Logic

Yes. 16 games is better than 17 or 18. 6 playoff teams in each conference is better than 7. The "Super Wild Card Weekend" games are often one-sided blowouts, as you'd expect when the second and third best teams in the conference take on 9-8 squads that barely made it. The extra week per regular season (and eventually two of them) and the extra playoff team and playoff game are about one thing and one thing only: More inventory, which equals more money. These things were not added with the quality of the game or the experience of the fan in mind. They were added SOLELY to make the league more money, even if it means watering down the product itself. Mark Cuban was not wrong. The NFL is Icarus, and one day its wings will burn.

Poyer and Hyde, as a duo, represent this era of Bills football arguably more than anyone else. They were here from day one of the McDermott regime, and they've talked many times about setting the tone and helping to build the culture here. It's not just talk. By all accounts, these guys have been locker room leaders their entire time here, not to mention excellent players on the field and excellent citizens off of it. I'm sad that the Bills couldn't win a title with them, and it will be sad seeing the 2024 season kick off without one or both of them in the defensive backfield. That said, time (and salary cap limitations) wait for no man, and it's likely going to be the dawn of a new era next season. I second the notion that Hyde and Poyer belong on the list of all time great Buffalo Bills. I'll always fondly remember their contributions to this team and city. I hope to see them at Bills games in future years and to share a beer or three with them in Hammer's lot one of these days. Thank you, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer!

The way that the youth on this team stepped up this season gives me a lot more hope going forward on both sides of the ball. On offense: Cook, Kincaid, Shakir, Torrence, and Brown all stepped up. Our offensive line looks to be a strength going forward rather than a liability. I even like what's in the pipeline behind the starters, with Ryan Van Demark at tackle and Alec Anderson at center looking like good depth and potential down-the-line starters. Going from having question marks at RB, TE1, slot WR, RG, and RT, to having all of those positions solidified represents a huge step forward for this offense. Offensive needs going forward: Add a dynamic young WR (Beane and McDermott's presser sure makes it seem like this will be a priority) and an RB2 and I'll feel really good about the offense in the immediate and long term. On defense: Ed Oliver had a breakout season (Chiefs game notwithstanding). Greg Rousseau, while not an elite top 5 Edge, is certainly a plus starter and is still young and improving. Terrel Bernard went from a GIANT question mark to looking like a potential All-Pro level linebacker. Christian Benford turned into a plus starter at cornerback, and I have faith that the Bills will be re-signing Rasul Douglas to a long term deal to remain in Buffalo. Defensive needs going forward: With not many defensive linemen under contract for 2024, the Bills will have major work to do there. Safety will be the other position that may see huge turnover. It may be the end of an era in Buffalo, as both Hyde AND Poyer may be gone. It's possible the Bills envision Rapp as a long term replacement, but I'd bet there will be two new starters at the position next season. At linebacker, I expect Milano and Bernard to be a playmaking starting duo next year, though the team will likely look to improve the depth behind them. I believe the team is set at cornerback. They'll spend their usual late round pick on a corner or bring in a UDFA there, but they're pretty well set at that position. So... Find a playmaking WR (ideally with your round 1 draft pick) and an RB2 on offense. Re-sign DaQuan Jones and, if you can afford it, Leonard Floyd on the defensive line. Fill the rest of the spots with draft picks or bargain depth. Identify and sign or draft two safeties (I have faith in McDermott on this one. Hyde and Poyer were both afterthought players when they signed here). Big offseason ahead, but hitting on some draft picks the past couple seasons and having some youngsters step up sure gives the Bills a brighter outlook for 2024 and beyond.

Right. And going into matchups against Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson with either a Klein/Dodsen or Dodsen/one-legged Bernard duo at linebacker and expecting victory is just asking an awful lot. For that matter, going into matchups against the numbers 2 and 1 scoring defenses in the league with Trent Sherfield at WR2 and expecting victory is asking for an awful lot, too. As much as it hurt in the moment to lose that game on Sunday, if one stands aside and looks at the team and the season with a reasoned, unbiased eye, one sees a team that lacked the horses to compete in the "second season", and very nearly overcame those deficiencies to make the AFCCG anyway. Time to get to work, Beane.

Well said. This sums up the way the Bills season ended in very simple terms. This season, based on the defensive injuries sustained, the lack of WR depth, and the instability at offensive coordinator, the Bills had what it took to meet condition one (make the tournament). They did not have what it took to meet condition two (have the pieces in place to compete), and also did not particularly benefit from the final factor you mentioned: luck (see Diggs drop and Sherfield drops, which also play back into "not having the pieces in place to compete"). It's as simple as that. Seeing as though the Bills seem to have coach and QB in place that will allow them to continue to make the tournament on a regular basis, what we need now is for the GM to give them the pieces to compete once there (additional offensive weaponry, better depth), and for some luck to break our way for once. One of those things is within the Bills' control, and that's what this offseason will be about.

