WideNine

I am not overly high on this years crop of WRs, it could just be a bad year for college QBs dragging down the measurables too. Bills do not need another smurf so my list would be Metcalf Riley Ridley Kelvin Harmon seems slow to me, does not get off of press cleanly, tends to trap the ball with his body, used more on underneath routes. A J Brown is an intriguing prospect - decent size and skills, can beat press coverage and catches with his hands, seems Ol' Miss had an embarrassment of WR riches N'Keal Harry - He's been productive, just doesn't seem very quick, doesn't get a lot of separation, and tends to trap the ball. Not sure how he would handle an Allen pass. Would like to see his 40 time. Some others: Preston Williams - hard to tell what you have with that Colorado offense, but the kid good size, ran good routes, used outside, inside, and on sweeps. He gets behind defenses, catches with his hands and has pretty tough RAC. Jalen Hurd - great size, good to elite speed, excellent RAC. There is a bit of a story there when he asked the Tennessee coaching staff who were using him successfully as a running back to switch him to playing outside more at WR, said his body was taking too much of a beating. At 6' 4" I can't imagine him not making one heck of a target at RB. They disagreed and he ended up switching schools - nothing I see in the Baylor tapes show me a kid that has mailed it in... they use him all over the place and he makes plays, and he has even run between the tackles for them on some red zone situations. Only one year starting at the position so he is a bit raw, but his success at Baylor makes me think that his ceiling is pretty high - just needs some coaching up recognizing coverages, beating press, etc.. Anthony Johnson - Sure he played at Buffalo and you worry about the competition, but the kid found success even when every defense was keying on him.

I think Croom is your new KB - same measurables, but with better hands and compete. Now if we can just get him to run better routes and to make better decisions. Clay is toast, but this is a good draft for TE's IMO who have above average blocking ability yet can still create matchup problems for LBs and safeties. FA can be tapped to find better blocking possession-type TE's to fill out the roster. I don't know if I believe in the #1 WR concept so much as I like the QB to spread the ball around, but every team could use an elite talent at WR that can usually beat single coverage and has reliable hands - especially the way Josh likes to stretch the field; It is not the greatest draft for that though. I see Foster as a potential #2 as his game is going in the right direction and the 3rd spot is open for grabs with McKenzie in the slot, but all I want in that role is someone who has hands and who can RAC.

Too funny, when Howard comments that Robert Foster has been a nice find at WR and Zay had improved in year 2 McShay says those should be your #3 and #4 WRs. I appreciated too that he mentioned that Allen, does not have a good supporting cast, the o-line needs to be improved, and that Allen has been carrying the offense and should not have been asked to do that as a rookie. I don't mind Allen getting the reps with a terrible supporting cast around him as long as he stays healthy and can keep progressing as a QB. I can't wait for OBD to make upgrades and build around him this off season so he can see more success - also being able to trust and utilize other capable players on offense will help curb that side of Josh that tries to do too much, and will help him grow as a better manager of the game. I guess even those outside our the Bills org can see what is plain to see.

I have seen years where Clay was our best receiver out there - maybe that says more about our receivers over the years than Clay himself. There has been a steady decline, and his ability to stay healthy has been an issue. Beane and McD are going to have to do some house cleaning as part of clearing high-salary players who could be reasonably replaced by less expensive players who can contribute as much or more to the team. This draft is pretty deep with TE's that look like they could succeed at the next level. Shady is a similar situation. I believe they are using Croom in the WR role they were looking at KB to fill. At 6'5" 245 lbs and legit 4.6 speed he is in the same mold, but a faster version of Benjamin, particularly since the knee injury KB had. He has shown better hands than KB, but his decision-making, route-running, and blocking are a work in progress. I do feel that overall he is an upgrade over Kelvin who does not seem to be trending in the right direction for KC - still a bit early to close the book but 2 targets for 1 catch, and then 2 targets for 0 catches... Not sure how many more years Shady has in the tank, but to me it is clear that he has not fully recovered from the concussion and hammy injuries. Even with that, for the past two years I have seen less of that elusiveness and burst for yards that he was known for and more dancing and getting stopped by the first guy who gets to him behind the line. The wise move is to move him and his salary to clear a roster spot for a running back who has a chance to be a more regular contributor. I know I can get a bit brutal commenting on our veteran players that are not getting it done anymore during games. In hindsight I don't think it is very cool to bash players who just hit the wall with age and/or injuries while playing for our team and simply can't get it done anymore - unless they are trying to shift the blame for not getting it done. Not calling out anyone, just a moment of self-reflection - tis the season and all that.

