[Ed Oliver big extension]

Just for the record, I was wrong on Edmunds, and I was wrong on Oliver. So for future reference just take the opposite of what I say and you'll know what's going to happen. 

[D-line coach Eric Washington’s comments on Ed Oliver — hoo boy]

1 hour ago, Chandler#81 said:

Riiight, cuz 3 straight Division titles and routinely among the Top 5 Defensive rankings means more work needs to be done.🤦‍♂️

Do you think Beane is just bad at evaluating DL talent then? Oliver is meh, Basham is a dud. Epenessa is meh, Rousseau was a solid pick at the end of the first. Just curious because I don’t think our defensive has lived up to the resources we’ve poured into it and either Beane or Washington owns that. They shouldn’t need a first ballot HOF DE to make it a dominant unit with all the picks/money poured into it (obviously Von’s health is the key to our D-line this season)

 

[SI dumping all over McDermott at #22]

I’m a McD fan but man if Ross Tucker didn’t make a seriously compelling argument about why McD isn’t a top 15 coach. He did a brilliant job laying out the rationale, mainly McD being consistently out coached in the playoffs. I love McD, I love everything he’s done for the franchise and city. I’m not throwing in the towel in any way but it’s on my radar that there’s a possibility he isn’t the guy to get us to the promised land. I hope I’m wrong because I love McClappy. This is going to be a big year.

 

 

[D-line coach Eric Washington’s comments on Ed Oliver — hoo boy]

Ed is a dud. He’s either going to continue his meh play and get paid by another team or he’s going to have a monster contract year and get paid by another team.

 

Can anyone tell me if Washington is any good? Has this guy developed anyone to their perceived potential? Is Beane that bad at evaluating DT/DE talent or is Washington unable to bring the best out of these guys? One of those has to be true

[Beane's biggest blunder?]

I love Beane. That being said, the inability to put a friggin dependable wall in front of your franchise (and soon to be greatest in franchise history) QB has been disappointing. Last year was disgusting watching Saffold act like a turnstile with his “o’ley!” Blocks, and Spencer get torched repeatedly by speed to his outside. Josh has been asked to do too much and has made this garbage line look better than it is, and it looked like crap.

 

[NFL fans claiming to be a loyal fan of a team but switch teams, your thoughts]

It’s different when you are from Buffalo. No other fan base has the depth of love/passion for their team than the Buffalo Bills.

I was born in WNY but have lived away for 25 years. My kids were each born in New England and within minutes of popping out of their mom they had a small Bills football next to them on the C-section table. My girls are now 16 and 18 and are the definition of die hard - wearing Bills jerseys to school in Rhode Island throughout most of the drought when Pats dominated us and when we finally broke it they knew what it meant to be a real fan through thick and thin.

 

I love the Sabres. Not like the Bills but I watch most games and follow them closely. Don’t care about Basketball (Braves left when I was real young), don’t care about baseball. Went to Syracuse so I follow the Orange. Went to grad school at UB so I follow the Bulls. That’s it.

 

It’s the emotional connection to my hometown and our teams that mean something. I can’t imagine just picking a team and saying “this is who I root for”.  There’s nothing wrong with that, I just don’t get it.

 

[No excuses for Ken Dorsey this year]

1 hour ago, finn said:

Dorsey was doing well until Allen got hurt and the short-passing game was compromised. Meanwhile, he had turnstiles at guard and tackle and unreliable receivers besides Diggs. 

 

If you want to point fingers, point them at Beane for signing Saffold and putting his faith in Brown, McKenzie, and Davis. 

I disagree. I think Dorsey had already been figured out at that point and had yet to adjust. The elbow injury just complicated matters.

 

By that time, teams knew our O-line was a sieve, Davis was a 2 trick pony with no ability to get separation in the short/intermediate areas, McKenize was a failure in the slot, and Dorsey would abandon the running game quick. So what did they do? Defenses knew they only had to jump the first 2 reads because by then someone on the O-line would have lost their individual battle and Josh would be forced into hero mode. They doubled Diggs consistently and just played Davis deeper knowing he wouldn’t get a short ball. The reason the O still produced is because Josh is just so damn good at hero mode that he consistently made things happen off structure. At times it seemed like Dorsey’s whole offense was “Make something happen Josh”. I’m very concerned about Dorsey’s ability to utilize all the weapons we have on this team.

 

 

[RD 3, Pick 91: LB Dorian Williams, Tulane]

How do you know its the month of May?

