SoTier

Isn't that the definition of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts"? The Bills OL is excellent but what makes it even better is making its job easier (QB) and philosophy (running the ball). If you exchanged Allen for Tua and the Bills philosophy for Miami's, the OL would not perform nearly as well.

I'm not one to predict the imminent demise of the Chiefs, but I'm also not expecting their OL play to improve significantly, especially early in the season. Simmons is a rookie, and LT is a tough position to learn. They also lost All Pro guard Joe Thuney which might be a much bigger problem because they will likely have a rookie (Simmons) and a rookie/JAG guard on the left side of the line. Maybe the Chiefs are confident that they have an adequate replacement for Thuney, but they have not demonstrated the same kind of expertise finding/developing OLers as they have with other units. Their OL has been their weakest link for the last three seasons.

In the Jauron era, the Bills didn't even have an OL, simply future HOFer LT Jason Peters and 4 big, slow dudes no other teams wanted. Then Russ Brandon traded away Peters because he (Brandon) refused to renegotiate Peters' very unfair contract.

Some people need a scapegoat.

If Oliver is Beane's "biggest blunder", Beane must be pretty good. Teams have much bigger "misses" on Top Ten picks every single draft, including 2019: 2018: #10 Josh Rosen 2019: #6 Daniel Jones 2020 :#2 Chase Young 2021 : #4 Kyle Pitts

The Super Bowl was a "perfect storm" for the Eagles where they caught a team with a struggling OL, a future first ballot HOF HC fooled by their offensive game plan, and a KC team that got rattled early and never recovered its poise until the Eagles were on their 2nd and 3rd stringers. That's a prescription for a blow-out. I think that Allen behind the Bills OL would have made significantly more positive plays and fewer TOs than Mahomes which would have slowed down the Philly steam roller. I don't think the Bills would have beat the Eagles, but the score would have been much closer. What is surprising about good offensive teams struggling against good defensive teams? Moreover, it's unlikely that the Bills would have given the Eagles as many chances to score as the Chiefs did in the first half. Aside from 2 TOs, including a pick six, the Chiefs had a bunch of 3-and-outs early on.

That's exactly my point. I'm a retired computer programmer, so I'm not fixing what's not broke unless the fix is a significant improvement over what's working now. Many, if not most first time HCs, aren't nearly as brilliant in their first stints as HCs as they were coordinators. McDermott is one of the few who managed to take a previous year's non-playoff team to the playoffs in his first year without adding a top notch QB that season. College football coaches have failed miserably in their first stints as NFL HCs. Nick Saban lasted 2 seasons in Miami. Chip Kelly lasted 2+ seasons in Philadelphia. Urban Meyer lasted 13 games. The only college HCs who have had success in the NFL in the last 25 years had previously been NFL HCs: Peter Carroll and Jim Harbaugh.

I haven't reached the point of wanting to move on from McDermott, especially since 99% of the critics don't offer up any realistic candidates as a replacement, ie a proven HC who is available and not named Belichick or Shanahan.

There seems to be a lot of hype about Denver winning the AFCW this season, but I don't buy it. It seems a lot like the annual predictions that some other AFCE team was going to unseat the Patriots. It never happened until the Bills took over the AFCE in 2020. Between 2003 and 2019 (Pats' 2nd Super Bowl to Brady's last season), the only time the Patriots didn't win the AFCE was 2008, when they lost Brady for the year in their season opener. They still finished 2nd in the division. I'll believe the Chiefs have come back to the pack in the AFCW when they actually do. If it happens this season, it's probably because Mahomes get hurt.

Why am I not surprised that Doug Whaley would blame for the Bills struggles against KC in the playoffs on Sean McDermott? "Lots of examples"? I think that there might be just two in the last 25 years: the 2002 Tampa Bay Bucs and maybe the 2016 Denver Broncos. What other ones? Most of the Super Bowl winners had coaches who had been successful for a season or more before they won a Super Bowl. A few of the Super Bowl winners had failed to make the playoffs for a season or more before winning the SB.

