Ayjent

Lol. They stunk, and I'm not sure wtf they are thinking with that line they put together today up front. It's like they are more concerned with running a particular style of offensive scheme rather than one that works. The O this year is like Rex coaching the D last 2 years - its bad coaching and the wrong personnel.

If they continue to run that garbage stretch run play with this line they are going to continue to kill drives with it. Not saying that the line played well, but they've got to stop running that play. Its easy to recognize it before and after the snap, and I believe they only tried a deep throw once. The receivers are practice squad quality and It wasn't a very good game for Tyrod.

He's talented, but he never really played in a pro style passing game at Clemson. That move in the draft by the Bills FO was such a bad move, and a lot of us knew it at the time. That following Drafting EJ after passing up so many decent QBs in the prior years. I swear those two drafts had me so disappointed with the FO. You can say great hindsight, but I was very pissed after both of those drafts, knowing that they were dumb moves. Not so much that they picked Watkins, but to move up in that very deep WR draft for a WR that was primarily a screen WR surrendering a 1st and 4th. Truly baffling when they already had a decent group of WRs and had drafted 3 WRs in the past two years, had an established #1 with Stevie and traded the Bucs a 6th for Mike Williams. All of that draft capital spent on the WRs and never really materialized into anything formidable. The injuries have plagued Sammy, but he has never really established himself as a bonafide #1 option in the passing game because he just isn't as good as every one thought he would be. The injuries keep some mystique as to whether he could still show that he is an elite player, but I think it's a low percentage chance that he does

While the Bills could certainly use Watkins talent and familiarity. Let's not make any excuses for Watkins. Kupp and Woods are also new guys to the Rams. Yes those two had more time, but I think the bottom line is that he may just be a pretty good receiver but not even close to elite, and that's why his production is inconsistent.

Actually Atlanta has always received a ton of favorable calls since Matt Ryan has been their QB. I watch the Bucs games a lot too, and it always seems that the Falcons get an extra set of downs at least once in the redzone at some point in the game due to a highly questionable PI or illegal contact that had nothing to do with the play. I think if you look up the stats they are one of the top teams in 1st downs by penalty over the past several years. EDIT: Sorry that is the Pats that has been in the top 10 of penalties by first down the past few years (usually it is top 5). Atlanta is middle of the road.

Yes. It truly makes you wonder how much it is ego vs. intelligence with these coaches. I'm not saying that they are morons, but there are plenty of guys who are OCs in the NFL that just do things that is accepted as what you do vs. actually pushing the envelope and being innovative and adaptive.

The Offense and the running game didn't make the Bills 7-9, 8-8. It was a terrible Defensive Scheme that couldn't stop teams that should shoulder most of that blame. Now they've addressed the D, and the O takes a major step back, because the Bills can't put a complete competent staff or personnel together at the same time. This Offense hasn't changed except at the WR position - but I would argue that Woods and Matthews are a push with Matthews probably being a tad better receiver, a tad worse blocker. Sammy wasn't suiting up half the time anyhow. The Offense could move the ball and was effective the past two years - the difference this year - the OC. Trying to recreate an offense to emulate some ideal Offensive style without the personnel to run it seems like an exercise in futility and wastes what looks like a pretty good D IMO.

Not many QBs would've been successful out there today with that game plan. Taylor didn't do much, but he was far from the main reason the offense sucked today. The blame goes in this order - - Dennison - terrible play calling and bad play design, nothing creative and nothing to test Carolina's weaknesses. I knew what they were going to run 90% of the time because it is garbage, below average play calling that telegraphs what they are doing by formation and leaves so little room for error in execution on third down that it takes great platmaking to move the chains. If you are going to commit to keeping a D honest, and be predictable by formation you better utilize play action and bootlegs more than what they did today. - Offensive line - they got owned at the point of attack against the run and were inconsistent on passing downs. Part of this goes to predictability of the call and formation, but you can own the game if you are still successful when they know it's coming and can't stop it. They did next to nothing to move the LOS or create running lanes. - Tyrod - he's got to throw past the chains on third down unless it is so wide open that you can throw it short. That's my biggest complaint. Too frequent were passes thrown to short even on earlier downs. So I get the criticism, I do. However, very few QBs would've succeeded in impressing anyone with that game plan, play calling, not so great line play and lack of a run game. - Beane - personnel really hurt the Bills today and will all season...the lack of RB depth and lack of receiving talent is going to impact the ability to run and pass, especially if the OC isn't going to be creative.

