sven233

The cap implications are the biggest roadblock here. But, if you find a way to get through that, it would absolutely depend on the return. Do the Browns or Raiders want him as a piece of a trade for Garrett or Allen? Does another team like the Jets want him for Wilson or another team want him for a great outside WR? It's unlikely in both cases, but if that was their ask for whatever reason, I'm definitely listening.

I made my position clear earlier in this thread that I am not paying a RB $15 mill a year, especially when Josh Allen is your QB, but I didn't really mention what I would do instead. I truly believe a lot of RBs can be successful in our offense when you have Allen and the offensive line that we do. That isn't intended to be a shot at Cook because I do really like the play but, I mean, it was kind of made somewhat apparent this season when Davis and Johnson came on the field. There was not a huge drop off from Cook to Davis (a rookie by the way). And, we all saw what Ty Johnson did this season with the snaps he got. He made so many big, impact plays for us not only in closing out games running the football, but making huge catches down the field as well. So, while Cook may be a more physically gifted player than these guys, is the difference really worth $15 million? No. So, here's what I'm doing. The first thing I am doing is seeing if there is any team that is interested in taking Cook as part of a trade package for another impact player at a different position. If so, great. That is the best case scenario. Regardless, I am drafting the fastest, most athletic RB out there in the 3rd-4th round (depending on where our picks end up after whatever trades are made this offseason), and running Davis as my lead back with Johnson being brought back to get plenty of snaps as well with the rookie getting a taste here and there like Davis got this season. Then, the following season, you have Davis and this rookie coming back with a year under his belt to carry the load. If Cook can't be traded, then just run it back this season and say goodbye to Cook at the end of the year. You can still draft someone if you want to, but I am only looking for an athletic back with upside. I'd much rather take the money you can save by not signing Cook and investing into the WR position. Play to your strength which is obviously Allen and get him some real weapons. We legit have 1 WR on this team that is good. Shakir.....and he's a slot guy. Coleman's ceiling is very low in my opinion and Samuel has battled injuries. Hollins is a nice depth piece to have, but he isn't on this team right now and, while I do expect they would like him back, he's still not a guy that I want starting on the outside. We need 2 legit WRs with speed, explosion, and separation ability on the outside. $15 million may not solve those issues, but it can't hurt to have it depending on what your plan is there. Obviously it would probably be tough to fill both spots in FA, but maybe you get a proven guy there and use another high draft pick on a fast, athletic freak that you hope develops into something down the road, although that has never been the type of WR Beane has gravitated towards. Brown is the fastest WR Beane has brought in, but since then, he hasn't put anyone with real speed on the field with Allen to stretch defenses regularly so Allen can work the intermediate parts of the field where he's at his best. All this isn't even to mention the holes on defense. It's one thing to want to upgrade the WR position, but we all know about the glaring holes on defense. And if Cook can be used as a piece to get a premiere defensive lineman, you have to do it. We all know we need a DE, but we also need to get an elite 1-tech in here that can stuff the run. So, between the money you can save by not signing Cook, and the possible talent you could acquire by using him as a trade asset, it just makes the most sense to me to part with him now if possible, especially when you believe in the talent behind him.

There is a lot of truth in what he's saying. I have had many of the same criticisms, especially about Beane's early drafting. I truly believe they could have drafted Worthy or McConkey early in the draft and still gotten Coleman in the 3rd or even 4th round. I don't think teams were going to be banging on his door ready to draft a slow, young, and overall inexperienced WR in the 2nd round aside from us. The early rounds need to be about drafting physical freaks that can play. Draft players with production that have elite athletic traits. We haven't been doing that.

