Bleeding Bills Blue

DQ was out for the game and the depth couldn't get it done that game. I also don't remember who the corners were but dane Jackson and kaiir elam played a lot in those games which... Explains a lot of the issues with the game plan.

I wish we did add more at WR, I'll make that clear. But I think there HAS to be balance to win championships in the NFL. Even looking back at the kelly bills, when another team was able to run the ball it screws everything up. Fewer possessions and more of a sense of urgency because of the lack of possession time. I don't think that means we need to run the ball constantly, I just mean I don't want to build a team around 2 WRs and 1QB if that makes any sense? To your 2nd point about what if burrow carves buffalo up? The entire offense would need to play amazing to win in that scenario. If Buffalo puts close to 200 on the ground against you, even incompletions or penalties, or sacks can become game killing plays because a running team squeezes the clock. We'll see how it plays out! I think on the road it's difficult to just say we're going to dictate, not to mention very different personnel on both sides - namely hopefully less playing time for dane Jackson and kaiir elam.

I think a lot of things are missed here but i do like reading things like this that aren't fully rooted in a bias. 1 - I don't disagree. We barely wade into the FA pool here so you tend to want to see some impact before some splash. Injuries are going to happen to players though. 2 - Shakir's contract was about the same in AAV as the deal gabe davis and darnell mooney signed in 2024. I think his value there is appropriate and will probably age pretty well. Benford's contract was the 8th highest AAV of deals signed just in 2025. I think he's somewhere around 18 or 19th total. To me that reads fair market value, and will probably age well. Rousseau is overpaid, but it doesn't mean he's a bad player either. It's also not really an egregious overpay either. You mention bosa as getting more pass rush for the money, but he's also caused a lot of issues defensively with his poor gap integrity against the run. Bernard is a captain so there's a little bit of an overpay. There's like 7 off ball linebackers with ~10M AAV, so it's not like he's jumping off the page. He missed camp with a hamstring, re-aggravated an ankle injury, and now he screwed up his elbow on a weird tackle. He's likely here through 2027 unless he's traded. Dre greenlaw got the same 10M coming off a playoff achilles injury 3 - Other than White, all of these are mid-season injury replacements for Carter (DT5), Jackson (DE5), Palmer (WR2), Rapp (FS), Bernard (LB5). The options are either players who have never practiced here, and don't necessarily represent upgrades, or bring in players you've seen play quite a bit. Devil you know (they are old or not good), vs. devil you don't. 4 - Frazier was the DC during that bengals debacle. That alone was pretty much a fireable offense. You promote from within because it empowers young coaches to feel they have the ability to earn promotions. Brady was brought in as an heir-apparent, and stepped in and settled down that hot/cold dorsey offense down the stretch. Babich was interviewing with other teams for their coordinator position, and has a family pedigree of coaching. 5 - I think there's reason to be critical of the strength and conditioning staff, seems like the team has torn pecs/biceps, pulled hamstrings/quads/groins quite frequently. There have been a number of practice injuries this year which is concerning. At the same time, the tackling was so bad to start the year that you HAD to improve the practice intensity. Seemed like that coincided with more soft tissue injuries. 6 - I think there's still and will always be a buffalo effect here. There are a number of players... who do not want to play here. The weather alone to me always will deter a lot of people. Factor in night life and stuff and its not always a place people want to live. As for WRs having to block? Yeah, thats going to be important for any team that plays in the rust belt. It's a mistake to NOT have that be a large part of your identity. You WANT to play football in december and january at home, and that means wind/snow/cold that tends to favor a running football team. I want to be clear, you are not WRONG in your criticism of Beane. I think there's more than enough reasons to be, but there's nuance and context. "Go out and get a WR" doesn't really work when the available trade options aren't good. Trading for holdouts like Samuel, Mclaurin, or Metcalf were not looking to be smart moves - and none of them really worked out for their team this year. Davante has been solid this year, but with that contract you probably don't get Bosa. Also not really sure he was interested in coming here so its speculative.