Wont argue with you. There is nothing more frustrating for a coach than to put your player in position to make the play and they whiff on a weak arm tackle or have bad technique. Can't say that does not happen with the Bills. That being said, when I talk about in game changes I am not talking about a complete overhaul of your game plan, it is more about making some tweaks in alignment or personnel to adjust to what the other team is doing, or how well your starters are executing the game plan. I am fully aware that there are times you cannot do a damn thing because you have what you have. Usually the drop in talent is a bit less pronounced the closer you get to pro-level talent, but the gaps in player abilities are also under a microscope and more readily exploited by opposing teams. Seeing what we saw of the Bills, if I were game-planning against the Bills I would use some misdirection runs, counters, that isolate Edmunds as he still bites on play action and misdirects and struggles to recover and be in position with good technique and leverage. I would also isolate runs on the edges against defensive alignments where I believe Wallace would have to come up in run support because, coverage ability aside, the kid hurts the eyes when he "tries" to make a tackle. If we see that, then Frazier sees that too. The question is, how does he prepare his starters to respond if Miami has not mailed it in and tries to take advantage of what they saw in the NE tape?

Being a good HC IMO is more about "who you know" and your ability to pull together a viable staff. Leslie has been around the league long enough and should have those kinds of contacts. Just a matter of convincing owners you are a good fit for the role after that. Not sure why, but I think Leslie could do the job. He supposedly turned down the Colts HC position, saying that it was not a good role... they are not doing too terribly this year. He did spend time with the Vikings as an interim HC, and they seemed better prepared and he did settle things down and got a team that was spiraling out of control to 3-3. Some folks got rankled because I said that he may not be the best sideline coach, but in fairness I think he puts the players where they need to be to be successful if they are capable of executing the scheme he has come up with - sometimes they are not. I feel there are times he is a bit too conservative in a defense that should feature the blitz more often (especially against rookie QB's), but being an HC is a different skill set and I cannot say that he would not be an improvement over some of the guys out there now serving as HCs.

No worries - that game left a vomit taste in my mouth too.

Nothing specific in the Patriots game comes to mind - was not really focusing on that one game in particular so sorry if that is where you thought that was going. Against NE the Bills were up against a coach who knew what most of us on the Wall have known all year - that the Bills have been suspect at stopping the run, even when going with their run-stopping package in the red zone they have struggled to get it done. Belichick just decided to keep running the ball till the Bills could prove they could stop it. They couldn't. That is personnel, lack of push from the d-line, execution - lack of fill and/or tackling from Edmunds, and a few times lack of discipline and contain on the edges. My comment was more a sense of how Frazier has done over the course of the year and my thoughts around his interaction with McDermott and why McDermott may want to go with a DC he has worked with before and may mesh with better.

The dreaded 30 Year wall for running backs. The team would be better served with young RBs with reasonable salaries who can stay on the field. I love what Shady did for this team - was the only exciting thing on offense for years, but it is time to move on and wish him godspeed.

Coaches do it all the time, it is not just halftime where adjustments and personnel match-ups are worked out. There are coaches who thrive on making adjustments during a game...they treat football like it is a game of speed chess, others seemed to freeze up more and need the game to stop for them to process how they are getting beat and how to counter that. That is often why some guys no matter how knowledgeable about their X's and O's never move beyond being position coaches to OC or DC. Like all things it is not black and white, but rather a scale of ability. I believe when McD took the reigns from Frazier earlier this year, that was exactly what was going on. I am not hating on Frazier, he is a good coach, but there may be a better mesh for this staff and team with Wilks.

