RunTheBall

Who’s better than Marino in Bills podcasting? I don’t always agree with him but he always backs up his opinions with the reasoning behind them. More often than not he’s right, but like anyone in this space he has his misses as well. I find his discussions of the opposing teams weaknesses very informative. I don’t watch every team all the time so to have someone be able to break that down and give his opinion on how to attack it is something I enjoy. Doesn’t mean he’s always right but I think he’s got a good feel for all the teams considering the other pods he does that don’t have to do with the Bills. As for Walker, he definitely didn’t want him in the draft and he’s stated Walker is playing better than he thought he would. I’m not as impressed with Walker as many seem to be. For every splash play he made he got blown out of his assignment 3 times. Joe was correct in that because of his height, he tends to play too high and can get pushed around. I think this will be a big off season for him. He has the potential to be a game wrecker if he can put on some lower body weight and learn to stay low so he doesn’t get out leveraged. Tough for a guy that tall.

We need new blood at WR, not some washed up guy we are going to over pay for. Metcalf? Hell no. AJ Brown? Maybe 4 years ago. Evans? He isn’t leaving Tampa. Jefferson is a pipe dream. What receiver has gotten better under Brady? I can only think of Mac Hollins who had a good year for us. Here’s a list of those who got worse or did nothing - Samuel, Palmer, Keon, Moore, Hardman, Diggs, Cooper (hurt). Cooks gets open but can’t catch. Great. Shakir has been reduced to a screen merchant when he’s got a lot more potential. Shavers is a nice #5 WR. Hurray. Unless Brady was held back by McD, I’m a little concerned with Brady’s ability to scheme open recievers.

I’m friends with a former OC who happened to be instrumental in keeping the Pats* from a perfect season. It was fascinating to get the inside scoop on the Donahue era and just how f’n dysfunctional it was. Great guy, loves Buffalo, has a picture of the Miami snow game where Ricky ran for 200+ and still lost framed in his house.

Something subtle that has become apparent since the McDemotion is how his need for very specific types of players at all levels of the defense significantly limits the defenses ability to play anything other than his zone. Sure, we ran man concepts but his players were so much more effective in zone. A team like Seattle that has players that are more versatile can play difference coverages than their bread and butter more effectively like they did in the SB. Not only that, the types of players McD wanted for his defense is a big reason why they get hurt all the time. When you have quick but undersized players all over the place they are going to wear down a lot faster. For example - just pick pretty much any player on our defense.

I hope Leonhard has huge input on the DL. I have no faith in Beane building a defensive line, he’s proven he sucks at it. The amount of assets we’v spent on the DL in draft picks and free agent money compared to the complete lack of production from that group, especially in the playoffs, is a fireable offense in most franchises. Even with Hendrickson, that is not a “hell of a front 5”. Glass Oliver hasn’t survived a season since I can remember. Walker has potential but had many more breakdowns than splash plays (I understand it’s his first year). Sanders is a bust for a high 2nd round draft pick, but part of that is McD playing him at DE. In no universe should Sanders have been needed to play DE. Groot is Groot, a starting caliber defensive end who sets the edge (except against Mahomes in the playoffs) and makes near zero impact in the post season. IDK about Hendrickson but can almost guarantee with Beane’s track record, his production will not come close to what it would take to get him. Unless Leonhard is a scheme wizard and can unleash some untapped potential, we need a complete defensive line overhaul and that will take years. The lack of impact from the defensive line, lack of player development, and the lack of production from players who go elsewhere and play well will be a big part of the McD legacy.

I LOVED watching Maye and the Pats* get pummeled into oblivion. I loved watching Diggs get dumped on his ass out of bounds too. Maye has some talent but he was absolute garbage in the playoffs. It’s one thing to be a young player who’s getting exposed to playoff football for the first time and having a rough go of it. It’s another thing completely to be the WORST statistical playoff QB in NFL history. IDK if he can come back from that. Next year we will get the answer to whether Drake Meh is a franchise QB or just another flash in the pan QB who got figured out.

McDemoted having Shakir catch punts was just another example of his game day coaching decisions determined by fear. He was afraid of turning the ball over on a punt, so he put a punt catcher back there who more often than not didn’t catch it. I love Shakir, but he sucked as a punt returner. He let a ton of punts hit the turf, and that’s because McD drilled into his head not to muff it. I love McD, he did a ton for this franchise, but coaching scared is going to be his hallmark.

