transplantbillsfan

Okay... this is the only position group I really care about this offseason because it's the one I feel this team screwed up massively this year, and it cost us. Ironically, I think the screwup was GM and coaching staff not being on the same page. Beane basically upgraded our WR in its entirety in the offseason and he said at some point (and I'm paraphrasing) that since we brought Duke Williams in, we didn't really need to go out and get a big WR for Allen. Except Duke rarely saw the field. And I think based on the last 2 games Buffalo played, the coaching staff realized their stupidity too late. I honestly think Duke still stands a good chance of being a good NFL WR. Seems hungry and I think he's going to work as hard as any other NFL player will work this offseason. I bet he also goes to California to work with Allen, Knox & Co when they do that. However, with the NFL being the way it is with 1st round picks getting all the 2nd chances and UDFAs getting cut quickly, I could also see him getting cut. Based off scouting reports alone, I like what Shenault brings to the table. Sounds like exactly the type of WR that Allen needs and also sounds pretty similar to Duke.

Wow. That's really crazy. Holy friggin crap! And I just went back to look at how often we handed in to Singletary or Gore on our way up to that 16-0 lead... and it totally dwarfs the amount of times we gave it to them after we got that lead! Tells me our coaches panicked and Allen just resembled that panic with his 4th Quarter and OT play. In this particular game, being conservative wasn't their overall downfall as far as the offense goes. The moment was just too big for them and they panicked and got stupid, just like Allen.

Fantastic letter by Dawkins. Someone should bookmark it and save it... if we wind up somehow becoming the next AFC powerhouse and win a Super Bowl or 2 in the next handful of years, someone should tell Dawkins he can buy a crystal ball and become a soothsayer once he retires from Football.

Don't know what the word is, but as much as I've been a vocal critic of Daboll, I want him to stay. I think his system is great. I just think he's an average to below average play caller. But coaches and Coordinators can get better with experience, much like players can. Plus, ALL of the players seem to absolutely love the Dude after watching exit interviews. And most importantly, I think it will be sooOOooo huge for Josh to have that continuity with his OC playing in the same system. Now if Daboll improved and maybe even goes back to the no-huddle system we were running 2nd half of the season--but bizarrely abandoned in the Texans game--well I think our QB and offense just might have a helluva year next year... though I'm not predicting anything @Foxx

Still upset about last week's loss and hard to look towards the offseason already. #1 priority for us this offseason I believe is actually for our coaches to do some soul-searching. Daboll particularly needs to think about this offense. I actually think your offseason looks great, though. WR and fixing our OL are, to me, our 2 biggest priorities. I think Foster and McKenzie will be back, but I definitely hope we don't see Foster on our active roster next year and I kind of feel the same way about McKenzie, though I think he brings a lot more value to the team. I was listening to Colin Cowturd this morning, and while I generally think he's an idiot, he made a really good point this morning talking about good young WRs. Right now there are good young WRs in the playoffs who had successful rookie seasons (Metcalf, Samuel, Hollywood Brown, Hardman) and all of them were successful partly because they had QBs who could extend plays with their legs, thus making it so they aren't so rigidly set with route running of "be here at this time!" The argument by Colin was that this was why N'Keal Harry with Brady didn't have a successful rookie season and why it's time for Brady to retire. We have too many smurfs on the field at WR. Duke, in his brief time on the field, demonstrated what Allen and the offense really lacked this year. I think Williams will compete and has a good chance to be the 4th or 5th WR next year with some offseason work... and he could be a dark horse for making some noise next season... but just looking at the scouting report of the guy you chose in the 1st round, he looks like EXACTLY the type of WR this offense and Allen desperately needs. I'm a little concerned that his first negatives in his scouting report say "durability" and "gets banged up," though. Now, the thing will be Daboll finding a way to have that big WR (whoever it is) on the field at the same time as Brown and Beasley. Like the offseason, though

Can't have your cake and eat it too. Josh makes so many miraculous escapes that, by that definition, should have been blown dead as sacks and we would of course be upset about it. The truly and absolutely most ridiculous call by the refs that I still haven't gotten over is that crackback personal foul called on Ford. Absolute lunacy.

