SCBills

If we aren’t going to win the Division (highly unlikely but watch CIN beat NE this weekend), we need to be in a position where Week 18 means nothing. Allen beat up all season. Bosa playing hurt. List goes on and on. That has to be a rest week unless it’s win and in or win and we get the division somehow.

Give us another L because thats the worst case scenario. NE would beat LAC KC would beat Indy. And we have to go into Baltimore…

I said I think they’ll win their Division, but they’re not playing well. If anyone but Shadeur was QB for Cleveland, Baltimore loses that game. If they had a 9-2 NE or DEN leading their division, we’d question them making the playoffs due to tiebreakers and a tough schedule with Steelers twice, Pats and Packers, along with whatever the Bengals can be.. at least in their first matchup. That second matchup could be with Burrow shut back down for the season if they don’t go on a run. If you told me Steelers would split with them and we were guaranteed a WC, I’d gladly drop next weeks Pittsburgh game to help them hold off Baltimore so I clearly don’t want them in.

Baltimore is not “surging”. They literally played the exact same offensive game, probably worse given Lamar threw a pick six, against Cleveland as we did Houston. Difference is their Defense held Cleveland to 9 points. And as bad as our Defense can be.. I actually think they’d have done the same to Shadeur Sanders in that game. We view Baltimore differently because of what they are perceived to be and the fact their division is trash. I think they’ll make the Playoffs, but they aren’t exactly playing great right now. Maybe that changes if Lamar can get healthy. Or maybe he reinjures himself. They are 5-5 and have Jets, Bengals, Steelers, Bengals, Patriots, Packers, Steelers. That Thanksgiving game against CIN will likely be Burrow playing with a ton of juice after beating NE or their last gasp to stay alive. If they didn’t only have the Steelers to worry about, we wouldn’t view them as a shoe-in for the playoffs.

Yes. I think we get to 10-7, which should be enough, as long as we win next weekend against the Steelers. We’d have tiebreakers over KC, PIT & BAL. CIN is already at 7 losses so they’d have to run the table to have a H2H over us at 10-7 to matter. AFC South will cannibalize itself down the stretch. Colts and Texans still play each other 2x. Jags/Colts also 2x. If Stroud can be competent when he comes back, I wouldn’t be shocked if they take the Division. Jags have the easiest schedule remaining of the 3 with 3 tough games and 3 easy games.. but they’re also Jekyll & Hyde and like us, can lose to anyone. Chargers schedule after this weekend is maybe the toughest in the NFL, along with the Colts schedule. Both are brutal.

I’d probably keep McDermott, but tell him he needs to hire a new OC and DC from outside the building and they both better hit or the runway is short. Restructure Knox, move off Samuel, Johnson etc., Let McGovern and Edwards walk. Get SVPG, Anderson, Grable and Lundt with Kromer all offseason battling for open spots at LG, C and swing tackle. DT: Oliver, Walker, Sanders, Carter DE: Rousseau, Hoecht, Jackson, Solomon LB: Bernard, Williams NCB: Lewis CB: Hairston, Benford S: Bishop, Hancock QB: Allen OL: Dion, Grable, SVPG, Torrence, Brown with Anderson, Lundt TE: Kincaid, Knox, Hawes RB: Cook, Johnson, Davis WR: Palmer, Gabe, Shakir, Shavers Priority #1 - Get Allen a legit WR to knock everyone else down a peg Priority #2 - Find a legit pass rusher or Bring Bosa back if that looks unlikely Priority #3 - NCB to replace Johnson Priority #4 - Linebackers Priority #5 - OL, depending on how they view what they have in the system Priority #6 - Run stuffing DT Priority #7 - CB Depth Thats a lot of holes, but only the Top 2 should require big swings in $$$ or draft capital. NCB may be a Day 2 pick. Fill in via the Draft and smaller signings everywhere else. New OC and a WR1 fix the biggest weaknesses in this Offense. OL may require a changing of the guard but these guys coming up have been with Kromer for 2-3 years now. Defense probably doesn’t get fixed entirely, but with Oliver & Hoecht back, plus a Bosa return or other DE signing, the DL has potential to be good. Walker/Sanders year 2. Jackson, Solomon, Carter are bodies but we have to hope they become serviceable depth. Get younger, bigger at LB to push Bernard (who has an out in his contract after next year) and find a young talented NCB to upgrade over what Johnson has become.

10 wins might be ideal if Baltimore is the 4 seed. Could drop us to the 6 or 7 and play AFC South, Bo Nix or Drake Maye .. and yea, I’d rather any of that over @Baltimore. And I know everyone is afraid of Taylor, but give me Daniel Jones any day and im not entirely convinced they win the South… Jags and Texans are just as live if Indy loses to KC, with the schedule they have.

We don’t have anyone that can win one on one, but Beasley was here with Diggs and Sanders back when our GM cared about WR’s, so I can see where he’s coming from. He’s also correct that all we run is mesh routes and defenses are completely keyed in on them. When the pass rush comes quick, Josh just has to guess who might pop open. Thanks Dion!

