SCBills

“How, every year, it’s the same thing” - Stefon Diggs, not a poster on TBD.

Nah.. I want everyone to have narratives. If Josh has the unfair “can’t beat Burrow or Mahomes in the Playoffs” narrative, give Mahomes the “can’t beat Burrow” narrative and Burrow the “can’t win the big one” narrative.

Everything about yesterday was weird, including the Hamlin appearance. They might as well had a body double there. Random angles, blurry snow shot, hidden as being driven in. That game felt like an awful fever dream.

Bengals have zero reason to respect us at the moment. That being said, that tweet crosses the line, and if we have any sense of self-respect, he’ll get his when we see them next year.

That’s 100% a troll on Diggs by invoking Hamlin. Bills need to take him out next time we see him. It’s just a game?… Nah, not when someone mocks you for your boy almost dying.

If I’m on the Buffalo Bills … I make sure it’s known amongst the team members that Eli Apple has a hit out on him next time we see him. Nah … that can’t stand.

Dawkins Player Tribune letter was basically a tell that this team wasn’t prepared for make a run at the Super Bowl.

If Beane is aggressive in the re-tool, I’ll have faith this team still has the ability to win a Super Bowl with McDermott. To me that means: -Letting go of Frazier and bringing in an aggressive/innovative DC -Out of the box personnel moves. We all know Poyer likely walks. Edmunds 50/50. Nobody on this Defense outside Von, Daquan, Rousseau, Milano and Elam should be safe. If we want money to invest in the Offense, it’s going to have to come at the detriment of the Defense.. a Defense that will have to be built around a few core pieces with schemed up/coached up modest/middle-tier contract vets and mid-late round draft picks.

Bengals are in a great spot for next year, but then it gets real dicey for them. Chiefs are set up well, but Kelce is going to be 34.. outside of Mahomes, he is the focal point of their offense and why they are so difficult to defend. This off-season is massive for Beane. If he just runs it back, minor moves here and there, he better smoke his draft. Im sure our offense will be much more talented next year, even if it’s just an upgrade at 1 OL position and a legit WR2 to push Gabe down to WR3, but the defense is going to be very dependent upon the return from injury of Von, Tre and Hyde.

See if someone will take 27 and Oliver to move up in RD1 to where we can get a legit WR. Frees up his cap hit as well. Firmly in the camp of going WR in the draft unless a top FA WR wants to come here on a discount.

Thank goodness someone is showing fire. Allen is a face of the NFL, he has to keep it buttoned up. All the other guys who have been through 3 of these losses now … questioning y’all way more than Diggs right now.

Howard and Jeremy were very therapeutic to listen to today. They are conveying the voice of the fanbase and share the same concerns. I had to turn off One Bills Live.. Just rolled my eyes out of my head as Tasker defended the coaches and asked all of us if we want to keep changing Coordinators all the time.... Well, Steve, with a Defensive HC, that's going to be life for Josh Allen moving forward.

I initially mentioned Sean Payton, but with the pick comp, ehhh... I think Ben Johnson would be interesting if we could pry him from the Lions. Basically, for me, I think we need a philosophy shift. Having a Defensive HC, IMO, just puts Allen at a constant disadvantage to Mahomes and Burrow. At best, we always hit on the OC, they don't take time to get up to snuff, and then we do it all over again because they get hired as a HC.

Dont want to come off insensitive, but I cringed whenever our reporters kept talking about Hamlin to the players/coaches. Agreed.. bad juju. Poyers weird goodbye. The Bengals talking brazen all week while our guys apparently were just sulking sadboys at practice.

For those who just want coordinators fired, why? What do you believe is the future for a team with a defensive minded HC, who’s defenses haven’t showed up in the playoffs and due to the nature of the league, will be subjecting Allen to a new offensive architect every few years?

Gotta love OBL carrying water for the coaches and asking do we really want to change coordinators all the time for Josh, without asking themselves the question of why that’s always going to be an issue for us under McDermott.

Hard to generate pass rush when the QB gets rid of the ball to elite playmakers in 2.5 seconds and you play off coverage most of the game. Regardless, the DL is a problem. Von Miller, Greg Rousseau and Daquan Jones are the only guys worth keeping. Get Oliver and his cap hit off this team. He, in no way, should be in the plans moving forward so trade him while we can.

Bengals lost their CB1 early in the year. They also had to deal with the Hamlin game. Their DE's, as you point out, have been playing injured. They lost 3/5 of their starting OL right before the Playoffs. Yet they were able to not just persevere, but got stronger from it. Took every piece of motivation they could get and used it as an edge. We won't admit it, but I think our players very much started feeling sorry for themselves.

Bad look. Three years in a row we've ended the season in similar fashion without making it to the Super Bowl. There's some validity here... nobody wants to hear it, and any player echoing it should be embarrassed in doing so.

Spot on! This is the perfect assessment. Those guys are the guys we can thank for hopefully helping build this team TO the team that wins the Super Bowl. ...but they aren't the guys that seem capable of actually doing it. It's time to get rid of the coaching staff and gut the defense to build the offense. They won't do it, I fear... but we need to at least re-imagine this defense with new coaching on that side of the ball and a new philosophy. Bend dont break needs to be gone... replaced with an aggressive defense that makes and gives up big plays to mask the talent deficiencies we will have there.

There's validity to this, but it's a really tough sell when this current iteration has failed in similar fashion 3 years in a row. We have no idea what other teams have gone through. Sure, likely not to the level of what we have, but it also comes across as a convenient excuse. I'm sorry, it just does. Pressure makes diamonds.. but there's a flip side to that coin. What's the excuse next year? What have you seen that gives you confidence in this current staff's ability to get past Cincy/KC in the Playoffs? ....and honestly, it's a bit embarrassing to hear players admit to this.

Why would I take solace in that? Cowboys look like the NFC version of Buffalo, but without an elite QB. They are held back by coaching that Jerry Jones seems to be loyal to at the moment and they have a bunch of money tied up in good players, with only one elite guy in Micah Parsons. They lost to a team with multiple elite guys and better coaching. Same as us.

Bills were mentally exhausted and had nothing to give against the Bengals is a worthwhile excuse if this was a one-off. It is not. It's a pattern. We're just making excuses for them. The fact is this coaching staff seems to have reached it's ceiling and our roster construction is flawed - in large part - due to the HC's philosophy. It's time to make the aggressive move, but we won't, and I fear we'll be having this same conversation next year at this time.

But how do we fix that? We draft late and have next to no cap space. The only way to address this, is to take a machete to the team. I don't necessarily think that's the worst decision. Where can we free up money? Let all sizeable money FA's walk. Cut Hines. Trade Oliver. If there is a big fish out there in FA, we should shuffle the deck and free up that money to sacrifice good players (plural) to add another elite piece.

We need an aggressive DC paired with an Offensive minded HC, because at the end of the day, we will never have a Defense as loaded with high picks/FA's as this team entered the season with as long as Josh Allen is here. The Defense needs to transition to big play defense that will give up big plays from time to time as well. Clear out some of these "good, not great" contracts and pour that money into a potential difference maker, then fill in around them. Is there a monster DT available that we could pair with Von for the next two years? Would probably be worth sacrificing Edmunds and cutting/trading anyone on the Defense not named Matt Milano, Von Miller, Daquan Jones or Micah Hyde for the '23 season.