Oh come on. Considerably less experienced? That's a stretch. There's youth at some critical positions, but I don't think you can say this team is considerably less experienced. Same average age pretty much for this team as 2017. Milano was a rookie in 2017. So was White. So was Zay Jones. So was Dion Dawkins. The Bills brought in Frank Gore, John Brown, Cole Beasley and Mitch Morse, all of whom had playoff experience. Plus, all the vets on our team who were here 2 years ago (Poyer, Hyde, Hughes, LoRax, Milano, Dawkins) also already have experience in a playoff game. You're obviously referring to Allen and Edmunds. And again, I think McDermott could have done something to mitigate their inexperience. To say that the Bills lost mostly because of lack of talent in a road game they essentially dominated for the entire first half just seems silly. So, they're talented enough for first halves in the playoffs, but not second halves?

McDermott trending conservative is one issue I have with him. Really bad in-game situational decision making is another issue I have with him. Again, I like McDermott. He broke the playoff drought and can consistently get us into the playoffs, in my opinion. However, the way he is as a coach at this moment, I don't believe he's the "Championship Caliber" coach he pushes his team to be. Then again, maybe next year we'll start the year with the "Championship Caliber" placard rather than switching to it mid-season from "Playoff Caliber." I think that was a bit of a symbolic faux pas on his part.

How do you think the talent on our team this year compares with the talent on this team 2 seasons ago when won 9 games and made the playoffs for the first time in 17 seasons? Do you believe the Bills are as talented this year as they were in the 2017 season? More talented? Significantly more talented?

It's more that it seems that your belief is that McDermott has most of the responsibility for all our wins, but not in our losses, and I find that an odd way of thinking. If I'm mistaken, that's not what you believe and you actually find McDermott largely culpable for our losses just like you largely give him credit for our wins, could you explain what your belief is with respect to that?

Oh come on man! No one is saying Allen played great! Saying McDermott coached better than Allen Quarterbacked is like giving a Calculus final exam to 2 kids--one who was in your class the entire year and one who just transferred in 4th Quarter from being Home schooled where he wasn't taught Calculus--and thinking the former is smarter than the latter because he got a higher score on the test. And we didn't go for it because?

First of all, I think I've said time and time again that I don't think McDermott is a bad coach. I think he's a very good regular season coach and I think the Bills will consistently be in the playoffs for years to come while he's our coach. I've been saying that. For that reason, I 100% agree he'd be snatched up right away if he were fired. What I really question is him as a coach who can lead us to the Lombardi. You hear it all the time from players and coaches that the playoffs are a different season. The stakes are obviously ratcheted up in that one n done situation. 4th down is somehow the proof for everyone who believes McDermott is aggressive. The team has a relatively new analytics department. Analytics today stresses going for it on 4th down in so many situations. Allen is a 240 pound QB. It's not aggressive to go for it on 4th and short with a QB like that by running it up the gut with a QB sneak. It's just logical. If McDermott is so aggressive, why did McDermott choose to--because while we can debate who was responsible for plays like the handoff to Gore in that final 1st half drive, McDermott OBVIOUSLY made this one--punt the ball at the Texans 40 on 4th and 4? Why didn't we go for it or even try a 57 yard FG, which Hauschka has made many times in his career? We were only up by 13. Guessing something about trusting his defense, right? Okay, then why is it that McDermott didn't trust his defense with just under 2 minutes in the game (now down by 3, thanks to a number of factors including Allen's mistakes AND McDermott's coaching) and 3 timeouts? No, instead he decides to go for it on 4th and ***** 27!!!! Later he would say he made that decision because he wanted to be aggressive. Prevent Defense against an Elite NFL QB is conservative, is it not? McDermott might want to be part of the new aggressive NFL, but it's not in his DNA, so many times he chooses to do stupid things we shouldn't be doing because he believes that's what he's supposed to do. It's not always that he's conservative. Sometimes he's just dumb. I don't know how much control he put in Daboll's hands, but I'm guessing McDermott has the authority at any point to veto Daboll's decision to CONSTANTLY have Gore on the field rather than Singletary, who I would argue sure looks like one of those Elite talents you gush we need. Yet, MULTIPLE times this year it's Gore getting the ball in critical situations or at critical moments of games. And let's not pretend Singletary was exhausted on Saturday. He ran the ball 13 friggin times!!! What encourages me is that I truly do believe that coaches, like players, can get better season after season with serious self reflection. That's what I think McDermott needs to do. It's head-scratching that you evidently think McDermott coached flawlessly or close to it this year.

