BADOLBILZ

Agreed. But Douglas has his defenders here on TSW. Afterall........he picked the incredible Breece Hall. There were about a half dozen people on TSW who were irate about how the Jets got him instead of the Bills and how regret would follow. I mean, it's literally the easiest or second easiest position to find talent at (safety being the other) and they were desperate for OL help and goes to Arby's with a near 1st round pick. That pick eased my mind about his potential as a GM.

In 2022 Spencer Brown was playing at about the level Torrence has played this year. Which seemed bad because more was expected after he played well for a rookie and even played a little LT in relief of Dawkins in 2021. But Saffold had the worst season by an OL that I have ever seen as a Bills fan. Colin Brown 2013 was about as bad but was mercy benched after 5 starts. It wasn't a toss up who was worse, not by any means.

I would say Torrence really stunk early on this season. But I didn't at the time because Rodger Saffold really lowered the bar for bad guard play back in 2022. I see @uticaclub saying Spencer Brown cost the team a SB trip in 2022........I mean, hell no, Saffold was that guy. With Saffold in the middle there wasn't nearly enough time for anything Brown could not do to matter.

No and not particularly close yet, IMO. Buffalo Kromer line 1.0: Glenn/Incognito/Wood lines in 2015-2016 were dominant. They subsequently lead the NFL in rushing and big plays both years, which is a difficult combo for an offense let alone one without a top QB. They were in the primes of their careers and all like mid-high 70's grade pff etc.. as well. Dion's prime was 2020-2021. He's still good but not the same player. Brown and OCT are ascending but Brown has 12 penalties and OCT has had a rough year. McGovern and Edwards are solid. I liked McGovern over Morse for the stoutness in pass pro and that's been the case.

It's an interesting and relevant topic but I am in no rush to extend any of them. Benford and Bernard are very good players but the combination of having not been particularly durable and being back 7 "system fit" defenders in a McDermott defense tells me that you should probably play those deals out and draft and develop as if they won't be there in 2026. Shakir is tremendous from the slot but I don't think I could justify extending him for his market value. Would have to be way under market and considering the punishment he takes I'd be inclined to wait until he puts in a 120+ target kinda' workload (this season + playoffs) and then see if he can bounce back none the worse for it well into next season. He's sort of the Taron Johnson of the offense guy to me. I think they originally extended Taron in October or November during his walk season. Worst case scenario you are stuck replacing the easiest WR position to replace. After extending Allen, Greg Rousseau is by far the Bills biggest priority because he's a potential very long term difference maker at the LOS and has a big cap 2025 hit that can be worked down by extending him. I could see the Bills trying to pair Groot up with an elite pass rusher on the other side. Then maybe just drafting and developing back 7 replacements, which has worked out pretty well so far. That might be the most prudent way to go about it.

The guy averages 46 yac yards per game in a 2 high safety league. He'd have to be proven incredible downfield to justify dying on the hill they did in that divisional round. Flip he and Diggs routes on that play and take the easy button and McD probably ends up looking like Bill Parcells 2.0 at the end of the day for that gameplan.

There was no reason for you to frame the Cooper trade as Beane just seizing an opportunity instead of being in desperate search for a boundary WR either. But you did it. Better draft compensation gets teams to eat cap space. If the Jets didn't pony up for Adams the Raiders would have had to be open to eating money. That's why Beane was in on Adams in the first place. Because if the Raiders didn't trade him they had to pay him anyway. He had been pulled from the lineup and HAD to be moved. Even simply releasing him wasn't a money saving option. The Jets were just MORE desperate than the Bills or anyone else. And that's probably a factor in why they fired their GM today.

Sacrificing the amount of first downs they did to set up a deep shot to Quintin Morris? I mean, c'mon bro. I heard some Bills analyst say that the amount of wasted runs into the line wasn't egregious because only like 55% of the first downs were run plays. But they threw 40 passes and Allen had 12 rushes. The volume of wasted plays was too much.

yeah they converted something like eight third and 8 or more plays. It was absurd. It was NOT how you draw it up. And all of the analysis about how dominant the Bills were or how good the coaching was misses the point entirely. Allen willed them to victory. If he doesn't get that first down/TD at the end they lose and we know it. That chaotic football is entertaining but the guy has taken a beating this season they need to get the passing game in order down the stretch.

They were getting a boundary WR one way or another. Apparently everyone knew it except you. Beane admitted he was in on Adams but the Jets paid the price AND ate the money. No doubt if Cooper wasn't going to be traded then Hopkins is a Bill before KC loses Rice and has to pay as much as they did. That 5 that becomes a 4 from KC would have been a 3 that becomes a 2 from Buffalo.......or a 2 for Hopkins and a day 3 pick. You don't put your MVP level young QB's health and career in conflict over a day 2 pick. Also how did you like that go ball they threw to Shakir against KC? Total waste of a down. He kinda' looks like a 5'7" RB running a go route once he gets that far downfield, doesn't he? He's excellent at what he does but that ain't it. This is why not getting help on the boundary was not an option despite the likelihood all along that Shakir would put up 900 or so yards.

