Shaw66

Thanks for posting this. Bob Kalsu is one of millions who died serving their country since 1770. We honor all of them by preserving our freedom with kindness and compassion for all people.

Fun. Thanks. The Sammy we thought we were getting.

Right. I usually start with the ball, find the center, and look to the right. I'd like to give a serious answer but frankly, I don't watch the offensive line and I certainly don't study film. I also don't understand the nuances of the team game that is involved in offensive line play. So I have no opinion about, for example, whether Ford should be a tackle or a guard. My point of view is that McDermott, Daboll and the online coaches will figure out the best position for each player and the best combinations, and that's who will play. We will see how they do. Unless we have someone here who's been an offensive line coach in the pros or D-1 for 15 years, I don't anyone else knows, also. That doesn't mean you can't have opinions, and it doesn't mean it isn't fun for some to talk about it, but I don't have anything to add and don't even know how to tell which opinions people express here are worth listening to. For me, it's pretty much a black box.

He had 5 or 6 games like that last year alone. No receivers string 100 yard games all season long. He's definitely going to have games under 50 yards.

Exactly.

For me, a superstar is a generational player, for sure a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He is a player who drives the game planning of opponents virtually every game. He has been consistently top-10 statistically. Putting aside quarterbacks, there may be only five or ten superstars in the league at any time. JJ Watt is one. I'm not sure there's a receiver in the league I'd call a superstar - maybe Julio Jones. Let's see how Hopkins does in Arizona before I give him the nod. Fitgerald was. Megatron. These are guys who are or were truly dominant year after year. I don't know the offensive linemen, but I assume there's an Orlando Pace type guy out there somewhere. I've never been a huge Jason Peters fan, but I won't argue if someone wants to put him in the category. I think people attach the word to guys like Vonn MIller and Kahlil Mack, but from my point of view the league has figured out how to control those guys, how to keep them from blowing up games. People were calling that tight end who played for the Saints a superstar. Then he went to the Seahawks and then the Packers and we don't hear it now. A superstar dominates wherever he goes. I think Kelce would be good on any team, but not nearly so successful as he is with arguably the best QB in the league, one of the best offensive head coaches in the league, and Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins on the outside. I agree. I responded knowing we disagreed. I wasn't trying to convince you. As I just said, my definition of superstar is probably narrower than the way most people use the term these days.

See, there's a definitional problem here. I have trouble calling any tight end a superstar, because tight ends, even one as good as Kelce, don't carry an offense. I'll give you that he's been excellent - four straight thousand-yard seasons, but he doesn't carry their offense the way you were saying that Diggs needs to. They don't force the ball to Kelce. Hill is definitely not a superstar. He is a sensational player, but they definitely do not force the ball to him. They run plays to get him the ball, sure. A superstar is a guy who can have impact even a bad team. If the Bills had traded a first, a fourth and a seventh for Hill, I would have been unhappy. Actually, I would have been unhappy if they'd traded that for Kelce, because Kelce would have had the impact on the Bills offense that I expect Diggs will have.

I don't agree with this. I think the Bills will have a balanced offense, and no one except Allen will be talked about as a superstar. I think the objective is to have an offense where there are a lot of players are threats because of the balance. Look at Kansas City. There's no one there who dominates in a way that makes me say superstar. Not Kelce, not Hill, not a running back. Really good players, but no one who is the focus of the offense. Their offense doesn't succeed by forcing the ball to anyone. Diggs should be the most talented guy on the offense, but I don't think the offense will go through him. There will be games when he goes 3 for 45 because the DC has sold out to stop him, but Brown or Beasley or Singletary or Moss will have big days. At least that's the objective. You're describing the Belichick philosophy - stop what the other team does best and challenge them to beat you. McDermott's objective is to be happy to oblige. Brown is an excellent #2 and Beasley is a good #3. They're going to do damage if the defense overloads on Diggs. Singletary is a very good running back, and it looks like Moss may be the same. They're going to do damage if the defense sells out to stop the pass. Balance is the objective, not superstars.

Thanks for posting. As to the Gase comment, I will add that in his interview with Eric Wood, Fitz said he is excited about the Dolphins. He gave a few reasons, one of which was something like "we have a good coach now."

Very clearly inside out and down the middle. First thing McDermott did was get two safeties and let Gilmore go. Middle. Next season it was Allen and Edmunds. Then it was Oliver and Morse. Middle, middle, middle. All the while they were filling in at wideout with the best they could find, without making it a priority. Even Brown and Beasley weren't top-talent guys. When they were comfortable up and down the middle of the field, they went after Diggs.

Long-winded is my trademark.