I like Cook. I really do. But there is no way I am paying that kind of money for a RB. There are just so many more impactful positions out there that make more of a difference. Just look at the Eagles. Yes, Barkley had a phenomenal year. But in the biggest game of the season, was he the reason they won that game? No. It was the defensive line getting after Mahomes. It was a big, strong defensive line that reset the LOS almost every play that was able to both stuff the run and contain Mahomes so there was nowhere to escape and make plays. It was great LB play covering the intermediate part of the field and not letting Mahomes throw over the middle to a wide open Kelce all night. It was CBs lining up and punching the WRs in the face and jamming them off the line not letting them get into their routes immediately allowing the defensive line to get home and force errant throws to tightly covered WRs. It was an offensive line that was so well coached that the blitz scheme of KC was rendered helpless and allowed the QB to make just enough big plays down the field to score early and often. It was a huge offensive line that could get a yard on a tush push whenever they needed it even though the defense knew it was coming. It was a big, fast, physical WR that abused one of the best CBs in the league in big moments. It was a quick, fast, WR that could take the top off the defense for a big score. It was a QB that, while not doing anything spectacular, made good decisions for the most part, made a few great throws, and ran when run lanes opened up for key first downs. Look.....Barkley is great and he was absolutely a reason they had the type of season they had. But in the end, while it's true he drew the attention of the Chiefs defense, it was the ability of the coaching staff to adapt during the game when Barkley was bottled up to find other ways to move the ball and score points. The defense never allowed the Eagles offense to be put in a bad situation in field position and they even scored themselves. Cook is a weapon for sure. He can make big plays and change games at times. That said.....is he exponentially better then Davis, Johnson, and a fast/explosive rookie they could draft in the 2nd or 3rd round (if we were to acquire a 3rd round pick at some point)? He only played half the snaps. He doesn't pass block and still has questionable hands from time to time, although he had a better year in that area. But is that difference worth $15 mill + per year over a rookie contract? Is a cap hit that large at that position worth more than being able to spend more on a WR1/WR2, pass rusher, CB, etc? To me, it's not, but I understand why some fans want to pay him. He was really great for us this season.

We would have had a better offensive game for sure. The Eagles did nothing flashy on defense. They lined up 4 and went after Mahomes all night and controlled the LOS. There were no exotic blitzes or coverages. They lined up and they whooped the Chiefs physically. Our O-Line is built for games like that. We have big, physical dudes that can match up better against a base defense like that. However, they were very bad against the Chiefs because they were not prepared and couldn't figure out the scheme and blitz packages they were running. They were beaten bad mentally more than they were physically. Would the Eagles defense have played us differently than they did against the Chiefs? Maybe. But, I do think they love just lining up and trying to beat you with 4 more often than not. So, that said, I think we would have been more successful on offense against their defense. The problem is, this goes both ways and their offensive line is just as good, if not better, than ours and they would have dominated us physically up front. We wouldn't have been able to contain Barkley and therefore would have had to stack the box to have a chance. Then, their big, physical WRs would have beaten us for big plays on the back end. Their offense would have been way too overwhelming for our defense. It would have been one of those games that Allen would have had to catch fire and play his best football and scored on almost every possession to have a chance to win because I am not sure if we could have forced the Eagles to punt. I'm serious when I say it would have been one of those games like the Colts game a few years back where they would have never had to throw the ball to beat us. Hurts would have a very pedestrian stat line and we would have probably given up 200+ on the ground and they would have just run the clock on us. Would have been one of those lopsided TOP games. Could we have won? Sure. It's football and we have Josh Allen at QB. But we would have probably had to score 40+ to do it because they would have dominated our defense physically.

