Thurman#1

It's not critical to have a great TE/RB combo. It's sure nice, but it's not critical. Look at Tampa. Fournette has managed 3.7 YPC this year. Ronald Jones is better, but not great by any means. KC has them now but who did they have at RB last year when they won the Super Bowl? Damien Williams and a tired LeSean McCoy. Both teams had excellent TE talent. That's clear. But you don't need better than a solid RB. History shows that. It would be nice to get a really good RB, but it's not necessary. More important would be to build the OL so they can make a solid running back look good.

Think also how expensive it would be and how we have little money. Robinson's great but we're unlikely to be able to afford big-ticket FAs this year.

While I would absolutely love Hunter Henry, the odds on that happening with our current cap situation are very very not good. We'll see, I guess, but IMO we will either draft somebody or wait a year. Or both.

In fact, it did. As Buscaglia pointed out, our lack of any run threat allowed the Chiefs D to use 6 DBs for most of the game. That will make it harder for any passing attack to be successful. So, yes, that "3" in the 36-3 may well have had something to do with the exposure of how little of a run game threat we showed.

Kamara was a 3rd rounder. If they can get someone like him there, I'd be thrilled. IMO, TE is the bigger need, though. I don't see us affording Drake this year, myself. $8M for one year last year. The demand will be down with many teams in cap trouble, so salaries will drop but my guess is that he still gets somewhere in the $5M neighborhood and I don't see us being able to be in the running this year. We're likely to have Star himself, though nobody can be sure he won't opt out again. I don't see us trying to replace him as an early need, though supplementing the team with a guy with some of the same skills who could play on short-yardage downs and be groomed to be his long-term replacement would make a lot of sense. Seeing how well the NFL handled COVID has to have calmed fears a bit in many optouts. Pass rushers generally, would indeed seem to be a major need.

Agreed, commitment, in time and in spirit, to the run game, is an undervalued necessity. With that said, IMO they need better performance from the line, especially at guard, and Morse has been underperforming his usual standard and needs to start playing again like himself, or he'll be elsewhere, and soon. I'm hopeful that some of that improvement comes from a healthy Ford having an offseason and playing like he's in his third year even though he's only had 22 games.

He will be under contract for two more years. It wouldn't have to be done this offseason. This is news, not unexpected news, but it's news. Dude, just shush and move away. This whole take would not look smart on Thomas Edison or Einstein, much less an ordinary human. Went and watched the Youtube clip. Brilliant.

For those of you who get the Athletic, it's here: https://theathletic.com/2354616/2021/01/29/buffalo-bills-kansas-city-chiefs-all-22/ Joe wonders if the fallout of this game will affect their offseason moves. That seems a very reasonable thought to me. I read the article and came here expecting there'd already be a thread on it. I searched "Buscaglia" but couldn't find one. If I missed it, I apologize. Otherwise, here are a few excerpts: Joe: "For much of the game, the Chiefs were daring the Bills to run the ball on them. As the Bills rarely complied or went with heavy personnel, the Chiefs settled into using four defensive linemen, one linebacker and six defensive backs throughout the game, complete with successfully disguising coverages and blitzes before the snap to confuse Josh Allen. None of it would have been possible without the Chiefs defensive line, particularly the tackles, dominating the Bills offensive line the way they did." Ouch. He includes Feliciano in the group of guys who struggled, though many will struggle against Jones. Thoughout the season Joe has graded Feliciano well, but not here, and Morse and Boettger also had problems. 6 DBs consistently? I hadn't noticed that, and haven't gone back to look again at the game. It'll be another few weeks before I can stand to look at it, I would guess. But being able to use 6 DBs consistently is going to make it hard on any QB. Joe: "The last part of their struggles is the most important both to the undoing of the matchup and moving forward. The Bills weren’t able to run the ball with their preferred power scheme consistently at all during the season. Without that trio winning their matchup against a lighter defensive set, it clogged up the rushing lanes. It prevented either Devin Singletary or T.J. Yeldon from taking pressure off Josh Allen, which then allowed the Chiefs to get creative with their blitz calls, knowing that the Bills were more than likely to pass on every down." This makes you wonder whether we might see major changes in the interior this offseason. Morse hasn't appeared himself since the concussion, and might well return to his usual form before next year, but it's hard to be sure of that at his age. Joe: "There wasn’t a lot that went well for the Bills, but second-year defensive tackle Ed Oliver was excellent versus a banged-up Chiefs offensive line. The Chiefs successfully moved the pocket, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes is, at times, a magician with how he’s able to escape pass rush contain to rip apart a zone defense. However, in one-on-one battles and run-defending opportunities, Oliver stood out on multiple plays. He showed excellent hand usage and quickness to dip under the offensive line assignments and helped force stops because of his victories." It's always seemed that way to me on tape after he recovered from his early season injuries. Joe: "As the offensive line and running backs both deserve blame for the rushing attack’s inefficiency, tight end Dawson Knox was a major disappointment as a blocker as well. Knox lost his blocking assignment on several handoffs that directly led to the demise of a running play. It isn’t only a one-week occurrence either. ... His output as a receiver has slightly increased, but he’s nowhere near where the Bills would like him to be at this point in his career. His routes also aren’t crisp enough to deceive defenders, and the majority of his receptions rely either on scheme working him open or physicality to win a contested catch." This is a real concern. I keep hoping for a breakthrough, but so far we have only seen flashes and they've been few and far between. He's going to have to take a major leap up to have a long-term future here. I hope he does, but maybe the Bills should take a look at TE, perhaps even on the first couple of days of the draft. It's a great article with a lot more to it. Highly recommended.

