mjt328

WR is the most obvious need. But it goes way beyond that. Dion Dawkins is overweight and has regressed badly this season. Probably time to start planning for the future. Khalil Shakir is either being misused, or decided not to show up this season. Dalton Kincaid is injury prone and Dawson Knox needs to take a massive pay cut. Almost the entire defense needs an overhaul. We are somehow simultaneously undersized AND slow. Matt Milano, Taron Johnson and DaQuan Jones are done. Tre White and Jordan Poyer were done 2-3 years ago. Terrell Bernard is too small to play MLB and needs to be replaced. Extending him was a huge mistake. Christian Benford and Greg Rousseau got paid and took the season off. Apparently extending them was also a mistake. Joey Bosa is a good pass rusher and huge liability in run defense. He should be a specialist, not an every-down player. The Bills need to fire the current front office. Get a new GM and new coaching staff. Time to pack it in for this season. The #1 seed is out of the question. The AFC East is almost certainly gone. We are looking at a Wild Card path (at best), and another early playoff exit.

You can if you have the guts to trade up for an elite prospect, and your scouting is good enough to fill in the roster with Day 2-3 picks.

Astounding how our defensive players can be both small and slow. How we can play a zone defense intended to read and tackle, but be terrible at tackling.

This O-Line is also very overrated.

We are going to get the injury excuse a lot this offseason.

Christian Benford Taron Johnson Terrell Bernard Greg Rousseau Matt Milano Taylor Rapp Not sure why, but all of these vets have regressed BADLY this year.

This defense is horrific in every way. They just let a backup QB a one-minute drill TD.

It's a combination of both. If his on-field performance was good enough, I'm sure the punishment would have been less (see Dallas benching Ceedee Lamb for one play). Not sure how benching a bad player reflects badly on the Buffalo Bills organization though? Is it a better option to force him into the lineup, just because of his draft position? How exactly is Sean McDermott supposed to "handle" an adult who refuses to show up to his job? I've never quite understood the concept that a coach was responsible for controlling the behavior of his players, especially off the field. There are teams (such as Kansas City) who just sweep problematic behavior under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist. That doesn't mean they are doing a better job of handling it. And all franchises eventually get tired of the distractions. See Pittsburgh with Antonio Brown, Dallas and Philadelphia with Terrell Owens, New England with Randy Moss. Elam is a totally different story. If you haven't been following him since the trade to Dallas, he's been an absolute mess. McDermott was right about starting Christian Benford over him from Day 1, and was right that he wasn't good enough to play. Yes, Beane deserves the blame for picking them. Not arguing that at all.

If I recall, scouts saw that receiver draft class (outside of Harrison, Nabers and Odunze) as mostly #2 guys with high upside. Most of the other prospects were really strong in some areas, but also had glaring weaknesses that would probably keep them from becoming a WR1 in the NFL. For instance, guys like Thomas and Worthy had elite speed, but big questions on other parts of their game. McConkey and Pearsall were seen mostly as slot-only receivers. Coleman and Mitchell had size, but lacked in route-running, etc. I was pretty excited going into that draft with us really needing a WR. But the more I learned about them, the more I wanted to trade-up into the Top 10.

With seven games left, I think people are really getting over excited and jumping the gun. Considering tie-breakers, they are basically 2.5 games behind the Chargers and 1.5 games behind the Jaguars. There are plenty of games left for them to makeup that distance.

For the first time this season, I do think it's slightly possible they miss. Am I expecting it to happen? Absolutely not. There are still too many games left for the teams in front to blow it. Jacksonville is basically 1.5 games ahead with 7 left. Not exactly a lead I would trust them with. Los Angeles is about the same, and still has to play them again. The Chiefs makeup a lot of ground with a win there.

That was probably the original plan. Then Michael Hoecht got suspended. Then Landon Jackson struggled really bad in preseason. Then AJ Epenesa missed a bunch of time. Then Hoecht came back and got injured. Then Jackson was activated and got injured.

Coleman needs to be inactive until he starts taking his commitments to the team seriously. Then he needs to remain on the bench until he earns playing time over the other guys. The only thing he offers is size, and he doesn't even know how to use it properly. All his other abilities (speed, hands, route running) are average or below average. If he can't learn how to be physical and outmuscle corners for the ball, he's never going to make it in this league. Tyrell Shavers has stepped up with every opportunity he's been given. Even yesterday, he led the team in receiving and caught a nice touchdown. If I'm the Bills, he's one of the starting WRs until he proves he doesn't belong there.

As many have said, I think the best thing we can do is get our young players on the field. In most cases, the older vets are the biggest liabilities (Milano, White, Poyer). It can only get worse from this point. Get some young legs in there. Then we can at least get them some experience, and have a better idea where things stand for next year.

Joey Bosa is the best pass rusher we've had during the McDermott era. But he's also one of the worst defense ends I've seen at defending the run. For every time he's impacted the QB's throw, he's also been the culprit of a big run because of poor contain and over-pursuit. This one has been a problem for years. Our LBs are undersized, and it's only become a bigger problem as the NFL evolves towards bigger O-Lines and more running the ball. Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard used to make up for it with their playmaking in other ways. But that just isn't happening much this season. Both look stuck in the turf. You can't be small AND slow. The spot across from Cole Bishop has been an issue all season. First Taylor Rapp was concealing a serious injury. Now we have Jordan Poyer, who is also well past his prime.