Here's hoping these new defensive hires are truly pointing to a change in philosophy on defense. Unfortunately, if we do want to become a more man to man style defense, our personnel needs an overhaul. While Benford will probably be OK in man to man, he excels in zone and that is where his strength lies. In the limited amount of times we did play man this season for stretches, he was beat like a drum on several occasions. That said, I tend to give him a pass a bit because he is more of a zone CB and hasn't had the reps in man to be great consistently. However, he has shown that he works extremely hard and wants to be great, so if he works this off season on more man techniques, I am confident he can figure it out. That said, he may be the only guy I trust on the back end to play this kind of system. We have no CB2. Johnson, while he has been great in the past and having a good season this year, was beaten a lot more than we have been used to seeing. That said, it's not entirely his fault as he usually has a pretty tough matchup and because we don't have a pass rush, he did struggle at times this season in man to man situations. And of course, you have to have highly athletic safties in a man scheme. Hamlin isn't that for sure, so he needs to be replaced. And, while I like Rapp just fine, his injury history can't be ignored. Bishop has the physical attributes to play in a man scheme, so I think this is a move that can play in his favor, but we still need at least one playmaker back there. And of course, that brings us to the defensive line. You want to be a man scheme? You better be able to affect the QB with your front 4 like the Eagles did tonight. You have to be able to pressure the QB because if you don't, I don't care how good of a CB you are, you aren't covering NFL WRs for 4-5+ seconds. You have to find a way to be a terror up front and the only way to do that with 4 guys is pretty much what we saw tonight..... Big, powerful dudes that can stuff the run with their size and reset the LOS on almost every snap. You aren't running man with an undersized defensive line that can get blown off the ball in the run game and can't consistently pressure the QB on a regular basis. You need that huge dominant 1-tech anchor in the middle to play with Oliver and you need at least 1 game wrecker on the outside that can win even when being double teamed. Perfect example was tonight...... You didn't see the Eagles line flying off the edge and just blowing by the tackles. No.....what you saw were big, strong, physical dudes constantly push the Chiefs line straight back into Mahomes' lap and reset the LOS immediately off the snap. So, yes.....if we are open to a philosophical change on defense, that's great news because what we are trying to do has not worked, especially against good teams with great QBs. But Beane and company have a lot of work to do to bring in the pieces to make it work. I mean, ideally, you would love to run a bit of a hybrid defense. You would love to be able to have strong man CBs that are smart enough to grasp zone concepts and be able to make that switch from play to play. But that is not an easy thing to do and it's why you don't see it work a lot in the NFL. Zone CBs tend to be smart and recognize spacing easily where man CBs are usually more physically gifted, but because of lack of experience playing zone, struggle to learn the proper spacing. We'll have to see what direction we go, but if we are truly changing to a more man to man philosophy, FA and the draft are going to tell us a lot about that.

This game is so bitter sweet. We are seeing right in front of us the team many of us have wanted to build for years absolutely destroy the Chiefs. For years, many of us have been calling for us to draft big, athletic freaks that can control the LOS. Instead, what we have gotten are undersized players on the line that were supposed to be able to utilize their speed and quickness to win and it hasn't worked out against the best teams with the best QBs. But we've all seen it tonight. The Eagles size and strength has been the difference on both sides of the ball. The front 4 are using their size to plug run lanes and their power to move the pocket right back into Mahomes' lap. And for as much praise as he gets, Mahomes is just not the athlete that other QBs are on the run. He's great navigating within the pocket, but as you have seen tonight, if you push the pocket right into his lap, he struggles to be consistent. The Eagles haven't had to blitz at all because the defensive line has been dominant from the jump. No soft zones. Nobody able to run free in the secondary. There is no mystery anymore. You are watching the blueprint to beat the Chiefs and containing Mahomes. And I, along with Bills fans everywhere, are praying that Beane, McDermott, and the entire organization is watching every second of this game adjusting their philosophy. We have some pieces, but it's time to get some beef in the middle and some big game wreckers on the outside that can reset the LOS on almost every play.

Man, if the Jets are going to blow it up, I want to know what it would take to get Garrett Wilson. We need 2 WRs that are explosive and can win on their own. He can absolutely fill one of those spots. Young and talented. Then, use FA or the draft to find the other one.

He and his Special Teams unit have been awful for years now. Why it took this long is baffling in a lot of ways. I mean, it is just Special Teams and in this day and age, they have largely been removed from the game because of rule changes, etc for most teams. But, for whatever reason, this guy and our unit seemed to find a way in their limited opportunities to make at least 1 terrible play a game that hurt us, sometimes badly. So, for him to be out is great news. Hopefully we can get someone in here from the outside that can fix Bass and can teach Martin, if he's back, how to get a punt off without taking a calendar year to do so. Good riddance.

