Nihilarian

I'm not arguing the fact that Rex Ryan killed the 2014 defense with his crappy outdated scheme. What I should have responded to was that it was partly Doug Whaley's fault because he had a voice in that head coaching interview and either because of negligence on his part in not voicing concern about the hire or stupidity because he failed to look deeper into the situation. Whaley was there and he had a say and he chose not to make it. Also, I still contend that you need a top NFL QB to win games in the current NFL as it's now a passing league. It's why the Bills dumped Tyrod and drafted a new rookie QB.

Do you have links to all this info or were you in the rooms? I can recall reading that for Rex Ryan it was Russ Brandon that stated: "don't let him leave the building"! I believe the new owners went with this because he had been the real de facto GM since Marv Levy retired. If Doug Whaley had stepped up and said anything about hiring Rex Ryan as the wrong thing to do... I doubt they hire him. As far as for hiring McD. The Pegula's stated that they looked at four candidates brought in by Doug Whaley. "Whaley, brought forth those four candidates as he thought they were best qualified for the job. (Sean McDermott, Kris Richard, Harold Goodwin and Anthony Lynn)." Terry and Kim Pegula alluded to the numerous recommendations on McDermott’s ability as a head coach, but they wouldn’t go into specifics on who exactly recommended him. “There were players, previous and current, he has been with that we talked to.” Kim Pegula said. “Other coaches and staff that he’s worked with along the way. We feel confident in this hire.” Terry shortly added afterward that multiple players and executives around the NFL commended McDermott’s capabilities. https://billswire.usatoday.com/2017/01/12/bills-owners-open-up-about-hiring-sean-mcdermott-faith-in-gm-doug-whaley/

It wasn't just Jerry making those player decisions anymore as his sons stopped him from drafting Johnny Manziel in 2014. Instead, the Cowboys selected an offensive guard in Zack Martin who has been an all pro, pro bowl OG. Yes, Jerry sucks but he isn't the only one calling the shots anymore, https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/stephen-jones-reveals-jerry-jones-criticism-of-cowboys-not-drafting-johnny-manziel/

Regardless of points per game... The 2015 team won only 8 games The 2016 team won 7 only games As I pointed out both years teams had a #1 dominate run game with a running QB and it's my contention that they didn't win more games because they were near last in passing the football. Like I said you won't win many games by going 28th in passing yards in 2015, 30th in passing yards 2016. Now, look at 2018 to see Buffalo going 6-10 with the 31st passing game with a defense that was #2 in yards allowed. and while I agree that Rex screwed the pooch with his defensive scheme no question by killing the pass rush. Rex Ryan effectively killed the #1 pass rush in the league by having that elite pass rushing D line taking on blockers and dropping into pass coverage instead of rushing the passer. Nevertheless, Bills starting QB Tyrod Taylor was the 23rd ranked NFL QB in 2015, 25th ranked NFL QB in 2016. My point was, you can have a dominant offensive rushing attack (#1 in the league under Ryan) and still not win many games.

Playoff quality? Perhaps the defensive players. The 2015 Bills offense was 31st in passing attempts and 28th in passing yards, 20th in passing TDs. 2016 saw the Bills pass game slightly regress to 32nd in the NFL and 30th in yards, 27th in passing TDs. The Bills 2015-2016 lacked a quality QB who could make plays through the air. The year previous the Bills went 9-7 with Kyle Orton at QB and the run game was 25th in yards. Like I said the biggest flaws with Nix, Whaley were that they failed to find that franchise QB. Nevertheless, Whaley was in a position to thoroughly vet Rex Ryan when they were interviewing him for the HCing job. With Whaley being the GM he should have asked what scheme he intends to use with the defense and what players he would want to draft to improve it. Ryan was hired Jan 13, 2015, and I can only imagine that while he was interviewed twice they must have asked how, what, when with the defense. During the interview process, Ryan must have let them know that he intended to have Dennis Thurman run his defense again because at that same time it was known that Jim Schwartz would not be back. Anyone with a pro football brain should have known that the 3-4 scheme that Ryan ran with the Jets depended on the D line players eating up blockers while not rushing the passer so the more talented linebackers could make the plays. In Buffalo, because the D line was far more talented then the LBers, Schwartz ran a 4-3 that allowed the D linemen to rush the passer and only occasionally dropped into pass coverage. Clearly, Rex Ryan should have never been hired in the first place unless he was to keep Jim Schwartz as DC. There were real reasons as to why Doug Whaley was fired as GM and why he is no longer working as a GM in the NFL.