This makes total sense to me. Also wouldn't mind a big nickel or a TE or speed receiver who looks like a gadget guy now but might eventually become far more than that.

I doubt you're correct there. IMO losing Lotulelei moved the needle a lot, downwards. And Ford is young, and he's played 22 and maybe 1/3 games, without much of an offseason before that second year. But we'll see.

Did McDermott maybe get some info, when he was still working at Carolina, about what they thought of some college guys? Sure. But while you're right that he was privy to it, I'm privy to my wife's shopping list, and yet I find that life is too short and busy to worry about it. Same w/ McDermott and this situation. Could he have found stuff out while still in Carolina? Sure. Would he have spent anything more than the odd minute or two here and there in casual conversation? No. If there's one thing we know about McDermott, it's that he is absolutely buttoned down and ruthless about his time management, that that is an absolute foundation for him of his principles. I mean, someone on here said something about how all signs point towards him drafting some of the guys the Bills drafted that year. And that is flat-out nuts.

Fine, you don't know. Thing is, everyone else really does know. It didn't happen that way. Neither guy is the absolute snake in the grass that this move would require.

I'd love to see him here. I just don't see any reasonable way for that to happen. Yeah, if willing to sign cheap, KC would certainly be the favorite.

No, though I saw it a long time ago. I absolutely revere Joe Lansdale. Interesting. I'll check him out.

Here are all the offense guys: 2012 WR A.J. Jenkins to San Fran 2010 RB Jahvid Best to Detroit 2009 WR Kenny Britt to Tennessee 2008 TE Dustin Keller to NY Jets 2007 WR Craig Davis to San Diego 2006 RB Joseph Addai to Indy 2005 TE Heath Miller to Pitt 2004 RB Kevin Jones to Detroit 2002 OG Kendall Simmons to Pitt 2001 WR Reggie Wayne to Indy I'd argue Heath Miller And Dustin Keller probably was too, though career-ending injury didn't leave him with a long career. Kendall Simmons was really good too, till he ruptured his Achilles. Add in Reggie Wayne and that's not too bad a bunch, though injuries hurt them.

Correct, I don't know this. It's not just me, it's everybody. Except a few nuts on these boards who love crazy conspiracy theories. Doing this would be a crime. It would be unethical. And it would be a thing that neither of these guys would do. Much less would McDermott then hire a guy who he knew would be willing to betray him when his back was turned. Hiring Beane after seeing that he was willing to lie and betray his employer would be acting as stupid as the guy who marries the woman who he met by getting her to cheat on her last husband. There are plenty of slowcoaches around who do that kind of thing. But they're addle-pated and you can find a huge majority of them wandering around with their head in their hands a year or two later, saying, "How could I have known she'd cheat on me?" That's what you hear about Beane and McDermott, isn't it? That they enjoy surrounding themselves with lying, backstabbing, untrustworthy thieves, right? Right? Right? I mean, you hear that all the time, don't you? Except of course you don't, because that's pretty much the opposite of what they're about, guys who can't be trusted to do their jobs without turning traitor and giving away all their secrets if it suits them. But again, kid yourself if you have to. But pretty much everyone else is going to look at who these guys are and what they stand for and know to expect behavior from them that's congruent with who they are. But plenty of others don't let common sense hold them back. It's fair enough, though it will contribute to being wrong much more often than not.

We did do some blitzing, and seldom enough that it was surprising and unpredictable. And Mahomes absolutely ate it up, every drop, with gravy. The answer isn't more blitzing. And you don't use a tactic on Patrick Mahomes because it works on the younger and rawer Josh Allen. Allen just didn't appear to have the poise he has mostly played with all year. Mahomes was oozing with it..

He coached conservative, is what he coached. I didn't like the decision either, but I do agree with you that we were outmatched and this wouldn't have made the difference, or even close, IMO.

When you hear people say "brutally honest," they're inevitably using it to mean "very pessimistic, intentionally annoying, intermittently wacky and evidence-free." You've lived up to that here.

That says more about problems with your thinking than it does about McDermott. Doing that would literally have been stealing from his ownership. It would have been industrial espionage. It did not happen. But if you feel the need to believe that, go right ahead. There's plenty of room for completel nuttiness in the world. You might want to look in on the "JFK and Elvis are alive and living together on the moon" thing. I hear they've got a few vacancies over there.

One this year, one next year.

First, how could John Brown have caught that ball. It was deflected. The Athletic put an article up about it. The bottom line is that the reason most of those plays you are talking about fell for the Chiefs is that the Chiefs were better. More experienced, and they had Kelce and Hill and nobody can guard both, much less when Mahomes is the one throwing to them. I wanted them to go for that. But it wasn't the reason things happened the way they did. IMO if we'd gotten closer the Chiefs could have stepped it up. I think if they played 10 games we might win one, maybe. Maybe.

No possible way they sign him to a contract that pays $30+ mill next year. Saying we shouldn't do that is like advising me not to pick up a rhino in my left hand and three elephants in my right. I will follow that advice, but not because the suggestion was worth hearing. It's not absolutely crucial to sign him this year. If it doesn't happen it wouldn't mean much if we then signed him during or after next season. But there's no particular reason we shouldn't work out a way now.

Top 4 in the league. We're good enough for nearly anything. And the reason we're cash strapped is largely the coronavirus-related depression of the cap number. I don't see a lot of fat, myself. Though I agree those two don't look like they'd fit the value parameters we're likely to have to use in our current situation.

He's not under contract. And we're already cap-strapped before we try to re-sign Milano, Daryl Williams and Feliciano, not to even mention Andre Roberts. I like Yeldon too, but it's not an easy or obvious decision.