SaulGoodman

This was one of the rare times that Buffalo had control over what KC does. And they handed them the player they coveted, gift-wrapped.

I’m not sure how you can put more blame on the offense than the defense in the KC game. The offense moved the ball pretty consistently against arguably the best defense in the league. Missed FG away from 27 pts. Meanwhile, the defense forced one punt and was a goal line fumble away from allowing 34 pts in a low possession game. The defense was not successful at all. That was by far the weakest KC offense in the Mahomes era but they looked like one of the best that day.

That’s my point. A lot of those players (and other talented pieces) are now gone permanently. Yet some are claiming that McD will have them playing championship caliber defense regardless of the personnel on the field.

It’s been said here many times that Buffalo didn’t have the horses on defense to beat KC in the playoff game this year. Now they have less talent on that side of the ball.

Wasn’t the Toney Offside call the difference in making the playoffs last year? The margin for error was already pretty thin, and now they’ve lost a ton of quality players. It shouldn’t be a shock if a few people are doubting the Bills.

Anyone but the Chiefs? 😆

Diggs’ production might have fallen off down the stretch, but I’m guessing that he still drew a lot of attention from defenses, making other receivers’ jobs easier.

So…you expected Allen to be the one player on the planet (including Mahomes) who isn’t bashed on social media? 😆

KC Derangement Syndrome?

Weird season for him. A bunch of 100 yd games in the first half, but barely a factor in most games down the stretch.

Seems like Diggs has been sort of waging war with the Bills for a while. Can’t be helping chemistry. Wasn’t there a rumor that Allen hooked up with his girlfriend, or ex or something? There’s definitely been some bad blood there anyway.

I don’t think that’s inconsistent with anything I’ve said. There are a few important factors here. Hollywood Brown can be a game-changer for KC, and Diggs’ decline is huge for the Bills. Maybe he’ll bounce back next season, but we don’t know that. He’s at the age that receivers tend to slow down a little. Kincaid is still mostly potential. He could be better than Kelce within a few years but it would be crazy to say he’s there now. I also expect a solid jump for Rice in year two, and he’s already pretty dangerous. After Rice, there was a massive drop-off to the next most productive/reliable WR. It was important for them to fill that hole and add a third weapon. But as of today, there isn’t much after those three. The ship’s probably sailed on Toney and Moore. Watson makes a pretty good #4 or 5 WR but he’s not a consistent weapon. I’m guessing they’ll draft one in the first.

I’m not sure what happened to Diggs late in the year (injury? Declining?), but if he isn’t significantly better next season, KC’s top three are definitely better. Kelce > Kincaid (anyone who thinks Kelce’s declined significantly should watch the Baltimore game). Rice was much better than Diggs down the stretch and will only be stronger next year. And Brown is better than Samuel.

I'm not basing my argument just on the fact that he contributed little in NE, but it does reinforce the point. If he were a player with obvious ability, he would have been higher than the 5th option on a bad offense. I don't think that's a controversial opinion. Anyone who can hold onto the ball will put up decent numbers with Reid and Mahomes. Hardman had 700 yds a few years ago, and 6 TDs in half a season in '22. In NY, he had 1 reception for 6 yds with 0 TDs. Smith-Schuster hadn't put up good numbers in 4 years when he signed with the Chiefs. He was an injury-plagued player coming off a 129 yd season. Couple that with the fact that he's among the slowest receivers in the league, even at his prime, and it's no surprise that they got him for a bargain. Signing Smith-Schuster and MVS was not a valiant effort to replace Hill's production. I think most people would agree on that. The post I originally responded to argued that KC's made a great effort to provide Mahomes with good WRs. If they traded away their only #1 caliber WR in his prime and didn't make any efforts to sign a #1, with zero first round picks spent on WR in Mahomes' career, how is that a great effort? Rice may well end up being a #1, but nobody in the organization expected that in his rookie year in Reid's offense. Even Hill produced little in his first season. WRs never dominate out of the gate under Reid. He requires them to know too much before trusting them with a large role. I don't think any rational fan would view a few late 2nd round picks and some mediocre/average FA signings as a serious effort to provide Mahomes with a great receiving corps. Of course, we can make excuses about the salary cap, but that's a different argument. I never said I was surprised that they haven't allocated a ton of resources to the position--just that they haven't. If they wanted to, they could obviously devote more resources to WR and less elsewhere. The other aspect is that, even if you want to argue they've made a solid effort, the results have not been very good. And that's all that really matters. Moore looks like a complete bust, Toney was the laughingstock of the league this year, MVS was not very good, Smith-Schuster was average, Hardman's been a big disappointment, Pringle/Watson/etc are JAGs, and Watkins was always injured. And no matter what argument you want to make about their overall efforts, there's no denying that they were criminally negligent last offseason. And many KC fans were saying as much at the time. Banking on Toney and Moore making a huge jump, or a late 2nd round rookie killing it in year 1 in Reid's system was a joke. Granted, I think a lot of receivers can be serviceable in KC's offense as long as they can catch the ball and run decent routes. As it turned out, no one but Rice was able to do either this season.

He was never a true #1 WR. He put up big numbers one year when defenses were keying on Antonio Brown. He was always a slow possession WR. A decent two or three, but far from a legit 1. That's a miniscule contract. What about that suggests "we expect a huge year from this player?" If anything, it proves my point. A 1 year, incentive-laden "prove it" deal that is small even including incentives. Because they knew it was a gamble, and that even if he stayed healthy, he wasn't elite. And if the expectation around the league was that Smith-Schuster would have a very productive year, someone would have paid him much more. Well, one thing's for sure....the poster who said that KC has made major efforts at WR in the Mahomes era was dead wrong. Drafting a few late 2nd rounders and signing mediocre vets isn't an extensive effort to surround Mahomes with great weapons. Particularly by the standards of Bills fans who think that a perfectly solid Bills receiving corps (plus two good TEs) is woefully inadequate for Allen. There's a consistent theme on this board: pretend that Mahomes has had everything and Allen's had nothing. Both are far from accurate.