Well thank God Kiper changed his Bills pick to a WR, because I don't know if my heart could take the 37 page thread that would've ensued if he'd mocked us a nose tackle.

It's not likely to be much fun around here until about the week before free agency. Between now and then, though?

Thanks for the post. It makes sense, though, as you say, it's hard to know how much of that was Brady doing it because it's his preference, vs how much he was doing it because he recognized the Bills just didn't have the horses at WR. McDermott stated at his end-of-season presser today "we need to create more explosive plays. That will be a factor in our player acquisition going forward". Given that Cook was giving them explosive plays in the run game and they just spent a 1st on Kincaid and have big money locked up in Knox, I can't imagine that comment referring to anything other than adding to the wide receiver room.

The "progression" of a football team is not always linear. It's often more like a roller coaster, with peaks and valleys. Take the Ravens. They're this year's number one seed and may well make the Super Bowl. Lamar was drafted the same year as Josh Allen. In 2019, they went 14-2 and lost in the Divisional round. In 2020, they went 11-5 and lost in the Divisional round. In 2021, they went 8-9 and missed the playoffs. In 2022, they went 10-7 and lost in the Wild Card round. This year, they went 13-4 and are in the AFC Championship Game. How about Peyton Manning's Colts? Once they started making the playoffs, they lost in the: Divisional round Wild Card - missed playoffs - Wild Card AFCCG Divisional round Divisional ...before finally winning the Super Bowl. The progression of a football team is not always linear. I would say that's the exception rather than the rule, actually. If your thesis is "The Bills should move on from McDermott", then fine. I espoused that very idea midseason. I can't blame you for feeling that way. But if the thesis is "there should be a linear progression to a team's ascent to a championship", I disagree entirely. That rarely happens.

I'm fairly sure I wore the wrong t-shirt. Furthermore, my phone died mid-game and I had to go plug it into charge. From that moment on, it was all downhill for the Bills. I don't know why the placement of a cell phone in a slightly different physical space in Portland, OR affected the team so strongly, but who knows how this metaphysical correlation stuff works. It just does. I accept my part in the loss. I will learn from it and be better next year.

I started to type out a reply to this and then I just thought "Not today, Satan!" and deleted it. God bless.

Ah. So he helped MAKE the mess then 😆

Fair point, but I WILL say that the fact that the Chiefs have the best defense of the Mahomes era and essentially the same roster as last year's Lombardi winning squad (minus Smith-Schuster and plus Rashee Rice) makes them a bit different than the Bills. Their offense under-achieved this year and their receiving corps regressed, yes. But at the same time, their defense took a quantum leap forward. Unlike the Bills, they were NOT missing their best defensive player (and one of their top three players overall) all year. Losing Milano for the year would be the equivalent of the Chiefs losing Chris Jones for the year. The Chiefs were likely one Kadarius Toney Offside call from being the two seed again. All of that said, I do get your point. It was a down year for them by their standards, and here they are in the AFCCG yet again. I'm just saying I think they faced considerably less adversity (struggling passing game) than the Bills (defensive injuries, OC firing, Dunne article and its fallout).

God bless him. That's gonna be a very heavy lift. Tepper is the worst owner in the league and that team is in shambles in terms of roster construction and draft capital.

Good post. The answer is: not particularly, no. When our best defensive playmaker was lost for the year, I presumed it wouldn't be a championship season. It takes a lot to win a Lombardi. A LOT. When you lose a player the caliber of a Matt Milano -- when you lose arguably THE most important player on your defense -- for the year, it immediately puts a massive dent in your championship hopes. Just as I knew when Tre White went down with injury in 2021 and Von Miller went down with injury in 2022 that those were likely fatal blows to our defense, I knew that Milano's loss was likely a fatal blow this year. Now, obviously, that's too difficult and heartbreaking to admit that early in the season, so you tell yourself that they'll find a way, they'll overcome it, there will be reinforcements. Yes, every team suffers injuries, but no, they're not all created equal. Furthermore, the Bills have lacked a viable WR2 all season long, and they fired their offensive coordinator midseason. How many teams facing those circumstances -- particularly the midseason OC change -- go on to win a championship? Was it possible? Doable? Sure, probably. The ball bounces differently in the Chiefs game a time or two and maybe the Bills win, beat Baltimore, then beat SF/DET. But given the totality of all the factors mentioned -- injuries on defense, who those injuries were to, shallow WR group, midseason OC change -- it certainly wouldn't seem to any unbiased outside observer like a championship year for the Buffalo Bills. As painful as last night's loss was in the moment, when you stand back and look at the season as a whole, you see that the Bills were a flawed team both in terms of coaching and roster construction, and it would be hard to argue with a straight face that they were or are the best team in the NFL in 2023. Given the flaws mentioned, they likely OVER-achieved by securing the two-seed, and finishing as the fifth or sixth best team in the league seems about right.