We host a Super Bowl Party every year. We do ribs, a couple different kind of wings, pizza logs, shrimp, stromboli, and whatever our guests bring. Quite honestly, the best part of the Super Bowl is the food for us, especially over the last few years with the Chiefs in it. This year, we have had people that have come every year over the last 2 decades since we started hosting decide that they aren't coming this year because they just don't want to watch the game. And we completely get it. This is probably the worst possible Super Bowl matchup we could have gotten. Awful teams that nobody wants to root for and 2 of the most arrogant and toxic fan bases in the league (although Ravens fans are trying to get themselves into this mix as well). There is literally nothing redeeming about anything associated with the game itself.

Ravens fans saying last season that he deserved it with inferior stats. Ravens fans complaining about Jackson not getting it with better stats (even though Allen sat out 2-3 games worth of quarters and didn't stat pad like Jackson). What happens when next year Allen has better stats and a better season? They going to complain about it not being called the Jackson award? The fact is, Allen has deserved this award multiple times already and for this to be his first one is pretty crazy. This should have probably been at least his second. Regardless, now that he has the regular season MVP, it's time to go win the Super Bowl MVP and hoist the Lombardi next season. As soon as he does that, he cements himself as one of the all time best to ever do it. He's on his way to doing that already with the records he keeps setting, but man.....one Lombardi for this city and he can be talked about as one of the best ever.

Two things..... This was long overdue for Allen. The player he has been for the last 5 seasons has been deserving of multiple MVPs. For this year to be his first is crazy. Secondly, I fully believe we still haven't seen Allen's best season yet. I truly believe he will be even better next season providing Beane actually invests in the WR position. I think we have a very solid WR3-WR6 if Hollins comes back, but we still need some real talent that can win on their own off the line at the top of the depth chart. If Beane would actually play to our strengths and give Allen a couple of legit weapons, I think he will be even better than what we have seen so far. GO BILLS!

BOOM, BABY!!!! "Be good, do good, God bless, and GO BILLS!" - Josh Allen Congrats on your first MVP award, Josh. It's long overdue if you ask me. The best is yet to come. Here's to you winning your first Super Bowl next season. GO BILLS!

It's not bad.....would want to make one of those firsts a second, though.

This is what happens when you build a team that only has 1 WR that can win immediately off the line. Shakir, is the only guy that create separation quickly. Coleman is blanketed from the time the ball is snapped until the play is over unless there is a busted coverage. Hollins, while he has shown the ability to make critical catches, is not the most athletic guy in the world and does not win his routes with quickness and explosion. Samuel battled injuries all season and never was the threat we were hoping for when we signed him. And, although Cooper was that guy at one point in his career, he is not that guy anymore. So until Beane and company start taking the WR room seriously and get some guys in here with the quickness and explosion, quite honestly, the first read guy is not going to be open very often.

I haven't had the time to listen to the presser yet, but for those that did, did anyone ask him specifically about the lack of speed and explosion at the WR position? By the time the season ended, teams were just sitting 15 yards of the LOS because they didn't respect any WR we had deep down the field. It's one of the biggest reasons our offense struggled in the playoffs. When teams realize nobody is even going to try and get behind them, you are so much easier to defend. But when you have a couple threats on the outside that can completely change a game in an instant with their speed, it completely opens up the middle of the field where Allen loves to live. By the end of the Playoffs, it seemed like 50% of throws were either at or behind the LOS on screens and the other half were 10 yard drag routes hoping someone would get lost in the shuffle. Josh Allen is your freaking QB and you are basically neutering him with the players and lack of speed we have at the WR position. It seems like the topic of Coleman was brought up and how he is pretty much exactly the player he was in college that wasn't worth anywhere near a 2nd round pick, but he's not the only player on this team that struggles separating and lacks the top end speed necessary to open up this offense. I said immediately after the draft last year that we would be coming into this year with the same exact needs...... a true WR1 with speed and explosion and an elite pass rusher. And.....whelp....here we are.

I'm thinking that is the starting number for his agent. I am not positive he gets it, but all it takes is one team to want to. If the Bills can do a deal early this offseason and get him to agree under $10 million I would be shocked. I think with Saquon's season and Henry's season and the impact they have proven to have on their teams, I think the numbers for the top backs are going to creep higher than what most of us a comfortable spending.

