[Dawkins, Saffold and Knox added to Pro Bowl]

Great... now we'll never be able to re-sign Saffold on the cheap...

[Im convinced its coaching (Chiefs showing how to handle Bengals)]

Watching this game just makes me more upset about Frazier.

[Is Spencer Brown our long-term RT?]

Brown played 7 on 7 football at a small high school as a TE. Went to a small university to play tackle for 2 years I believe. Becaise of covid, he missed the whole season before he was drafted. To say he's a project would be a huge understatement.

 

But he's one of the most athletic human beings in the entire NFL and he has a great coach.

 

Having said that, he needs competition this year in a prove-it season.

[MERGE WITH OTHER THREAD]

Not being snarky. This seems like hubris by Beane. I think he bought into this being a superbowl year so he drafted a potential backup for the oft injured Milano... with a 3rd round pick.

 

I still like Beane as the gm, and it's way too early to tell, but this seems like a big, puzzling mistake.

[With Oliver Value Goes Beyond the Stat Line]

I'm a fan of Oliver. He's been pretty good. Really good at times. But every year there is just another excuse as to why he hasn't taken the step to be the dominant force we drafted him to be.

[Singletary or Hines or neither?]

Given the cap situation, it  would be nice if we weren't paying people just for their special teams capabilities. Ideally your second string guys would be your primary special teams guys.

 

But we're paying 3rd and 4th string guys like Matakevich, Taiwan, and Kumerow relatively big $ to be our ST aces.

 

I like that Hines would be both someone who sees the field regularly on offense as well as teams.

[Bills Fire Safeties Coach Jim Salgado]

Damn you, Salgado for failing to develop our d-line and o-line, and for whiffing on all these top draft picks! All while coaching the injured safeties. Damn you!

[We don’t Need a WR]

I don't mean to be disrespectful here. But this is like saying, "We don't need better defensive personnel. We just need to run the 2000 Ravens defense or the 85 Bears defense."

 

While i agree we need to incorporate a short and intermediate passing game, we don't have the receivers for that.

[Bills Coaching Staff Changes Thread]

22 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

What about them?  I'm not convinced Epenesa and Boogie are legit NFL talents.  Many people had similar concerns when they were drafted.  Rousseau had a decent season when healthy.  Is it Washington's fault they aren't pro bowlers by now and Ed O isn't Aaron Donald yet, did Beane draft some irredeemable bums, or is the truth somewhere in between?

 

I don't have the answer here and I, like many of you, ingest an unhealthy amount of Bills media.  I won't give it a second thought if Washington gets canned.  I am just trying to understand how so many people here are convinced that one or more positional coaches is the real problem.   What information do they have that I don't?  Haven't seen anything new.  Just demands of a blood sacrifice to ease the pain of falling short of the prize again.

I feel the same way. It's unfortunate that we don't know what the real problem is for sure. I didn't like the Boogie pick, and I HATED the Epenesa pick. But are they bad players or just not used/developed properly.

 

It's interesting to note, however, that Jerry Hughes had 9 sacks this year. He was never that productuve with this coaching staff. It's been 8 years since he had that many sacks.

[Who is your choice for DC?]

1 hour ago, billieve420 said:

 

Yeah I have been on board with this. Don't renew Frazier's contract and let him go quietly. I don't see a hire coming from outside the organization and them installing new defense.

 

McDermott promotes someone from within to handle the day to day while he calls plays on gameday. McDermott should be on the hot seat next year and it is time to put onus on him to get team to the Super Bowl. It starts with his defense which has under performed despite the amount of money spent.

Butler or Babich would be my guess. Better not be Eric Washington. 

[safety]

8 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

Siran is a horrible DB, personally if he wasn't a gunner on ST I doubt he'd be in the league. 

My comment was meant to be predictive. I'm not saying I want Siran at safety.

[safety]

Benford. McD and Butler are great at developing DBs. Hyde and Poyer were both former CBs who were moved to safety. Siran may also be moved to safety. They took a look at him there in training camp last year.

[Jim Kubiak analysis in The Buffalo News (paywall) - the Bills o-line was horrible]

37 minutes ago, BuffaloRebound said:

This guy did a great job breaking everything down.  Would love for somebody to do the same for the defense.  I assume it would be even uglier.  This is the type of loss that makes you question almost everything.  

The guys at Cover1 do a great job with that. The videos are on YouTube.

[Thank you Jordan Poyer]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:18 PM, Big Turk said:

 

He was playing with a knee injury.

And they were holding his elbow together with rubber bands and glue. Dude is a warrior.

