Ethan in Cleveland

Kind of shocked with this one. Had one of three best QB in the league and never built a defense that was dominant. He never had the line or the RB that Dallas has though. This could be a great hire or prove that Rodgers carried McCarthy

How do you figure that, they were a four win team last year and have a second year QB. If Beane and McD have done anything it is to say they are building for long term success. That said I would have traded up for Josh Allen OLB or traded down.

He is a physically dominant player the Bills always seem to lack. OJ, Bruce, Mario, and maybe TO are a small handful of players that were able to dominate by shear physicality in Bills uniform. Bills need that type of player at WR.

DT takes a few years to devleop. I didn’t like the pick but iti s far too soon to say it wasn't worth the pick

Dangerous vertical threat? Have you watched any Seahawks games? Very few of his catches are go routes. He catches mostly slants and WR screens.

Great play but the rest of the game was just ok. PLay well even in a loss to 49ers and he will have earned more respect

I liked Lawson all year, thought it was crazy to not pick up his option, and even worse that Murphy started ahead of him. My only knock on him is I don't see any pass rushing moves. I see hustle and chasing the QB down but I don't see any spin move I don't see an inside rip. He is a solid DE and teams need solid players. No team has 11 stars. He would be perfectly fine at DE with an upgrade at OLB behind him. Alas he liekly has already packed huis house and moved out of Buffalo.

Interesting catch...I didnt intend it that way. I had Edmunds a C minus and thought that was too harsh so I went with C+.

Sadly I agree. Shaq was disrespected by Beane and will leave not even giving the Bills a chance to make or match an offer. Not convinced they will bring back Murphy but who knows. I don't care about the money. They have plenty. Just draft 4 front 7 guys next year.

None of us know that. He got better at RT as the season went on. O-line play in college is awful. Give him another offseason and he may be fine. At worst he is probably a very good guard but if he can play RT it solves a lot of issues on the line next year

I was so wrong about McCaffrey. Didn't think he would hold up to the pounding and be a between the tackles RB. So far I've been mostly right about Darnold not being good. Herbert will be the next QB bust. He looks the part but simply doesn't make plays.

Ford will be a solid lineman for years to come. Bills will get a WR in FA or draft this year.

You earn respect He hasn't yet. He made a couple of great throws in that game. Have another performance like that and he will have earned.

Someone on this board posted they wanted the plane to crash on the way home. Grotesque

Please know I believe players can get better. I would not be surprised at all if Edmunds gets better. My grade is just for play this year. He just didn't make enough impact plays - case in point the two point conversion where he couldn't keep Watson out of the endzone. I agree with Booger MacFarland and his comparison to Brian Urlacher. He should study his film. Urlacher attacked the LOS and found a way to get his huge frame between blockers with speed and instinct.

Nonsense. Defense, avoiding turnovers and efficient offense wins in the playoffs. They just need to get younger and faster at the pass rushing positions and add a WR to make a few big plays a game. Of course, Allen needs to keep getting better. If he regresses against better teams next year they won't make the playoffs.

They need a WR#1 for sure. I would prefer a veteran like AJ Green. But if you don't think they need to improve the pass rush you then you didn't watch any of the games this weekend.

