billsfan89

I wouldn’t hate Harry but Harry is more of a three tech, would prefer a true run stuffer.

Solid move, not a home run but a double. Still 15 minutes left maybe a DT or LB is in play

And honestly Wallace would be a nice addition for depth and not cost a whole lot. Johnson is clearly the better player but adding a start able option in case Dane or Benford get hurt is not a bad move at all. Johnson would obviously be better but it’s not a bad move to add cheaper depth.

They did try to bring in Poona Ford to have some depth there.

Williams is a nice acquisition, not sure if he would have fit what the Bills need scheme wise, the Giants also ate most of Williams salary so it could have happened for the Bills but I tend to give McBeane the benefit of the doubt when it comes to knowing fits.

Von looked better against Tampa, far from the elite player he was of course but he had a few flashes where he looked closer to his old form. Given the nature of his injury I would say that if he can’t look significantly better by December then I would be massively concerned about him coming back to being a productive player this season. But it’s still October give it another months worth of games and a bye week before we have a clear picture of what’s going on with Von. I don’t think he has to be 100% back by December either he just has to look closer to what he was than what he currently is.

Just getting a true run stuffing DT would do wonders for the defense. Adding a run stuffing one tech DT won’t replace all that Jones does but it will at least alleviate the run defense that is lost when Jones is out.

Von and Josh called a players-only meeting before this game, so it isn't like their leadership is lacking. I love Diggs fire and passion but no need to ***** on other players (and inaccurately so) to make a point about Diggs.

The Good Shakir and Kincaid performing well balanced out the offense. Davis also having a good game was a welcome sight. The top 4 receiving options being Diggs-Kincaid-Davis-Shakir with Knox being the 5th option when he comes back is very good. The defense played well, and overall a solid effort from the defense. Poona Ford had a decent game, I know the Bucs offensive line is more of a pass-protecting line but Ford looked like a decent player which was good. Josh Allen looked closer to his old self but still didn't play recklessly. No major injuries and a win going into a "mini-bye" push-off hitting the panic button for a while. The Bills not sustaining major injuries and then getting a longer time to heal will hopefully help for the next 4 games before the full bye. Pass rush looked alive much better defensive line effort, Von even flashed a bit which is progress. Sam Martin and the ST unit had a good game for the most part. The Bad Martin had a really solid game constantly putting Tampa down deep but that last punt being a touchback really gave the Bucs a shot at a hail mary. Just bad execution at the worst moment, not the worst as it is much better than a block or a shank but pinning them 10 yards or more back would have made a difference. Von's Offside just before the hail mary attempt while an aggressive mistake was very frustrating all yards add up. The Ugly Phillips facemask - could have effectively iced the game but instead kept Tampa alive That last play of Q3. Why up 14 on a 2nd and 1 would you try to snap the ball? That led to a sack and instead of allowing the Bills to take 40 more seconds off the clock to start the quarter. Just a bad play that almost cost them the game. Taron's penalty - ticky tack call but just another frustrating play that kept Tampa in it. Josh's INT - A weird play that kept Tampa in the game in the first half. 4th and goal failure - Could have gotten the offense a lot of momentum. The Bills made a good call but Tampa executed well on defense.

I get what you are saying and I think the conversation should be centered around McD not being the right coach as opposed to not being a good coach. There are so many fans asking if McD is a stupid head coach or if he is a good coach or not which infuriates me. I think that this team is equipped to make a run this season despite the recent struggles. I think the top 4 combo of Diggs-Davis-Kincaid-Shakir is as good a top 4 WR/TE combo as Allen has had then Knox will come back and be a 5th option which is a perfect role for him. The Bills also have the best conventional running game around Josh as they have had since he has been here. The offensive line is also one of the better O-line units put in front of Josh. The defense may not be as good as it was in the past due to key injuries but its a solid unit that I think can get better both via trade (a 1-Tech DT and a depth CB would do wonders) and via experience. Ascending/Descending is all relative, the Bills were 7-6 at one point in 2021 and despite a 11-6 record that season was likely the Bills best chance to win a Super Bowl from 2020 to 2022. I think the fundamentals of this team (better offensive line, RB and WR/TE play) are leading me to think that this team has a chance to make a run this season. And now with a "mini-bye" to rest nagging injuries they will be set up to make a run of improved play.

Completely correct he was by most pundits and mocks a firm first-round pick and at worst an early second-round pick. Many mocks and rankings had him as the 3rd or 4th corner off the board and he went right there as the 4th corner taken. I really wish it could have worked out Elam is very athletic and played decent at times last season. I don't know if his confidence was shot or what but he has looked mostly bad this season. Cutting losses on him and taking a 4th round pick or something may be what they have to do. The bottomline is that most projections of the draft had Elam drafted between picks 18-35.

