HappyDays

Anthony Richardson really was that bad. Shane Steichen is proving that he just needs baseline level QB play to have an elite offense. The crazy thing is I saw several analysts say that giving Daniel Jones the job over Richardson was a mistake because they "didn't give him a chance to develop." I don't think people realized how hilariously bad he was.

So be clear, I'm not saying that literally any possible head coach/GM combo would be better. I'm saying that because we have Allen we would have our pick of the litter, and given that advantage it would be almost impossible to screw it up. Of the realistic and available selections I genuinely think improvement would be almost automatic. It's impossible to focus less on passing offense than this regime has. It's impossible for the defense to perform worse in the playoffs. I know you still don't agree but I hope you can understand where I'm coming from.

I think a lot of head coaches make dumb game management mistakes. Andy Reid was infamous for it with the Eagles. Game management just becomes a hell of a lot easier when you have an elite QB singlehandedly erasing mistakes in every game, so that's not really my deciding factor. What I want from a coach is one of two things (ideally both): 1) A new organizational philosophy towards building the team around Allen first and foremost 2) A better coached defense that also performs well in the playoffs KC has won Super Bowls both ways. The reason Stefanski with Schwartz is my top choice is that I think you get both. The other retreads I mentioned you at least get the defense that can perform and I'd like to think just about any regime other than McBeane would recognize that Allen has to be front an center in your team building philosophy. This regime has failed in such basic almost shocking ways that I sincerely think improvement would be almost automatic, which I know you don't agree with but that's where I'm at.

First play for the Saints agaist the Pats was a big downfield completion to Olave for 53 yards. Nothing fancy, he just beat his man and got open downfield. They did that on their first play. Our offense doesn't even have the option of completing a pass like that. "Everybody eats" is a lie. It creates the illusion that we have an offense that can do anything against our opponent. But that isn't true. There are basic plays that just about every other offense has on the menu, and we don't have them. All the more shameful with maybe the best arm in NFL history leading the offense.

Nope. Try again.

This is the second time you've brought up something that didn't happen.

He doesn't. He had one allegation when he was 18 years old and no charges were ever filed. Besides that he's known to be a great teammate, high energy, studious with a strong work ethic. You're seeing red because he suffered a non contact knee injury. Even if he hadn't it's week 6 of his NFL career. Let it play out.

Yeah 1st round picks should contribute early, except when they suffer non contact knee injuries in training camp. It royally sucks but it wasn't a failure of scouting. The value of the pick will be determined on the field.

This is just flat out wrong. It isn't for us to decide whether or not he is guilty. That's what the justice system is for. It isn't a perfect system but it is a system and that's a hell of a lot better than mob justice. Do I take allegations seriously? Absolutely. Do I automatically believe them wholesale? Absolutely not.

I actually think Strong would have been starting by now. They temporarily benched Tre in the Saints game and Strong looked good in the snaps he was taking. Unfortunately the neck injury screwed it all up. Nothing we can do now but hope that McDermott trusts Hairston ASAP. Can't say I'm overly optimistic that will happen based on history. I for one would much rather watch Hairston make rookie mistakes on the field than watch a player that cannot physically perform at the position. I'm not sure McDermott agrees. Fingers crossed that he sees the light and makes the necessary change.

Being investigated isn't a crime nor is it even evidence that one committed a crime. I thought as a society we had moved past that brief social endemic of guilty until proven innocent.

Bills 27 Falcons 23 I don't have a great feel for this one. Every year we enter an offensive slump that lasts at least 2 games and it feels like we're in the middle of that now. I think we can run on Atlanta though. They have a small DL. I'm not convinced this is the game our downfield passing offense is suddenly going to take off so we'll have to slowly and efficiently work our way down the field. Hopefully Penix throws at least one dumb INT to set us up with good field position. Penix has been awful throwing 10+ yards down the field this year. I don't trust our defense at all but McDermott's scheme has always worked better against one dimensional offenses. So I expect us to sell out to stop Bijan and that will probably be effective enough to keep them from out scoring us.

It's one thing that annoys me about Brady, he calls that exact play on critical downs way too frequently. It is just so predictable at this point and a simple zone defense beats it every time. Same thing happened on 4th down in the regular season KC game last year, Allen just put on the Superman cape. This time the Pats did a better job of contain so he couldn't run for it. The concept was DOA and his receivers didn't do a good job of uncovering in the scramble drill.