172 yards on the ground was cincys 2nd highest total of the year. Buffalo also had more penalties and lost in time of possession by about 8 minutes. Fact is dorsey was gone midway through the next season because he would fall into bad pass heavy habits. Frazier was literally fired for this game plan. As for their defense bottling up buffalo - Reader gone Bates gone Pratt gone Wilson gone Hilton gone Hubbard gone Hendrickson out Hasn't been that long but teams change pretty quickly in the NFL.

If they drop 3, buffalo will win the division at 12-5 if their loss were to philly.

It's just depth and another option in dime looks. Tougher corner, playoff contact type of guy who tackles. Also just a break glass in case of emergency type of dude since hairstons still working into the lineup, white has had a number of injuries, and ingram isn't good. Strong felt like the best candidate for that but he's done for the year. Take your pick of jackson, codrington, and couch - and its 3 big fat question marks. Either inexperienced, or the experience was pretty poor.

It's going to be a tall order to get denver to 6 losses, so i think KC is wildcard bound if they make it.

The loss to the fish is the unplausable piece. But its a division game and they gave buffalo issues. This is the game that comes to mind when you say anything can happen: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201912290nwe.htm. Anything relating to denver wouldn't be that shocking imo. They haven't looked that great for a bit, and they have GB, JAX, @KC, and LAC. Would need them to lose 3, unless buffalo were to win out.

I just played around with a few games but it wasn't particularly hard to create this scenario: Requires Buffalo to go 4-1 and lose to philly. NE to go 1-3 and lose to Buffalo, Baltimore, and Miami. Would be an epic collapse, but its december and the dolphins aren't even dead yet. I expect them to be by then, but its a division game and this isn't brady patriots from an aura perspective. Denver to go 2-3 with losses to KC, GB, and one of chargers and jacksonville. Not particularly unplausable with how they've played recently. 4-way with jacksonville and buffalo still wins division but would not get a bye on tiebreakers. Probably a pipe-dream, but i thought it would be far harder to create a path to #1 in the conference.

This was why i kinda expect buffalo to win.

They lost the playoff game because they couldn't stop the run. Fun fact is that Buffalo ran the running backs 19 times across both games.

Knox is also wide open. You could make an argument they probably score on a throw to cooks too since its cooks + blocker vs. 1 defender, since 29 and 22 both chased keon. Pretty good example of when the rush and the coverage don't match up. My GUESS is one of 29/22 has cooks in motion - and the other has keon. They ended up both chasing keon thinking the other takes cooks.

I posted elsewhere but: LAC - 8-4 - PHI, @KC, @DAL, HOU, @DEN - Absolutely brutal schedule - 10-7? Maybe? IND - 8-4 - @JAX, @SEA, SF, JAX, @HOU - Another tough slate - Also 10-7. JAX - 8-4 - IND, NYJ, @DEN, @IND, Tenn - Couple easy home games, 3 tough games - 11-6 best case which would probably take the division HOU - 7-5 - @KC, ARI, LVR, @LAC, IND - Couple easier games at home, but 3 tough games - 10-7 best case - indy week 18 might be win and in KC - 6-6 -HOU, LAC, @TEN, DEN, @LVR - Easy road games, and 3 teams they can beat at home - I'd guess 10-7 and if the loss is to denver they're very much in the mix. BAL - 6-6 - PIT, @CIN, NE, @GB, @PIT - 3 wins would get them to 9-8 PIT - 6-6 - @BAL, MIA, @DET, @CLE, BAL - Could see them splitting and both finishing 9-8, another interesting week 18 scenario.

