Mikie2times

I have to say, as much as I’m pissed we didn’t get a clear replacement for Jones, this guy looks like he’s going to be a really solid player. Him and Ed should create a lot of problems on 3rd down. His pass rush skill set is pretty impressive.

It will be interesting to see what happens at the conclusion of the season but I expect we will get his best effort this year and I don’t expect him to miss time for a hold out. If ultimately we don’t sign him at the end of this, I think it will be more based on just how we view the RB role with age and value vs a draft pick. I don’t think it will be about 10 vs 15 million. If we feel it’s logical to pay a RB a decent sum on a second contract we probably get it done. Many don’t feel that way around the league.

If Gabe Davis is on this team (the guy that averaged under 30 yards per game last year). He would either be our #2 or possibly even our #1 WR. We don’t have a top 10 TE, we have over 20 million invested at TE but neither is top 10. Maybe as a unit it’s top 10? We have a very good line that has the best OL coach in football behind it. It benefits a lot from Allen evading the pass rush, so it’s difficult to say how good. Certainly top 10 and maybe top 5? Cook is top 10 as well. How does the running game look without an Allen? I really don’t know. Not as strong for sure, but the line is good and so is the ground game. Even Shakir is probably no more than an average slot in the scheme of what he would do on another team. Not a unit that could support a middle tier QB like Sam Darnold, as the Vikings did last year. If Josh wasn’t on the team they wouldn’t be top 15 in points scored in my opinion. On defense, the talent level is so overwhelming that we had to spend nearly our entire draft filling holes. Lots of B level talent, very little A level talent. Outside of Allen I’m not sure that we have one All Pro on the roster. Some are getting closer or on the fringe of those awards, Brown, Benford, chief among them. I also think we have added a fairly absurd amount of pieces to the defense this year so hopefully that iteration breaks thru along with some player development from the last draft. When you set records for turnover differential, have an MVP QB, and play in a trash division, you can do a lot. Some posters like to equate these stats to raw talent. I don’t agree with it. It feels pretty easy to dismiss that view point just looking at the individual positions groups.

Like I said, we don’t provide the tools to Allen a less capable QB would get. Even more humorous, where the hell are the extra tools going (given our defense sucks and we just spent an entire draft on that side of the ball).

Not having Josh Allen for 17 straight seasons is what resulted in the drought era. We would have been just as far with several of those drought teams as we have the last 5+ years by just adding Josh.

Put a league average QB on this offense and we wouldn’t put up a top 15 PPG total. If you don’t think that is the case it’s not worth talking any further. Without Josh it completely falls apart. As it has for any offensive player who has left the Bills in the Allen era. Gabe Davis was our #2 for gods sake. Even more funny, he would probably still be today.

Imagine if you were a teacher and you had a student who was so gifted, so intelligent, so ahead of everybody else that you decided he just didn’t need your attention anymore. That it would be better to just focus your attention on everybody else who was further behind. Is it likely that genius student would hit his full potential? That is how the Bills treat our offense and Josh Allen. It’s as good as it is because of him and because he’s able to elevate the offense to that level we neglect it and put our attention into other things. Saying the whole time “well look at how great it is”. Talk about a curse. Being so good that you trick otherwise intelligent people into thinking you can’t grow anymore or become any better. Let’s also be clear, most people here were asking for an investment in the form of a 4th or 5th round pick. Clearly the defense needed to be prioritized. But as a whole the way Beane and many of our fans look at this offense is just wrong.

I looked her in the eyes and said “it might not be what you wanted, but it’s not the smallest” then we kissed passionately

Do you hold our defensive picks to this standard?

For those that want to know it, this is 2014-2016 for Carolina, then 2017 to current with Buffalo. What WR's Beane has drafted. I'm sure some will say he didn't have as much involvement in 2017 and he wasn't technically the assistant GM in Carolina until 2015. So if you want to exclude those years, Benjamin and Jones would be removed and the list would start with Coleman. I think it's more than a fair question at this point to wonder if we can draft and develop players at WR which seems to be our formula everywhere else.

