Nihilarian

In my view it's more than "just" the QB. Some players like Dan Marino can go to a team and change their entire offensive philosophy. The Dolphins previous to Marino were a dominate running team and suddenly went to a pure passing team while forgetting what won them super bowls. Anyway, the point here is that there is more to building a top offense and developing a young QB than throwing him to the wolves, into the fire. Which is what exactly happened to Allen his first season. Bad offensive line, bad coaching, no real QB coach, no veteran QB on the roster for a lot of his rookie season. That coaching staff thought that Nathan Peterman would be the better starter to open the season. Then once the Bills OC saw that their new QB could run like the wind he decided to put in some run plays. Never mind that the reason the QB was running so much and so often was because the O line were mostly turnstiles. Since the Bills have retained the same OC who thought that Peterman should start that 2018 season. The same guy who has never fielded a passing offense better than 22nd. How can anyone expect that young, inexperienced QB to put up 300 yard passing games? I also think this upcoming year is more of a year to prove it for Daboll more so than Allen as it generally takes four years to develop a QB. (Per the late great Bill Walsh) Want to know how bad of an OC Daboll is? All they need to do is watch that 2019 Ravens game in which the Bills coaching staff had extra time to prepare for that Baltimore defense which didn't have any dominant pass rushers so they blitzed more than 50% of their defensive plays. The Bills offensive answer for that pass rush was to attempt to throw deep a few times and when the Bills didn't complete any deep passes the Ravens stepped up their blitzing to 65%. Brianiac Daboll went on to have Allen attempt 39 passes in that game vs 22 rushes and this with Singletary averaging 5.2 yards per rush...the Bills had no answer to stop the Ravens blitz when clearly running the ball more would have taken pressure off of Allen and stopped their continuous blitzing. That game could have been won by Buffalo. No excuses for anyone this season as the Bills have a top of the league receiver corps, a better line along with a solid run game. I can see 300 yard passing games in 2020 for Buffalo. Provided they actually have a season.

I don't remember it that way at all. From the day he arrived in Buffalo Jim Kelly was hailed as the new hero, savior of the team. Bills fans went nuts from day one. Now, after that comeback game there might have been some chatter about Riech, but none from anyone I knew. Kelly was "the man" until the day he retired. On another note, I don't see "that" much hate for Allen. Just some Bills fans that don't realize how difficult it is for a QB to fully develop in the NFL coming from a non big time college program. Like Kirk Cousins stated, it's like taking a drink from a fire hose. Josh Allen is only two years into a team that is still rebuilding the offense and just now this off season finally found its #1 receiver. Also, I'm still not sold on Brian Daboll as the OC as there were several games in which he was clearly out coached in 2019. The offense still lacks discipline with far, far too many penalties. Very questionable play calling at times, and the offense did get better when the OC went up in the booth. I'm not sure this is the coach that should be developing a young, inexperienced QB as he has never fielded a top passing offense. Don't forget that Allen didn't even have a real QB coach his first season or a veteran QB to show him the ropes for a lot of his rookie season. Jim Kelly came into Buffalo with WRs Jerry Butler, Andre Reed. TE Pete Metzelaars. RB Rob Riddick already on the team. In that "1984" first season, Reed caught 53 passes, Riddick 49 passes, Metz 49 passes. It took Kelly three seasons to get the Bills into the playoffs.

Washington Groots...

I don't see it that way... Thurman Thomas 5'10'' 200 lb...Barry Sanders 5' 8'' 203 lb...Walter Payton 5'10'' 200 lbs. Bet you can't even tell me who the backups were to Sanders, Payton. You just need a competent durable body behind the starter. P.S. If I recall correctly the Bears didn't even have a backup RB and instead had a FB, same with Detroit. I get that in today's NFL teams want two viable starting RB's to spread the load over the season. However, that starting RB should be the feature back and they usually get better as the game goes on. I've said it before, I think the Bills FO is looking at Christian Wade as having a spot on the active roster this season.