It was a horrible offensive game plan and really bad play calling. They had absolutely nothing going on the ground and I can respect keeping the D honest, but you've got to at least run play action and call a cab downtown occasionally if you are going go that route.

That's on the OC as well. It's not like Taylor was given any chance to get momentum throwing when they stubbornly stuck with bad running calls all game.

Dennis on isn't a good OC. Same old story with Bills - flip flopping between good D and good O but never at the same time.

I think they like the contrast in running styles between McCoy and Tolbert because Tolbert is probably a much more physical tackle, while Shady requires discipline and technique to bottle in. Two entirely different approaches to tackling those two guys and that type of stuff gets into the heads of defenders. Tackling is the most important part of defense and for the best defenders it's almost instinctive, when you add an element of thinking to an instinctive player you've impacted their effectiveness and you keep them on their toes. I'm not calling the Bills genius for implementing such a 1-2 punch, because it's not like they are innovating here, but I get why they'd want Tolbert spelling McCoy, and I was impressed with his involvement in the offense. I'm not ready to call this as an arrow pointing up moment for the Bills, but it is refreshing to see good coaching and team discipline on display, especially on the D. I was worried about the Offense taking a step backwards, but I may have come to the realization that maybe the talent is there to be successful with whatever scheme they run as long as they put emphasis on running the ball.

Could be a solid pickup if he is healthy, and even if they want to give him a few weeks to heal, it's still a good signing. I thought Jenkins was overdrafted having watched him at Florida, but he does have speed and part of the reason I thought he was overdrafted was because he needed a little more time to beef up for the pro game. Now that he has been in the NFL and matured, he is a solid LB that is pretty good in coverage.

I don't think they will pass on a 1st round QB whether Taylor plays well or not, if that QB is a player they feel can run their offense better than Taylor. That's just the sense I get, but I hope that they do it wisely and not just make a move because they want their guy. Taylor gives them the luxury of being patient and taking a chance on a 2nd to 4th round pick panning out if the cost is too high to get the most coveted QBs that are in the top 10. There are likely going to be 4-5 first round prospects this next draft, but things seem to change a lot between the start of the college season and the actual draft. I'd really like to see them make this OL the real strength of the team and then have a young guy developing and pushing Taylor. That seems like the smartest way forward. I get the concept of changing culture Beane and McDermott had in mind in the roster turnover, but nothing changes a culture like winning and it's hard to win when you churn the roster.

I'd say KC is in a much better position to do what they did than the Bills to do the same, and at the same time you have to question whether the Bills could've used that pick on Mahomes if QB was the position they were so focused on improving. To me to pass on a guy that a good coach (not great btw) that has had sustained success with QBs and offense in this league moved up to get in order to stockpile draft picks would be baffling to then turn around and trade away to move up for a QB, and it would always be scrutinized as Mahomes vs. the 2018 Bills' QB pick. They need to turn that trade into two solid starters from the 2018 draft class (their own pick and the KC pick). The Bills chances of hitting on picks as solid starting talent increases with the number of players they put on the roster in the top 3 rounds. I would've like to have seen Dawkins make more of a push for a starting job.

Well this is where we'll see if this combo of McDermott and Beane are truly focused on building a long term sound team or think a franchise QB will solve all of the ills. I think you have a great situation for a young QB to come into and you keep Tyrod around until you find the guy you are sure is better - it may be next year it may be the following year. You don't need to be at the top of the draft class to get the best QB for your team, and they would be silly to let Tyrod go before they have clearly secured a better option. To let him go would be making the same mistake they have been making for many years of this 17 year drought - he brings stability and talent to a position that provides a situation for a young guy to prove it and outperform Taylor- not thrown to the wolves because there is no better option. However, this team will need to start replacing the aging stars like Incognito, Wood, Williams ASAP and they don't have the luxury of throwing multiple high picks into one player - that is a recipe for disaster, even if they hit on that player. You take your best shot at a QB where you draft without reaching and you build a young, talented OL and DL - this is where I hope Andy Reid's influence on McDermott occurs.