Indy/KC An ugly 1 TD 3 INT line with just 7 ypa.....so they subsequently needed an excessive 77 pass attempts the last two weeks(inflating bulk stats to 271 per game) and also an unsustainable 10 rushing attempts per game for Josh Allen. And that was with absolutely perfect passing conditions. In a dome one week and a rare zero-wind impact home game. TN/Sea 4 TD 1 INT 9 ypa and 30 more pass yards per game and subsequently just 5 rushes per game for Allen in the two weeks with both Cooper and Coleman together. And the TN game was very wind impacted. The passing game was much more efficient. As it also was to a lesser extent in the Miami game with at least Coleman fully healthy. Not having those guys healthy has turned them back into the kind of offense they were down the stretch last year, which was predicated on JA being used as a battering ram in the run game.

He's a better prospect than Purdy it's just that what Purdy does that makes him good at the pro level is really hard to identify at the college level. The college game is a lot more about the physical tools. There are plenty of excellent college prospects at the QB position coming but this isn't a particularly good class, IMO. Some of these class of 2025 HS kids are going to force currently good QB's to change teams in the next few months. Transfer portal is going to be crazy at QB.

Wrong. They needed a WR1 and were clearly desperate for it. They paid Cleveland a premium for having eaten that cap hit. Had Cooper from Cleveland not been an option they would have pivoted to Hopkins or even Diontae Johnson who were subsequently acquired for day 3 compensation. The Bills would have had to pay more to get those teams to take on cap hit or they would have had to make their own re-structuring to make it work. But after Allen got his skull bounced off the turf hard in back to back games with the passing game in utter disarray they were going to get someone to make teams respect the boundary. https://www.instagram.com/realdanmitchell/reel/DA1HcM7RXIW/

Who is we? There was a large contingent that believed what the Bills had at WR going into the season was going to be enough. The easiest WR prediction of the summer was that Beane would be desperately searching for a WR1 in October.

I like how you spin it as if Beane only acquired Cooper because it was convenient. He was desperate for a boundary WR1 type after those showings in Baltimore and Houston.

It did significantly transform them for a couple games and their potential going forward. The hardest receiving weapons to find are the boundary receivers. Acquiring Cooper as Coleman was also breaking out has very much colored our view of the weapons around Allen. In lesser roles and against lesser defenders the other players are much more impactful. Statistically, the passing game the past two weeks with Coleman out and Cooper limited has not been good.

Warner is great and I wouldn't put Bernard on his level as an overall LB..........but the splash-play season Bernard had last year was the best by any NFL LB in decades. As @FireChans stats illustrated, Warner is the longer, more physical player but Bernard's combined skillset of making plays behind the LOS and his nose for the ball are second to none for off-ball types.

The bursa sac was definitely a problem for sure but he had numerous arm and leg ailments. His physical drop-off from the first SB to the last was notable. But Kelly was largely the same quality of QB from 1992-1995. What he lost physically he made up for by becoming a better decision maker/leader. The talk in 1995 was if he had been that good of a leader in 1990 they'd have won SB XXV. That 1995 team was really deficient of passing game talent, as you may recall. Kelly just fell off a cliff in 1996. And that really was NOT expected. They had just signed Quinn Early in UFA.......and he had been a top 15 NFL WR for the Saints in 1995........and drafted Eric Moulds who people had high hopes would have an immediate impact(everyone else from that great first round WR class did). Expectations were sky high for that team on opening day 1996.

Sure, because it's much simpler than that. He's just a very fundamentally flawed football coach.

Probably the best splash-play off-ball LB in the NFL. The splash stats he accumulates are extraordinary.

That was a nice TD RAC he had last night

Daboll simply doesn't have what it takes for any kind of sustained success as a HC. His proponents were just dead wrong about him and can't admit it.

Yeah it is not uncommon at all for less talented versions of teams to win SB's when the more talented could not. They are just often forgotten. The 76' Steelers team that lost to the Raiders was their most talented team of that dynasty. Since that all-time talented kinda' team lost there have been many instances of a teams lesser roster winning a subsequent SB or multiple. Most recently of course the past 2 Chiefs teams that were less talented than the team that lost the AFCCG to Cinci. In hindsight it's NOW easier to say that the 2 most recent Chiefs teams had much better defense's........but should this Bills team win a SB we might look back and say they were better than prior Bills teams because they had young defensive stars in their prime in 2024. It's why I never bought into the window closing. They were getting younger where they needed to and simultaneously more experienced where they need to. They had to resolve the boundary WR position and with Coleman emerging and Cooper's acquisition they've closed up that hole. They've also, so far, limited the emotional up's and down's that plagued the 21'-23' teams.

It was never a rebuilding year. The media said it, for a number of reasons, most of which were not logical, and a bunch of fans latched onto it because they wanted to lower the bar for the team. Fans can be funny like that. A majority of TSW posters thought 2017 was being set up to be a "tank" season by McBeane. It was rather obvious by the extremely veteran roster that they took to camp that they were just going to try to Jauron Ball their way thru the schedule but anticipating an intentionally crafted 4-12 season made it easy for fans to lower expectations and potential disappointment.

I think that's a little hindsight. It turned out they weren't a top contender but they were a popular pick to reach the SB going into 96'. Bruce Smith, Bryce Paup and Ted Washington were incredible as the defense became dynamic in 1995 and Kelly had been probably the offensive MVP of the AFC that year and seemed to be maturing into a more cerebral version of himself while still retaining enough physical skill. But then Kelly hit the wall like Aaron Rodgers has. It wasn't really physically quantifiable he just started making inexplicable mistakes. Didn't help that Bennett left in UFA unexpectedly after he was just finally reaching his potential......at MLB........where he should have been all along. Chris Spielman was a nice fall back but Bennett could do so much more.