Nextmanup

Watch what Miami does at the QB position. The latest was that they are NOT going to pursue Brady. But what about Lamar? Miami may be a real problem for us next year. Our division is going to get really tough soon; I'm waiting for Rodgers to go to the Jets.

Agreed! Move him; I would love to see a fairly substantial "mini" overhaul to this team this offseason. He's one of the names that should go, along with Edmunds.

I genuinely believe our OL could be improved by signing cuts from other teams at the end of training camps this coming off-season. A few teams out there are going to have an abundance of OL talent and guys that they really like, but they have to make the numbers work and you can't keep everyone. Those teams are going to very reluctantly have to cut a guy. The trick is knowing who those guys are, and then grabbing them if at all possible. Most of our line is right at or below replacement level.

One thing that can't be argued is that Frazier likes to run the same damned defensive scheme, pretty much ALL GAME, pretty much EVERY GAME. I just don't think you can do that at this level, against the best teams with best coaches and best QBs, and expect consistent success... Sure, that will beat a 6 win team in October, but the playoffs aren't about beating 6 win teams in October. McDermott also needs to learn that the regular season is ONLY there to help set your team up for the big push in the playoffs, when it matters. He should have been playing rookies WAY MORE than he did, especially early in the year against weak opponents. Give them experience and teaching when it comes at a cheap price.

I love this guy and anyone like him. My DL would be filled with guys like this, if I could find them. As I've said before, my DL would be made up of HUGE bodies who can't be moved, at least on the interior. Tell them "don't get moved" and that's it! Everyone else can work around that.

I agree we are in the conversation, but a lot of people are pointing to our regular season record this year as proof that we will be right there next year in the playoffs. I think that's a bit of a fallacy. Regular season ball against a 6 win team in October is not what playoff football is about. You really need to ONLY analyze what we have done against playoff competition. Maybe someone around here will do that; I'm too lazy for that. I will note we BEAT KC, IN KC, earlier in the year. Not playoff football, but the result still stands! I think we would have lost, maybe by a lot, to the Bengals on MNF this year had the game continued, and they beat us easily and badly in the our playoff game; they are NOT a good matchup for us and we will have big trouble with them next year too, if it comes to that. We need a small rebuild this off-season, and have a lot to address. We will still be in the conversation, but don't expect anyone to name us their pre-season Super Bowl favorite. No way. I think we are do for a slight regression next season, which will only turn the heat on coaching/coordinators more.

I have often wondered just how much coaching/scheming is a part of NFL success. If you break down ALL teams at this level, they are all composed of pretty much the same commodity: athletic freaks who have been standouts their entire lives, came (mostly) from huge college programs, and have the talent/size/strength/speed to play in the NFL. Some players are better than others, but they are all elite if viewed from a big time college football perspective. If you tell these guys "stand over there, and do this" they will. If you tell them to do something else, they'll do that too. Look at how we utterly failed to exploit the Bengals weakened OL, and how KC flourish there. Look at how Burrow feasted on our D with the short passing game, yet couldn't get it going against the Chiefs. Is that really b/c our players aren't good compared to the Chiefs players? No way. Sure, some are marginally better than others, but it's all scheming, coaching, play design, telling guys where to go and when and why. We got our butts kicked in the Bengals game from a coaching/scheming/coordination perspective. I mean we were ANNIHILATED. And our response to that will be to retain both coordinators, maintain "continuity" and try the same damned stuff again next season in the big playoff game against the great team with the great QB. We'll see if it works any better next year.

With what they've accomplished already, they are ahead of the Bills. And there's no reason they shouldn't expect to be competing for a SB appearance next year too. They've done a lot more with the "cheap" period of the QB's career than the Bills have.

Well this is funny, but also completely uninteresting.

Josh overthrows (and under throws) a lot of receivers! It's a part of who he is. You have to take the good with the bad. Ironically, despite his huge arm, he tends to under throw really long shots; watch how often a receiver slows allowing the DB to close before the ball gets there.

I'm shocked! He wasn't shoveling his neighbor's driveway in Buffalo, working on his game for next year?

Any game can be manipulated by the refs, going EITHER way, by simply calling offensive holding, or defensive holding for an automatic first down. All depends on if the refs want the team with the ball to succeed or fail. That call on the push out of bounds literally decided the game. I wish I had more of a feel for what that would look like from the perspective of the guy committing the foul; I think it's quite possible he/you/me/anyone wouldn't be even CLOSE to being aware of where the sideline is on that play, especially as he is running as fast as he can and is focused on Mahomes, not the ground. Then again, maybe NFLers would say "No, you can tell where you are on the field, that's guy's just an idiot."

Great game, both teams playing on a level a good bit higher than where the Bills were for the 2nd half of the season.

