Mikie2times

I mean, the only other player to record 12 or more sacks his first four years is Reggie White. I get that he’s a bit shiny, being a Cowboy. A bit prone to the hype machine. But from a pass rushing production standpoint the start of his career is in Canton trajectory.

The Wild Cat is the closest version to pre 1950 concepts I have seen in the modern NFL. At the end of the day defenses are just too fast at this level. It can work at some colleges. Specifically service academies who tend to benefit from continuity in the system. It’s also a better offense for less physically talented teams. While not consistent, it can work intermittently when you step up in competition. I remember Army giving Michigan everything it could handle a few years ago. Georgia Tech was also pretty good with it for a long time. But as the competition increases defenses are just too fast for plays that develop that slowly. Even in the case of Georgia Tech, when they stepped up in class they got shut down. It’s an offense that raises the floor but lowers the ceiling in most cases. I also agree, for me it is the best offense to watch in football. I have always loved watching the service academies.

Regardless of if you think we will be better or worse, our trajectory is slanted to the 2nd half of the year. Not only will our rookies have half a season at that point, but our suspended players come back as well. They have the potential to be better, but as of week 1 I don't see it. I also don't think this regime or team or whatever has the chops for high level postseason football until I see a clear reason to believe it. One thing that might help is a top 10 defense. But to get that we need so many things to go right and so many not to go wrong. Our depth in the secondary is just terrifying at the moment given Rupp, White, Benford, and Tarons injury history. Even if the defensive line has a break thru how does that secondary hold up? We will need Max or Bishop. I also understand we have been very close despite these short comings. I'm just not part of the contingent that thinks it's luck how those games concluded. I don't assume if we score in either of the last two years KC doesn't just go down the field as they have before. Nor that teams like Houston or the Bengals are easy playoff wins. I also don't think we have Baltimore's number as some like to think. Lamar in bad weather is bad and we have had him twice in bad weather. Week 1 is going to be different. But sure, we will recover, and then a lot of these questions will get resolved as the year progresses. look at this team as much further than one play. What everybody seems to forget is KC would probably have gotten the ball even if we scored. To me

People should read the article before making judgement. The "draft" makes the league a ton of money. If the players stop playing ball in the pre draft spectacle the NFL will lose money. None of these guys have contracts. It's basically NIL all over again with an entity profiting off you while not sharing the wealth. I don't think Shedeur wanted to play along. He treated the process as if he was doing the interviewing. Which is fine. The best employees do that all the time. Some might argue Sanders is not that and that is why he fell. Which could very well be true, but it could also be true that he pushed back against the "NFL way". Which we have seen historically has led to collusion, cover ups, and deception for the greater good. The almighty dollar. This story might have more legs than people think, I think.

49ers injuries make the Bills look healthy. They basically have the entire WR and RB room out with the exception of Pearsall and CMC. Safety seems like a long transition in this defense. It might make adding one from the outside unlikely.

The preseason freak out is silly, but incredibly expected as you point out. I really don't care for the implied notion that people who question or are pessimistic about the direction of this team are that way because they're scared to be happy, sad, lonely, not fans of this team, however else these posters want to frame it. With that specific poster being chief among them. They have an approach to belittling posters they don't agree with by trying to categorize them people into these groups. This has never been a personal thing to me on this message board, but it is to others and most of them fall pretty hard in the McD camp. I look at most of these people as blissfully ignorant types, but who cares what I think. Who cares what they think. Nobody here has the truth locked down. Some just seem to act like they do, which tells me a lot more about these people than somebody's opinion of our roster building or head coach.

Some people are blissfully ignorant. Then other people think it's worth talking about different types of people as if the point of view they have is somehow more relevant or better or _______.

It's a really interesting concept to just have all the players say, ya, I'm not participating in your crap.

