Alphadawg7

Someone I know who has been plugged in before told me barring some sort of abrupt change or breakout to expect the Bills to trade Keon this offseason. From the outside looking in, that obviously seems like a very plausible scenario regardless of what anyone hears. But he has been hearing this going back to before the healthy scratch game that the Bills are not seeing what they expect out of him and without a big turnaround are looking to move on. My personal opinion on what is going on with him is a combo of his offseason praise and hype from teammates, coaches and FO combined with his big 4th quarter game week 1 set a level of expectations of what he just expected his role and season would look like this year. And when he isn't seeing that, his motivation, effort, and focus diminish as he isn't happy with his role and wants to be a bigger part of the offensive game plan. And honestly, we saw it last year too after he got back from injury and his role wasn't the same between the offense rolling while he was out and Cooper taking snaps too. He looked like a different guy completely before injury that had him on a 1000 yard season pace the 5 games prior to injury. But when he came back, he wasn't close to the same player even though the type of injury he had wasn't one to linger or keep affecting his play. Poor effort, motivation, and/or focus is one of the fastest ways to get yourself cut or traded in the NFL, specially with this regime. Someone needs to get to Keon to help get his head on straight and fast or I can't see him on this team next year.

Someone I know who has been plugged in before told me barring some sort of abrupt change or breakout to expect the Bills to trade Keon this offseason. From the outside looking in, that obviously seems like a very plausible scenario regardless of what anyone hears. But he has been hearing this going back to before the healthy scratch game that the Bills are not seeing what they expect out of him and without a big turnaround are looking to move on. Him and I were talking and we both think the issue is a combo of his offseason praise and hype from teammates, coaches and FO combined with his big 4th quarter game week 1 set a level of expectations of what his role and season would look like this year. And when he isn't seeing that, his motivation, effort, and focus diminish. And honestly, we saw it last year too after he got back from injury and his role wasn't the same between the offense rolling while he was out and Cooper taking snaps too. He looked like a different guy completely before injury that had him on a 1000 yard season pace the 5 games prior to injury. Poor effort, motivation, and/or focus is one of the fastest ways to get yourself cut or traded in the NFL, specially with this regime. Someone needs to get to Keon to help get his head on straight and fast or I can't see him on this team next year.

I came here to say this too. He looked like he was running at half speed every play as if he was trying to make the DB slow down and then try and run by him or something. I don’t know what it was, but he looked like he was jogging out there. My hope for Keon is starting to fade with each passing week. I still feel there’s been missed opportunities to get him the ball, poorly placed throws on some of those back shoulder or 50/50 tosses, and a lot of misuse by Brady. But effort is all on him, and he of can’t find a way to play harder, play faster, and smarter when he is out there, he won’t be here next year, at least he shouldn’t be.

I’m torn to be honest - Knox is a good TE and Hawes is an elite blocker and been usable as a pass catcher too. Knox issue is he doesn’t start and is used more as a blocker now with Kincaid on the roster. I don’t know we miss a lot running Knox and Hawes than by running Kincaid and Knox. Kincaid is the superior pass catcher no doubt of the 3, but I don’t know if we need to spend the money when we still have 2 other good TEs who stay healthier. So for me, I voted extend on the cheap because I think that is what will happen. BUT my personal take is show us what you have the rest of this year. We are still waiting for Kincaid to become a critical weapon the way Kelce, Gates, Graham, Gronk, Gonzalez, Sharp, etc were at times for their teams. Kincaid makes some nice plays here and there, but he’s never been some force the other team struggles to stop really like other actual key weapon TEs have been in the past and like how he was supposed to be used here.

Exactly, and look I love Allen as much as anyone, but one area he has really struggled with this year overall is ball placement and touch. Too many times he throwing passes on a line instead with the arc and touch to get over defenders on what would be big gains, even TDs on better thrown passes. And on those 50/50 ones you are spot on, he’s doing the same thing there too often. Keon doesn’t get a pass, I feel like on some of throws Keon didn’t play the ball well either - in fact at times it’s like he doesn’t understand it’s meant to be a back shoulder pass and keeps running downfield allowing the defender to stay engaged to defend rather than realize he needs to come back at the ball and box out the defender from the pass. But many have just been poorly placed or bad trajectory by Allen from the get go too.

That is the real big difference right now IMO is that this iteration of the WR room doesn’t seem to be able to do much on the scramble drill when Allen buys time. It’s such a big part of Allen’s game too, and I think it’s a big part of what the staff is unhappy with about Keons effort consistency, like he doesn’t seem to really push himself in those moments.

