amprov56
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Posts posted by amprov56
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3 hours ago, SoMAn said:
I was at that home game against the Raiders which was Joe Collier's last in Buffalo.
The Bills had been a champion caliber team a couple of years prior to 1968.
Collier was on a short leash after a sub-par 1967 season, so two games into the 1968 season, and following a blowout at the hands of the Raiders, he was released.
The fans were singing, "goodbye Collier, goodbye Joe, goodbye Collier, we're glad to see you go'.
One of my vivid memories is walking next to the Raiders defensive end, handlebar mustached, 6' 8" Ben Davidson. It was along side the snow fence that separated the fans from the field in tiny War Memorial Stadium. Our seats were close to the field on the visitor side. I'd never seen a human being that huge.
Earlier, we had had given a ride to the game for the wife of one of the assistant coaches. I still wonder if the coaches suspected or were given a hint that it might be the end for the coaching staff if the Bills lost.
Fortunately for Collier, he was able to carve out a nice career in the NFL as a defensive coordinator. R.I.P.
Was at that game too, very ugly day and season that followed!
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On 5/5/2024 at 5:11 PM, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Sign me up! I swear I will not start a thread that asks when will McDermott be gone.
But I live for them!!!!
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4 minutes ago, foreboding said:
Do not think was posted. If so...merge.
Nice little video about Bills Mafia donating to help children in Keon's hometown. This kid is already becoming local legend.
Great post!!
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7 hours ago, PBF81 said:
Hopefully!
Be that as it may, just be prepared for more "making of the playoffs," which most coaches could do with Allen in our crap division, and divisional round losses. All fine and good for anyone that's happy with that.
Also, why don't we see how this season goes first.
I'm all about seeing how this season goes, and once again I'm all about winning the SB; but a pesky little nuance - you have to make the playoffs first!
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22 hours ago, Shaw66 said:
Billy's still alive, so far as I know. I hope he doesn't mind that I use his name and number. I chose the name to honor and remember one of the all-time great Bills.
And yes, 1968 was an awful year. So awful that the Bills got the #1 overall pick.
Living in Toccoa,, Georgia!
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On 4/30/2024 at 10:14 AM, PBF81 said:
It's going to have to come down to a battle between Pegula and the media before he'll ever get rid of McD.
McD would be doing himself and the team a major-league favor if he simply hired someone with come creativity and a plan on offense, rather than shooting from the hip every offseason/season. ... even to the extent of contradicting himself via this Draft.
He simply refuses to give up control of an offense that he knows little about in terms of getting the most out of it. Brady merely schemes things according to McD's ill-fated methodologies.
Hopefully you will soon be a fellow Tennessean, but your killing me!!! Why do many of you want to disrupt a perennial playoff team, to me it's merely a temper tantrum by kids who did not get to the candy store. So if we "fire everybody" and go into another playoff draught will you and the rest of the gang publicly admit during non - playoff years you were wrong? I dont think so, but you all will do what you do best, "fire everybody" and McBeane will be long gone. Do some research on the Bills firing HC's, normally did not work out very well with one exception!
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January 2025 after Josh Allen demands to be traded and the intensity of the "fire everybody" faction, the OL will get fired along with Beane and McDermott; the Pegulas will get one more chance or they will be fired!
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20 hours ago, Sweats said:
But, if you listen to the media and some Bills fans, the team is imploding, and everyone should be fired effective immediately........UGH
Telling you, TBD attracts Drama Queens like moths to a flame. If we won a SB through the ground game and defense they would still be on the "fire everybody" mantra! I actually have a top five list that I habitually read as they are both predictable and entertaining!
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5 hours ago, Paup 1995MVP said:
Gunner I like most of what you post. But don’t sugar coat it. Diggs was pretty bad the second half of last season. He could not get open down the field. He was dropping passes and looked disinterested.
I think he is pretty much done. A lot of guys have their day. But he isn’t balling out til he is 35 like a Larry Fitzgerald Jerry Rice or Tony Gonzalez. He was excellent for awhile, but not nearly in that pantheon.
The Bills did great to dump him on Houston for a 2nd round pick.