I think the catch for most NFL teams with Belichick is that he would want control of personnel, and NE's slow decline when he was in charge of personnel proved that he's not very good at the long-term building and managing of a championship roster. He is a master strategist, a genius at adjusting to unexpected situations, and a motivator, but he's not a particularly good gm type. He didn't build the great rosters that the Patriots fielded early on in NE's domination alone; he had a couple of GMs who did a lot of the leg work on selecting players, managing the cap etc. For that reason, I wouldn't want him as the Bills HC.

The Bills are hardly at "the point of no return with Josh's career". In case you hadn't noticed, good/great modern day QBs who take care of their bodies play at a high level into their late 30s/early 40 these days. What would be worse than the Bills not winning a Super Bowl with Josh Allen and Sean McDermott? How about firing McDermott and hiring one or more HCs who fail to even make the playoffs frequently much less win much for the rest of Allen's career ... while McDermott takes some other team to the Super Bowl and wins? Nothing is guaranteed.

There isn't a franchise guy in Cleveland because Stefanski wanted Baker gone. If the Browns had kept Baker, with their defense and running game, they likely make the playoffs 4 or 5 times under Stefanski. Your hatred of McDermott is what is incredible. McDermott has beaten the Chiefs 4 out of 5 in the regular season. McDermott has lost to the Chiefs 3 times in the playoffs. McDermott is 1-2 against the Bengals in the regular season. McDermott is 0-1 against the Bengals in the playoffs. There is nothing to "defend" about McDermott; his record speaks for itself. If it's not good enough for you, go worship on the alter of Andy Reid. Yeah, I'm cool with it. As a Bills fan since 1963, I'll take the current Bills under McDermott because winning is a whole lot more fun than losing, which the Bills have done way too much during their history. I guarantee that winning 11 or 13 games in the regular season, making the playoffs, and winning playoff games, even if not the Super Bowl, is a thousand times better than suffering through 1 or 2 win seasons or a 17 year playoff drought.

So, now Ramsey will get torched by Lamar twice a year.

Horse racing in North America would not exist as a sport without on track pari-mutual betting, which has been legal since at least the 1930s in states like California, Florida, and New York. In the 1970s, New York State legalized off-track betting run by state approved regional betting companies. More recently, casinos, like Presque Isle Casino in Erie, PA, have partnered with horse racing tracks -- or have their own race tracks. Actually, fixing horse races is very rare despite lots more races run than football games played. Most of the integrity issues involving racing -- usually trying to sneak performance enhancing drugs into horses -- results from individuals trying to get their own horses to win races rather than conspiring with gambling interests to get a specific horse to win in a specific race.

Says the fat idiot who never made a mistake.

Seems like they knew they were determined to send Diggs packing -- maybe even working on possible trades -- when they signed both Samuel and Hollins. In what universe does proactively dealing with a disruptive player constitute "revisionist history"?

Andy Reid, of course.

Having a HOF caliber QB guarantees nothing. Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl despite playing for 17 seasons under 2 HOF coaches, Don Shula and Jimmie Johnson, both of whom won Lombardis with other QBs. In his 10 playoff seasons, Marino only played in one SB (after the 1984 season). He lost in the AFC Conference Championship twice, the last loss (1992 season) to the Bills. He also lost twice more in the playoffs to the Bills before his retirement. Obviously, the author of that op-ed piece could only find 4 NFL HCs on the proverbial "hot seat", so he scoured fan sites and discovered TSW's McDermott haters. Sammy Sunshine strikes again.

