dave mcbride

If the AFC wins, they'll be up 28-27 in Super Bowls. I distinctly recall during the Bills SB run the commentary that they were the representatives of the JV conference. Never liked that, and it has stuck with me.

How about both suffer failure? That seems more appealing to me.

Jerry Hughes has six sacks in the last four playoff games and 3 in the last 2. I don't think he's the problem. As for Edmunds in coverage, he's kind of set up to fail vis-a-vis passer rating. He plays the short center zone, and if a QB has time, is accurate, and has a good TE to throw to who knows how to adjust his route, the receiver will be open because Edmunds will have guessed already and the receiver can adjust. A better pass rush, and those completions result in 2-3 picks per season. As @MAJBobby has written, Will LB is the easiest position to play and MLB is arguably the hardest. It's tough to compare Milano and Edmunds because of that. Moreover, I think people forget how young Edmunds is. He is literally 22 and has off-the-charts physical talent. Be patient with him. If he doesn't pan out in the next couple of years, sure, cut the cord.

I know that technically Beane wasn't with the Bills for the 2017 draft, but at the time word came out that they Panthers loved Zay Jones and Dion Dawkins, and the Bills traded up one slot ahead of Carolina to get Dawkins and a couple of slots ahead of Carolina to get Jones. I have to think that the conversations occurred between McDermott and Beane beforehand. https://www.panthers.com/video/scouts-buzzing-about-zay-jones-18679168 https://www.espn.com/blog/carolina-panthers/post/_/id/25378/demarcus-walker-zay-jones-could-be-solid-second-day-targets-for-panthers https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2017/4/30/15492096/buffalo-bills-carolina-panthers-2017-nfl-draft-picks-dion-dawkins-sean-mcdermott-zay-jones/comment/426627249 Also, this guy was clearly plugged in. Check out picks 2 and 3 for Carolina! https://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-draft/2017/4/25/15396000/2017-nfl-mock-draft-carolina-panthers-zay-jones

That's not accurate. KC blitzed Allen relentlessly throughout the game. They basically had 5 sacks (the intentional grounding counts as a sack for me), and they were all HUGE losses - 5 takedowns for 69 yards, which is basically a 14-yard loss every sack. The intentional grounding was a 16-yard loss.

You gotta factor in QB scrambles on passing plays into these stats. Brady doesn't scramble.

This is the second time this happened against the Chiefs, though. The Bills had 206 yards of total offense when they faced them earlier (to the Chiefs' 466) and punted a ton of times. Allen was inaccurate on 24 percent of his throws too. This is the team they have to beat if they want to advance, and that game wasn't nearly as close as the final score. The Chiefs basically dominated them twice, and in both games the Bills' offense was stymied.

This is now a common phrase: "It's not about the X's and O's; it's about the Jimmies and Joes" --meaning that coaching and schemes aren't decisive, but rather the talent level of the players on the field.

It really depends on what you emphasize - going all in on stars and ignoring injury risk, or emphasizing risk management and building a deeper roster of potential starters. You can pay stars and hope that they never get hurt because what's behind them ain't gonna work, or you can pay a bunch of decent mid-level starting NFL players to mitigate the risk of collapse if stars get injured. I'm not saying one way is better than the other, but I do believe that injuries are so common that they have to be factored into team building. The Bills chose the second option for this season at least, and it basically worked even if it wasn't enough to make them competitive with the best team in the league.

Yeah, a little, but it's not a point of emphasis.

My inexpert take: that was a pretty bad play design and no one was open. Easy for me to say, of course.

McDermott basically acknowledged as much in his press conference, citing with emphasis KC's team speed.

I hadn’t seen this posted yet, but if it has, apologies. The basic takeaway: Simms sounds like us, and his recommendation — that the Bills need more Jimmies and Joes — makes a ton of sense. Specifically, he says they need one more top-level pass catching threat, an elite d-lineman that teams have to worry about, and another good cover corner. That all makes sense to me (I’ve been thinking for a while that they need an upgrade at the other corner spot).

Can we end the fiction that Brown “dropped” the pass? It was a bad decision by Allen and he was completely covered:

This^^^^. This TB team is dirty, mercenary, and thoroughly unlikeable. I’m old enough to remember that Antonio Brown is actually a terrible human being. Also, that defense delivers so many cheap shots, and they have a blowhard, wannabe celebrity coach who likes to make himself the center of attention. All of that, combined with Brady (who had to gall to dump on the region that made him a star after he moved to Florida), has me pulling for a 45-10 blowout by the Chiefs.

He was actually good in 2019 ...

I thought the FG at the end of the half was the correct call, but not the second one. They (especially Allen) looked lost in that goal-to-go sequence, and the Chiefs had them figured out.

I thought FG was the right decision at the end of the first half (but not the second one). I had zero confidence the Bills would score on that fourth down at then end of the first half. They looked lost and confused in that sequence.

Jim Leonhard ran that D! Or was the only one capable of running that D. But yeah, you’re basically right. It was always Leonhard. He followed Rex from Baltimore to the Jets, and then Leonhard followed Pettine to Buffalo in 2013 and Cleveland in 2014. He played for one year in Denver in 2012, and The Jets’ D under Rex cratered that year. Leonhard was basically the on-field coordinator for that system. Without him, it fails, which means something obvious: any system reliant on the participation of one undrafted safety long past his sell-by date to succeed is a bad system.

My beef with Singletary - who I actually think is non-terrible - is that he's not a good receiver. I want a back who is all purpose and actually good, like Kamara. I'd prefer to get him later in the draft, but sometimes other teams want guys like that too. I agree about the line, but tackles aren't the problem. The Alabama center appears to be pretty good. The guard for OSU seems good too. You can get a top center/guard in the mid-30s, so you'd be able to trade down and pick up, say, a late third/early fourth.

What do you think of Michel's postseason performance in 2018? Also, He was hurt a lot this season, but he did average 5.7 ypc on 79 carries, which -- excluding QBs like Lamar Jackson -- was second best in the league after Dobbins. That's Gillislee level stuff! (I kid.) Anyway, he did look pretty explosive this year when he was in there. I did watch that Eagles/Saints game, and to be honest, I thought the Eagles were going to blow them out early on -- that is, until the Saints started completely dominating, which was well before halftime. Bad drop by Jeffrey, for sure, but there was no guarantee of a TD. The drop occurred at around the 18 yard line, IIRC. The Saints were indeed behind until late in the third, but bear in mind that they scored on their first drive of the third quarter -- and it took up eleven and a half minutes.

The Saints had 420 yards to the Eagles 250 in that game, and the Saints won the turnover battle too, getting 2 and only giving up 1. Not sure what you're referring too -- they utterly dominated the Eagles statistically. They had the ball for a ridiculous 37:50 to the Eagles 22:10 also. Also, the next time Singletary rushes for 336 yards and 6 TDs on 71 carries in three postseason games -- which Michel did in 2018 -- let me know.

A referee who doesn't make one of the worst non-calls ever, for one.

I'll believe those RB numbers when I see it. I just don't see teams spending a lot for the decline years of RBs, especially this year given the cap decline.

You really think Drake gets that? I doubt it, but who knows? Lynch turned out to be a great pick (just not for the Bills, although he was quite good in his first two seasons)!