HappyDays

I don't think Brady is the problem but he's not the solution either. His simple system would work better if we had legit WR talent on the roster. He doesn't support the talent and the talent doesn't support him. You need either the play caller or the talent to be top tier to have a Super Bowl caliber offense, and currently we have neither. One thing I would tell him is please for the love of God stop calling mesh on every 3rd and 4th down. I get it, it's our most consistent play given the lack of real WR talent, but it is way way too predictable and easy to defend at this point. Atlanta beat it a couple times just sending extra rushers and playing basic zone, which is an automatic win against that route combination.

Yeah and I have questioned that on both sides of the ball. It never feels like we are attacking a weakness or game planning to take away a strength. We're too stubborn about playing "our offense" and "our defense." Even back when the defense was good in the regular season, that was our problem in the playoffs. McDermott has established a culture here but I've never been convinced he knows how to game plan.

I actually see the new stadium as a possible catalyst for him making the move. It's the last year of Highmark and as of now it's likely that no playoff games will be played there. The fanbase is going to be restless. Having a new regime around Allen is an easy marketing tool when you're trying to sell tickets at the new stadium.

I also have questions on our game planning. Last week we left Diggs 1v1 and he punished us repeatedly. This week the only WR they had was Drake London and we let him just keep finding soft spots in zone or ending up 1v1. How does a professional coaching staff let that happen? Why aren't we game planning to take away what the opposing offense does well? If Kyle Pitts and Casey Washington beat you, okay you can live with that. But how can Diggs and then London have career days when you know they are the only guys that can beat you?

I wanted to trade for Jeudy back when the Browns did, so yeah I would still take him. I'm not convinced he is enough though. He's more a very good #2 and what we need is a legit #1 IMO. It sucks but DK Metcalf was the easy answer to this question. He is the prototypical WR this offense needs. A legit #1 that can separate outside and downfield. We took his draft pick and money and spent it on TJ Sanders, Rousseau, and Bernard. Does anyone still think that was the right use of resources? One star > two good players. Olave is the only realistic option that gives our offense what it needs. I'm not going to pretend he's better than he is. He has a smaller frame, injury concerns, and not great hands. He is a lower end #1 but he IS a #1 and that's good enough for me. Allen just needs someone he can trust on critical downs to get open outside, and defenses won't be able to sell out as much if they have to worry about that threat.

On one hand I understood those fans. They were correct that the defense was the biggest problem last year. Their mistake was assuming that just throwing a bunch of resources at that side of the ball would fix it, and that the offense would pick up right where it left off. As I expected none of the investments have made any sort of difference on defense, and a historically mistake-free offense is reverting to the mean.

My take in the offseason was that if you're going to run an offense without a true #1, then your #4 and #5 WRs become that much more important. You can't have no #1 and also have your depth WRs be completely useless. Moore and Shavers are not rosterable NFL players and we were forced to try and rely on them in the 2nd half last night. It's inexcusable roster mismanagement.

I'm going through it now and there are definitely times where the pressure got to him, but this play wasn't one of them. That wasn't a high risk throw. It's probably an automatic read, Moore in 1v1 coverage against a CB who is playing with vertical leverage. That should be an an easy as can be comeback completion.

My god Elijah Moore is terrible. His CB is playing with vertical leverage and he has all sorts of space to come back to. This is why he hasn't stuck anywhere after being drafted at the top of the 2nd. He can run routes pretty well but he is hopeless at reading defenses and making himself available for his QB.

They're totally different players IMO. Beasley was a route runner/separator. Shakir is a YAC specialist that you scheme touches for.

Here we go again. I remember people saying the same thing last year after the Baltimore and Houston losses. Then we added a downfield boundary WR and lo and behold the "regression" was stopped in its tracks. And Cooper was no elite threat for us by any means, but just having that baseline option available made a massive difference. I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face - the worst sin this regime has committed is convincing a portion of the fanbase that Allen is anything less than elite. They are ruining his legacy as evidenced by posts like this. Tom Brady had a disappointing final year in New England and people thought his career was over. Instead he went to the team with the best set of offensive weapons in the league and promptly won another Super Bowl. Every QB that has ever played in the NFL has needed help to perform at their best.

Yeah I'm just talking about recent years. Since 2021 Beane has spent exactly ONE top 140 pick on a WR. One in five drafts. That's an almost incomprehensible failure for any team, let alone one built around its rocket arm QB.

