GunnerBill

Kincaid is not a wide receiver, that's excluded. But you are right - I had forgotten the 3rd he traded for Cooper in season. That puts him 31st. Just above the Buccs.

I am not sure that is even true though. They played well v Miami despite the O constantly putting them in a hole. They played well v New England. They played fine against the Steelers. Have they been good enough in games we have been eliminated? No. But equally other than the 13 second game I am not sure the O has either. Particularly the last two years.

Im willing to go with the numbers. My playing with the playoff machine it felt dicier than that. I ran about 5 versions the other night we made it twice and missed 3 times with just wins v CLE and NYJ.

New England, certainly in the 2nd dynasty, were more a Bills build than a Ravens build too.

THIS year, the defense isn't good. It wasn't good last year either. But over his reign their have had top regular season defenses. It is simply not true to say he has never had top defenses.

What I think is partly by accident is exactly the point you go on to make. They think their wide receivers are better than they are year after year. Whether it is telling us Samuel can contribute outside (he can't and I said so even when they were publicly proclaiming he could), drafting Keon and thinking he was an answer on the boundary (he isn't and was never going to be) or signing Palmer and talking him up (I called him the bare minimum option a week before FA began). They want to be balanced and run it and not take high risks with the ball in the passing game. I agree. They don't want to be this bad throwing the ball. That is the bit that is by accident and it is because of poor talent evaluation.

Fair enough. I bow to the numbers over my playing with the playoff machine!

Yea for all that Coop was clearly not the guy he had been he still forced teams to respect the outside when he was out there. I don't know how many times we have to hear defensive players of the opposition say "we talked all week about not letting them beat us in the middle of the field" before we believe what is very obvious. Teams are daring the Bills to beat them outside confident that they won't be able to.

They have a ton of injuries to key guys... and Lamar missed time and they are not deep. Their roster build is very different to ours... they are a stars and jags build we are a solid and depth build. But they are arguably as healthy now as they have been since week 1 when they looked pretty good to me. I still say that is the worst possible WC matchup.

But they don't have a Doug Baldwin, Golden Tate or even a Percy Harvin.

Which solid receivers? No we haven't. It is the talent.

Agree. Getting the #5 seed and being @ Baltimore in the wildcard is not a grest outcome. Whatever their struggles.

It's much more the guys we have not being good enough to make plays.

It is alright, and it is who they have to be at the moment. But it is not alright that we have got here partly by accident. I think the staff always wanted balance. They did not want this inability to throw the ball down the field. That is not by design. It is a result of piss poor personnel decisions. The coaches are leaning into how the team has been built. But there are major questions marks about that build - both in strategy (which Beane and McDermott both have a hand in) and in talent evaluation (which is squarely on Brandon Beane).

I mean it is a bit of both. There is definitely a cultural resistance on this board to blaming Allen even for things that are his fault. And there have been things that have been Josh's fault this year. Some of the turnovers are absolutely on him. He hasn't played as well as 2024 or the second half of 2023. There are extenuating factors but it is madness to exempt him from all blame. However, the WRs are the worst in the league. They were before the season started and some of us said it. The Bills have been hurt by injuries. Beane is to blame for some of the problems with this roster and while I am not a McDermott hater, the can't win the big game tag will stick likely until / unless he wins a Superbowl.