Beck Water

Josh Allen media availability Asked about his elbow and what the path forward for that will be. Said "no, we don't think an operation will be necessary at this time. Obviously, rest and recovery is going to be really good for it." Said there was a period right after it happened where it was pretty bothersome, overall didn't affect him all that much. Said maybe he was trying to throw it a little differently, had to change a few things, got away a little bit from ..(paused) how I'm used to throwing the ball. That's just kind of a byproduct of that (meaning coping with the injury) but "overall it didn't affect me too much" Says in response to a later question that about 2 weeks ago he got back to his throwing motion being what he likes, that being a rotational thrower it's very "elbow prevalent" and he may have changed to "a more linear type deal" because he couldn't use all that much force (I wondered, though if it got dinged again in the Miami game) I see those two statements as fundamentally contradictory - if the elbow injury changed the mechanics he developed that led to improved accuracy, how could that not but affect him as a QB? Maybe the resolution is that actually, it did affect Allen's ability to throw the ball but he's determined to not say anything that can be interpreted as using his elbow as an excuse.

I blame this thread. Take your bad karma points and atone somehow.

Dawson Knox: Von Miller Josh Allen I find it a bit telling that 2 of the 4 players chosen/who chose to meet with the media so far are on IR - Von Miller and Micah Hyde.

On the one hand, statistically we've had one of the best defenses in football for the last 3 years - 2nd, 3rd, 2nd in points given up On the other hand, it's inarguable that the defense hasn't been able to "close the deal" in the big game at the end of the year I don't think there can really be an argument that the FA and draft investment on DL have not resulted in an adequate ROI during McDermott's entire tenure here. As far as offense, I feel that we've been overachieving with underwhelming players. I think the success we had with Beasley may be a problem, in that it depended upon his high level of skill at both reading the D and being on the same page as the QB in what he'd do in those circs. I'm also told that a lot of the Bills plays allow the WR freedom to chose the route they run looking at the defense. If so, too often this season it's resulted in two WR being too close to each other on the routes they choose, and bringing extra defenders into each others vicinity. It also has the problem that when the D is playing the O in a way they may not expect, they may not be able to be on the same page with in-game adjustments. Maybe we need a different offense that is more defined and depends more on scheme and play design to get guys open, than on individual football wisdom and vision to choose the correct routes based on what they see.

Frankly, I wondered at the time if the team weren't kind of flogging it too much to hand out #3 pendants and bring Hamlin into the locker room. It obviously was a lift to the team's spirits to know that Hamlin was mentally OK, but he's physically weak as hell right now. Showing him to the Bills team right before they faced a rematch with the team that (however fluky) put him in that debilitated condition, may not have been the best inspirational move.

He's not going anywhere unless he re-works his contract in a serious way giving back bonus money and guarantees - which I'm not sure the NFL/NFLPA allow. Look at his contract. He got $70M guaranteed. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/stefon-diggs-16872/ The Bills dead cap is $45M this year; $25.7Mnext year; and $18.7Min 2025. Of the $45M dead cap for 2023, $33.2M is already-paid option and signing bonuses that the team eats if they trade him, plus of course $12M in guaranteed salary. He's under contract. The Bills are not gonna trade him or release him and eat all that dead cap. They can't. He can retire I guess, but he won't get a ring then either. Diggs choice for the next 3 years if he wants to get a Superbowl ring is to stand in front of a mirror and figure out what part his attitude and performance may have played in this (see post above) and what he can do to get on the page better with Josh and help the other WR and TE develop so as to take more of the heat off him. If he wants to continue to sulk and throw snits and point fingers at Josh on the sideline, people may think he's justified but he's not helping his QB perform better in a "Win or Go Home" game.

Yes, as I said in the post you quoted - I thought that Carolina team neglected talent on the offensive side of the ball. Though to be fair, they drafted Kelvin Benjamin in the 1st round in 2014, and he had a 1000 yd rookie season that looked as though he might be the real deal. But the rest of their receivers behind Greg Olsen and Benjamin were just scrubs.

