GunnerBill

Yea that was NOT a good throw. @Gugny was right. He should be 1 and done. Hopeless beyond belief.

Yea I always say do not decide to hire or fire your coach based on who is or isn't available to replace them. You should always fire your guy as soon as you believe he is not the guy. If the Bills brass thinks that about McDermott by January they should fire him. However, this is a particularly BAD year for candidates IMO. There have been EIGHTEEN Head Coaching changes in the last two cycles. That has really emptied out the pipeline. You are spot on that Joe Brady is very likely at least a top 3 candidate around the league by the time the hiring cycle hits and personally I still think Joe has some growth required before I'd be convinced on him as a HC. But in a world for a moment where the Bills do get themselves to "time for a change" I saw @HappyDays list of retreads earlier in the thread and I am very confident in saying all those names are downgrades from McDermott. I like Stefanski and he'd be high on my list as an OC candidate (if not at the top) and the idea of him bringing Schwartz back with him is appealing but if you think Sean is bad with clock and game management decisions I urge you to go watch some Browns games (I know, painful) Stefanski's game management is horrific. So any of those retreads feel like change for change's sake rather than change to get better. Feels like spin the wheel. Where I do agree with @HappyDays is Klint Kubiak would be absolutely top of my list if I am looking for the next hot thing. I think you'd probably be jumping early on him (arguably even more so than on Brady) and it would be a completely new offensive scheme to Allen. There is relatively little read across from what he has run his career to date and what Kubiak wants to do in terms of either verbiage or route combinations and progressions. And who knows who he would bring as a DC - which has been a bit of an issue for some of those Shanahan guys. But I can see the thinking there that you might take a 1 year slight step back for what you hope is a bigger reward in time. At least conceptually that is the sort of hire I'd want them to be thinking about.

I don't think him being "bigger" has anything to do with the injuries. I think that IS too negative to try and draw conclusions. It is totally fair though to say that LaPorta has been more productive and would not have cost them a trade up pick.

Meh. Settle was pretty rubbish in Houston last year. He graded out terribly - especially in run defense - and while he did get 5 sacks that was clean up duty playing between two top tier edge guys. I think this is more just a guy having a career year so far this year. That happens from time to time where a guy who is career average just has a year where everything clicks.

I was a fan of both guys coming out. Same class I think (one we took Groot in)?

Fans should absolutely analyse parts of the team that are and are not looking good. I think that is slightly different than catastrophising doom and there has been an element of that the past few days. Just the same as the team wasn't bound for the Superbowl at 4-0 the sky is also not falling at 4-1. What is the most frustrating element of this season for me so far is the two things that were major weaknesses on last year's roster - the secondary (save for Benford last year and right now he is not playing well) and the outside receivers - are exactly the same this year. They get a bit of a mulligan on the secondary with regards to their first round pick being hurt, however.... the two worst position groups on last year's roster - safety and receiver were largely ignored. I don't think we were ever losing to the Saints or Dolphins personally, they just weren't talented enough to make the Bills pay for sleepwalking through those games at different points. The Patriots are a better team than both of them though. They will be a playoff contender - an 8 to 10 win team.... and they were talented enough to make an underwhelming Bills team that made major mistakes pay. Atlanta this week are in a similar bracket for me. A borderline playoff type team who if the Bills don't play well and execute in key moments can catch them out. Let's hope the performance is better.

Possibly. At this stage I am more inclined to just put it down to a bad day. He definitely did not call the game to maximise our advantages. Which were definitely middle of the field vs those linebackers. And when we did we marched down the field. It bears watching for a pattern, sure, but I just think he called a poor game Sunday. When he has done that previously he has always bounced back the next week. I expect the Bills to have a really good offensive display on Monday.

I started the all22 yesterday - but didn't get very far into the second half.... I think your summary of the first half in particular and the criticism of Brady is right. The middle of the field was the Bills advantage all night and every time they attacked there - it worked. Unfortunately it felt like they had come in with this plan to try and attack the boundary and the edges and for some reason took way too long (until that penultimate drive and the Keon TD) to get away from it - that drive was almost all middle of the field and we marched.

This is very true. There are a lot of people here who would be willing to move on from Beane as the cost for moving on from McDermott. I think by the end of this season I may well be in the opposite camp. I haven't been in favour of firing either of them to this point, but with the 12 major moves Beane made in the spring/summer looking (other than Cook) questionable at best I'm starting to lean towards you have to move on from Beane and if the cost is you move on from McDermott too then so be it.

In what way would you describe him as being "solid"?

And of those only Houston was even arguably a team of comparable standard. The way this latest one is different is I was at the London game and Josh sucked, and Houston last year Josh sucked. He threw a bad pick on Monday and didn't play his best game by any stretch but he didn't suck. Previously it has taken Josh playing really poorly to lose those games. The worry is this roster lost with Josh playing okay. Their secondary is a major, major issue right now. I think if you told anyone before the year Benford was gonna play as poorly as he has that would have been entirely predictable.

