SCBills

Bills can get out of the Von deal after next year. If they want to extend AJ, they can. Just backload it. Same thing with Rousseau the following year. The defense is probably going to have quite the shakeup in the off-season with guys like Hyde, Poyer, White, DaQuan, Floyd and AJ all being guys the coaching staff/front office is going to have to make decisions on whether to extend and/or cut bait.

Miami lost Ramsey, and who knows if he’s effective late season in a comeback. Armstead is hanging in by a thread. KC doesn’t get injured. They are invincible aside from Mahomes pretending to sprain an ankle every once in a while.

Ravens lost yesterday because they played a good defense and skill players kept dropping passes. Jags played well and when plays were there to be made every focal player didn’t come through. -Diggs lost a 50/50 -Gabe had a chain moving drop -Knox had chain moving drop -Cook had a chain moving drop -Kincaid didn’t fight for an extra yard -Couldn’t run the ball -OL bullied for the first time since NYJ It was a total failure all around for the offense.

Comment from their board: ”Do we need to trade the achilles of a star player for every win this year?”

McDermott not ruling them out for the season is… interesting. Bills aren’t usually ones to allow for any optimism/aggressive recovery timeframes. Sounds a lot like Jalen Ramsey. Done for the year vibes and then, maybe not.

Bills punted 6 out their first 7 possessions. You don’t think, maybe, that accounts for the TOP & Number of Plays? Bills will force turnovers this year. QB pressure creates turnovers.

Our outside DB room’s eldest member is Dane Jackson, with a bunch of second year guys. Makes sense to bring in a veteran who can provide that presence to the room from the PS.

When did I say those guys were going to be studs? We still have enough on defense. People would say “we can’t lose Ed” if we lost Oliver. “Can’t lose Groot” if we lost Rousseau. “Can’t lose Taron” if we lost Johnson. “Can’t lose Von again” if we lost Von again. Enough already. It sucks. But Tre is the only one that should be a fatal flaw if we can’t get baseline production at corner. You can scheme and/or find a linebacker. You can get by without a stud 1T DT. And these injuries hit before the trade deadline. We held a good offense with a QB that was on point to 11 points until the 4th quarter. That was without Benford, Roussea, Shaq and essentially Von as well. Scheme and Pass Rush can mask A LOT.

So sounds like we’ve lost Tre & Milano for the year and there’s a chance Jones can get back late in the season.

No. If anything I’d look to extend him to a backloaded contract to keep him as a building post Von with Rousseau and Oliver.

Yea, this overreaction is getting annoying and it’s not only aimed at you. Tre hurts for depth, but he was getting back to good.. he wasn’t elite in his form. Milano is elite. He’s a linebacker. Let me repeat myself.. he’s a linebacker. Jones was playing at an elite level. He’s a defensive tackle. Yea, it sucks. But we signed Poona Ford for a reason. He’s a 1T who likely now becomes Daquan lite. We drafted Dorian Williams in RD3 for a reason. The guy drafted before him was slated to start for Dallas at LB before he went down for the year in preseason. Tre is a problem if Elam is a complete bust. We seem to have zero depth behind Jackson and Benford now.

I'd replace Tre White with Taron Johnson. Tre looked to be on his way back to a good corner, but Benford is playing around the same level. I'd like to see what we look like with Ford before I say Daquan Jones is/was Top 4. Matt Milano is definitely a big loss, but at one of the easiest positions on a defense to fill.

Fully torn Pec and he's done for the year. Anything less and we could get him back anywhere between 5-10 games from now.

I just don't see the need, in our defense, for a massive trade like that at CB. I think we need somebody like a Levi Wallace. Just give us a 3rd outside corner that's a solid player / scheme fit. We don't have a ton of off-season needs on Offense, thankfully, but will likely be in the market for a WR2. I'd love for that to be an option with our RD1 pick. On Defense, it's a very different story.. we're staring at 1 DT and 2 reliable EDGE under contract, with Milano & White coming off major injuries and two Safeties that will likely be replaced in the off-season. Beane is going to be cognizant of the future roster building ramifications when looking at the trade environment before the deadline. Surtain makes economic sense for us with this year and next on a rookie deal, so I could talk myself into say... our RD1 pick and Elam if they'd listen, but not any more than that... and even then, we're once again sacrificing potential help for Allen for the Defense, as Surtain would clearly be a foundational piece moving forward.

Poona Ford is a run stuffing/space eating 1T. What we lose with Poona vs Daquan is Jones pass rush ability.

