mjt328

Go back to 2018-2019, and I was very much rooting for the Chiefs to win. I wanted to see Andy Reid finally get one. I thought Patrick Mahomes was fun to watch. The team was new and exciting. And more than anything else... I was ready for the two decade long Patriots dynasty to finally end. Even from 2020-2022, I still had an element of respect for the Chiefs. Even with our postseason losses to them. They were a very good team that we were simply struggling to get past in the playoffs. It was frustrating, but there wasn't anything in particular I could hate or dislike about that franchise (outside of domestic abuser Tyreek Hill). To me, everything started falling apart with the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce fiasco. The NFL couldn't go 10 minutes without showing her reaction to the game, and every element of their coverage reeked of blatant favoritism. It was around the same time that officiating also started getting ridiculously biased in their favor. Every single 3rd-down stop from the opponent was followed by a suspiciously late yellow flag. There was a noticeable drop in how well the team was actually playing every week... but somehow (often with help from the refs), they continued to find ways to win. At this point, Chiefs games are pretty much unwatchable for me. I won't even tune in hoping they lose. I didn't watch the Super Bowl, and didn't even know who won the game for almost a week after. I haven't watched any of their primetime games this year, and probably won't watch another outside of the Bills matchup. I'm not really excited about Sunday's game, and will be very quick to change the channel if things start going south. Seeing that team have any kind of success is literally that nauseating for me. One more point. I think it's just dreadfully boring to watch the same teams win ALL THE TIME. We just suffered through the Patriots for nearly 20 years, and now the Chiefs have made the AFC Championship a whopping 7 years in a row. There are currently 12 franchises (and their fanbases) who have NEVER won a Super Bowl. That's more than 37% of the league.

I'm OK with us sticking with a heavy rushing attack (if it's working), and taking underneath throws (if that's what the defense is giving us). The problem is that we need to take advantage when teams start creeping towards the line of scrimmage, or playing single-high coverage. And in those must-have situations (3rd and long), we need guys that can get open quickly without forcing the QB to scramble around and buy extra time. In other words, I don't have a problem with the coaching staff's general philosophy. I have a problem with our capability to execute when opponents shut-down our primary method of attack. So yes. We do have a WR problem.

If a quarterback is constantly getting pressured and hit... eventually they will start rushing throws and bailing from the pocket early. Even when the O-Line finally manages to give some decent time, that lack of trust in the blocking has gotten into the QB's head. In the same way, if receivers are constantly having trouble getting open... eventually a quarterback will start moving through progressions too quickly and hesitating to pull the trigger. That's when he starts missing guys even when they are open. I truly believe this is the root of what's wrong with Josh Allen right now. He's admitted that he's not trusting what he's seeing on the field. So what does that exactly mean? From the level of play we've consistently witnessed in the past, I have a hard time believing Defensive Coordinators suddenly figured out new ways to confuse him in Year 9. The lack of trust comes from the supporting cast - in particular the outside WRs.

You talk about that season like it turned out positive. The Bills came back and won the division. But their mid-season lull cost them a chance at the bye. And then they got bounced in the Divisional Round. People aren’t upset about the AFC East possibly slipping away. They are upset because this team still doesn’t look ready for the next step, and still looks behind the Chiefs. Which means another wasted year in Josh Allen’s rapidly closing window.

The Keon Coleman pick sums up Brandon Beane perfectly. The Bills lose their star WR and need desperately to replace Stefon Diggs in the upcoming draft. With so many potentially good WRs in that class, he absolutely couldn't afford to screw it up. The correct move would have been to aggressively identify a guy with premium #1 WR potential, and then move up in the draft to ensure getting that guy. If there wasn't a guy he liked in the draft, he could use that 1st Rounder and other picks as ammo to obtain a veteran option. Instead, he sits back passively in the late 20's, refusing to part with any of his precious draft picks to move up. He even trades back with another receiver-needy team, proving that he's got no true conviction on any of the WRs on his board. If Beane really believed in Coleman, why would he be willing to trade back and risk losing him? If he values his picks so much, why would he be willing to part with a premium draft selection on a WR he doesn't really believe in? This is the conundrum that exists when you have a General Manager who drafts for position and is trying to fill-out a roster... as opposed to one who has a special eye for talent.

I understand Josh Allen's mindset, because it's very close to my own. At this point, who cares about the MVP award, AFC East titles and Wild Card Round victories? He's experienced this team accomplish all of that, and then not be good enough when it actually matters. Over time, continually falling short wears on you. I don't really get excited for regular season success. And I get way more frustrated when the team plays like trash than I did 2-4 years ago. I literally have no patience with this team anymore, because I've seen the same song and dance. We keep hearing about the process and getting better... only to see a rinse/repeat every single season. The optimistic fans keep pointing out how we have stretches like this midseason and then turn it up down the stretch. But WHEN will this team stop squandering their chance at the #1 seed/bye with ridiculous garbage losses to inferior opponents? In truth, the Bills aren't getting better, because every season we restart and go through the same thing. Every year, Allen is going out there and sacrificing his body - carrying a mediocre offense on his shoulders. He finally gets the running game he always needed, and it's literally the same time our top WR exits town and doesn't get replaced. At some point, the guy is just going to get mentally worn out.

To me, the Patriots are irrelevant. If the Bills are an elite Super Bowl contending team, there is no way the AFC East should even be in play this year. We are never going to draw a schedule this easy again, combined with a season where 2/3 elite QBs are injured and their teams may completely miss the playoffs. The fact that we are already behind in the standings, when we haven't even hit the most difficult part of the season, is absolutely pathetic. The goal is to be the #1 team in the entire league, and I'm sick of the excuses why we keep getting passed by other franchises. We keep acting like the Bills have been inches away from hoisting the Lombardi, when in reality they haven't even made it out of the AFC Conference during the Allen/McDermott/Beane era. Only twice have they even gotten to the championship game. They have yet to get homefield advantage and top seed.

