BADOLBILZ

Yeah we don't disagree I just think the cumulative performance was bad until a couple of weeks ago. He dug a deep hole with his terrible first couple months. But it is how you finish in the NFL which is why I haven't been willing to throw dirt on this team all season.

1) Bad for 6 and better for 5 is how you have a "bad" 115 passer rating against going into week 13. I think there was a premature rush by some to point out that he wasn't giving up much yardage after the bye........when the team itself was leading the NFL in least passing yardage allowed......largely because they were getting trampled so easily on the ground. He's gotten back to himself and may even be leveling up even in recent weeks. 2) Yeah certainly appeared that he was playing tentatively. 3) Contract slotting is really just a GM/agent tool. Contracts are first and foremost about timing. I think you have to judge a player on their performance relative to their peers and how that relates to the highest aav at the position. It's simpler and also very imperfect but more genuine because you don't have to exclude players with less than 4 years experience and players who are over performing their poorly timed contracts etc. etc. That's why I never use slotting to support or discredit a player but will use PFF.

Yeah both Jets games that year. Belichick figured him out pretty quick. Make him throw from the pocket. Yeah those are the REAL deflating losses. When you realize your team has a fatal flaw. The Fitz home loss to the Jets after their fast start was another one of those games. They forced Fitz out of the dink and dunk and using the middle of the field and he couldn't handle the big boy throws. That season fell apart after opponents saw that tape. And with Flutie the year after teams employed the Belichick D on him and that's why the offense struggled in 1999.

There isn't any reason for anyone to "apologize". Benford was bad thru 11 games. The eyeball test showed his coverage wasn't good, the physicality wasn't there and statistically he had an abysmal 110-115 passer rating when targeted. The argument that he wasn't bad was just that he hadn't given up a lot of yards in recent weeks.......but the Bills haven't given up yards in the air all season. They were #1 in the NFL in that regard but we all know they are not the most dominant coverage unit by any stretch. I suspected Benford rung his bell again very early in the season and was playing tentatively. The Benford criticism is different that the Rousseau criticism because the tape shows Rousseau doing his job well. The tape wasn't kind to Benford (or Bernard). Hopefully Shaq Thompson manages to stay healthy for at least a couple more weeks so Bernard can be healthy when he returns to the lineup. And then maybe he starts making plays again too. I will say though.......one of the more frustrating defensive plays of the game involved Benford and took place after the Bills called that defensive timeout with the Bengals at 3rd and 4. The Bengals split the back out wide and Benford came off of Jamar Chase and took a couple strides out wider to cover the back and Cam Lewis dropped down on Chase. That lead to an easy pitch and catch conversion to Chase. And it wasn't a bang-bang switch.......it was a failure in slo-mo. Benford has to identify what they are doing there and not leave the All Pro for Lewis to cover.

Because they aren't very talented on defense.

The Bills have had similarly deflating one game swings in the standing. There have been multiple. For instance, the 1998 team with Flutie Magic seemed to have the division and a bye lined up for them with 2 games left. The Bills hosted the Jets in a de facto AFC East championship game. They lost a close game and fell to 3rd place in the division.

I think I know WHY you think I blamed Gabe.......but I didn't. Allen even admitted post game that the look dictated that he should start his progression from the left. It was a pretty egregious mental error by Allen. And I heard Chris Simms say that Gabe Davis should have finished his route and assured it was incomplete........but my question is why are they throwing Gabe a slant? They never used to throw slants to Gabe. Because he has those two very bad hands......the turnover potential is too high. 3 seasons ago I literally watched them try to make him big-slot-versatile in camp......something they had tried before and abandoned.......and then watched him be thrown a quick slant from Allen for his first chance in preseason and the perfectly thrown ball bounced off his hands for an interception. That was the end of that. He's NOT a possession receiver. Deep balls and comeback routes. That's all he has ever been useful for in the NFL and even that combination turned sour when defense's started putting CB1 on him and doubling Diggs. But this room is so bad that they've brought him back and are using him like he is this long-lost reliable possession receiver that he'd never been.

