BearNorth

With Morse getting a bit long in the tooth, I would love to see a C in the draft who can play guard until Morse moves on.

Obvious starting roster upgrades needed to me are: Saffold, McKenzie, Spencer Brown, Davis [Cinci proves you have to have 3 excellent wideouts]. On D, Poyer and Hyde, Von depending on Rehab from Injury, Pay Edmunds, unless someone ridiculously overpays, can't tag him because Edge are considered LB's for tagging. Looks like biggest needs are OL, WR, S, MLB if Edmunds leaves.

If the qualifier is winning the whole enchilada, QB's can put up gaudy stats, but can they win BIG games? Here is the list of multiple SB winners: Tom Brady – 7 in 23 seasons 30% Terry Bradshaw – 4 in 14 seasons 29% Joe Montana – 4 in 16 seasons 25% Troy Aikman – 3 in 12 seasons 25% Roger Staubach – 2 in 11 seasons 18% Bob Griese – 2 in 14 seasons 14%* [DNP in Super Bowl] Jim Plunkett – 2 in 15 seasons 13% John Elway – 2 in 16 seasons 12.5% Eli Manning – 2 in 16 seasons 12.5% Peyton Manning – 2 in 18 seasons 11% Ben Roethlisberger – 2 in 18 seasons 11% But.... Bart Starr – 2 in 6 seasons he played during SB era 33%, also 3 NFL titles in 10 seasons 30%, so 5 titles in 16 seasons 31% and the aforementioned Otto Graham 4 AAFL and 3 NFL titles in 10 Seasons.

Great writeup as always FWIW, I took a look at the lineups between the 13-3 1990 team that lost in the SB and the 13-3 2022 team Thomas 1990 > Singletary Reed 1990 > McKenzie Hull 1990 > Morse Ballard 1990 > Brown Bruce Smith 1990 > Rousseau Talley 1990 > Oliver [3-4 vs. 4-2-5] Odomes 1990 > Dane Jackson Ritcher 1990 > Saffold Beebe 1990 = Gabe Davis Kelly 1990 = Allen Lofton 1990 = Diggs Wolford 1990 = Dawkins John Davis 1990 = Bates Biscuit 1990 = Milano Conlan 1990 = Edmunds Leonard Smith 1990 = Poyer Ray Bentley 1990 = Taron Johnson [3-4 vs. 4-2-5] Knox 2022 > McKeller Von Miller 2022 > Seals Daquan 2022 > Wright Tre White 2022 > Kirby Jackson [assuming fully healthy] Hyde 2022 > Kelso [assuming fully healthy] From this flyover, the 1990 roster had more starting talent that this year's version. Josh Allen would kill for some of those linemen, Wolford, Richter, Hull, Ballard. This year's roster had the loss of Von Miller and Hyde, and the limited play of Tre White. Obviously Bruce is a huge difference maker, and Reed light years ahead of McKenzie. HOF in Bold

In basketball, the shot clock is visible above the basket and a horn sounds when it hits zero [not one second after zero]. The only judgement is if the shot was in the air when the horn sounds, if it goes in it's good, if not if it hits the rim, it's play on, and clock resets to 20. If the shot is up and misses the rim, its a violation, and the ball goes to the other team. Football has enough officials and enough money that if the clock hits zero, a horn should sound and the back judge should get a buzzer cue like you do in a restaurant, signal e.g. horn or play clock lights up.

The second most cap benefit this year would accrue to KC, and if this came to pass, Andy would have $35MM to beef up his defense. No thanks.

After reading this thread, I took a few minutes. Pretty much everyone agrees that the offensive line has been in a word "offensive" In the entire history of the franchise [I was 12 yrs old living in Buffalo in 1960], here are the significant honors earned by Buffalo O-Lineman Hall of Fame Billy Shaw Guard 1961-1969 Joe DeLamielleure Guard 1973-1979, 1985 All Pro Billy Shaw 5X 1962, 63, 64, 65, 66 Joe DeLamielleure 3X 1975, 76, 77 Stew Barber 2X 1963-1964 Kent Hull 2X 1990,91 Reggie McKenzie 1X 1973 [Thanks to OJ] Multiple Pro Bowls Billy Shaw 8X Ruben Brown 8X Stew Barber 5X Joe DeLamielleure 5X Kent Hull 3X House Ballard 2X Jason Peters 2X Jim Ritcher 2X So out of 310 player years [5 players 62 years], we have had 2 Hall of Famers, 13 All-Pro's, and 35 years of players who went to multiple pro-bowls. I didn't count single pro-bowls, cause it's a popularity contest for the most part. That's an indictment of our scouting department and O-line coaching over almost the entire history of the franchise. The screwup with Peters is one of the most egregious front office mistakes along with Patulski and Cousineau. This is not just coaching, this is scouting and drafting effectively

Motor is still one of the best blocking RB's in the game, until we fix the O-Line, might be worth it just for that. AJ Dillon, and Motor are the only 2 RB's ranked in top 10 for both run and pass block. Longer term would be nice to have a thumper like Dillon on third and short to save some wear and tear on JA17

