Straight Hucklebuck

I’ll believe it once Shefter or Jay Glazer report it.

Miller never came back from the ACL and now you look at it, why did they play him so early? Could have just left him on PUP and brought him back for the stretch run. We don’t trade for Douglas if Tre never gets hurt. And Douglas is playing better than Tre has in 2-years. That’s a plus. There is no replacing Milano. With DaQuan back that’s 10/11 starters from the opener counting Douglas in for Tre. We have 0 offensive injuries. The Bills are 95% healthy in Week 18.

And on a side note, someday I hope to see the Bills in their red helmets again. Whenever they want to backdate our jersey to 1995 is fine with me.

I think of Chris Simms who’s been saying for 2 years there is nothing scary about the Bills offense. Greg Cosell has called Diggs a “high level possession receiver” and all the rest have been broken down here. Cook looked like he could be the #2 weapon on this offense after Dallas, but that has since disappeared again. So Chris Simms is now saying the Bills should adopt the Chiefs reality and muddy the game up by running , and playing field position and defense. We can help ourselves by taking Knox off the field more, phasing out Murray completely, and not putting Sherfield on the field - for one game, but guys are going to need breathers.

It’s what’s maddening about the Bills. Kincaid 4-87 last week, and this week he could have 1-target. Cook 5-83 one week, and 1 for -4 the next two weeks combined. It’s an erratic pass game, with a black hole at #2 and Knox who just makes Kincaid less effective. Diggs got on his horse last week and tried to catch that deep ball from Allen. I don’t see any limp, knee bracing, or anything else that’s wrong with him.

I think the exact opposite. Diggs (and Shakir) should be peppered with targets. Gabe is inefficient, I wish Harty would get 1-2 targets/game but he’s mothballed by this coaching staff, Sherfield is absolutely useless. That’s your WR group. One Alpha, one dependable slot, a one-route WR who depends on broken coverages and two useless WRs who don’t get targeted. Passing offense is best in 011 because it gets Diggs, Gabe, Shakir, Kincaid and Cook on the field. The league leaders are 11.5 targets/game. YTD Diggs is currently 9.5, he’s 8.5 under Brady, and 6.6 in the last 3 games. I think Allen should look for him more.

Hendrickson and Reader were FAs. As was Bell. Yeah, they’re not know as big FA players.

That’s why I didn’t mention that. Beane wouldn’t have traded for Douglas if White was healthy. And Douglas is playing better than Tre has at any point in the past two years.

Historically the Bengals don’t spend money in FA. Last year they sat on the wayside and watched: Perine, Hurst, Bates, Bell, Tre Flowers, Eli Apple walk off the team. Pratt came back on a team-friendly deal, and they locked up Logan Wilson in the middle of this season. It wasn’t until late in FA they brought Nick Scott in. So they’re looking at Reader, Williams, Boyd, Higgins, Awuzie. Last year they compensated for the FA losses in the secondary with the draft, they’re set in the secondary for 2024. I anticipate DT for them, and they’ll add to the offense. Even when they drafted Chase at #5, the other option being discussed here was Sewell because Burrow’s knee was wrecked the season before.

The Bills team is 95% intact for this game. Week 18 and we’re down Milano.

Higgins is a second round pick, there is no 5th year option. Bengals fans down here are not anticipating Mike Brown ponying up the market contract money, they think is will be Isovias taking that spot. And to your point, they bypassed a chance to get a good Tight End in the draft and trade deadline.

Average Allen game under Brady (6 games now): 18.2 completions 31.8 attempts 224.5 yards 57.1 completion % 7.3 yards/attempt 1.30 TDs per game 0.8 Interceptions/game Rating = 84.4 QBR = 57.25 From a running standpoint: 8.0 rushing attempts/game 35.2 yards/game 4.2 yards/attempt 1.3 TDs/game

Yeah, it’s a trait all our WRs don’t have. Our WRs adjust pretty well to low throws as Allen throws a lot of balls that die out, especially on in-breaking routes. Two or three times a games our WRs are having to dive/slide on the ground. The problem comes on deep routes. There is a whole category of routes that our WRs can’t do. None of them come back to the ball, fight through contact, high point the ball, or win a contested catch in the air. With Gabe Davis, Allen literally has to throw perfect balls that land in his arms because he can’t do anything else but run straight.

