BADOLBILZ

So in addition to Moss and later Gronk you don't think Welker and Edelman were big time weapons for NE? 11 out of 12 years from 2007 on their slot receiver averaged somewhere between 67 and 98 yards per game! Eight 1,000 yard plus seasons. Studs. Fact. Right in our own division. Were you following the Bills or not? Some of you really don't follow football close enough to even be discussing these topics. Go back to the kids table @Thurman#1

TE can be a WR2 equivalent if they are really outstanding receivers. How does including a TE who averages 15 yards per catch and has a 65% catch rate and 60+ yards per game like Gronk negate the argument? Kelce was great in all 3 of the Chiefs SB years and Tyreek and Watkins were the 2nd and 3rd options in 2 of those SB appearances. And last year Juju was a do-everything-well second option at WR who put up WR1 bulk stats(24th in yards receiving) and provided Mahomes a crazy efficient near 80% catch rate passing game weapon. It would be incredible if the Bills had someone like that opposite Diggs this season. In fact compare his efficiency numbers last year to Diggs stats this year. Better ypc, success%, catch rate, YAC, yards per target.......he was legit VERY good last year. The Bills TE's haven't been dangerous. Knox has had a truly terrible season. His biggest impacts were two crucial 4th down drops........one that nearly lead directly to a loss against the NYG.......and one that greatly contributed to defeat in NE. Before that he has always been an inconsistent passing game weapon just like Gabe. Kincaid has show more promise but he has a pathetic 8.1 yards per reception and 6.7 yards per target. He's been toothless to this point. Maybe this year is the exception when you don't need a stud 2nd receiving option? Maybe this year playoff defense's don't shut down offense's that rely so heavily on RB's like this year's Bills and Chiefs? That's why top ranked, must-feed RB's don't win SB's.......but again, maybe this year is finally the exception? There are a lot of maybe's but my point is that the known quantities that the Bills have as weapons are not on par with what has been getting teams to SB's.

Very right about: - MLB being an easy fill.......never worried about it. - WR position being a big weakness (and Sharty and Sherfield not being impactful after worse careers than Crowder and McKenzie whom they replaced) - Kincaid being good for a rookie but also not real impactful - Offensive line being much better than expected Very wrong about: - Ed Oliver stepping up his game significantly........I doubted it - The opinion that Von Miller would be ready early in the season and play well this year. He had a setback in August but even if he came back on the early timeline he'd have sucked for the first 3 months based on how unimpactful he's been. - I was specifically quite confident that Allen wouldn't repeat his mistake prone 2022 performance in the Meadowlands..........but he did and then some.

Those kids Christmas almost got Munsoned

Yeah I will believe a RB is the difference when it happens again. As I said in another response, run defense is all about effort and technique. So defense's can easily elevate that aspect of their game in the playoffs.......and often do. Think about the 2017 Bills defense in the WC game in Jacksonville. That was a team that had given up a franchise record of rushing yards over a 3 game span earlier that season. They were STOUT in that playoff game. This reality has long spelled doom for run-centric teams in the playoffs.

OBJ was huge for the Rams in their SB run and was on pace to be the MVP for the Rams in that SB. They held on after he got injured. But they don't get there without him stepping up........including the 9-11 for 113 versus the Niners in that closely contested NFCCG. The quality of a teams WR2 has been a huge indicator for teams reaching the SB the last 6 seasons. The quality of individual RB has been inconsequential for the most part. For decades now. And that's because run defense is about effort and technique and defense's tend to raise the levels of those things in playoff games.

The Chiefs were MORE of "that" last season though. And they had a short road to the SB(the only one of the past 4 years that they didn't reach the SB was the year they didn't have a bye). The Bills don't have a second boundary receiver who can run a full route tree, create RAC, catch a contested throw or AT LEAST draw the occasional PI penalty. Juju could do all of those things for the Chiefs..........which then made MVS more effective and so forth.

Unfortunately the lack of playmaking at the receiver position made that hard to sustain. I truly believe that Beane is getting better at his job but the current lack of playmaking ability at WR is on him.

We can hope this season the SB winner is an aberration........like Josh and the defense putting the team on their back in the playoffs like the out-of-his-mind Joe Flacco SB Ravens or something........but they don't have all of the elements of any recent SB participant. Their playmakers don't stack up.

Yeah there is no arguing that not having a salary cap keeps good big market teams competitive every year..........that's real. But the only real current threat to changing the current course that's producing new champs year after year is Steve Cohen. And Cohen seems to be trying to build more gradually/responsibly himself. Guys like Friedman with LA and Hal Steinbrenner are in it to make money first and foremost. The Dodgers have essentially added at most $31M in real payroll expense to their roster next year with Shohei and Yamamoto. It's not crazy money by any means. The Yanks will pay that to Soto and that cost them players to acquire. The Yanks will pivot and spend money elsewhere but it won't largely change the balance of the league and the de facto salary cap called the luxury tax will continue to give Hal the excuse to keep his payroll in the 25%-35% of revenue range.........as opposed to NFL teams who pay out over 50%........and as opposed to pre-tax era when George Steinbrenner at times had as much as 80% of revenue tied up in player salaries. The luxury tax isn't exactly a salary cap but because greed naturally expands and rich endeavor to avoid taxes......it serves the same purpose.