Most Bills fans here thought Buddy Nix had upgraded the team with talent and things were on the rise...We all saw that 100 million spent on a pass rushing DE and having the best pass rush in the league didn't equate to more than 9 wins. No playoffs! Most Bills fans here thought Doug Whaley had upgraded the team with talent and things were on the rise...We all saw that having the best run game in the league in yards, TDs, YPC didn't equate to more than 9 wins. No Playoffs! Those men made many, many mistakes and then attempted fixes with bandaids. Both, their biggest flaws were not finding a franchise QB. Beane made some mistakes this season with the backup QBs in obtaining them late. But ultimately found quality backups to help the rookie QB. Beane made huge mistakes with some receivers and O linemen but then he might have been influenced by assistants who were bad at their respective jobs. McD and Beane have replaced those assistants along with others (ST coach) who were also bad at their jobs. Beane found his franchise QB and somewhat moved mountains to obtain him by trading up to the #7 spot and then trading up again to get the MLB at the #16 spot. What happened last season was due to some bad decisions with a bad O line, bad WRs, bad assistant coaching and little to no run game. Bottom line is "winning cures everything"! Ten wins and beating the Patriots once this season will lock Beane down as the best since Polian. Six wins like Vegas suggests will mean Beane failed in a lot of his player choices.

Just Rodak parroting Vegas odds for the Bills at 6 wins. The thing is, so much is going to depend on how well the run game works this season! If they can get back into the top five with the run game which will mean those choices in free agency are working out. Which should also mean the pass blocking is also improved. Running the ball and getting Allen to throw more short passes to move the chains should be a huge help to the already decent defense. I can see the 2019 Buffalo Bills at 10-6 and even beating the Patriots with that loaded defensive backfield.

Thanks! What I think a lot of evaluators missed with their assessment with Allen was when you look at his backstory, Josh Allen was brought up on a farm and is no stranger to hard work as his dad ingrained a work ethic, up before daylight and home after dark. Football is a cakewalk compared to the life of farm work. Josh grew up a Fresno State fan and tailgated with his parents. He attended the Bulldogs' summer camps and even retrieved the kicking tee during a few games (former coach Pat Hill once yelled at him to get off the field). One of Josh's favourite moments was meeting Fresno State quarterback Derek Carr. Brett Favre is his football hero. What I think those evaluators missed on was just how much Josh loves the game. In a time when so many players are so concerned about money, I think Josh Allen would play NFL Football for free.

It was exactly that! What a lot of people forget is how much of a hard time Bullough gave Bruce his first year with Buffalo. Bruce had some poor training habits which limited his effectiveness in his first season. Bullough rode Bruce hard that first season and was always yelling at him and needless to say, Bruce probably hated him for it. Not sure how or why and perhaps it was Bullough's riding him hard, Smith worked like a mad man to get into shape after that first season. I can recall stories of him wearing out exercise bikes and causing them to rust from all the sweat. After that, he quickly became a sack master.