They have Chris Jones...... It's that simple. The dude is their true MVP. If he is not there single-handedly wrecking offenses, that team does not have the success that they do. So yeah......he's the guy that allows them to sit back in nickel and dime defenses because he can control the offensive line almost by himself. Quite honestly, a player like that guy is why our defensive philosophy fails. McDermott wants nothing more to do the same thing the Chiefs do on defense, but he doesn't have anything close to a Chris Jones on defense. He wrecks pass blocking and run blocking. Having that guy out there makes all the difference in the world and he is the single biggest reason we haven't beaten that team in the playoffs yet. If they don't have Jones, we probably win at least 2 of the 4 matchups we have had against them. But he wrecks us ever time we play him.

None of these guys are a slam dunk easy decision as to what to offer. Would love to have them back, but at what price? Groot - Always starts strong and makes you think he's going to break the bank. Then, while still making the occasional play, for the most part disappears from making super impactful plays for long periods of time. A nice player that can dominate a game here and there, but not a season. What is that worth? Anything over $15 million I think I have to wait and see what happens. Benford - Had a nice season. His stats and grades look great. But is he a true shut down CB? I am not sure about that. Throw in the fact that the last image we have of him is him looking totally out of it after his 2nd concussion in 2 weeks. Head injuries are bad. Do we really want to commit big money to a CB that might be completely done if he takes another shot to the head? It's a tough decision. Bernard - Nice player. Makes big plays and he is the leader of this defense. Is he a top 5 LB in the league? No. Is he going to want to be paid like one? Probably. This is another tough one. Shakir - Maybe the easiest decision of the bunch. He's maybe the best slot in the league and will get paid like it. Now, if he wants top WR money overall? That's a different story. But identify who the top 5 slots are in the league and try to sign him in that range. Cook - Normally I am completely against paying RBs. But Cook is a real nice player. The tough thing is that he isn't an every down back. He only plays about 50% of the snaps. But, he is very effective when he plays. So, what is he worth? The RB market is starting to open back up, but I think paying a RB huge money is still not a wise idea. I would go higher for Cook than I would for others, but I still can't bring myself to pay him over $9 million which he would probably shatter on the open market. The thing is, I need to know what direction they are willing to go on this team. Are they wiling to swing for the fences with a huge trade? Do they want to accumulate even more draft capital and try to attack their holes with quantity and hope that they hit? Are they ready to really commit to the WR position and get some speed and explosiveness back on this team to play to your biggest strength which is Josh Allen? The answers to these questions are important in determining where to spend the money and what guys to re-sign.

See you at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Josh! I hear that place can clear up even the worst wrist injuries in record time!

