Logic

I'm just curious what you mean by this line. What baggage? I think we both know that that is an impossible task.

I kind of feel bad for Jordan Poyer. He DESERVES a big payday, but his long overdue All-Pro recognition came at age 30, and he's now 31. Just a bit too late for him to be able to properly cash in on it on the free agent market. Plus he has to listen to Rachel Bush talk on a daily basis.

I just hope Aaron can find a trustworthy Ayahausca dealer in New Jersey.

Being one of the only perennial playoff teams to feature a defensive minded head coach is only tenable if your defense consistently produces in big playoff moments, and ours very clearly has not done so. Something's got to change, and they're clearly sticking with McDermott (as they should, at this point). Hopefully letting Tremaine walk and having our first signing be a guard is a sign that the front office realizes this.

This will be one of my favorite all time football highlights until the day I die. Just....perfection.

I'm curious to see if anyone here can correctly predict the position that the next announced Bills signing plays. Doesn't need to be the correct player, just the correct position. What ya got?

I predict Brett Favre on the Vikings part two. One really great, possibly even career year on his new team, followed by a sharp decline and a decision to retire. Bills fans can only hope that the bright lights of the New York are not a good match with Rodgers, who seems to have paper thin skin and a giant ego.

We're basing our opinions of players on their PFF grades now?

Edmunds was never as good as his biggest fans claimed nor as bad as his biggest detractors claimed. A plus defender against the pass, and an average to below average defender against the run. A very unique player. Not many like him in the NFL. He's somewhat of a linebacker/safety hybrid, to be honest. At any rate....the Bills defense will look quite different next season. The best part is that we won't have to hear the endless Edmunds debate any more.

Very likely immediately slots in as the starting RG. Assuming Bates sticks around -- I don't think they're ready to give up on him, though he'll have competition -- having two starting guards with the ability to fill in at center is a nice luxury. With an incredibly athletic offensive line (Dawkins has the lowest RAS at 8.8) and two fast running backs, I sure hope the Bills lean into the pin-pull stuff and attack the edges more than we saw in 2022.

You've said this a few times now. Your stance on this matter is clear.

He has really ALWAYS looked like a guard to me. Just because a natural guard CAN play left tackle capably doesn't mean that he's not still a natural guard. Like Cordy Glenn before him, he is a natural guard that has the foot quickness and other necessary traits to be a good (not great) tackle. While it's doubtful that the Bills could get a tackle prospect as late as they pick in round 1 that would be better than Dion at LT, if they COULD....this is a move that should be considered.

I would think scoring 10 points in their playoff loss would be fueling the Bills' offseason focus more so than a hypothetical roster acquisition by a divisional opponent who has won the East twice in 50 years.

Well, when you spend a 2nd round on a running back and he averages 5.7 yards per carry as a rookie, then you get dominated in the playoffs due to lackluster line play and non-existent WR production...you've just GOT to draft a 1st round RB the next year, right? Got to! All kidding and snarkiness aside, Robinson is an elite prospect and I'd love to have him, but I doubt he'll be on the board when the Bills pick anyway, and trading up for a running back is NOT an option.

Ah, got it. You must've just quoted the wrong post in your reply, then.

I would hardly call a freak ACL tear on a Lions turf that causes a lot of them proof that you were "right" about Miller, particularly given that at the time of his injury, he had accrued 8 sacks through 10 games.

The Ravens didn't beat the Bills last year.

Snuck into the Springsteen and the E Street Band show the other night. Saw an unguarded "club level seating" door, slipped in. Then, waited 'til the ticket taker was busy intently helping another guy get his mobile ticket to show on his phone, and just slipped into the line and walked in. Was surprisingly easy. Once inside, found my way to a seat about 10 rows from the stage, behind it and to the side. Great view of all the action. My first time seeing Bruce. He was incredible, as was his band. 3 hours, 26 songs, no breaks. Played everything you'd want him to. I was positioned so that I had a particularly great view of Max Weinberg, who I watched for much of the show. I basically had an out-of-body experience during "I'm on Fire". That song means a lot to me, and he hadn't played it all tour. That was the first one of the tour, and I didn't expect it. When he sang "sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull, and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my skull"....the goosebumps on my arms, man, oh man...that's what seeing live music is all about. Right before the encore portion, I slipped down onto the floor level, about 20 rows from the stage, by simply looking at my phone and acting busy as I walked past security. Was down there for Thunder Road and Born to Run and Glory Days. Amazing show, amazing band, amazingly poor job by security 😄

All jokes aside, if it was me, I'd schedule a little checkup with the doc just to make sure there were no cognitive issues or anything to be concerned about. It was probably nothing, as you say. Just stress or exhaustion or paint fumes. The problem is, what if it was more than that? And what if you HADN'T functioned normally and safely during the time that you were "blacked out"? That's where the danger to yourself and others potentially comes in. Probably nothing, but I'd see a doc and get that peace of mind, personally.