Here's the thing.........you are just GUESSING from the perspective of a ball watcher. You don't even have a detailed explanation of what Brady is doing wrong. Yours is an argument that someone who just listens to the game on radio could make. The people who do make specific but basic criticisms often point to "WR screens". Dink and dunk plays are the low hanging fruit of complaint. NOBODY likes them in the moment. Not even when they are going for big gains.......which they have numerous times. Same goes for most run plays.......nobody wants to see them until after the game when hindsight and remorse set in. So as soon as these types of plays fail it looks like a calamitous call. Then we have the more intense criticism that the Bills WR's aren't asked to run more diverse routes. "Why are they running mesh again" or "why did they stop running choice routes?". The answer to these questions is that they have a combination of middling to BAD WR talent.....AND.....in a feeble attempt to try to address the talent problem...... they've brought in mistake-prone players like Elijah Moore and Gabe Davis. The combination of no talent and unreliable talent has eroded Allen's confidence. The lack of conviction has impacted his mechanics. Subsequently his ball placement is all over the place. He's a decidedly worse passer because the bottom has fallen out of this WR corps. This isn't the top 3 WR room the Bills had in 2020.......this group started out near the bottom and got worse with Palmer out much of the season. Nobody has stepped up. Why people think this team should still average 30 per game and never punt when they have zero presence downfield in most games is ridiculous but predictable. We got spoiled and the narrative of "everybody eats" made it seem that talent wasn't a factor. It is THE reason.

It's a swell time to go claiming for a worn out Slay

1) Kyle Williams is the receiver you cite behind Diggs and Hollins? The fact that you don't know who Kayshon Boutte or Pop Douglas are basically tells me that you don't actually follow NFL football. Boutte has become one of the best deep threats in the league. His ascent started prior to McDaniels arrival. Douglas is an electric slot/gadget guy. Another guy who was impactful prior to McDaniels. How could you not remember him when he used to be the only guy with juice in that WR corps in years past? Very impactful, dynamic, inexpensive, starting caliber players with complementary skills who are trending toward getting paid handsomely when their FA comes. What really gives your angle away is that you know who their 5th or 6th receiving option is(Kyle Williams).......likely because he was in the draft last year and you probably start paying attention to draft eligible players after the season is over. There is no comparing their WR corps to that of the Bills. Even if the Bills had the health that they have had in NE. If Allen had that group and a healthy Hunter Henry instead of an absent Dalton Kincaid then Allen is likely in the process of repeating his MVP performance.......and then some. 2) As for the old argument that Tom Brady had no pass game options.........he had a HoF TE in Gronk and a very impactful, dynamic player in Julian Edelman(much better than anyone the Bills currently have at WR) for a lot of those seasons in question. When it started getting to the level of how bad the Bills receiving talent is THIS season....specifically 2019....that's when Brady's production fell off dramatically and the next season he went to Tampa Bay and his career was revived thanks to a bunch of excellent receiving options.

You guys are so caught up with diminishing the issue at WR. This WR corps is a disaster. Their best outside option is a WR3 type in Palmer and he's been out or hobbled for half the season. Their starting slot is Shakir and he started the season with a high ankle sprain and has had other injury issues additionally. With those guys healthy it's already the most punchless WR unit in the league........but in practice it's been even less effective due to injury. And one of the things these shell defense's have exposed is a new axiom that people who don't value WR talent are going to hate..........that the downfield passing success is a WR stat. In a league where you don't see a lot of downfield separation and officials allow a lot of contact at the catch point.......the success is largely coming down to the quality of the WR. Much like we've come to understand that sacks are more of a QB stat than an OL stat......we will come to understand that the quality of the WR matters most in downfield success.