Who Can We Win With? (A long breakdown of our roster and organization as it stands today) We came up short, again. Why? Was it the coaching? Was it the players? Was it the refs? The answer to all of those questions in one way or another is yes. So, the question then becomes the same as it is every year we come up short and waste yet another year of perhaps the best QB’s career that we may possibly ever have. What can we do to get over the hump and get that “One Before I Die?” So, I thought it would be good to delve into each of these questions individually and see where we stand, what we can improve on, and see who in the team/organization we can win with. Before we get into the team itself, I want to address the elephant in the room and the one thing that we really have no control over. The refs, and the league. Whether people want to admit it or not, it has become increasingly obvious that the refs are affecting the games more than any of us would like. Bad calls. Terrible spots. Phantom penalties. The list goes on and on and they all, in the end, do seem to favor the Chiefs, especially in big moments. It’s one thing for fans of an opposing team to see these things and point them out. Usually, it’s because we are trying to justify a tough, close loss or whatever. It’s an entirely different thing, though, to see the entire national media start to see it and point it out and to see the actual proof and numbers that back up that bias. It is happening whether people want to admit it or not and it has become increasingly obvious as this Chiefs run has gone along. Here’s the thing…….IT STINKS. Of course it does. Are the refs entirely to blame for our loss? No. Of course not. Could one make an argument saying this? Well, considering the first downs that were taken away from us in the crucial moments of that game, yes……the refs could have absolutely played a factor in us not winning that game. That said, I am choosing to ignore the refs impact on the game. Why? Because going into the game I repeatedly said that we were going to see every questionable call or decision go against us in the crucial moments. We knew that going in. Is it fair? Of course not. But it is what it is. I said the best thing we could do to take the refs out of the game was to be so good, that we can leave no doubt and not even give the refs a chance to impact the game. We did not do this. We were not good enough to leave no doubt. Did we get bad spots? Absolutely. But we should have executed better and made sure we got a full yard when needing a foot. We didn’t do that. When the game’s on the line and our “star” TE has a chance to catch a fairly easy ball that any NFL player should catch with absolutely nobody around him on the biggest play of the game, he didn’t. We left doubt and we were the ones that left the gate wide open for the refs to have the impact they did. That’s on us. So, how do we get to the point where we are good enough to leave no doubt? It starts with examining the team and seeing who we have, who we should bring back, and who we should let go. In this breakdown I am going to be talking about the starting positions only. Depth is depth and we will always want as much as we can get, but this breakdown is about which starters are good enough to win a Super Bowl with. COACHING Are we good enough with the head coach and the assistant coaches we have to win the Super Bowl? This is a tough question, and it may not be as cut and dry as it will be with the individual players. I will say this. I am not the biggest McDermott fan in the world. I really do question whether he will ever be able to win a coaching match-up against the other great coaches in this league, especially Andy Reid. He has shown that he is a good coach. He seems to be respected by his players and, at times, has had the occasional great game plan to win a tough game. But, in the biggest games, he always seems to come up short. How many times do we have to come out in the Playoffs and immediately spot the opponent 7-10 points before we settle in? If we determine that he's not good enough to win with, though, who replaces him at this point in the offseason? It’s like QB purgatory but with coaches. So, here’s where I’m at with this. Yes, we can win with McDermott. HOWEVER, it is truly time for him and the other defensive coaches to sit down and be honest with themselves and realize that the scheme they have been running since arriving is not getting it done and we need a completely different and fresh approach in terms of the scheme. I trust that these guys in the building are smart enough to sit down and study the best defenses in the league and see what they are doing and then create a hybrid scheme that is better suited to slowing down the better offenses in the league. I’m willing to roll with McDermott and his staff through next season…..except for one guy. Matthew Smiley. How that guy still has a job is beyond me. Our special tams is a disaster and they give up at least one bad play a game that hurts this team. Find a new ST coordinator. OFFENSE QB Allen Of course he’s good enough. For my money, he’s the best in the world and if he gets a great scheme and some actual weapons, he will be as great as he always is for a long time. RB Cook Davis Johnson This may have been the best overall RB room we have had in many year. Yes, we can win with these guys. WR WR1 - ? WR2 - ? Shakir Coleman Hollins Samuel Shakir is one of the best slots in the league. We can absolutely win with him. Coleman, while just a rookie, has shown me nothing to make me believe that my pre-draft grade on him was wrong. I had him as a late 3rd round pick at best. He has unique size that can help in certain situations, but I have serious doubts about him being anything more than a WR4 at best in this league. If he proves me wrong, great, but I have never seen it and I don’t think we ever will. Hollins was great for us this year and the perfect WR5 to have on this team. We can win with that guy. Samuel was battling all sorts of injuries this season and I am not sure we ever saw his best, but as a WR6, he is just fine. Where we are not good enough is at the top of the depth chart. We need 2 WRs with some explosiveness to their games. We have no speed and no WRs aside from Shakir that create constant separation. We need 2 guys that can win off the line and also be threats to take the top off the defense. It’s not easy finding one of