Nihilarian

I'm hoping they pickup that press-man start and drop into zone like the Eagles did to the Chiefs. Get that down to perfection and opponents might have a more difficult time throwing on them. That should help with both coverage and pressure.

I look at things differently as I see this regime has the best HC and GM this franchise has ever seen considering the talent. Who were the super stars that McD inherited in 2017? Dion Dawkins was drafted in 2017 by McD and is the only player still with the team from that time. How many Hall of Fame players were on those late 80's early 90's Buffalo teams that went to four Super Bowls? QB Jim Kelly, RB Thurman Thomas, WR Andre Reed, WR James Lofton, DE Bruce Smith who still leads the NFL with sacks. How many were "all pro"- pro bowlers like 9 time pro bowler Steve Tasker, Henry Jones, Nate Odomes, Cornelius Bennett. Will Wolford, Jim Ritcher, Howard Ballard. Marv Levy and Bill Polian inherited so much talent and also had so much talent in their scouting staff. John Butler, Norm Pollom and AJ Smith all were amazing. Those 80s-90s Buffalo Bills teams kept Dan Marino out of the SB for a lot of years. They also kept the Chiefs with Joe Montana at QB out, kept John Elway out for awhile. What really stinks for Bills fans is that KC Chiefs team has been plain and simply the better team over the last five seasons. The only NFL team that has won more games in the entire NFL over Buffalo have been the Chiefs. If the Bills played in the NFC I think they would have made it to the SB a few times already. Now, finally this year should be much more difficult for the Chiefs to win their division with new HC Pete Carroll with the Raiders. Sean Payton with Bo Nix in Denver. Harbaugh with the Chargers as both the Chargers, Broncos were in the playoffs last year. I'm just hoping that the new wife doesn't wear out our resident alien unicorn for the season.

The thing is that this team hadn't had a great score in the WR area of the draft or free agency. Beane went and got Kelvin Benjamin and everyone thought he might be that kid who the Panthers drafted in 2014, that 1000 yard WR. Instead they got a bum who didn't care about his craft. This isn't all on Beane because he has his scouts/trainers input too and they let him down. Diggs was a no brainer in the 2019 offseason as Minnesota was moving towards running the ball more and he wanted out! Buffalo gave up their #1 in 2020 and things worked out. Beane got a #2 in trade to remove that cancer from the team and that was brilliant. Looks to me like the 2024 Buffalo Bills did alright without that #1 WR ball hog being the top scoring team in the league.

Will Pats fans remember the... you, you and you go eff yourselves?

Terry was the hockey fan and Kim was the Bills fan...thank the lord that wasn't reversed. Thinking of Tom Golisano, who just retired from Paychex as Terry ought to call him to ask for some insight on how to fix the Sabres.

Agree! My take is he just didn't play with instinct and over thought everything. McD runs one of the more complex secondaries and the kid just couldn't get things right between his ears. We will see how things go in cowboy land.

The NFL had to do it as the current Buffalo Bills are arguably "Americas team" as most NFL fans like/love this team. Heck the QB is dating and will marry a movie star. What the NFL wants is to promote the league and what better way to do just that with a team that most are interested in. To those that don't know much about the Buffalo Bills this might show the world what most Bills fans already know. The Brotherhood, the process, the culture, the love! Be good, do good, god Bless and go Bills!

My take is a lot can be said about the culture and what's that famous line "the process"! Look at the teams Darnold, Mayfield went into those coaches, coaching staffs, players. Now look at both Mayfield and Darnold this past season. Not superstars but decent starters at QB for their teams. I recall that McD went to the playoffs in 2017 with Tyrod Taylor and my thoughts are that if the man can do that with Tyrod, that he could have done well with Darnold or Mayfield too. Not as well as with Josh mind you but with the Patriots imploding and the Jets, Dolphins stinking... I think McD would still be in Buffalo along with Beane. Perhaps even done as well if they had drafted Lamar Jackson. Let's not forget that McD nor Beane have sat on their respective hands at any point. After 2017 OC Rick Denison canned and a lot of other coaches have been fired or replaced since that first season. These men demand excellence from the people that work for them, scouts, coaches, players while looking to improve every season. As for Diggs, my take is Beane and McD took a long hard look at his numbers in the playoffs his last few years in Buffalo. Where the stars are supposed to shine... and not fall on their face. In his last playoff game for the Bills Diggs went 8 targets, 3 receptions for 21 yards. Chiefs DB Sneed was on Diggs in the first half of that game and moved to cover Shakir in the second half. I do believe that L'Jarius Sneed only gave up one TD all season long and that one TD was to Shakir in that playoff game. Moving on from Diggs was a good move and to get a second round pick for him was brilliant!