This is a fair take and I agree with your core point for sure. I do still think there are more opportunities to get Keon the ball that we either haven't taken or we just are not using him in a way to do so. I want to see more slants, comebacks crossers, etc. I will also say this, many of the passes Allen attempted to get to Keon on those back shoulder throws or "50/50" balls have been poorly thrown and put in places that greatly reduced the chances to complete. Allen often throws them with the wrong trajectory, puts in a harder to catch spot, or in a place where the defender can easily disrupt or defend. So if we are going to run those back shoulder or 50/50 balls as often as they have tried to do them, then Allen, Brady, Keon, etc need to study how other tandems do it well and consistently. Like study Davante Adams both with Rodgers and Stafford for example. We as a whole have been trying to execute these poorly, and its both issues with Allen, the play design and Keon. We just do not execute these attempts with any consistency that will raise conversion probability. And I am not putting it all on Allen, plenty of times Keon also didn't do his part properly too. But its a collaborative failure between poorly thrown balls, poor play design, and poor execution by Keon.

Ah, was not aware of that, thanks for clearing that up

For the record, I do still expect to be in the playoffs. If was going to wager on if we do or don't, I would be betting we would. That being said, my confidence in this team is at maybe the lowest it has been since Allen reached elite level play. Unlike many others, the Steelers game really concerned me, that did not look like a playoff team offensively to me. Everyone is riding the spin and hype train because our ground game had such a good game, but we ran 2 plays essentially the whole time. TJ Watt even said he never seen anything like that, where a team kept running the same plays and the defense couldn't adjust and stop it. If you stop there, sure, that seems great, like Brady found a weakness and exploited it. On one level, that is essentially true. The bigger issue I have is that nothing else was working, the offense still struggled a lot in the passing game and any other type of offense outside those couple of run plays. So I didn't coming away feeling good about the offense as I don't think it actually looked good and we more got lucky the Steelers couldn't answer the call to those same couple of plays. Our defense looked great, but the Steelers offense was anemic and got worse in game losing Rodgers. Its hard to come away feeling like this is what we can expect more of given all the season long issues the defense has had, not to mention losing Bosa now too for some period of time. If not for the reeling Steelers offense, we might have been down 3 scores by halftime against another opponent between the turnovers and how bad the offense played. This is honestly the first time in the Allen era where I don't have confidence in this team going on a run down the stretch. I am not saying we can't, but in seasons past I have gone on record we would win out and we did. This year, feels like it can go either way any given week right now, no matter the opponent. Brings me back to where I said I was last week - I am in the mindset that as of now, everyone is fired, full regime change - BUT they all have 1 shot to win their jobs back, and that is find a way to win the SB this year. If not, its time for a sweeping change.

Imagine if Cleveland just kept Baker lol

You have the Bills missing the playoffs?

DK’s contract is gross.

I have a hard time buying that the Bengals get in and the Colts or one of the other AFC teams don't. Especially given Bengals have to win out to even have a chance and they face Bills and Ravens next 2 weeks. Not to mention they were not winning before Burrow got hurt either. They need to win out and other teams need to nearly lose out for them to get in.

I had expected him to land with Ravens, Pats, Niners, or Chargers personally. But Broncos makes sense too, just thought those other teams could use the help more.

I’d probably keep only one - Bosa. But if it’s two; then the only 2 with any value are Bosa and Shaq. That being said, I’d be ok with None too.

Well it certainly helps your pass defense statistics when your run defense is so bad that my 94 year old Grandma can go for 70+ yards and a Tuddy. That being said, its also not a surprise, we usually fare pretty well in pass defense statistics every year - atl least until we play Andy Reid in the playoffs and McD and his Defense who seem to have no answers for the Chiefs offense even when their offense is having a down year.

Yeah, I am not saying we can't - and I certainly hope we do. But this is more about my confidence in if we will. I have in the past seen things out of this team after mid season slumps to where I have gone on the record with a thread predicting we would win out, and we did every single time. This year though, something is off with this team. Just feels like there is less fire and fight in this team than years past. Allen seems off still - he looks less decisive, slower to evade and escape, less explosive with his legs, etc. The team was completely anemic the first half of football, I was at the point of ready to clean house at half time, especially with how defeated McD sounded being interviewed as he left for half time. As far as injuries go, I agree if we get some of those guys back we could see a boost. But, at the same time, many of the issues were there when those guys were not hurt too. I also think our biggest loss was Hoecht who is out for the season. And will the coaching staff have the balls to play the guys playing better when everyone is healthy, like Shaq for example at LB. Rooting for a win out and strong playoff run for sure -I just lack the high confidence this year that I have had in previous seasons at key turning points. Now we go out and look good and beat the Bengals I will start feeling a little better about it.