Yeah...it's hard to keep get excited with change, when the change seems to be only a change in the way the same unsuccessful W/L record is achieved not an improvement in the results. As fans we all love to rationalize why this time will be different, while at the same time keeping our guard up as we scrutinize the moves and decision-making looking for that signal to understand how this regime is going to disappoint us. This gets worse each time it happens, until we just have a sliver of optimism and a heavy dose of pessimism. This season seems particularly frustrating because even though a significant majority of Bills fans understood, especially with the hindisght of today, that Whaley and Rex should've been fired, there was an opportunity with a weak division outside of New England and relatively weak batch of AFC contenders to possibly sneak into the playoffs. The GM and coach are looking more long term than that, and that's understandable. However, I am fearful that they are little too prone to throw out the baby with the bath water in disassociating themselves from the players drafted by Whaley and his staff, and that the Beane/McDermott "process" may require more time to be successful than they realistically will get. This is exactly what I was getting at earlier, I'm looking at things and I'm finding flaws. I don't want to be looking for these flaws, but I constantly question whether I should trust these guys. We have learned over 17 years not to trust these guys, and that as fans watching moves unfold and having serious reservations to be proven right in having those reservations. I think the most frustrating thing in a lot of ways since 2010 is that when they start making some progress on one side of the field, they seemed destined as a franchise to constantly throw out the baby with the bath water each time they make a necessary change - that is organization issues at higher levels than coaching and we all see that has been the biggest problem with this franchise.

I don't disagree with you, but I think one of the downsides to both losing MG and cutting Williams is that now McDermott is saying things like "every snap" for Shady. Is it smart to run him into the ground? I just don't think that is wise.

I was just saying that ScottLaw's take on Gillislee's tender being too low was accurate and that Milano who came from the low tender hasn't shown to make up for Gillislee's loss of talent. Milano hasn't shown much yet, and usually defensive players show flashes of ability pretty soon even in their rookie year. Not saying he won't improve, but to see him as a solid contributor seems like a longshot in my mind.

Well. He's not wrong about them going too low on the tender at all. Getting Matt Milano hasn't exactly made this team better than when they had Gillislee - Milano is only on the team because of who drafted him, not because he necessarily deserved a roster spot over Hodges.

Exactly, it wasn't a serious comment. It was really just to state how much the Pats have dominated the division and the Bills, and that the Pats add insult to injury when they pluck good players from their division opponents - Gilmore was a good starter, Gillislee and Hogan weren't necessarily starters but were good contributors that the Bills found on the cheap, and Branch was good for DL rotation. Losing these players left a void at CB that had to be addressed in the draft, and worse talent for depth. The Bills put themselves in position to loose all of these players because of the foolish contracts they gave out to Dareus, Glenn and Clay that have them too close to the cap to pay guys like Gillislee and Hogan modest increases in salary, and put them in position to not take the additional year option on Watkins and eventually trade him, lose Gilmore and Woods. They've been hamstrung by their own mismanagement of the cap going all in to make the playoffs with Rex. Rex couldn't coach his way to the Playoffs if you gave him the best roster in football, given how the league has passed him and his twin brother's defense by, The Bills talented, but flawed roster during Rex's tenure wasn't quite good enough to overcome an incompetent defensive scheme despite getting surprisingly good offensive coaching. It's just a testament to how epicly bad Rex was during his tenure with the Bills - not surprising really, but very frustrating for us fans who saw it coming. I really don't think he deserved year two to be honest, and I think the only thing keeping him afloat was the offense. Now we are watching them hit the reset button. Sure things could go well with a lot of talented vets on the team, but having huge question marks in the Secondary and at WR in a passing league doesn't exactly scream playoffs to anyone. The way I see the season playing out is this: I don't think we will get the same level of Offensive coaching that we've had the past two seasons, and we are going to be frustrated with the Offense, while seeing a pretty decent improvement in the defensive performance.