Shakir is a luxury player. A Deebo type WR4 to play in the slot and backfield. He shouldn’t be our primary slot. And because he is, we can’t play Keon there, we can’t move Gabe or Palmer inside down to down. We’re completely static in our positions which makes us easier to defend.

#2 is wild for how accurate it is. I mean what are we doing? Comical year for this staff.

How many wake up calls does this team need? Brady refuses to change from his overwhelming five man protection scheme love, even when Allen is getting killed. Falcons beat him up. Dolphins beat him up. Texans almost buried him six feet deep. Eric Wood told a story about how Marrone wouldn’t give help against JJ Watt because he said he won’t change his entire gameplan for one person. Thats literally what Brady is doing out there this year.

Agree completely. Would this team be any different without Bernard, Benford, Rousseau and Shakir and replacement level players in their place? Or maybe, gasp, we play Keon where he’s supposed to play. This Defense is better without Bernard. Injury is an excuse but he’s always injured. The other 3 have been ok.. and they were paid to make a jump. In reality, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference on the cap this year, but we’re suffering this year for previous contracts like Milano, Knox, Johnson and Samuel. It’s a hamster wheel of constantly paying non-game changers. At least this group is young .. about the only thing they have going for them.

Just do it. It literally cannot be worse. He works with Kromer on the run game and Kromer will still be here. Josh calling his own plays could likely replicate Five Man Protection Mesh Brady’s simplistic bs in the passing game. Let Joe go take the LSU or PSU job, hit the recruiting trail and gtfo of Buffalo.

Very fair and very accurate assessment. The question is.. how much is that skillset worth?

Spencer Brown was rough before getting hurt, but battled through injury and at least looks like he cares. He was miserable on the bench and looked completely dejected when the coach came over to tell him his night is over. Can you imagine him making the types of comments Dion makes? I can’t.

We clearly paid him thinking he’d make a jump as a pass rusher, and just like Benford, Bernard and Shakir, that jump hasn’t come. They absolutely did not extend him at his contract to be a run defender. I guarantee you the FO is upset at the play of all 4 of these guys after getting paid, especially Benford, Bernard and Rousseau.

Beane, followed by Brady. But the reason we’re in this mess year in, year out at OC is because we have a Defensive Head Coach who can’t seem to field a competent Defense. Good times! In all seriousness though.. It’s Beane by a mile. This roster is in rough shape and he blew our reset/JA second window on a dumpster fire 2024 Draft and recent extensions that look horrible in hindsight. But even if Josh had weapons on the outside.. does it matter with Brady? He couldn’t make it work with Diggs. His concepts in both routes and protections are JV level.

Do you think it makes sense to pay a Robin who sets the EDGE and is primarily a run defender before you find a legit pass rusher? We let Edmunds walk because he never made splash plays, was going to get paid, but the argument was he alters the way opponents attack us in the pass game. If the FO couldn’t justify paying big money for that then how do they justify paying big money for a Robin DE who primarily functions as a plus run defender?

This feels like the Edmunds conversation, except we never paid him. “You just don’t see what he’s doing out there” You make fair points, but you should feel a guy making the money he’s set to make, week in/week out. It shouldn’t be where we have to dig deeper to see his true value on a Defense that is absolutely terrible. I feel Cole Bishop out there. I felt Bosa out there before his hand injury, and even with it, he’s the only guy even getting close to the QB right now. Rousseau is in this Edmunds category where we need to dissect the tape to see any impact he’s having. We’re paying Rousseau and Bosa essentially combined what Danielle Hunter is making on his extension. Maybe we just need one Danielle Hunter and not two B level guys. Seems like this example can be applied all over our roster.

If you want to feel even dirtier, should NE beat CIN this weekend, we’d probably want them to beat the Ravens in a few weeks.

Winning the next two, and getting to 9-4, all but guarantees us the playoffs as we’d need one more win to get to 10 wins and at 10-7 which could very well be the line of demarcation, would have tiebreakers over a 10-7 PIT, BAL and KC while CIN, at best, would then finish with 8 losses if they ran the table outside us.

This is the excuse for the Chiefs. And it’s valid considering they turn it on every postseason. Our group hasn’t even made a Super Bowl. Has never been the 1 seed. I suspect you’re correct, but it’s comical that you are.

In fairness, we saw a Texans like performance against Mahomes from this Defense a few weeks ago with Hoecht. But it can’t be we lose one guy and the Defense falls apart. If the Texans lost Will Anderson, who’s a Top 5 DE, would their Defense fall apart? Of course not.

Mentally, I’d agree. Physically, he’s the toughest player I’ve ever seen in my life. But Mahomes has that burning desire.. that mental fury inside him. It says a lot that we are all “whoaaaa” when Allen yells “What are we doing!?” to Trubisky after another Brady disasterclass. That shouldn’t be so rare given where we are right now. Mahomes has multiple Super Bowls and still is maniacally driven to get back. I’ll acknowledge it’s probably tougher when you feel you’re swimming upstream against the current that is Beane/McDermott compared to Reid/Veach.

He’s hurting us at BOTH end positions because we can’t even think to rest Bosa with his injury due to Rousseau being a compete non-factor rushing the passer.