these guys, let alone 2. But that is the task we face. OFFENSIVE LINE This is an easy one and I am just going to group them all together. Yes, this group is good enough to win a Super Bowl with. This is perhaps the best collective OL we have had in years. They didn’t have their best performance on Sunday, but that was poor coaching and game plan, not for lack of talent. We’re good here for a few years to come. TE Kincaid Knox Whoever This position hurt us this season more than helped us on many occasions. With the investments that have been made in terms of contracts and draft capital, we have every right to expect and want more out of these guys than we got this season. However, as underwhelming as these guys were this season, I still believe in these guys. It may be false hope, but I am still very high on Kincaid’s potential. I liked him coming out of the draft a lot and I believe that he can create mismatches that we can take advantage of. There are a couple things that need happen, though. First, Kincaid…..PUT THE WORK IN THIS OFFSEASON to become the player we thought you would be this season, next season. The one thing I worry about this guy with is his work ethic. Does the guy want it enough or is he too reliant on his natural physical ability? I want to believe that what happened this season will serve as fuel to be better next season. Also, I am going to put a little of this on the coaching staff as well as there were too many times this season where I thought his skill set wasn’t being used properly. In college, he was dominant up the seams and on deep crossers. This season, especially early, all he was doing was catching screens and short stop routes. That is not why you draft a guy like him. Hopefully the coaches use him more of how he was used in college next season. That said, the game ended the other night with him running a deep over and dropping a pretty easy ball that would have kept our hopes alive. Make the play dude. I still believe we can with you. As for Knox, we all know what he is. While we all wish his contract wasn’t what it is, there is nothing we can do about that. But he is a solid player and we can absolutely win with him. DEFENSE DEFENSIVE LINE/ EDGE Groot Oliver This is probably the biggest question mark on this team right now. And that really hurts to have to say that because of the significant investments that have been made into this group over the years. To me, we have only a couple of guys that we can count on winning with and some might even argue that neither of these guys are good enough either. But you can’t have superstars at every position, so when you have guys that can make plays, you have to rely on them. I believe you can win the Super Bowl with Groot and Oliver playing key roles in this defense. And while I like some of the younger talent, it will be on them to make their mark. But I am not going into next season relying on them. So, what does this mean? It means I think we are severely undermanned on the line. It has been true for a while now, but we are in desperate need of a true dominant 1-tech. We have been run on and run over for far too long and it starts up front because we have been undersized for what seems like forever. And that is on the scheme and Beane. Their reliance on fast, quick, and undersized lineman has not worked and it’s time for a philosophy change and that starts by getting a dominant anchor in the middle of the defensive line to stop the run. And that brings us of course to pass rush. Groot flashes. Oliver, when motivated, is good. But there are too many times we just can’t create any pass rush at all and it is maddening. With Von aging and probably moving on, that is just another void to have to fill. This is perhaps Beane’s biggest offseason challenge. How are you going to get to the QB? Is it a big trade or 2? Are there free agents out there that can help? It’s going to be a challenge for sure. LB Bernard Milano Williams I think these guys are a good enough group to win with. HOWEVER, we have no depth. And with these guys being injury prone, that is not enough. Healthy? We’re fine. But we are in desperate need of quality depth. CB Benford…….Maybe?????? Johnson Wow…..how things can change in a hurry, Going into the year, we were pretty confident that this would be a strength for our team. But, as the season ends, there are more questions than answers. Douglas was not the player we thought was going to be for us this season. He’s getting older and is going to want more money than he’s worth. Time to get younger and better there. What we weren’t counting on was Benford and his concussion issues to close the season. He was great for us this season and looked to be a guy we would be able to rely on for years to come. Then, he gets 2 concussions in 2 weeks and the way he looked on that cart leaving the field, I think it is definitely at least plausible that he might never be the same player again. Even if he gets healthy and comes back, we’re talking about a head injury here. One more shot, and that could literally be it for the once promising corner. Again, if he is healthy, he’s good enough to win with, but can we rely on that being the case. I don’t know. And with no quality depth behind him, the boundary CB position is not good. S Rapp…….Maybe? This seems to be a trend in our secondary. Health is a major concern. He had an overall solid year when he played, but we know he is a reckless player and will always battle injuries. Hamlin, while a nice story, is not a starter in this league. And while Bishop got some important reps this season, and shows some promise, is he someone I am ready to bank on being good enough to win the Super Bowl with? Not yet. ST Just find a kicker and punter you want to roll with that won't kill you. So, there you have it. That is my assessment of where we are in terms of the starters on this team and who I am definitely comfortable enough with to say we can win the Super Bowl with. There are a ton for holes, particularly on defense that need to be addressed. I mean, if you stretched things a little bit, maybe we can plug a couple of the holes with current talent on the team, but in my opinion, we have some work to do this offseason. Hopefully some of the young depth guys can turn into some answers to help, but Beane and the front office have a lot to do over the next few months to put us in a better position talent wise heading into next season.