Really? I like all 3, but I think Beane has been doing a pretty fantastic job stripping and now building this roster and freeing up CAP space and Allen is sooOOOooo much further ahead than most people thought he'd be after his 28th NFL start when he came out. I'm sorry, I think McDermott is a fantastic coach from Monday to Saturday, but his approach to the game is too old school. The new NFL is an NFL with rules built around the offense. Shut-down defenses just don't exist anymore. You need to score points. And I know that you believe the problem this year was more execution than play calling or coaching, but I disagree. McDermott is a conservative coach--4th down aggressiveness be damned--who coaches overall not to lose rather than to win games. It's evident in so many games the Bills play and for the months leading up to the playoffs, I said time and time again that McDermott's coaching philosophy doesn't fit in the on-and-done situation that the playoffs are. Lo and behold, we get ousted. Yes, Allen made tons of mistakes, but most of those didn't even come until the 4th quarter. He played very well for 3 full quarters and Buffalo was only up by 8 points, in part because McDermott takes his foot off the gas at times he should be slamming his foot down. And when you do that, it takes a few simple missed assignments on defense--which he clearly leans heavily on in his gameplanning--and suddenly a game that you thought you had control of is suddenly out of reach. If McDermott doesn't change and grow and become more of a coach in the modern NFL, I fear we'll never even have the chance to be the dominant franchise we all hope we'll be, even if Allen develops and turns into a true Stud.

I don't follow College Football until about now, so I don't have a clue who this guy is, but his scouting report sure sounds like what we need at WR. However, I don't like his first 2 weaknesses considering what happened with the last WR we drafted in the 1st round

I'm pretty excited to see what Christian Wade does through Training Camp and preseason.

I really doubt it's #3. #1 and #2 go back, in large part, to coaching. Communicate with your friggin young QB who's making just his 28th start in the NFL and playing in his 1st playoff game ever... and on the road. Coaches need to get much better. Allen does, too, but I'm less worried about a 23 year old malleable and willing kid to turn inward and really aim to improve than a 45 year old Head Coach who's initial blame after the game was turned directly outward on his QB and officiating rather than inward on himself. It took a few days, but I'm over the season now. Reflecting back and forward, I have more confidence in Allen improving his obvious flaws this offseason than I do the coaches in fixing their's, and that ends up really sucking for Allen's progression along with the whole team, obviously.

@Coach Tuesday and @GunnerBill are saying that Frank Gore run in the game Saturday was on Allen, but today when asked specifically about that end-of-half debacle McDermott said that it was "a series of calls we'd like to have back." That sure sounds like playcalling. Apparently there's evidence that somehow Allen is responsible? Is there a clip to post.

Been saying all year that McDermott's style of coaching is just fine for the regular season because you win a good number of games. I think McDermott can consistently get his teams to the playoffs. But his style of coaching sucks Sucks SUcks SUCKS when you get to a one n done playoff situation! He coaches not to lose rather than coaching to win. That irritates the heck outta me. I hope this offseason he becomes a little more aggressive and reprioritizes especially after examining the Houston debacle.

