dave mcbride

It's a results-oriented business. Two bad seasons in a row will put them on the hot seat. I have no idea whether this will happen, and I hope they have a great season next year. I just don't see how subtracting talent for a very modest return helps them improve. If they get a second and 3rd (or 4th), then yeah, I'd do it. But I certainly wouldn't trade McCoy for a 3rd. He's a really good player. I want a second and a 5th or 6th. I'm not giving him up for a second and tossing in a bonus pick for them.

A) His contract is actually quite reasonable. B) look at the 3rd round picks from last year and remember that Philly is still the odds on favorite to win that division meaning they'll draft no higher than 25th, which translates into picks 89-96 in round 3. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2017/draft.htm Shaq Griffin and John Johnson are decent-to-good starters (both late 3rd rounders), but outside of Kareem Hunt (mid-3rd) and Alvin Kamara (early 3rd), there ain't much. My point is that the chances of the Bills striking gold in the third - or, more importantly, getting a player who will contribute more to the Bills than McCoy will the 27 games - is pretty low.

?? Three of their next 5 games after Sunday are against Chicago, NE, and Jax.

I would take nothing less than a 2019 #2. The chances of a pick taken in the early-mid 90s being a difference maker are low - and a lot lower than the chances of McCoy being a difference maker for Buffalo in 2018 and 2019. Bear in mind that despite all of the happy talk re McBeane, they can't really have back-to-back bad seasons. If the Bills are bad or ho-hum next year, they pressure will be on. They need to take a big step forward next year.

They have as good a chance as any other NFC east team of winning that division. They are a championship team and if I were them and believed McCoy makes a big difference, I'd trade a second (a pick in the mid-high 50s, after all). They are not playing for the future. The Bills should NOT trade him for a 3rd because a) he has a reasonable contract and b) is likely to be far better in 2019 than any 3rd round RB they draft.

A fifth rounder with 12 seasons in the NFL and a couple of SB rings. He's had a great career all things considered. Interesting fact: Graham went to the U of New Hampshire, and the OC while he was there was Chip Kelly.

The OP is wack, but you are wrong. Traditional passer rating differential is the best predictor of team success and failure that we have, and an individual's individual rating is obviously a big part of that.

To be fair to the staff, it's hard to give a RB carries when you find yourself down 21-0 early in the second quarter. Incidentally, passer rating differential has historically been the best predictive stat of how a team fares. The Bills are 2-3 right now despite being negative 43.2 in passer rating differential. Yikes. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2018.htm

I just think he needs carries to get rolling. He has *always* been a guy who gets a lot no-gains but when he carries it a lot, he balances it out with the occasional 20-40 yarder. If he's running it 5-10 times a game, that's not gonna happen.

You see that shot of him on the sideline without his helmet? With that 'stache, he genuinely looks like a member of the Village People. No joke.

I thought McCoy looked as good as ever yesterday. His ypc would have looked a lot better yesterday if he hadn't been tackled twice in the backfield at the moment of handoff for a cumulative negative 10 yards. He was great on the pass plays.