2017 first round pick CB, defense 2018 first round pick QB, and ILB Offense and defense. 2019 first round pick DT, defense 2020 first round pick to the Vikings for Diggs. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Beane trade that second round pick #54 and most of the rest of the Buffalo Bills 2020 draft picks 3 #86, 4 #128, 5 #167, 6 #188, 6#207, 7#239 to trade up into the first round for a defensive edge player they really love. That would make it four years, four defensive first round picks. RB isn't that great a need because they have Singletary, Christian Wade, TJ Yeldon on the roster. Everyone seems to be overlooking what Wade managed to do in last years preseason. I happen to think he gets an honest shot to become a starter behind Singletary this year.

I agree. Although, kinda funny that considering they were a mess that they still graded better than Buffalo at #21, Carolina at #18. Of his 838 snaps last season for the Panthers, he played 412 at left guard, 218 at right guard, 173 at left tackle, 45 at right tackle and two at tight end. He was in for 570 pass blocking snaps and 268 run blocking snaps. 3. Pressure. Williams was worst in the league at his best position in allowing 12 sacks, according to Pro Football Focus. He also allowed 21 hurries and two hits. His overall PFF grade was 56.1, with a pass blocking grade of 64.7 and a run blocking grade of 46.2. 4. On the rebound? The Bills have to hope that Williams can return to what he showed in 2017. He was a second-team All-Pro selection in 2017 after he started 16 games at right tackle https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/26/buffalo-bills-free-agency-daryl-williams-offensive-line-carolina-panthers/ At 6'6'' 330lbs I see him at RT and the Bills FO hoping he reverts to 2017 form.

The Bills chose to re sign Croom, they have 2nd year players in Dawson Knox, Tommy Sweeny. Along with Tyler Croft who was hurt a lot last season and lastly Lee Smith who is a tackle in disguise. Obviously the Bills FO must feel like they already have a decent TE corps in place over going after Hooper who the Cleveland Browns made the highest paid TE in the league. From Atlanta, they thought that while Hooper was one of Matt Ryan's main targets in that offense, he wasn't a "game changer". The Falcons reportedly want to get back to running more with a blocking TE and already have WRs Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley. Plus, they traded a 2nd round pick to the Ravens for TE Hyden Hurst, who is a former 1st round pick. As for Eric Ebron... bleh. They guy was shut down last season due to surgery on both ankles. The Steelers signed him somewhat cheap, but with his injury history he is a big risk. Not to mention he isn't all that great a blocker. My thoughts are that this FO thinks Knox will develop into a top TE. JMO

Idle hands... or crack pipe?

As someone else mentioned the offensive line needs to really, really improve to do anything once in the playoffs. Last season the Bills played a lot of bad teams and had a pretty easy schedule. Then when you think that the Buffalo Bills offensive line only graded 21st which is still the bottom third of the league after all those upgrades. Four of five players replaced and the leagues highest paid center. What would it take to get this line into the top ten? This FO needs to make a real commitment to upgrading the entire line. The Colts went #1 pick OG and #2 pick OG in 2018 and that line went from 25th in 2018 to #3 in 2019. An OG with the #6th pick overall went against so many norms and yet Quinton Nelson graded as the best OG in the entire league last season. A pro bowler at LG in Richie Incognito helped the 2017 Buffalo Bills grade at #7 overall. Cordy Glenn only played in 6 games before Dawkins moved over from RT and that was with Jordan Mills moving to RT, Eric Wood at C, Vlad Ducasse at RG. Kinda crazy right? Two bums at RG, RT, an all pro at LG a should be all pro at C, and a rookie at LT in Dawkins that played like a top five tackle. Looking at this, the key might be to find an "all pro" for the left guard position which should help both the center and left tackle. Not an easy task though. While Spain graded as average it might have been a bad move to not resign crazy town Incognito who went on to have a very good season with the Raiders. The Raiders graded at 15th. "While Incognito allowed only nine pressures in 414 snaps. Out of those 12 combined pressures, only one was a sack and one was a quarterback hit — with the other 10 being hurries. " https://www.pff.com/news/pro-ranking-all-32-offensive-lines-from-the-2017-nfl-season