Thank you great post Bill Polian once said the Buffalo Bills historically hang on to players on the downward slope simply because they are fan favorites. Sammy Watkins caused an emotional breakdown among many much like Diggs! Great post
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2 hours ago, uticaclub said:
Book a flight to someone place nice for Jan 20th; we aren’t making it past the divisional round. Someone people are ok with that ceiling; other are not. Just enjoy the vacation.
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13 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:
Their employment with the Bills is totally Josh Allen's call at this point.
I'm sure many other front offices are consulting with Josh too, a man for all seasons - QB, coach, GM owner, OC....hopefully this posted in jest!
16 minutes ago, H2o said:I'm not looking for your affirmation, so
The Chiefs did dismantle us in that AFCCG appearance. Even though it was close at halftime, you KNEW which way it was going to go. They dominated from start to finish. They had Allen so frustrated he was chucking the ball at people while on the ground.
The 13 Second game was the next colossal flop by a McDermott led squad. It is one of THE biggest flops in Playoff history. To deny that is to live in delusion.
I like how you mention nothing about how we were completely dominated by the Bengals. Out coached, out played, and ran out of our own house.
Did we not just lose by a FG attempt that went wide right? Yes, yes we did. The difference this time? It was to our arch nemesis at home in the Divisional Round, and not in the SB. And our defense couldn't stop a nose bleed that game. Nothing McDermott schemed really worked, at all. We were only in the game because of Josh and the Hardman fumble at the goal line.
Have we not had 3 OC's on 3 years? Yes, yes we have. I know Daboll got a HC job. There were many people at the time who said they would have rather kept Daboll than McDermott. That we should have made Daboll HC. The relationship he and Josh has been the biggest difference in what we have seen from this offense the last couple of years. The mention of the 3 OC's is talking about the constant change, and instability in that room. Josh is a generational talent, yes, and could probably run an offense himself at this point. Still, I hope Brady is the guy who brings stability and innovation back to that room for everyone else. We shall see.
I'm not throwing crap at the wall. I'm speaking the truth. I believe this entire off-season is going to make or break this regime. If the guys we drafted don't look like any of them are going to be impact players, if Worthy becomes a monster in the KC offense, if our WR group ends up as bad as it looks in comparison to the rest of the NFL right now, if Coleman flops, if we are a middling team that ends up 3rd in the division while missing the Playoffs, if other WR's we passed on look good on the field for their respective teams, then this regime's seats will probably be blazing hot in 2025. It will put on full display the questionable choices they have made, as well as everything prior ending back under the microscope, and the talk will be how they are wasting Allen's prime years. And that's IF things play out on the wrong side of the "if's" just like I said before.
Fire everybody and cx the 2024 season!
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12 hours ago, Shaw66 said:
I often find that it’s useful to forget the money and the hype and the stars and instead to think about the game of football at its most basic. I think about what it’s like to have a career as a high school football coach trying to win a championship.
In high school, the raw material for building a roster is left mostly to chance (putting aside the little bit of recruiting that goes on in some places). The head coach has very little control over the quality of players who show up on the first day of tryouts; the physical capabilities of most of those players was largely determined in random bedrooms 16 or 18 years earlier, and now here they are. The coach’s job is to choose a roster from among the guys trying out, and then to train and mold them into a team that wins football games.
The programs with the best coaches have up years and down years like everyone else, but they tend to have more up years. Why? Because their brand of leadership, their teaching ability, and their strategic and tactical approach to the game is better than most other coaches. So, even in years when the gene pool has left the coach a little short-handed compared to some other schools, their seasons often are quite successful.
(I have had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon up close twice in my life. I played high school basketball for Bob Hettler, one of the greatest high school coaches in New York State history, and I was on the faculty with Morgan Wootten, one of the greatest high school coaches in U.S. history. The players changed year after year, but the winning more or less never stopped. (Wootten did have the advantage of being able to recruit, at least a bit.) Only occasionally did the talent fall together in just the right way to have a true championship caliber team, but even in down years, their teams stood out.)
Coaches know when the talent they have is outstanding and when it’s just okay. Good coaches adapt to the challenge each season and look for the ways that this group of players can succeed, whether this group offers raw physical talent that is better or worse than last year’s group. That’s the coach’s job, and good coaches find ways to win.