Rice was a 2nd rounder. They also used a 2nd rounder on Skyy Moore (awful pick, but I'm just talking about the investment strategy). That is 3 top 64 picks on a WR over the same period that we have used 1. This year they spent a 4th on one while we used a 7th. They have absolutely prioritized the position more than we have.

I don't mean this as a criticism but Shakir is a limited player. He does his one trick extremely well and for that alone I think he is worth his contract, but he is not someone you want to rely on down in and down out. His failure to make what has become a pretty routine sideline catch in the modern NFL is a good example of what I mean. And just to be clear I don't blame him for not making that play. It's not his fault he's been elevated into the role of full time slot WR when his proper role is YAC specialist that you manufacture a few touches for.

I don't think Palmer was a bad signing. $10M is the going rate for #3 caliber WRs. That is what Tutu Atwell and Dyami Brown are getting paid and Palmer is better than both of them. The problem is that that was Beane's signature move at WR this year. Last year it was Curtis Samuel. Those should be moves to round out the offense, not your big ticket items. We let Diggs go and I agreed 100% with that decision, but Beane made no attempt to find anybody even close to his level. They chose "everybody eats" over "feed a couple stars" and it has proven undeniably the wrong approach to building around your franchise QB. Mahomes had crap around him for a season or two, and KC has made every effort to fix the problem. Meanwhile Beane has taken to yelling at local radio hosts because he knows better than everyone. Palmer + Rousseau + Bernard could have given us DK Metcalf. I was adamant in the offseason that adding a star WR needed to be the singular priority because it was our only possible path to a Super Bowl and unfortunately my worst fears about their approach have come true.

I think they need to remove the ping pong tables from the locker room

Atlanta's offense has been the worst in the league passing the ball 10+ yards downfield this year. I knew Bijan was going to make some plays and you can live with that. It's just appalling that they had exactly one WR to worry about and they just let him find soft spots in zone or end up in 1v1 coverage all night long. It could have been a lot worse too. We got lucky London stepped out of bounds at the end of the 1st half and Penix missed a few throws where he was wide open. I just don't understand how you let the only pass catcher worth mentioning do that to you. Just like Diggs last week. Forget genius defensive coaching, we are failing at the basics.

He put out top 5 and 10 defenses (in the regular season anyways) when Leslie Frazier was his DC. His own turn at DC was a disaster and Babich's turn has been even worse. I've begun to suspect all the talk about McDermott being a DB guru was Frazier's handiwork as well. Since he left just about nothing has gone right on that side of the ball.

There's been regression from just about everybody on defense this year. Benford, Bernard, Rousseau, Rapp, Taron. All of them are playing worse than last year. Even White is worse than he was last year and that's really saying something. You're just not going to convince anybody on here that McDermott is some guru who gets the very best out of his players. Frankly I think the opposite has been true, the players on defense are not being put in position to succeed within their own skill sets. There is just no excuse for giving up over 300 yards in the 1st half alone. Only one Falcons WR caught a pass tonight. You'll never guess who? Letting their one guy beat you repeatedly is an abysmal failure of game planning and coaching. By the way I agree that Beane failed in his attempts to add talent to that side of the ball, but he got the archetypes that McDermott asked for so McDermott is responsible for using them. It was entirely predictable that all the investments in the world would make no difference to the defense's performance because the coaching on that side of the ball has grown stale and easy to expose.

Not sure Benford is where you want to hang McDermott's hat right now

That isn't true anymore. The league has swung right back to the downfield passing game winning you games. Cover 2 shell had its moment but offenses have figured out how to punch back. Look at what the Bucs are doing. Or Seattle. Or KC as their offense looks better and better each week. Look at how the Pats have played on offense to establish their lead in the division. You HAVE to be able to throw the ball downfield or you don't have an offense. Defenses are not gonna let us run and Shakir quick screen them to death all game long. We have to prove we can beat them over the top or the season is over.

On our final few drives, we were trying to feed the ball to Elijah Moore and Tyrell Shavers. Imagine trying to win a Super Bowl and that's the best you give your QB to work with. Unreal.

My biggest concern is that Beane has the luxury of feeling this way because Pegula is putting no pressure on them. If we had strong ownership McDermott and Beane would be sweating bullets right now and making whatever moves they could to save the season. But I've never gotten the sense that they feel any kind of pressure.

Here's a thought - in the last year of Highmark Stadium there might be zero playoff games played there. That affects season ticket sales for next year. Is that enough of a reason for Pegula to make big changes?