FireChans

Maybe Kincaid isn't as good as those dudes....

No, which is why it's silly.

The last 2-3 years, they haven't done a good job taking advantage of the middle of the field. They still don't, with Shakir/Kincaid who should be effective in that area. You can't blame Allen, when he took advantage of the middle to great effect with Cole Beasley for 2 years.

if you watch a Rams game, it looks like every other completion comes at Tre's expense. He looks like the worst CB in the league now. Sad.

Cole Beasley was an All-Pro slot with Allen. He didn't play outside or deep.

I know we all talk about how these coaches know much more football than us. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how we cannot figure out 12 personnel. Especially now, with more teams staying in Cover 2 shells. It blows my mind. Brandon Beane must be SCREAMING every Sunday that he spent a first round pick on a TE, and paid another TE like top 7 money, and we CANNOT get a staff who can figure out how to use them both effectively.

???? We basically HAVE a Pats level receiving core. In fact, lots of folks POINTED at the Pats about a team that won multiple SB's with unremarkable receiving talent. Mack and MVS is the kind of JAG that BB would feel right at home coaching. There's no great WR group to destroy. Also, BB can still coach defense and its inarguable. 2018 was a long time ago, but last year, with a horrific QB and horrific offense, his defense was 3rd in yards per drive and 5th in points per drive. They have been great defensively even til the end. Since 2021, the Pats' defense have been 6th, 5th, and 9th in DVOA. As far as the Falcons go, Morris is already actively losing games, and they have spent multiple top 10 picks on guys they cannot even begin to understand how to use. If the Falcons picked Morris over BB, it's a pretty safe bet they picked wrong. Personally, I think BB is never coming back. But wrinkling your nose at the greatest defensive coach of all time? Please.

I actually agree with this, except for OCT. I don't know what is going on with that guy, but after a promising rookie season, he looks much much much worse.

It's a long season. But Diggs after this season isn't going to have second round value. He will have late third or even 4th round value. I think we cut bait when his value was the highest it will be going forward.

Yup. Our weakness schematically is attacking our front 7. It's not a coincidence that most of the last blowouts the Bills were on the receiving end of were 2020 Chiefs - ran all over us 2020 Titans - Derrick Henry ran all over us 2021 Colts - Jonathan Taylor ran all over us 2024 Ravens - Derrick Henry ran all over us.

Diggs having more yards and TD's than any Bills WR as the #2 target in his own offense isn't the burn you think it is.

Houston is talented, but they have not been productive. Stroud hasn't been as good, Diggs hasn't been as seamless of a fit as they expected, Tank is still working his way back. They are currently the 17th best offense in football. Maybe this week is the week they look like the juggernaut we expected, but also maybe not.

I think its a fair question to ask if our biggest needs going into the offseason were WR and S and our biggest needs remain WR and S, if the efforts to improve WR and S were good enough.

Full disclosure - I didn't like the Ray Davis pick. However, he's a Bill now so that means I am going to root that he is the second coming of Thurman Thomas. I saw a lot of love for the kid in preseason. Even some rumbling that if he could push Cook for the #1 job. Now at the quarter mark of the season, I'm wondering what is going on. Ray Davis' stats. 26 for 75 and 1 TD. Y/A is 2.9. 3 catches for 14 yards. To my eye, it feels like whenever he is in the game, the defense is keying into the run. They are usually right, and it's almost always 2nd and medium that ends with 3rd and medium. So how do the Bills get Davis going?

We don't run a lot of play action at all. Honestly, I don't think that was the way to regroup last night. They had free rushers all night, a half second with Josh's back to the defense sounds like strip sack city. I think @Simon hit the nail on the head. We needed to hit Cook in the flat, either on designed screens or flares and chew up 6 yards or more if he makes a guy miss for a drive or two to get the Ravens to at least think twice about sending 5 or 6.

No. I like YAC. I don't like short YAC routes being the only club in the bag, much like I didn't like the intermediate to deep game being the only club in the bag. The best offensive strategy is to be able to do everything. That's why the best offenses in history weren't JUST small ball YAC or JUST deep threats. They did it all and did it excellently.

Shades of Chan Gailey offense with Stevie, Donald Jones, and David Nelson.

You are right. It's not a Mack Hollins problem. It's a room problem. We were in a "need to pass" situation from about the third drive on. Do you know who played the second most snaps at WR? It was Mack Hollins. Do you know who had the second most targets on the team? Mack Hollins. Like you said, if Mack was just a handful of snaps guy or a running down guy, he's got value. He is negative value the more he plays and the more he is targeted. And somehow he is our third best WR.