That was really only against some of the better defenses, teams. Eagles owned the Bills on both sides of the line and the Ravens D was even worse against the Bills O line. The Ravens accomplished that by 55%-65% blitzing and when they saw that Allen couldn't hit the deep ball to defeat that blitz, it intensified. The Patriots were another team that the Bills had trouble with in stopping their run and getting to Brady. The Browns game could have been a win had the Bills simply run the ball more often to counter the #2 pass rusher at that time in Miles Garrett who didn't get a ton of sacks but was able to pressure Allen with 4 pressures, 2 harries, 2 sacks. It could be that the Bills FO simply thinks that the line needed more continuity of playing together and while that could be true. There were times in many games in which the Bills failed to run effectively when most needed. While getting a major overhaul of talent to that line from 2018 to 2019 didn't actually improve their overall grade that much as that 2018 line graded at 26th. Which is being kind to a unit that looked like crap most of the season. Now take into account that the 2019 season saw a rather weak schedule. LT Dion Dawkins had the overall best grade which graded him as the 24th best LT. Morse, Feliciano graded average while Spain and Ford both graded below average. Ty Nsekhe only graded below Dawkins. Now, you would think that with all the upgrades to that line it would have graded better than 21st. Clearly the weak link was at RT with the rookie. I guess we will need to wait for the draft to see if the Bills make moves to upgrade the line again this year. I'm thinking RT, OG.

Exactly! This wasn't two first round picks and a fourth for an unknown college player... and once Sammy started playing in the NFL he has been like a glass toy, always injured and needing repair. Sammy Watkins was drafted 4th overall and a draft pick that high is considered a blue chip, can't miss player. Watkins had one 1000 yard season in his six seasons in the NFL, never an all pro, never been to a pro bowl. Just to put this into perspective, Julio Jones was the 6th overall player in the 2011 draft with 7, 1000 yard seasons, 7 time pro bowler, 2 time all pro. Diggs is coming off back to back 1000 yard seasons with a catch percentage 68.4%, 11% better than Watkins. Also better than Brown 62.6% and Beasley 63.2. Many have stated that they think Diggs is better than Amari Cooper. I tend to agree!

WR Antonio Brown was one that I didn't mention and that was another big loss that wasn't replaced. Think about how crafty Ole Bill has been to be able to keep that team in contention for a SB for nearly 20 years while building a #1 defense and paying for everyone. I think they both said enough of this... I agree.

It is quite odd that Brady waiting until the day after the Bills announce the trade for Diggs that Brady makes his announcement that he won't be back in New England. I think there is a direct relation to Brady not having enough weapons at receiver in New England. It was noted that Brady kept in touch with WR Antonio Brown until very recently. JMHO

I agree. Remember that Ole Bill used to look for those top WR's for Brady like Randy Moss, Wes Welker from the Dolphins, Troy Brown, Dion Branch, Chris Hogan, Brandon Cooks, Josh Gordon...and the Patriots did draft N'Keal Harry with their #1 pick in 2019 and he spent the season injured. Didn't even try for Greg Olsen. Brady recently lost Gronk with no real replacement and it was known the Patriots were after John Brown and Cole Beasley that ended up in Buffalo. I think Brady looked at the Patriots roster and said wtf do I throw to as a WR besides Edelman? Their other leading receiver was RB James White and Sanu did squat. I also think that seeing Diggs go to Buffalo was the very last straw and its almost like Belichick didn't do enough to secure some top WR talent on purpose to get Brady out by himself. He wanted Jimmy G and the teams owner said no, so they traded him. This might have been Belichicks way of moving on. It's also not like the Patriots don't have options, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton or draft a rookie.

https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2020/3/19/21187185/report-mutual-interest-between-buffalo-bills-melvin-gordon-2020-nfl-free-agency-news-rumors This might be more credible. The Bills have spoken with Gordon’s agency.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/03/19/report-melvin-gordon-has-no-offers-close-to-the-one-he-turned-down-in-2019/ Now he’s a free agent, and not only is he still not getting the offer he wants, but he’s not even getting an offer as good as what the Chargers offered last year.

