Billy Claude

Yes. I know that there were rumors that Elway pressured him out. Given Kubiak's confirmed medical issues and that he was able to get to 9-7 with Trevor Siemian, I find it difficult that even John Elway would lose patience that quickly. However, Elway's interference might have also been a factor in his resignation. On the last part, I definitely agreed, no matter how much one argues the point, you just don't know. However, given Pegula's experience with how difficult it is to find even a competent coach with the Sabres, I think it would take a player revolt type of season for McDermott to be fired after this season. I can see him getting fired the year after that if the Bills continue to mess up in the playoffs. I guess you just don't know doesn't make for good conversation on a message board.

I thought Kubiak retired from the Broncos due to health issues rather then being fired. He did miss games that year due to health. Some of these obvious examples of coaches have been mentioned in previous threads: John Fox was fired after going 12-4, 13-3, and 13-3 record the previous three years (most recent listed first) but going 3-4 in the playoffs. His record is probably closest to McDermott's. Of course. Kubiak won the Super Bowl the next year and then the Broncos went 9-7 and then 5-11 the years after that. Marty Shottenheimer was fired after going 10-6, 10-5, and 12-4 in the previous three years with the Browns and 2-4 in the playoffs. The Browns went 9-6-1 and 3-13 the next two years under Bud Carson. Shottenheimer was also fired after going 12-4, 9.-7, 12-4 the previous 3 year with San Diego and 0-2 in the playoffs. The Chargers when 11-5 and 8-8 the next two years under Norv Turner. He was also fired from the KC Chiefs after a lot of very good regular seasons but went 7-9 the year before he was fired (so it doesn't count). Tony Dungy after going 9-7. 10-6 and 11-5 the previous 3 years with Tampa Bay and 2-4 in the playoffs. Jon Gruden won the Super Bowl the next year and then 7-9 and 5-11 the two years after that. So some teams have definitely achieved the pinnacle firing successful head coaches.

I don't believe it was widely reported. Certainly nothing came from the Bills. You wouldn't expect anything during the season but these kind of things always leak out after the season. I don't think any reporter ever claimed that someone from the Bills told them that. I also think Diggs would have been more understanding if the game plan or game execution was severely limited due to Allen's injury. As far as I could tell, it was just a sports chiropractor on the internet without any direct knowledge of the situation who said the injury would make it more difficult for Allen to throw short passes. Some people on the board then convinced themselves that this must have been the reason Allen was going deep so much. Certainly also a reasonable possibility but wouldn't this still be a football related issue? Allen said the issue was not football related.

OK. I am curious. Why would the police recommend these particular matches be moved? Are these rivalry games with reputations for violence? And what is wrong with Milwall vs. Hull?

Yes, I just don't see any reason why Allen would say Diggs' issues were not football related if it was about play calling and I assume that Allen talked with McDermott and perhaps a PR person about what he was going to say before he met the reporters. However, that Digg's was unhappy with the play calling absolutely makes the most sense out of the various theories out there.

This is reaching the point of chariacature. Are we not remembering that Nick Foles and a completely washed Peyton Manning have won Super Bowls? That Jimmy Garofolo, Colin Kaepernick and Jared Goff has started recent Super Bowls? Not to mention some good but not great QBs like Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, and Matthew Stafford have all won Super Bowls recently. The belief that it is all the QB is insulting to rest of the players and staff on those teams. You often make good points but then always take it to absurd limits. Your arguments will be much more effective if don't religiously adhere to your flow chart. There has rarely been worse cases of the pot calling the kettle black.

Issues with play calling seems much more probable than ex-girlfriends impregnated by a teammate. However, if that is the case, was Josh just lying when he said the issues were not football related? If Allen was lying, what was the purpose of lying instead of just saying he didn't want to talk about specifics? Secondly, what about the reports that Diggs met with Beane, McDermott, and the new WR coach but not Dorsey? Were those reports simply wrong?

Definitely not true about Rex. His shine had worn off for the majority on the board long before he was fired. Most were off the bandwagon after season one when he took a elite Schwartz defense and made it look unprepared and confused.

A lot of people seems to feel that they started going away from the short game after the UCL injury but I felt that the drift started earlier, in particular, after the red-zone issues in the first Miami game and the success of the deep passing game against the Steelers. Of course, it is just an impression and maybe the stats don't back this up.

I don't understand the hate here. It's just Beasley's opinion and not an outrageous one. Other people have commented on Prescott's leadership qualities. Just because people think it is a slight swipe at Allen doesn't mean he doesn't believe it.

I don't think this came up all of sudden due to the Bengals game (or just before) nor do I think it is all Diggs. Things have been clearly less kumbaya with the Bills since the 13 seconds. There were assistant coaches making lateral moves, stories that Daboll and McDermott didn't see eye to eye, rumors about what was said on the flight back from KC etc. Things were hidden during the hot start last season but probably flared up after the team started struggling in November such as mentioned in Wawrow's article.

This doesn't make sense. How can every passing play be designed to go deep to shallow? If that was the case, the only short passes would be flares to the running back. I have to assume some plays are designed to be read deep to shallow and some shallow to deep, or more likely, Allen has a choice based on the defensive alignment. There is something seriously wrong with the game plan if all passing plays are designed to be read deep to shallow.

