DabillsDaBillsDaBills

Personally, I do think McD meddled with the offense. Josh Allen had 4.8 rushes per game under Dorsey and 9.0 rushes per game under Brady last season. Do you think Dorsey made a unilateral decision to have Josh run less? Or do you think Dorsey was listening when McD and Beane spent the entire offseason talking about Josh running less and sliding more?

Why would we only look at the 6 week slide period and ignore the 3 best offensive performances under Dorsey? Do weeks 2-4 not count? If you're arbitrarily excluding data from your stats to make an argument, its not much of an argument Complete regular season stats: 26.2 average PPG with Dorsey. 23.0 median 27.0 average PPG with Brady. 21.0 median

I'm interested to see what type of career Dorsey has. I don't think he was a very good OC for the Bills, but I think he is over-hated by most fans here. He was handcuffed in 2 different ways by McBeane 1) The mandate for Josh Allen to not run as much 2) Complementary football (IE the #1 priority was clock control instead of scoring) I don't think the offense looked very different under Brady (and the stats bear that out). The Brady offense against Chiefs, Chargers, Patriots, and Dolphins were every bit as inconsistent as the Dorsey offense looked during our 6 game mid-season swoon. The 5 game win streak to end the regular season had more to do with the DEF, and some luck, then it did the offense. Thankfully the DEF forced 15 turnovers in Brady's 7 games (compared to 4 turnovers in Dorsey's final 6 games). That gave our OFF so many more possessions and took some pressure off as well. Luckily we eeked out some wins due to Toney lining up offside, playing the Chargers with a backup QB and interim coach, Patriots with 4 turnovers in 10 plays, and we had a punt return for TD against the Dolphins. The offense was fairly bad in all 4 of those games.

What games did Bass win for us last season? He kicked a late FG to take the lead twice. 39 yard FG vs Chiefs (regular season) 29 yard FG vs Chargers Every single kicker in the league (and many not in the league) would've made those kicks. Bass cost us the Eagles and Patriots games in the regular season. He cost us at least a chance in the KC playoff game

Since 2020 the Bills are 2nd in regular season wins 1st in points scored (per game) 1st in points allowed

Did you look at wins with the same criteria as well? For example the Giants game this year saw our offense score TWO go-ahead TDs in the 4th Q. While our DEF allowed a lead-losing FG drive in the 4th Q. I'm cherry picking here to illustrate how deceiving it can be to only look at the 4th Q.

I'm actually interested in how you would count some of these games. Does the 2023 loss to the Jets count as a game our DEF choked because they allowed 2 scoring drives in the 4th Q? Josh and the offense did score a game tying FG on a drive that started with <2 minutes left. Pretty easily Josh's worst game of the season, but a game in which the DEF gave up the lead late and the OFF scored on a 'clutch' drive to tie it late. What about the 2021 loss to the Titans? Strictly speaking the offense failed to score to take the lead late in the 4th Q. However, our DEF did not force a stop after the 1st Q and allowed 6 straight scoring drives. 2022 loss to the Vikings or 2021 loss to the Bucs? Both sides of the ball had clutch and anti-clutch moments in the 4th/OT. FWIW if we're looking at clear cut examples of 1 side of the ball choking the game I'd have this list DEF blew it: 2020: Cardinals 2021: Chiefs (playoffs) 2023: Patriots, Eagles OFF blew it: 2021: Jaguars, Patriots (extreme weather) 2022: Dolphins (extreme weather) The rest of our close losses have joint responsibility in the 4th Q or involve 1 side of the ball playing great for 3+ quarters but not being able to close the game out. Offense has the '21 loss to Titans and '23 (playoffs) loss to Chiefs. Defense has the '23 loss to Broncos

KC defense scored a TD that game and forced 2 punts. That's a better defensive performance than the Bills in any of the 3 playoff games vs KC

I wouldn't call a half season suspension a slap on the wrist. It's certainly a lot more than Von Miller received for similar allegations.

If Allen and Mahomes swapped teams, everything else remaining the same, Allen would be the one with multiple SBs and MVPs while Mahomes had nothing.

I hope he has a bounce back year, but I'm still wondering how on EARTH Von Miller and McDermott thought he was ready to play by week 5 last season. Does he not practice at all? Did he look good in practice against guys putting in 60% real game effort? Hate to be the bearer of bad news Von, but forcing yourself back way too early actively hurt your teammates. We would've been better off stashing him on IR and using the roster spot on someone else.

10-11 regular season record in games that Allen didn't start (every game in 2017 and weeks 1, 7, 8, 9, 10 in 2018). 2018 had starts by Peterman, Derek Anderson, and Matt Barkley. 0-1 in the playoffs w/o Allen. For the record we did win a game that Peterman started - the snow game against the Colts! The PeterMan got knocked out in the 2nd half and replaced by Joe Webb. Ironically I think 2017 and 2018 are McD's best seasons as a coach. Those are the only years he had the team outperform its talent level.

