billsfan89

If they don't get a boundary WR by next weeks trade deadline I think this team is just too flawed. I think if the defense stays somewhat healthy it will be improved from the early season struggles (I think the return of Mad Max plus the PED Twins and some of the week to week injuries along with McD calling the defense more will help the defense). Special teams seems to be at least a decent unit. Offense just won't be able to get it done against better defenses if they don't add a piece at WR.

If the penalty on Po was accepted then yes. Unless Po’s penalty was a personal foul

White was most effective last season with the Ravens when he was a CB playing limited snaps. I’m hoping Hairston and Benford can stay healthy and anchor the outside while Taron and Tre split slot snaps 60/40 and Tre also plays a little in dime packages. That’s my hope at least to get some positive production out of Tre

I think the Bills if this Oliver injury is longer term (which is looking likely) should look into trading for a competent DT body. They need another competent durable body there. I think Phillips would be a quality add toss the Jets a 5th swapped for a 6th or 7th and see if that gets it done. Larry O and Daquon are older players who have had injuries, Walker is young but a big dude, Sanders could come back but he's likely still coming off an injury and wasn't fantastic when he played. Adding Phillips while not a game changer would add some vet stability and eat up a lot of snaps.

The Bills always seem to have this pattern (save for 2023 which was a very chaotic year), they get off to a hot 4-0 or 4-1 start winning 3-4 in a row and look to be fully in control. Then they start to kind of coast and they drop 2 games in a row and then they get it in gear.

I'm hoping that tonight's game goes down to the wire either way for KC win or lose them having to play until the closing minutes provides more of a rest advantage. The Bills had garbage time for a full quarter and played Sunday afternoon compared to monday night.

I think most fans were pretty positive about Hoecht comparing him to Lorax in terms of versatility. I know most fans didn't know who he was but like after most signings of mid tier and lower players fans looked into him and were mostly seeing positive things.

Lockett is probably better off on a team like the Raiders that needs a vet WR to come help be a good influence on their younger developing players as opposed to coming to the Bills who need an impact boundary WR.

They remind me of the 2023 Fins, certainly a good team but I still think things have to shake out a little more before I say they are going to be a consistent contender for the division and in the AFC. They much like the Fins in 2023 have a soft schedule and are going to make it most certainly down to the wire for the division barring any injuries. The Bills schedule while not grueling is far from soft. KC this weekend is hard, the Bucs and Eagles games are more so on the difficult end, and the Steelers and Texans games are mid-level solid opponents. Of course there are some "softies" on the schedule like the Jets, Browns, and Fins. Right now the Bills just have to control what they can control. Beat KC and you are 6-2 with a road game against the Fins coming up. See how everything shakes out after that. You play the Pats again so there's some aspect of that that is in your control.

How much can you really scheme guys open if teams don't respect your boundary WR's? I think opposing defense are daring the Bills to beat them on the outside and the one guy that can maybe do that is Palmer and he's hurt. So while I get that you can try to be more creative what are you really doing that's going to make a difference if the WR's can't get open on the boundary with any consistency?

Ed was dominating the game, I think he's such a loss for this defense esp when he has a competent NT next to him. That being said if he can come back late December I think the team can manage without him (could always trade a late round pick for a competent body) and it is better he comes back possibly healthy for the playoffs as opposed to banged up again. I think we are seeing 3 of the top 4 defensive acquisitions in free agency and the draft being back and that's now the vision they had. I wasn't a fan of brining Tre back as the primary CB option but they did draft a CB with their top draft pick signaling that they really didn't want to start Tre. They added Hoecht, Bosa, and Larry Ogunjobi to really add some veteran pop to the defensive line while bringing in 3 fairly high draft picks to add some longer term development and we are seeing Walker coming in and playing a good role there right away. With Groot/AJE/Daquon/Ed a solid bunch being joined by Hoecht, Bosa, Larry Ogunjobi, and Walker that's a D-line that's rolling 7 deep (with Ed hurt that trims the numbers sadly) and still has options down the line with Sanders possibly coming back and a trade to a back end DT being possible. Then we are seeing Shaq also being a nice later surprise and filling in at LB way better than expected. I think the defense is certainly coming together but let's also see it against a better offense without the backup QB. But if you aren't going to dominate the Panthers with Dalton then who are you going to dominate?

Fair to say that, but when you win 40-9 you gotta reach on downs because there's not a lot to complain about. If this was lets say a 28-14 game that was a little more in doubt then there probably would have been bigger downs but that's not what happened.

They were supposedly considering to IR Palmer, so I would be very doubtful of him playing. I do wonder if Daquaon, Bernard, and Milano will be in. Those veteran returns would help ease the likely loss of Ed (who even if he's not as seriously hurt as we think is likely going to miss 2-3 weeks on a slight tear/strain) on defense. But my main concern is going to be the offense esp if Palmer whose the only outside WR capable of semi-consistently breaking man coverage on the boundary can't go.

