FireChans

I don't do either of those things. I do think our defensive "stars" are mostly not stars at all. I think this team has two stars. Josh Allen and Matt Milano. One of them plays the most important position by a mile. The other plays the second least important position on defense. I do think there are some decent players on the roster that COULD be better with a HoF level NFL mind in charge. I do think the players on this team COULD be better if the GM acquired or drafted better players instead of his brand of elite JAGs. I don't think any of that should be controversial either. Having your 5th CB be an NFL caliber player is nice. Having your CB1 be elite is better.

100% Read this lol Nobody got this team to 7-9 like the Douggernaut!

What I fundamentally disagree with is McD getting retroactively blamed for a 4 week stretch where Allen played at a below Teddy Bridgewater level 4 years ago as a " midseason coaching failure." We all watched the games. Allen was getting outdueled by the ghost of Cam Newton and relied on the defense to make a critical turnover to win the game. Which they did. What a coaching failure by our doofus defensive HC. You want to complain about coaching in the playoffs? Have at it. I think there's some meat on that bone. I think 2022 is the biggest coaching failure because the team didn't show up at all v the Bengals and while the players deserve some blame, when its team-wide, I think it's mostly on the coaches to have the guys ready to play. No matter how much you guys contort yourselves to blame everything on McD, including blaming him when the offense sucks and then turning around and saying "he has no impact on the offense so why keep him", it's irrelevant. He will be here til 2025, at least. Because he's a good enough coach that the team isn't going to have a Brandon Staley or Nick Sirianni melt-down.

Maybe an addition to weird was Kyle Orton retiring and disappearing off the face of the earth without saying anything to anyone lol I remember folks weeping about Whaley getting fired then there’s like a bunch of players going nuts when he gets roasted here lol

McD doesn't coach the offense. That's not his area of expertise. I would rather have him keep his hands off the offense and hire a Brian Daboll who helped turn Josh into what he is today rather than meddle with something that he doesn't really get. I think you're railing against reality a bit here. If you felt so strongly about hiring an offensive coach in 2017, then hey, flowers to you. McD is here now. I don't think he's done a horrific job. If he gets fired, I would prefer an offensive coach like Ben Johnson because I think that having continuity for the most important job/position on the team (QB) is probably the way in today's NFL. McD isn't gonna break down Allen's mechanics and build them back up. It's not going to happen. If you think that's what we need to win a SB, then we are not going to win one soon lol. I personally think there's a lot more REALISTIC paths to winning a SB with McD on the team. I think that firing him and Beane and completely changing team-building and coaching philosophies COULD work. They might even have a better chance of working. But it's not gonna happen. Beane is safe. McD is safe. This is no different than before when you thought Beane had woken up and decided to prioritize WR more like 3 months ago. You thought he was gonna surround Allen with young promising talent. I told you he wouldn't. He didn't. He went safety in round 2 and backup DT in round 3 lol. They are going into the season with a dogwater WR group and ownership that has signed off on a down year with lowered expectations. That's the reality. FWIW, I rail against reality quite a bit on here. But the reality IS the reality.

Preach!

So should the $43M annual check for Mr. Top 2. He certainly didn’t play like top 2 for those 4 games. So maybe the expectations for McD to have the success of a coach with a top 2 QB should only count when the QB plays like a top 2 QB? Did Reid become a ***** coach for 4 hours when Patrick Mahomes had two turnovers for TD’s on Christmas last year? Unacceptable and he needs to be held accountable, right? Cost them at least the 2 seed.

FWIW, Josh Allen had 5 TD’s and 5 TO’s over those 4 games lol. Gotta be a pretty elite coach to compensate for that top 2 QBing. .500 ain’t so bad

I think the Bengals difference in talent is why they have been better and gotten farther, predominantly. I don't see them wasting $10's of millions of dollars on third string DT's. They brought in DJ Reader, we brought in Star Loutototo. A clear better player and guess what, their DL has performed better for it. They brought in Trey Hendrickson and we brought in Von Miller's old ass. Ditto result. If coaching is the reason the DL sucks despite a ton of investment, why did Daquan Jones have the best year of his career after he was brought in? Is he just ignoring what McD tells him? I think you give Beane far too much of a pass. I don't hold McDermott to a faultless position, but if you asked guys around the league, I don't think they'd say Oliver is worse DT than his contemporaries because of the HC. I really don't. None of this is a defense to not fire McD either. I just think if we were doing blame pie of why we have capped out at blow out loss in the AFCCG, Beane deserves a far bigger piece than you give him.

