Bleeding Bills Blue

Just need to clean up the massive amount of turnovers - without turning into the end season offense where we seemed to be a bit too tentative.

My favorite part of the NE game was that the talking heads all week said "allen doesn't play well in the cold" and then he proceeded to put up one of the greatest stat lines in playoff history.

I mean... Elam was picked at 23 not 4. Either way, the book isn't even close to written on this guy for us to say that. Rousseau was picked at 30, and is 4th in his draft class in overall sacks behind parsons, phillips, and Ojulari - and generally would be probably a starter on an "all-2021" draft rookie team. I'd agree Oliver is a miss considering the 3 DTs drafted after him all outperformed him. In the Group of 6 DTs in 2019 - Q. Williams, Oliver, Wilkins, Lawrence, Simmons, Tillery - he would probably have to be considered #5.

Just gotta punch a ticket to playoffs this year - don't worry about things like homefield, division, etc. The big thing is actually playing their best ball in January and February. We played our best in september and october a year ago.

Last year we had the highest odds to be super bowl champion. This year i think right now we have the 3rd best odds. What i mean when saying this is - the media hype is not very high. The recency bias is extreme there because they have to talk about football every day of the offseason. So lets talk about the cincy game, and rodgers, and ramsey etc. But most football people would say... last years super bowl favorites didn't really lose much from the previous year, so why should i expect miami and the jets to surpass them?

Duane Brown is 37. CJ Mosely is 30. Rodgers is like 40.

No shot unless Diggs misses a considerable amount of time. He was the head coach of one of the most dominant teams in history and won a super bowl. I wouldn't put him on mount rushmore, but 7 10 win seasons in 11 years in chicago is pretty good.

Here's the thing - he will be a contributor. As much as any 1st round WR probably would have seen on a prior year playoff team.

Looking at the season on it's entirety. 13-3. We were 2nd to last in the league in turning the ball over, and we are 2nd in points. On defense, we were 6th in yards per play, and 2nd in points per game allowed. With all of the injuries, struggles etc. They have to figure out how to attack the cincy defense better, and i think getting a bit stouter up the middle would help - their DT's abused our interior line. They tend to line their LBs up close to the LOS and create confusion - and a big hands target in the middle of the field could do wonders on forcing them to adjust. As for how to stop their offense? Need to kill their run and screen game, and get them behind the sticks. You want Burrow to hold the ball.

I mean - isn't every backup considerably worse than the starter? If he was good, he'd just be the starter. I'm not sure he's out of the discussion to start at the mike either.

They definitely added some weapons to a pretty mediocre offense - Hodgins, Campbell, Robinson, Shepard, Slayton, Hyatt + Waller and Barkley. I see them winning like 7 games next year though. 1-4-1 in their own division last year (and they don't seem to be head and shoulders above even a single team), and they play the AFC east and NFC west. Defense isn't a good enough unit imo.

I mean you get hyde healthy too - so S is upgraded. You get White back with camp, he should play better this year - so id consider that a CB upgrade. Elam/Benford got some valuable experience.

I like it as a prime matchup back. Some games you just need to be bigger and meaner - and he gives you that.

It's not as if they aren't abusing... literally everyone. The key to stopping both lies in pass rushing, not who you start at middle linebacker. Dodson, Williams, Bernard, Klein, Spector - Let the best man win the majority of the snaps. There's a lot of talent and experience among that group, and i'd probably have 3 of them taking Mike snaps during camp/preseason. Williams or bernard is likely the primary milano backup. My guess is Bernard ends up with majority of snaps, but Klein mixes in on early downs some.

Yeah - he definitely got stale and probably a bit overwhelmed as the year continued. Allen also looked overwhelmed quite a bit as the year went on. I think Shakir/harty can both come in and make some plays. Adding kinkaid and making that a trio gives you a variety of weapons to attack. Can use shakir as a bit more of a conventional slot WR with some deceptive speed Can use harty as a speed threat on some plays, and remove Davis - different style of player at X. Can put kinkaid in that same mix, a size mismatch against nickel backs, and athleticism against many tight ends. You can run a lot of the similar styles of plays from different formations using the same players too. i'd like to see all 3 of these players in motion quite a bit when they are on the field. As for Cook/hines? I expect them to be able to play as slot WRs occaisionally.

Kelce has some absolutely insane footwork. He's a slot WR who is also a huge bowling ball, with insane hands and insane ability to highpoint. He'd be all-pro with pretty much any team assuming they had a QB worth a damn.

I hate TE's in the first round so ive been trying to rationalize 🙂

Or you put cook or hines instead of shakir. It's 12 personnel but we can split 4 or 5 out. You wanna roll nickel? ok we should have size advantage to run... and you might get a nickel back trying to cover a knox or kincaid. you add an extra backer? Good luck covering cook and hines with your linebacker. Create mismatches. I look at it like we struggled against blitzes at times last year - we can use a big target to find soft spots and make contested catches. We also didn't have as much of a game within the red zone, and i think adding a dynamic TE can unlock a bit more of a run game and play action within that spasce.

Or you can use him in motion as a pin blocker - you don't really need to sustain that (in fact in many cases like TE screens and Play action, you don't want to sustain that block).

I feel like he's a bit of a 1 trick pony... money better spent on sweat. They already extended Payne and Allen who are probably the best interior tandem in the league. I'm curious to see what the commanders do at QB though, as I think their roster is honestly pretty good. NFC and AFC east are gonna beat each other up this year. I just remember Buffalo having a lot of problems with Payne and Allen bleeding through the a gap, and Young flying up field creating an easy lane for Josh to just move to his right.

Playcalling felt a bit stale too as the year went on, which i assume is something that happens to a first time coordinator.

It's very likely going to break down this way. Their defense is good - but at the end of the season their numbers looked a lot like buffalo's on a per game basis. They get a last place schedule too which helps them. We get Jags, Bucs, Bengals - they get Browns Texans Falcons... Jags and bengals are likely the best 2 in that group. Offense: Wilson looks legit, Hall has some home run ability there, offensive line has some pieces but they had a lot of injuries there last year. Their WR's behind Wilson don't really jump out to me. I think they'll try to get a lineman in the first. I expect they'll keep most passes close to the LOS and use Rodgers quick release, and only really ask him to do much on 3rd downs and in the RZ. Reed and Gardner are for real, Williams has turned a corner from good to great, and they have some good rotational depth pieces there. My concern if i was a fan of their team is that they had 10 games where they scored fewer than 20 points. They were 1-9 in those games, and in some of them it was abundantly clear that if the team playing the Jets didn't turn the ball over, they would probably win. I don't know how to quantify, and it isn't an exact science, but when you're playing a team with literally no offense it has to seep in a little bit to the offense/coaching staff to play a different game.

They Why so serious bengals game was mine. It was right around thanksgiving, my brothers were in town and the game could not have been more meaningless.

It's definitely a challenge for rookies coming into the league. I don't think i need to hear bernard say it to know that was a major issue for him last year.

I mean... he's an offensive lineman?