Top OLB or DE

My grades for the coaches, starters and important role players. McDermott - B minus; my gut tells me he is a C+ coach that will not get this team to a championship. But my head says he has done an adequate job with a young QB and limited athleticism in the front 7 on defense. His game and clock management is below average but the players play hard for him. His personnel decisions are most questionable - McCoy, Gore, Duke, Foster, DiMarco, Murphy over Lawson. Daboll - C +. He gets guys open with his pass route concepts and I have no issue with the designed runs for Allen. He failed to commit to the run and establish any identity for this offense. Had lots of success with no huddle in the early to mid part of the season and then abandoned it nearly entirely down the stretch. He failed to use Beasley in the second half of the season. Just too many times the play call didn't seem to fit the situation or the personnel on the field. It started with the first play of the season with DiMarco split out wide and continued throughout the playoff loss. Yes we as fans focus on the call, when it is probably more about the execution. Frazier - B minus - Almost gave this an incomplete, because we do not know who is ultimately responsible for the calls. When they are aggressive is it McD taking the reins or is it Frazier on his own. Look every DC rushes three and drops 8 at times. Happened multiple times today. Most of the time it works out just fine. But I favor an attacking defense. That said, the defense kept them in game all year and rarely got beat deep. This defense lacked a pass rush almost all year and went huge stretches without a turnover because of it. They desperately need an OLB/Edge rusher in the draft. Allen - C+, I'd love to give the kid a higher grade but i can not. I'm going to rip Edmunds a few lines later so I must be consistent. Allen played terribly at times but he showed improvement over last year in accuracy and the short to intermediate game. His long ball game fell apart and he is not protective of the football enough. He needs to get better next year when they will face a tougher schedule. But he also needs better weapons. He needs a true #1 WR with a bigger catch radius and he needs Knox to develop. Brown - A minus, nearly an A+. Did almost everything you can ask of a #1 WR. Beasley - B+ - when given the chance he mostly produced. had a little stretch of a few drops but for the most part was what this offense needed in a slot WR Foster - F McKenzie - who cares Williams - incomplete, hope they bring him to camp. He would be fine as a #4 WR Knox C+ - I so desperately wanted to give him a higher grade, but too many drops and he was one of the guys who missed the block on #41 on the QB sweep in OT. He looks liek he can be great and he may be the answer to the riddle that has been Buffalo's TE situation Kroft - D+. I keep him for next year. He will be fine as TE #2 Smith - D minus I would love to give him a F but he is at times a capable blocker. Signed a multiyer deal and they have other issues to deal with so I suspect he will be back Sweeney - see below Gore - D+, again I want to give him a F but that is because I really like McCoy as a player and how he embraced the city of Buffalo. Gore was ok for about three games and then after that he was awful. If he was not Frank Gore he would have been cut at the bye week. He will reitre and they will sign a better RB#2 Yeldon - incomplete, he should have been used more often. Will be let go Singletary - B+, didn't like the draft pick at the time. He played better than I thought he would. He played bigger and tougher than I thought but he doesn't have elite speed. He looks liek he will be a solid RB but I doubt he is an all-pro unless he develops into a better pass receiver and blocker. I would still rather have McCoy and use the third round pick on a WR or OLB. DiMarco - X - If I could give a grade less than F I would. Hated this signing from day one and still do now. He did nothing on the field to justify a roster spot let alone the money they are paying him. Any 6th round FB could do what he does. Next year I hope they keep 4 TE's and no FB. Use Knox or Sweeney at FB if and when needed or a DT. Dawkins - B minus; solid if not spectacular LT. Could be a lot worse but far from dominant. Woudl extend if the money is right Spain - B minus; solid if not spectacular LG. Could be a lot worse but far from dominant. would bring back but not overpay Morse - B+, didn't play like the top paid center in the league but was adequate and was a steadying force in a line that had four new faces. He may have played his best game in the playoff game. He was the best linemen out there. Feliciano - B+ first 10 games, C minue last 7. Really tailed off a the end. Did a good job at center when asked. Is under contract for next year and I would bring back Ford - D+ first 10 games, and C+ the last 7. He got better as the season went along. He probably will get a chance to be the RT next year. I would favor a veteran RT in FA and a move to LG especially if Spain leaves. Nsekhe - C+ a journeyman for a reason Long - wasted money but adequate depth and who cares how much they paid him Murphy - D minus, hated this signing from day 1 and still do. PED guy. How that fits the process I have no idea. Lost contain multiple times and was terrible in the playoff game despite the two sacks. Oliver - C+, didn't like the pick (wanted Josh Allen or Hockenson, or a trade down when those were not available), but he played better down the stretch and DT's take years to develop. I fear he will never be big enough but time will tell. I still don't see him as a DE so we are stuck with the hope he gets better at DT. Star - B minus - takes a lot of flack on this board but does his job most of the time. Is overpaid but his body size is hard to find. Hope they keep him as again it will be hard to replace him. H. Phillips - lost season J. Phillips - B plus- great effort sacks but still is limited physically especially in the run game. Don't overpay for him. Let him walk and get the comp pick. Lawson - C plus better than Murphy all year but still terribly limited as a pass rusher. A solid DE but nothing special. Hughes - C plus, performance is dropping off quite a bit but still can bring it from time to time. He gets no calls and never will after going after the refs in the tunnel. It isn't right but it's not going to change. He is under contract and they could do a lot worse. Edmunds - C+. I've been bitter about this pick since they wasted picks to trade up for him only to see other LBs in the same draft do better. The age excuse is no more next season. He has 30+ games now. I don't know if he will ever develop the instincts needed to play MLB. As posted numerous times, I feel he should be playing edge. He is basically the same size as Clowney. Hell he should want to play edge. They get paid more and have less responsibility. He is an adequate blitzer and his coverage skills are over-hyped. Milano - C plus- hard to remember any impact plays he had this year. I'm sure the board will remind me. He is an effort guy playing in a game he is too small for. If he is the worst player on an 11 man defense he is fine. He is cheap labor and would be easy to replace when the time comes. Alexander - D minus - minimal impact all year. Need a major upgrade in round one or two of the draft. White - A+, great player, just not all-time great. They need to use him like Revis and have him shadow the #1 wr the entire game. Hyde - A minus, another great year. Poyer - B+, solid again most of the year. A few times he was late to the double team but overall played well. Wallace- B minus - I like his play more than most on here. I posted he should have been packaged to get Trent Williams or a WR at the deadline. He will get every opportunity to start again opposite White. It's no fun being the corner opposite the great ones. They get more balls thrown there way. K. Johnson - B minus? I don't know. He seemd fine when in there . No big completions given up that I can recall but no big plays either. T Johnson - B plus - another guy that gets heat from the board who I like. He draws the slot and is an adequate run defender in the nickel. Tough position to play and replace. Hauscka - B + , solid PK that will come back with training camp competition, could be a lot worse Bojorquez - C minus, I'm not going to bother to see if I spelled it correclty., He is not worth even a two second google search. Please draft the best punter in the 6th round and move on from this guy. Did I miss anyone? I think this was a 7-9 or 8-8 team talent wise that got a lucky break with the schedule (I think I predicted 10 wins before the season started and thought 11 was possible when Cleveland and Pittsburgh bottomed out). Their best win was Dallas where even Garrett coached worse than our staff. Some of these guys are hopeless like Murphy and should be gone. For many of the others, I think they can get better - in particular Allen, Oliver, Knox, Ford, and even Edmunds. I think the staff can coach better too. I'd be fine if the entire staff comes back. They could do worse. Maybe they bring in a QB coach with experience to help Daboll.

