GASabresIUFan

There is plenty of blame to go around. The OL isn't playing well and Brown is injured. Josh is holding the ball to long and he has no one to throw to. Shakir is banged up and hasn't been playing well. Davis is in his second game up from the PS. Palmer is another wasted investment WR. Samuel is hurt again. Moore is invisible. Kincaid is hurt and Knox is not reliable. Brady's scheme is lacking creativity and oh by the way Houston has the best defense in the NFL.

Fans are not known for their patiences.

That player may already be on the Bills in Hancock. The kid was a 4 star recruit from GA who for reasons unknown went to Ohio State. He played slot corner mostly on last year’s national championship team, but played safety and corner for the Buckeyes. This is a nice write up on Hancock. https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/Jordan-Hancock-CB-OhioState

I agree. Given the injuries and other issues Brady and McD finally said F’it and gave Josh the green light to go downfield. Throwing to the RB seems to have been installed against the fish and it carried over in this game. Kate they finally also started opening running lanes for Cook and Josh. I hope they utilize this same game plan against a tough Hou defense. Make it impossible for their DC to take anything away. If they stack the box, throw over them. If they cover deep hit them with RB and Josh runs. If they blitz hit the RB out of backfield or Shakir in the space the blitzes vacated. This is the way everyone truly eats.

I completely agree he was off, but I’ll give him a pass. 😁 Some of the issues were him trying way too hard early. I think there were game plan adjustments, such as RB passes and down field throws. Remember that Josh hasn’t really had a downfield passing attack since Brady became OC. I think Houston is in for a surprisingly hard game despite their good defense. I think Brady, Josh and McD have finally decided to unleash the offense with the returns of Davis and Palmer and we’ll be the better for it.

It’s always been a mystery. How does a guy have 3 100 yard games as a rookie play himself out of the league two years later. Really no idea. He was a key special teamer in year 2 and was for Wash in year 3. My guess after looking at his stats, I wonder if he got hurt with Wash and that ended his career.

No not a great class so far but the evaluation is years from completion for the Bills. So far you have one good and improving starter in Bishop. You have one solid depth RB in Davis who may have found a key spot as a kick returner. The Bills also seem to like SVPG and he’s potentially McGovern’s replacement at center as early as next year. Grable, if he can get healthy, also still has a chance to work out. Also Solomon is playing weekly in a depth role and he’s 4th on the team in ST snaps. The watch word at the draft was drafting college vets with many like Carter and SVPG having leadership roles on their teams. That now seems more sales pitch to the fans over substance as Carter and Ulofoshio have produced nothing while other college vets like Solomon, Davis and even SVPG are only in depth roles with SVPG as the only potential starter. The key piece in that draft was supposed to be a top end WR, but then Beane inexplicably drafted the slow Coleman who produced ok as a rookie before an injury but has displayed an attitude problem over both seasons. He’ll likely get another season next year in a prove it role but Beane is likely to correct his mistake at this years draft. Long-term If SVPG and Grable become key OL in the next few years this draft will look better, but as of right now Bishop is the only long-term piece of the 2024 draft. A rebound in attitude and performance by Coleman would also help. Maybe a move to an inside pass catch TE type role will help him find a NFL niche and help the Bills.

Nice win by the Sooners. It certainly helped my Dawgs. I do love it when Bama losses. Unfortunately it didn’t knock Bama out of the playoff picture. Assuming a Bama vs Texas AM SEC championship game, a Bama win likely vaults them back into the top 4 as SEC champs.

As a GA fan, I was torn by this game. I wanted TAM to lose, but also realized that their victory (assuming they can beat Texas) likely keeps GA out of the SEC championship game, practically assuring the Dawgs of a top 4 seed in the CFP (assuming GA beat Charlotte and GA Tech). Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma was Bama’s 1st SEC loss. Despite that loss, an Iron Bowl win against Auburn sets up an TAM vs Bama SEC championship and that’s ok with me.

Bills 23 - 3 Prater field goals Texans - 20

Coleman isn’t going anywhere. His cap hit is 2.7, but 5.9 if cut. The Bills would still eat about 3 mill in dead cap if traded this off-season. The question also begs who do you get to replace him? Do you go the medium vet route and get players like Samuel or Palmer who cost millions and deliver nothing or go cheap and get guys like Moore for the same 2.7 but with little to no upside? You keep Coleman recognizing he isn’t a star but find ways to make him useful. You then do what you should have done and draft multiple receivers, one with a premium pick and one with a middle pick and make sure they have decent size and speed. It’s time to give Josh real targets to throw too.

Hopefully he’ll end up better than another former Bama UDFA in Robert Foster.

