GunnerBill

And yet the results Brady has had with less talent are comparable. I was a Daboll fan too, less so Dorsey. But if Daboll had this roster his offense wouldn't work. We don't have the pieces.

Yea the single most important ability a head coach needs is leadership. It matters more than Xs and Os. I think his media management is a red flag. But I haven't read / heard the locker room stuff. If that is bad too I think his chabces of being a success reduce significantly. No matter how good of a play caller her is. It is too early to say of course. And I think Poles and Caleb are partly responsible for the slow start in different ways. But as I said yesterday holding the team together if this season goes sideways will be a significant test for him.

My pushback is 1, 2 & 4 sound like the Dorsey offense. And that wasn't aggressive. It was just dumb.

Can you clarify what you mean by aggressive? Do you mean throwing lots? Or do you mean throwing down the field? Or do you mean attack a defence's weak spots? Cos I think the Bills are balanced run to pass in order to put the ball in the hands of their most explosive skill player, I think they have called deep shots and they are not there because guys can't get open deep and I think they do a pretty good job going after weaknesses. I don't see any of that as not being aggressive. Have had a couple of conservative play calls - sure. The 3rd down after the alert we just talked about they rushed to the line and tried a run which was odd, and the 3rd down on the first drive of the second half the other day when they ran and kicked a FG was unnecessarily conservative to my eye. But I think they are individual play calls rather than something that signifies an overall conservative offense.

Honestly, the scheming on offense has not been great. I thought it was poor Sunday night. Thornton has been getting some separation deep but just by running fast in a straight line. Looks a lot to me like defences (and tbf Chargers and Eagles have seen plenty of them) know what is coming and have generally had the chain movers smothered.

I think they will make the playoffs too. But I think there are issue and I think they extend to coaching. Especially on the offensive side where their guys just do not look well coached or coordinated right now. The offense is positively Dorseyish. If they limp in? Yea. I'll feel pretty good. As they are currently constituted they would not beat the Bills. Now if they suddenly get healthy (especially on offense) and run the 2nd half of the table and get in as a WC.... then sure, I'd be a little nervous.

I disagree. I don't think it was a conservative plan. I think it felt conservative because when they more aggressive plays were called Josh checked down. He was right to check down. Nobody was open deep. On the audible on 2nd and the reason I think it was a pass is because he alerts and then he points behind his back to Cook and "Omahas." Could that all be part of one call? Sure. But I'd need evidence that he has double signalled that way on other alerts. I think he alerted from a pass to a run and then flipped the run. Don't know for certain but that is my rationale.

Yep defender was there early and already hanging on his back before the ball arrived, but agree still catchable. I said that in the GDT.

He called downfield shots in that first half against the Ravens. They weren't there. Josh came off two and checked down and I still think he checked out of a pass on the 2nd and 1. That's part of the point.... I think what is driving the conservative narrative is the fact that the lack of separation means we don't actually go deep even when there are deeper shots called.

McAdoo (allegedly without ownership clearing) told Manning on the Monday "you are starting but at some point I will go to Geno" and Eli came in the next morning and said "that's not fair to Geno - if you want him to play let him play, I'd rather not start and then come out." When word got back to Mara he was fuming. McAdoo and the GM were fired right after the game.

McAdoo got fired as much for his contention that Eli was done and decision to bench him as anything else. Mara was very close to Eli and took badly to it. Turns out McAdoo wasn't a million miles off.

To this point there is a thread on Chiefs Plant at the moment called "Fire Matt Nagy into the Sun" followed by a debate as to where the blame lies between Nagy, Reid and Veach for their offensive woes.

I am away for work this week and in a hotel with not much to do before my diplomatic meetings this afternoon I watched the all22 from Sunday. All three tight ends blocked well, Kincaid has definitely improved his run blocking technique which is encouraging although he can still doesn't sustain or finish blocks as well as the other two and he had a rough pass blocking snap though a tough assignment against I think McDonald. Hawes blocked nicely in both the pass and run game and Knox was a beast in this game as a run blocker. Trust me he more than made up for not coming down with a couple of makeable catches with his performance as a blocker.