Lots of ups in a 40-9 blowout but I would give my 3 as follows. PED Twins and Hairston - All 3 had a big impact on the defense. Larry O may not get on the stat sheet but he helped control the LOS. Hoecht was all over the place, looked like he did in pre-season. Hairston added some speed at corner and looked pretty good esp for someone making their first start in the NFL off an injury. James Cook- This team clearly has a second offensive super star (third if you count Dawkins). Not much can be said about how he dominated this game. The rest of the D-line - In addition to Larry O and Hoecht the key players on the D-line Groot, Bosa, Ed (before he got unfortunately hurt), AJE, and Walker were all dominant and it just opened up the rest of the defense. Some downs WR's besides Shakir can't get it going - Slight down because they weren't really needed. Shakir had the big catch that broke the game open and then it was James Cook all day. But this offense still needs a WR on the outside that can win 1 v 1 consistently. Hopefully some teams that lost games this week open up their WR's to trades. Ed Oliver injury - Injuries are the worst part of football. I'm hoping this is another week to week injury in terms of maybe it is a smaller tear or a strain. But mentally I am thinking this is a tear and that's gonna put Ed out until some time in January most likely. Josh still seems a bit off- I'm fully reaching for a down since there's not much to be down about but Josh still didn't seem to be 100% there in terms of his play. He wasn't needed much which is likely the way Joe Brady wanted it. But I think the WR's not being open consistently and Cook dominating the game were making him not needed. But it still seemed like when he was needed he wasn't quite there. Honorable mentions Up- Poyer and Handcock stepping up opposite Cole who also played well. Up- Offensive line just dominated the game. Honestly I think KC is coming in at the right time for the Bills. Fresh off a blowout and a bye week one week removed for the Bills (thus the Bills didn't play a quarter of the game for most starters) and KC is playing Monday and then has to travel to Buffalo. Hoping this is a close game that KC has to at the very least go down to the wire for. But more importantly I think this team mentally needs to "get it up" for a game mid-season. I think this team can kind of coast in the early season and that's why you always see those two game losses every year. Well there's no game better at getting this team in gear than the KC game. The Bills 2023 mad dash towards the division title when down 3 games to Miami was started by that win in KC that year.

JJ Watt is a freak of nature. I remember one year Hard Knocks did the Falcons and they played the JJ Watt Texans and the Falcons had a rookie RT get burnt by Watt in the pre-season and the other veteran linemen had to tell the rookie don't get too down on yourself no one else is like JJ Watt. Basically that even for the NFL where everyone is a freak this guy is a freak among freaks. That being said not all tears are the same from what I am reading. Not all tears are the same. Some tears need less time to come back. Hoping for the best for Ed Oliver as he's so critical to this defense. Hoping that if it is a tear he can maybe come back late December early January (which would be about 10 weeks) and play a warm up 10-12 snaps game in the regular season and be ready for the playoffs.

You don't really need a lot of data to see that the Bills just don't have a consistently good outside WR who can break coverages consistently and that's causing limitations to the offense. Right now the Bills have a very good TE and a very good slot WR (Kincaid and Shakir). The rest of the offense in terms of pass catchers are mostly role players. Good role players but still role players. Samuel and Moore gadget guys, Knox quality TE2, Hawes blocking TE, Ty Johnson pass catching back, and Keon is more of a big slot WR3/4 at this point. Palmer is the one WR that could maybe break outside coverage but he's hurt and not super consistent either. Largely I would say that the Bills simply need a WR on the boundary that teams respect. Put that trade in place and everything is fine offensively. Getting Olave for example would largely make teams think twice about stacking boxes with 8 and putting the safety over the middle single high and blitzing to Josh's right (the formula that seems to work to stop Cook and Josh at the moment). The data isn't needed when the eye test is very obvious...

Line could move if KC loses tonight, but I think the Chiefs being slight favorites makes sense although I think the Bills will win.

I think they are getting Hancock up to speed slowly while Po anchors it for now. I’m in agreement that they should just put the rookie in and get the snaps now

Offer next years first swapped for a 4th and Samuel or whatever other outgoing salary is needed…

3-4 vets on marginal practice squad spots vs. marginal undrafted players aren’t the difference in this teams fortunes. Tre is the only reunion player not on a marginal PS slot and there’s legit criticism that he’s not good enough to be counted on as a starter. The rest I am not worrying too much about because PS squad guys on call ups rarely play well and aren’t changing much.

I think this team is gonna make a trade in the secondary. The talent is just far too depleted. I'm fine with Cole taking his lumps at one safety position Cole has talent he just needs a better feel for the game (and experience can help with that) but they need to find a competent vet next to him.

Away game against a decent team coming off a bye and some injuries on the Bills side. I understand the excuses, but the offense looked fundamentally bad (like the need for a boundary WR is glaring) and the defense was horrendous in the first half. I liked that the defense gutted out a stronger second half performance despite being banged up. That's actually a type of moral victory that helps a unit longer term. But I'm very worried that the offense just doesn't have the boundary WR needed to shake up teams defenses.

Bills 31 Panthers 21 and it won't be that close. The Bills go up 14-7 at the half with the ball. They cash in on a score in the first possession of the second half and then the Panthers make a turnover and the Bills cash in again and go up 28-7. Panthers go on a long scoring drive to cut it to 28-14 with 5ish minutes left in Q3. The Bills end Q3 grinding out the clock and hitting a field goal to go up 31-14. Bills make a stop early in the 4th and the grind the clock down to about 10 minutes left. Panthers go on a long scoring drive to get the score down to 31-21 but there's only 6 minutes left. Bills get a couple of first downs to eat the Panthers timeouts and take a couple of minutes off the clock. Panthers get the ball back with 3-4 minutes left but no timeouts. Bills defense forces a turnover on downs and the game ends.

Bye came at a good time. I usually don't like an early bye week but I think mentally and physically they needed a bye to settle things down a bit after back to back losses. PED Twins get back from suspension and there's a lot of week to week type injuries that needed a rest. Overall I think the Bills got the bye at the best time for them.

My issue with Frazier was that the defense in Frazier's era was inconsistent despite the defense being usually top 5 in terms of cap spending and a lot of picks being thrown onto that side (the teams first draft pick from 2019-2022 were all spent on the defensive side of the ball). For all that was done on the defense the team ranked outside of the top 5 on defense 2 out of 4 years from 2019-2022. Then there was the lackluster 2021 and 2022 playoff performances and I think Frazier despite being a good coach was just done. I think it was the right call for McD to move on at that point.