hondo in seattle

Every receiver who comes to Brady's Buffalo seed their production go down. Does this mean Cooks will average less than the 16.5 yards/game that he's been racking up so far this season?

Never sure who's going to show up: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. But I only pick against the Bills when I feel strongly about a bad matchup. This week, I don't know what to expect so I'm going with a Bills win... Bills 24 Steelers 21

This is all true. Our defense is the bigger problem. I think we complain more about the offense for a couple of reasons: First, we're fans. We like to see our teams score points. Second, we have Josh Allen. Whether you want to blame Beane, Brady, or the wideouts, it's criminal that we have an inept downfield passing attack.

The problem is none of them pan out. Since Brady became OC, pretty much every FA WR who Beane signs ends up having a bad year. If I was a FA wideout, I'd stay away from the Bills like it was kryptonite.

Won't get fooled again! I'm not the biggest Gabe backer on the planet, but I'd rather see Gabe on the field than Keon. Or Cooks. Or Shavers.

That's a good observation. I didn't know that we ranked last for WRs using that point system. Though we do have to consider Diggs. We traded four picks to the Vikes to get Diggs if I recall correctly, including a #1. Does that up our score to 13 points or more? Even if it does, it's still under the 21-point average. As I see it now, we're both right. Beane undervalues WRs and mismanages the cap. He's not a great wideout talent evaluator either, overvaluing guys like Keon, Curtis Samuel, Kelvin Benjamin, etc. I have said in other posts that if you're lucky enough to have a unicorn QB, your two priorities as a GM ought to be getting him an elite OL bodyguard to protect him and capable WRs to throw to. Beane has an unimpressive record in this regard, sometimes giving us one or the other, but never both at the same time.

I'm not so sure. Beane did sign Diggs for a lot of money and drafted Keon highly. I think he values wideouts. But I think Beane has managed the cap poorly. I think we're overpaying for a bunch of players which meant that this past offseason when we needed WRs, Beane went shopping at Dollar Tree instead of Neiman Marcus.

If I recall the verbiage correctly, Greg Cosell called our downfield passing scheme "elementary." Other analysts have made similar comments. So what we need is a wideout so talented that he can get open even running simplistic, predictable routes. I am glad Beane did something, but I don't think Cooks is that guy.

You're not impressed by Cooks averaging 16.5 yards per game so far this year?

Thanks for posting! That was worth a watch. Not very different from my own view of the game, but to hear an ex-NFL-er talk about the Texans' disrespect and disregard for our receivers was sobering.

Thanks for posting this, Einstein. It only amplified my concerns about Brady. Our downfield passing game is probably the weakest part of our offense. Our receivers don't separate and Brady hasn't demonstrated any genius at scheming guys open. Downfield passing is probably the strength of the Texan defense. Their secondary is very good and their DL can generate pressure without tons of blitzing. So why were we watching Josh drop back, scan the field, and get clobbered? What was Brady thinking? We all knock Brady for being too conservative, but this was a game when he should have dialed up lots of runs (instead of 19 rushes by RBs versus 34 passes) and short, quick passes where the ball is out of Josh's hand in 2.0 seconds. Unless I'm missing something, it was one of the dumbest game plans I've ever seen.

I blame them all. If I were Pegs, though, I wouldn't fire anyone. I would sit down with Beane and McD at the end of the season and ask them what they'll do to make next season better. Hoping for fewer injuries, needless to say, wouldn't be an acceptable answer. I'd need Beane to tell me - at a minimum - that he's going to plus-up the scouting department and/or modify how they evaluate players so we don't have any more Elams and Colemans. I'd need McD to tell me - at a minimum - that we're going to hire a passing game coordinator who'll help revitalize our stagnant, simplistic downfield passing game. Only if I didn't get those answers would I consider firing anyone.

I think Brady is designing game plans, though I'm not sure what that was yesterday. Because the Texans are good at pressuring QBs, and have a particularly strong secondary, I expected a heavy dose of Cook and the RBs, balanced with some short, quick passes. Instead, I got a huge serving of Josh dropping back, scrambling, and getting sacked. Downfield passing is not a strength of the Bills, nor a weakness of the Texans, so I'm not sure what the idea was. Why would we dial up weakness versus strength? And with 116 from Cook, maybe someone could say we did get a heavy dose of Cook. But not really. We only ran him 17 times despite a 6.8 ypc against the league's best defense. And for a long while it seemed like Brady forgot about him. RBs only totaled 19 carries versus 34 pass attempts. I'm not sure what Houston vulnerability Brady was trying to attack, but he didn't do it very well.

Seems like a solid, intelligent guy whose head is in the right place. Somewhere else, I posted that skill-wise, he was more or less a jag. But I want to be wrong. I root for him and hope he becomes a regular contributor to the Bills offense.

We've seen Josh make some bad decisions. Although Josh throws picks at about the same rate that Brady did, Josh throws more boneheaded picks, and I think that affects how some people see him. And yet, Josh leads the entire NFL in EPA/play. 1. Josh +0.26 2. Mayfield +0.25 3. Daniel Jones +0.24 Josh's score is higher than most of Brady's season EPA ratings. It's an interesting Top Three list because teams had given up on #2 and #3. Even with the league's best score, I think Josh's EPA can go up even higher when & if Josh improves his decision-making process, Brady does a better job scheming a downfield passing game, and Beane gives the offense better weapons.