FireChans

Where do you rank Ed Oliver among DTs in the NFL? Do you think Ed Oliver has lived up to his draft status? Do you think Ed Oliver is at least the third best IDL drafted in the first round of his draft class?

Beane’s “never been bad enough to pick a Jamar Chase”

We’ve never had the horses on the DL. The last SB caliber DL in Buffalo was in 2014.

Last years defense wasn’t close to statistically dominant.

Yeah the SB was the perfect storm. The Eagles front played the game of their lives and Mahomes/Reid got completely flustered. It’s not really dissimilar to the Bills performance vs the Bengals in the playoffs. Just one of those days where nothing goes right.

Today I learned two QBs passing a total of 47 times for 381 yards is a shootout

Sure we can. Just believe the next defensive draft class is gonna make the difference. Despite the last defensive draft class barely being allowed to play last year. Just give them another mulligan! Bills fans have no choice but to enjoy the wacky ride. Other teams fans don’t.

Classic Pennstate guy imo

Meh, it’s the same reason Adrian Peterson is remembered so fondly. Those guys were 1 man offenses on teams with much less star power than the 90s Bills. It’s just cannibalism of nostalgia. How many players can the average fan name from those teams

Yeah, it’s the reason why expectations should be tempered for an Elijah Moore. Guys who bounce around multiple teams rarely put it all together on their fourth or fifth stop. Not saying it can’t happen, but it’s unlikely.

Yeah a lot has been overstated on Claypool’s talent. He looks the part with very good size, strength and speed. That’s what got him drafted. But he was never viewed as an elite “receiving” talent. He was quite raw in college. At this level, looking the part isn’t enough to be consistently productive. Combine that with his mental issues, and now this latest injury, he is probably done in the NFL. Guys don’t get unlimited chances, which is why it’s important not to waste the few you do get being a knucklehead. Because if you do eventually get your head on straight and get an unlucky injury, you may never get another chance.

What OSU player is going to be the namesake??? congrats dude

I would say an elite pass rusher is the one thing McD and co have been missing in these last 9 seasons. We have the elite QB We had the elite WR (for a while anyway) We have the very good/borderline elite LT And we had the elite CB1, maybe twice if Benford keeps this up. The one thing we have never had is the elite edge guy.

Well, I've laid out my thoughts as concisely as possible a few times and I have far too many posts in this thread. Have a nice holiday!

I suppose that’s true. But even still, after 2018, I don’t think was ever a chance that we have more or equal SB appearances to KC. Maybe something like KC has 2 rings and we have 1? I just kinda look at the SB matchups outside of KC. I don’t know if we are beating that 2020 Bucs team or that 2023 Niners team. Maybe we beat the 2022 Eagles. I don’t think we are beating the 2024 Eagles. I guess the point is, even if we ended KCs season 40% of the time, are we convinced we win the AFCCGs or SBs they won? Or that they lost?

I think there’s lots of coaches, including them, who could have won 5 straight division titles from 2020 to 2024. That’s when we won 5 straight division titles. I don’t think they could have turned around the drought-era Bills like McDermott did. I think McD and co deserve a lot of credit for turning the entire organization around, and that includes drafting and developing Allen. I have never wavered on that. It’s why I agree he would get a job in 2 seconds if he was available for a sad sack organization. He has proven he can turn things around and that makes him a good coach, but not a great one imo. However, NOW, that Allen is great, I think you could replace McD with a lot of other coaches and basically get the same result. My opinion of McD is that he’s a floor raiser, not a ceiling raiser. And now Allen is holding up the floor by being maybe the best QB in football. We don’t need that anymore. I have been very consistent on this in this entire thread. Weird gotcha isn’t fun man, let go of the bone. There’s no scoreboard. You aren’t gonna twist my arm and make me say uncle.