Beane runs the draft. He is in charge of personnel. I have that on very good authority from people inside the organisation (or previously inside I should say, both are now elsewhere). McDermott has a big say in the type of team they want to build and the profile of person they want, but the individual selections of FAs and draft picks... that is Brandon Beane. McDermott and the coaches will watch some film and give their input after the scouts grade as is normal right across the NFL. But when it comes to setting the board and executing a draft strategy and picks that is Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott has total faith in him doing it. And I have made this point many times but if you look at the way the Bills draft, the positions the prioritise and the positions they don't it breaks down in very similar percentages to the way the Panthers drafted under Hurney and Gettleman who Beane learned from. Lots of defensive front seven, above average investment in running backs, way below average investment in wide receivers and no offensive linemen in round 1.

I think blitzing would have been a mistake in 13 seconds - yes. Do I think they should have squibbed? For sure. Do I think they called the best coverages? No. Although Levi totally misplaying his assignment on the second didn't help. There is no question 13 seconds was coaching failure. That is well established. Again the leap in logic is that the antidote to that is somehow Rex Ryan. That is a classic logical fallacy. The thing we did failed, therefore we must do something else, this is something else, ergo this must be the right plan. There was actually what I considered a pretty reasonable discussion in another thread about what happens next if the Bills fail to meet expectations this year and who the realistic options might be. It seems it got nixed though before I had a chance to contribute. Even as someone who as of right now isn't committed to "Superbowl or regime change" this year I do think it is reasonable to have conversations about alternative options. I don't think it is reasonable to argue Rex Ryan would have won a Superbowl here. That is crazy talk.

What beats Brady and Mahomes is rushing four. Not blitzing. You have to be able to get there with four. If you can't you are done for. Whether than is Spags in the 09 Superbowl vs Brady or Fangio in last year's v Mahomes. Rex was a blitz, blitz and blitz again merchant who by the middle of the last decade was out of touch and put of ideas. The Bills are blitzing more this year. How is that working out for them? The "just blitz more" crowd need to get off Madden and come into the real world. There legitmate reasons to be critical of McDermott by the way - the defense has got significantly worse since he helped nudge Leslie Frazier out, the Bills have this annoying tendency in years where the 1 seed is in play to lose stupid games to inferior teams, he hasn't been able to get to a Superbowl and to the extent he is involved in roster building (and that is really Brandon Beane but I believe they are totally aligned on the vision even though the individual choices are Beane's) they have not built the roster the way I would have advocated for. At this stage Sean (and Brandon) should be evaluated year on year in terms of have they maximised what was available to them. All of that is legitimate. But Rex Ryan winning a Superbowl in this decade? Nah. That isn't legtimate. That's a joke. I understand people being frustrated but seriously it is boiling some people's brains.

What Rex accomplished on defense in 2009 and 2010 is totally irrelvant by 2018 when Josh enters the league. The league had changed and Rex failed to keep pace. The game passed him by. If the argument is just put prime Josh Allen on the 2009-2010 Jets teams and they win a Superbowl, sure. I can well believe that. But the Rex Ryan who turned up here five years later was antiquated in terms of how NFL defense was being played and he never caught up. I say again, there is a reason Rex hasn't coached again since. Frankly the idea that he in the 2020s could lead anyone anywhere is absurd.

Well you're wrong. But well done. And I thought we were talking McDermott pre-Allen? Already moved your goalposts.

Firstly that isn't quite right..... Rex was a game below .500 as Bills coach and McDermott was a game over .500 before Josh. But the fact is the 2015 roster should have been more than a .500 roster and they scrambled to .500 having been 6-8. That was an underachievement. I know you hate McDermott but arguing Rex would have won a Superbowl is patently ludicrous.

The NFL had passed Rex by not long after that. And, frankly, he had mailed it in effort wise too. There is a reason he hasn't worked in the league again post Buffalo. If you were getting 2010 Rex Ryan, sure it's possible. But his failings as a Head Coach became more apparent the longer he did the job.

Not a flaming chance.

Every team in the league values system guys. The Bills are probably at the upper echelon of that but you are definitely right to point out it is not unique to them.

He ia alerting a LOT right now. That suggests two possibilities to me. Either we are not getting the right calls in OR Josh is over thinking a bit trying to get into the perfect look. I think there might be a bit of both going on

It isn't about being fast so much is it is about route running and nuance. The stats show teams are having success going deep even against shell coverage. That is because they have guys who can find the holes and get open. We don't.

He was 4.59 40 pre draft.

No I haven't.

Who told you Shavers was super fast? Exactly. If the guys get open Josh will throw them the ball. Not saying he never fails to see one, all QBs do. But the primary reason he is checking down is guys not being open deep.