GunnerBill

It will sting for a few days. I have my first mock of the year, full two rounder, all but read to go so I'll give the forum a couple of days to mourn the loss and then I'll drop that midweek. That will be my turn the page and we are on to Green Bay moment.

Yea. Not sold. This is a poor receiver group.

Yes, I'd 100% take him he is definitely better than anything we'd get in the 2nd, this is a poor receiver class by modern standards..... BUT he still isn't the ideal type that I want. I want a more natural separator. Pickens is as good a contested catch guy and there is but ideally I want someone who is going to get open. There is only one top WR and he isn't getting to 10.

Oh yes, I was commenting on Kincaid not Josh. for Josh to make that throw under that pressure is incredible. He needed a guy to make a play, not an extraordinary play, just a slightly tougher than average play, for him and his guy failed.

On the bolded - two points: 1. I have been clear part of the reason they did well against us in the first half in particular was because we tried to man up and that's hard when you are at a huge speed disadvantage which the Bills DBs were. Once we went to much more zone defense in the 2nd half the Chiefs found it harder. 2. But if you are asking me do I think Coleman and Hollins in the same situation get the same separation as Worthy and Hollywood in particular? No, I don't. So in that sense, yes, they'd do worse. I don't think the Chiefs receivers are fantastic by any means but it is no surprise they have improved offensively since getting Hollywood healthy and since Worthy started figuring things out. Because before that they were having the exact same issues as us - struggled separating. They brought Hopkins in and it didn't really help because at this stage of his career he doesn't separate. Hollins made two great contested grabs on darts from Josh yesterday but as I said all offseason... contested catches are a hard way to make a living consistently as an offense in the NFL. Separation is king.

I hadn't seen it from that angle. It's even worse. That is no more than a 6/10 for difficulty by NFL standards

The word would be urgency.

Yea days 1 and 2 are for the execs. Day 3 is for the scouts. There is a part for Beane there, sure when they have their board building meetings he needs to ask the right questions of his scouts to make sure the way they stack it is right for him to then execute the picks but the major credit goes to the lower downs for day 3.

So part of the answer to that is they run the most extra OL and still a fair amount of legit two tight end (Kincaid and Knox) and when you do that it is your slot receiver that suffers snaps wise. Shakir can't play wide. He is slot only. While his overall snap count is barely over 50% he played 72.5% of the Bills passing snaps that Josh Allen took (i.e. excluding week 18 with Mitch) and if you remove the passing snaps in the game Khalil missed at Houston he is actually at 76.5% for the year which is right in the range you'd want. I disagree that he could have been a top 10 or top 5 receiver though. Shakir is who he is. A nice complimentary player. The numbers he put up this year - 800 yards 4 touchdowns - that is basically who he is IMO. On why Hollins had the highest snap count among our receivers, that's easy. He plays outside so doesn't lose snaps to Anderson and/or Kincaid and Knox and he was the only receiver healthy all year and who played all 20 games (17 regular season and 3 post). He is actually slightly behind Shakir on passing down usage in games with with Josh at 67%. I don't think the rotation is about everybody eats (with the exception of Cooper who they definitely only ran a limited package for) so much as it is about the Bills being one of the more formationally diverse offenses in the league this year. I know but two years in a row with the season on the line Josh has to throw it to someone. It can't be himself and it can't be Spencer Brown.

I did some work on receivers last week. I didn't get as far down the list as Meeks though. I like Restrepo some, but year I think he is another primarily slot guy so as a Bills fit not sure. I don't think it's a great class to be honest (probably generally, though not as down on it as some are, but certainly for receivers).

But it isn't the 4th best set of skill position players and two years in a row, whatever the failings on defense, and I agree there many (some of those are personnel as well by the way), the offense has had the ball at the end with a chance to win the game. When you have an elite QB you are supposed to win from there, regardless of what has happened in the previous 56/57 minutes. Now why haven't we? I don't think Josh is the reason. I do think what is around him is. What Beane is to blame for is screwing up the first round of the draft three years running.