Coaching is coaching, at any level. Pro football coaches face the same annual roster turnover that high school coaches deal with. There are differences, of course: The high school coaches have bigger problem, because their roster will be a collection 16-18 year-old kids with their own issues. The pro coach, on the other hand, can expect at least semi-adult behavior from most of their players.
The big difference, however, is the pro coach gets raw material selected from the very best players in the country. The pro coach, year after year, is going to start the season with a training camp roster of 90 of the biggest, fastest, smartest, and toughest football players in the world. And that means that the differences in team success based on physical talent become smaller: the guy being tackled and the guy tackling both excel at their jobs. For sure, if your team has more of the best guys, your team has an advantage, but in the NFL it’s very difficult to collect and hold onto talent that is physically dominant at several important positions. In the current era, it isn’t possible to collect and keep stars like the Kelly-era Bills did.
I’m not saying that getting the best talent doesn’t matter. Of course, it matters. What I’m saying is that not having the best talent doesn’t mean that you can’t compete. With coaching, talent that is excellent but not the best can play a team-game that neutralizes the talent advantage any particular team might have. Of course, if I have the best talent AND the best coaching, then the talent will be the difference.
People can argue endlessly about the talent on this roster and that roster, but at the end of the day success in the NFL is going to come down to how well coached your team is. Does your coach get your team into the strategically and tactically correct offenses and defenses year-in, year out and game-in, game-out. Does your coach get your team physically and mentally prepared to execute those offenses and defenses?
In that context, consider for a moment what has happened to the Bills roster in the past three months that has the fan-base and the media all in a tizzy: The Bills lost six big names from their roster: White, Morse, Davis, Diggs, Hyde, and Poyer. When each of those six came into the league, the draft market place valued them, by draft round, this way: 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7. Add ‘em up: 24.
And now consider the Bills’ top-six acquisitions over the past three months. Samuel, Coleman, Bishop, Carter, Davis, Van Pran-Granger. 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5. Total: 18.
I’m not arguing for a second that there’s anything but the least-sophisticated logic to that analysis. You can’t really just add up draft value and determine which college is better. But those numbers aren't meaningless.
Those numbers are some evidence of the fact that the talent every team starts with, at least in terms of what the league thought of them when they came in. Going into most drafts, most GMs would take 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 over 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7.
In terms of the quality of talent that will take the field in September compared to what the Bills had three months ago, I think I’ll take exactly where the Bills are today. Think about the departures: White, may still be a player, but at the very best he’s about to wind down, Morse, never the greatest physically, and his days were ending, Davis, the guy everyone loves to hate, Hyde slowing down and needs to go for his own health, Poyer, some years left, perhaps, but not his best. Diggs, may still be good, but not so good that he's worth the headache.
Start looking at them player by player, or at least paired: Would you rather have Diggs and Davis or Coleman and Samuel? Would you rather have Morse or Van Pran-Granger? Bishop or (pick one) Hyde or Poyer? White or Carter? Collectively, I'd rather have the youngsters than kept or extended all of those guys.
Now, for sure, not all of the rookies necessarily will pan out, and it may take them a year to begin to play at the level that’s needed for them to succeed in the league, but looking at the Bills three months ago and now, I will definitely take the uncertainty of these young talented players over the uncertainty of old, injured, troublesome talented players.
Would the Bills be in an even better position if Beane had managed the draft in another way? I don’t think so. The extra talent one of the top three receivers in the draft would have brought to the team couldn’t offset the loss of the rest of the players the Bills drafted. Said another way: six guys are gone, and I like my chances better if I get six new guys instead of two (the new receiver and Curtis Samuel).
In terms of how Beane and McDermott have done in their jobs, well, it depends if I’m a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full guy. I like that they’ve improved the team, but I also have to ask why a group of unproven guys actually is better than the gang that just left? How did the Bills get in the position they were in, with a group of guys who no longer were quite good enough to win, and with no backups in sight?
However they got to that position, I think if you asked McDermott if he likes the talent he has today, he’d say, “Absolutely!” Can you win a Super Bowl with this talent? “Absolutely!” And that’s not just power-of-positive-thinking Sean speaking. I mean, he and we thought he could win it with the talent he had last year, and if this is actually a better group, then why shouldn’t he think he should win this year?