Not sure how much these stats matter to me. 5 QBs in very different situations with different skill sets. All of them have the capability to be NFL starters and are in fact, starting for their respective teams. Mayfield seems the most NFL-ready of the bunch. I have a hard time comparing Darnold to Allen as the Bills did not register a hit on Darnold the last time we played the Jets, and they have a running back in McGuire who is getting it done. It is no coincidence that Darnold's game has improved over his disastrous early games as his o-line protection issues have settled down and they have a complimentary rushing attack. Also, they have different skill sets as I cannot envision Darnold breaking any NFL rushing records. That being said, Darnold looks good when stepping into his throws from a clean pocket, and also had nice touch on his TD throw on the run when playing us. Props to him as the Jets look like they have a keeper. I would like to see how he performs with some actual pass rushing pressure and getting occasionally hit. Allen has grown in my eyes, is an amazing athlete and only Rosen has as bad a supporting cast and we know how he is doing... Jackson is doing a good job using his legs like Allen to get it done, and is pretty good with ball placement on the run. He has decent support, and is doing well in their system. As one poster mentioned, I would like to see how he does when teams start forcing him to play more in the pocket. Out of all of these, I firmly believe that Allen's skills have the most upside. Is he there yet, heck no, but it will be fun to watch what he is able to do with a better supporting cast, more experience, and coaching. Either way, this class of 2018 QB's may end up being something really special.

There was one real positive of watching that rather painful game and that was listening to Bruce Arians in the booth making comparisons between Josh Allen and Andrew Luck who he had coached before in Indy. He saw a lot of similarities to their rookie growing pains. He mentioned that Luck used to think he could run people over early in his NFL career, but learned as every QB does to protect themselves. Josh is bigger and faster, but he chuckled and said he was sure the coaches probably do not want him lowering his shoulder and taking on tacklers for extra yards. To me, it seemed there was nothing he wanted to do more than jump down to the sideline and start coaching Allen. You can tell when coaches have the itch. He kept talking like he was on the sidelines, "kid, you don't have to throw a TD pass on every play just take what the defense is giving you". He mentioned that being a "game manager" is kind of looked down on, but there are times when a QB has to be patient and take what the defense is giving you and that is fine as it keeps your defense off the field when you can sustain drives. He was not surprised or very critical, rather just pointed out that these were things that rookie QBs did and that the patience will come with experience. He noted what a lot of us have seen and that is that defenses know that Josh likes to push the ball down the field so their corners and safeties play off our receivers on the underneath routes, but Josh does not like taking the 5-8 yard check down passes that are open and would rather wait for the deeper routes to develop which can lead to protection break downs and broken plays when he could check it down to an underneath route and get the offense in more manageable down and distance. He also said there were times that Josh went to Foster and overlooked other routes simply because rookie QBs tend to lock onto the guy they trust the most so it was just a case of a rookie going to his favorite rookie WR on the team. I felt that he was excited by what he saw in Allen and repeatedly said that he will learn to make those better reads, praised him for his accuracy on many of his throws, then chided him for floating that shallow out that ended in his second pick, and for staring down his intended receiver which brought the safety over for that 1st pick. I think Allen has "it", but I am a Bills fan so doubt is part of my DNA. Perhaps that is why I really enjoyed listening to his thoughts, mirrored a lot of my own, and it was comforting hearing from someone that has spent time with and developed really good NFL QBs talk about Allen as a legit NFL rookie QB who has all the tools and simply needs more time and experience to hone his game.

I have felt for a while now that Frazier is a bit more laid back than McD's approach and his forte does not seem to be "in game" management of the "D". In that, I simply mean that it seems to take a while or discussion over half-time before he makes the adjustments that the D needs to make - sometimes the net effect is that our team is already in a hole by the time he figures out how to stop the other team from digging the hole any deeper. Outside of that, he is a good team guy and usually his players play hard for him. Still not sure yesterday if I was seeing a defense mailing-it-in or simply put so off their game plan by their inability to stop the run that it made the whole effort seem ugly - granted they did get a few turnovers.