The beat goes on down there - Suh, Ajayi, Landry. I honestly think that Suh was one of the best players in the league when he was in Miami. They weren't losing because of him, and he always looked unblockable when I watched him. Also, read the bit about Landry in Peter King's column today: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/10/08/nfl-week-5-cleveland-browns-fmia-peter-king/. 'There’s something else I like about this team. It’s something Jarvis Landry brought from Miami. When the Browns did “Hard Knocks” this summer, the most memorable scene was Landry, new to the team this year, lighting up the receivers room. He was ticked off (putting it mildly) at the effort and practice habits of the team’s young receivers, and he stood in front of the room and said: “If your hamstring ain’t fallin’ off the bone, if your leg ain’t broke, you should be practicing! Straight up. It’s weakness. It’s contagious as f—! … It’s over with here, bro! If you’re not hurt, you gotta f—ing practice! That ain’t happenin’ here! That don’t exist! … It’s contagious. It’s contagious.” Coming from one of the highest-paid receivers in the league, that tirade got noticed. “My heart was full,” Landry said. “I had no idea it would be as big as it turned out to be. But I was just trying to state the truth and wake some guys up.” Landry thought for a minute. “With me,” he said, “what it comes down is I hate losing more than I love winning. I love football, and I just hate to lose.” When the Browns tied Pittsburgh on opening day, Landry thought some players were a little happy to not lose. “There’s nothing to celebrate!” he yelled. “We work too hard to tie!” On the first drive of overtime, Landry stuck his head in the offensive huddle and said, “It’s just us. Calls ain’t gonna go our way. Can’t worry about that. Just play.” After the game, in the raucous Cleveland locker room, Dorsey found Landry. The GM loves this firebrand wideout because of the example he sets and the ethos he brings to practice and games. Dorsey smiled at Landry. “Hey!” Dorsey said. “It ain’t always gonna be easy.”

What the heck is going on in Miami? They shed talent like there's no tomorrow and Gase seems thrilled when he does it.

Jordan Phillips looks like a very good pickup. A change of scenery can be good. He seems thrilled to be out of Miami, and he could be the sort of player who thrives in great fan settings like Orchard Park (Miami is the opposite of this). There's something about the culture in Miami that's screwed up. Gase has chased a lot of good players away (and makes culture-based arguments when doing so), including a bona fide play-to-the-whistle gamer in Jarvis Landry (I know we're not supposed to like him, but he plays balls out and produces). He cut their best player (Suh) and also traded away Ajayi for questioning the culture.

Not true. They went 10-6 with him at the helm in 2007 (10-5 when he started) but didn't get in. I think you're confusing him with the other bad Cleveland QB who started a playoff game for Cleveland and ended up on the Bills. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/cle/2007.htm

He did get a hand in. It was a great play.

They needed the entire 60 minutes to put up 13 points. Scoring 13 points loses you 9 games out of 10 in today's NFL. TN's D is good, but still. Scoring involves effectively passing the ball. The Bills are currently pathetic at it.

To be fair to Holmes, it was a great play by Jackson. Defenders are capable of making great plays too. All in all, I'd say it was a good throw by Allen, a decent-enough effort by Holmes (he was where he was supposed to be and would have caught it if not for the defender), and an elite play by a very talented first-round corner in his second season.

But that was the same with Jauron, right? They had a pretty decent D and terrible offenses under him, and he got them to the neighborhood of .500 doing exactly the same thing - minimizing mistake potential on offense, generating turnovers (his defenses were good at that and prioritized it), and keeping the game close - an approach that leads to close games, which in turn can lead to wins, especially against average teams and decent teams that just happen to be mistake-prone.

The offense was awful yesterday and the scheme was neanderthal. They won (largely because of the scheme, ironically enough!), so I'm happy, but let's not sugarcoat reality. They cannot roll out that gameplan against teams with good offenses and QBs better than Mariota. To be fair, I also think they know that. As for the original question, wins are hugely important for progress, so I disagree with the premise. I'm of the mind that losses are nothing more and nothing less than losses. I'm not a "moral victory" kind of guy.

I think he's a good defensive coach and schemer for sure. With regard to that offensive plan yesterday, though, it ONLY works against a team with a QB as shaky as Mariota. TN's offense isn't good. Both the offensive gameplan and the overall scheme were high-school level in their sophistication, which ironically was just what the doctor ordered given the opponent. But they showed no signs yesterday of being able to run a complex offense -- the sort you need when facing the good teams who are bound to put up 20+ points. Baby steps, I know, but I'd like to see a bit more sophistication going forward because Jeff Fisher is no model to follow in today's NFL.

This is a good assessment. https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/08/buffalo-bills-tennessee-titans-josh-allen-sean-mcdermott

Neither of the interceptions last night should have been ints. Both should have been easy catches on perfect throws.

"Reformed homer" - i love it!

how many freaking drops can a team have? Christ.