Translate this back to high school football. It’s as though McDermott is coaching high school and has a five-star recruit at QB, several locks at D-1 scholarships (Milano, Oliver, Cook, Coleman, Torrence) and several guys who very well also might go D-1. Considering D-2 and D-3, he has maybe 20 kids who are going to play in college. Maybe one other high school in the state has a 5-star QB. Some other schools might have two five-star players, but unless they have a five-star at QB, they can’t be as good together as the five-star QB he has. Some other schools may end up with a few more D-1 guys than he has, but the reality is that doesn’t make all that much difference.
Ask McDermott the high school coach if he likes were he is right now, and I’m sure he’ll say, “Absolutely.” Ask him, the pro coach, and he'll say, "Absolutely."
I like what Beane has done since the end of the last season, and I’m looking forward to the 2024. The Bills will be in the middle of the contest for the Lombardi.
GO BILLS!!!The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.
Great post!
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1 hour ago, Don Otreply said:
Same way every team does, and we get out of it the same way every team does, this ain’t rocket surgery.
Fire Everybody!
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1 hour ago, Don Otreply said:
Same way every team does, and we get out of it the same way every team does, this ain’t rocket surgery.
So true!
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5 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Lol...I don't feel like arguing as I'm trying to be positive. Just will list dispassionate stats.
Andre never had back to back 1000 yard seasons. He was a great great player. Tough and excellent run after catch.
But what Diggs did in his four years here was better than any WR in Bills history. His reception totals per season are the four highest. He had the top two yards in a seson and 4 of the top 12. Andre's top yards in a season were 5th and 6th and those are the only two in the top 12.
Of course Andre did it longer. Different era. Rice Brown Irvin and several others of his contemporaries were as good or better. Yada yada yada
They are both great and I'm still sad Diggs is gone
I'm moving on though
Go Bills
In ten years, Andre will be the only one in the HOF, sorry, Im not arguing either, just stating facts!
9 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:Lol...I don't feel like arguing as I'm trying to be positive. Just will list dispassionate stats.
Andre never had back to back 1000 yard seasons. He was a great great player. Tough and excellent run after catch.
But what Diggs did in his four years here was better than any WR in Bills history. His reception totals per season are the four highest. He had the top two yards in a seson and 4 of the top 12. Andre's top yards in a season were 5th and 6th and those are the only two in the top 12.
Of course Andre did it longer. Different era. Rice Brown Irvin and several others of his contemporaries were as good or better. Yada yada yada
They are both great and I'm still sad Diggs is gone
I'm moving on though
Go Bills
Oh ya, Andre was a great teammate!
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On 4/27/2024 at 5:35 PM, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Cmon man. Shakir replaces Diggs??? Diggs had the four best WR years in Bills history. There is nothing to suggest Shakir even comes close to that.
Your wrong as usual, Diggs could not carry Andre Reeds jock strap, your a Doctor, come on!
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2 minutes ago, TheWeatherMan said:
131 post burner account…nice 😂
Okay, whatever, not a clue!
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41 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:
Calm down, Oppenheimer. Our Cap Hell now has less than a year left. Diggs cost a fortune both here and being traded. Von cost us 2 fortunes. Both contracts won’t impact us next year and I believe Beane has reconstructed the team well enough to be competing again for the Division.
They can't calm down, they live for doom and gloom! TBD attracts drama queens like moths to a flame!
1 hour ago, TheWeatherMan said:Insulting 3 members in one post while contributing nothing to the thread is quite impressive.
Come on chill out, too much drama and not enough reality!
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7 hours ago, uticaclub said:
So much better than drafting ominous players
We are in a 2 year re-tooling process because of how bad the 2022 off-season was
Blah, blah, blah same old same old!
3 minutes ago, NewEra said:lol….I’m the biggest agitator? 🤣 oh man. You don’t like me because I’m anti doom and gloom. You ARE doom and gloom, so I get it. Cool.
i agree that 10ish years ago, I may have been top 10, but now I just get a little out of hand when I drink. Luckily for the board, I don’t really drink unless I’m watching a bills game and don’t post very often during the games.