The lesson that I drew, the only lesson that interested me, was watching a team that played with sustained competitive fire. They weren't up for every game, but they were so competitive that they could turn it on almost at will. They were focused, determined and highly skilled. They played with controlled fury. What I liked about the show was that it gave an inside look at that intensity. All I was talking about in the OP is that it's that kind of intensity that's necessary to win. McDermott wants that kind of consistent, long-term intensity. His method is to fill with the team with guys who have it inside. As you say, Rodman had it. Jordan had it. Jordan could lead Pippen there pretty easily - after a while it was second nature from Pippen, who seemed to have it just being around Jordan. McDermott wants guys all over the roster, burning with that kind of fire. That's what he and Beane go looking for. You get the point in last couple of sentences. If you don't have it, Beane and McDermott aren't very interested in you. Talent's not important to them if you don't have the fire. If you have the fire, then talent matters to them a lot. That is why, as you say, they liked Diggs. FIre and talent.

Fun interview. Thanks for posting.

Sorry. You weren't following what I said, because I wrote in shorthand. McDermott's primary character filter is competitive and intense hard worker. That's what he and Beane are looking for, and Diggs fits that model exactly. McDermott doesn't ask for choir boys. He does, however, expect that you will be serious enough about your goals that you won't be misbehaving.

Choir boy is your take on McDermott. McDermott's is intense and competitive.

Top 10 in 2021, if not earlier, assuming the 2020 season is played.

Josh has to be better. No one knows if he will get better. One's definition of drops may be fun to talk about, but who cares? Josh has to be better.

I agree it's not an issue. I mean, he has to complete more passes - for sure, that's an issue. But I'm not worried about. Every time I watch replays of all the beautiful balls Allen threw last season, I wonder why people complain about his accuracy. Allen is a great thrower, plain and simple. He has to understand more of what's going on on the field, he needs for the game to continue to slow down for him, play after play. I'm certain he will and it will.

That isn't correct. The reports have been very clear that Diggs was one of the most intense, competitive team oriented guys at Maryland and in Minnesota. There's a reason why Diggs is in Buffalo and Dez Bryant and DeAndre Hopkins are not.

What I said about Tyrod was that if you could tell me that for so long as he continued to have seasons with a passer rating like he had his first season, I would take him as my quarterback. His passer rating that year was 99.4. That would have made him 6th, 6th, 11th and 11th in the league the past four years. Unfortunately for Tyrod, he never did it again. I'm not saying Benjamin wasn't a mistake. Well, mistake is the wrong word. Is was an attempt to do something that didn't work. Every GM attempts some things that don't work. Calling it a mistake is no different than calling a swing and a miss a mistake. Sure, it cost the Bills something, but they were trying to make the playoffs and they needed help at receiver. Still, I think we agree more than you say.

I'm not sure you disagree with me. You just say it better.

You may remember (I don't) what it was that you and I seriously knocked heads about several years ago. We were back and forth in serious disagreement about Taylor or someone or some thing. I'm amused how we've come around to seeing things almost exactly the same. That kind of experience is what's fun about being on a forum with some quality posters. One substantive point that your post reminds me of. People bash the Kelvin Benjamin move, as though it was a big-time A+ team building failure. They forget what it was, and what Beane TOLD us it was. It was a mid-season attempt to add some firepower to an offense that seemed to be limiting the Bills' run at a playoff spot. Beane saw that he needed help and went out shopping. You're unlikely to get a star in that kind of a search, and Beane knew that. You're more likely to get something that looks like damaged goods. He took a swing and he missed. It just isn't that big a deal. Beane admitted that last season, same situation, he went shopping again and tried to convince the Vikings that Diggs was damaged goods. It didn't work; Diggs was and is too good a talent for a team to give up on him mid-season. The point is that no GM and no coach makes all the correct personnel decisions. They can be evaluated over the longer-term, not on a case-by-case basis but on a collective basis. It's pretty hard to argue that collectively Beane's been doing anything other than hitting singles, doubles and homers.