Watch how badly Torrence got blown up. A sneak to the right would have had no chance.

Lions, Eagles, Ravens are the three that spring to mind. And our skill players are comfortably the weakest of those, Josh is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those comparators.

They are joined at the hip. But at the moment if there is something driving me to move on it is their personnel decision making not their coaching decision making. On the bolded I just disagree. Our skill players on offense are still at best middle of the league and if you take Cook out then well below that. They performed as they did in year because Josh and Joe raised the level. As Beane always says how you lose your last game shows your weaknesses, ours are when we need to go downfield aggressively we find it a challenge.

Of course McDermott has a say but it is Brandon Beane's call. I know two people who have been in the building - one on each side - and they both say independently of the other that Beane runs the draft. He'd never pick a guy Sean is vehemently against, they are too collabrative for that. But Sean isn't grinding hours of tape to decide between Coleman or Worthy or Mitchell or whoever. That is Brandon Beane's job and he is accountable for those picks.

I am definitely in they are on the hotseat next year. But I repeat what I have said elsewhere the GM's seat should be significantly hotter of the two.

These KC games keep coming down to a play or two at the end that they are making and we are not. That isn't scheme. It isn't coaching. It's not Xs and Os it's Jimmys and Joes and I feel like when at the end of play off games you having to use a slot receiver (in 2023) and a tight end (in 2024) as your go to "downfield" options that is telling you that you are lacking in something that you need. Not having it in 2023 when Diggs hit a wall in season was somewhat defensible. Not having it in 2024 when you knew that was the issue calls into question the drafting of a proven non-separator at #33. If we were getting nowhere near KC and couldn't live with them I'd be saying the schemes are the problem more than anything. When we blew it at the end in 2021 that was on coaching. But the last two years we have had the ball on offense at the end of the game with a chance to go down and win it. And both times we have not been able to find a guy to make that play. Not Xs and Os. Jimmys and Joes. Add to that the corner that we spent a 1st round pick on being brutalised all night, the guard we spent a 2nd round pick on fluffing his key block on the final offensive play of the game. The safety we spent a 2nd round pick on looking clueless in coverage all night. Oh, and the guy we gifted them in round one to take the aforementioned non-separator being our tormentor in chief (no pun intended)..... Yea. I'm fine with them both on the hotseat going into 2025. But no question Beane's seat should be hotter IMO.

The answer to that is not a great one for Beane. Those later round picks rely a LOT more on your regional and area scouts than your GM. The GM is making the pick but Brandon Beane hadn't spent hours grinding Christian Benford's film for example. At that point he is following the board. He will have guys he likes but it is much less "his" evaluation.

They actually made really good adjustments at half time. Their initial gameplan was more of the problem than adjustment. Agree on Rousseau - he was shocking last night and times barely looked like he was trying.

There is no way the Chargers are a better franchise. None.

No way is it worse than the drought. Not a chance. Losing sucks. The less losing the better. It is devastating when you get close and fail. Nobody should just celebrate getting close. But people should always enjoy winning and hate losing. Yes FREAKING please.

It's 3 although I'd term that "wavering confidence" rather than "somewhat confident".

On an NFC team, sure, he makes some Superbowls. If we could make them by beating Case Keenum, Josh Johnson and the Washington Commanders like for example the Eagles three times in the past decade we'd have made multiple by now. On the Chargers? Not a prayer, they are miles behind the Bills.

No he shouldn't. If he has genuine concerns about the leadership of the franchise he should certainly talk to Terry Pegula about them. But marching into offices making demands and issuing ultimatums is Aaron Rodgers style jackass behaviour and won't fix anything. Luckily Josh is a better person than that.

I know for a fact from people who have been inside the building that Beane runs the draft and while McDermott definitely has the power of veto in reality he has total faith in Beane to execute. I disagree on your "terrible schemes and philosophies point" and Shakir wasn't ready as a rookie and Dorian Williams is still up and down as a second year player. Those usage decisions are obviously Sean McDermott's though. That isn't Beane.