ShakAttack

Considering we didn't sign a CB and don't have a CB2 on the roster right now, I actually would have preferred keeping Elam and preparing him all off-season to be the starting corner opposite Benford instead of swapping a 5th and 6th round pick to get rid of him. This opinion may change if we sign a halfway decent CB with starting experience between now and the draft, but if we don't, does this force our hand into using our first round pick on a DB? Kind of looks like it right now. If that happens, they'd better get it right this time (and have a concrete backup plan if someone jumps in front of us and steals our target(s)). On a side note, I am still intrigued by Daequan Hardy. This dude is athletic and flashed in the pre-season last year. If Benford could develop into the player he has become, I wonder if Hardy has a shot as well? This would depend on whether the Bills are willing to give him a fair shot at competing for the job, of course. Remember a few years ago when we didn't have a starting LB after losing Edmunds? And everyone was CERTAIN that we were going to either sign his replacement in FA or draft him in the first couple of rounds. When neither of these things happened, nobody gave Terrell Bernard a chance. Nobody could believe the Bills were seriously planning to start this guy. But that's what happened, and it worked out. I realize Bernard was a 3rd and Hardy was a 6th (like Benford) but once again, the dude looked GOOD as a rookie and some of us believed he should make the final 53 man roster. Just makes me wonder...

It's hard to look at this as a great success just because we got a 5th round pick for him. It seems too easily forgotten that before getting the 5th, we spent a 1st to get him. Also sad & unfortunate is the fact that AFTER the Elam pick in 2022 was probably the best we have ever seen from Beane in rounds 2-6. 2 James Cook 3 Terrel Bernard 5 Khalil Shaki 6 Christian Benford Remarkable. And it probably would have been McDuffie if the Chiefs didn't jump in front of us to snag him, resulting in the panicked Elam selection. ALWAYS THE CHIEFS FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!

FA and draft are my favorite time of the year for sure. The season is generally too stressful. And I genuinely HATE watching Bills vs Chiefs playoff games (because I fully expect our impending doom as a traumatized Bills fan) Although I will admit the 2024 regular season was a lot of fun and relatively drama free. This was an exception.

If you're not serious, this is a cruel joke.

Never in my life did I think losing a receiver with 500 yards and 4 tds would ruin my vibe on day 1 of free agency, but here we are

Surprised no mention of Josh Palmer but given the known options at WR right now, I wouldn't mind him. Good value.

So they'll probably pickup a talented WR to fill the void while Rice & Worthy are out, and then when the playoffs come around, they will have that guy + Worthy and Rice, right on time, just like always. In other words, they could end up with a stronger WR room by the start of the 2026 playoffs because Rice and Worthy got arrested. ONLY the Chiefs can benefit from stuff like this.

I’m not sure if a WR1 changes the outcome of the Chiefs game (and anyway our offense had seized momentum in the 2nd half until the refs botched the 4th and 1 call) but I’m positive Myles Garrett changes the outcome. We are literally back to where we were 3 years ago knowing we were an elite pass rusher away from taking the next step in the playoffs, and honestly, Von Miller was panning out until the ACL injury. Well, Myles Garrett is at least 3 times better and 4-5 years younger (I’m guessing) than Von was when we got him. So, it’s really a no brainer, but I also don’t think we will pull it off. Too much demand. He’s the best defender in the NFL…

I mean... I just want to know how and why this "herd mentality" and Joe Marino discussion came up in a thread on James Cook posting about $15 mil on social media, but I have a feeling there is no good answer to that.

Howie Roseman has received a lot of praise for his massive draft success in recent years, but it wasn't always that way. For a period of about 7 years, Roseman was heavily criticized for missing on several draft picks. So, what changed? There is a rumor that Roseman purchased an NFL Draft Bot a few years ago that takes every draft prospect and generates an aggregate rating based on individual ratings from the most highly regarded draft prospect analysts. When it is the Eagles turn to pick, NFL Draft Bot simply outputs the best available player (BPA) and that is who the Eagles and Roseman proceed to select. It isn't rocket science, people, it's NFL Draft Bot. Get 'er done, Beane! And stop listening to your QB for draft advice. That isn't rocket science, either.

I'm not a Coleman fan, but if he had continued the trajectory he was on by mid-season, we wouldn't be complaining. That Poyer hit really threw him off course. We know one of the main differences between basketball players and football players is the former don't like to get hit. Maybe Coleman should've stuck with basketball.

Or McConky. Don't care that "we already have a slot guy". Better than taking a guy that we can only throw jump balls to.

AWESOME stat that I just realized. Apologies if anyone else already figured this one out. But the Chiefs are now 1-3 in playoff games immediately after beating the Bills. 2020 season: SB loss to Bucs 2021 season: AFCCG loss to Bengals 2024 season: SB loss to Eagles Who's cursed now!?!?! Pretty sure this is their ONLY 3 losses in the playoffs since 2020 also, right...?

