schoolhouserock

Campbell really is a stud. It is not an overstatement to say that he could replace Tremaine.

That Iowa defense was fantastic this past season. Almost made it to the B1G championship game with a historically bad offense. And by historically bad, I mean that offensive unit was one of the worst offenses in over 100 years of B1G football. At one point in the season, I believe Iowa had the #1 scoring defense combined with the last place scoring offense. If not, it was very close to being the case. Unreal. Van Ness was definitely a solid contributor to that defense. It was a surprise to most Hawkeye fans that he went ahead and declared for the NFL draft. He just finished his redshirt sophomore season so most folks figured they’d have him around for at least one more season. Seeing him projected to the first round, however, makes it a little less surprising. Even as a Hawkeye fan, I am not sure I understand how pundits are so high on Van Ness. For my eyes, I saw AJE as a more dominant defensive lineman during his Iowa days. Perhaps Van Ness projects better to the NFL? I don’t know.

“Painted themselves into a corner” LOL… good way to describe the first round of the ‘22 Draft.

So for offensive linemen picked in the first five rounds, 3/4 have started a meaningful number of games. Keep taking shots.

Have to hang onto Morse. Don’t create any new holes. He’s the perfect guy to have in the O-line room when the Bills (hopefully) invest multiple draft picks into the O-line.

Ha! And we can certainly speculate something that isn’t the worst case scenario.

First, I 100% agree. However, my mind goes back to things we heard frequently when players like P Manning and A Rodgers were in their prime. We always heard about how they “wanted” to add the running game as a larger component to their offense. I’m not sure that ever materialized for any of them - at least not in the way that fans interpreted those statements. We have heard McD comment on having the “threat” of a running game. There were a few games this season where we saw this. The Bills will still drop back and throw as many times as anyone else in the league. When they run - however seldom - they hit it for 7, 8, 10+ yards. The Bills actually had decent rushing performances this season (thank you Josh Allen). I guess what I am trying to say is that, while I would love a dedicated rushing attack, I am not going to hold my breath. I think the shortest path is to improve the Bills’ interior O-line. At the end of the season, teams were able to take away a massive chunk of the Bills’ run game by simply speed rushing the edges and then shedding interior blocks as Allen tried to escape. Lots and lots of yards and first downs were left on the field - especially during the Bengals game. There were several times when the Bengals LBs and DBs immediately dropped, Allen started to run (good decision), but the DT was easily able to shed his block and get contact on Josh (bad execution). Those runs would have been back breakers for the Bengals’ approach.

Lots of speculation in this thread about some sort of a “blame game” going on behind the scenes between the various coaches. The truth is that we don’t really know the interpersonal dynamics among the various coaches. We could speculate about other ways this shook out… For example, maybe Jim Salgado wanted to do something other than coach safeties? Or perhaps the Bills determined that a major shift in approach to their defensive backfield was warranted and they felt coach Salgado wasn’t the right person to aid that transition? Everything doesn’t always have to be the worst case scenario!

My expectation is that the Bills will be slightly worse next season than they were this season. Both the fish and the Jests are already competitive. Both teams might become ultra competitive with the addition of a good QB (Brady / Rodgers). At the end of the 2021-2022 season, it was clear that the Bills were the favorites to win the East in 2022. At the end of the 2022-2023 season, I think the Bills are still the favorites, but that the rest of the off-season is going to muddy that picture. The Bills are likely to go into the 2023-2024 season as a very questionable favorite.

I am about 60/40… 60% thinking an improved O-line will make the current set of receivers much more palatable… 40% thinking the Bills should always prioritize a WR over an interior O-lineman.

Yep!

The folks asking questions kept referring to Cincinnati’s WRs, which I thought was the wrong approach. It was the questioning that elicited such responses from Beane. Given the line of questioning, I think folks are making a mountain out of this molehill. More focus should have been placed on the performance of Cincinnati’s offensive line. That, to me, gets to the heart of what is wrong. All of McBeane have ALWAYS stated that they build from the lines out. For the backup O-line of Cincinnati to perform so well is a devastating indictment of the Bills’ approach both offensively and defensively. The questions should have centered around how do the Bills implement a system where any version of their O-line can perform like Cincinnati’s did in that game. Beane could not assign “lean years” as a reason in his answer. Cincinnati’s O-line was a mess last off-season. They have improved greatly in that area. They invested in their O-line, yes. However, their play after so many injuries suggests that there is something more to that unit’s turnaround. I don’t know what it is, but I hope the Bills can get it.

Thanks for sharing. Always fun to read. I have a suspicion that Allen is not necessarily “healthy”. The little nicks are already starting to add up, IMO. I wonder how healthy his throwing elbow is and whether it is the type of thing that will ever truly be “right” again. I think he will be a great QB for the Bills for years to come, but that his dynamism will begin to diminish. I hope he can compensate with better mental play. A much improved O-line with additional receiving weapons would be a major game changer in this regard. They are both absolutely worth investing in given that Allen could make the most of the investment. Second - something that has been sitting in the back of my mind all season - didn’t Saffold get into a bad car wreck during the preseason? He was awful this year and I wonder whether: 1) he never quite recovered from that incident or 2) he is just washed or 3) both.

Couldn’t agree more. It was a terrible, terrible time out. Burrow had been nicked and that time out gave him enough time to regroup.

The Bills - regardless of what decisions are made - are likely to have more hiccups next season. This needed to be THE year. Future years are going to require more luck.

Elam should have gotten more play this season. Full stop. That’s not on Beane. It all works together.

I wonder what Morse is thinking. have to consider the potential for him to call it a career. That would be a huge hit to an already weak O-line.

It does seem like similar results could be had with fewer resources. The need to redirect investment into the O-line is DIRE.

Agree. Bills will be competitive for a number of years. Seems like the only way they’ll win the big one is if they happen to get lucky.

This staff has lost a huge percentage of fans for the next few hours… maybe a few days.

Really hard to envision the Bills pulling together a better all-around roster than these past two seasons. They will be competitive for a long time and luck might just shine on them some day. The window for being heavy favorites, however, just closed.

It almost feels like the Bills are playing in flats while the Bengals have cleats. Like Bengals have traction and Bills don’t.

The Bills aren’t good enough. The mantra has always been to build from the lines out yet the lines have been a complete let down. COMPLETE let down.

Need a much better second half. Bills lines are losing big time. Two mistakes by coverage = 2 TDs. Need the Bills’ linemen find another gear in the second half.

Wasn’t that Offside on the hard count? That’s why Morse snapped it early. Also think the refs missed an intentional grounding on the previous drive. Also a major hold against Basham on the drive before that.