Beck Water

I’m not trying to argue that the offense is without blame, clearly they didn’t do their job. The point is, when the defense fails to get a stop and get the ball back to the offense, they’re not without blame either - and the fact that some games were won when the opponents scored more than 27 points doesn’t change that, the fact that the D didn’t get stops and the O only scored 10 points are not unrelated. Someone made a good case a while back that to beat a good team, the defense needs to get at least 4 stops. The Bengals forced 4 punts on us, we forced 2 on them.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order: Q (Quinnen Williams) with the Jets Chris Jones with KC Daron Payne with Washingon Javon Hargrove, was with Philly (now with SF? Fletcher Cox with Philly (maybe more a few years ago than now) DJ Reader with Bengals (has struggled with injuries 2 of the last 3 seasons, but when healthy)

Beane has said that he likes to work on contract extensions after FA and the draft. I expect after the draft they’ll work on extending Jones. Oliver is a bit of a mystery to me. I think he believes he should be paid full-time like a top DT, while playing like one part-time. Beane talked as though extending Oliver and Davis would be something the team was saving for in letting Edmunds go. Many have expressed concern that paying Oliver top-dollar on a new contract would be a mistake., I don’t know what the answer is.

The “good” news is that he has Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which has close to 90% survival rate overall. Wishing him all the best for a positive outcome!

The Bengals offense was allowed to march down the field and control the clock with at least two drives >6 minutes and one >5 minutes. They had an 8 minute advantage in TOP Absent fumbles and turnovers (of which there were none until near the end of the game), it seems generally accepted that the defense is not Doing Its Job in stopping the other team and getting the ball back for our offense.

So Ty Dunne makes a point that Taiwan Jones is a Captain on the team and a glue guy or "heartbeat" who guys look to. And Taiwan Jones makes a point "I try not to yell at people or get on players about bad plays too much". Jones is still a free agent as of this point. Ty Dunne has made points in the past that McKenzie is the longest-tenured WR on the team. McKenzie was the one who spoke to the WR huddle before each game this year and was left to be a spokesman in the locker room after the loss. McKenzie is a Colt as of this point. Maybe if the problem was bad play and players not playing with a sense of urgency, part of the solution is having different player leaders who are willing to be more vocal on the field and in the locker room when they need to be.

Thank you, yes, I was going to point out that Hopkins and Bill O'Brien weren't exactly besties and O'Brien traded him.

You have a valid point that we do criticize almost every player to some degree. But would you agree that some players get a relatively small share, whilst others turn into "whipping boys" and get a disproprotionate share? I guess that latter is what I see. Edmunds is one example of a popular fan whipping boy. We'll see now that he's gone. On receivers, what I noticed is that the guys on the team with the highest % drops are Singletary and Shakir, but somehow when "stone hands" or "any position that doesn't require them to catch the ball" is brought up, they don't seem to be mentioned, while Davis and McKenzie are sure to be critiqued. Part of it, I'm sure, is time in the league - we have hopes that Shakir will improve in his second season. On the other hand, Singletary has been here longer than Davis (and actually, I'm pretty sure those drops in the passing game are one of the reasons he's gone).

99% of statistics are made up Absolutely anything said about football should be taken with a grain of salt, and especially OL play where it's not always clear to the watcher what the assignment was supposed to be, or, what the protection call was and whether it was the correct call for what the defense showed before the snap/whether the defense changed post-snap in a way that defeated it. That said, we have a double handful of posters here (not all of them post very much) who really do know their football, who really do watch a lot of coaches film, or who really do understand different blocking schemes and what the assignments for each OLman should be in them (and a few who check all 3 boxes). So it's probably mistaken in an equal but opposite way to dismiss everything everyone says as "absolutely no idea what they are talking about" as it is to pay too much attention and take it too seriously JMO and by the way I used to watch a lot of coaches film (not so much since NFL.com ruined it in the US) but I wouldn't put myself in the 1st or 3rd category. That's certainly what Brandon Beane believes. I wish they'd add more talent on OL though. It seems as though the worst that could happen is they'd wind up with a good player they could trade.

You make a very fair point here, and one that is not often brought up. Allen "saves" the OL on a number of plays because he can move around in the pocket and take off running, "saving" a sack or a QB hit since once he crosses the LOS he's a runner. But Allen also costs the OL, by passing up the quick short pass in favor of trying to extend the play and wait for something to open up downfield, and the Bills offensive approach of abandoning the run also hurts the OL by allowing the defense to key off on pass pro. Some of the offenses that have the "best" pass protecting OL's also have quick rhythm passing games that get the ball out quickly.

I don't want this to happen, but it's low hanging fruit to predict that you and those like you will celebrate McKenzie's departure only for so long as it takes the new "upgrade" guys Harty and Sherfield to make a gaff in a game or two. This board seems to like to choose "escape goats" where folks dwell on every mistake and discount every good play, while other players seemingly have their mistakes overlooked or forgotten.

