BADOLBILZ

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.

They should go to 18 games with two byes and give us football all thru the sporting wasteland of February. Otherwise it's fine, IMO. The whining about it is usually from fans whose teams are injury prone. The schedule wasn't an issue when this roster was young and not missing games and Thursday night wasn't a problem when McD was undefeated on Thursday nights etc..

To @BillMafia716ix point.......I think when you sign a player like Palmer to a deal where they have to play better than they had the year before to justify the value of the contract.........the runway on whether the deal was good or not is pretty short.

I don't even presume he took it in HS. I think he was a golf major. It's the anniversary of his impactful performance in the Egg Bowl I wonder if he will show up to support Kiffin and the boys. https://www.businessinsider.com/video-egg-bowl-ole-miss-piss-elijah-moore-mississippi-state-2019-11

The next time Elijah Moore is a positive for a team's offense it will be the first time in his NFL career. He has a CAREER 65.7 passer rating when targeted and was probably the worst receiver in the NFL to get regular snaps in 2024. There is a real chance he would have at least started the season on a practice squad this season if the Bills hadn't thrown him a lifeline. Allen ever trusting Moore was a stretch. Additionally, it doesn't take much research to see that in Brady's first season as an NFL OC in Carolina he had two 1,000+ yard receivers plus an 800+ yard Curtis Samuel. None of which were superstars. This coming off having the greatest passing offense in the history of college football. But not running the ball enough was cited in his firing in Carolina. I think people need to consider the fact that he is running what Josh Allen and McDermott want. A simple system. Which would probably work in spite of perceived predictability if the talent was right. Moore wasn't ever going to move the needle for this team but some of you just can't get over his draft pedigree.

Unless you and @gobills404 don't follow the NFL or are just bad at math it shouldn't seem disingenuous. That record is EXACTLY what the Rams were. No spin. They were around .500 over that period and teams that can do that are going to be in WC contention. In fact, the Rams then started out 1-4 in 2024.........so they were actually 16-23 over the first 39 games post SB win. It was getting ugly. But that 25-26 also INCLUDES their extraordinary 10-2 finish last year(when Bills fans saw them, not during their inept start). In 2023 they were the definition of middling. The 9-8 Saints actually had a huge point differential advantage over those Rams but missed the playoffs. There are just a lot of people on here who don't want to accept that the Rams DID actually take a multi-season re-set in engineering their team and salary cap turnaround.

Agree.........but I don't think it's him. He's just a posession guy right now, IMO. But as I've said in other threads, this guy was a very successful WR1 running choice routes in an EP type system for years. Like Allen said, he picked up the playbook immediately. Should they decide to lean back into that Dorsey/Daboll stuff down the stretch they now have Cooks, Shakir and Davis who have all been there and done it. Though Gabe wasn't particularly good at it so that will be a concern.

He still might have said no to the Bills. He was a free agent. I find it unlikely because they literally still have all the CB's that they dealt him for peanuts in favor of on the roster.......but they may have offered him a PS spot.

Yeah the narrative that he is an assh0le came from the fact that he got traded a lot. He had a long career as a mid-league level WR1 so I think teams were always just making business decisions about his contract. That's certainly why the Saints traded him the first time. By all accounts he's always been a very professional player and good teammate. I am not sure what impact he will have on the room arriving at the end of the season like this but the Bills have not had someone like him and with his credibility in the WR room since they drafted Coleman. Certainly can't hurt, IMO. Cooper was a great player but not a particularly positive influence.