Welp, that sucked. Let's start with the bad and end on a high-note with the good The Bad Defensively: Safeties took bad angles and looked tentative, especially Hamlin. Rapp got hurt doing his human missile impression LB's were attacked relentlessly until the second half when I think McD/Babich adjusted their assignments Rasul Douglas was kind of a less than bright spot, Cam Lewis was on the receiving end of some bad whiffs as well Next to zero pass rush in the first half and poor play recognition all around Offensively: Samuel looks like a complete zero of a signing (which sucks because I thought he would be pretty good reunited with Brady) -every play where he is in the backfield is a play where blitz pickup is never a factor OL and pass pro was horrible. The misdirection on disguised blitzes chewed them up. Everyone kinda was bad, but dishonorable mention goes to Torrence who clearly has some bad tendencies on tape that teams will continue to relentlessly attack. I have said it once and I will say it again. James Cook is one of our best offensive players. Getting away from him entirely is a mistake. I know folks have been really high on Ray Davis, but I am absolutely sick of the 1st down James Cook run for 7 yards and then taking him off for Ray Davis to get -1 on the next play. Let James Cook, for real. My personal distaste for this WR group - I have to mention this but I will keep it brief. Teams that are comfortable putting CB1 on Shakir and playing close to the line of scrimmage are gonna be our kryptonite and the Ravens just showed the entire league how to do it. Mack and MVS are non-factors when we are in passing situations. Teams will feel very comfortable with a S or CB3 on them and dare them to make a play. We saw that in full force all game once we got behind. We are making Josh and co. play 10 on 10 or 9 on 9 because these guys just don't have the juice. The call. We all know the call. One of the worst calls I have ever seen and was DOA. With the OL barely able to give Allen a second on a good day, running a pseudo-wild cat with Samuel for the first time on the year when all eyes will be on Allen is really bad. We didn't even set it up earlier in the year. Bad bad bad bad. Will probably be the worst call of Brady's career The offense in general. We were a miracle Josh Allen throw away from scoring 3 points total. PU. The Bright Spots: Defensively: Great second half adjustments on defense, came out flying and gave us a chance to stay in the game Bishop didn't stand out in a negative way when forced to come in Health - we are riding out the clock on TJ and TB coming back. Hopefully they are both back this week or the next, and I think this is the worst defensive game we will see this year. Offensively: Keon Coleman is a player. He was not my choice in the draft, but he had his best game as a pro. Bad drop, but made two EXCELLENT catches against tight coverage when we needed it. I have concerns about making a living on those plays, but I am more convinced that he will be a star in this league sooner rather than later. I wish we had 4 of him. Cook is still a weapon. Again, wish we used him more but I thought the Ravens front would neutralize him. He showed out, he just needs the ball more. Anyway, that's what I got.

HUGE START

This is the "Ravens come home to roost" game.

The future of the AFC South looked so bright like 365 days ago. Sad how fast things change. Back to the dregs of the conference.

I think they will sign him and overpay if they must. Just not something I would recommend at this juncture.

Yeah that's one strategy. But even then, if Burden is like Devonta Smith level, I don't know if it's a good idea to pay them and then you are spending 2-3 high assets on one guy for 5 years. Which is maybe smart to maximize Josh's prime but I don't know about long-term success. I have long argued for the "stable of targets" approach. Take 1 WR every year or every other year in rounds 1-3 like the Steelers did. Starting from 2017, the best WR's from each class have been: 2017 Pick 69 or 84 2018 Pick 24 or 26 2019 Pick 36 or 51 or 64 or 76 2020 Pick 17 or 22 or 25 2021 Pick 5, 6, 10, 89, 112 2022 Pick 8, 10, 11, 52 2023 Pick 20, 23, 50, 55, 69 And 2024 is too early to tell. So while in the most recent years, WR's have been top heavy which will likely continue, there's still plus players scattered all over the draft and enough non-top 10 picks end up being stars. I'm okay with not having a true #1 if we have 2-3 guys who would be in the top 45. And if one of them pops into a top 10 WR, then that's the guy you pay. Otherwise, you let the Mike Wallace's and Emmanuel Sanders of the world walk.

I wasn't a Tee fan out of college. he was mocked to us often in 2020 and I hated it then. He is a good player, but he is Courtland Sutton+. I think there is a world where Coleman is at least an equal player if not better sooner rather than later. I have come around to the idea of not paying WR's unless they are like top 5-10 guys or comfortably outside the top 20-30. The team that gives Tee $25M is going to regret it I think. My ideal WR strategy is for Beane and co. to draft a WR in the first next year with #1 potential, and then be prepared to make a hard decision about Shakir if he is getting $20M offers.