Memories are incredibly short with football fans. Josh not running was the biggest complaint all season. Fans expected Dorsey's offense to be productive and consistent anyway. Joe Brady takes over with a clear directive to cut Josh loose as a runner and the narrative is that Joe Brady is some kind of revelation as the OC. I think he's fine and being his second job as an NFL play caller I think that experience and then time to step back and re-evaluate maybe gives him a little edge over Dorsey when working against veteran DC's........though Spagnolo got in his pants in that second half in KC. But that experience matters. First year OC's never win a SB so it's no surprise Dorsey got Anarumo'ed in the playoffs after being on a 9 game heater.

No parity? There hasn't been a repeat WS champion since the luxury tax was instituted. Baseball is basically back in the collusion era of the 1980's. Tax the rich for spending.......and they spend less. That's a universal law. 2 free agents sign and someone brings up parity.........meanwhile about 800 others are looking for work and most will get paid a fraction of what you'd expect. This is the kind of free agency Charlie Finley wanted and Marvin Miller was trying to prevent. Yeah the big market teams are still going to usually win a lot of regular games most years and bad small market teams like the Pirates will stay bad...........but the current system still makes stories like the ingenious Tampa Bay Rays and the usually incompetently run Baltimore Orioles(current) a real possibility. Well run teams of all market sizes can be very good and the playoff system is such that upsets are always possible.

Yeah, Miami and Arizona dumped him because he tried too hard. Yep that's been his rep. Dude is second only to Aaron Maybin among 21st century Bills at fake hustling and eye wash. When the going is tough and it hurts to play with leverage, tie up blockers and get off blocks he plays like he's 250# instead of #350. When the other team has one foot on the bus, playing on their heels in garbage time he chases the easy stats/big plays with wreckless abandon. Same thing last year when he stupidly hurt his shoulder flopping wildly at Mac Jones at the end of a blowout. He connects with fans for his cheerleading but the reality is that he is one of the worst rated DT's in the entire league again this year.

Hines? $5.5M for a 28 year old scatback with a blown knee to be the 3rd RB? Nah. That would be gross mismanagement by Beane. Find next years version of Ty Johnson to be the 3rd back.

The dramatic change was Allen being encouraged(and schemed) to attack defense's with his full range of skills again. Until they lost that Denver game they were still playing to keep Allen healthy for the stretch drive. The very next game against the Jets Allen was running the ball again and taking hits, fighting for extra yards and getting dragged down awkwardly........but he's been extending drives and opening up the run game for the RB's in the process. I like some of the non-Allen-running adjustments that Brady has made but they are subtle......NOT "dramatic". You were probably one of the people complaining about running Cook out of shotgun under Dorsey, right? "Everybody knows what's coming!" Well, now that they are having to account for Allen possibly pulling the ball and running.........those plays are starting to look a little more effective, aren't they? The passing game is still not looking good at all. One of the underrated aspects of the Bills "bad" losses and/or poor offensive showings this season was that, aside from the familiarity matchup against Daboll, they came to defense's that have played well in general this season. I had no problem changing Dorsey out but let's not pretend he could NOT change or adapt at all. He drew up very unexpected gameplans against the Rams in the opener last season, in the Tampa game this year and he adjusted the offense to Allen's UCL injury last year to great effect. He was a raw rookie in 2022 and replaceable either way but he wasn't single handedly handicapping the Bills offense. That was a team effort. Hopefully they find something in the passing game this week against a Chargers defense that is in shambles......like the way they did with the Cowboys terrible run defense without Hankins......but if they had lost that low scoring nail biter in KC the narrative about Brady isn't how good he's been. Nope. It's how Stefon Diggs disappeared under his watch and whether Brady even deserves a chance at returning since the Bills season would have been all but over at that point.

Important to note that I think Simms has meant "step up" in conjunction with Diggs. The Bills can't get the ball to Diggs. It's kind of been either/or.

Yeah that was a good one. Judon was tearing it up and it was particularly satisfying because Allen had played against him in his first career game being routed in the opener against Baltimore and Judon was literally trying to injure him with cheap shots. Aaron Donald in the opener last season was a good one too. They devised a great quick passing game that day and neutralized him despite the atrocious Rodger Saffold being at one of the guard spots. That was probably the best player they've rendered unimpactful in this Josh Allen era.