I mean, one can argue that Shakir should be the first read on that play. And, if he was, it probably is at least a 1st down. But you could tell by the way the play unfolded that he was not the first read so any comments of "just throw it to Shakir" are just garbage from the point Allen didn't take the snap and turn and fire it to Shakir immediately.

Yup.....Just pick someone and block them. Just a fraction of a second on a play like this could make all the difference in the world.

First time seeing it from this angle. A few things.... Those calling for Allen to hit the orbit motion to Shakir are just out of their minds. The only way that has a chance to remotely happen is if he is the only read on the play and he just fires the ball out there immediately. You can tell at the snap that just catching and firing to Shakir was not the first option. So, just forget about that. What in the blue hell is Torrence doing on this play? He throws both arms out the his sides and literally blocks nobody! Even if you are confused as to who you have, pick somebody and block them! And, I said this last night, but Brown had, BY FAR, his worst game of the season last night. He was getting beat like a drum all night and he was beaten bad here as well. Throw in the blitzing CB that Allen didn't expect to come and didn't see coming, the play was made almost impossible from the start. Whose fault was the protection? There is some on Allen for sure. But it is also on the linemen and the coaching staff as well. Regardless......it was a terrible protection and everyone is to blame. That said, the play isn't over because even when everything that could go wrong went wrong, but you still have an alien at QB so the play is never over. So, when Allen is counting on being able to look to his right to find someone and both the guys on your right side absolutely whiff on their blocks, the average QB is just toast. But Allen isn't your average QB. Staring at an all out jailbreak that gets to him in just over a 2nd, he is still able to fire a ball almost 40 yards down the field to a guy who is coming WIDE OPEN. Was it a perfect pass? Of course not, but considering the circumstances, it may as well be considered perfect. The fact of the matter is this. He is the only QB in the NFL that can make this throw. He is big and athletic enough to back up, jump off his back foot, and even get the ball to travel that far under that pressure. Did he lead his WR? No..... But who in their right mind could ever expect that. That said, the ball is in the air for 3-4 seconds and you can see Kincaid has eyes on it early. For a guy that is pretty athletic at the position, he completely misjudges the ball in the air. I mean, he saw that throw the entire way from the moment it left Allen's hand to the moment it bounces off his hands, he saw the ball. He just misjudged it in the air. There is literally nobody around him and he just overran the ball. If he judges that properly, he doesn't need to change directrions. He doesn't need to dive. The ball just hits him in the hands with him standing there and nobody within 3 yards of him and it's an easy completion. Not only is it a completion, but it is a completion into FG range with plenty of time on the clock and TOs to work with to potentially go get the game winning TD. So yeah.... Was Allen perfect last night? No. Of course not. But, in the moment of truth, with an all out jailbreak in his face, he basically drops a near perfect dime to his first round, highly touted TE who just makes the worst play on the ball possible in that situation. The catches Hollins had in this game, especially the TD, were much more difficult than this one. As great as he is, even Allen sometimes needs someone else to step up in a big moment and make a play. His "star" TE failed to do this in the moment.

I did the calculations earlier this season, but I can't remember the exact number I came up with. But I remember thinking that with some releases and restructures, we can create around $40 million in cap space pretty easily. Now, of course some of that will have to go towards signing some of our own, but there will be money there. And, by all accounts, we are revisiting Allen's contract as well. So, that is going to make a huge difference on its own depending on how it is structured. If the new deal is backloaded heavily, that may help, but we'll have to see what their ideas are there. What's the length? Are we doing a new 8 year deal or something shorter? We will have to see what that looks like before we get to any real numbers as to what we have to spend. But we will have some money to work with to sign a legit player or 2. Just not sure who those guys are yet.