Agreed. It was a verrrry questionable call in that situation, and I'll echo others in saying it makes more sense to just leave the offense on the field if you're not gonna punt. That said...it ultimately didn't cost the Bills any points, and they got the ball back with the chance for a game-winning or game-tying drive. That call is not the reason the Bills lost the game.

I have always been one of Gabe Davis's biggest defenders. I thought he was going to have a breakout season in 2022. When he didn't, and then I learned that he struggled with an injury all year, I thought "oh, okay, well that makes sense. 2023, then. Dude is going to have a breakout year in 2023!". Then...he didn't. Gabe Davis is an excellent WR4 -- that is, a guy that backs up all three starting WR positions and can come in situationally here and there for a shot play or designed, schemed up look -- that got his shot to be a WR2 and failed at it. If Davis was willing to re-sign at a WR4 rate and have his playing time and involvement limited as such, then great. Good guy to have on the roster. But that's not going to happen. Let some other team pay him like a WR2. Go draft a couple youngsters -- ideally, one in the 1st round and another later on -- and call it a day.

Who's Nick Wright?

The Bills aren't firing McDermott. I don't know what else to say. Any discussion of what coaches would or wouldn't consider Buffalo is moot this offseason, because McDermott isn't going anywhere.

Not only that, but I would further argue that the ONE major strength the Bills defense had exhibited since the bye week was well disguised pre-snap looks. It also happens to be the ONE thing they could've done that would have been most likely to limit Mahomes more than they were able to last night. The problem is that having your defensive play caller out with injury and replacing him with a street free agent who wasn't with the team two weeks ago greatly limits the complexity of the defenses you can call. It GREATLY reduces your bag of tricks. Romo even mentioned this during the broadcast. It's not just that the Bills had injuries on defense -- all teams have them at this time of year. It's that the specific injuries the Bills had (Bernard and Rapp, in particular), opened things up for a historically great middle-of-the-field offense in general, opened things up for Kelce and Pacheco in particular, and limited the Bills' ability to play mind games with Mahomes, forcing them to line up in fairly vanilla looks. Missing injured players is not an excuse, in and of itself. Missing the specific players the Bills were missing, though, certainly helps explain the Bills' defensive futility last night.

I'll just repeat what I said above. If the question is "Do you want the Bills to fire McDermott?", then okay. Vent. Get it all out. If the question is "ARE the Bills going to fire McDermott?", the answer is "No". It just is. Do you think differently? Do you foresee the Bills firing Sean McDermott this offseason?

What do we have, 9 picks? WR S S WR WR WR WR WR WR Then go into undrafted free agency and, yep, you guessed it, scoop up some WRs. I'm joking, obviously. Kind of. But in all seriousness, can they please, for the love of God, load up on offense this offseason?!

I advocated for it mid-season. After the way the season ended, there is zero chance it happens. Zero. So if the question is "do you wish the Bills would fire McDermott?", then okay, fine. But if the question is "ARE the Bills firing McDermott?", the obvious and unequivocal answer is "No. Not happening".

All I'm going to say is that your opinion is based on not one, but TWO assumptions. Assumption one: Had the Bills passed up the open touchdown and taken the drag route instead, they would still ultimately have been able to score a touchdown. Assumption two: Taking a four point lead would been useless, because the Chiefs would've scored a touchdown to re-take the lead anyway. Passing up an open touchdown based on assumptions seems foolhardy to me, but we can agree to disagree.

Just got an e-mail yesterday from Alaska stating that my flight for Wednesday was cancelled because all Boeing 737 Max aircrafts have been grounded. They auto-rescheduled me to a flight for the following day. I obviously didn't want to lose a day of my trip, so I had to call and sit on hold for an hour to talk to customer service to get it changed to a different flight on my original departure date. Gotta tell ya...as someone who has never had any fear about flying whatsoever... I'm not loving the idea of getting on an airplane right now.