Both limited. Video of Waddle from practice, and he's catching passes without an obvious limp. I think they both are playing.

We're constantly having to ask these "what happened" questions with this team. Allen one week is 320 and 4 TDs, the next week its 169 and 1 INT. Diggs disappears and it's all fine at OBD. Cook 179 yards one week, 35 the next week. Kincaid 8 catches one week, 1 target the next week. We all see these things.

So at minimum WR in Round 1. In this scenario we’re going all in on that player. Because it’s Diggs, R1, Shakir, Shorter and Harty. So do your plan, let Sherfield walk, and bring in a <$5M vet FA. In this scenario, if Shakir takes another large step forward and the R1 WR can give you 800+ yards, you might be ok. Keep Harty, hope Shorter becomes playable and come out of FA with a low cost veteran that is better than Sherfield.

No roster can lose its WR1 and WR2 and be fine.

Allen is the franchise. Beane has got him Diggs and Kincaid, with no other premium investment since 2019. And we wonder why this offense comes and goes. Somehow get your hands on two WRs that actually can play. If not, we’ll be here again next season.

No way Beane envisioned 14-138-1 when he signed Harty to 2 years, $9M. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do to show this coaching staff that he needs to be on the field. But two coordinators so far barely use him. He’ll catch a critical 25-yard pass in Kansas City, and then not touch the ball on offense for 3 weeks? He gets 3 snaps against the Bengals, Josh looks for him deep immediately. NO PLAN We saw the same thing with Nyheim Hines last year. Absolute disconnect between the GM and Coaching Staff, swept under the rug by hard to catch a RB up in this system.

Until Diggs or the Rookie R1 WR gets hurt, in which case Shakir slides up a peg, and you don't have any useable WRs in slots #4, #5, #6. It's one storyline that has been talked about on here - the Bills have been virtually injury free on offense outside of Knox. In this scenario, hopefully Shorter can outplay his 5th Round draft slot. Only concern with DaQuan and Floyd is giving money to guys who are both 32+ when next season starts.

Well, I guess it will be RD 1 WR, Diggs, Shakir, Harty and Shorter.

So we agree on the 1st Round pick at WR. But $3M - $5M FA WR is Harty (2 years, $9M). $1M - $3M FA WR is veteran minimum Sherfield type player. So effectively, let’s bypass FA at WR and use a 1st and 3rd/4th on another WR. Because <$5M WR isn’t going to do anything.

I think all you can do is approach him and ask for a salary cut, but their camp knows the Bills are not going to eat $30M in dead cap to get rid of him. That length of that contract and his age is not a good match. I think our WR room needs to be blown up. It's been 2 seasons now where #4, #5 and #6 are unplayable. We go into next season with Diggs and Shakir, that's it. Shorter is not a plan. Let's pray they don't re-sign Gabe, and that means you're again trying to get one in FA, and really, no matter what, you need to draft WR in R1. And on that 💩free agency point - we've tried the low end FA route - Crowder, Emmanuel Sanders, Sherfield, Harty - and these guys stink. So Evans is of course going to be a premier FA, but we've seen time and time again this low end guys are not good enough to even get on the field. Look through the 2024 WR FAs and tell me who you'd like?

This was from early December when the team was 5-5 and 6-6 and picking in the teens. The Bills have won 4 in a row and now are picking in the 20's so Odunze will be long gone, Nabers and so forth.

Beane's approach has been to keep as much of the 2020 team together as possible. We've strained the cap to keep everyone we can. We're still using a Daboll system on offense, we've promoted Gabe to #2, we've kept Hyde and Poyer, extended Milano, White, gone back to the well with Lawson, Phillips and so forth. I think the team is stable, a lot of veteran leadership. However, I think we're seeing that the Bills have squeezed as much blood out of the stone as they're going to get. I think a real search for OC and DC is required. The Bills will need DT, DE and Safety, but they need another top-flight WR. I'm not interested in finding the next Cole Beasley.