That example is not so relevant. The game has changed.

How many Super Bowls did Philip Rivers win? Dan Marino? Dan Fouts? How many seasons did Peyton Manning play before he reached his first Super Bowl? How many seasons did the great Drew Brees play before reaching a Super Bowl, and how many did he win in his 15 year career? If you'd rather stay more recent, why hasn't Justin Herbert sniffed an AFC Championship game yet? Deshaun Watson was a top QB prior to his scandals. Where are his Super Bowl appearances? Just having a great QB, in and of itself, is not an automatic entry ticket to a Super Bowl.

I was with you on this whole post up until the final statement. Saying he's "undeniably" behind the curve....I just can't agree with that. You list four coaches that went to Super Bowls, but you don't mention the dozens from the past five years who didn't, and who had much worse results than McDermott.

Fair. The important thing to remember is that "better results" are never guaranteed by any change undertaken. The Eagles fired Andy Reid after 13 years without a championship. He has brought his team to three Super Bowls and won two in the 10 years since. On the other hand, the Eagles themselves have made it to two Super Bowls and won one without him -- though they're on their third head coach since Reid left. If the bar for "fire-worthy offense" is set at "win a championship", then even if that goal is not met for, say, five to seven consecutive years, then most NFL head coaches ought to have been fired by now. Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, et al.

And you did that effectively with your initial post, in my opinion. I apologize for not replying to it more directly or thanking you for it. It was a quality post. I more so was just feeling the need to vomit up my own thoughts on the matter. In particular, I feel that going into each season from here on out thinking "Super Bowl or bust" -- and declaring McDermott a failure any year that he fails to win a championship -- is an unhealthy and unreasonable way of thinking. We should HOPE for a championship, of course, and we should expect to compete for one every year. The window is wide open, primarily because of Josh Allen. But there's a big gap between "I know we're contenders every year, and I expect the team to reach the Super Bowl" and "If the Bills don't win a title, McDermott has failed and/or should be fired". I know it's a cliche that makes people roll their eyes, but...it's HARD to win in this league. It's REALLY hard to win it all!

The problem seems simple to me: After so many years in the NFL wilderness, the Bills finally got good. They finally got a franchise QB and a good defense and a good front office and coaching staff. They ascended from Wild Card loss, to AFC Championship loss, to narrow, improbable Divisional round loss, and then on to 2022, where the entire NFL world and Vegas anointed them Super Bowl favorites. All we heard for months was how they had the best roster in the NFL, how they were shoe-ins for the Super Bowl, the best team in the AFC, etc, etc. Last we saw Josh Allen, he was throwing non-stop fireballs, and the Bills looked unstoppable. All of this created the expectation in Bills fans that it was "Super Bowl trophy or Bust!" from here on out. Well, funny thing about that...it's only "Super Bowl trophy" for one team every year, and it's "bust" for the other 31 teams. Unfortunately, the path to a championship is rarely a linear one. That is, there are usually ups and downs. Leaps forward and steps back. Unexpected setbacks. Random, unpredictable factors of chaos that make a mockery of the best laid plans. Things like, oh, I dunno, the star quarterback throwing on an injured elbow all year and a player's heart stopping in the middle of the field in front of all his teammates. I'm not here to make excuses, only to point out that many Bills fans seem convinced that ANYTHING less than a Super Bowl championship must mean that coach McDermott is a failure. That's ridiculous. Patently absurd. He's a top 10 coach in the NFL by any measure, and probably more like top 5. If the Bills fired him, he'd have another head coaching job instantly. Does he need to be better in big postseason games against elite opponents? Yes. Would I love to see some fresh blood brought in on both sides of the ball in terms of assistants and coordinators? Sure. But despite all of that, is McDermott a very, very good NFL coach? Of course he is.