Tried to make this point in another thread. We have a large amount of players that get hurt multiple times per year, every year. We have chose to extend these players or further depend on them to be key contributors. More of a shame on us when that doesn't happen and it's not every team either. Lot of teams have Ed Oliver types, James Cook types, our entire offensive line, and they don't deal with this like clock work. We do, we will, no reason to think it will stop. The evidence at this point is overwhelming that it won't. Throw Bosa on your list.

When Milano or Bernard or Benford or Rapp or Bosa or Tre White get hurt its not bad luck. We have injury prone players and we keep extending these players. That isn't bad luck.

I mean, the things you're talking about contributed to a couple seasons, in a dynasty. If your logic is to look at something like the tuck rule and say, SEE! It's luck the Patriots had a dynasty. That just doesn't seem to be rational. Even further off the boat is playing the hypothetical game with what Vinatieri and Norwood. Norwood missed because he usually missed that kick on grass from that distance. As we watched later, Vinatieri ended up being the most clutch kicker in NFL history. What happened in those situations is the better player executed. That simple.

From 2015-2017, Taylor had 65 TD's and 14 INT's. He was limited sure, but lets not act like a guy like Taylor was some huge liability. He gave McD what he wanted which was clean football and yes, McD is the the the best +/- guy in football. He would raise the floor of most teams to .500 football and getting guys like Taylor to the playoffs, possibly even more often than he doesn't. But at that point he would get bounced. As much as McD raises a teams floor he lowers the ceiling. Luck is very overrated, 10 of the last 14 years the Patriots or Chiefs have won the AFC Championship. These team just execute better. They're more talented and better prepared. Which are all qualities "luck" tends to favor. Its rarely this random thing blowing in the wind.

I would say more likely a divisional round exit, but sure, I had a few drinks and regretted being that big of a d bag with that post even if it is what I think will happen. This has nothing to do with a deep or shallow, scared or whatever. That's an angle some like to play here. Just being true to what I think will happen. If Bosa is an animal or a rookie can push 10 sacks or Max can contribute at a high level that can change things. It's not where I think we are going to be week 1. We have injury issues at WR. As we did last year in the regular season game. We don't match up well and the final outcome last year could have very easily been the 2nd worse playoff collapse in the McD era. They catch that 2 pointer its a tie game after literally having about as good a game as we can play on top of multiple turnovers. Yes, I think they will win by 2 TD's. Which is very uncommon with this Bills team, but it's just what I expect with this match up.

You tell me? I will not say a negative thing about McD or Beane for the rest of the season? I already have a fairly decent size wager on it and I hate betting against this team. The money is just too easy in this spot. The data clearly shows who outplayed who last year, rubber match, with the motivational edge toward Baltimore. This, on top of our normal injury issues. Easiest bet I have ever made as much as I hate it.

I think the playoff game was 425 like 250. We will lose week one. More likely than not we will be blown out. The forum will explode in negativity. By the time we play KC we will be 6-1 and people like yourself will be back on the Super Bowl bandwagon. They will be saying things like week 1 doesn’t matter. Heck, we probably even beat the Chiefs to go 7-1. Then the forum will be erupting in Super Bowl projections. This team has regressed or is equal in weakness in multiple positions since last year. The defense will be a catastrophic failure when it matters most. Why wouldn’t they be? It’s the same players outside of some hope a bunch of rookies and injured players change the narrative. I imagine at some point injuries will be blamed because that what we do. Same story coming as the one you already know. Feel free to bump this post as much as you want next year. Just make sure not to forget the bump when the seasons over.

I think they're basically South Carolina. Which is 20-25 most years. They play each year and it's always close. I don't have an issue saying Clemson is a top 25 program, but Top 10 is just too much at this point IMO.

In the last 5 years they have been a preseason top 10 team 4 times and a top 5 team 3 times. They never finished with less than 3 losses while playing in the softest conference in football. It is borderline fraud to put them in the top 10.

I understand Clemson at one point was a very good program. Since then, they have been boat raced off the field with any speck of competition outside of the ACC.