The Defense has been borderline elite for 5 games. Yesterday they held the Jags to 11 points for much of the game, despite coming into the game without a starting CB and starting EDGE, losing their other starting CB the week before and losing their starting DT and LB a few plays in.

Yea, the AFC looks like a jumbled mess with most of the conference at 3-2 or 2-3 and of the 4-1 teams, KC keeps winning close games with help from the refs and Miami looks elite, yet was blown out by the best team they've faced.

Elam seems like a lost cause at this point. The way McDermott talks about him is almost in a dismissive/annoyed tone. It's all very bizarre and that dude out there yesterday was not the same guy on the field against KC and Miami last year. He doesn't seem like a scheme fit, the coaches seem to almost dislike him on a personal level and when given his Year 2 opportunity, he regressed to the point he became unplayable. We can't be going into the rest of the season with Jackson/Benford with a developmental PS squad guy and a headcase backing them up. Either McDermott, Butler and Elam need to all have a sit down this week and get right or we should see if we can flip him for a late round pick and/or flip a late round pick for a baseline solid corner scheme fit... doesn't need to be Patrick Surtain, but we can't have whatever that was in the secondary, for the rest of the year.

We need Dorian Williams to be the answer. I don't expect him to be amazing right away. I do expect a learning curve. But this team NEEDS to take a page from the KC playbook and let young guys develop over the course of the season. We know what Dodson is. He's a backup. We drafted Williams in RD3 for a reason. Given we lose Milano in Week 5, by the end of the season, Williams will no longer be a "rookie". Unless he's Elam levels of unplayable out there, we need to let him learn on the job. I will be pretty disgusted if Dodson is out there next to Bernard. That's just accepting a major downgrade at LB, whereas the development of Dorian Williams over the course of the season could lessen the impact felt.

McDermott isn't on the hot seat, obviously. And as someone who has been lukewarm on his ability to bring us a Super Bowl, he's impressed me so far this season. I do believe that with his defensive style, this team is better suited to win deep in the Playoffs. That being said.... Way too many losses like this under his tenure. Patrick Mahomes looks well on his way to another season of home playoff games, while the Bills look completely disjointed against the Jets and were woefully unprepared for the London game. Another year, another season of inexplicable losses that we likely look back on as the reason we lose out on the 1 seed. ....and this year, we have the added bonus of Miami in division, a team that might be a notch below Buffalo and KC, but has an Offense that doesn't seem prone to JV games like ours can put forth. If they continue in keeping Tua upright, they don't look like a team that is going to slip up against a NYJ or Jax.

Travis Etienne literally comes out and says the travel disparity played a part in the game. Called it a huge advantage for them.

Great post OP. I agree with most of it. The fact that these games on Offense span both Daboll, now Dorsey, seems to indicate that this is an issue beyond just the OC. Whether it's an Allen issue and/or personnel, I don't know, but this is now two different OC's where we've seen a game like this against the Jags, never mind the Jets debacles. I do believe that with how AJE is playing, we have the best DE rotation in the league with Rousseau, Floyd and AJE. If we can get Von ramped up by the end of the season, this pass rush can carry the defense, no matter what injuries we have behind them (within reason). And for people asking how we can compete with SF, or how anyone can for that matter... Buffalo's Defense looked like THE best Defense in the league and proceeded to lose White, Milano and maybe Jones for the year in consecutive weeks. We're entering Week 6. Who knows how the season plays out. SF isn't KC. They will likely face some health adversity like everyone does. (except KC in recent years).

I still think we're a better team than Miami. Their defense is not built to slow down our offense. Our defense struggled to contain Etienne, Ridley and Kirk without Daquan, Milano & White... but we also didn't have Rousseau, Benford and (basically) Von. We need to get healthy, and we can't really sustain anymore season ending injuries, but Poona Ford is a decent replacement for Jones and we drafted Dorian Williams in RD3 for a reason.. that reason simply comes earlier than we hoped for. CB is where I think we may need to add. Not necessarily a Surtain blockbuster trade, but if Elam can't even be counted on to be serviceable, we need someone backing up Jackson/Benford that is, at least, a scheme fit that can provide a baseline of play.

Far too much variance in the offense. I'm not pinning that all on Dorsey, but an Offense that goes 5 games.. blows out 3 teams and looks like a JV squad against the other 2, is not an Offense built for a Playoff run.

This DL will go as far as Oliver, Rousseau, Floyd and Epenesa take it. As far as Von goes, the hope I have is that we can get him back to 90% of what he was early last season by the time the Playoffs roll around.