Postgame but just saw

So an interesting point that Florio made about having an offensive head coach, was the "brain trust" aspect of having (his example) Doug Pederson, Frank Reich, and John DeFilippo on the Superbowl Eagles to have all the offensive creativity of all those offensive minds. The thing is, the Bills tried to create something like that. It wasn't just Dorsey. They had Joe Brady, passing game coordinator for Championship LSU team and former OC for the Panthers; they had Mike Shula, former OC for the Panthers when they were winning, two division round appearances and a superbowl appearance. They had Aaron Kromer for OL and run game. They had a lot of experience and (presumably) creativity on the offensive coaching staff. (and then they had John Butler given the title of "Passing Game Coordinator"). So then the question becomes, is it the RIGHT offensive creativity? Shula ultimately lost a Superbowl, and crafted an offense that arguably burnt Cam Newton out. I thought it suffered from the same problem as the Bills offense currently is - neglecting talent on the offensive side of the ball. Brady was not "all that" in Carolina as OC, though I thought he was kind of a fall guy. Point being, it's not enough to have a number of experienced offensive minds in the room crafting the offense. They have to be the RIGHT offensive minds.

Well Durrr but he only played what, 5 games this season?

You and I are not Captains and Leaders on the Bills offense.

Third tweet in this post. McKenzie saying he spoke to Diggs. Question that Diggs asked him

I respectfully disagree with McDermott "that's what matters most" for a team captain and a guy who presents himself as a leader on the team.

(was never activated off IR) Hyde said he was medically cleared near the end of the week and could have played next week if the Bills had continued.

I feel like I just said "blahblah ginger blahblah" and you're missing the point I'm trying to make Back to the Chris Simms thing: Von Miller is an elite playmaker who can make game changing plays. The Bills prioritized him because he's a player who can get sacks. We lost him in November. Oliver was drafted in 1st round to be an elite player. He is, sometimes - and not others. He was obviously playing hurt at the end of the season. The big question the Bills need to answer is how often does that happen. IMHO the Bills need to go after top talent on OL, not DL

Respectfully, I believe you to be conflating "difference maker" with "putting up stats". Putting pressure on the QB is Chris Jones job. It is not Daquan Jones job. His job was what Star Lotulelie was supposed to do, and with few exceptions never did - soak up OL and free the 3T to generate pressure up the middle. And he was doing it. Settle told us we were gonna love him, but he isn't in the same league. That's more than a "complementary piece" to my definition. Someone like that is actually foundational and fundamental to being able to get pressure in McD's defense.

That's actually what I came here this am to find

It's not just the sideline "I want the ball" thing, it's the taking his stuff and shooting out of there pronto. That's just not what an actual leader does Chase is open because he's #15 for targets and #17 for receiving yards - owing to having Tee Higgins at # 20 for receiving yards. Does Diggs actually want to share the spotlight like that? I feel like this whole season for Allen has been a push-me pull-you between expressing the philosophy "our offense works better when we spread the ball around" and "we've got to find a way to get the ball to Diggs more". I don't think both of those things can work at the same time.

He's not wrong about the talent on the offensive side of the ball - the OL and skill players - not being comparable at all to the other remaining teams in the playoffs. When he starts going off on how there's no (this player that player) on defense, I think he's missing that we lost Von Miller to injury and that we were playing without DaQuan Jones who has been key for us, and with Oliver and Phillips hampered.

Please don't confuse lack of expressing an opinion as "unity" with an opinion being expressed. A lot of sane and sensible posters normally avoid TBD for 24-48 hrs after a loss and even longer after a playoff loss. So the opinions expressed may have merit, the opinions expressed may not have merit, but they don't represent "unity". The Bills decided, after last year's playoff loss, that they needed to rebuild their DL, from the interior out. The two best players of the 4 they added didn't play, and 2 more were playing hurt. We spent 1/5 of the game with Jaquan Johnson and Dean Marlowe as our safeties and half the game with Poyer and Jaquan Johnson. We know Poyer has been playing on a torn meniscus. Contrary to popular opinion, we CAN keep doing this or worse - and one of the ways to do that is to succumb to knee-jerk "fire everyone" itis. There will be major changes among the players, because we can't afford to keep everyone.

Somehow seems to fit post Divisional loss move Lyrics