My point remains. We've been told that KC prioritized OL, unlike the Bills. So if their off season moves project their OL to be struggling and worse, what does that say about their judgement/priorities? (obtaining a RT to play LT for them worked out pretty well for them with Orlando Brown)

Hmmmmm. Well, any time I say something like this, it turns out to be what the Bills actually do OK, now wait a minute. Those grades put KC as having a worse OL than we did. I thought KC was our example of a team that valued the OL and improved it so we should emulate them? (either that, or this is fun and those grades should be taken with some salt)

The DT rotation we had in 2023 was not as successful at penetrating and pressuring the QB as most would like, but they were pretty successful at keeping the OTs off the LB so they could do their LB thing. The main issue I saw with Bernard from his limited game is that he seemed to understand where he should be most of the time (he had a handful of mistakes), and get there most of the time, but he couldn't close the deal and make the tackle once he got there. He got trucked.

Except that the cap situation for all teams doesn't stay static. Teams which have great cap situations with rookie QB and a couple WR on cheap deals, have to pay them. It's a mistake - a pretty big one. He's still under contract to the Cardinals, it would be a trade.

So now you're puzzling me. You say in your previous post, that you think we've got the skill positions covered. In this post, that we (already) have a room full of receivers who can make more than enough catches. Then you say that Emmanuel was proven, but "turned out to be not so good". But in 2021, he had 42 catches for 626 yds, 14.9 y/r, 31 1st downs on 77% of the snaps - compare with Davis, who had 35 receptions for 549 yds, 29 1st downs, 15.7 y/r on 91% of the snaps. So if those #s for Emmanuel Sanders "turned out to be not so good", what do you say about Sanders, whose numbers were actually a bit better? I'm having trouble parsing both those notions. I'm glad you're confident, but I think we're way short of having the "skill positions covered". I think we have some guys with potential - but it remains to be seen whether they can haul in Josh Allen "Piss Missiles" in cold wet weather and make enough plays. We have strong agreement about "work on the line", because we're not going to be able to put two RBs on the field (especially Cook and HInes) unless we improve at RT enough that we don't need Knox over there to chip, nor will Harris run anything like what he has, nor will Josh Allen have time to attack deep reliably.

Worse, GM speak - during FA

They seem to be viewing him more as a Parris Campbell replacement https://coltswire.usatoday.com/lists/colts-free-agency-isaiah-mckenzie-instant-analysis-2023/

It's a good question. The Colts PRs last season were Keke Coutee (who is a FA) and Hines (who they traded to us). KR Isaiah Rodgers and Dallis Flowers still on the roster.

No, because McKenzie wasn't an UFA this season, he was cut.

Tell me more about your Jim Bob Cooter love

I look at this and go back and forth a bit. Fundamentally, I agree much more than I disagree that the two biggest areas for improvement are OL and Dorsey, with Allen re-discovering his willingness to play a more diverse game and take advantage of the timely short pass to a player who can create YAC a strong third. That said, let me ask you this: the Bills came out of 2019 with John Brown as a proven >1000 yd receiver and Beasley as a 67 reception, ~800 yd slot. They went into 2020 with Stefon Diggs as #1 and Brown and Beasley as #2 and #3, then added Davis as a promising rookie "ahead of schedule". Do you feel we are anything near to the same place as far as proven WR talent to where we were going into the 2020 season? Likewise, in 2021 we went into the season with Diggs, Emmanuel Sanders (a more complete WR than Brown with several >1000 yd seasons and still capable), Beasley just off an almost-1000 yd season, and Davis just off a promising, 35 reception 600 yd rookie year. Do you feel we are anything near to the same place as far as proven WR talent to where we were going into the 2021 season?

I'm not sure what you mean by "They already made the decision to" and "the money is tied up". Could you explain please?

Yeah, there are what you might call "type I" and "type II" errors in draft-and-develop; "type I would be reaching a false positive conclusion that a guy's "best football is ahead of him" and he can still develop into the player he was drafted to be. "Type II" would be reaching a false negative conclusion, and giving up on a player as "not gonna cut it" too early. Beane stuck with Cody Ford through 3 seasons before trading him, and looks likely to stick with Spencer Brown through 3 seasons. So the Spencer Brown "type II" error (if so it proves) may take place on the same time frame. I assume you're speaking of Wyatt Teller, and actually, I don't think either of those errors were committed with Teller. For one thing, Teller's development with the Browns (again, assuming that's who you're talking about) did not take place on the timeframe you speak of. Teller started 9 games for the Browns the year we traded him, 11 games (where he was starting to look good) in his 3rd year, and became a Pro Bowler (not an All-Pro) in his 4th season - a much more gradual development than "immediately became an All-Pro elsewhere" implies. I think the error with Wyatt Teller was in how the team fundamentally values OL traits. Beane demands positional flexibility from backup OLmen or guys who might be backup OLmen that season - they have to be able to play both sides as G and ideally perhaps C as well. So keeping a guy to develop at LG or RG is assigned a lower priority than keeping a guy who can switch to either side and maybe play C. That's why the Bills kept Ryan Bates, Ike Boettger, and Spencer Long over Teller.

I can agree with that. There are lots of ways to create "enough" offense. But I would argue you need at least 2 elite playmakers of some sort - a RB, a TE, a slot - or maybe one elite and two very good players. In any event, the Bills were short last season, and I'm not sure the FA moves to date fill that gap. I'm hoping they intend to look in the draft.