Agree with the first 2. Rest.......I'd say nah. - Cook is a fine player but putting up volume numbers in great part due to the lack of other receiving weapons, teams overplaying Diggs because of that, and the dual threat QB next to him. He's still just a RB though. He's not McCaffrey(especially not in the catch efficiency department) but even with CMC Deebo is BY FAR the most important weapon for that 49ers team. They routinely pumped out huge RB per play production in SF before CMC arrived. But they lose games when Deebo is not on the field because he gets 12 yards per touch versus McCaffrey who gets just 6 yards per touch. - Kincaid could become one of the best TE's in the NFL but he definitely hasn't been that this season. James Cook might have been closer to being one of the best RB's in the NFL last year than Kincaid is among TE's. Cook averaged 5.7 yards per carry in 2022. Kincaid is 15th in receiving yards but his 8.1 yards per reception is horrible and now he's got a sprained thumb and dropped both of his targets last game. Allen does not have a good skill unit around him this season.

I was never worried about Parsons coming into this game. It's one thing they have consistently done offensively..........limit the impact of that one "game wrecker". Josh Allen + gameplan does that. You can go back to rookie Cody Ford stoning Von Miller when everyone thought Miller would have a field day.

I guess you can't read then. He literally highlighted his attempted points and I addressed them.........but his take was that the problem for the last year has been an incompetent OC. Like I said..........it's not been the same team since then. At mid-year last season Josh Allen sprained his elbow and they adapted the offense because he was struggling to throw the ball short and intermediate with touch. The Bills proceeded to AVERAGE 30 points per game in the 9 games after the UCL injury and prior to the Cinci playoff loss. The narrative that the Dorsey was killing them down the stretch culminating in the Cinci playoff loss is just asinine. Totally different situation this year, very different roster and overall health. They were a physically and emotionally hobbled unit at the end of last year and there were limitations in Allen's game due to health and Cinci was able to take advantage of the changes the Bills were forced to make. This year the Bills started out with a gameplan of avoiding Allen getting hurt and compromising their offense later in the season. I mean, how short of a memory do some of you have? I mean it was only a month ago roughly that every pundit was complaining about how Allen was being used. It was an organizational choice not just Dorsey being clueless. As I've been saying for a couple years, the WR position has been steadily degrading and you can't ask Allen to immitate Joe Burrow when he has no playmaking ability at WR beyond Diggs. Combine that with opposing defense's being in default "stop big plays" mode this season and it was a recipe for mediocrity. And those of you that think all those offensive problems from 2 months ago are fixed now clearly don't see all the passes falling incomplete. They aren't a well-oiled machine now they have just opened up their options. I like Joe Brady. Agreed it was time for a change because the team was in a malaise and it was an easy replacement to make to give them a jolt and letting Brady take over when they were already going to have to take the reigns off of Allen was ideal timing for him to make a good first impression. But Brady hasn't yet gotten this team running on all cylinders offensively either. And he might not be able to because the receiving talent just isn't there.

Did anyone not expect the offense to improve later in the season whether they changed play callers or not? Dorsey began the season with a directive to not get Josh Allen beaten up. They were playing "not to lose Josh" and just get thru these easy opponents offensively for the last month before Dorsey got canned. And the reality is they do not have the talent at WR to just make their QB stay in the pocket with the way defense's are attacking big play offense's this season. Dorsey's exit coincided with the team letting Josh be Josh. The threat of Allen using every skill at his disposal opens up the run game. The passing game is still out of sync and very punchless but now that every option is on the table they can look more like they have when they've played with desperation in the past. This season is not just an extension of last season.......so much has changed beyond just the offensive play caller.

Your hindsight is 50/50.......congrats. The team on the field now is not the same as the one at the end of last season..........the talent on offense is significantly better.......guys like Torrence/McGovern/Kincaid weren't with the team..........and the development of Spencer Brown and James Cook among others has been significant they weren't nearly the players they are now. And they've been healthier. On defense they aren't just relying on Tim Settle and Ed Oliver to rotate as the 1 tech like they were in that Cinci game........Leonard Floyd and Rasul Douglas are big upgrades at key starting positions.........with the pass rush and LOS play improved the back 7 in general is more effective even though last years back 7 had Milano and Edmunds. There is no doubt they were emotionally sapped at the end of last season and they also didn't have the horse's to overcome it against a strong Cinci team(unfortunately even with the Bengals OL banged up) like they did versus Miami the week before.

I guess it's a good thing that you weren't alive when non-sellouts by Thursday of that week were blacked out in Buffalo/Rochester both.........or when the only way to get out of market games was to pay DirecTV hundreds of dollars per year. You and the rest of the "can't believe we gotta' pay to watch a game what's next?!" crowd would have really been tripping then. 😉

I'm always not shocked when Lil' Dummy does Lil' Dummy things.

Purdy-est Player?