Chaos

Seeding is incredible important in the playoffs. #1 seeds have incredibly huge advadantge. The september games count just as much as the december games.

This year seems different. 1) We have a competitor in the division. 2) Its not the losses. Its the wins. While "a win is a win", the only game where the Bills played a fully solid game was against the 0-7 Jets. 2b) the opponents we beat have a combined record of 3-24 The Bills under McDermott have never won three playoff games in a row. In fact the Bills under McDermott have never won three games consectutive games in a row against teams with winning records. The results through the first six games this year does not suggest any meaningful expectation for this to change. Fan hopes rely on: 1. Josh Allen playing at NFL record setting levels each week. 2. Max Hairston being the first rookie on defense to make a meaningful impact in many years 3. Bernard and Milano somehow returning to form at the linebacker position. 4. things to "click" for Cole Bishop 5. a 31 year old returning from a PED suspension to perform at or near the highest levels of his career 6. Someone on offense resembling the shadow of a WR1 I suppose all of these are possible. But the situation feels a lot like the rest of AFC combined has three aces showing, and we are trying to draw to an inside straight. If the Panthers run all over the Bills defense today and we lose, the goal for the season becomes stumbling into the playoffs and hoping for a miracle.

The failure to force other teams to punt is the bigger problem.

best to set the expectations low on a 31 year old coming back from PED suspension. hopefully those expectations get exceeded.

"Complementary football" in Bills speak, means everyone does what McDermott wants. Else it aint complimentary.

Given the complexity of the Bill's offensive scheme is hard to imagine him being ready to play for the Bills before next season.

what do you mean by "pretty damn good". Run stuffing? Getting after the passer?

if we don't blow it up, does your list change on who we should keep and who we should move on from ?

for discussion purposes, lets assume "blowing it up" means a new DC with control over scheme, playing calling and personnel. In that scenario how many current players on the Bills defense would likely be players on the defense will the new DC likely want to retain? (he might be stuck with all of them)

Every teams numbers in increased by long runs. No one is giving up exactly 4 yards a carry on every run. Not trying to provoke an argument or change the thread subject. But is your opinion that the state of the defense requires a full blown rebuild. Or do you think the fundamentally operating concepts for the defense are solid, and require just a change of a couple of players to be championhip caliber?

I think we get 8 games

The 1934 Reds surrendered 6.40 rushing yards per attempt, the worst figure in professional football history.[3] They are the only team in NFL history to surrender more than five yards per carry. The team lost 64–0 in week 8 and folded as a franchise. The team was purchased by a group of St. Louis businessmen, who played out the final three games of the Reds' schedule as the St. Louis Gunners. Now, you know the rest of the story.

More important than anything is to deflect all blame possible from the defense. The slow pace on offense is simply for that reason.

The NBA has no moral compass

He was about 18 inches Offside.

What makes you think Beane is drafting a WR better than Olave?

What are you afraid of missing out on by not having a late first round pick?

The neutral sites thing makes sense, but its not clear any of the sites you suggest have NFL caliber stadiums to host an event in.

Hypothetically if we changed coaches, and made the playoffs the next year, would you keep that new coach for 8 seasons, as long as we made the playoffs?

There is a more important open question. Vrable did pretty well with Ryan Tannehill, who was the best QB he got to coach. Maye might not have to be as good as Allen. He might only have to be meaningfully better than Tannehill to have an impact. Its hard based on anything we have seen from Maye to think he wont be better than Tannehill. The big unknown, is Vrabel the kind of coach that can capitalize on that.

You really seem to completely missing the point. The point is that changing coachesis no less likely to result in a Super Bowl appearance, than becoming the singularity of the longest lasting duo without an appearance suddenly making an appearance. From the perspective of winning a conference championship there is no incremental risk involved with changing coaches, notwithstanding the pearl clutching by some

Daboll had a lot of coaching experience including stints as an offensive coordinator before joining for the Bills. I am not sure there are formal rules for “coaching tree” but I don’t think Daboll himself would credit McDermott as his biggest influence.

10 examples of 59 super bowls is more than an ancedote. Going forward with the same QB/HC combo is actually a hope to generate the unique anecdote " the only duo to play together or more than 140 games before winning a conference championship" your list is a flawed analyis. There are a total of 10 first or second year (Rookie) Head Coaches (5) that made it to the super bowl. Don McCafferty (Baltimore Colts, Won Super Bowl V Red Miller (Denver Broncos, Lost Super Bowl XII George Seifert (San Francisco 49ers, Won Super Bowl XXIV Bill Callahan (Oakland Raiders, Lost Super Bowl XXXVII Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis Colts, Lost Super Bowl XLIV Second-Year Head Coaches (5) Ray Malavasi (Los Angeles Rams, Lost Super Bowl XIV Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers, Won Super Bowl XLIII Jim Harbaugh (San Francisco 49ers, Lost Super Bowl XLVII Doug Pederson (Philadelphia Eagles, Won Super Bowl LII Sean McVay (Los Angeles Rams, Lost Super Bowl LIII If your suggesting "its easier for a coach to take a team that has been losing consistently to the super bowl", I will have to disagree.

Its a false choice to say changing coaches is "Blowing it up" or retaining the head coach.. There have been 10 different coaches who made it to the Super Bowl in their first or second season. The change in head coach seem to be the "change" needed in those cases. This era may have ended with the arrival of the Vrabel/Maye duo. Early returns as a Bills fan are not promising. But they are early.

The rub is a disagreement on what "winning" is. Lets say Reid retires after this season. The expectation for the next coach will be that winning means winning super bowls, as long as Mahomes is QB. Many Bills fans, who don't post on fan forums think the bar for "winning" with Josh Allen on the team is at least an appearance in the Super Bowl. If you look at the chart of the top 10, all but one of those combos won more than they lost. None are really remembered as an era of great success.