Aren't you like a big Bengals guy? You think they are better than us, right? Are they better than us because: Or are they better than us because Zac Taylor and his staff are just that much better than McD and his staff? Honestly.

No Beane deserves some credit for those guys too. However, guys like Dane, Bernard, Milano, Levi were not NFL-ready day 1. Milano in particular couldn't beat out Ramon Humber for the LB job in 2017 and was relegated to spot duty and STs until he was developed. You seem to think stiffs like AJE with a different coach would be a better player. The market says otherwise, he came back to the Bills for a bargain because no one wanted him lol. And FWIW, Josh Allen in 2018 wasn't Josh Allen in 2020. That's partially development too (although that was more Daboll than McD for obvious reasons).

Maybe they just aren't that good lol. Somehow McD developed Levi Wallace into being an NFL player. Ditto for Dane Jackson, Milano, Benford. Turned Poyer and Hyde into Pro Bowlers. Terell Bernard turned into quite a solid young player after a shaky rookie season. Maybe Oliver just ain't that good. Maybe Rousseau is a toolsy physical player that can't put it all together. Oliver was a top ten pick. His DT contemporaries in that first round are: Quinnen Williams (better player than Eddy) Christian Wilkins (better player than Eddy) Dexter Lawrence (better player than Eddy) Jeffrey Simmons (better player than Eddy ) Jerry Tillery (Oliver is the better player) You look at that as a failure of the coach. I personally blame the GM who took the fifth best DT in the first round at #9. It was the wrong pick. When the Bengals sucked after taking Burrow, they got the best WR in the draft and a true difference-maker in the NFL. When the Bills sucked after taking Josh, they drafted Oliver, who as above, isn't even the 4th best DT in the first round THAT YEAR, and the major bust in Cody Ford. That's a failure of the GM.

The three best defensive players on the Bills in the last 4 postseasons has been an off-ball linebacker (for 3 years) and 30+ year old safeties (1 or 2 for 4 years). That ain't gonna get it done. The problem for the Bills defense has been their completely embarrassing lack of pass rush. Last year they couldn't breathe on Mahomes. Every other team you have listed has had better pass rushers than the Bills. We have a bunch of edge setters and guys who are getting the 32nd salary for DE's on the FA market. .

Yes, yes, YES. Another "blame Beane for drafting playoff no-show defenders in the first and second round for half a decade" guy!

Cutting Bass saves us $100k on the season. Factoring in signing a new kicker, I doubt he's going anywhere this season unless he's horrific in TC.

there is legitimately no heat dude.

And the first half of his rookie year where he was horrific Is this a fact? I know we say it a lot. But I’m sure there’s a stat that kicking average decreases in Buffalo by X if it’s true.

That’s good then. Lots of folks like to justify this garbo bottom barrel group talking about how top 5 paid WR’s never win SB’s. I thought it was interesting pair that with bottom 5 paid WR rooms who almost never win a single playoff game. I have no problems with, “this group looks weak until proven otherwise.” In fact, I agree with that wholeheartedly. And I agree that 2023 and 2022’s groups were also a weakness. What I also believe is that 2024 is somehow a step DOWN from those weak years. And that will be evident mid season when Beanenis scrambling to bring back Quintus Cepheus.

Mayfield never leaves Buffalo like he did Cleveland. I actually think we’d have around the same level of team success we have had with Josh.

That’s true, you can’t say AAV is necessarily indicative of less talent. And rookie deals do provide a significant difference, like Green Bay who has a very cheap room with 5 players on rookie deals. When Chase and Higgins were on their rookie deals though, they also had Boyd making decent money. Which is reflected in their AAV not being near the bottom. The bottom line if the Bills win in divisional round this season, it would be the best season in recent years with a low AAV WR group. Keon’s salary was added this afternoon. We were originally 5th lowest, now we are 6th lowest.

Brother, you made the point about expensive WR’s and not winning. So I made the point about cheap WR’s and not winning. Do you really not see the link between those two arguments?

I think the argument is that the WR room this year is sorta like the MLB room last year. Last year, there was lots of rotating in and out between Bernard, Williams, Dodson etc. It was a position group without an incumbent starter. We didn't rotate as many bodies at the WR position because we had Diggs and Davis and a bunch of other guys that couldn't really play anyway. The difference is that one of those positions is the running back of the defense and the other is the second highest paid position in football, but alas.

All would be very good counterpoints as long as your prevailing thesis of the offseason isn't, "no expensive WR rooms have ever won a championship."

The Chiefs WR room was 19th in AAV last year. The Bills WR room is 27th in AAV in 2024.

FYI, AAV is their contracts, not approximate value.