[Beane End of Year Presser]

41 minutes ago, TFBillsfan said:

IMO I think it’s crazy to bring in another OC after one season. You want to start all over with another OC with learning another system. For having a weak OL and underperforming WR’s, they stilled delivered. Hell you could argue they should of went undefeated in the regular season. I don’t think Dorsey is even up for debate. Frazier is a different story but if they do who are you replacing him with?

I'd think they go internal and elevate Butler.

[Beane End of Year Presser]

1 hour ago, billieve420 said:

Hopefully Spencer Brown works in the offseason to put some weight especially in the lower half. Looks more like a TE than offensive lineman out there. Beane has to bring in some competition to push him in the offseason.

I have no problem with his comments on S. Brown. If i remember, he also only played 7 on 7 football in high school. He's an athletic freak who has near zero experience, and is just learning how to play RT.

 

But I agree with you 💯. We need someone to push him besides just Kromer and Doyle.

[Beane End of Year Presser]

1 hour ago, Logic said:

This part really bothered me when Beane said it.

He was basically asked what he can take from the Bengals' build, and rather than state any one of the many obvious things that make the Bengals a good team -- strong up front on both sides of the ball, great wide receiver play, depth, etc -- he chose just about the worst possible answer.

To say that they "were lucky enough" to be "bad enough to get Ja'Marr Chase", he is essentially ducking accountability for still needing to be able to find difference makers later in round one and beyond. Lots of great NFL players -- receivers, especially -- are taken in late round one and beyond. For him to point to the "luck" of drafting high is to dodge the responsibility that he and his staff bare to find good players REGARDLESS of where in the draft they pick.

Yes, later in the interview he said that he and his staff need to hit on draft picks, but he's said that before. That's obvious. Those are just words. The "we don't pick early like the Bengals used to, so we're not getting a guy like that" and the insinuation of luck and high draft position as reasons for success were a bad look.

Yeah, take a look at cin's last 4 drafts compared with Beane's. The Bengals have made a lot of good selections especially in the first 3 rounds. Beane has a lot of misses in these prime rounds.

 

Bengals have just done a better job of building through draft and free agency.

[Bills will not make it to the playoffs in 2023?]

The path will be difficult. The Jets and Dolphins have both done a good job with roster building. If either of them pick up Lamar or even Carr, they'll be pretty dangerous.

 

That said. We have Allen and Diggs so we'll be dangerous as well. But we'll need a good offseason.

[Trapasso's offseason]

Wingard is intriguing. Poyer and Hyde weren't stars when we signed them. And for all the failure of the Bills developing d-linemen, they are fantastic at developing secondary. 

[McDermott detractors]

51 minutes ago, buffalobillswin said:

Marvin Lewis detractors. The bengals hadn’t made the playoffs since 1990 before he got there. They were so stupid to fire him. 

I see what you did there.

[Are the Bills committed to Ed Oliver in 2023?]

Seems like, when healthy, Jordan Philips outplays Oliver, has more fire, and he's cheaper.

 

Oliver is good. Really good at times. But he is no where near where a top 10 pick should be playing. He does not deserve a massive contract from the Bills.

[The disappointing pass rush]

2 hours ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Think he would've been a better option than Epenesa/Basham? 

I'm not saying that necessarily, but who knows.

 

I was using his stats to illustrate that we may have a coaching/scheme problem. He was never that productive under McD and Frazier.

[Elephant in the Room]

4 minutes ago, Gunsgoodtime said:

Who is?  Honestly looking back, outside of Allen, they have been terrible drafting.  More draft picks and money spent on that Dline than any other team since McDermott got here, and they still had to overpay for a aging Von Miller to cover uo for their draft failures.  Unfortunately he got hurt, and the light was on for all of us to witness.

Absolutely fair point. Another problem I have is that I wonder how much of this is on coaching. Jerry Hughes leaves to Houston and has his best season in 8 years. He had 9 sacks this year. Right now we have 4 first rounders and 3 second rounders on our d-line. Are they really just bad players, or is Eric Washington a terrible coach (or is it Frazier's scheme)?

 

Same with Edmunds. I wonder if he would've been a star on the 49er or Ravens. Physically he's a unicorn. Is Frazier's defense (innovative for the 90s) holding back his production? This doubt just compounds our crappy situation. How do you fix a problem if you're unsure about what the problem really is?

[Elephant in the Room]

The giraffe in the room is that Beane needs to look at more help in the draft war room. Maybe a new director of college scouting. This team is just not getting consistent production out of the first 2 rounds. Finding some late round gems is great. But you have to hit, more often then not, in rounds 1 and 2.

 

Boogie, Epenesa, and Ford are huge whiffs. Oliver is not living up to his draft status.

[The disappointing pass rush]

Jerry Hughes had his best year since 2014 (9 sacks this year, 10 in 2014). There is context to look at here, but this is telling. The Bills current defensive staff does not know how to use/develop DEs.