Yobogoya!

I'm no great expert but it look to me like even if the rusher wasn't charging into Allen's view, juju brents (32) can simply take one step to the right and instantly be where Shavers is going to be stopping to receive the pass. Of course on fourth down you have to take a shot no matter how poor it is because you're turning over on downs in either case. But this was a dumb play from the word "go".

This is a great and telling point. We've heard for several seasons that our WR's are garbage but look at several rosters and there's an equal or even worse crop that is somehow producing. Like the Patriots with geriatric Diggs and JAG Hollins. Hell Chan Gailey got more production out the "goon squad" with Fitzmagic slinging it. Pretty sad.

But, but... we needed a 50/50 guy!

Yeah maybe we can promote Slick Rick from the mailroom

He'd have to come back this year AND finish strong to sniff a 3rd, I think. For exactly the reasons you mentioned. It's a criticism way down the list at this point, but part of Beane's over-commitment to his own draft picks means we never deal a guy when his value will actually net us something positive in return. Isn't it kinda weird that in 8 seasons he's NEVER moved one of his draft picks for a sizable return in trade?

Pretty soon we're gonna have to change your screen name to "Low Negative" 😅

The play where he ran around for about 100 yards and 20 seconds like a madman behind the line of scrimmage before throwing the ball seemed like the culmination of him being pretty sick and tired of no one being open, lol.

To the best of my knowledge, a "void year" is a built in "fake" year where the player is on the books, but not on the roster. If you look, Bosa is on the books for 7 mil next year as a void year, even tho he signed a "1 year deal" with the Bills. It's all smoke and mirrors, basically. But the dead cap hit is very, very real.

His 11mil is on the books for next year as a "void year" according to spotrac. "Restructure" is usually just another word for "kicking the can" on the books.

This actually explains a lot! Beane for his faults has navigated keeping us under the cap with these massive contracts very eloquently. No doubt he is better with the books than making the decision of who to give the money to. I'm not sure to what extent you can credit Gettleman's panthers scouts for Beane's early drafts here, but it's a VERY interesting point you make that the trio of McD, Beane and Gettleman all rode the coattails of that 2015 Panthers season -- and it's even more interesting when you realize they had the lowest strength of schedule in the league that year before the wheels came off and guys started to lose their jobs one by one in the seasons to follow. And yeah I mean you have to question Beane's competency in how he has built this team for the past several years. Even if you like Bernard and Milano at their best (and right now they both are playing like trash)- how much money can you strategically tie up in two undersized, oft-injured linebackers? I mean that's not a reasonable allocation of assets no matter how you slice it. The Gettleman connection is very interesting and probably oft-overlooked. His entire tenure with the Giants the fans and media railed about "outdated thinking" and "nepotism" - so it's very telling that those complaints come up in the Bills organization a lot these days.

Yeah that's what I meant with "whatever that's worth" lol Biggest arm canon in the league and we draw up screen routes at the line of scrimmage. SMDH.

The Browns have great coaches on both of sides of the ball. I would take either- or even BOTH next year if available. It's a shame their roster is such a walking punchline. How they've won any games last few years is a mystery to me.

On the flip side, he's at a career high in completion percentage. Whatever that's worth.

I was legitimately impressed by his conviction in that thread. I wonder if FunPolice is still out there expecting us to pull out the Miami win, even now...

Thing is that Andy Reid is and has always been his own play caller for the offensive side of the ball. All of his OC's have a lot of responsibility but he's always had the call sheet. So I think if you want to be firm about your own scheme being run, then you should probably take full responsibility for it. Frazier and Babich probably should have never had a call sheet if that's what McD wants is his scheme and his scheme only. And if it's a matter of finding a guy who runs the same base defense- there's plenty of guys who can run a 4-3 or "big nickel" base that we can pull from. But if McDermott is going to hand someone else play calling duties, he should allow them to run their own concepts and packages. If he can't do that then again, what's the point in handing someone else the call sheet? If you're going to micro manage that side of the ball, then own it. No point in being half-assed about it, cuz that's not fair to Babich or anyone else if they can't put their own stamp on the product on the field which is a reflection of their abilities.

If Brady gets canned this year, McDermott HAS to go outside the organization for OC. And there should be some decent options- Stefanski would be a coup if we could land him, if even for a year. If he's going to refuse to let someone come in and show up his defense, then he damn sure better be play caller and own that thing for the rest of his tenure here. Say what you want about Babich- it's not like he picks the players or can change the scheme, so honestly it's not even fair to judge him for his performance here other than to say he's not adept at maximizing our already milquetoast play sheet.

What's Robert Foster up to? Isaiah McKenzie? Come on, we love the retreads here in Buffalo- let's dig deep!

Spot on. There's a certain extra irony in that Beane spent his first summer here launching former Whaley draft picks and complaining about the cap situation he inherited.

Yeah this boggles me mind, just like letting Josh scramble and utilize a downfield passing attack. They took all the things he was best at and then created an offense that's the complete opposite even when it works. It's criminal.

This FO has shown repeatedly that they don't let injury concerns influence their decision to hand out contracts. They're very "glass half full" when it comes to expecting guys with checked availability to receive a contract and then stay healthy.

I would argue that our roster last year was middling at best even when healthy. Look at the players in my OP. Those guys are our "core" players- Milano, Bernard, Benford, T. Johnson, Groot and Oliver. That is who they drafted and then paid and retained to be the foundation of this team. Now any one of those players is a great piece in a vacuum, but when when they are the sum total of what you've built and paid to rely on every game? Then yeah you'll have to forgive me if I think a lot of this team's success is an overachievement that's been driven primarily by an all star MVP QB. Cuz that "core" team of players we've assembled doesn't scare me in the least, and it doesn't look anything like a unit I would expect to dominate every week even when they are healthy (which spoiler alert: they never are).

That's called 5d chess my friend- running the play they know you want to run, but expecting them to not expect it, and then hitting them where they expect it anyway. McD uses timeouts between plays to get no less than 3 steps ahead of the opponent 😏

Are you saying we didn't? Our roster on paper and in practice was both devoid of top talent and limped into the post-season with our annual allotment of injuries. Josh Allen buys this roster a lot of leeway, especially when the AFC East (and AFC as a whole) is as weak as it was last year. As long as he keeps this roster over-achieving, the front office will continue to think they're just "one or two pieces away".

It would be one thing if we were using the running game to set up the pass. But we aren't even doing that, lol. We use the run game and it either works or it doesn't. And then we pass and hope for the best...

I don't know, I think this is all very systemic and it in all likelihood starts with McD's need to have a minimum "comfort level" with guys he both works with and rosters. We joke about the Caroline train all the time, but it's 110% true that when the chips are down or there's a question that needs to be answers- these guys routinely go to the well of guys they know to find a "solution" over exploring options they aren't familiar with. That's true both for personnel AND staff.