Alphadawg7

I will add his effort has looked like this in non-snow games too. It wasn't unique to this game, albeit, this game it stood out a lot more. But the scramble drill thing should be where he excels with Allen and you can see on the tape the effort just isn't there. He looks like he is just watching to see what happens and doesn't seem to really react unless he sees Josh look at him or something but then its too late. The moment he sees Josh scrambling he needs to be working his way back into his vision and find a soft spot in the defense to get the ball. But he kind of stands there or slows from a run to a trot at end or top of his route while just seeing what happens. Its unacceptable effort and I think its a big part of what got him benched.

And that is certainly the risk with him. What happens if CeeDee dominates the touches, I am not convinced he will be the merry player he is trying to present himself to be right now either.

Its funny watching all these people rant about Keon being a bust when most of them were on their soap boxes on draft night screaming to draft someone else who is also a bust so far between Worthy, Legette, Adonai, Franklin, etc. Very few people were saying we should take Ladd, I know because I had him as WR5 behind BTJ and people kept arguing with me that it was one of those other guys. But, I never thought we would take Ladd with his natural position being the slot and that literally being the only WR position we had filled up. I was terrified Ladd was going to go to the Chiefs at end of the round, and pretty much expected it to be honest. But they moved up for Worthy and I was relieved it wasn't Ladd as I thought it was going to be Ladd when the trade was announced. Looking at the draft, the guy I thought they might take over a WR when we were on the clock, Cooper DeJean, is who we should have taken. I loved Cooper, and I figured our FO and Coaches would love Cooper with his versatility, so I legit thought he could be the pick at the top of the 2nd then go WR after. But I still figured WR was slightly more likely given the loss of our top 2 WR's in one offseason. And honestly, I would have gone WR too just given the need and having Allen. But man, Cooper looked so tempting sitting there and I have a redo, that is my pick, not Ladd.

I don't disagree with what you are saying, however, Coleman didn't have character concerns coming out, in fact, it was one of the things people loved about him. Everything about him seemed to show the drive to be great. So hard to pin that on the FO, I mean every year guys get drafted who don't have known character issues in college where their mental toughness in that way hadn't really been tested or had a chance to show. Unless they have gone through it already, it is really difficult to know is how they will react when not getting what they expect, not having the role they envision, etc when they may not have faced similar situations in college. I think Colemans big issue is he is passionate and emotional and he wears those emotions on his sleeve. And that can be a great thing or it can be an anchor on their career. Look at Pickens, he had similar issues in Pitt to what Coleman has IMO on the character and personality side of things. For the Steelers, they got rid of Pickens (despite the desperate need at WR) because of how poor his effort was when not getting the ball, the locker room and off field issues that plagued him when he was sulking about his role. It affected his play, his energy, his effort, etc. because he felt he should be a bigger part of the offense, he should be getting more targets, etc. Pickens himself said he was very immature and had to grow up in that category, and now look at what he is doing in Dallas. Of course its EASY for Pickens to say the right things now with him getting the ball so much which is what he wanted, so we don't know if he will revert back to his old ways if say his role diminishes there again. But right now, hes out there playing balls to the wall because he is getting rewarded on the field for it, and will be getting rewarded in his bank account now too over it. Coleman seems to be seriously struggling with his role right now, and I think his immaturity and emotions are impacting his consistent effort and play as a result. The tape doesn't lie, how he was playing end of that Ravens game is not the same film he is putting down right now, not even close. I am NOT making excuses for him, he needs to get past this crap or we need to move on, plain and simple. The potential to be a good football player IMHO is there for him still, but he hasn't learned how to be a pro yet. And if he doesn't figure that out fast, I think his train is on the fast track to derailing in Buffalo and will be gone this offseason.

And dont forget, to start the season, Worthy was their number 1 WR for the first 6 weeks too lol

You can’t come on here defending your team as a fan and then call out others for their own loyalties and thoughts on their own teams. For example, anyone watching the first Pats vs Bills game knows that the Bills beat themselves a lot more than the Pats beat the Bills. I mean we lost to the Flacons for same reasons, and no one believes Falcons are better than Bills. Now you also have a Bills team full of critical injuries all year. Substantially worse than the Pats have gone through as well. The poster you are mocking for saying even if we drop a game again this week while still hurt and missing key players, he still thinks we have the advantage in the playoffs if we are healthy. Why can’t he believe that? Bills have proven to be a dominant team when healthy, Pats haven’t really been dominant and have also seen their record benefit from a relatively easy schedule. Pats are good and they are well coached and capitalized on Buffalo slipping up against lesser teams multiple times this year to take a cushy lead in the division. But come playoff time, which team has all the post season experience? Which team has the NFL MVP who has many all time NFL post season QB records already at only 30? I mean, come on, you are talking about Mayes first post season, only his 2nd season, and a roster that isn’t as talented overall when everyone on both sides is at full health. Pats are an up and coming team, but they are not battle tested in the post season yet, especially at QB. And their record is inflated with the ease of schedule, which doesn’t mean a lot other than whose stadium the game is in come playoff team. Everyone is 0-0 entering the playoffs. There is a reason it’s know as the 2nd season or the real season. I actually think Houston and that defense are a worse matchup for anyone in the AFC than the Pats who have the better record.

It was unreal throw and an incredible catch by Shakir too

I honestly don’t know but if I had to guess I would say probably not intentionally. I think he’s one of those people whose emotions show up in their work, wear them on his sleeve kind of guy. So if he is frustrated, down, disappointed, etc then it tends to show up on his tape and the field. That’s just me speculating though, just my opinion based on what we have seen thus far.

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.