It's funny how things change. I'd have argued heading into the season that the Bills biggest issues were corner, safety and WR. I loved our OL, TEs and RBs. Now I like what we have at safety and corner, still hate the WRs, but am worried about the OL, LB, the middle of the DL and TE since Kincaid can't stay healthy. I'm looking at some major changes on this roster next season. Knox, D Jones, Milano, Edwards, Rapp, Samuel (thankfully) and possibly Taron Johnson and McGovern on the gone list. I'd like Bosa to return. Beane has some major work to do for next season. Priority has to be getting Josh better targets. I agree on Poyer. What an excellent coach on the field who plays with so much heart. I'm expecting Beane to re-sign him to continue to mentor Bishop and Hancock. I don't think it's a coincidence how much Bishop has improved with Poyer mentoring him.

I don't see Coleman getting traded in the off-season. I do see the Bills drafting 2 WRs. Samuel is gone after this season. Moore is as well. Coleman only costs 2.75 to keep (5.9 to cut). The WR room for next season looks like Shakir, Palmer, Coleman and probably Shavers. That leaves 2 openings for rookie draft picks and or maybe even Gabe Davis if he continues to play like he did against the Bucs.

So WR carousel will continue on Thursday will Samuel hurt again and Mecole injured as well. I guess Moore returns as does Coleman.

Hard to get top notch WRs if you don't draft any. Compare to GB since 2021. Buffalo - top 3 round WR picks - 1 - 2nd rd pick Coleman (2024); next pick Shakir in the 5th (2022) Green Bay - top 3 round WR picks - 5 2025 - Golden 1st rd and Sav Williams 3rd rd 2023 - Reed 2nd rd (plus Wicks in the 5th rd) 2022 - Watson 2nd rd (plus Doubs in the 4th) 2021 - Rodgers 3rd rd

A few years ago DB was a strength of this defense with Hyde, Poyer, White, and Johnson Potentially, as early as next season, the DBs could be developing into an excellent group with Benford and Hairston at the corners, Bishop and maybe Hancock at safety. If Taron gets healthy then the slot is also covered. This group would have significantly more speed at both safety and the boundary corners.

Gabe played 41% of the offensive snaps (23 plays) Palmer played 50% (28) Mecole played 7% (4 snaps) Samuel play 50% (28 snaps) Shakir and Shavers 54% (30 snaps each). I'd say that's a very reasonable amount of snaps for Davis' season debut.

FYI Mecole only had 4 offensive snaps before his "injury."

Over his 81 game career Mecole has had 10 fumbles (only 3 recovered). So about 2 fumbles every 17 games. Codrington over his 21 game career had 3 fumbles (2 recovered). So also about 2 fumbles every 17 games, but Mecole also contributes in the passing game and has more "opportunites" to fumble. I'm not advocating for Mecole to be cut. In fact, I think the opposite. I think McD put him in a terrible position and should have insisted on punt returns be fair caught until he gets back into the swing of things. Prior to yesterday's game, Mecole's last NFL games was 11.5 months ago with KC.

Which is a terrible stat for a kick returner.

Bishop still makes plenty of mistakes, but boy has he improved. How many big plays has he made so far? 10? More?

Terrible fumble at a terrible time. Is this all on Mecole or should McD have told him to just fair catch the punt? I understand he was signed to add a more dynamic presence to the kick return game. He broke one early and then on kick off they avoided him the rest of the game and got burned by Davis. I guess my question is should McD have been more conservative with a guy new the organization and has been out of of football for a while, especially on punt returns where the returner is under more immediate pressure than on a kick off. Given the score and the fact that we'd have had a short field even with a fair catch, I don't think I'd have risked the return in the that situation. Will the Bills cut Mecole over the mistake? I understand they announced he left the game with an injury, but I'm a little skeptical. It feels more like a benching similar to the one Cook received following a bad fumble.

Quick note of passes to the RBs In 4 weeks starting with the NE game and ending with the KC game Josh threw only 9 passes to RBs (only 2 to Cook) for 6 catches for 63 yards and a TD In the last 2 weeks 14 targets, 13 catches for 175 yards and 2 TDs. Cook is 8 for 8 with 90 yards and a TD. Clearly something has changed in the game plan. In the TB game, I loved that we went down field more as well. Having Palmer back clearly helps and Shavers is making a positive impact. Shavers in his limited career has 241 yards on 12 receptions (18 targets - I'll take 2/3 for a boundary receiver) with 2 TDs. Maybe he needs more targets? Hopefully he'll turn out better than Robert Foster (who had 3 100 yard games as a rookie).

Game balls - Bishop, Gabe Davis (yes even with the endzone drop), Ray Davis (he was excellent on the kick returns) and Ty Johnson. I thought Dorian Williams made some nice plays, but outside of Bishop hard to give anyone on the defense a game ball when they allowed Tucker, the 3rd string TB RB, to run all over them. Josh was terrible early and although he had a great statistical games TD wise, I think his decision making, especially early, was awful.