While this article is from PFF, it really is simply just another subjective listing based on opinion not any kind of data, and for this particular author -- and others -- winning a Super Bowl even more than a decade ago automatically elevates that coach to any "best HCs" list. It's stupid, but it's the way it is. IMO, Payton and Tomlin are also in this group of HCs living off past glory rather than recent performance, especially in the playoffs. In 2024, Lamar was much closer to Allen and Mahomes as a complete QB than ever, but he was backed up by a much better supporting cast than either. The Baltimore roster was clearly superior to the Bills roster outside of QB in 2024, which is why Allen won the MVP despite Lamar having significantly better statistics. Football is a team sport, and Harbaugh has consistently had excellent rosters that he doesn't seem to get the most out of, especially in the playoffs, in recent years.

Don't confuse revisionist historians with facts. It's mean.

I totally agree. This article reminded me of the articles/lists that PFF would put out in its early days where its "analytics" would "prove" that some mediocre QB who was only starting because the team didn't have anybody better on the roster was actually a top five QB. I don't know what magical "analytics" the statboys are using but it smells a lot more like subjective opinion than numbers to me. Career-wise, Payton has certainly gotten good mileage out of his single SB appearance, but this is 2025 not 2009, and the NFL is a different league today than it was. Certainly McDermott was the better coach than Payton in last year's playoffs. I fail to see the relevancy of Tomlin's 2008 SB win, Payton's 2009 SB win or John Harbaugh's 2012 SB win to these coaches' ability in 2025. I think Herbert is doomed with Harbaugh as HC and Greg Roman as OC. Harbaugh had Roman as his OC in San Francisco before he departed for Michigan. Now he's hired him again. I disagree about Herbert. I think he's been the victim of crappy coaching his entire career, and it's only gotten worse with the new regime. I think what Roman wants him to do doesn't fit his skill set or his temperament. Harbaugh hardly made "the best out of a horrid group of skill players and a QB that isn't uniquely talented enough to overcome it"; he created the situation by forcing Herbert into his system rather than modifying his system to fit his QB. BTW, if you think I dislike Harbaugh and Roman, I plead no contest. Roman was the OC in Baltimore from 2019 through 2022. He failed to develop Lamar Jackson as a passer. In 2 seasons under Todd Monken, Lamar has become an infinitely better QB as demonstrated by his superlative stats in 2024. Teacher! 🖐️ Teacher! 🖐️ I know!!! 🖐️ I know!!! 🖐️ It took Andy Reid only 6 seasons to make the Super Bowl, 14 more seasons to actually win a SB! Are you buying the Bills? I didn't realize they were for sale.

Your assumption is bull manure because you are simply projecting your opinion onto the entire TSW comunity. Secondly, you have no idea who the Bills would have at QB if they didn't have Allen. You are assuming that the Bills would have some dud, but with Beane as GM, I think that's unlikely. What if in 2018, Beane stayed at #12, drafted Lamar rather than trading up to get Allen, and used the draft capital he'd accumulated to draft more supporting players -- like WRs or DLers etc? Actually, Mularkey wasn't unlucky. He failed to have his team prepared for the Steelers who came into the season finale with nothing to play for -- just like the Bills in last season's finale. An UDFA rookie named Willie Parker ran for 100+ yards against the Bills starters. The final score didn't reflect how badly the Bills got smacked around by Pitt's second and third stringers.

These days lots of newly-hired HCs talk about "culture" and changing losing culture, but not many actually accomplish it in their first season. McDermott did so ... and he did it before he had an all-world QB. If the Jests draft Allen, Allen is just another first round QB bust. These stats prove that stats can be cherry-picked to seemingly prove anything. You should look at the regular season records, playoff records, and win-loss records in games without their future HOF QBs for all three coaches to have a valid comparison. ROTFLMAO. You obviously don't remember the Drought Era accurately. The Bills back then were marked by mediocrity. They had 3 or 4 seasons with really bad records, and 2 or so with 9-7 seasons, but mostly they managed to win 6-8 games. What they did was find new ways to miss the playoffs, including losing the final game of the 2004 season when they lost to the Stillers' backups at home.

RIP, Luigi.