hondo in seattle

Should have never released Punt God.

Makes it to the round of 16. Maybe this is Jess's year!

Ken's a very knowledgeable guy. If I was anywhere near Buffalo, I'd pay to hear him talk.

Agree. Like the guy a little more now after that clip.

I think you're confusing him with his dad. Bobby Babich has never been a DC before, let alone a HC. Though I forget how old he is. Bobby Junior looks like a college kid but is 41 and has been in coaching for 18 years now.

Sadly, this is exactly true. Woman's tennis doesn't have just one 'Super Bowl' each year, they have four: the US, French, and Australian Opens - and Wimbledon. Jess has won lesser events but, despite her talent, zero Super Bowl type competitions. Just like the Bills. And the Sabres. But another Pegula owned team, the Buffalo Bandits, has won six championships. So we do have that.

As a former army officer, I was trusted to call "plays" during game time because I was thoroughly trained to do so. This makes me wonder what kind of training Babich received from McD on play-calling. Did they watch film together with McD drilling him, "Okay, what are you expecting from their offense here? So what do you call? Why?" Did they do anything else?

For those who don't follow Jessica, she had injuries at the beginning of the year but has come on strong since. She won the Berlin Ladies Open as well as the Canadian Open (for the second consecutive year) and made it to the finals of the Cincinatti Open. Currently ranked #6 (off a peak of #3), she's won something like 8 of her last 9 matches against top ten opponents but has yet to win a Grand Slam and, at the age of 30, her window may be closing.

Yep. Warner wasn't even deemed good enough to be on a practice squad. He was only good enough to stock the shelves where the practice squad players bought their groceries. It's an amazing story. Sometimes scouts and coaches get things wrong, though it remains true that the vast majority of p-squad players don't become impact players.

True. But Allen's critics have noticed other stats. For example, Josh was second in INTs last season. The season before, he led the league in fumbles. As Bills fans, we also know that Allen doesn't throw a lot of picks in the playoffs. Or late in the game. Or that he's often carrying the team on his back desperately trying to make plays when either his receivers aren't getting open or his OL isn't protecting him. We know the bigger picture, not all NFL fans do, nor all the AP media guys who vote on the MVP. Still, ball security hasn't been one of his strengths.

You might be right. If we had a HOF RB in the backfield - imagine someone like Jim Brown - I'd run the ball at lot if I was the coach/coordinator. But we don't. We have a HOF QB. I expect us to throw a bunch. Though maybe slightly less than last year. And maybe with an lower average depth of target. Joe Brady has some West Coast blood in him and the West Coast prioritizes higher percentage throws. As an ex-soldier, I think about it like this. We're going to war. We have a bunch of mediocre weapons but one really good one. We need to fire the good one a lot.

Do you want a HC who doesn't fire people who underperform? It's his job to build a coaching staff that gets the players to perform their very best. He's made some mistakes there, no doubt. Availability is part of the problems too. When Rick Dennison was hired as OC, I didn't think for a second that this was the guy McD really wanted. I figured this was the guy McD could get because most of the talented coordinator candidates were happily under contract somewhere else. Head Coaches usually take a few years to get the coaching staff they want. And even then, they'll lose guys (like Daboll) who find bigger opportunities elsewhere. McD has NOT been good with the OC position. So far, only 1 of the 4 has been good though I still have hope for Brady. But I want a HC who's unafraid of firing coordinators who don't excel at their jobs.

I think this is weird. I also think it's weird that we're a passing team but only carrying 5 wideouts on the 53.

Already having McD as our defensive guru and Josh as our QB puts us in playoff contention. Needless to say, however, we have talent issues at certain position groups. But I think/hope/pray we don't lose as many key players to injuries this season as last. I think having Babich as DC, instead of McD wearing both the HC and DC hats, will prove to be an advantage. I think, with a whole offseason to reset the offense, we'll discover Joe Brady is a better OC than Dorsey. Yikes, that's a lot of thinking. Good things don't usually happen when I think too much. Still I'm going with... 11-6

Seems to have the physical tools. 4.40. 9.85 RAS score.

Chris Brown goes off over Hardy's release. Tasker calls MVS a "nonentity."

McD makes our D above average. Josh makes our O above average. We make the playoffs.

There's been a lot of hype - some of it well-founded, some of it overstated - about Josh's problems with turnovers. I think some see Josh as being undisciplined with the football.

The thing is, I do it to. This year, I consciously decided NOT to fall for any practice squad players or marginal backups. (Last year, I was on the Sherfield train for a while after reading the Tyler Dunne article). I think maybe we all just like underdog stories.

The P-Squad is full of unspectacular players every year. The spectacular guys make the final 53. Yet despite the overflowing mediocrity of the p-squad, every year we fans will fall in love with one of those marginal guys while barely paying attention to the other marginal guys who weren't good enough to make the final roster. I guess it's kind of like going to the animal shelter and falling in love with one particular puppy that nobody else wanted to adopt.

For those who do, he was a scout (Phoenix, Tampa), defensive assistant coach (Jets), and director of player administration (Jets). He was also an OC in college (Hofstra). In other words, he's not just a media guy. He's real a football man with experience in coaching, scouting, and salary cap administration.

I'm asking because I honestly don't recall: Who was he covering? Because if he was covering a 4.8 wideout who was later cut, it's not that impressive. Beane said - unsurprisingly - that one thing they look at is who the guy is playing against.

It's funny how we get enamored with some p-squad players and ignore others. For example, why isn't Te'Cory Couch getting any love?

Actually, that's probably the reasoning behind it. But the flaw is when everyone gets a trophy, it's kind of like no one getting a trophy because the trophy is made meaningless. What's better is giving the trophy only to those who earned it. And telling the others something like, "I believe in you and your potential! If you work hard and do the right things, you'll get a trophy next time!" You give the high acheivers awards. You give the rest hope and encouragement. That's what McD seems to do, and it's the right approach.

I think the OP brings up some excellent divergent data that's hard to explain. While this isn't a complete explanation, I will say this: If the Bills didn't limp into the last two playoffs with injuries and other significant events (Tops shooting, Damar's death and resurrection...), I think the recent Bills story would be different. If the Chiefs didn't have a generational lead trio (HC, DC, and QB), the story would be different. And if both those things didn't happen (if the Bills entered the playoffs healthy and the Chiefs only had Reid but not Spags and Mahomes), we'd all be praising Beane and McD as the best GM/HC combo in Bills history.