I don’t know if I’d go that far. Mahomes had such a great roster and coaching advantage from the jump. Even if you play the “what if” game about getting a new HC in 2022 or in 2023 or even back in 2017, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a coach who could hold his own vs Reid in the postseason consistently. And the further you go back, the less chance Allen is who he is today for the Buffalo Bills. I don’t think there’s any reality that like Daboll (not saying you’d want him, but whatever HC candidate you like) is our HC from 22 on and we are beating the Chiefs consistently in the playoffs. Or even .500. Shanny or McVay weren’t available but I think even if they were, the scoreboard would be heavily tilted to KC imo. Just really crappy luck. Curse of Bambino esque.

I didn’t say that. This is weird gotcha. I’m out. Very odd thing to lie about.

Beane must’ve felt comfortable knowing this was a possibility and drafting Hairston in the first round anyway

It’s not mismanagement. It’s careful management. If they take a big swing at QB and they are wrong, everyone is gone. The longer they pretend they are biding their time at QB, the longer they remain employed. The drought era Bills LOVED this tactic. You trade up multiple firsts for a QB, and you miss, you are fired. You take a late first QB here and a day 2 QB there, sign a mid tier guy or a reclamation project, and you convince ownership you just haven’t found the right guy yet, and ownership is happy with playoffs almost every year and a full stadium for a divisional game in December, and you have a job for a really long time in the NFL. Not only that, but they committed to the Rodgers experience this season. So there’s really no reason to not go for it now. Really they’ve wasted 5 year committing to the heir of Big Ben already. What’s another year?

Are you under the impression I have wanted McDermott fired for a decade? I thought he did well in 2023. I engaged in maybe pursuing BB as the only active coach that I would take over McD after the 2023 season on that cycle, but that was it. I said it wasn't McD's fault he had AJ Klein out there to cover Kelce. However, in 2024, his defense was still mediocre and our season still ended at the hands of KC after an MVP year by our QB, for the fourth time, and that was the final straw. I was willing to change my view given new information, and I did. That doesn't make me inflexible or a hater. I'm hopeful that he will be fired if he goes 0-5 vs KC because to me its criminal to run it back for a 6th straight time, but ultimately, he probably won't lose his job until its far too late. I've made my peace with that.

Fingers crossed!

I think McDermott's actually a good coach. I don't think he's a disaster. I think he'd be a great hire for a team like Carolina if he did ever get fired. I just don't think he's a difference-maker. And at this point, I am just saving receipts in case the unthinkable happens and we win a Super Bowl immediately with a new HC in 2026. I have spent enough time in this thread that I should be able to find it immediately.

I told you I wasn't going to make you see the light. You have accepted McDermott in your heart and there's nothing anyone can say to change it.

What do you mean? These are my takes. QBs matter way more than coaches. We have maybe the best QB in football, thus we are are a very good team. If we fired McD and replaced him with an average coach, I think its very likely nothing gets worse from where we are now, a team that is very good, in large part because we have a great QB. Sometimes, coaching changes can elevate a very good team into a Super Bowl team. These are all very congruent takes if you stop to think for a second. I don't know if you are aware, but divisions titles are based on overall wins....of the teams in the division. Ergo, you can win 8 games and win the division as long as the rest of the division wins no more than 7. Seeing as the Jets have a .290 winning percentage since 2020, the Pats have a .390 winning percentage and the Dolphins have a .559, no I'm really not shocked that averaging double digit wins with an elite QB (like I said, bare minimum coaching expectation) when the second best team in your division can barely manage .500 over that span is enough to win the division. FWIW, I wasn't super impressed when Brady and BB lorded over their division for 20 years or when Mahomes and co. do it now. In a league where there's barely 12-15 QBs worth a damn, and even 8-10 of those are a tier below those top 3 or 4 guys, when you have those top 3 or 4 guys, you are expected to win your division. Half the teams in your division will statistically not even have a franchise QB, and if you have an elite QB, the odds of another one being in your division is very small.