SoTier

He also keeps trying to throw the same out routes he can't throw, which is his first problem ... and which are pick sixes waiting to happen. The DBs and LBs around the league know this and bait him into trying to make those throws. I feel sorry for the kid because it's not his fault he doesn't have an NFL arm, and opponents take advantage of that like sharks smelling blood. I get really angry at McDermott for putting this kid out there to get crushed again and again. It's cruel. I don't have a particularly good opinion of people who needlessly embarrass or hurt others to validate some point they want to make or some principle they believe in, and I think that that's what McDermott is doing with keeping Peterman on the active roster. So, you think Trubisky will throw six INTs to Peterman's five. So, how many of Trubisky's errant throws get returned for pick sixes? I think two of Peterman's do.

Sad but very likely accurate. I figure that Barkley's too recent an addition to come into the game unless Peterman leaves on the cart, so Nate gets the entire game to throw 5 picks, 2 of which are pick sixes. As an aside and ANOTHER example of the McDermott/Beane cluelessness on offense, why the hell don't the Bills have a QB on the practice squad??? Why haven't they had one on the practice squad since the beginning of the season when they decided to go with only 2 QBs on the active roster???? This is something that I think most teams that go with only 2 QBs do so that they have a QB available who at least knows the playbook and don't have to have a guy who was a street FA a few days before come in if their backup-turned-starter goes down.

There's a medical term for this: post concussion syndrome, and there's a long list of symptoms associated with it besides dizziness. Dale Earnhardt, Jr, easily the most popular NASCAR driver of the last fifteen years, missed the last half of the 2016 NASCAR season because of concussion related symptoms and ultimately decided to retire because of it although he did come back in 2017 to run one last season. Earnhardt was diagnosed in July, 2016 with post concussion syndrome and wasn't medically cleared to race again until December, 2016 (after the end of the NASCAR season).

I think Nate Pickman lasts the entire game, giving up 5 INTs, 2 for Pick Sixes.

That sounds familiar. Maybe the reason he needs "HIS" guys is that the guys Gruden's shed recognize incompetence when they see it. Or not. ROTFLMAO. Unless you're less than 20, don't count on seeing that championship before you're eligible for Social Security. Right-o. I put the over/under for INTs at 5 and for PickSixes at 2 myself.

You need to face the fact that this team has gotten significantly worse just between 2017 and 2018 because of stupid decisions made by McDermott and Beane, and that significant improvement in 2019 is as unlikely as it was in 2001, 2006, and 2010. The fact is, at best, the Bills need to start over -- build a new team complete with new offensive coaches not "rebuild" the current stinkfest -- with far less talent at most positions than they had 2016, and with a HC and GM who have repeatedly demonstrated that they have no idea what the hell they're doing, especially on the offensive side of the ball, much less an actual "plan" to accomplish it.

Those "ridulous stats" belong to the Bills, dude. Since you seem to doubt the enormity of the Bills incompetence, here are a few more to put things in perspective for you since you obviously are lacking in that department ... in their last five games, the offense has scored 2 TDs; the offense has failed to score a TD in 4 of the Bills 8 starts; the Bills have been shut out once and have been held to a single FG in two more games; the Bills have converted on 27.5% of their third downs (31st in the league); the Bills has had all of 13 RZ chances and only 6 scores for 46.2%; the Bills are 32nd in scoring, averaging 10.9 points per game, compared to the next lowest team, Arizona, which is averaging 13.8 points a game; the Bills are 32nd in total points scored, 87, compared to the next lowest team, Tennessee which has scored 107 points in only 7 games. On defense the Bills are looking good, too ... the defense has allowed opponents to convert on 42.6% of their 3rd downs (25th in the league); the Bills vaunted defense has allowed opponents 17 scores in 26 chances for a 65% success rate good for 25th in the league; the Bills are tied with the Jets at 19-20 in points allowed (25). Now, you can come back and explain to all us ignorant fans who are questioning the bull manure that passes for professional football as far as the Bills organization is concerned how all these miserable numbers mean that the McDermott/Beane/Pegulas have "a plan" and that "the process" is "working". Universal excuse for two decades of incompetence ... and BTW, I did "get over it". I didn't renew my season tix several seasons ago, and I've stopped attending games altogether the last two seasons. I'm sure that at least one of the Legion of Fools will show up on this thread to claim it's the kind of thing that all HOF HCs and GMs go through to find success. Holy OLers! Those are HOS (Hall of Shame) inductees fer sure from the Jauron era except for Gandy, who could be serviceable in the right situation (not decent much less good, though). He went on to Arizona and played LT for Kurt Warner and almost won a Lombardi.