You just described the personnel of a team that could lead the NFL in rushing. Which they do. What you failed to note was that it's not about not having two All-Pro WR's.......they literally have the worst WR corps in the NFL and the solid TE's that are available most weeks are primarily just blockers. The one TE who is a matchup problem for a defense in the passing game is Kincaid and Brady has made great use of him in the rare instances that he is available this year. The Brady hate is about the receivers sucking. There is no margin for error. In the past Allen could heave a prayer downfield or......more often.......buy time and make otherwise ineffective play calls look good. He did it all the time for Daboll and Dorsey. Now a bad play call is dead in the water for lack of playmakers. So it seems like there are more of them. There are probably LESS because they have to lean into what works at the expense of balance. Add into that Allen is having a poor season as a decision maker and in terms of consistency with ball placement/accuracy. Now some of that can be a factor of the disjointed passing game keeping him out of rhythm but it still comes down to the talent at receiver. I mean if you would have told me in August that they would have to elevate wrong-way Gabe Davis AND have to throw slants to him.......when they were deathly afraid to do so the first time he was here because his hands are so bad.......I could have told you the WR position was in shambles. Getting rid of the interception-factory that was Gabe in 2022-2023 was a key reason that they were able to reduce turnovers in 2024. The Bills inconsistency offensively is all about these bummy WR's and the inability of Kincaid to stay on the field.

Elijah Moore has NEVER had a positive impact on any offense he's played in at the NFL level. You are looking at bulk stats. Look at his horrendous 44 passer rating when targeted and 8 interceptions last year with the Browns. For contrast sake, Dalton Kincaid has a 155 passer rating when targeted this season. Moore has always been awful in the NFL. That's why the league left him blowing in the wind in free agency despite being young and fast and putting up some yardage numbers. And it's why he just had to take a practice squad job even though teams are desperate for WR depth this late in the year and his remaining salary is a pittance. If the Bills can't make use of him in a system that was intentionally dumbed down to prevent turnovers.......I can't even fathom how a team could use Elijah Moore in a system where he is going to be asked to make significant adjustments to his routes based on coverage/leverage. I just think it's hopeless for him at this point.

The primary issue with the offense is that the Bills have the league's worst WR corps. The second greatest issue has been Kincaid being unavailable. When targeted he's been absurdly impactful (155 passer rating when targeted) and IMO they may still be the #1 seed in the AFC. But the fact that a never-great player like Kincaid can tip the scales illustrates how Brady(and Allen) have just had a very small margin for error as a result of these things. The Pittsburgh game was interesting in that fans got to see Allen make an egregious pre-snap mental error that lead to the interception that was targeted to Davis and then got to see him turning down wide open....but longer throws....in favor of more ball-safe options. When you have to win on the ground and don't have anyone who can bail you out downfield on 3rd and 11's after a running back mades a bad decision or an OL gets a false start.......you REALLY can't afford to turn the ball over. That's the primary difference between the offense this year and last year. Last year they had guys like Cooper and Hollins who teams had to respect in Cooper's case........or be surprisingly burnt by in Hollins case. And they didn't turn the ball over. Even then, when they faced better teams in the playoffs they couldn't pass the ball effectively. That's a personnel issue not a coordinator issue.

Coincidentally, Sean Payton is also the guy who signed CJ Spiller away from the Bills and thought he'd hit the jackpot. And so did a lot of Bills fans on TSW who figured Payton could figure out how to use him.

When you find yourself uttering that sentence unsarcastically........just know it means you are talking about a dumb player. In Elijah Moore's last game as a Buffalo Bill........two passes intended for him resulted in interceptions. That's who he is. I hope Denver figures it out because the way you use him is you throw it where he's supposed to be and then the other team catches it because even they know that's where he was supposed to be.