Clearly its not really Diggs and just some actor they hired to play the part.

This is much ado about nothing. A quick internet search shows that the rule change won't affect anybody: From footballZebras.com discussing the rule change: "A forward handoff is only allowed to be made to an eligible receiver behind the line of scrimmage. When the handoff occurs downfield, it is 5 yards from the spot of the foul and a loss of down. The rule change would be to have forward handoffs to linemen behind the line of scrimmage also carry a loss of down and also be a spot foul (currently from the line of scrimmage)." So forward handoffs to running backs or receivers behind the line of scrimmage are still allowed. You can't do a forward handoff in front of the line of scrimmage nor hand it off to a lineman at any place on the field. How many times do these things happen in a season? One could wonder why they bother adding this clause but this whole discussion is making a mountain out of a molehill (as is many things on the internet). Oops -- I saw that someone upthread already mentioned this but everyone seems to ignore it.

One big change will be that I am pretty sure Hailee Steinfeld won't be moving to Buffalo during the season.

Agree that the rule change will add further judgment calls but a shoestring tackle has been and will continue to be legal even if the player leaves both feet: It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves one or both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet .

There seems to be an assumption in this thread that a 34 year old Von Miller will return to somewhere close to his pre-injury form this year. To me this is fairly unlikely, and undoubtedly one of the reasons they brought in Leonard Floyd.

Bills have had a lot of first rounders on the d line for a quite while. 2021 had five: Jerry Hughes Star Lotulelei Greg Rousseau Vernon Butler Ed Oliver 2020 had three: Jerry Hughes Vernon Butler Ed Oliver 2019 also had five: Jerry Hughes Ed Oliver Star Lotulelei Corey Liuget Shaq Lawson

Given the investment made in the draft investment made in the D line you would expect at least a couple of top draftees to be really good and maybe a late rounder to surprise. Outside of Groot, who one still has reasonable hopes for, who has done that?

Maybe Eric Washington should look in the mirror. The Bills haven't had a lot of pay back for all the draft investment they have put into the DL. At least part of that responsibility has to go to the guy who is suppose to be developing the those high draft choices.

Perhaps a more accurate statement would be "He is making sure that the OL is not one of the worse in the league with these signings."

I don't understand the point. No one is saying Allen is responsible for all turnovers. However, upthread, almost everybody is saying Allen has no responsibility at all, or that the data is missing context because Allen was in a position where he needed to bring the team back and so had to force the play. There's is plenty of blame to go around. It is not all on the o-line, as many here seem to think. It is on the o-line, the coaching staff, AND Allen.

I think someone upthread said Allen won 60% of one score games over the time range given. This is actually not that good. Someone (perhaps Einstein?) did a deep data dive last offseason and if I remembered right, most top teams win about 70% of their one score games (so the Bills at 6-3 were in that ballpark last year) and in fact, Mahomes/Reid won about 75% of their one score games over the previous 3 or 4 years. That study, of course, was meant to be an attack on McDermott.

Here is the context for 2022 -- Josh Allen led the league with 19 turnovers. The turnovers break down as follows: 12 occurred when the Bills were leading -- 5 of those when the Bills were leading by more than 8 points. but one was on a 4th and goal up 27-17 against the Vikings. 4 occurred when the game was tied, three when the score was 0-0 in the first quarter, the other was 14-14 in the 2nd quarter in game 18 against New England. 3 occurred when the Bills were trailing, One was the last play in overtime against the Vikings, one was down 21-26 early in the 4th quarter in the 2nd game against Miami and the last was down 6-7 in the 2nd quarter against Chicago. It is not unexpected that very few of Allen's turnovers occurred when trailing since the Bills rarely trailed last year. It is simply not true that the turnovers were because he was leading comebacks which seemingly a lot of people are implying in this thread. Out of the 19 turnovers only three (Vikings twice and Dolphins) were in situations where he needed to play hero ball. Again, no one expects or wants Allen to have zero turnovers but leading the league in turnovers is not a good thing and I don't see any reason why he can't cut this number by 25%, Nor can all the blame be placed on Dorsey, the o-lines or the receivers. The guy making the final decision on when and where to throw the ball has to be somewhat responsible. This is not really an Allen thing, I just dislike it in general when people dismiss data simply because it doesn't agree with their opinion. I guarantee if Burrow or Jackson led the league in turnovers, no one on this board would be saying the data was being taken out of context.

I don't get this analogy at all. Why can't Allen reduce his turnovers by 15 or 20%? In fact, I would be very disappointed if he only reduces his turnovers by 20% this coming season. ----------------------------------------------------------- There's a lot of straw man arguments in this thread. No one is arguing that the high number of turnovers is all Allen's fault, however, many people seem to imply that none of it is Allen's fault (or maybe begrudgingly, a very insignificant amount). Almost no one is saying that Allen is not a top quarterback. However, when you are worst in the league at something there is plenty of fault to spread around and a significant amount of that has to go to the guy making the final decision on whether and where to throw the ball.