The only reason I would still give the Bills a chance, is because the other teams look just as flawed if not more. After losing yesterday, there is suddenly a slim possibility the Chiefs miss the playoffs altogether. I still don't believe in the AFC South teams, so I could see the Colts losing to them next week and then the Jags falling apart down the stretch. But there is a chance. The Ravens don't look right, even with Lamar Jackson back. My guess is they still win the division (especially with Aaron Rodgers hurt for Pittsburgh). But we might have finally hit the wall with Derrick Henry, and they are not historically strong in the playoffs anyway. Denver's defense is great, but I'm not completely sold on Bo Nix yet. The Colts have a great O-Line and run game, but I'm still skeptical about Daniel Jones falling back to Earth. The Patriots are hard to trust without playing the top teams. The Chargers are always inconsistent. Even in the NFC, the Eagles look like the best team. Their pass rush can be fearsome, but the offense is stuck in the mud. The Lions aren't quite as explosive this year either.

Based on his current pace, Josh Allen will break into the: - Yards/Top 20 = 12th Season (2029, Age 33) - Yards/Top 10 = 16th Season (2033, Age 37) Top 10 is probably doable for Allen if he stays healthy, and he plays a normal length career. Top 5 may be a stretch. Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff are also steadily moving up the list. So to break into that group, he would need to surpass 72,000 yards. His current pace doesn't reach that until about 40 years old/Year 19.

As I've been saying all season, this offense needs balance. The main reason an aggressive pass game worked yesterday, was because it broke all the tendencies we've been putting on film over the first 9 games. The Bucs were crowding the line of scrimmage to stop the run and quick screens. So when we did play-action on 1st Down, guys were open downfield. There are going to be games we need to be run-heavy. And there are going to be games where the downfield stuff won't be there. If we suddenly just switch to a crazy and aggressive no matter what style down the stretch, it's going to backfire on us in 3-4 games when the opposing coordinators catch-up again. Don't throw the 13 personnel, Shakir screens, etc. into the trash. Just keep them on hold for when defenses switch it up.

Playing Baltimore might be a blessing in disguise. Even with Lamar Jackson back, that Ravens team doesn't look like the juggernaut most of us expected. Derrick Henry hasn't been the same since the first 3 quarters of Week 1, and it's possible Jackson will be hobbled the rest of the year. For some reason, Bills fans would rather play someone like the Colts. I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Taylor would rush for 250-300 yards against our defense. And in terms of the Patriots, I'm never comfortable playing a division opponent in the playoffs.

Front seven is too small. LBs and CBs are too slow. Pass rush is too inconsistent. Deone Walker, Maxwell Hairston and Cole Bishop are hopefully good steps in the right direction. Still need another 1-2 good drafts to replace the aging vets we’ve lost over the years. Paying Terrell Bernard was a mistake, whether he’s injured or not.

Today felt like 2017-2018 Josh Allen.

Allen’s regression this season is real. Not sure the reason, but his play has been a complete mess.

Another missed open receiver on 3rd down. Allen’s regression is real.

Josh Allen is back to his rookie version, and has been that way for several weeks. Not sure the reason, but he is absolutely a huge part of the problem.

I think Joe Brady's offense (along with another divisional round loss) were the final straws for Stefon Diggs. Yes, his antics were getting worse each season. But that seemed to be the point when he was officially done as a Buffalo Bill. After watching Brady's system for the last 2 years, I'm convinced that he mostly wants to use the team's #1 WR as a decoy. The main purpose is to draw away coverage and clear space for the safer underneath stuff. When Brady took over as OC in 2023, Diggs production (targets, catches, yards, etc.) immediately went down... and Khalil Shakir's production immediately went up. The assumption was that maybe Diggs was secretly injured, on the downside of his career or even dogging it. But this year in New England is proving that wasn't the case at all. Diggs is still a superstar in this league. So what happened the final two months of that season? Without Diggs, the Bills passing offense started slow in 2024. Fans seem to forget this, because the offense finished at the top of the NFL. But in reality, the pass game was meh in Weeks 1-2 and then fell apart in Weeks 4-5 (where everybody was complaining our outside WRs couldn't get open). So Beane pulled off the trade for Amari Cooper. The passing game turned around almost immediately after acquiring Cooper, even though his stats were almost non-existent. That's because defenses had to respect his route-running ability, making him an effective decoy for Brady's short attack. In the offseason, Cooper was considered an after-thought. After all the guy only had 20 catches and under 300 yards for the Bills. Many even believed that Josh Palmer (a career #3 for the Chargers) was going to be an upgrade. But nobody realized Cooper was really the lynchpin in our passing attack. Because he was the only outside WR on our roster that teams respected. "Everybody Eats" is a good idea in principle. But it's very difficult to execute properly. It's good to spread the ball around to many different options. It's good that a QB isn't pressured to force-feed his top WR. It's good that defenses can't focus on stopping a single weapon. It's good not to have a distraction-causing diva in the locker room. But there are times when you need that top WR who can win 1-on-1 and get open. If you don't have that guy, defenses know they can dedicate less resources towards stopping the outside guys. That spirals down to the rest of the offense. And you will also have a really tough time keeping a #1 WR happy when your plan is making him a decoy.