James Cook was paid last because he was trying to be paid as much as superstars Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor. That's top 3-4 money for the position. But Cook hadn't produced anywhere near their level. Particularly not with regard to workload. Prior to this season Cook was part-timer compared to those guys. The other Bills players extended were offered deals that were nowhere near the top of their respective positions. They accepted them. I'm plenty critical of Beane for his contract/pro personnel work but how is getting James Cook to prepare all offseason like he was going to have to max out his production in 2025 to get paid perceived as a bad thing? What it did was increase the likelihood of getting at least one season where Cook was in peak condition physically and focused mentally. Just like extending Ed Oliver in summer got that one season out of him where he actually played close to his potential. Dangling the carrot until the hay is in the barn is good business.

Yeah I found it interesting that nobody mentioned this LAST week when they were #1 in fewest passing yards allowed.

Yeah I think people still think this is that team that can put up 28 on anybody in the first half if they are focused. It's not a matter of not being fired up it's a matter of not having the personnel to play balanced offensively. The impact of running the ball relentlessly like they have to usually isn't going to show up until the second half. Like it or not this is the team they have become. The "formula" isn't throwing the ball around like Joe Marino and company were pushing after that Bucs win. The formula is run the ball and don't turn it over and then have Josh Allen make the few plays with his feet that differentiate you from the typical Jauron Ball unit.

Yeah the Hoecht injury was tragic because he was looking like a huge difference maker for them the rest of this season. But roids are notoriously hard on tendons. Never a surprise when a juicer pops a tendon. The bummer is that NOW he's in the "real" testing program so his PED options will be limited. Typically the cheats tend to get a year of carry over performance before the bottom falls out. So Beane has to figure on getting the shell version of Hoecht after a year and a half of having to be cleaner than those players who haven't gotten themselves caught. I don't think you can count on him for too much next season. As for Joey Bosa.......I think we need to realize that the very slim chance that Bosa had a full-on "second act" coming and hopes that he could turn into one of those guys who figures out how to stay healthy late-career should have gone out the window with all the nagging, performance limiting injuries he's had this season. Now he's got a pulled hammy going into THE game where, on paper, everyone knew they would need pass rush more than any this season. If he misses the next couple games that will be gross. I think at best he is just going to be a week-to-week journeyman pass-rush-only guy for the rest of his NFL career. Maybe in the offseason they can get a package deal with him and his former teammate Khalil Mack. Instead of bookends they could share a spot. More likely, they go back to the DE well in round 1.

Yeah Heyward has always been a bully on the field. He has been taking extra shots at QB's all of his career and it just burns him that Allen is the one who won't take it. And as Heyward has gotten older he's really turned into a whiny b!tch. Wasn't impressed with him on Hard Knocks last year or his tough talk about Rodgers when Rodgers was deciding whether he was going to play for Pittsburgh. He needs to relax or realize that if he wants to be on a SB team again he needs to be willing to relocate.

Yeah, unfortunately.

I've mentioned this phenomenon a few times..........but some people just start worrying about losing a player every time they have a good game. As Jerry Glanvile famously said........NFL stands for Not For Long. Performance can drop off quickly. It's generally better to let things play out.

Bernard had a tremendous 2023. Most splash plays by an inside/middle LB since Urlacher in the early 2000's. Super smart, instinctive player and the Bills best pass rusher. Just.......for some reason.........they decided to quit trying to be big and force double teams at one-tech. Perhaps because they didn't have to justify Edmunds 1st round status any longer. That was fine if they were just going to chew Bernard up and spit him out and draft another guy to play the middle but he's much too small to hold up to the beating of being in the middle of a two LB system without a space eating 1T. Extending him with time left was stupid. On defense, safeties and LB's are usually the positions most allowed to hit free agency. There will be 3-5 relatively big name LB's that they could have replaced Bernard with this offseason. They should have let Bernard play it out and see if he survives if that's the way you are playing it. To @Avisan point.......they should have done with Edmunds what the Bears have done to get the most out of Edmunds(currently on IR, fwiw). The Bears moved him to outside LB.

Yeah I would too but given the choice I'd rather have NFL games in February.