What? You don't think that David Culley is good enough to mentor a first round rookie QB? Besides, the Bills now have Anderson, who had such a distinguised NFL career, to do that. Culley did coach QBs for a couple of years at some Lousiana college not named LSU back in the 1980s ... Whyever would you think that??? They've scored 6 TDs already this season haven't they?

This is pure fantasy. There is absolutely no certainty that there will even be decent veteran OLers or WRs available in FA or that the Bills will be willing to pay the market rate for them or that FAs the Bills want will sign with them. As for the draft, it looks to be a more defensive draft, especially at the top, than an offensive one, and the draft is very hit or miss, and the success rates for Day 3 picks (rounds 4-7) are probably only about maybe 20%. That's where most of the Bills extra picks are. Moreover, it generally takes 2 or 3 years for an OLer or WR to develop into a competent player. The Bills got "blindsided" by Eric Wood's injury, but Richie Incognito was 35-years-old so he was nearing the end of his career. They should have had a replacement for him already on the roster in the person of a young LG obtained either through the draft, signing a UDFA prospect or scouring the waiver wire which they didn't do because they were so busy weeding out talented players whom McDermott/Beane/Brandon/Pegula/whomever deemed "too expensive" to keep -- and finding bottom feeder bodies to fill the holes. The same BS is going to happen along the DL either this off season or next when K Williams and Alexander hang up their cleats. Both are/will be 36. Will the Bills be "blindsided" by those retirements, too? Will they send Alexander packing to save some dollars because Howard looks promising as a rookie -- just like they did to Glenn at LT because Dawkins was serviceable as a rook? What about Trent Murphy? He's missed more games than he's started I think, so he may be gone, too. Frankly, there was never any real plan except to get rid of most of the well-paid players on the team in 2017 and replace them with lesser players that McDermott and Beane knew from Carolina or who had some prior connection to McDermott -- or were the cheapest FA bodies they could find at that position. Why do you think the Bills waited for a month to get around to bringing in a backup QB after Peterman proved his incompetence??? They were waiting for Anderson, another Carolina discard, to finish his golf tournament. As I've said repeatedly, there simply aren't enough decent players available in FA and the draft to fill all the current holes that McDermott and Beane have created. The Bills have two units, OL and WR, that are simply not NFL-caliber. Maybe 1 or 2 of the players from both units might make contending NFL teams -- as backups. The DL could also be in a similar state in 2019 because of retirements and injury. Maybe McDermott (2017) and McDermott/Beane (2018) shouldn't have wasted so much draft capital frequently trading up to chase after specific players to fit their narrow criteria. After all, JuJu Smith-Schuster was still available when the Bills traded up to grab Zay Jones. This is why McDermott will fail as a HC, especially when given control of which players to keep and which to bring in. Talent trumps everything. Dedication, desire, and hard work can enhance talent, but if it's not there to begin with, no amount of dedication or hard work is going to create it. The Bills have thrown away too many talented players in the McDermott/Beane era because McDermott can't see that. Kelvin Benjamin is simply not fast enough to be a WR1 or WR2 in the modern NFL, and studying tape is not going to ever enable Nathan Peterman to regularly throw out routes to his own teammates rather than to the other team.

Thank you for an excellent, well thought out post. Unfortunately, you'll probably get all kinds of criticism for daring to point out the McDermott/Beane regime's failures.

I wasn't talking about McCoy. I was talking about offense in general ... maybe next week against the Jets will be the week the Bills offense gets into the EZ.

Doh! I didn't know all that. Actually I did and I do. Stop making excuses for incompetence. That "cap space" that you're so worried about saving was attached to a competent NFL QB, a veteran who was an experienced and reliable starter and a proven good teammate. Allen is a raw rookie who needed to sit for at least part of this season and could use some advise from a guy who's "been there, done that". Taylor hasn't caused any kind of "locker room divide" in Cleveland in the very same situation that he would have had with the Bills (although apparently former Browns HC Hue Jackson did cause issues). Where the hell would this "locker room divide" come from exactly? The Bills should not have signed McCarron at all. If they didn't know that he wanted -- and expected -- to be the starter at least in the beginning of the season, then they had to be just about the only ones who didn't. McCarron left a cushy backup gig in Cinci to look for an opportunity to be a starter. McDermott claiming that McCarron wasn't what he "expected" is either an admission of his incompetence in handling players or an attempt to shift the blame to McCarron. Moreover, I don't give a rat's scrawny behind how good Peterman looked in practice. He doesn't have an NFL caliber arm and cannot make the throws that every QB, even an occasional backup, needs to be able to make. The rest of the team knew that, which why the team played so crappy against Baltimore. The whole QB competition BS was just a reflection of the incompetence of the coaching staff ... and it was slanted so that it favored Peterman by scheduling him playing mostly against 2nd and 3rd stringers while McCarron faced first string players (which how he got hurt). If the Bills aren't trying to win football games, then they should refund ticket holders' their money. The NFL is a professional league, not a little kids' T-ball league where participation is more important than winning. Maybe if the Bills hadn't traded away Cordy Glenn just because Dion Dawkins looked serviceable at LT and signed a better replacement for Eric Wood than Russell Bodine, they wouldn't have two injured quarterbacks. They could have done that if they'd kept Glenn (they would then have had several more million in cap space), and moved Dawkins either to LG or RT, both positions that probably suit him better. Of course, the idea of providing QBs with protection -- much less sure-handed targets -- has apparently become a foreign concept for the brainiacs at OBD since the ascent of McDermott and his henchman Beane.

