Ayjent

When the fans are making excuses for every year that the D had injuries as the reason they didn’t win, there is the truth that the D scheme might be more to blame than the missing personnel. Let’s just buy the premise that injuries have sunk their chances at a Super Bowl several years. Okay so why is the Defense so reliant on the health of its starters because injuries happen in the NFL? it’s not like these starters are all world at any position. Coaching is so important because injuries are reality, but the Bills coaching during the McD era doesn’t really coach to its players strengths. It coaches a scheme and it limits the scheme based on how the player fits the scheme and doesn’t do anything unique to morph into a different style. The book is out on McD’s style of D, run at them and when passing exploit the zone schemes daring them to get home with pressure. They will eventually give up a big run because they are predictably unable to maintain gap integrity all game especially with light LBs and nickel CBs playing those gaps. Then you compress them and exploit the zone they will certainly play. Teams have used that formula and the Bills don’t have any answers even against porous, injured OLs and backup QBs. I know in years past the Bills have put together runs, but I don’t see it this year. Things are unraveling in too many areas and there just isn’t enough talent and good, adaptive coaching to right the ship.

It’s both coaching and talent. The team has incessantly invested in Defense over the McD Beane era and it has never been a D that can dominate a meaningful game or stretch of games in the clutch part of any season. It has been on the back of their QB that they’ve won. So when a team invests so heavily in some aspect of its team and the results don’t change much there is a severe flaw in the organization and that’s not even getting into the offensive regression, which is more concerning, because we know the talent they have at QB1 and RB1. McD talks about growing and learning all the time but they have not learned that the D they play is never going to be dominant. They haven’t learned that small, undersized LBs are how you stop quick teams but also how you get pummeled by physical ones. This has been an issue since the Bills hired McD - see Titans under Vrabel. The complexity in the backend doesn’t allow the players to be aggressive and the results of people who know the system well enough to start doesn’t lead to some amazing result. So for what use is the complexity? To give up 3rd and longs on the regular? This team has never gotten after the QB on the regular no matter what they invest in it and certainly not with hand picked, home grown guys. It’s pretty clear that this is going to come in better and worse variations as we’ve seen over the years but at its core it’s still the same flaws. I don’t have faith in the Pegulas to hire another regime but the limitations of this one are very clear. I’ve been hesitant to be too critical but this is the worst version of the Bills we’ve seen in quite a while, and the team unraveled against a physical opponent in a way that signals bigger issues. Also, the absolute stubbornness to not give the tackles help last game was dumbfounding. But look - we can point the finger at Brady and he deserves some blame but the D is an absolute disaster given the investments. Injuries you say? Sure but injuries happen to all teams - this is about the D they run and how it sucks no matter what talent they amass. Just bc there was a 2 game run with Hoecht where it looked good doesn’t mean that would have been the result with him all year and if one guy makes that much of a difference why wasn’t he the most coveted FA in football? I refuse to think that was the key to this Defense being good.

Teams have 8-9 games left - there are so many examples of teams that start off hot early or midway and then turn into pumpkins, we witnessed it a few times during the drought years with the Bills where it looked like they may be finally turning it around. The second half of the season is just a different notch in competition where teams start separating. The Bills Chiefs game was played at a much higher level than most other games this year anywhere in the NFL. Probably the highest, but I haven't sat down and watched every game. Chiefs fans may disagree, but don't think for a minute that they weren't bringing their A game. The Colts look like the most formidable of the bunch because they have amassed talent in skill positions and just needed someone more competent that AR-15

Landon Jackson a lot of people loved and others hated when we drafted, and I've not watched as much college in the past few years so I had no first hand watching him play outside of one or two games where I wasn't focused in on his play. But I have watched the Bills pick players that have made me scratch my head in the past and Elam was probably the one I was most confused about - a guy that looked out of position or lost his man in college frequently and couldn't tackle to save his life. I wanted to believe the coaching was bad at Florida on defense (which it was) and they knew what they were doing in drafting someone that they thought had the physical skills to mold into a solid star CB. But there was no way that you saw what he had on tape and said this guy is a lock to be a star or good starter. Riq Woolen was a better prospect if you wanted pure potential and was at least an aggressive tackler with size and speed. My point in all of this is that the scouting and drafting process is far from an exact science and sometimes their due diligence isn't as thorough as people think it is. I think game tape is way more important than combine results, although you can't ignore either. And sometimes I think the game tape gets lost in all of the other noise about character, work outs, combine, etc. and teams convince themselves that a particular player will be the right fit for what they do, especially if there is buzz about other teams having interest in that player. The Bills have done some great things building this team and you can't argue with the results compared to what preceded them. But...they can be better and it seems that their scouting department isn't great in some aspects when it comes to evaluating talent at the top of the draft. And no team is that good at it tbh. You do sit here and think about what the Bills have traded (Justin Jefferson draft pick, Patrick Mahomes draft pick) and I get the safer play for what they were doing and I'd rather have Josh anyhow, but the point is that is who they had the opportunity for and traded picks away or spent more money and draft capital for a player with a shorter, more expensive window to help your team. Justin Jefferson was an undeniable talent and I liked his game more than Chase's at LSU, although Chase was awesome. I get the Bills thought Diggs was the immediate help Josh needed to gain confidence. But here we are years later still wondering if the Bills will ever get talent at that level for Josh again at WR when in hindsight they had that opportunity and went for the shorter term, surer thing with Diggs. Hindsight is 20/20 I get it, but there has been a weird mix of when they go for the take our shot now vs. long term build.