The receivers we have are legit NFL players (maybe Shavers still a tbc - but Keon, Palmer, Shakir, Moore, Samuel and the two main pass catching tight ends) but none of them are (at least yet) difference makers and so we still have snaps when we are forced into pure dropback where nobody can get open downfield unless Josh gets out and extends the play. The Bills are finding ways to coach and scheme around that and to mask it to a large extent - but I do still worry at some point it becomes a limitation.

I don't think we have the receiving talent to have Josh tossing it all over the field. I suppose that goes to the heart of the debate. Any limitations that exist in this offense are less about the scheme and the playcalling to my eye than they are about the skill position talent. It's also why despite generally being against paying running backs I saw the value in retaining Cook. He is by far our most explosive skill position player. I wish that weren't the case, but given that it is I think it's prudent to retain that.

There were some called week 1 (less so this week) and Josh had to come off them because nobody was open and go underneath.

Yea his media management has to get better. It is Doug Marrone levels right now and that is gonna hurt you if you are not winning because the media will come after you even harder. I know Johnson can call an offense, and they have been good early on script. The two areas that remain to be seen are: 1. Coordinator hires - especially his DC hire with him being an offensive guy. The D lacks some pieces up front but to be this bad on the back end with the dudes they have is majorly concerning. Dennis Allen needs to get that turned around fast; and 2. Keeping a team together through 17 weeks. Its a rough start but they have the Cowboys, Raiders and Sainst as 3 of their next 4. If they can get to 3-3 the season is still alive. If they don't, watch out because from week 11 on their schedule really stiffens - Vikings, Eagles, Lions, 49ers and Packers twice are six of their last 8. We are going to see whether he is really Head Coach material or just a coordinator playing at it.

Anderson got a couple of jumbo snaps each week, mainly in goalline. He is less of a feature between the 20s. His snap count was higher this week but that includes snaps played in garbage time.

There is no way Knox plays here on his 2026 number. He takes a pay cut, or is cut, or signs an extension for a lower AAV than his previous deal. Depends a bit I think on where Kincaid is after this year as to what the Bills preference is. If they pick up Kincaid's option I think less likely Knox stays long term. If they don't I can see them wanting Knox under contract at least through 2027. Hawes is a good player and an excellent blocker in particular but it does make me laugh a bit that in the drought when we didn't have much at tight end most fans here HATED the very concept of a blocking tight end that was keeping whoever their favourite pet project was off the roster / field. Logan Thomas or Jason Croom or Chris Manhertz. Now when the top of that room is strong a blocking tight end is loved. Lee Smith was a really solid Bill in both spells who was undervalued by fans.

The last time the Network had a word with Tony Romo it turned a refreshing, honest, detailed new color guy and turned him into a shreiking, cliche ridden, opinionless identikit broadcaster who wouldn't sound out of place on Fox's D crew.

No OC that has had Josh Allen ran him at a higher clip than Dorsey that is a fact. The low margin of error comes from the lack of elite talent around Josh not from the scheme. The scheme actually does a pretty good job of maximisng the talent. I also think there is a bit of wanting it both ways from the critics. They want the offense to be less Josh centric to give him some help and when the OC designs an offense that means Josh needs the cape less frequently, save for against the very best opponents they go "low margin for error!" This OC's record speaks for itself and while of course any OC with Josh Allen should be able to have this success the predecessor was going whole halves without scoring before getting fired.

I am not kicking him to the curb either. I think he can still play. He just isn't quite the top 3 pure nickel in the league he was at his peak.

He has banged up and missed games last year and the Bills always try and run more base against Baltimore. That explains #2. He isn't quite the force now though that he was Taron. Last year was probably his worst since his rookie year. And Cam Lewis played really well in his absence yesterday.

I like your wife.

Where are all the Breece Hall truthers today? If you don't let him run gun straight through you (and the Bills didn't) he is done. I've seen tankers with quicker changes of direction. The touchdown run Cook had is a 3 yard gain for Breece Hall.