WRs are not getting open consistently and protection has been very iffy at times. The coaching staff has also made him overly cautious about throwing interceptions. Josh used to be a player who pressed downfield throws when he got frustrated. Now he’s become basically the opposite kind of QB. All the other offensive issues have made him hesitant and jumpy in the pocket. He bails out and holds it even when plays are there. His ability to escape pressure has decreased this year too. Nobody wants to admit it, but this may be age related. Hope not. Only time will tell for sure. The obvious answer is that we need to get him reliable help at WR, but I’m skeptical anything will happen.

Everybody eats is a good general team-first philosophy for the coaching staff and the players. It’s not a good philosophy for the GM. I don’t like forcing passes to pouty diva WRs who complain about not getting the ball enough, and throw the QB under the bus when things aren’t going their way. Good strategy is just throwing the ball to whoever is open. The problem is when you get into key passing situations, and nobody CAN get open downfield.

Joe Brady doesn’t exactly have a great record with top receivers either… The last half of 2023 with Stefon Diggs, 2024 with Amari Cooper and whatever we have this year.

The identity thing is so overrated. It's just something sports media personalities like to say when they are too lazy to figure out why a team is struggling. Oh they just don't have an identity. They need to find their identity. I've never played sports or been in a locker room where the players sat around trying to figure out their identity. The Bills are losing because they have too many players that are either struggling, or aren't good in the first place. That results in WRs not getting open, O-Line missing blocks, D-Line not getting a pass rush or getting blown off the ball in the run game, missed tackles from all levels, DBs blowing coverage and failing to make pass breakups, etc., etc. The coaching staff is not doing them any favors with their gameplans or playcalling either.

Joe Marino is extremely intelligent on the sport and really does his homework when it comes to watching film. He's also got a pretty level head when it comes to overreacting to what is happening each week. It's pretty disturbing after getting the full bye week to digest everything, he needed a NINE point list of areas we need to fix just to get back on track. We aren't talking about a slight adjustment or quick fix. We just need to completely shift our strategy on offense and defense, bench a handful of starters and make some trades. Yikes. Usually the All-22 film guys start digging in after a loss, and can find a few areas the Bills need to tweak. I've noticed those guys are uncharacteristically down, depressed and frustrated this time around. I think everyone is starting to realize we are screwed.

Not much impact, unfortunately. Michael Hoecht got a lot of hype in the preseason from the analytics crowd, but I didn't specifically notice him doing anything special while rushing the passer. He had 13.5 sacks in 4 seasons/68 games/31 starts for the Rams. Larry Ogunjobi was pretty much invisible, and some were speculating he would be a surprise cut (before DeWayne Carter's achilles injury).

Sometimes it takes time to properly judge a General Manager. The early returns were very good, and it was easy to ignore poor roster management when the team is winning. But as the sample size has gotten bigger, the worse Brandon Beane's decisions are turning out. As everyone probably recalls, the timing on Beane's hiring was very abnormal. He wasn't brought into the General Manager position until after the 2017 free agency and the draft. And for some strange reason, our previous GM (Doug Whaley) waited until his closing months to hit an absolutely homerun in player additions. The Bills literally added Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre White, Dion Dawkins and Matt Milano just before Beane was hired. So five of the main cornerstone pieces that we've had over the years were NOT added by Beane, although he basically got credit for their performance. Of course, Beane's first real moves were trading away several of our top players (Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby, Marcel Dareus, Cordy Glenn) for draft ammo... and then nailing his first pick with Josh Allen. I like to point out that Allen was the third QB drafted. If we knew he was going to be the guy we have now, we sell the farm to move up and take him. So while Beane does get ultimate credit for getting it right, there is an element of luck here. Beane's next most impactful move was trading a 1st Round Pick for Stefon Diggs. It's hard to argue anytime you add a player with the production he gave us for 4 years. But it's also hard not to consider that Minnesota used the same pick on Justin Jefferson (a far superior player), and that Diggs baggage ended up killing us in the end. When you step back and look at our drafting from 2018-now, the results have been really ugly. So many wasted early picks. So many positions he can't get right. The NFL draft is a team's lifeblood. Our original cornerstones are aging out, regressing or leaving for other reasons... and we have nobody there to step into the void. Cornerback is a mess. Safety is a mess. Wide Receiver is a mess. Linebacker is an underrated need. We still haven't been able to add a young and high-impact pass rusher. Everyone (including myself) vastly overrated Beane and the 2025 Buffalo Bills from the start. Only about half the fanbase realizes it right now. The rest are holding out hope that we turn this around, and will soon be coming to the same conclusion. Truthfully, the failings on this roster SHOULD have been expected, considering how poorly the last several drafts and free agent classes have gone. You can't just lose good NFL players and replace them with significant downgrades, and then expect to keep playing at the same level. Hyde and Poyer were not properly replaced. Taylor Rapp needs to be benched, and Cole Bishop has been a below-average starter so far. Christian Benford is not prime White. And our current version of White is not an adequate starter. Milano will never be able to stay healthy. Terrell Bernard was a one-year wonder and is still too small to play MLB. Keon Coleman is a decent replacement for Gabe Davis. They have never replaced Diggs.

We've been a top team for the last 5 years. I think the general thought around NFL betting circles is that we are going to flip a switch and turn things around very shortly. As someone who follows this team faithfully, I think we are one week away from a really sad reality from setting in.