To be fair, I started this thread after day #2, but I’ve been updating the title each since then, as it remains active. It seems that many of us have moved on at this point, but the memory sticks around as just another missed opportunity to go along with the rest of them. This Super Bowl media week never helps though, because of all the Chiefs talk that goes on (and practically no mention of the Eagles). And this year in particular, everyone seems to be treating it as if they’ve won the game, before it has even been played. That makes me want to see them lose even more.

That was the young KC chiefs. As evidenced by the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside game, they've changed. They are still the most resilient team in the NFL, but you definitely can't say they don't pout anymore.

As expected, trigger week has arrived. And even though I go out of my way to avoid it, it’s ultimately inevitable. Taking my son to elementary school this morning, start the car, Sirius NFL channel is on, and there’s Brett Veach. Of course, I changed the channel almost immediately, but then on the way back home, I am channel surfing past the Sirius NFL channel, and there’s Chris Jones. My exposure to national media has been VERY limited since the AFCCG, but when I do hear anything about the Super Bowl, it’s exclusively about KC. Philly has been completely ignored. Barf city.

yeah, no, will be 32 soon, and the last thing we need is to depend on more injury prone players. Availability is the #1 asset. If you can't be depended on to be available in big games, doesn't matter how good you are frankly. Focus on Crosby/Garrett. You want this team to improve? DLine is how. At least Beane and Mcdermott recognize that great teams excel in the trenches. We have finally solidified the OL. Now we need to do the same with the DL. We never get to Mahomes in the playoffs including this year when they had issues with their own OL, and 3 years ago couldn't sniff Burrow who was also behind a bad OL. This is getting very old. We had the right idea with Von, but wrong guy; too old. Our wr room is almost full and with the 1 remaining spot we need someone with a unique skill set not already on the roster.

Definitely past where I was when I posted this thread, but I genuinely think we were good enough to beat any team in the NFL this season. I think the toughest matchup for us, by far, was the Ravens, and we got past them. This isn't like 2020 when we got to the AFCCG. This time around, I know we could have won the Super Bowl. And that realization is what still make it tough to think about every now and then.

There are some good points here, but I was referring to the fact that there have been no calls against them in decisive moments since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside penalty last year when Mahomes threw a massive tantrum, which remains valid. I do agree that there have been significant calls against the Chiefs prior to this season, but this season, there have been none that I can think of. This season, KC seems to be getting different treatment, whether you want to say it is coincidental or not, the bottom line is the same. Regarding the Bills lucking out in the Ravens game, that is 100% correct. In fact, when friends & family congratulated me after that game, my initial reaction was, "Wow, I am not used to seeing the Bills get the lucky breaks in the playoffs; maybe this season is different after all," and then after Mark Andrews drops the pass on the Ravens final play on offense of the season, we all watch Kincaid do the same thing. Does that mean the Chiefs got lucky? I mean, yes, we were clearly outcoached in that game, but regardless of what happened in the first 3 quarters, this game was always going to come down to the 4th quarter one way or another, and in that quarter, the Chiefs had 2 extremely lucky moments. First being the terrible spot on 4th and 1 (refs and out of our control), and second being the Kincaid drop (self inflicted by Bills).

I personally don’t think that, actually. But at the same time it is also hard to believe that ever since the Kadarius Toney offensive Offside last season (a correct call) the Chiefs have not had ANY decisive calls go against them, while having numerous go in their favor, and it just seems like too many to be merely a “coincidence”. Especially when you consider this is a team that played almost every single game down to the wire this season. I have my own theory on it, and it’s not that refs are “intentionally” doing it, but it’s very difficult to believe it’s pure coincidence (unless they really do just have four leaf clovers up their a$$es)

Problem is this. Most fans want Hollins back, right? Ok let’s say he is back, then we have 4 receivers returning shakir hollins coleman samuel not a whole lot of room for an upgrade. Maybe 1 guy? Funny thing is, If we do that, it may be at Coleman’s expense, so they continue to bet on Coleman despite his inability to separate and try to let him develop? Or do we look for an instant upgrade?

All I know, for those of us that are "over it" or "moved on" by this time, do yourselves a favor and stay off sports radio, espn, pft, NFL network, etc this week because as I recall from last year, week 2 leading up to the SB is generally a lot worse than week 1 due to all the KC a$$ kissing and player interviews that will take place this week. This is the type of sh*t that will trigger a lot of us. For me, its gonna be strictly WGR and Locked on bills until KC loses the super bowl or combine/draft coverage takes the spotlight. Whichever comes first...