The primary competition in WC - not going to get into tiebreakers because i think its too early. LAC - 8-4 - PHI, @KC, @DAL, HOU, @DEN - Absolutely brutal schedule - 10-7? Maybe? IND - 8-4 - @JAX, @SEA, SF, JAX, @HOU - Another tough slate - Also 10-7. JAX - 8-4 - IND, NYJ, @DEN, @IND, Tenn - Couple easy home games, 3 tough games - 11-6 best case which would probably take the division HOU - 7-5 - @KC, ARI, LVR, @LAC, IND - Couple easier games at home, but 3 tough games - 10-7 best case - indy week 18 might be win and in KC - 6-6 -HOU, LAC, @TEN, DEN, @LVR - Easy road games, and 3 teams they can beat at home - I'd guess 10-7 and if the loss is to denver they're very much in the mix. BAL - 6-6 - PIT, @CIN, NE, @GB, @PIT - 3 wins would get them to 9-8 PIT - 6-6 - @BAL, MIA, @DET, @CLE, BAL - Could see them splitting and both finishing 9-8, another interesting week 18 scenario. Based on this - Buffalo is probably the 5 seed if they go 3-2 the rest of the way. It will depend on who wins the AFC South - but if there's an 11-6 team, the other 2 are probably 10-7. I don't see any of the other 3 going on a 5-0 run to get to 11 wins, and we have tiebreakers over all of them anyway. So I think the ideal scenario would be BAL losing @CIN, and PIT losing @DET and @BAL. Week 18 game would be for the division as they'd both finish 9-8 and Pittsburgh would take it on divisional record. I would rather play a team we handily beat than a team that trucked us in week 1 - injured lamar is still more dynamic than rodgers.

Dolphins had a few extra days against Buffalo, and Falcons off the bye week.

A cheap depth WR who can play special teams. He shouldn't be playing this much, and ideally there are 5 options ahead of him in 2026. I also don't mind bringing in competition from a similar player. At the same time - good blocks should earn you some routes too. Shavers cap hit next year is 1M, but there's no shortage of similar special teams players who might offer a more rounded player offensively. These types of Hollins guys are always pretty available in the 1-2M AAV range, and I would suggest bringing one in to compete for that back of the roster spot.

It was Gabe before that. "Why does gabe play more than sanders and brown?" was frequently a point of contention and it was blocking back then.

If they're going to show 2 high looks, run at them until they change it. We aren't fast enough to attack the boundary through the air, but if they do - there needs to be an element of misdirection like a play action, a screen, a double move, etc. The outside leverage screen isn't working that well these days.

At the time, many mock drafts had both jefferson and aiyuk off the board. So we were getting mocked Higgins and Pittman in the 1st. Both turned out to be good players though so i guess it would have worked out. I think the challenge here is that only buffalo gets to use hindsight to know what JJ is pre-draft, not the lions or giants who picked busts at 3 or 4.

When you get called for phantom holds all season long you tend to let go at that point to try to not get called.

How many drops does that make for him this year?

Latu was elevated as a 3rd tight end in case someone is injured, and to play special teams. Most 3rd tight ends do some combo of that like Morris did for Buffalo for a couple of years, we just use Hawes more because he's such an impact blocker and kincaids missed so much time this year.

Doubt ur getting a 1st for a WR with one cheap year left, who's never hit 1000 yards, and was suspended for a really bad DUI. I'd say best case you're looking at the 3rd for pickens, but probably less. And paying him closer to 20.

Game reminds me too much of Zach Wilson that its hard to see him being successful. To be fair... the trade was not executed during the draft. They traded for diggs before the draft, not knowing who would be available at the pick. So to say they didn't see value in a player they didn't know would be available in their draft slot is a bit of a stretch.

Wildcards can and do catch fire come January. Brady's Bucs were 7-5, losers of 3 of 4, and got blown out 38-3 at home by New Orleans before going on their run. Helped playing a 7-9 division winner with a backup QB in the first round, but that's the kind of thing that happens in the NFL. A Nix/Jones/Maye injury and suddenly the favorites aren't so favorite. Just going through their playoff run and its so strange... Washington - Heinicke in the playoffs - played the best game of his life with no run game and got them pretty close. TB was a 10 point favorite though and Washington kind of sucked New Orleans revenge game - 21 points off turnovers, and lived off some short fields. Packers - The scotty miller TD comes to mind as the difference in a 5 point game. Ball at midfield with :28 left in the half and somehow they get a 40 yard TD pass with 8 seconds left in the half. Another short field turnover/TD to open the 3rd quarter and it was 28-10. Brady threw 2 picks in the 4th quarter and GB made the strange decision to kick a FG down 8 from the 8 yard line. They never touched the ball again. Chiefs SB - Pretty terrible first half by KC but its still 14-6 with 1 minute in the half, and KC gets 50 yards of PI penalties on the drive to go into half down 21-6. Which essentially screwed what was left of their gameplan.