I was very surprised at Josh’s metrics this year in terms of catchable ball rate, accuracy, etc. I thought he had a down year but it was actually one of his best. He made a few horrific throws to wide open guys that would have won/changed games (Shakir, Kincaid) which must have biased my opinion. He did this on a busted foot. The guy is an absolute juggernaut. Get him some WRs who can catch the deep ball and he will be unstoppable. I don’t think a QB coach is going to be too involved in his mechanics, that stuff has to be worked on in the offseason/pre season.

It’s pretty clear Terry/Beane felt the defense was the problem and the offense was good enough. It’s that simple. You can’t change the defense without getting rid of McD. You could say that whoever they choose for DC is more important than HC in this scenario

I just want an attacking defense that tries to dictate to the offense. I don’t care if we give up a big play or 2, that’s why we have Josh. I just want to get to a point where we have a 3rd and 13 and I’m not expecting a conversion. Or we have a lead at the end of the 4th and I’m not expecting our defense to choke. The McDefense was painful to watch a lot of the time. That’s why he wanted a ball control offense and to neuter Josh - to protect his defense which is wild

I’d be all for this move. Leonhard runs an aggressive, attacking style defense. The opposite of the McDefense 2 High Let Mahomes Score scheme. As long as we jettison most of the defensive assistants I’d be very happy with this hire

Has there ever been a coach that was more thoroughly thrown under the bus than McD? Actually scratch that, they threw him under the train then backed up over him to make sure he was dead! I wanted McD gone in the worst way but holy hell I didn’t see them scapegoating McD to this degree.What a joke franchise. This is laugh out loud funny. I can’t even be angry it’s so hilarious. We are the NY Jets except we have Josh Allen. The only way I can begin to stomach this is if Brady blows up the entire defensive side of the ball and makes some significant change. I’m hoping McD was putting an anchor on what Brady wanted to run on offense, and he has been a good OC for us. Hopefully he brings in Webb as OC. I just think not going outside the organization to get a new perspective is going to blow up in their faces

The local media including pod bros were all butt hurt because once again, they were completely scooped by national guys who have more inside access. The Bills never leak to the local guys, there’s a couple national guys who get the smoke. Sal is just a company man so he’s the propaganda arm of the Bills. Local guys were all on the “Gotta fire Beane, this is the best McD coaching job in years considering the talent” then Terry pulled the reverse Uno card and not only canned McD but promoted! Beane It’s that promotion that got the local guys apoplectic including Podfather Joe Marino, who I subscribe to. I was a little shocked by the degree of venom towards Beane he displayed. I just expect the WGR guys to be negative 99% of the time. It’s like they miss the drought days where we could spend every day btching about everything and anything. I was on the Clean House train. I can understand why Terry didn’t want to blow everything up with a new stadium and his family issues. Time will tell if he made the right decision but McD had to go. Should have been canned after 13 seconds, I think that’s what everyone is starting to realize given the quick turn around of other teams.

Daquan was a solid but not spectacular DT for us. You could do worse, you could do a lot better. He’s got the Edmunds “he does so much that doesn’t register on the stat sheet” mystique. I don’t completely blame him. McD’s defense for whatever reason does not optimize defensive line play. IDK the reason, maybe it’s the scheme or how they are asked to prioritize things, but we NEVER had a dominant DL despite the grotesque amount of money and draft picks we threw at it. Maybe it’s Beane not picking the right guys, maybe it’s Sean not knowing how to optimize their skills. It still grates on me that we had Ford and Settle who couldn’t see the field and went on to be very productive players. Meanwhile, we still have Glass Oliver, 5 practice squad guys, Sanders playing DE, and friggin Solomon getting meaningful snaps (well, mostly special teams for him because he sucks that bad). D-line has been one of the main reasons our defense failed every single playoff game we lost.

It’s not the big toe, it’s the mid foot pinky toe on his right foot. That’s his back foot. The fact that he’s throwing off it when the damn thing is busted is looney tunes but that’s a mechanics issue. The guy is a freak. I’ve been saying all year Allen’s mechanics have been off. Yes, you take the good with the bad but he’s missed some WIDE open guys that are game changing plays. He’s the reason we are where we are, this was an 8 win team at best without him, but that doesn’t absolve him of any criticism. The fact that he’s is 0-8 in overtime games can’t be completely discounted as coaching or lack of recievers. He’s made mistakes at critical times in reading coverages and blitzes (Spags), or missing open guys. A new offensive voice combined with a defense that can close out games is the solution. Some of the pressure needs to be taken off of Josh’s shoulders. He’s gotta be able to play a non-mvp game and have other guys on O or the defense step up and win it. I’m so jealous of all these other teams that have guys making great catches on less than perfect throws. Sam friggin Darnold is in the SB because his receivers make tough catches.