 

Birds are chirping

Grass is getting green

Leaves are sprouting

 

TBD Armchair GM Draft Gurus start rolling back their over reaction hot takes faster than a bank robber reversing out of the parking lot

 

[RD 2, Pick 59: G O’Cyrus Torrence, Florida]

DOOOOMED!!!

 

I like it 

[The wheel turns for the Pats and their fans]

There are still Pats* fans out there? I wouldn’t know it. I’ve lived in New England for 20 years and I haven’t heard a peep from fans in the last few years. Biggest bandwagon fan base in history. They are all Bruins fans now but can’t name a player on the team

[Cole Beasley tweets]

I love Bease, the guy produced. I couldn’t care less about all this peripheral crap that so many posters get their panties in a bunch about.  I just wish he had more left in the tank. If he was still as good as he was, as we want him to be, and as he thinks he is he’d have been picked up by another team long ago. I think the reality is that he’s lost a lot of quickness/separation and he was only valuable to Buffalo because he know the offense and had familiarity with Josh. 

[The Allen-Diggs Relationship in Decline?]

I can’t find a face-palm gif big enough for this garbage thread

 

We need more players like Diggs. Not only does he speak the truth, he backs it up with his effort and production in practice/games

 

There is zero issue here. No one questions if Diggs is going to put in 100% effort 100% of the time. He’s earned the right to speak his mind. The culture of this team has plenty of room for 2-3 Diggs like personalities as long as they back it up like Diggs does.

 

Stop making things up that aren’t there. If you haven’t figured out Stef yet you never will so enjoy the elite WR play for a few more years

 

[Diggs is Tweeting]

6 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Dorsey is getting only one more year to turn this offense around. If he fails and we get bounced again in the playoffs,  I could see Terry switching to an offensive HC. We've already pissed away 3 great opportunities to win a Chip with Allen.  Diggs is right.... too bad the rest of this team doesn't have the passion he has.  

 

 

The McBeane “Hotseat” is as cold as ice. I don’t think Terry would even entertain the notion of firing McD or Beane. If the O craps the bed then I could see them bringing in a new OC but I don’t think there’s a chance McD is gone. Not saying I agree with that, just that I think the fans are looking at this from a different perspective than the owner. 

[Calling it now: Drew Sanders will be the Bills number Three pick 😁😁]

If they go LB in the first it’s gotta be Campbell. You aren’t replacing Tremaine’s athleticism the guy is a freak. You can replace his lack of instincts and aggressiveness with a very instinctive yet still very athletic LB in Campbell. McD said himself he wants to increase the nastiness factor of the D and that starts with the MLB. I don’t see them taking a flyer on a guy who has one start or can’t tackle well. 

 

If all this talk about Brown has been a smokescreen then they go OT ( I tend to believe Beane likes Brown and has been talking straight with us about him)

 

With no DT’s under contract past this year I think DT is a very good possibility and then this board will go Chernobyl 

[Drew Sanders vs Jack Campbell]

3 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

I think Campbell is the best LB in the draft. He'd be a good fit in the Bills D. Ideally, the Bills move down a tad and pick up Campbell with extra picks added. 

I’d agree but if Beane thinks he’s the guy I doubt he takes the chance of moving down. I say that because he’s got a habit of targeting specific players and moving up the board to get them, so I don’t think he’s worried about over-drafting a guy if he’s there.

[Optimizing Dawson Knox]

23 minutes ago, Sammy Watkins' Rib said:

 

Good point. The Bills and Allen especially were on an unreal pace for total yards early in the season. Then they fail back to mean. It wasn't all due to late season weather either but that does play roll. We know the offense has the ability to put up 440 ypg. That is the average they were at through 6 games and going into the Packers game. They finished the season at 397 yards pe game. Second behind the Chiefs. So not bad at all still. 

 

They fell back to the mean because Dorsey got figured out and he didn’t adjust the offense to the defensive adjustments.

 

I think teams had a good feel for what routes were coming based on the formation and the concepts Buffalo loved to run. They knew if they anticipated and jumped the first 2 reads the pass rush should get there and Josh would be in back-yard football mode. The offense was as good as it was because Josh is an Alien and can make so many off structure plays work.

 

Look at Mahomes and Burrows and how many easy throws to wide open guys they had in every game. It seemed like Josh was throwing into tight windows 90% of the time and that’s on Dorsey. The few times we’d hit Diggs on an easy slant right after the snap I’d yell FINALLY. 

 

Knox is very athletic and can run. Dorsey needs to scheme up plays where he is the primary target more often. For that to happen we need improved O-line play and a good #2 WR so he can get creative. Whether he has the brain to scheme up easy plays for our QB is yet to be determined. I hope so but time will tell.