Keep on challenging the fire everybody/doom and gloom crowd, I love it! I posted earlier these people are angry at life to a level that exceeds the game, they will never be happy. Right on New Era!!!
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4 hours ago, Don Otreply said:
No it won’t,
In agree, possibly for different reasons but I agree!
2 hours ago, Logic said:As someone who -- as I have stated several times in several threads -- didn't love this draft class and feel that the front office seems to have failed what I viewed as its biggest mission this offseason...
I have to say that I don't think this year can "break" McDermott and Beane, in terms of their being fired or on the hot seat or whatever. After jettisoning all the veterans they did and admitting publicly it's a "transition" year, I think that even a regression and even -- though I don't think it'll happen -- missing the playoffs wouldn't result in Beane or McDermott being ousted. I think they're viewing 2025 as the year to complete this re-tooling and TRULY compete for a championship again. The cap space that's opened up, the plethora of draft picks.
If the Bills don't make a serious run at a title in 2025, THEN I think whispers about their job security will get very loud.I agree and then I will join (gasp) the fire everybody faction to include Ethan in Cleveland, good lord what a sad day that will be!
53 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:Oh, THIS is going to do it?
lol
No its not and why would you want it to?
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10 hours ago, Wizard said:
These are all true statements. With that said, other than a handful of people in the world that know where Kutztown University is, keep in mind that that their were less teams, more rounds, and maybe one grainy video or two to dissect Andre Reed's game.
Bills had a good GM at that time. Reed was great. He was the 2nd option for Kelly behind Thomas and occasionally Lofton.
In summary, Reed in 85-86 versus Coleman in 2024-2025 as far as analysis is a lot like comparing CGI capabilities in movies 🎬 from 85 till today as it relates to player evaluation.
Keon Coleman may have a good career but there is a million times more information, analysis, video, and resources to make it more likely that Coleman will be at his peak a #2 whose skillset and production scream a #3.
Great post, thanks.
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21 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Did you see something different?
I didn't say he could not be good.
The fact he can run all routes will open things up for him. They have to respect the short middle and deep throws inside and out.
Davis was either not good or not utilized on short throws. DBs didn't have to play him up tight. They almost never ran slant patterns to Davis. But he did run many corners and posts.
Coleman should be able to do most of what Davis did and a few other things.
If a negative spin can be put on anything related to the Bills, you provide it; not angry just find your posts predictable and amusing!
26 minutes ago, harmonkillebrew said:It's definitely not. That part of our game is gone.
We are a full ball control, plod down the field team now, unless Cook or Samuel break one.
That video confirmed what I've been saying. He gets no separation on the outside on deep/intermediate. But he will be good in the big slot role getting short area separation while out-muscling smaller slot CBs. He's not your classic #1.
Fire everybody
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30 minutes ago, MJS said:
From what I can gather, he wasn't always put in positions to succeed there. They were running screens with him. Like, what? Also throwing prayers up to him when double or triple covered or when the defender has established leverage. There were consistently under thrown balls to him, causing more contested catch situations than needed (and having to wait for a ball and the defender getting back in the play makes it harder for a receiver than just a normal 50/50 ball).
I actually think he might do much better in the pros with a much better QB throwing to him and not being the focal point of the offense. Of course, he'll also be going up against better talent, but I expect he will be used more appropriately than he was in college.
Well yeah, why was he running go routes all the time? I think he was mismanaged in college. They had him doing everything, including a lot of things that played to his weaknesses, not strengths.
Stop reasoning or thinking positive, your disrupting things!
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25 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
If this was meant to make me feel better um it didn't. Watching college level DBs turn and run with him with ease is frightening. He looks so slow on go routes.
I don't think that is where he will excel in the NFL.
Hopefully his go to route will be the 15-20 yard cross and out. That was a Davis staple and one of his drops last season that ended up as an Allen INT.
Why am I not surprised
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Rest in Peace Joe Collier
in The Stadium Wall
Posted · Edited by amprov56
It sure does, I listened to my first Bills game on the radio, blizzard outside so I stayed in and listen to Van call the 1963 playoff game. My family held season tickets from 1960 until the late 1990's, my first games in 1966, both against the Chiefs and both games they smoked us including the 1966 Championship game. Did not see the Bills win until Miami in 1967! Loved the old AFL!