In McD's first season as Bills HC he went defense, CB with that #1 pick in 2017. Even when he went QB, #7 overall with that 2018 first round draft pick he still went #16 overall on an ILBer. 2019 it was #9 overall a DT for the defense. Three years, three defensive first round picks. There is no question that the 2020 #22 overall went to the Vikings for WR Stefon Diggs. I don't see the Bills giving up the farm to move up into the first round this year...but hey, ya never know. What do they still need, Edge rusher, RB, RT, RG? You have to think that this scouting staff missed on a #2, #37 overall in WR Zay Jones. They missed on a #3, #7 for Kelvin Benjamin. Diggs is a sure fire home run this year and he is just coming into his prime. 17.9 yards per catch puts him at #4 with a 12.0 yards per target. Precise route runner that can out juke any DB out of his cleats and will get separation. Remember that Texans playoff game or the Ravens games where the Bills receivers were covered like blankets? Having to double Diggs will make the other Bills receivers better. I've read quite a lot that many consider Diggs better than Amari Cooper. The Bills got a receiver away from a team that really didn't want to trade him.

Why? If you have a player that can get the separation needed and can out juke any DB out of their cleats. Diggs will make the Bills entire receiver corps because they will be trying to double him to no avail.

Looking back at this scouting staff thinking that Zay Jones was worth a #2 pick, #37 overall. That Kelvin Benjamin was worth a #3 & 7th round picks in trade. I'm not saying that I'm not 100% certain that they could find a talent in this years draft like Diggs at #22 that could make the instant impact Diggs will make this season. Texans HC Bill O'Brian had better know receiver talent to replace DeAndre Hopkins in this draft. Beane doesn't need to find that rare, special WR talent in the draft as he just traded for him, as this kid is only 26 and is a proven talent.

17th best receiver in 2019, 63 receptions, 94 targets 1130 yards, 6 TD's. 67.0 catch percentage. Diggs averaged 17.9 yards per reception which was 4th best. Diggs was by far the Vikings best receiver in 2019 6.0, 191 lbs Gotta love it!

Its not fabricated at all. I was just pointing out one scenario, one game. By your standards the Bills should have gone pass happy all game against Dallas and lost it. They didn't, they won! By your accounts the only time the Bills should run is when they have the lead. In actuality that's about what the current lame brained Bills OC does most times. If the Bills have a lead he utilizes the run game and when behind in the score even by 3 points he goes pass happy with an inexperienced QB. I noticed you ignored the Texans game when the Bills had the lead and still kept passing. Perhaps it's time you went back to playing with your legos...

Your argument is laughable. Out of the ESPN list of 46 NFL teams rushers only Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson are QB's. It makes no sense to take away a RBs yards when talking about the teams RB's yards for the season. You pointed out that Buffalo was 6th in rushing attempts and I pointed out that without those rushes from the QB the Bills were 31st in the NFL in rushing attempts. Meaning that the Bills OC didn't call for that many rushes by the RB's during the season. That's my point! I also pointed out that teams that go pass happy are usually down by more then a few points and more like down a few TDs. All those losses for the Bills were close games save the Eagles game and there was no need to give up on the run game at all in those games. Especially when Singletary was averaging 5.0 yards per carry or more. Made no sense! This Bills OC attempts to make Allen the focal point of the offense like he has an experienced veteran QB under center and Allen is simply not there yet. Even then, teams like the Falcons, Packers, Saints and so many others that have established franchise QB's need to have a dependable run game to lean on. Patriots loss, 6 pts Browns loss, 3 pts Ravens loss, 7 pts Patriots loss, 7 pts Texans playoff loss, 3 pts Against the Texans the Bills had a 3 score lead and still kept passing the ball when they clearly should have been running it. Lastly, go back and watch that Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving to see the Cowboys drove right down the field on the opening series and scored a TD. By your account the Bills should have gone pass happy because they didn't have the lead. Instead the Bills ran the ball 34 times and passed it 25 times. With the support of a good run game QB Josh Allen had the best game of his NFL career going 19 of 24 for 231 yards with a Rate of 120.7. NOW, that's my point!