It would be easier to conclude they don't value the role then they didn't value any players that can fit the role this year. We have not drafted a vertical threat since Beane and McD got here. I think that was more a result of a horrible playoff system known as the Tampa 2, which we also have the pleasure of running. Joy.

What happens when you run the ball effectively? Does the defense come up? How do you prevent the defense from coming up?

I think people are mad we didn't use any picks toward a downfield WR. We could have drafted either Dont'e Thornton with a small move up or Tory Horton while still accomplishing what needed to be done on the defensive side. We don't have any downfield WR's. It's a need and we just keep passing on it.

I don't disagree that his views have serious shortcomings. I'm just trying to be clear, that he doesn't view this as a problem like others do. Which yes, is a problem.

We haven’t played in a Super Bowl. Let’s not act like after how many years struggling to overcome the divisional round or AFC championship game, we make the Super Bowl and go one for one. We have a lot longer to go than most people call out here.

Beane has been pretty clear for awhile now. You CAN believe him. He sees our offense as one of the best in the NFL, which it is, which it has been for years, and as a result he doesn’t have a burning desire to upgrade it. It won’t change while he’s here. So people who say we subsidize the rest of the team off Allen’s talent, well, he’s basically telling us that is what we do. The offense will be good with Josh and Josh alone. So he might get a weapon here or there but Beane is going to upgrade positions he or Sean see as a clear weakness to the production of that side of the ball. WR just isn’t going to be a focus when that is how you’re building.

So if we don’t fall in line screaming the draft was “excellent and consequential” we are haters. If anybody is critical, we are haters. We should just give our front office eternal benefit of the doubt indefinitely or we are haters. We have an MVP QB, playing in a Super Bowl is table steaks at this point as far as determining how successful our front office is. We have yet to play in a Super Bowl yet.

Beane has said it before, as have many here, the offense is really good. I wish the highest mind in our org looked at that in the context of our QB generating about 80% of our downfield plays with his scrambling heroics but hey, we are just dumb fans. #beane for life.

The Tampa style defense feasts when you put teams in passing situations. When you don’t it gets crushed. I personally hate the scheme, hate it even more as teams started deliberately attacking the run last year to circumvent it. It’s not a playoff defense. It’s a scrub beater system. It is a huge mistake by our fanbase to assume our schemes are the best fit for the current and future (next 4 years) NFL.

In about 3-4 years I will be Ron Jeremy in the sac. I’m a developmental prospect.

I used to push that a lot and while I don’t love his scheme and would much rather challenge every yard and give up some big plays than bend but don’t break, he will always be + against turnovers and that’s a big deal. What he’s done historically in generating turnovers defies the randomness logic. The only other time I have seen that profile was with the pre inflategate Patriots. It matters a lot. But still just a skeptical dude as it relates to Beane and McD’s ability to close and get the Lombardi.

We played out of our minds with the benefit of 3 turnovers the last Baltimore game. It was the best first half I have seen from our defense, ever (within context) and yes, we are among the very best at generating turnovers and that is all McD. I don’t exactly chalk up the hurricane game vs Greg Roman the same way. Our offense couldn’t do anything in that weather either. Either way my stats included both and still among the very worst teams who went that far. Because in between these outcomes you’re calling out were so many horrendous ones. I know, injuries. I don’t really care anymore. Get it done. Win the f’n game. Arguing the nuisances of it all on here feels like talking politics at this point.

We rank 16 out of 18 teams who have played at least one game in the divisional round since 2020 in EPA playoff defense. This who hum, gee golly, just need a bounce our way is about the most laughable take I have read here (not just shared by you). We haven’t produced a marginal speed bump to opposing offenses when it matters most. Across a fairly large sample of games. Call it talent, call it scheme, don’t really care what you call it, but please don’t suggest we need a ball to “bounce” a little different for our dreams to come true.

Alright, I will stop being a little B, that’s what I needed to see this regime focus on

Except we have only lost one game by 7 or more points in that entire sample. It’s not like teams are just running to run out the clock. They’re running to keep the ball away from our offense and to control the game. This isn’t a result of correlation at all. It’s how teams attack us and have been doing so for years. It just doesn’t matter that much when we have a 20 point lead.