BigAl2526

I agree that there have been issues with Dorsey's work this season, but the performance of the offense last evening was on the players. Specifically, the turnovers were perhaps the most important factor in the Bills' loss, and that is on the players. Unfortunately, this wasn't a single player issue. Cook, Davis and Allen all bore responsibility. You can't bench all of them, and probably not any of them. They all need to do a better job holding on to the football.

Klein doesn't shine. He hangs on for dear life. Not his fault. He only has the talent to be a depth player. The Bills are hoping Dorian Williams will continue climbing his learning curve.

My title would be Stuck in the Mud = Coaching + injuries. I think the team has enough talent to be good, maybe even dominant. The Bills will be entering the Denver game missing 45% of the starters they had on defense entering the season. That is a tough loss to overcome. I do think there have been coaching errors this season that have cost games.

It is not a fair comparison. Daboll had to deal with a very raw rookie Josh Allen. His first 25 games were heavily affected statistically by Allen's lack of development. I am not among those calling for the head of Dorsey, at least not yet. He does need to solve the offense's recent lack of dynamism though, and quickly. I think the tools to do so are present on the team now,

I think the three big injuries: Tre White, Daquan Jones, and Matt Milano have killed the Bills defense. I'm hopeful that Linval Joseph and Rasul Douglas will make a difference, but the guys playing in Matt Milano's place don't measure up to the play that Buffalo is used to getting from Milano. Dorian Williams may eventually become a linebacker with Milano like traits, but he's still early in his learning curve.

I'm concerned that Norwood's pass coverage might be a little wide on the left.

This is a troubling position for McDermott to take. I can see doing something different at some point, but the read option Allen ran was so effective, I think the Bills should have used it longer. At some point, the Bengals would have had to overcompensate to try and stop what the Bills were doing. It would be up to Dorsey, upstairs, to figure out when they were doing that and then call plays to take advantage.

I think that both Joseph and Douglas could be very helpful acquisitions. I don't know that they are the equals of the two injured players, Jones and White, but they're good enough that the holes left by Jones and White are mostly filled. They contributed in the Cincinnati game. I think they'll help even more going forward. Now, if we had someone to fill the hole left by Milano. . .

I agree with this. Houston is on the upswing. Seattle is no pushover, and you're right on the 49er and Jaguars. I think the Colts probably have a QB they can win with and may be improving soon. Tennessee and Arizona look like they won't be a threat for a while though. Ultimately, what the Bills do next year will depend on the Bills. There still enough talent on the team to win the division and make a serious run in the playoffs. They heed to figure some things aout and have a little good luck when it comes to injuries, but those are issues for other threads.

Especially big kick-off or punt returns.

Supposedly, the home and away games are all assigned according to some formula, and it should balance out over the years. I'm still waiting. The London game was a clear and obvious screw job by the league. The only consolation is I don't think the league can do that to the Bills again in the next couple of years. Buffalo goes back to 8 home games next year, but I'll be shocked if the league deliberately robs Buffalo of their extra home game in 2025.

My concern is that the last two times that Buffalo has faced the Bengals, they were critical games for the Bills and the Bengals beat them convincingly. I ask myself what is different about this Bills team, I the answer is that the differences are not earthshaking. As has been pointed out, the Bills are down a couple of key defensive players. Linval Joseph may help at the 1T spot, but it's expecting an awful lot to think that a guy who's been sitting at home watching football can come in on a day or two of practice and adequately replace a guy who has proven to be one of the better 1Ts in the league. I think Dodson is probably at his ceiling now. He's not going to get a lot better, and his best is a long way below what Buffalo got from Milano. Dorian Williams is on a learning curve and we have no idea how quickly he can improve. We just know he has a long way to go. Overall, Buffalo has to give evidence of a lot more self-discipline and mental toughness than the team has shown the last few weeks. That said, I picked Buffalo to win in out Pick-em league.

I'm trying to figure out why I should care. There must be on average 4 or 5 birthdays a day of NFL players on active rosters. Every one of them has some story to tell. Some may be more interesting than others. Jimmy G's is far from the most interesting.

I just have one thing I wonder about. How comfortable will he be if the Bills play him versus the Bengals? Yes, I read the post about him coming in and playing right away last year at Philadelphia, but I don't know how similar the defenses are. Is Buffalo's defense pretty similar to what he's played in the past? At his age, I imagine the Bills would view him as a rotational player.

McDermott has to figure out the Bengals and the team has to execute far better than they have in the last few games, but it is absolutely not an impossible task.

I imagine Buffalo keeps him on the roster through the rest of the season. Next off-season, I think they'll try to trade him again. Whether or not they succeed s anyone's guess, but I think the odds are better for a trade. Why? Teams looking to acquire players in the middle of the season are looking for immediate help to make a playoff run. With the questions surrounding Elam, he doesn't give that. In the off season, however, trades are made for team building. Immediate production is not the criteria that it is in mid-season. Teams acquiring players in the off season have all of training camp to get new players acclimated to their system. Under those circumstances, Elam could have some value to a team that plays mostly man coverage. NY Giants maybe?

I see Douglas as kind of a Levi Wallace type player, only better. He's not a great athlete, but technically sound. He's well adapted to a zone defense and doesn't make many mistakes. He's bigger than Wallace and won't get abused by big, physical WRs the way Wallace does. He's not fast, but he's faster than Wallace, who is extremely slow for a cornerback. I would think Douglas can be a solid starter at CB. He's not going to be a star, but he'll have a few interceptions and he won't be a guy opposing QBs can always pick on.

This helps balance out Buffalo's loss of DaQuan Jones when Buffalo has the rematch.

I heard it is the pick they got for losing Edmonds. They get a fifth round pick back in the deal

The main drawback with Fournette versus Damien Harris is that Fournette has never been a special teams player. You get an offensive contributor and nothing more. Teams tend to look for special teams contributions when a guy is not a starter. Cook is the unquestioned starter.

It makes sense to me. It's not just the fact that Damien Harris is hurt. It's the fact that he tends to get hurt. I was looking at the running back combine results and was impressed that Fournette ran a 4.51 at 240 lbs. I think he played lighter than that in recent years and might be a bit faster. There are a number of running backs from that draft class who are still productive in the league. Why not Fournette?

I imagine that the Bills will be giving considerable thought to how they might attack that defense, but there probably wasn't enough time to implement much of anything this week.

I imagine Buffalo will call up Joel Wilson to give them two bodies at TE.

Jones was a huge loss for the Bills IMO. He was the one defensive lineman the Bills had to really anchor against opposing teams' running games. Ankou is not nearly the defensive tackle that Jones is, but at least he has the size Buffalo lost when Jones went down.

I am surprised, and pleased.