Josh Allen had the highest ceiling and yet was considered by many a project QB that was supposed to sit and learn for a year like Patrick Mahomes. Yes, Allen had accuracy issues and concerns he was well aware of and started working on his issues right after his college season ended. Jordan Palmer started working with Allen and they worked on his biggest issue which was his footwork. Palmer stated he fixed his footwork but alas we all saw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIb-B4sGd8 It was Allen's backstory that was so impressive as after high school he was a 6'3'' 180lb scrawny kid with a big arm. With no football scholarships to a division one football program, he attended a junior college. After his first season in JC, he sent emails to every division one football college out there (over 1000) By this time he was 6'5'' 210 with a big arm. Only two colleges responded Eastern Michigan, Wyoming offered him a scholarship and once EM found out he visited Wyoming they rescinded their offer. While at Wyoming he basically carried his team to a winning season and a bowl game win. Plus, Allen didn't play in a gimmie offense with short passes, bubble screens to pad his stats as he was in a pro-style deep passing scheme. Besides, anyone on offense who had touched the ball in 2016 was gone from the team in 2017. So basically Allen was dealing with a bunch of rookie receivers learning how to do their jobs. It's not just the off the charts physical intangibles, it's his competitiveness, his fire, his burning desire to win which is so infectious that it fires up his teammates. The kid is big, strong and has arguably the most powerful arm in the league. Allen played in the snow and cold at Wyoming so he should fit right into Buffalo's blue-collar town. What's not to love?

I believe he had a third round grade on Allen... Good stuff. Thanks for posting RR.

So many Bills fans wanted Josh Rosen and were begging Beane to move up to the #2 spot and thereby giving up the farm (all the 2018 early picks and 2019 first) for the guy. My thoughts! From page ten of that thread. Love the pick! The Bills just got a big, tough, blue-collar kid who played at Wyoming (think snow) and he was a winner with a bunch of nobodies around him.

I met Gale Sayers in Chicago, great guy and a darn shame his career was cut short due to injuries. Mike Ditka said he was the greatest NFL player he had ever seen. Anyway, my case for sweetness. "never die easy"

No doubt! While Barry could juke you outta your shoes and OJ with his 4:29 30 speed could run right by you. Sweetness motto was "never die easy" as he would never run out of bounds and always try to punish his tacklers. He had a stiff arm like no other! He didn't have the speed so he would use a "stutter step" to distract opponents to take the wrong angle as he would read what they were about to do and do the opposite. Like I said, for the majority of his career he didn't have top talent around him and basically carried his team every year

Walter Payton !! There was nobody else on those teams and opponents would gear up just to stop him and nobody could! Against Dallas on one Thanksgiving day when the Cowboys were good under Landry, Walter just tore them up all on his own. Other RBs had good teams around them....1977 Bears had Bob Avellini (who?) at QB 11TDs, 18 INTs. Sweetness rushed in 14 games for 1852 yards. That season they went to the playoffs all on Payton as the Bears best WR was James Scott...who? Sweetness didn't have great talent around him until the very end of his career. The Juice had Joe Ferguson at QB at the Electric Co to block for him, Jim Braxton at FB, JD Hill, Bob Chandler at WR, Paul Seymour at TE. Jim Brown was on Championship teams with Ernie Green at HB, Paul Warfield at SE. BTW, Thurman kept Barry Sanders on the bench at OSU! Sanders was on five playoff teams with some halfway decent talent with Herman Moore, Johnnie Morton at WR who were both 1000 yard receivers in 1997. PS Frank Reich at backup QB, Pete Metzelaars at TE.

