs, we needed 2. Brandon Beane, draft night, knows we need two starting WRs. We still only took one, and that after trading BACK for more picks to shore up the defense (and that pick was a disaster in Carter and Coleman ain't looking too hot right now.) As for the rest of your post, I agree he saw Allen make lemonade and basically rolled the dice he could do it twice. But he was and is wrong. He can't have it both ways, although he often gets it. He got to play the "we couldn't bring anyone in because Diggs was unexpected and was a massive cap hit" card for one year, then the next season when the books clear and we still have a Diggs-shaped hole on the roster, he gets to say we can't afford to pay big time WR's. The fact of the matter is that massive WR salaries are new, but not that new. 2022 and on had massive money being thrown towards superstar pass catchers. Part of the GM job is being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to restocking an expensive position group. We should have had 1-2 more Shakir-types who may not have been major contributors in year 1 but waiting in the wings preparing for life after Davis. Combine that with him consistently building maybe the thinnest WR unit in the NFL after Sanders retired. You say that WR wasn't a massive need early, but we had Diggs/Davis and basically nobody until 2023 when Shakir burst on the scene. What if Diggs or Davis got injured? We had nothing behind them. Josh Palmer just got hurt and I think Tyrell Shavers is next man up to start and play 70% of the snaps? With massive needs at WR the last 2 offseasons? That's criminal lol. There's a reason teams roster 5-6 WR's. The fact of the matter is that the Bills have been very proactive for other groups except WR. We have AJE/Bosa's, Ed Oliver's and Daquan Jones' and Matt Milano's potential replacements all on the roster already, they were all drafted before they needed to st art immediately. I do not agree that Beane was unable to apply that philosophy to WR over the last 4 seasons.

That fact he was 27 at the time and now almost 30 is the bigger difference. Bills fans want to move EVERYONE to safety. Tre White, Rasul Douglas, now Taron. Just get a Safety that can play Safety. He's not worth $11M at Safety next year either

I just watched the John Candy documentary over the weekend. Def a must watch if your a fan of the Candyman