All I see is Milano, with an asterisk next to White's name. White pre-injury would be on there too. White as he is RIGHT NOW is not on the list, not close. It remains to be seen if he gets back on the list again. One of the interesting stories of next year will be to follow White and see if he is FINISHED...or if he gets back to where he was.

I agree!

Let them have him! Let them have ANY position coach they want. I've seen enough "HARD KNOCKS" on HBO to realize that "position coaches" are jobs they give to ex-players who need some cash post retirement and who don't want to leave the game behind. They hang out in the position room with their position group, and kind of mentor the players like a father figure. I genuinely believe anyone doing any of that on any team at any position is as good as any other. Maybe a few stand out, league wide.

Josh has put this team on his back many times and won the game for the team. He has also lost the game for the team a few times, usually with his "sugar high" mistakes and turnovers. Don't ask me to name the games or count them, I don't remember which was which! Josh's good outweighs his bad and overall, he's more than good enough to win a SB, so why evaluate beyond that? If your post is a way of saying we would benefit from SMARTER, BETTER in-game coaching, I couldn't agree more with you. I have been beating that drum since McDermott came here....and Dorsey should be replaced THIS offseason. They can either do it NOW, or NEXT YEAR, after another burned year in Josh's window.

We have already gotten to that point I wasn't sure we could get to. We are EASILY in position to make a true run at the playoffs THIS YEAR and my God, that would be the best gift this franchise could give the fanbase after over a decade of pure garbage. What I just can't get used to is how we have relatively quickly become the highest scoring team in the league, we are one of the fastest teams in the league that a lot of teams have trouble keeping up with, we are super young, we have good players all over the ice, and we like to play an offense-first, high flying offense that reminds me of the Edmonton Oilers and the Smythe Division from the 1980s! This is literally more than I could have asked for as a fan. Now if we can just find a way to make the playoffs. We will be that #8 seed that NO No. 1 SEED WANTS TO SEE IN THE FIRST ROUND! A Bruins vs Sabres Round 1 to the playoffs would feel just like old times!

It's weird, but despite having gotten our you know whats kicked by them, I kind of like this Bengals team, and I really like Joe Burrow. I also HATE Mahomes and the Chiefs, in general. Especially Kelce. So it will be easy and fun to cheer for Bengals today. In the NFC game, I have no preference at all. I just want to see an amazing close game. Let the best team win....and then crush the Bengals in the SB. LOL

This would be fantastically hilarious, if it wasn't so devastatingly depressing.

This is nonsense; this came up a few years ago as I recall after we ran into some opposition. "Gotta get tougher." Nope, gotta get better...and SMARTER. Here's the rub: with the same coaches, it will be a LOT harder to get smarter, and with the same coordinators running the same offense/defense, it will be hard to get BETTER too. Maybe personnel changes alone can do it. I hope so.

I've said this a ton of times all over in many threads: I think we will have a small regression next year. A few more losses in the regular season, and an earlier or similar bow-out in the playoffs, short of a conference championship appearance, again. I think we retain both coordinators and this leads to similar problems next year. McDermott won't make changes until he HAS TO, which will be at the end of next season. People will read your post and throw hate your way, like they did when you predicted we would lose to the Bengals in the "predict the score" thread. When will folks understand it's not about blind cheerleading! It's about being RIGHT. Actually, I wish someone would make a perpetual "blind cheerleading" thread. Anyone who wants to be that sort of fan can post everything they write in that thread. Would keep the forum a lot happier, like it has been for almost week now! All the Kool Aid folk are still not coming back....never had so much elbow room and breathing space around here! LOL

Edmunds is going to get more than $15 million per, and it won't be with Buffalo b/c we can't afford that. (And b/c we are smart enough to move on from him, I pray). Without knowing more information, I'm not sure I want OBJ anymore; something went weird with him; he was supposed to be playing now for a playoff team and it never happened. Dallas let on that he is still hurt or out of shape or something.... Anyway, he won't sign a "1 year prove it deal" unless he thinks he has to.

What a weird thing to find. I live in 'burbs of West Palm Beach so I went with that location. I set it for: 50,000 MPH, .5 mile asteroid, 45 degree impact... @ 50,000 people vaporized, 3 million dead in fireball, 715,000 dead from shockwave, 1.8 million dead from WIND BLAST. Would trigger 6.9 earthquake, create a tsunami .85 miles high, and knock down all trees for 172 miles. LOL. Luckily this happens once every 780,000 years on average. Makes the thought of Putin setting off a low yield nuke seem kind of tame! 🤣

I have seen both episodes so far, and am enjoying it...but particularly with this last episode...they need to be very careful not turning this into another "Walking Dead". Hopefully it will be a lot more intelligent than that. If it deteriorates into that sort of thing, I'll quit on it, just as I did with Walking Dead.