It is my belief that because Ralph Wilson saw value in Russ Brandon and that the Pegula's in being new to the NFL they also saw value in his Management/marketing skills. Therefore, they made the move to take him away from the football side of the org in which he was deeply involved and gave him duties that would keep him fully occupied in his particular skill set. Brandon was managing partner in the Pegula sports empire and also president of the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Bandits and Rochester Americans. Once it came to light that Brandon was being investigated for his workplace behavior/ personal misconduct he resigned rather than answer questions. The man was a true snake by taking advantage of his place of power and then lying about it. Kim Pegula took over as president. Winning or losing had nothing to do with keeping Brandon on as a front office executive. I for one am damn glad he is gone as I used to equate him to Matt Millen the ex-team president of the Detroit Lions. While the Pegula's gave McD quite a bit of power when he was first hired I'm fairly certain he had a plan going forward that he shared to shape the team he wanted. Going 9-7 record and making the playoffs to an abysmal 6-10 and next to last in the division. That 2018 -105 point differential has to be alarming 269 PF, 374 PA. That number is up from the 2017 -57. Now just imagine if the Patriots are the ones who offered a #2 pick to the Cardinals for Josh Rosen and Belicheat moves forward without Brady. They did manage an 11-5 season with Matt Cassell at QB in 2008. Think of it, Cassell was never a starting QB at USC in his four years there and he went 20 for 33 his entire USC career. This year in his third season as Buffalo Bills head coach, winning means everything! Like I said If McD can't beat the Patriots in six attempts he no longer deserves to be the head coach of the Buffalo Bills!

While I agree that McD has/had a lot of power as he brought in his own GM and the Bills did make the playoffs in his first season as HC. I look at Rex Ryan and see his first year the Bills went 8-8 and then went backward to 7-8 before he was fired. Now granted Ryan screwed himself by attempting to run his archaic lame 3-4 scheme that was dependent on elite linebackers that he didn't have...Meanwhile, the Bills defense was better suited for a 4-3 with that superb defensive line. Then instead of rushing the passer with that D line he would rather they hold their blocks while at times dropping into pass coverage A blind man could see Rex Ryan was a big mouth fool. Still, the 2018 Bills season was marred with blowouts (5)and a run game that stalled more often than not. (His defense crapped the bed in a bunch of games last year). While taking big steps backward to a 6-10 season. Keeping run game coordinator/O line coach Juan Castillo for 2018 wasn't nearly as wrong as giving Nathan Peterman the starting job with all the starting season reps ...much less keeping him as a backup. While the defense was #2 yards allowed those blowouts held the Bills to 18th in points allowed. I honestly don't think McD will survive another 6-10 season and quite a lot of it will depend on how the season transpires. McD has had two seasons to show he knows how to build a solid team and took a Chan Gailey step backward last year. I'd have a different feeling about the situation had McD been able to beat the NE Patriots at least once and right now he is 0-4. In my view what good is he if he can't beat the Patriots at least once in six attempts. It's my take that the Pegula's want to win in the NFL more than most realize.

So true and so stupid! The team was desperate for a LT and the team drafts a "water-bug" RB with that #9 overall. It wasn't just the defense as that first season (2010) the offense was slightly worse 4-12. The next season the offense was 14th with Fitz throwing 24 TDs, 23 INTs and Fred Jackson the leading rusher with 934 yards, Spiller with 561 yards. 2012 saw Gailey go 6-10 again with a 20th ranked offense, 26th ranked defense. Meanwhile, in Seattle Lynch had 1204 yards rushing with 12 TDs. In 2012 Lynch had 1590 rushing yards, 11 TDs. There is a reason Chan Gailey has been out of the NFL for two years, going on three.

Pro sports is a performance based business and if a player can't do his job he is replaced. Why shouldn't the HC, GM or assistant coach get the same? After last years draft/ FA Beane isn't going anywhere! McD OTOH needs to have a winning season to at least 8-8, 9-7 or better.

I agree. Again, A big reason as to why "someone" leaked Allen's inflammatory high school tweets. Allen was looking like the #1 overall days before the draft and the release of those tweets killed a lot of interest from some of those teams as they didn't want the controversy. I also think it somewhat killed the Jets interest in Allen (thankfully). and it might have helped convince the NY Giants that they wanted a RB at the #2 spot. The Bills were so lucky that they got Allen at #7 with the Broncos at #5 who wanted that DE Chubb. This off season they jettisoned Keenum and signed Flacco and STILL need a QB! This year the Dolphins, Redskins, Bengals and the NY Giants will all be looking at QBs.