The offense was much better. They scored 17 in the first half and then scored a TD to go up 14 in the first drive of the second half. The offense also got a critical first down late in the game to Diggs which effectively forced the Bucs into a hail mary situation. The issue was they stalled after the TD drive. Three straight punts when all they needed was a field goal to take a three-possession lead. The Bills did a great job of getting Davis, Shakir and Kincaid involved while still getting Diggs his spots. They also got Cook decent yardage on the ground with 4.8 ypc. They just needed one more good drive but that blunder to close the 3rd really killed them. I think this game the offense looked more confident and attacking they just made a blunder at the end of the third that cost them the chance to go up 3 possessions with less time left. Both sides of the ball looked better, not great but significantly improved.

To all the McD haters out there I ask a simple question how many head coaches in the league do you genuinely feel are better than McD? You can and should have an argument that maybe McD isn't the right coach to take this team over the top. Fine, I think that remains to be seen but it is a fair argument at least. But to say McD is a bad head coach is just simply not accurate. Take a look at all the head coaches are the league and ask who would you for sure 100% take over McD? Coaches inarguably I would take over McD no particular order Andy Reid Mike Tomlin Sean McVay Kyle Shanny John Harbaugh Pete Carroll Coaches, I think you can maybe argue taking over McD Zac Taylor (although Bengals fans have similar critiques to him over-relying on Burrow/Chase and a stagnant at times offense) Nick Siriani Doug Peterson I know some will say Mike McDaniel but the Fins have yet to beat a good team this season and were 9-8 last season so call me a skeptic. Matt LaFleur is another one some may say but last year with Rodgers they missed the playoffs and this year Jordan Love has struggled. Others may say Billy B but his record post-Brady leaves a lot to be desired, you would be arguing on a past reputation. Dan Campbell is another one that I think some may bring up but I would like to see more sustained success with them before I put them over McD, he has not taken the Lions to the playoffs yet. That leaves McD comfortably in the top 10-12 of coaches even if you were to take a negative look at him. Would you honestly think McD is worse than the following list of coaches? Jonathan Gannon Arthur Smith Frank Reich Matt Eberflus Kevin Stefanski Mike McCarthy Sean Payton DeMeco Ryans Shane Steichen Josh McDaniels Brandon Staley Kevin O'Connell Dennis Allen Brian Daboll Robert Saleh Todd Bowles Mike Vrabel Ron Rivera There aren't many "good" let along great coaches in the league. Just remember that when discussing McD.

I get your point of view and I understand being "aggressive". But just to sum it up one more time, with the clock on your side and only needing a field goal to make it a three-score lead the risk of something happening on that snap (as it did) was not worth the reward of getting 5 free yards. Just let the clock run out and shorten the game by another 40 seconds. I think the 100% chance of grinding off another 40 seconds at minimum was a better thing to do than the 5% chance you may get someone off-sides.

I get being aggressive but that's not the time to try to do something "cute". You are up 14 you have the ball just outside of field goal range on a 2nd and short. A field goal plus a couple more minutes off the clock sets you up to really win the game with a 3 possession lead with limited time left and a defense playing well. McD and Dorsey should have just let the quarter run out. You then even if they fail to convert 1.5 yards on two downs shorten the game by about 90 seconds (80 seconds on the play clock plus about 10 seconds it takes to run the plays) instead they extend a game and make it a much more difficult conversion. Two QB sneaks should get you the yards and once again allow you to grind some more clock and put Bass into FG range. Easily could have been a moment where you look up and there's only 11-12 minutes left and the Bills are up 17. Instead Tampa keeps it two scores and made it more tense than it needed to be.

Cincy will have a sense of urgency regardless of whether they win or not. If they win they will still need to keep up with the three teams in their division that are in front of them that are currently 1-2 games ahead and will at best be even of 1 game ahead. If they lose they will be desperate to get back to .500. The urgency of the Bengals is high in either scenario. I am rooting for the Bengals to lose, a loss eats away at a teams confidence a win helps you gain confidence. You can see it with the Bills the last few weeks. After the Jags lost they played tight against a Giants team they should have been able to win comfortably against. That led to a tight performance against the Pats. The Bills played more confidently against the Bucs and got away with a win that was a bit tighter than it should have been. I think the Bills getting the "mini-bye" desperately need the few extra days rest. Josh's shoulder, Ed's toe, Morris's ankle, Von's long return from the ACL, and all the other dings that caused guys like Groot, Shaq and others to miss a game or be limited in practice get the chance to heal up a bit. Cincy has not played well most of the season, the Jets and Broncos home are very winnable games the only game that's tough is @ Philly. If the Bills can pull a minor upset against Philly 4-0 is legit possible. I would be fine with 3-1 as that puts the team at 8-4 going into the bye but if the Bills continue to get Shakir and Kincaid going on offense while maybe adding a reinforcement or two on defense via trade I don't see why 4-0 is that daunting. Get the win at Cincy and you can then see 4-0 being really a legit possiblity.