Really? The Bills were up 16 points against the Texans with 9:59 in the 3rd quarter and that drive ended up with a field goal. (Speaking of field goals the Bills were in the Texans red zone five times and ended up with four FGs and one TD.) Its up to the Bills OC to make the offensive run game work. Anyway, shouldn't the emphasis be on pounding the rock to eat the clock and play keep away from the Texans when you have the lead? Instead the OC kept calling for pass plays which caused sacks, fumbles. The Ravens game was a 17-24 loss and its not like the Bills were getting blown out and needed to throw to catch up. The problem in this game was that the Bills OC called for some deeps passes to negate that cover zero blitz by the Ravens and when those plays didn't connect it caused the Ravens to step up their pass rush on Allen. The Ravens went from their normal 50% blitzing to 65%-80%. This when the Bills run game with Singletary was working to the tune of 5.2 yards per carry. The Bills OC had no answer for that ferocious Ravens blitz and just kept asking Allen to throw. Utterly moronic and the result on a very mobile QB was six sacks on Allen. The Bills receivers weren't getting separation against that Ravens defense too. The first Patriots game was a 10-16 loss. Another game in which the Bills get down by one score and go pass happy like they were down by 20 points. The Bills run game was working with Gore 17 rushes for 109 yards and yet the Bills ran only 22 times while throwing it 44 times. In all those big games there was no reason why the Bills needed to throw that much when the run game was working. Daboll did the same thing against Cleveland a 16-19 loss. Over the coarse of the season when the Bills ran the ball more than they threw it they usually won. The only game that got out of hand was the Eagles game as all the rest were close. And my point doesn't fall on its face when you realize that the Bills QB had 109 attempts for 510 yards, 9 TDs. Take away those QB attempts and the Bills had 356 rush attempts which puts them tied for 31st in the NFL.

Yet, they are the result of mistakes. I believe the talent level on the current roster could have won more than 10 games with such an easy schedule in 2019. AND could have gone further in the playoffs too. The 2019 Buffalo Bills defense was of championship caliber and the offense let them down in many games. The buck stops with the Buffalo offensive coordinator to make things work! The Buffalo run game was often underutilized in most of the big games they played against strong opponents. First New England game, Buffalo offense, 22 rushes, 44 passes. Eagles, Bills offense 20 rushes, 34 passes. Ravens, Buffalo offense 23 rushes, 39 passes. Second Patriots game Buffalo offense 23 rushes, 26 passes. Texans playoff game, Buffalo offense 30 rushes, 48 passes. Go back and review each game. Patriots game, Frank Gore 17 carries for 109 yards a 6.4 YPC avg and yet asked that inexperienced QB to throw 44 times. Eagles game, Devin Singletary 3 rushes for 19 yards a 6.3 YPC avg. Gore 9 carries for 34 yards a 3.8 YPC avg. Allen 34 passing attempts. Ravens game, Singletary 17 rushes for 89 yards a 5.2 YPC avg. Gore 4 rushes for 6 yards a 1.5 YPC avg. Allen 39 passing attempts. Patriots game, Singletary 15 rushes for 46 yards a 3.1 YPC avg. Allen 7 rushes for 43 yards a 6.1 YPC avg. Allen 26 passing attempts. Texans game, Singletary 13 rushes for 58 yards a 4.5 YPC avg. Allen 9 carries for 92 yards a 10.2 YPC avg. Gore 8 rushes for 22 yards a 2.8 YPC avg. Allen, 46 passing attempts. It's evident to me that had the Bills worked that run game with Singletary more often against strong opponents with top defenses they would have fared much better over asking that young, inexperienced QB to throw so often into the teeth of pass rushes. The Bills worked that run game against other opponents with great success, against Dallas 34 rushes, Pittsburgh 38 rushes. The teams the Bills had more rushes vs passes they usually won all those games. Yes, Josh Allen's completion percentage improved from 52.8 in 2018 to 58.8 in 2019. Allen's completion percentage could have been much, much better had he not been thrown to the wolves in those four huge games. This was all on the offensive coaching in my view. Where was the ingenuity, discipline to make that offense work, run game, passing game, red zone offense besides the QB taking it on himself to score by running it in. The offense with far, far to many penalties. I don't expect a pigs ear will suddenly turn into a silk purse with some upgrades to the offense, WR, RB, O line. Another old adage, a leopard can't change their spots. Buffalo Bills OC Brian Daboll will continue to be the weak link in the offense. He has never fielded a passing offense better than 23rd and I doubt he ever will.