This makes me think that Bills need to look at how they are evaluating college OL. OL has been a constant need since Beane arrived. Pos Player TM 2022RK Dr Yr RD Pick Bills Pick Center Linderbaum,Tyler BLT 6 2022 1 25 Kair Elam Center Humphrey,Creed KC 1 2021 2 63 Boogie Basham Guard Meinerz,Quinn DEN 6 2021 3 99 Spencer Brown Guard Smith,Trey KC 11 2021 6 227 Damar Hamlin Guard Onwenu,Michael NE 4 2020 6 182 Tyler Bass Guard Cleveland,Ezra MN 9 2020 2 58 AJ Epenesa Tackle McGary,Kaleb ATL 4 2019 1 31 Ed Oliver [9th] 2022 Rank is from PFF

Our special teams weren't even relevant against Cinci. You need to have an O-line that protects the QB, WR's that can win one-on-one's, and DB's that can cover. We had none of these, and Cinci was playing with backups at both CB spots and 3 of the O-LIne.

We had one on the board, Creed Humphrey top rated center in the draft 1300 snaps in 2022, was drafted second round pick 63 in 2021. We drafted Boogie 2 spots earlier. I know they feel loyalty to Morse, but this is a head slapper. Makes you wonder about our scouting dept.

But how much of Mahomes being #1 is Andy Reid. If JA17 played for Reid, would he be the equal of Mahomes? Also Kelce is a cheat code for Mahomes, likely the GOAT tight end. Mahomes has an O-line that is light years better than Buffalo's

This is Von's second ACL surgery, he's 33, will he be the same player, capable of playing at the same level? Case in point - his running mate Odell Beckham. White is not the same player a year after his ACL surgery.

Cinci - We win the toss, defer, they go 75 yards in 6 plays like a hot knife through butter, against our defense, playing at home with the crowd amped up. We go three and out on the ensuing series, Cinci goes 10 plays 72 yards. 0-14 at home in the playoffs. Bills should have come out on fire to open the game, and just didn't get er done. McD is supposedly a defensive guru and we have spent a ton on our defensive front seven in terms of draft capital and actual $, and then we don't show up in the most meaningful game of the year. Cinci line had three backups and a mediocre second year player, and we got no pressure on Burrow.

We kept Kumerow for ST's then he got hurt, but we had Hodgins on the PS and didn't call him up. This love of McDermott for special teams is a bit of the tail wagging the dog. Our #2 & #3 WR's were in the bottom half of the league. Hodgins was in the top 25 with the Giants. Josh would have loved having that BIG target.

I thought that the first 9 minutes of the game in Cinci were a preview of exactly what happened Sunday. Cinci's offense ran like a hot knife through butter through the Bills D before Hamlin went down. Dawkins is the only OL starter that's considered a quality NFL player. Josh has one reliable WR, and his decent RB is probably too expensive to keep.

Based on the 2022 season the following Bills starters are graded in the bottom half of the league at their respective positions: I've included Player age RG Bates (26) WR2 Davis (24) SS Poyer (32) Slot McKenzie (28) C Morse (31) CB1 White (Injury in 2021) (28) CB2 Jackson (26) RT Brown (25) LG Saffold (35) 9/22 starters graded in bottom half of the league...

Revis had an ACL tear in 2012 at Age 27, He had a so-so season in 2013, in 2014 he played for the Pats and was a first team all-pro, In 2015 had a decent season with 5 ints, but fell off rapidly after that. Not finding a lot of other CB's that have returned to top form after ACL surgery. Not sure Tre is big enough or a good enough tackler to move to FS.

Oliver is the sixth ranked DT from his draft class. People forget that Quinnen was considered a "bust" until Saleh started coaching him up. That being said, $10MM per year or up is a lot of dinero for the second best DT on your team, pay Oliver that and Jones, who was sorely missed vs. Cinci will probably saying Me Too.

This, and look very hard at any vet who is strictly a special teams or depth guy. We are cap strapped but paid Matakevich nearly $4MM for 20 snaps a game on ST for 6 tackles on over 300 snaps. Surely there is a specimen rookie or UDFA who is faster and more athletic.

Our expensive defensive line was controlled by an O-line with 3 subs, including a third stringer, and the best player on the Cinci line [Karras] was playing hurt.

SPOTRAC says Edmunds should be getting around $11MM AAV for a four year deal. They say he is the most valuable 2023 FA available at ILB. Pretty thin group for sure.

We got beat badly yesterday by a patchwork O-Line, with their best lineman playing dinged up. Their offensive system puts constant pressure on the D and they have 3 receivers who would be 1 or 2 on any team in the league. Burrow doesn't extend plays, he is so bloody efficient DC's heads are spinning. We need better WR's than Davis as #2, and Diggs is < Chase IMHO, and has a shorter shelf life.

we've had 45 draft picks since McDermott was hired, first year was Whaley, Beane after that. Of the 45 - 27 are still with the team, all but 3 are still in the league. Although many will not agree; the following are graded above JAG level Josh Groot Tremaine Cook Motor Milano Dawkins Bass-o-matic 6 starters out of 22, plus our kicker. Four others in the top half of the league at their positions Oliver Boogie Taron Johnson Knox Is that a good enough job by the scouting department and front office? White has been hurt, I get that, but the 2022 White was not the pre November 2021 White. Food for thought.

Not sure about Phillips after today, he was a big nothing out there, they gashed us with the running game and we scarcely got pressure on Burrow.