Can we? Yes of course, and we have done it multiple times before. Did Sunday's game boost my confidence in them doing that this year, no it did not. The team I watched on Sunday did not look like a team that I would be comfortable wagering on to win out. The offense was atrocious first half and then found some life only because we kept running the same running play over and over again with success, TJ Watt literally said he never seen anything like that before. Outside the same running plays over and over again, the rest of the offense did not look good again. And while the defense was dominant, beating up on a bad Steeler offense doesn't suddenly make me forget all the issues the defense has had all year to where I think this is what we can expect week to week. To again answer the title of this thread - Yes, the Bills certainly can, and have done it before. But - my confidence in them being able to do it isn't as high as its been in the past when facing this potential. The team has been so Jeckyl and Hyde this season that its hard to know what we can expect week to week. Four things concern me still right now: Brady's predictability Too many turnovers Undisciplined mistakes Defensive consistency I hope they use this game to go on a run, and Bengals will certainly immediately test that. But, I would be lying if I said I was highly confident in us doing it this year.

Super stoked we won - but taking off homer glasses and being unbiased, the team I watched play on Sunday didn't look like a team that can win out. 2 things happened that game that are pretty hard for me to come away feeling confident about on a weekly basis. How the offense produced - The offense greatly benefited from the Steelers offense being so bad and not capitalizing on all our mistakes and turnovers. But the more concerning thing for me was that the only way we could move the ball effectively was to keep running the same run play over and over again. Even TJ Watt said he had never seen anything like that where a team kept running the same play and they couldn't adjust or stop it. The rest of the offense was pretty bad again outside the success we kept having running the same runs over and over again. So I did not come away from this game feeling better about the offense personally. I still have a lot of concerns about Brady, I mean the first half was atrocious again, we were just lucky Steelers couldn't capitalize more. Our defense was dominant - great to see, but nothing about this defense overall this year makes me feel like what we saw on Sunday is something they can expect week in and week out. I hope they do, but after the season the defense has had, I can't just suddenly expect to see this kind of performance week to week and against better teams. So for me, I need to see the defense string together a series of games before I start buying maybe its figured something out. A win is a win, so very happy we beat the Steelers. But I would be lying if that game boosted my confidence back up. I hope they build on it for sure, but I didn't leave that game feeling like we turned a corner and about to go on a tear. We very well might, not saying we can't as we have done it before, but just saying how I felt after watching that game and what this team has looked like the past 8 weeks that resulted in a 4-4 record.

I mean you pretty much loaded up the answers here to get what you want. Not really a fair selection of choices so I will refrain from voting.

Maybe I am misremembering, but I don't recall them making any credible offers to him. I could be wrong, but they should have tried harder.

It was insane they didn’t try and keep Darnold IMO. I get it if someone out bids them, but they didn’t even try and banked on an unproven rookie coming off injury with no contingency.

No offense, but you don’t really leave any room for anyone else to get any credit when they do something by talking like this. He got open, he caught the ball. The thing you and everyone else says every day he can’t do. I don’t know what Coleman can be, but I know what he has been has not been good enough so far. So I’m not here to make excuses for him. But at the same time, it’s such a waste of energy to spend so much time trying to take away from him anything he does positive like you’re attempting to do here. It’s fine to still doubt him, not have confidence in him, etc. It’s another thing to go out of the way to discredit anything positive he does just to maintain that opinion. He made a big play in a big moment when this team really needed it. Just let the kid have that, why try and take that away, makes no sense. Let’s just hope he builds on it, hope Brady finds better ways to get him involved…because we will be a better football team if that happens. And who knows, maybe it’s more of the same issues moving forward that got him benched, if so, he probably won’t be on the team next year. But at least leave room for the kid to prove he has value to the team.

Don’t lump me into the crowd that thought Moore was going to be some impact player here, cuz I’m not. But Moore provided more downfield potential than Samuel does as at least a threats. Instead he was treated like he was McKenzie, and Samuel isn’t being used like he was in Carolina either. In 5 seasons between CAR and WAS when he was starting and healthy, Samuel averaged 796 yards a season. Including as you said his best one with Brady. But we just aren’t using him much either despite Brady’s familiarity with him and his time in the offense. Point was, dividing snaps between Samuel and Moore was stupid, pick one and get them involved more. I don’t even care which one, I just felt Moore had more of a threat downfield at this point than Samuel. I hope they use Cooks now more than Samuel for same reason - but we all know it’s not gonna happen.

To simplify the Moore stuff - he wanted more targets, an effort to get him involved rather than the tiny role he had. Not unexpected, it’s the issue with Brady’s offense and I had been saying for weeks stop trying to get every guy on the bench involved, especially splitting reps between Moore and Samuel, pick one and get that guy more involved in the offense. And that guy should have been Moore over Samuel.