Hurts is the hardest QB in the league to evaluate. I was starting to buy in to the idea that he is a top 10 QB, but is it just as possible he's a bottom 10 QB? Whenever he's asked to just stand back and make normal reads it can look like a complete disaster. But also the two best games he's ever played both happened in the Super Bowl. He's a total enigma to me.

Yup: Although McConkey has had quite the sophomore slump. His YPG has almost been cut in half and his catch percentage has dropped 11.4%. I haven't paid enough attention to the Chargers to know exactly what's going on with him, but yeah his skill set fits in with the new archetype of high volume WRs. Coleman's skill set still has its place in an offense but it needs to be complemented by the opposite WR. The disappointing thing is that Coleman is the only major investment the Bills have made at the position since really the Diggs trade in 2020 which is just crazy. After they traded Diggs away they never even tried to add his skill set back into the offense. I guess Palmer was kind of an attempt?

That play was discussed at length in this thread: A couple posts to give you the alternative view to what you're saying: I'm not a fan of this concept on 3rd and 10. As I said in my post in that thread Brady needed to have the play design force Gonzalez to commit high or low. Shakir's mesh route doesn't get to his side until several seconds into the play so he's able to play the high and the low route simultaneously. Allen quickly moves on once he recognize's Gonzalez's leverage with the safety also sitting on it over the top. Sure Allen's best option with hindsight was to pick up the 4-5 yards and get to 4th down. Without hindsight though I always want Allen to try and create in those moments because we know he can. The two biggest failures on this play were Brady for the play design and the officials for failing to call an obvious DPI. Gonzalez full out slams into Shakir's back before the ball arrives. Crazy moment to keep the flags tucked away after all the other ticky tack penalties they were calling.

Week 9 would be even better but I get it if they don't want his first NFL action to be against KC. But man that group of WRs going against our slow CBs is the stuff of nightmares.

Don't read too much into the practice window not being opened yet. The most logical time was always going to be right after the bye week. I just posted this in the Hairston injury thread: That doesn't look like a player that "isn't going to be ready for weeks." Make it through Atlanta, activate his 21 day window after the bye week, and hopefully get him up to speed with the defense in time for the KC game. My concern with Hairston right now is less the injury and more the fact that he missed a lot of valuable development time and I don't know if McDermott is going to trust him enough to insert him into the defense. Hopefully White's play persuades him that a change simply has to be made ASAP.

I'm no expert on this stuff but to my amateur eyes it looks like he's moving quite well. Banged Up Bills' analysis:

Joe Marino brought up some good stats on today's Locked On Bills. The essence of it was that Penix is the worst QB in the NFL this year on throws 10+ yards downfield. Joe's point was that you have to make him prove he can beat you like that. This is not the week to play conservative and cede the run like we do so frequently. Stack the box, shut down Bijan as much as possible, and force them to beat you through the weakest aspect of their offense. If they can do that you tip your cap and move on. If they beat you with Bijan and quick short passes, your defensive gameplan was a failure.

I mean that's basically what Brady's offense asks him to do. They've tried to turn Allen into a game manager. Why couldn't he do that with a Shanahan disciple? The only difference is the reads would be more open more frequently because the play design would be better.

My concern with hiring a new to the job head coach is he has to learn on the fly all of the game management details that a lot of new head coaches fumble. So I would actually prefer a retread since the clock is ticking on Allen's career. If you want the new coach Klint Kubiak is my choice. Look at what he did with the Saints offense in that brief time before Carr suffered a career ending injury. Or what he's doing with Sam Darnold and the Seahawks this year. That's a rising star that could maybe be our Sean McVay. I'd accept early game management issues if the end result is an offense that can steamroll opponents, and you know he would steer the organization towards investing around Allen.

That was your takeaway from this article? That's not correct. The takeaway is that when defenses force us to throw the ball downfield we can't do it. Joe Buscalglia in his all-22 review each week grades all the players. This week he had Allen as his top graded player with a B+. PFF gave him a 77.5 grade which is kind of their version of a B+. That is not a "poor game." And I think that's a fair grade. Allen and Cook both played their B+ game and the offense looked totally dysfunctional at times. That's a big problem. Your best players can't be A+ every week. The rest of the team and the coaching staff need to be able to pick them up from time to time and they couldn't do it against an inferior opponent.