I just want to a defense that at some point can shut a good team down. Just the capability to swarm an above average offense. As we saw from the Eagles last year vs the Chiefs. Heck, as we saw multiple times in the drought years. Those outcomes simply won't happen with this team. It's all bend but don't break, living in the Nickle, without valuing the one tech. Our base mode is not shutting down the run game. It's knowing eventually a TFL will occur. Our base mode in the passing game is not to challenge teams, its forcing 5 yard chunks all the way down the field in hopes they make a mistake. This is Dick Jauron or Walt Corey ball, and I preferred Wade Phillips or Jim Schwartz. I really can't imagine how dangerous this team would be with a defense that can really punch you in the mouth even if sometimes it lays an egg. It's the difference between we will make them fight for every inch vs they will make a mistake. Just disagree with McD's philosophy here.

lol.....targets? longevity? Allen generated INT's. Ya, no thanks.

2023, we enter the year with a huge question mark behind Tre White. We try and fill void by drafting a first round CB. He doesn't work out, we trade mid year for Rasul Douglas. Douglas gives us one solid year, but his physical skills all but evaporated one year later. 2024, we enter the year with a hole at WR and Safety and soon to be CB. We draft Coleman and Bishop. Coleman doesn't immediately fill the void. Bishop does nothing. We bring in Amari Cooper in a trade. Reviews are mixed as to what he brought to the team, but he's not going to be here a year later. 2025, we enter the year with a hole at CB, S, and WR. We draft a CB. For the time being it doesn't look like we will get significant reps from that player. We keep "addressing" critical issues with the draft and we have yet to see any of those issues get better. We can say, sure, give these guys more time, but the reality is our strategy has not allowed for these guys to have time. We needed the production almost right away. I would be willing to bet Beane will trade for another aged vet at the deadline in one of these positions. Perhaps we don't look at a rookie filling that spot or street free agent and we won't keep finding ourselves in that position. But at the end of the day you just can't miss on this many players. If that's how this ends up going it will be a massive failure.

The Ravens outgained us 843 to 509, 45 first downs to 32, 7.59 yards per play to 4.39. Unless we force 3 turnovers it won't be a game. Those stats are what you would expect to see with a top NFL team playing a team in last place. The current line is a gift.

I was exaggerating for extending credit for past accomplishments. They have not been a top 10 team in awhile. The ACC is just too weak to credit that has some major accomplishment. They’re basically South Carolina at this point. A team that can be top 20 and can also stink it up. Not close to a top 10, those SEC schools would run them as the better ones have.

Well, for about 5 years they have been on par with B grade SEC schools getting consistent top 10 pre season rankings and never coming close to expectations in the weakest division in college football. We should give Nebraska some credit for those Natties with Tommy Frazier.

Based on what? Our domination of the AFC East with an MVP QB? QB's that put up the type of QBR Allen has given us year in and year out average over 65% winning % over the last 20+ years and that isn't with a division of back up QB's for half a decade. Compared to the the contending teams we have the least top 100 players, least pro bowlers, and least All Pro's. All "measurable" things. But the take tends to be, "but in poor Buffalo, nobody knows our players". While simultaneously having the MVP on our roster and more national TV games per year than just about anybody outside of Dallas or KC. We have Allen, Cook, Dawkins, Brown, and Benford, maybe Johnson if you count nickle corners as far as top 10 positional players. Yet we have invested the 3rd most draft capital in the defensive line since McD has come here (I can prove that as well). Our WR's are a hot plate of garbage along with our secondary which is REALLY saying something given two of those top 10 players I called out reside there. Funny thing with both is the problem existed last year as well. We just don't seem to acknowledge it as we will ride the extra wiggle Allen gives us into the ground vs upgrading. Christ, we played last year like a cheap MLB team waiting for the trade deadline to be certain they don't have what they need, while first place was lost long ago. What we have done during this rebuild Version 2 has been very, very average. Something that would be exposed to the core if it wasn't for Josh. Beane is doing a fairly blah job with the occasional single or double for some time. You can only live off Allen for so long. It will get exposed soon enough and already has been for plenty of us.