Josh grew up as a NINERS fan. He is the little one in the middle.

A young Josh Allen with NFL QB Derek Carr!

Beane tried to move up more, but nobody would budge. Cleveland, with the #1 overall, was dead certain about QB Baker Mayfield. They passed on Allen 2x as they drafted Denzel Ward at #4. The entire Buffalo fan base was urging Beane to trade up to the NY Giants spot at #2 for Josh Rosen, even if he had to give up the farm to do it. The NY Giants, however, stated NOPE, they wanted an RB named Barkley. The NY Jets did a Jetsy thing and drafted QB Sam Darnold. The Bills did have a deal with Denver at #5 unless the guy they wanted was there, and he was... DE Bradley Chubb. The Colts were next and dead set on an OG named Quinton Nelson. (Denver GM John Elway has stated that missing on Allen was his worst mistake as a GM.) Finally, at #7, Buffalo made a trade with Tampa Bay, and they didn't need to give up that other extra #1 pick, whom they drafted Tremaine Edmunds at #16 (which was also a trade with Baltimore) Clearly, nobody else saw what Brandon Beane saw in a super smart kid who would do anything to play in the NFL. A kid who grew up on a farm and was no stranger to hard work. A kid who emailed 2000 schools to attempt to get a scholarship, and he ended up going to a junior college because nobody wanted him. At that time, 6'3'' 198 pounds with a rocket for an arm. Eventually, he found two schools to take him, and the one rescinded their offer when they found out that Wyoming offered him a scholarship. Allen showed that he had improved his throwing and accuracy at the Senior Bowl and talked about how jacked his footwork was in College at the Combine. He knew what he needed to do to improve, and he did just that! Still learning and improving!

Buffalo was so lucky last season with their poor defense and unreal turnover ratio, which led the league at +24. The next best was Pittsburgh at +18. The Bills were 28th in allowing 3rd downs which is very crappy. It was like at the end of the season, watching the defense not getting pressure on the opposing QB, and it was like they had all day to throw. That Baltimore game with Lamar Jackson doing whatever he wanted, and what saved Buffalo were the 3 turnovers by the Ravens. The turnovers failed them against the Chiefs, where they got one, but it wasn't enough. Mahomes just picked on Elam and the Buffalo secondary all game. Lady luck is a big part of getting to the Super Bowl, along with injuries, and so many other intangibles come into play. Will the refs screw Buffalo in another big game? The weather, the odd bounce of the oblong spheroid? At this point, with the draft and new players like Landon Jackson, Joey Bosa, along with some better talent in the defensive backfield, the defense should be much improved. As should the offense with some better receivers. But then, the Patriots got a whole lot better, and the NY Jets got better, Miami lost some players and perhaps the locker room over their HC. The Chiefs should have a much tougher time winning that division. The two worrisome roadblocks might be Baltimore and Cincinnati in my view. Buffalo should field the best team in the NFL in 2025. Winning home home-field advantage is the key.

My take is that something happened with Allen in that Baltimore game ( he was sacked 3x), week four, and went on to week five with the Texans. Both losses. In that Houston game, Allen had the worst game of his career in going 9 of 30 for 131 yards, very un-Allen-like. I suspect some sort of injury to his hand or arm at that point. Buffalo was so off target in that Houston game, with Kincade seeing the most targets at six, with two catches for 34 yards, and 26 the longest. For some reason, Allen never did get it together with Kincade last season, as "Joe Marino" stated that for passes over 12 yards, he had something like 37% catchable. Kincade was reaching for an off-target pass when he was injured later that year. I suspect that this season, things will improve as Allen gets more time with his receivers this offseason to gain more continuity. Last season, the only returning wideout from 2023 was Shakir.

"The host of the Locked on Bills podcast, Joe Marino, posted a list of the pass-catchers who had the "lowest catchable target rate" in the league last season and Moore finished at No. 5 on the list. Former Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper made the cut at No. 2, but he was also on the Browns last season. Marino revealed that after Cooper went to Buffalo, his catchable passes rate went from 62.3% to 75% with Allen." Good points

Awesome stuff!

I meant better than what they had previously and not better than McD!

All I know is that the Patriots and the New York Jets have better head coaches and improved rosters. It's going to be tougher to win the AC East! But then, the Chargers with Harbaugh, the Raiders with Pete Carroll and Denver with Sean Payton...the Chiefs might not even make it to win their division this year. Maybe not even make the playoffs if team start playing them like the Eagles did in the SB!

I've read that some had him rated as a high first-round grade, and yet he fell to the third for Buffalo. Perhaps it was his love for his micro golden Doodle named Honey.