What he showed many of these young DL guys was bring the energy and intensity. I think if Solomon wants to emulate anyone it would be Hoecht. They seemed to plug Solomon into that role.

I’ll say what has been increasingly obvious. Milano and Bernard are not playing well in coverage, nor really any aspect of their games. Both look like they have little confidence and are almost invisible when it comes tos to positive plays on D and too visible when a play is made by the other team. It suckes because prime Milano was so good. I think he is a warrior to come back from those injuries and fight through the ones he has had but he isn’t the heat seeking middle he used to be. There is no explosive read and react. Bernard just hasn’t been good with any consistency and I thought it was telling when the D looked much improved without him against Carolina’s formidable running game.

The speed to stick with Worthy was a huge asset today because he wasn’t a factor at all and the Chiefs were definitely impacted by that in the passing game.

I think that is a factor. Only the players know for sure but it could be that Rapp just wasn’t playing well and everything else was magnified because of it.

The way to beat the Cover 2 has always been seam routes and corner routes that go in the sideline pocket between the safety and corner. A good running game always compromises it by compressing the box which should make the TEs the best targets if the right route combos are called to exploit it. It helps to have speed to get the safeties deeper, but it isn't necessary to exploit it. The Bills have all the tools except the speed to get the safeties deeper. I'd like to see them call more passes from the Heavy TE sets, especially Play Action quick hitters on the seams where defenses are selling out on the run. We've seen them do it only a handful of times this year, but it should be more of their bread and butter and it would have Defenses guessing. There are also other concepts from this formation where they could have Hawes block and release opposite the flow of the play action as teams see him as a key to where a run is headed and would think they got past a key blocker. The Chiefs do a good job of that type of design. It's all right there for them to utilize. They have strengths that they can build off of, but for some reason get too cute and don't.

They need to put Coleman in the slot more and see if that helps. Problem is that they don't have a whole lot on the outside even with Palmer healthy. They've put together an odd mix of talent at WR that has a lot of different attributes, but they don't seem to utilize those different talents in a complimentary way to get the most out of them. Yes its not the most talented bunch, but I feel like they should be better than they are if the coordination of the passing game was a little more deliberate. It seems like they are all willing and able blockers which is not a bad thing, but not really the thing you want to say they do best. I think Coleman has skill and has had 100+ yd games, it is a consistency thing and being put in a position to succeed. .

Everyone loves Fitzmagic

I think Stefanski is the perfect fit for Buffalo at OC if Brady leaves.

Maybe - that's the thing. KC's D may give the Bills something different than what they are expecting and it wouldn't be the first time. I think they are going to dare the Bills to pass and try to confuse and exploit some of the issues in pass protection this year, but I don't think that they will be consistently stacking the box because the Bills have shown that it isn't all that effective against them and allows them to engage the blocks a lot easier than where there is a less compressed box. You can bet that they will be attacking any horizontal aspect of the Bills passing game and will try to prevent the WR screen game with Shakir. I see them playing wide daring Josh to throw the intermediate routes and hemming him in on the right side. It will be a game where Coleman, Samuel, Moore, Knox, or Hawes has to step up in the receiving game.

Is the Bills D better w/o Bernard and Milano out there? It felt like it.

Just because names aren't out there doesn't mean that they aren't the subject of discussion amongst teams. I don't see the Bills making much of a move that matters in any event. I'd love the BTJ thing to be true because that would be the best asset at WR out there and meet the needs the Bills have, but I'm guessing that is more noise than anything. I think there are plenty of teams that would move pieces for the right price, but that price is usually too high for any sane GM to pay.