Granted I would like to see more push, but when the opposing team is doubling Star and Phillips or whoever we have as our interior DT's on a run, then the Mike is supposed to fill that gap while they occupy the blockers. That is where some of us old-timers would like to see a linebacker with instincts to shed blocks, and fill the gap, or at least hit the right gap with enough leverage and strength to drive back a lead blocker. If he fills that gap rather than missing it, waiting, or getting blown up by lead blocking because of poor technique and leverage, then the runner often has to try to bounce it outside, runs more East-West, loses momentum, and can be more easily taken down by your safeties and corners. Although I have to say that Wallace has not impressed me coming up in run support - kid needs to be shown some tackling 101 film staring a Bills tackling legend at corner Antoine Winfield. Unlike their spotty and downright awful scouting of WR's, the Bills have usually been a solid organization finding good-to-excellent linebackers. The sky is not falling, but that history of having really solid active linebackers who could play the run only makes this kid's lack of ability in that area stand out more to us. I have seen the cracks in this team's run "D" all year and felt our defensive ranking was more than a bit misleading. I was wondering when a coach would just decide to run the ball down our throats - that is just what Belichick did. Once we were ridiculously over-committed to trying to stop the run, that allowed the outlet passes to Edelman to get behind the defense with no one near to prevent the long gainers or TD's. We sucked pretty bad yesterday - McDermott has a lot of soul-searching to do this off season - they need to jettison some good team players that lack the talent to execute at this level and I think perhaps a few position coaches. Unfortunately when your job is to produce wins, sentimentality has to take a back seat. This team (with the exception of Colton Schmidt) seems ridiculously attached to some players where the team just needs to be smart and move on.

Yeah, there was one poster blaming the coaching staff for that... and I could not let it slide. Sure McD and Daboll call some head-scratchers, but I can just about guarantee there was not a coach on the Bills sideline that was not yelling, "Get the "F" down!" to Croom. Absolutely no reason to not take what the defense already gave you, give the ball to your team on the 5, and allow someone else to punch it in. The hero stuff is for idiots, especially when anyone playing the game should have been aware that NE had been trying to strip/punch the ball out all game long - like they are coached to do. Get your damn knee, or elbow down and take the yards. Not that it would have changed the end of the game, but it would have made it more bearable to watch to see that long completion turn into something meaningful instead of Croom finding a Billsy way to sna*ch defeat from the jaws of victory on a play - all of us are sick of watching Bills teams that beat themselves. (the bad word filter does not take into account legit context)

He is rangy and fast enough to play OLB, worth a shot...with his length and obvious speed he could perhaps be a decent edge rusher My issues with him this year playing the middle has been his inability to attack the right gaps in run support and the poor arm tackles. Seems much more comfortable playing in space defending the check-down passes (which he does well) than shedding blockers and getting a bit dirty at the LOS. Tends to play a bit too much on his heels, waiting for runs to come to him. Other times he just seems lost when it come to recognizing his "fits" against the run, so when he does attack the LOS, it is like he randomly picks a gap and it isn't anywhere near where he needs to be to make the play. Some of his struggles are due to a hesitation or lack of aggressiveness needed at the Mike position. A lot of teams were high on this kid so it is too early to be saying bust, but teams are going to continue to attack him and this line with runs till he can step up that area of his game that requires him to attack the LOS - it isn't even close to where it needs to be.

There is no good reason to keep an expensive Shady who cannot stay healthy and has been getting worse at staying healthy each year. And he keeps getting the bad hammy just in practice. The good football decision is for the Bills to cut ties and save the money and invest in the O-Line along with some young RB's. This is true too. As there are times when our DT's tie up the blockers and the Bills defensive staff is looking for the linebackers to cleanly fill the right gaps, but on many of those plays Edmunds is either guessing the wrong gap, or playing back on his heels which is an automatic 5+ yards given up.

It was funny how he was wandering around looking for someone to talk to about how his hands don't work... everyone was like, get away from me you freaking loser. That is saying something from our sideline today - someone whose play was worse than the rest of the team.

I want to see the INS deport him to the CFL... he can play in Canada.

No that is the positives.... and the ST's and Darr again getting it done.

Deep breath folks. Smells like dead fish, but we knew we were not going anywhere this season, the "D" did not get the Pats to rely on Brady's noodle-arm, and we all knew the Bills are the walking dead and need to re-tool this off season. It sucks though - I know, I get it, but the sky is not falling and Belichick is making a rookie look like one.

No. Totally on Josh... there are folks that do see both the good and the bad.

he did not have the best game. If the Bills had not given up over 200 yards of rushing... his coach knows his arm ain't what it was and knew he could beat the Bills running it. Smart move. I hate the Bills D getting that great ranking... thought they sucked against the run all year. Just shows you what a pass-happy league it is.

Another penalty.. but its the Patriots we just give them a do-over