I have serious doubts that it is.

A QB who can't make outside throws does not have the potential to be a "serviceable NFL backup". Not in this century it hasn't, not even during the Jauron years. I'm not sure that the QB situation was this dire even back in the 1970s and early 1980s as the Bills had Joe Ferguson as their starting QB for most of that period. Ferguson was a pretty decent QB for most of his career despite playing frequently with crap around him. That kinda leaves a small window in the 1980s between Ferguson and Kelly. I don't think that's a serious fear. I can't see Peterman NOT throwing at least one pick six against the Bears. He can't throw outs, and the Bills OC can't stop calling them. Ergo, a pick six is inevitable unless the defenders can't catch.

I didn't vote because Peterman shouldn't have been on the team last year, and he should have been cut before the season started unless the Bills intended to keep 3 QBs. At best, Peterman is a third QB or PS player. My guess is that Peterman will score as many points for the Bears as he does for the Bills if he's lucky and Bears DBs can't catch.

What is there to defend in the QB situation??? They got rid of a competent veteran QB in Taylor to save some $$$. They signed a backup QB, McCarron, who plainly was looking for a starting gig to prove himself and saw Buffalo as a good place to do it. Then they trade McCarron when he objected to being third string behind Nate "Picksix" Peterman on the very specious argument that Peterman looked better playing against scrubs than McCarron did playing against first stringers. The dead cap space the Bills incurred by trading Taylor and McCarron was around $10 million, but hey, that's okay because they saved millions in current salary by getting rid of these guys. That extra cap space could have gotten them 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 better offensive players than the ones currently on the team, but dead cap is only "on the books" it's not actual $$ out of the owner's pockets. When Peterman crapped the bed in the season opener, the Bills were fine with going with raw rookie Josh Allen and the incompetent Peterman for a MONTH before they finally got around to adding a competent backup QB, in this case a washed up 35-year-old who hadn't played a snap in 2 years and hadn't started in 7. Now, they're back to Picksix Peterman as the starter backed up by Matt Barkley who's only been on the team for a few days, but hey, the Pegulas are making a fat profit by filling the stadium while fielding the lowest paid roster in the NFL, so all's good.

Why should he do that when it's so much more profitable for him to hire neophyte HCs and GMs like McDermott and Beane and have the lowest current salary level in the NFL? Bills fans are like lemmings -- they'll continue to fill the stadium no matter how bad the team. Right-o. No Bills fan could possibly "connect the dots" and come to a conclusion on his own that maybe some of the Bills decisions during the McDermott/Beane/Pegula regime are influenced by individuals' race. It has to come from some "outside agitator" from NYC because we all know there are no racists in Buffalo and WNY while NYC is rife with them.

Tony Romo, Jake Delhomme (I believe) and Kurt Warner were all UDFAs, so a very few do come in and do well. Nathan Peterman was a waste of a fifth round draft pick in 2017 -- the Bills could have easily signed an UDFA QB to play as poorly as Peterman has. Peterman's last pick six wasn't because of failed OL protection; it was because he got suckered into attempting to make a throw he doesn't have the ability to make. It's his poor arm and brain that are the problem not the Bills OL as crappy as it is. Actually, both Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan have had very nice careers, with and without Shanahan. ROTFLMAO. The only two things that the Bills are doing "right" is demonstrating how clueless and incompetent the entire Bills organization and its ownership are ... and how to play the worst offensive football seen in this century.

Yadda, yadda, yadda. What excuse will you use next year at this time when the Bills are likely to have about the same record and an only marginally improved talent situation???