Yep, it does. That about sums it up for me too at this point. I’m over it for the most part, but the sting will always be there when I do think about it, simply because it was a giant missed opportunity and this was the closest we had ever been to the SB in Allen’s career.

Alright, it's day #6 and I'm not feeling great. And it sucks because I was generally fine the past couple of days... so what changed? Made the mistake of tuning into SiriusXM NFL channel while I was on a weekly Saturday morning donut run with my 8-year-old son (who, by the way, was born on 1/11/17, the day we hired Sean McDermott, and the year the Bills snapped their playoff drought). Anyway, listening to the Sirius NFL channel clearly brought to surface some of the thoughts that I had been repressing. The reason I am hurting today is because this year, more than ever, the stage was set for us to make the Super Bowl. And nobody really knows if or when there will be an opportunity this good again. We had a lot going for us... We had proven that we can defeat ANYONE in the NFL. Defeated Chiefs & Lions in the regular season and clearly outplayed both teams. Baltimore was definitely a tough matchup for us, but more on that soon. We got "lucky" in the playoffs for pretty much the first time ever in Josh Allen's career in the win over Baltimore. This is when I started to let myself believe that this year may indeed be "different". And you want to know the most cruel part about this thought process? I was basing it off the fact that Mark Andrews dropped that 2-point conversion to tie the game, friends and family started to blow up my phone to congratulate me, and I would tell them: "Boy, it was nice to finally be on the lucky end of one of these games because that's usually what the Bills do in those moments!" Ahhhh, but it was already written by the football gods, because just ONE WEEK LATER, on an even BIGGER stage with even MORE at stake, our tight end does the exact same thing. So much for this year being different, eh? The Ravens were probably the most difficult matchup for the Bills in the entire NFL this year, and we managed to beat them in the playoffs. This was huge. Because it represent getting the "hard part" out of the way. Not to say KC isn't a monumental task in itself, but we simply don't have the personnel to match up with Baltimore at all, but we made it work by doing a few things that we didn't do against KC: 1) We had some tendency breakers in our game plan that were effective 2) We capitalized on opportunities when they came up. 3) We weren't the team dropping the passes or doing the little things to hurt ourselves. They were. We were relatively healthy this season in contrast with the past couple of years. Although some fans may debate this after losing Christian Benford at the worst possible time, and they would have a good point, considering that half our starting DBs essentially did not play vs KC. The Bengals were not in the playoffs!!!! Because to the earlier point about the Ravens being the most difficult matchup in the NFL for the Bills, the Bengals could have been right there with them... To this day, the only time the Bills were legitimately outplayed in the playoffs (post-2020 AFCCG) was against the Bengals. You really have to expect they will be in the dance next season. They, like us, could take ANYONE down to the wire despite their record. A When you've got one spot in the AFC championship game basically RESERVED for the Chiefs every season, it leaves 1 for the rest of us.... Bills and Josh Allen, Ravens and Lamar, BENGALS and Burrow, Chargers and Herbert... and then you have the promising up-and-coming QBs like Drake Maye and Bo Nix. I mean, do you see it now? This isn't going to get any easier, but the opportunity was RIGHT HERE this season! Now, it's also possible that one of these years another team actually knocks out KC before the championship round, and if that happens and we are still alive, well, that may represent a better opportunity than what we had this season.. maybe? I don't know. There are just so many factors, but at the very least, I think KC's division is finally going to be competitive enough to make things a little more difficult for them. I know the Raiders suck, but hell, they have played KC as close as anyone over the past few seasons. Anyway, bottom line is that my frustration today comes from knowing that WE WERE RIGHT THERE... and you can't get much closer to the goal than we were this year... and it pains me just to write that, but that's why the feelings have resurfaced today.

I have an easy answer to this. The curse has to be lifted for us to get past KC and into the Super Bowl. That is all. Trust me. If it is not one thing, it will always be another. Sure, there is a common denominator of bad defense in these past 3 playoff losses, but the way in which we ultimately lost each game was very different each time. If we have an improved defense next season, the offense will take a step back, or maybe we will have key injuries like 2023 instead. Remember, even though it may not seem that way when the season ended, we were relatively fortunate injury wise this season. The issue is that we are comparing ourselves to KC, the luckiest team in NFL history. I know I sound insane and I believe that I'm probably wrong because everything in my gut is telling me that what I'm saying right now is nonsense, BUT this is what 30+ years of rooting for the Bills will do to you. And on a side note, I was REALLY hoping that X-Files actor successfully lifted his own curse on the Bills this season, and I was hoping that Allen would follow the MJ vs. Pistons pattern. I had a bit of faith when I became aware of these things in the week prior to the game... just to be let down yet again Same thing every year unfortunately. Since 2020 the only time that we were legitimately beat was against Bengals. The one team not named KC to eliminate us.