DapperCam

I guess that’s what happens when you lose 3 All-Pros in their position in that span 😅

I’m not sure if anybody else has noticed, but our defensive backs other than Benford were pretty bad in 2024. I’m concerned that there aren’t really answers on the roster, draft or FA to plug the holes. I don’t fully believe in PFF grades, but gave them because they can give a rough idea where players rank relative to their peers. Safeties: Hamlin - Probably the definition of a replacement level player. He was in position usually, but really lacked athleticism. Free agent this summer. (PFF 107/170 safeties) Rapp - Just had an okay season. Notably got injured when we needed him and injured his teammates. (PFF 117/170 safeties). Bishop - Missed a lot of training camp and preseason. Looked rough out there in a few games. Couldn’t beat out Hamlin for a starting spot despite far superior athleticism. (PFF 150/170 safeties). Slot Corner: T. Johnson - Previously an All-Pro, but had a pretty mediocre season. Was getting burned a lot. I cut him some slack since Rapp broke his arm in the first game. (PFF 82/223 corners) C. Lewis - Replaced Johnson when he was hurt and was constantly picked on. Had a huge role in the first Ravens game beat down. (PFF 106/170 safeties) Boundary Corner: Benford - Probably the only DB that played well. Not a ball hawk, but solid in coverage. Got a little bit leakier at the end of the season (Rams game on). Historically he is injury-prone and just had back-to-back concussions. (PFF 5/223 corners) Douglas - Had a straight up bad year. Not sure if Father Time caught up to him. Free agent this summer. (PFF 132/223 corners) Elam - At this point a huge bust. Wasn’t even active most of the season. Might have lost us the KC game. (PFF 47/223 corners, note this is just regular season on a low snap count) Ingram - Only has stats in about half the games. Had an insane game vs the Dolphins, but seems like a bubble roster player (PFF 134/223 corners) Bills had a bottom-10 pass defense, which based on personnel here is probably overproducing based on the talent. So what is the front office going to do? Ideally we need to add a good safety and good boundary corner, along with better depth in case of injuries. Hamlin and Douglas will walk this summer IMO.

42 wasn’t enough to beat the Rams, but 48 was enough to just beat the Lions. Let’s split the difference and call it 45 points to feel comfortable. Just be by far the most dominant offense of all time. That’s a totally reasonable expectation.

Some big moves we could make: - Sign Chris Godwin as a FA. He'll be cheaper than Higgins because of the injury question mark. - Trade for Jeffery Simmons. Dude is a game wrecker. Not sure what the cost would be, two 2nd round picks this year? Our first round pick? - Sign Khalil Mack as a FA if he doesn't retire. He'll be ring chasing, and he's familiar with the area. He'll probably take a sweetheart deal because it isn't about the money at this point.

In this case I think it's because the timing was off because the pass was rushed. Kincaid is supposed to continue his route to the sideline and upfield, Hollins is supposed to be open around where the ball landed (I think he might have been a little bit too deep in his route too). Kincaid needs to be a little bit more confident and just go grab the ball even if it's off script.

It was Hollins, I kind of wonder if having two WR in the area made Kincaid hesitate for a second. Another thing I noticed from that angle is Allen could have scrambled left, but it would have required him to fully turn his back to the line and spin. In the split-second he had to decide, he probably assumed Spencer Brown would hold his block (which he did not). Man, shifting the protection or not Spencer Brown got beat straight up one-on-one, and Torrance got confused and let two guys past untouched. O-line really let us down there even if it wasn't ideal circumstances for them.

Bernard, Groot, Shakir, Cook and Benford all worry me when it comes to extensions. They are the type of players that don't necessarily deserve huge contracts and you could get burned if you commit too much. But at the same time, if you let them walk it might be hard to find a replacement for their spot on the roster, so you've just created a hole. We swung and missed with decisions to commit too much to Knox and possibly Oliver. Arguably Milano too because he's been injured a lot. Benford and Bernard have both been injury-prone so something to consider. If Beane can get friendly contracts I would sign all of them, but if they are asking for top-5 in their position free agent money, I probably let them walk.