Buffalo was 28th in defensive third-down stops last season, which is crazy bad. Seemed like little or no pass rush and a defective/injured secondary are the reasons, in my view. Wrist injuries, anyone? It seems like so many Buffalo players suffered from wrist injuries last season. It might be the reason why they changed trainers. What saved the 2024 Buffalo defense was their #1 turnover ratio at 24th. Pittsburgh was #2 at 18th. Let's also not forget that Bobby Babich was a rookie DC last season. Who called a lot more man coverages last season, too? That was probably the death knell for Kaiir Elam, as he was supposed to be a man-coverage guy. I think that the Eagles' defensive performance in that Super Bowl had a huge effect on the NFL world, in that every team now wants an Eagles defense.

I have a different take on the end of that SB as the Eagles took their foot off the proverbial gas and didn't go after Mahomes as much, and this allowed ole Patty to get his garbage yards. Did the Eagles bench some of their starters to avoid injury while allowing the backups to get a chance to play in the game? With 8 minutes to go, the score was 6 to 40 with 3:43 minutes left in the 4th, with the Chiefs having a 5-minute drive. Sixteen points by the Chiefs and two field goals by the Eagles in the fourth quarter. This kind of tells me that the score could have been even more embarrassing for KC if they had kept the pressure up. Just sayin. Plus, I think the entire NFL world watched that SB, and in the draft, so many teams wanted to build their defense like the Eagles, which is why most of the top DTs mocked to Buffalo were gone by the 30th pick.

Yes, the Eagles were the exception as they built a unique team...that is now partially dismantled in free agency. Beane stated correctly when he said that by paying Josh Allen, it compromises the team in spending on those big-name, elite FA WRs. BTW, which elite WRs did you want the Bills to draft after drafting the much-needed players on defense? The Bills might already have some elite receiver players in the form of their star TEs and new WRs. In the case of Dalton Kincade, who was mis-targeted by around 37% on passing plays over 12 yards. Kincade and Allen just weren't on the same page last year for some reason. Curtis Samuel was injured last season with a turf toe, which can linger on and on if not given proper rest. Samuel, who has run a 4.31 40 time and has had some 60 catch seasons. So many Bills fans blame Kincade for the dropped pass last season and Bass for the missed field goal in the previous season. Yet, it has been the defense that has let this franchise down the last few years due to injuries and a lack of depth. Both Beane and McD saw the flaws in the team and attempted to fix them in the draft. This draft was weak in elite WRs while loaded with top defensive players, and Buffalo added some. Despite not having elite WRs on the team last season, the Buffalo Bills were 2nd in the NFL in scoring and the #1 scoring team, including the playoffs. The Bills are returning with most of their offense intact and lost their 4th & 5th WRs and have already replaced them with better players. Buffalo had Stephon Diggs, who was their elite wide receiver and led the entire NFL in one season...did they get to the SB with him?

Agreed! He probably signed him to shut everyone up, as even USA Today in their power rankings stated that the Bills should have drafted a WR! Most Bills fans have been bleating endlessly about how the weakest part of the team is the WR corps. The thing is that Tom Brady and the Patriots spent a decade without that superstar #1 WR. The Earnhardt-Perkins scheme that the Patriots used to run and Buffalo utilize that strong run game and move the chains passing game until they reach the end zone, and then punch it in...same at the SB winning Patriots. How did the Bengals fare last season with their two elite WRs? The 49ers? The Dolphins with super speedster Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle with paying their QB, receivers so much that the rest of the team is lacking. The very last thing this team needs is a diva WR like Diggs who wants all the passes his way and still complains. Been there, done that!

Good news for Bills fans, and hopefully they don't fire that HC & GM for a few years. What's amazing to me is how the Bills manage to contain that elite Miami receiver corps with such a sub-elite defense.

Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports that the team is hosting free agent wideout Elijah Moore for a visit on Monday. Moore spent the last two seasons with the Browns and set a career high with 61 catches last season. The 2021 Jets second-round pick has 200 catches for 2,162 yards and nine touchdowns for his career. Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Joshua Palmer, Curtis Samuel, Jalen Virgil, KJ Hamler, Tyrell Shavers, Laviska Shenault, and Kaden Prather — the aforementioned seventh-rounder — are the current receivers in Buffalo.

Bills fans need to relax and wait to see what the offense looks like with a healthy crew, along with more repetitions under their belts. Besides, a healthy Cooper could be back, but with around 4 mill in cap space, I doubt it at this point. Speaking of cap space...I highly doubt the Bills make any moves until they see what the offense looks like this year in training camp/preseason. Just saying, complaining about it won't change anything. A top-five balanced offense with a top-ten defense that can actually rush the passer this season, I'm excited!