 

[Optimizing Dawson Knox]

I am a big Dorsey skeptic so yeah I’m putting much of the blame on him because he designs the offense and decides who the primary reads are.

 

1) Offense came out blowing the doors off teams early in the season

2) Defenses adjusted 

3) Dorsey did not

4) Josh got injured (this was a much bigger injury than most understand. He should have sat for 4 games minimum but he is a warrior and played through it. It definitely affected him both mentally and physically and we should give him credit for the W’s and take the decreased stats with a grain of salt

5) Josh lost confidence in his offensive line. There was no way to get into the flow of a game with different O-lineman getting destroyed regularly and Josh not knowing who was going to sht the bed on any given play. He had time to maybe get to read #2 before he had to either run or scamble and go off structure.

6) Yeah Josh could have hit underneath receivers that were open more often, no question. Whether this was injury related, O-line related, where these receivers were in the progression idk. Probably a combination of it all.

 

It’s up to Dorsey to scheme guys open including Knox. Especially in the red zone Knox is a beast, and if he was featured more I think he’d meet expectations. I hope Dorsey takes a big leap as an OC this year because otherwise we are toast.

 

[Optimizing Dawson Knox]

I don’t have the numbers but Joe Marino did a deep dive on this towards the end of the season. The gist of it is that Knox has NOT been kept in to block, his drop issue has improved significantly, and he is open on routes. Dorsey does not have him high in the progression and Josh reads deep to short. He absolutely needs to be emphasized more in the passing game and not as an outlet. That’s on Dorsey. Josh has said himself when they get Knox involved the offense flows much smoother.

 

[Suitable Edmunds Replacements in the draft]

We just spent 5 years with a LB who had elite athletic traits but no instincts.

 

Give me the guy who has great instincts and good athleticism. If that’s Campbell then fine.

 

Personally I don’t think that MLB hole is as deep as everyone thinks. McD is changing the D and the responsibilities of the Mike can be adjusted. If there is a potential great OT or WR on the board I’d take that before LB in the first.

[Will DeAndre Hopkins be available this offseason?]

Why are people getting bent over Tim Grahams tweet? It didn’t add anything to the conversation. It didn’t add anything we didn’t already know.

 

Once AZ’s asking price was leaked, every one of us knew Beane wasn’t paying that and likely no other team would as well.

 

So we all knew that unless AZ lowered their asking price (“significant change”), we weren’t pulling that trigger.

 

So what exactly does Tim Graham reveal here? Nothing.

 

 

[McDermott "officially" calling D plays]

McD has plans to change the D, I think that’s becoming more and more obvious. If we had retained Edmunds they might have just tweaked it, but with Tremaine gone and no one with his athletic traits available to take that role, McD is taking the opportunity to change things up big time. 

 

I expect we are going to see a Big Dime package with 3 safeties on the field, our standard Nickle package but the responsibilities will be adjusted, and more varied blitzes from different angles. 

 

After a year of tweaking it during the season I’d expect him to name a DC in 2024 but who knows, he may just keep the play calling if it goes well.

 

I’m just glad we aren’t running back the exact same scheme that’s getting stale and is in need of some adjusting.

 

[Will DeAndre Hopkins be available this offseason?]

In!

 

Dhop doesn’t guarantee a SB but it’s definitely a move in the right direction at the right price. I trust Bean to make that call.

 

 

[Your Bills-related unpopular opinion]

1) IDK if this is unpopular but Dorsey’s inability to adjust the offense to the adjustments defenses made against us after the first 1/3rd of the season is the biggest reason we struggled up until tanking in the playoffs

 

2) Kim Pegula’s health issue had no impact with the on-field performance. Same as the Top’s shooting. Hamlin’s issue had a severe negative impact on the team even with his miraculous recovery 

 

3) Josh’s decision making was very poor in 2022 culminating in the playoff loss. His lack of faith in the O-line was the main reason

 

4) Beane and McD have no hot seat. There is little pressure from above.

[A players perspective on the Bengals game]

I think it’s pretty simple - the players ran out of gas and the gameplan sucked. Both Dorsey and Frazier were completely outmatched. Even if the players came out of the tunnel fired up and ready to go (which they clearly weren’t) I don’t think we win that game with game plan we had on both sides of the ball.

[RT in First Round]

I’d keep Brown at RT for another season. Dorsey has a specific play called the Brown Turnstile. That’s where Spencer gets smoked immediately so Josh rolls right and throws bombs. We see it often.