hondo in seattle

Great start? We've lost a bunch of starters and contributors, signed a backup QB, and restructured some contracts to keep a couple of guys without emptying the bank. Objectively, not a great start. But I get the point. Given the circumstances that he himself created, Beane seems to be doing a good job managing the cap challenges.

We once boasted an elite secondary anchored by White, Poyer, and Hyde. Now only one of them is left. Sad.

We were blessed to have the Hyde-Poyer duo when they were in their prime. All good things must come to an end.

I expect the roster to be somewhat worse because of our cap situation. I'm hoping that Beane proves me wrong. I'm also hoping that Brady schemes up a better offense and that our D remains mostly healthy this year. Oh, and I'm hoping Von and Tre return to form.

There are analytic sites that chart separation, and some receivers are more 'open' (i.e. gain more separation) than others. And some schemes get guys 'open' more than others. I'd like for the Bills receivers to be on the good end of the spectrum rather than the poor end where we are now.

Every draft pick is a crapshoot and I hope Beane doesn't trade up and leaves us with more rolls of the dice.

Maybe. It'll be interesting to see who Beane gets to replace him (if he leaves).

I'd love to have a good run game. Kelly had Thurman. This offense would be hard to stop if it could both run and pass. But currently it can't do either with consistency. And with Josh as, by far, our best player, we need to build around him. We need a good group of bodyguards up front that keep him upright and give him time to throw. And we need receiving weapons. Too often we see Josh scrambling around either because (a) protection broke down, or (more commonly now) (b) no one's open.

I'm happy enough with Shakir and Diggs in their current places. But I want Eric Moulds in Gabe's place. If not Moulds, give me a Lee Evans - a speedster with hands who can stretch defenses. Josh's arm strength allows him to throw effectively both to the boundaries and deep. Cook is a decent running threat both inside and out. With the right receivers, defenses will have to defend the entire 53-yard width of the field from the LOS to 60+ yards downfield. So much real estate, they'll fail. The biggest piece we're missing is a legit deep threat. We need speed more than size.

In today's pass-happy NFL, it's good to have an elite secondary. And I remember when we had one with Hyde and Poyer on the backend and Tre as one of the corners. I'm afraid we're going into the 2024 season with a secondary that's much less than elite with the safeties and Tre (if we even keep them) now beyond their prime. Releasing Douglas doesn't help. Yikes, indeed.

Specifics on McD: 98% of players feel head coach Sean McDermott is efficient with their time (4th overall) Players feel that head coach Sean McDermott is very willing to listen to the locker room (11th overall)

But restructuring doesn't save you any money. It postpones a problem but doesn't solve it.

If these data are reliable... interesting. Benford and Taron Johnson are among the best CBs. Not targeted a lot and not giving up a lot of separation. Our old friend, Levi Wallace, is worse than average in both categories. Jalen Ramsey: not targeted a lot but worse than average in separation. Jets have two stud corners.

I've seen wrongful accusations in the past. We all have. I'm not making a snap judgment.

Other than 'sheltering' the kid, I'm not clear what he did. But the family seems both impressed and thankful, so congrats to CEH. Sadly, our country has too many bad role models: actors smashing cars while high, ballers beating their spouses, and so on. It's great when an athlete does something selfless & good that maybe inspires someone else.

He looked like a breakout superstar at one point. But after a while the drops, miscommunications, and inconsistency at creating separation drove me crazy. But he seems to be a good guy who plays hard, and I wish him the best.

You're right, of course. I shouldn't have said, "only by restructuring some contracts." Though Beane will almost certainly restructure some contracts to give himself some cap space. While I understand the necessity of it sometimes, I hate restructuring contracts because I don't want a cash-strapped future. I'm hoping he gets a couple of guys to take pay cuts.

I think cash-to-cap is an intriguing idea though transitioning to it would be painful. Yeah, most teams restructure contracts. Most teams are NOT sitting $55 million over the cap (using the OTC figure) and forced to restructure just to get under the cap even with 22 FAs no longer under contract. The Chief, in contrast, won a SB and are $15 million under the cap. They have the 2nd least dead money ($457,000) in the league because they don't continually kick the can down the road. How do we catch up to their roster strength when they have $70 million more to spend?

I've been concerned about Rousseau since we drafted him. I'm not a college football fan but watched his highlights and had issues with his rawness and lack of power. And he hasn't won me over since. In my eyes, he's not a SB-caliber player, though I grant he's young-ish and may still be improving.

Only by restructuring some contracts and kicking the can further down the road, making it harder for us to sustain excellence. I fear that Beane's personnel and cap skills (or lack thereof) will result in us fielding a playoff-caliber team every year, but never a championship one.

I don't mean to sound callous, but I care about Greenberg's opinion about as much as I care about the ant I stepped on when I took my dog for a 12-mile run in the mountains yesterday. Now that I think about it, I'm starting to feel guilty about the ant. I actually care about the ant more than I care about Greenberg's opinion. The reality is Josh is going to win a SB or he isn't. Greenberg's thoughts don't affect the odds so why should any of us care?

I agree stats don't lie. But let's use the right stats, not meaningless stats like challenge record or record in 1-score games. Stat: the Bills went 17 years without sniffing the playoffs. Since McD, we're regulars. Stat: McD has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Bills history and the 2nd most playoff wins. But coaches don't play the game. Belichick has won Lombardis with good rosters and had losing records with bad rosters. Speaking of Lombardi, he finished his final season with a pedestrian 7-5-2 record. Even the greatest coach of all time can't win the championship if he doesn't have the right roster. I don't understand why McD's viewed as a failure for not bringing home trophies when he doesn't have a trophy-caliber roster. I guess that's what separates me from the fire-McD crowd. They seem to rate our roster more highly than I do. I'm also not certain why we're assessing blame for not winning the Super Bowl. Beane and McD are both responsible for an amazing turnaround. That deserves appreciation, not blame. Of course, I hope they both do more to get us to the summit.

Before the season began, I did think we had a chance. I think the average NFL team starts with a 3% chance of winning it all but the Bills, as one of the best teams, had maybe a 10% chance. By the time the playoffs rolled around, with all our injuries, I wasn't very hopeful anymore. You could argue that Beane's had some bad luck with injuries to big contract guys. But the Miller contract probably should have never happened. But here we are so how do we move forward? Soft rebuild? If there were easy answers, we'd all be GMs. But I do hope Beane doesn't go whole-hog on restructuring contracts, mortgaging the future to make us competitive in 2024. Then again, I don't want to be uncompetitive in 2024 so I want to see some restructuring. My fear is this process will perennially produce a playoff level roster but never a championship one. We're in a tough situation and I'm hoping Beane finds a way out by hitting big on some draft picks and low-priced FAs that turn into big contributors.

Yet coaching helped produce that point differential. It's impressive that McD and his staff are producing a much better point-differential than Reid, Shanahan or any other coach. And yet, not a single SB appearance over that stretch. You'd think there'd be at least one. If coaching is the problem, why does McD outcoach the rest of the NFL during the regular season but not in the postseason? How is he different in the playoffs? Does he suddenly scheme differently? Or prepare the team differently?

This is a depressing thread. The Bills need to get better to win the Lombardi. Whenever I read about this year's cap, I can't help but feel we're going to get worse. Restructuring might buy us some relief. But that's just kicking the can down the road making future years difficult too. I like the team Beane has built for the most part, but I don't like where he's put us with the cap.