They will suffer with Darnold! The guy was on a pace to break Peyton Manning's rookie interception record before his injury and missed three games. His problem in his final season at USC was all the turnovers 13 INTs and 11 fumbles and a lot of those fumbles were on his own. In his final 20 starts at USC he threw 44 TDs but also had 20 INTs, 14 fumbles. 57% of his passes were for 9 yards or less which padded his passing completion percentage. Smaller hands could be a problem in certain situations. Seems like the more he games he plays and the more reps the more his accuracy wanes. Footwork can get sloppy which can cause bad throws. All that said he is also working with Jordan Palmer and can get better. I think the Bills got the better QB who was not quite as polished as Darnold or Rosen and didn't have the level of talent around him as those two others did.

`I think you may need to reread my post because I have no idea what you are talking about. My point was... there is more like about a player then just accuracy and that the player was working to correct his accuracy issues. I even stated how the player was inaccurate and how he knew he had that issue was working to correct that particular issue. Josh Allen fit all the criteria that most NFL scouts look for in an NFL pocket QB in terms of physical ability and whats more he was exactly the type of player teams want that have a tremendous desire to win while showing great leadership skills.

After the Bills traded TT to the Browns we Bills fans knew that they were going after a QB in the 2018 draft. That said, I watched as many games as I could on youtube on Darnold, Rosen, Allen, and Mayfield. I didn't bother with Lamar Jackson simply because I looked at him as more of what they already had with Taylor and they wanted more of a pocket QB. I didn't just watch highlights as I watched entire games and came away really liking only one QB. I liked Mayfield too, just not as much. Yes, Allen had his flaws. But they were correctable as his biggest problem with his accuracy issues were his footwork. After working with Jordan Palmer right after the 2017 College season ended he had worked to correct his footwork. Allen even stated as such while being interviewed by Mike Mayock at the combine and Mayock noted that he looked so much better with touch passes in the senior bowl. The biggest thing I took away from watching Josh Allen play in his final season at Wyoming was that he basically carried his team to an 8-5 record and a bowl game win. Allen didn't have a rusher with over 500 yards or a receiver with more than 550 yards and almost everyone on offense that touched the ball in 2016 was gone from the team in 2017. At 6'5'' 233lbs with a cannon for an arm and an ability to run when needed was outstanding. Plus, this kid played at Wyoming in the snow and cold so in Buffalo he would feel right at home. I listened to his college coach Craig Bohl rave about how Allen's arm made the opposing team's defense cover the entire field. About how Allen's hero was Brett Favre and in practice they would call for a dump off to the FB and instead Allen would throw a deep out for a TD! His coach would ask what the heck are you doing? Allen's response was "Favre says touchdowns first"! He would then run the play properly. Allen's positive attitude and desire to win was infectious and no matter what would happen he was always upbeat in motivating his teammates. His coaches, teammates loved him. I'm pretty sure that after watching Allen play in Buffalo this past season that most Bills fans now love him too. Hopefully, the entire NFL world will soon catch on.

There were a few of us that loved Josh Allen pre-draft as most on this board wanted Josh Rosen (cough-cough) and acted gut shot when they passed on Rosen and took Allen. From what I can recall Metz and Bandit wanted Allen and the former made several posts about Allen and his playing time at Wyoming. Not many Bills fans wanted Allen pre-draft as they were worried about his accuracy percentage while at Wyoming AND as often as I could I posted that the poor percentage was based on the deeper pro-style passing scheme he was playing in vs the scheme Rosen and others played in with a lot of high percentage dump off passes. Not to mention that Allen was also surrounded by mostly first-year players in his final season at Wyoming. Plus, that he worked with Jordan Palmer in the offseason to improve his footwork and mechanics. Not many actually listened though.

I took the family to all four SBs as vacations and spent the week attending the card shows, NFL experience. Minneapolis shows were empty all week until the weekend. The ice sculpture was a nice touch out front though. Also went to the 1988 AFC Championship game in Cincy, 1989 playoff game in Cleveland. Like you, I'd only to go another SB if the Bills were in it! It's starting to look like they just might be very soon.