Maybe I'll respond to both of your posts, both of which I think are very good. I'll start with this one, which I agree with. I agree completely that there's a difference between having a system, which McDermott clearly has, and a system that translates into high level success. And I agree that I believe McDermott has both, even though he obviously hasn't had the success yet. I agree with a point some, maybe you, have made, that the question about McDermott is whether he has plateaued as a coach and if not, when will he. Unless he shows he can do more, he won't get where he needs to go. Before I talk more about that, let me say that there's nothing in the OP that says McDermott is going to be a big winner. It's simply a discussion of the approach that McDermott is taking. It's a discussion of the thinking behind the decisions to let some people go and to acquire certain kinds of personalities for the team. There's also nothing in the discussion that says that every personnel decision Beane and McDermott have made is correct. It's a discussion of their approach to team building. You are correct, however, because you pay attention to what people say, that I think McDermott IS going to be a big winner. I think the Bills are on the road to being the next long-term successful franchise, right behind the Patriots run, and even possibly as good as the Patriots run. Why do I think that? A combination of things. I agree with what is often said, that the culture of the franchise has to be aligned properly from top to bottom. I think the Bills have that. They have long-term committed owners who are solidly behind the men running the team. That includes a willingness to pay them, so I don't think it's likely that either Beane or McDermott will be leaving any time soon. They have a coach and a GM whose objective is sustained, long-term excellence; they aren't interested in a sprint to the top followed by a rebuild. They want to get good and stay good, like the Patriots did. To do that they need a QB who has all the right attributes: Competitiveness, brains, work ethic, personality and leadership skills. They got that. The owner, coach, and GM also have to have patience, and they have that. Patience while everyone in the organization learns how to have that kind of long-term excellence. So, for example, I'm not surprised that McDermott's teams haven't had the offensive flair or spark we'd like, because McDermott has spent his entire coaching career up until Buffalo learning about defense. He demonstrated that he learned a lot about defense, climbing the ladder in Philadelphia, then Carolina and now Buffalo, where very quickly he built a very good defense by getting rid of almost everyone he inherited. It took him years to learn defense like that, and it's going to take him some time to become excellent at offense. Why do I think he will become excellent at offense? Because he has the characteristics he wants in his players, competitiveness, brains, hard work. He has detailed written goals prepared for him by Beane, McDermott himself and others in the organization. He will do what he's always done, which is to work and study until he achieves those goals. Belichick's Browns teams regularly ranked in the high teens and twenties in offensive points and offensive yards, and his Patriots teams weren't consistently good offensively until his fifth or sixth year there, so the fact that McDermott hasn't done it in three years really doesn't worry me all that much. If it takes him three more years to figure it out, his QB will just be coming into his prime and they'll be set for a ten-year run. So I have a lot of confidence that it's happening, right before our eyes. Astute fans, like you, will sit back, watch it, enjoy it and appreciate it. I just think I'm a little bit ahead of you in seeing that it's coming. Call it optimism if you want, but I don't think it's optimism. I think it comes from analyzing and seeing that the Bills have put all the pieces in place. It didn't happen exactly by design. We've been lucky to get the right owners, the owners figured out what to look for in a coach and found it, and together they found the right GM. There was luck involved throughout. We could have gotten Bon Jovi. McDermott could have come out a year earlier. Carolina could have figured out they should fire Gettlemen and promoted Beane, Allen could have gone earlier in the draft or been a bust. So, sure, it was luck or happenstance or whatever one might want to call it. All I know is that it's all come together now and unless something unexpected happens, it's going to be a beautiful thing. Before people start blasting away, let me say that I see that the weak link in all this is Allen. I fully believe that Allen will be a Hall of Fame quarterback. I've said before, he strikes me as being most like Elway. I think Beane will keep doing his magic, and I think McDermott will get better and better at what he does. The question for me isn't whether McDermott will plateau; the question is whether Allen will. I don't think so, but he's still pretty far away from where he has to be. I think that tune will begin to change this season. I think the combination of his continuing growth and the addition of serious firepower at the offensive skill positions will move Allen up into or near the top 10 QBs this coming season. After that, I expect him to be regularly part of the MVP discussions for many season to come. But, as I say, that's just me.

I think this demonstrates a serious misunderstanding of what McBeane have been doing. They told us what they would do, and they've doing it. They didn't get Kerley and Benjamin and those guys because they thought talent wasn't important, and somehow they "aren't delusional anymore." These guys have never been delusional. What they've said, and what they've done is fill the roster with players who have the kind of personal characteristics they were looking for: Intense competitors, hard workers, guys determined to get better, family guys with serious personal values. They've been very clear about this. They don't care how talented a guy is; if he doesn't have those personal characteristics, they don't want them. So they cleared guys like Watkins and Dareus out. Plain and simple. They understood that by changing up the roster in that way they would drain the roster of some serious talent and they would not be able to replace it immediately with the same level of talent. They told us that. But McDermott explained that if you keep guys around who don't meet his character standards, they tend to infect the team, and as long as they are there infecting the team, you can't build the culture you want. So they cleaned house and filled the roster with the character they wanted, to create the culture. Once they got the culture they wanted, they began replacing players who fit the character mold and who were more talented than the guys they have. They didn't didn't think that Kerley was good enough and then suddenly discover that talent was important. They knew all along that they needed talent. They just believed, and told us, that they were going to build character and culture first. They did exactly what they said they'd do. And they aren't done yet. There will be another talent upgrade next year. My point in the OP was about only a small part of it, which is that part of the character criteria is the guy has to be an intense competitor. They guy has to be desperate to win. That's important to McDermott because he understands that the roster is so large that there can be no equivalent of a Jordan, no superstar who drives the entire team to be excellent every day. As someone pointed out, that's why McDermott is constantly talking about veteran leadership in every position room. Within each position room you can have a guy who pushes teammates like a Jordan did, because it's a small enough group.

Thurm - I agree with this. I think the NFL is about coaching, not about talent, and it's clear that the Bills have won with coaching. The whole point of the excitement caused by the off-season is that this is a well-coached team that has now added some premier talent (Diggs), some solid starting talent (defensive acquistions), and some promising rookie talent. Win with coaching. Win a lot with coaching and talent.