Look at Ben Roethlisberger's stats. Made a huge leap in year 3. And that only took me 30 seconds to find. I'm sure Brees had the same jump. And many others.

As for the OP's point. Yes I generally agree and posted during the game one more score and game over. Getting any points to get it to a three score game in the third quarter or early 4th and its a win. But you do that by being aggressive on defense and offense. You can play for a FG if you get behind in down and distance in the red-zone but until then you have to be aggressive. Lining up in run heavy and then passing to Lee Smith is just dumb. If you want to run it sown their throats and kill clock then do it. No issue with that strategy. Just stick with it and take it to them.

Ford was beaten badly. Any route other than a slant or out on a 3 step drop and its a sack. Not Allen's fault. Line was terrible in the second half. Singletary missed a pass block terribly and led to a sack or incompletion. Daboll never gave Ford help. It was fine to see if Watt could do anything one on one at first but once it was obvious he was going to he destructive force he needed to be doubled. Just like Hopkins should have been doubled all game. Stars win in the playoffs. Belichick takes away your best weapon. All they had to do was take away a WR. And they win. They were outcoached. And win they were in a good spot the players choked - 3 blokckers on QB sweep missed their SS, and Milano/Neal miss a drive killing sack.

Think Buffalo last year. No weapons

Al, can't ask Collinsworth that question. He is probably getting money from concussion lawsuit

Yup. And if u win challenge u get it back