I used to park in the little lots along Sheldon Road which is off Abbott a block north of Southwestern Blvd (US 20). The Abbott Road Animal Hospital is on the NW corner and there's a gas station/convenience store on the SW corner. It's a decent walk to the stadium but they're not only cheaper than the stadium lots, they offer easy in/easy out access. In From Thruway Exit 56, turn left at the end of the off ramp, taking Milestrip Road (179 ) to McKinley Parkway, turn right at the light, drive past the Mall and then the little strip mall with Wild Birds Unlimited. Turn left on to Brompton Drive/E Highland Parkway and follow Brompton to Sheldon Road where you turn left. Once past Windom Elementary School, start looking for likely spots. The prices increase the closer to Abbott you get. Out Take Sheldon past Windom Elementary (the way you came in), turn right at McKinley. I'm not sure if there's one or two left hand turn lanes at 179 but that left turn is the only bottleneck. Once on 179, you will want to get into the right most lane because the Thruway entrance is just down the road. Remember, Hamburg, Dunkirk, Erie, etc are "West" while W Seneca, Cheektowaga, Buffalo, Amherst, Rocherster, etc are all "East" (even if the Thruway is going more or less north and south at that point) See Google Maps. Get directions using Abbott Road Animal Hospital as your destination.

What part of McDermott realized that he'd lose the locker room if he started Peterman don't you understand??? This was widely reported after the Baltimore debacle. It's why McDermott started Allen. Peterman's pick six in the Houston game simply cemented that Peterman wasn't going to start for the Bills again except under duress. Well, duress, in the form of Allen's elbow and Anderson's concussion, makes Peterman the Bills starter. This game may be a reprise of Peterman's disaster against the Chargers last season in which it appeared that several Bills players just went through the motions. If the defense doesn't come to play on Sunday, the Bears are going to put up 45 or 50 points on them because there are probably more players who are convinced that Peterman is a pick six waiting to happen whenever he drops back to pass. I agree that McDermott is doing the best in a bad situation, but the reality is that McDermott has no one to blame for that situation except for himself. McDermott controls player personnel on the Bills; Beane is the guy who sends the guys McDermott doesn't want packing and brings in the guys that McDermott wants ... or the available guys whom the Bills can afford (because they dug themselves into dead cap hell by trading away Dareus and Glenn -- that's about $23 million in dead cap) that McDermott can tolerate. The Bills lack of talent is totally on McDermott.

How do you know that the Pats -- or other teams -- didn't try to move up to draft Mahomes? Moreover, some teams already have franchise QBs and are trying to build championship teams, so they have other needs. Others had/have young QBs prospects that they drafted in the last 2-4 years. Some other teams may have gambled that Mahomes would be there when it was their turn or that they simply liked Trubiskey or Watson better. Not true. Historically, QBs who are going to be good QBs long term generally take a huge step forward sometime in their second season as starters. This is true even for QBs who don't look very good as as first year starters. When you look at the careers of most of the good current QBs in the league, most were significantly better in their second seasons than in their first, including Brady, Rodgers, Newton, Wilson, Cousins, Wentz, Goff, etc. There have been some precocious QBs who looked good as rookies and continued that way: Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, and Derek Carr. QBs who look good in their first year as starters and then failed tend to be QBs like Colin Kaepernick who depend upon running rather than developing as passing QBs. This looked like maybe DeShaun Watson would be that kind of QB, but he's developed his passing skills, and can't be considered a "run first" QB any longer. IOW, Kaepernick was essentially a running back who could throw the ball, not an athletic QB who can run the ball like the young studs like Wentz, Watson, and Mahomes. The QBs who need 3-5 years as starters to show if they're any good are highly unlikely to become true franchise QBs. At best, they seem to be not "good enough" to win consistently with but "too good" to relegate to backup status. Jay Cutler is the poster boy for this type. Ryan Tannehill, Blake Bortles, and Marcus Mariota seem to be this type -- and maybe Jameis Winston, although that's questionable at this point.

What I said was, "Compared to franchise QBs, shut down DBs are virtually 'a dime a dozen'." If you quote someone, use the entire quote, not just a part you can make fun with a cutsey image. No excuses for you any more than for McDermott.

Passing on a potential franchise QB to take a DB because the team didn't re-sign the Pro Bowl DB that the team had drafted in the first round just five years before simply cannot be justified, no matter what mental gymnastics McDermott defenders try to employ. If the Bills had gotten a great edge rusher or a DT to clog up the middle of the line, there might be some legs to the argument for taking him over Mahomes, but a DB, even a great DB, is simply not that valuable. Compared to franchise QBs, shut down DBs are virtually "a dime a dozen". No excuses.

Isn't that exactly what the Bills have done in the last two drafts under McDermott??? They passed on two excellent QB prospects in 2017 who have turned into decent NFL QBs (at their low end) for a CB because they needed one. They then traded away their starting QB and their starting LT to move up to take the fourth best QB prospect in the 2018 draft. Why would they change "their plan" to stock up on offense in 2019 just because the best talent in the draft is on the defensive side?