MJS

This is why I said it is luck. You have to get lucky by getting one of those dominant players.

They let HALF of their teams in. It's a cheapened playoffs. And yet the Sabres still can't manage it... I am still against the extra wild card team in the NFL. Making the playoffs should be a big achievement.

This rarely happens. Usually, it is a cluster of average teams who don't make the playoffs, especially with the added wild card slot for both conferences.

I agree. But another problem is that some of our picks have turned out to be solid players, but we haven't lucked into any of those truly dominant players, while KC and Cincy have both lucked into a couple of players like that. Oliver, for instance, is a good quality starter, but he isn't the dominant force we hoped he would be. It's great to get the solid starters and solid depth pieces, but man I hope we luck into a dominant player at some point. That would really move the needle.

Thanks for posting. I've always really liked this analysis. I'd like to see the same for free agency additions to complete the picture. I think this shows that the Bills have been a good drafting team, but have gone downhill the past couple of years and are now average. Let's hope they get things turned around. We could use a really good draft. The past two drafts have had some questionable picks. Rousseau was a good pick, but then they double dipped and went with Basham. I think that was a mistake. Last year, Elam was a good pick, but they drafted Bernard who didn't fit our scheme and it's hard to see how he fits in given that Milano is locked up. He isn't an Edmunds replacement. Beane needs to get his mojo back.

Allen was their #1 QB. In their draft videos you can see the order of QB's on a white board. I don't see how Beane can be held accountable for the draft successes of another team.

Dang. Save it for the regular season. What were they thinking? Who cares if it works in the preseason?

Honestly, I hope McKenzie is gone. He has proven over and over again that he is not the guy. I don't want Shakir to lose a single snap to him. Can't rely on Crowder because he is always hurt. So for me it is Shakir and Beasley, or bring in a cheap upgrade. If they are going to spend money or significant draft capital, I'd rather it be for the #2 WR, not the slot.

This was after the game that basically the entire team was dealing with heat exhaustion. Allen was exhausted and gave it his all and lost. I thought it was kind of a cool moment, actually. Tua recognized how hard Allen fought for it and recognized how hard it would be to come up short under those circumstances. It was just one of those human moments.

Diggs is 29. So yeah, I would expect to get about 3 more good years out of him. Keenan Allen I would expect to get 2, but he is hurt more often.

He is already 30. Yeah, we might be able to get a couple of good seasons out of him. I'd rather have Jakobi Meyers, though. Or a high drafted rookie.

Agreed. He dissapears for entire stretches of the season. Bills fans think of him well because he has had a few good games against us. He is not very good, honestly.

Those saying it was a weak division, it's not actually really true. If you compare wins/losses over those years by division, the AFC East was not one of the weaker divisions. Even when you take out the #1 team for each division, only comparing the bottom 3 teams, the AFC East was not one of the weaker divisions. Also, the Pats did not always go 6-0 in the division. One or two of their very few losses each year were usually from within the division. In fact, they only swept the division two times (2007 and 2012). Now, if you want to look at QB's, yes, the AFC East had a really bad stretch of QB's during those years.

You can divide their years into three different buckets: Early dominance: 2001 to 2004. They won 3 superbowls in 4 years. Middle Less Dominant: 2005 to 2013. No superbowl wins. They were somewhat like our Bills today, not getting over the hump in the playoffs. They were even one-and-done in the playoffs two times during this stretch. They did get there twice, but lost to the Giants both times. Late Dominance: 2014 to 2020. Everything clicked again for a few years. They won 4 more superbowls during this stretch. Tom Brady is the big reason they won so much. He is the GOAT. He also took a discount for much of those years. They also had successful schemes and knew how to bring in role players to fit specific roles in the offense. They didn't always draft particularly well, but they were good at bringing in value free agents and made trades or signed big time players at the right time to help get over the hump (Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Stephon Gilmore, etc.)

Oh my gosh. He had 837 yards and 7 TD's. The insanity around here is incredible.

What do you mean return? He never left. He is the DC.

He has way more problems than that. His number 1 problem is narcissism. Go look at his history. He has issues dating back to high school. Even if he has CTE, his issues began long before that.

Numerous fans, you say? That's, like... more than a few.

Let's try again. Let's not blow anything up.

What do preseason experts and publications have to do with anything? They are just people spit balling and trying to make money with their content. It doesn't actually mean anything. What did all those experts predict for the Seahawks and Giants? What did they predict for the Broncos?

Actually, that's the threshold for winning games. That's why they say "the first to 30 wins". If you can consistently score close to or over 30 points a game, you are likely going to win most of your games.

Small sample sizes, for one. During the regular season you play your schedule, which is a mix of bad and good teams. During the playoffs you are only playing good team. But the main issue is small sample size. An average from one or two games is not sufficient to really have meaningful comparison. But I do think those teams are better than the Bills, at least on the AFC side. Who knows on the NFC side?

Well, part of the problem is those teams are better than ours. The Bills were a superbowl favorite, and THAT was the great mirage. The Bills were overrated. They aren't there yet. We projected a lot of talent that didn't pan out. We thought Davis could be a #2. He couldn't. We thought McKenzie could be a slot. He couldn't. We thought Bates and Brown would progress. Instead, they regressed. Compound that with all the injuries. The Bills were not as good as we thought they were.

Of the Bills 8 playoff games in the Josh Allen era, the Bills have given up 30 or more points 3 times. 5 times they held the other team under 30. Conversely, the offense has only put up 30 or more points 3 times, and were held to under 30 points 5 times. The offense in the playoffs is a bigger issue than the defense. And the oline is a big reason for that. Yes, we need to evolve on defense, but if we can get the offense humming like we know they can, we'll get to the superbowl.

Move Bates back to LG where he performs best. Majorly upgrade RG and RT. We should be good to go unless Bates can't get back to form. But if he is the one weak link, that's still a lot better. Dawkins and Morse play a lot better when they have competent guard play.