The DEF got torched that game. We were the first team in NFL history to allow 450+ yards with 0 forced turnovers and still win a game (regular or postseason). Luckily for us Rivers missed an open WR on 4th and goal, and their kicker doinked a 33 yarder off the upright.

Top 10 returning head coaches. As there are only 25 returning head coaches McD did not in fact make the top 3rd.

I'll take the under. He's only topped 9 in a season once. Josh has put up 8, 9, 8, 6, 7, and 15 rushing TDs by season.

I'm taking the over, but think its close. Last year totals Dawson - 22 Dalton - 73 Dawson put up a career low in a season where he missed 4 games due to injury, and was probably limited by the injury in a fair number of games he did play in. Dalton had a very promising rookie season with 7th most catches by a TE for the year. I think Dalton will become a better player from year 1 to year 2 and in combination with Diggs/Davis leaving he'll get a higher target share to end up with 90 catches. I'm a huge Dawson hater but even I think he can make it to 20+ catches.

3 guys that combined for 11.5 sacks last year? I'm SLAMMING the under on this I'd put the o/u at 15

Over the last 4 seasons with Allen we've averaged 12 regular season wins and have 5 total playoff wins. I think Cousins with the exact rosters we've had (minus Allen) would have more like 9 or 10 regular season wins per year and MAYBE 1 playoff win. While I think Cousins is good enough to beat the Skylar Thompson Dolphins or the TJ Watt-less Steelers, he wouldn't have gotten us the 2 seed to host those teams. There's also the salary cap consideration that Cousins has been getting PAID since 2020 and Josh was on his rookie contract (until the most recent season) so the roster would've been noticeably worse. That would easily knock another win off per season

I thought he asked a few borderline tough questions, but didn't seem to push it and came across as respectful. I'd much rather see reporters ask questions like this than just another fluff piece

Started the year 9/9. Then he missed 2 FG (a 52 and 53 yarder) against the Giants in week 6 which very nearly cost us the game. McD lost faith in him after that and chose to punt instead of attempt 50+ yard FGs multiple times. After the 9/9 start Bass went 15/20 in the regular season and a mind boggling 2/5 in the playoffs. I think he would've already been released by now if it weren't for the ridiculous contract Beane gave him.

I wonder how different the narrative around Josh would be if he was a stat chaser. He had 5+ turnovers last year on plays that either did not hurt us (arm punts) or he had no other choice (last play of Patriots game or 4th down against Dolphins). It's like Josh has a switch in his head to turn on 100% HERO BALL when the situation calls for it and he couldn't care less if it's a turnover that hurts his MVP chances. I realize other QBs will throw arm punt INTs or have a hail mary intercepted, but nobody is remotely close to the number of turnovers Josh has on plays like that. Imagine if Josh threw the ball away or ate a sack on 4th down like Lamar '2x MVP' Jackson did in a miserable 10-17 loss to the Steelers this season. Wouldn't help the Bills at all but would've helped his personal turnover number. 4th & 2 at PIT 23 (0:13 - 2nd) (No Huddle, Shotgun) L.Jackson pass incomplete deep right to Z.Flowers [C.Holcomb]. 4th & 7 at BAL 28 (0:15 - 4th) (Shotgun) L.Jackson sacked at BLT 22 for -6 yards (T.Watt). PENALTY on PIT-T.Watt, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, 15 yards, enforced between downs. Or if he wanted to pad yardage late in the 4th Q down multiple scores like MVP hopeful Brock Purdy. 49ers were down 31-17 with 12 seconds left and Purdy threw back to back dump offs for 69 yards. The next time Josh does something like that would be the first of his career. 1st & 10 at SF 20 (0:12 - 4th) (Shotgun) B.Purdy pass short left to C.McCaffrey pushed ob at SF 48 for 28 yards (J.Tufele). 1st & 10 at SF 48 (0:04 - 4th) (Shotgun) B.Purdy pass short right to R.McCloud pushed ob at CIN 11 for 41 yards (D.Hill). Penalty on SF-S.Burford, Ineligible Downfield Pass, declined. If Josh cared about stats he would've had at least 5 fewer turnovers and at least 100+ yards of garbage time dumpoffs. Everything else remaining the same do you think he wins MVP last year?

The Chiefs had a 23-20 lead when they got the ball back with 7+ minutes left. They had the lead so the main priority is to drain the clock. Don't forget that Mahomes threw a terrible INT on 3rd and 20 and got absolutely bailed out by the refs with a garbage DPI call. How often does a trailing team score a go-ahead TD with no time left on the clock after a 7+ minute drive? I'd be surprised if it happens more than once or twice in any given season

That narrative is so over-blown. We were decimated by injuries ONCE out of the 3 playoff losses.

Guess we found McDermott's burner account

I have to think we let him walk in FA. As a general rule RBs are not worth 2nd contracts and Cook has enough warts in his game I'm more than happy to let him walk to get a comp pick