Honestly, what this throw shows me even moreso is that Duke should have been active all season and Foster shouldn't have been. How many times did we even see Allen make that throw this year? He wouldn't be able to even possibly make that throw to Brown or Beasly. I think Duke actually would catch that pass 7 or 8 times out of 10 when given the opportunity. And if he had the year to further develop chemistry with Allen, who knows? It was a disappointing miss by Duke on a fantastic throw by Allen. The future looks bright. So who are the WRs in the draft who are big, fast and sure-handed? Whoever they are, that's priority #1.

I know

If it was a drop it was a drop. Looks like he could have caught it. So he dropped a difficult catch, but a very catchable one. I'm agreeing with you. However, I still would argue that any player on the field at any position needs live game reps to get more and more comfortable with the game. That's part of why I still have so much hope moving forward for young raw guys like Allen and Knox who made many mistakes due to inexperience this year. I don't know if Duke would have caught that ball with more game reps, but he might have. Or we might have won one or two of those one-possession games we lost this year and we might have had a better playoff seeding. Who knows? What I know is our coaches made some absolutely stupid decisions this year, and I think keeping Foster active over Duke for most of our meaningful games this year was one of them. This is my biggest problem with McDermott and it all goes back to Allen. "Welp, we've got out 10 point lead, time to go into a shell rather than making some real efforts to put our foot on their throats." 2nd half. 13 point lead. "4th and 4 at the opponent 40... well... we're just outside comfortable FG territory and we're ahead by 10 on the road, so punt it rather than going for the jugular." (Ode to irony on this one for later going for it on 4th and 27 and attributing it to wanting to be aggressive. ) 3 points later. "Got our 16 point lead, my defense can hold them." They don't. They give up a 75 yard TD drive and a 2 point conversion. Suddenly it's only a one score lead late in the 3rd on the road and NOW you want your young QB to make sure he scores AND protects the football because evidently your defense isn't able to live up to its end of the bargain? Uh oh, our young QB who's NEVER been on this grand a stage fumbled. 3 points for the opponent. 8 points for the opponent. "Oh crap!!! Josh go win it for us!!!" That's McDermott's stupidity. And I bring it back to Duke because you can't expect these kids to just suddenly turn a light switch on. Seasoned vets you could maybe expect that, but not QBs who are playing their 1st EVER playoff game in less than 30 NFL starts or a WR who is in his 5th NFL game EVER after being put back on the bench for half the season. Honestly, the more I think about this year, the more our coaches irritate me.

Great shot. Tough catch, but yeah, he could've gotten that. Wish Duke had more game reps all year to build up to moments like that rather than wasting them on the increasingly useless Foster. Agreed. It was a ridiculous comparison.

Fancy way of making something look much worse than it is. Poster said DK would clearly come down with that, but Metcalf isn't exactly glue-hands. 7% vs 10.5%? Wait wait...better yet... 7 drops for a guy who was CONSTANTLY in the game seeing game action and getting comfortable with his QB vs 2 drops who was active for only 5 total games (4 with Allen) and was still developing chemistry with his QB???? I'm tired of the Duke Williams discussion already. Honestly, the guy shouldve gotten a ton more playing time this year, but he didn't. Would it have changed outcomes of games? Maybe. I don't think we were ever Championship bound, but it might have gotten that single playoff win off our back. Yes, I said that. Just him. He very easily could've been that difference. Regardless, I think he's a fringe roster player next year because I believe (maybe I should say desperately hope...?) that Beane & Co saw that Allen pretty desperately needs a big bodied WR to throw to and so upgrades are coming in the offseason. Duke Williams will just remain one of those "what-ifs" for the 2019 season even if he's not much of a cog in the machine moving forward.

Billsy, yes. However, I disagree with just one thing. We absolutely would have won this game if we had a true #1 WR. Hope that's a focal point this offseason.

Mmmmmmm... DK had 7 drops on 100 targets this year. Let's not pretend he's superhuman hands guy all the sudden. Duke had 2 on 19 targets and that one right there was a massively contested catch he likely would've caught if not for the DPI. That said, I do wish we drafted Metcalf instead of Ford last year.