Just because the draft partner also is terrible at assessing talent and making picks in the draft doesn't make it a smart move. Everyone knew it was a very deep and talented draft for WRs, and there was no need to move up the board for a WR. It was a boneheaded trade regardless of what they gave the Browns. Watkins was very talented, but I never really understood why he was valued as the overall best WR of that draft - he hadn't really even demonstrated that he could operate in a more traditional NFL passing game and really was used a lot in WR screens. Not to mention the Bills had a decent group of WRs already and it wasn't like the only missing piece for the offense was WR. The problems for offense started at QB and OL from 2013-2015 - two places Whaley just isn't very good at evaluating. Trading away a 1st round pick in next year's draft for a WR when their is a likelihood that your guy at QB from two drafts before isn't the guy is just lacking foresight. Also, it's not like the Bills didn't have holes elsewhere that a 1st rounder would be nice to have. The way Whaley was building the team had little margin for error. Unfortunately for all of us, there was a significant amount of error.

They've been terrible at the draft, regardless of draft pundits grades. They've been terrible in handing out large contracts to some players (Dareus, Glenn, Clay) which leads to not keeping solid players that wouldn't brank the bank (Hogan, Gillislee), and letting high round picks move on after their rookie contracts (Woods, Gilmore). They then draft players to fit a particular scheme and then abandon that scheme (Ragland). They empahsized the WR position throughout Whaley's tenure without anything to show for it on this year's roster. They did a terrible job of building franchise anchors for the team through the draft from 2013-2016 - Manual, Woods, Alonzo, Watkins, Kuoandijo, Darby, Ragland are all gone - only Preston Brown, John Miller, and Shaq Lawson to show for on the current roster as potential starters and I don't think anyone is thinking Pro Bowl calibre player for any of them. I thought Doug Whaley was good at acquiring players through FA and trade, but was absolutely horrendous at the draft. The team was left with bloated contracts and a dearth of young talent. You could see this year coming sometime, Beane and McDermott just accelerated the inevitable by trading away the best of the young talent that was about to get expensive for draft capital. It remains to be seen whether that was wise, but I'm very skeptical. There are plenty of ways to suck at personnel decisions - so taking a different direction doesn't mean the destination will change. I think the Darby trade really wasn't wise considering he was cheap this year, and they could have extended him after a sophomore slump at a discount. If they are really interested in getting this team in the right direction, they should be more focused on cleaning out the bad contracts and keeping the young talent. I think that you are right about coaching to some extent as well. The Bills have had some of the worst player development in the league for many, many years. You know this is the case when guys are showing a ton of promise in their rookie seasons and then not improving. This has something to do with the constant turnover as well, but of all of the coaches they've had over the years, Roman/Lynn and Schwartz were the only ones that seemed to get more out of guys as they became more familiar with their schemes. I think the Offense is going to regress significantly this year, because Dennison is not an adaptive OC (i.e., he runs his offense regardless of whether the roster is full of square pegs for the round holes). WIthout an adaptive OC (e.g., Lynn, Roman, Gase, Shannihan) - Tyrod is likely going to struggle doing things that don't fit his skill set as much as the Offense he ran the past two years. I hope that I'm wrong, but that's the way I see it playing out. The Bills have had a pretty good offenses the past two years, and pretty bad defenses. Before that they had a pretty good defenses for two years, and pretty bad offenses. Are we ready to do another switcheroo - I think that is going to be the case this year - Pretty good D, pretty bad O.

As an organization? Yes I can blame them. They picked a project QB in the 4th round last year without seeing it through and ended up picking another QB in the draft and in free agency this year. Turning a 4th rounder into a conditional 7th is a bad return on investment. Now the current coaching staff and GM may not have liked Cardale (which is pretty obvious), but again nothing like selling when the market is down. The Bills could have easily waited a little while to see if teams had a major injury and maybe let Cardale have an opportunity for a decent preseason showing and turned that into better trade value. Look this organization doesn't get the benefit of the doubt until they start making smart moves on the regular, regardless if a new sheriff is in town. Different doesn't mean better, until it proves otherwise. I have no idea if Cardale will be a decent QB - he looks like he has some physical skills and some leadership ability, but he also has some really big places to improve his game. With a project QB, it just seems very shortsighted to trade him when his value is low.

Here is another quick geography/history lesson - Richmond, VA was the Capitol of the south and if you've ever been there you'd know how southern it is.