I think Safety in McDermott's scheme is hard to play. They are asked to do a lot. I have high hopes for Bishop.

Please cut Von. Not only has he been a huge disappointment and possibly a big reason we haven't won a SB (image his cap spent on a top-tier WR or CB or pair of Safeties instead), he also seems like a bad person (even for an NFL player).

I think he had a good game, but maybe not outstanding. He had three throws that were more impressive than anything Mahomes did all night, and in general I think the task in front of him was a lot more difficult. If you were to go through the tape, and go play-by-play Mahomes was largely throwing to wide open receivers around the line of scrimmage and when he chose to scramble the Bills had zero contain. He wasn't asked to rush in short yardage situations at all, while Allen ran into a wall like 6 times. I think Allen had a better game than probably 90% of QBs have in that situation, but it's just the expectation at this point.

I think Brady choked here on the playcall. It’s Spags on a critical down. You have to think there is a greater than 80% chance he is blitzing. So there needs to be an easy safety valve built in to the play. Shakir was a totally wasted pass catcher with that route. It’s pointless to have him spinning around 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Have somebody do a simple slant or curl or button hook or something to at least give an option. We only needed 5 yards for crying out loud, why are all the routes 20 yards down the field? Situational coaching fail.

We had a guy like that in MVS and he barely got targets. And when he did either Allen missed him deep or MVS couldn’t track the ball. We used Shakir for the quick man beater crossers, and he is better than Worthy anyway.

Agree that hindsight is 20/20, but Allen should have taken a TO there.

Our DBs are pretty rough. - Rapp is just okay, and always hurt. - Hamlin is pretty meh. He’s usually in the right spot but totally lacks athleticism. - Bishop had a lot of growing pains. - Douglas was terrible all year. - Benford is always injured (and just sustained back-to-back concussions which is usually bad, we’ll see on that). - Elam is not playable and probably will get cut or traded for peanuts. Even Taron Johnson had a down year compared to his usual standard (likely due to the injury he got the first game of the year). I’m not really sure what the answer is, we have a lot of holes. Every game had receivers just running wide open. It’s a wonder we won as many games as we did.

When did Elway win his Super Bowls? This was supposed to be a retool year to get some cap relief.

Would love to see Mahomes throwing to Kelvin Benjamin and Andre Holmes instead of Hill and Kelce. Would have been quite entertaining. Something tells me the narrative would have been different in that scenario…

Part of it is health too. Defense doesn’t have much depth and had multiple starters missing last year and this year. When it’s a one score game that can be the difference between winning and losing.

I would say that catch was easier than the Diggs drop last year. Diggs was in a full sprint and had to catch a bomb over his head. Kincaid had to come back to the ball and catch it like an outfielder. It really reminds me of the Charles Clay drop against the Dolphins. Same situation where it’s a desperation heave and the TE has to take a few steps to adjust and just can’t do it.

On that angle the biggest issue is he doesn’t realize the ball is in the air until it’s already coming down from the peak of its trajectory. Made it so he had to make a diving catch. Difference between someone like Kelce who would think “hey these guys blitz a lot on key downs, maybe I should have my head turned around and looking for a quick throw”. It’s really an issue of awareness and game situation there.

I actually think it’s a pretty good comparison. Both players got a lot of pressures, but never got the sack. I felt like Von was pretty bad this season, but people would point to the pressures like they mean anything.

I agree that Groot was losing contain crashing inside and it seemed to be by design. Just weird stuff.

When Mack Hollins is your most effective receiving threat, you’ve got issues.

Douglas was actually super banged up last year and probably would have missed if it was a regular season game.

I agree that his injured killed us. There is no way he plays as poorly as Elam. They picked on him all game. When McDermott said “Kaiir’s gonna step up for us” at the halftime interview I knew he didn’t believe his own words. Seen managers make similar comments all the time. The only other game against a good team where we were missing so much of our defensive backfield was when we got steamrolled by the Ravens earlier this season. We just had no depth.

Depends on the deal. I would play hardball for sure and not break the bank. He’s good, but he has games where he disappears.