Football is not like basketball where you kind of know by mid-season if you really have a shot to win a title or if you are better off rebuilding or only making smaller moves. Football (particularly the NFL) is far more similar to the MLB or NHL where you can "get hot" at the right time and win a title or make a deep run. The NFL is also not a league where you can really "unload" contracts. Trading teams often "eat" money on bonuses paid. So even if you wanted to "attatch picks" to dump Knox or Von Miller the Bills would still be on the hook for a lot of dead cap as a result of the trade. The Bills traded Dareus in 2017 and still had to eat a 13.5 million dollar dead cap charge in 2018 the after trading him. Whereas had the Bills held onto Dareus in 2018 and cut him in 2019 off-season they would have only had a dead cap charge of about 3 million and had a cap charge 3 million higher in 2018. Effectively dumping Dareus's massive contract only saved the Bills 6 million in cap. The Bills are far better off trying to make a small addition or two like they did in 2022 when they added Hines and Marlowe at the deadline. If the Steelers are willing to dump Levi Wallace (and eat a small portion of his salary) for a 6th I would take it that helps with depth at CB. If there is a 1-Tech DT out there that can be had for a 6th (remember the Bills have three 6th-round picks in 2024) I would take it as the Bills need more depth there with Jones out. Bottomline you can't take this season by trading away bloated contracts and not end up tanking the next season with dead cap charges. The Bills are much better off getting some depth help on defense and trying to get it together without giving up too much draft capital wise.

It's not a "waste" of a roster spot. He is a backup safety on a team that has two older safeties. Rapp is the primary backup (and I think Rapp plays ST as well) at both safety spots and Lewis is a better Special Teams player. We saw that when Poyer went down they activated Demar to be the primary backup and backfill the ST unit where he is a decent player. He is a backup role player that can start in a pinch and is a willing special teams player. That's pretty good for a 4th/5th safety. Not sure where else the Bills could get better value from if he were cut?

I would argue Kincaid was the attempt to try to address secondary receivers this season, which along with the smaller additions in Hardy, Sheffield and Shorter was a decent attempt given the limited resources and the needs along the offensive line. But I do agree that there was a lack of investment going into the 2022 season (going into 2021 they signed Sanders to replace Brown which was solid). They were foolishly counting on Crowder and Mac to replace Beasley and Gabe to step up and replace Sanders production. They did add Shakir as depth and a developmental piece but he was not likely to have a big impact year one. The teams over investment into defense in 2022 was evident in how the offense performed having to over rely on Diggs and Josh consistently against better teams. They should have spent that 2022 first on an often linemen and used that Von money to sign a receiver but then again that hindsight as I didn’t hate the Elam pick at the time. I am just glad Shakir is getting his shot and they spent two high picks on the offense. I think with Diggs-Davis-Kincaid-Shakir as the top 4 options and an improved offensive line and better RB play Josh has enough around him esp when Knox comes back as a more supportive player and less of a focal point.

Shouldn’t have been trying to draw them off when you are up 14. I get the attempt but don’t extend the game when you are already up.

Wasn’t Tre’s ACL much worse than Von’s? Also Tre didn’t get back into the field until December whereas Von is out there now working out the rust and will have been playing for about 3 months when the playoffs come around. Hoping by the bye he is where he needs to be.

He looked better today, he was invisible at times but also he had a few flashes that he simply hasn’t shown up until tonight. That’s not saying much but it’s progress. I just look for steady progress, I think by the bye if he doesn’t look significantly better I will be concerned until then he just needs to be a serviceable rotational DE which he isn’t far off from being

Why doesn’t this team just win every game? What are they stupid?

That was the stupidest play of the game. You are up 14 knocking on field goal range and the clock is your friend why snap the ball before the quarter ends and effectively extend the game. At worst you let the quarter run out and just run the ball and tick 40+ seconds off the game. Instead you take a sack and the game is 40 seconds longer

Not to be that guy but they technically have attempted to replace vet WR’s that left the team from 2021 to 2022 (I assume you are referring to Beasley, Brown and Sanders). Gabe was also drafted in 2020 to develop behind Brown, Diggs and Beasley. In 2022 they drafted Shakir who is finally breaking out and they signed Crowder last season as a vet stop gap. In 2023 they signed Hardy, Sheffield and drafted Kincaid to be another pass catcher. I would have preferred they gotten a better stop gap slot WR replacement in 2022 than Crowder but once again the attempt was there to ease the losses at WR.