dave mcbride

I'm not saying they're going to do anything, but the Eagles are in it to win it now - they have a very, very good chance to win the division this season and possibly even get a bye. Sometimes you've gotta play for the now.

agreed - Schwartz had his greatest success when he had two top d-linemen (Williams and Dareus in Buffalo). When he had just one good DT in Detroit (Suh), the numbers on D weren't great. In TN, Tony Brown (playing alongside Haynesworth) actually had a couple of good seasons in 2007-08, their best years under Schwartz.

read the BN story - Glenn for Randall Cobb makes sense for both teams. Huge upgrade for both sides.

That's my take too - something does appear to be up. There is some genuine smoke here, and anyone who has watched AZ, SEA, and GB's lines can understand why they'd be willing to gamble on a top-shelf LT who may have some injury issues.

https://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/197134-worst-wr-corps-ever-collateral-damage-to-dropzone-jones/?p=4594344 I don't have video evidence, so you'll hve to trust me when I say that these were effectively all drops.

AJ Green is a great player, but he has never had as good of an individual season as Dareus did in 2014.

That same pair led a WR corps that helped Bills QBs throw for 28 TD passes in 14 games (2 per game) in 1975, which is the most in team history save for 1991. Chandler and Hill combined for 13 TD catches in 14 games that season, and OJ had over 1800 yards. The Bills were #1 in both points scored and yards that season. What happened after that season was a very Bills-y story ... David Nelson was actually OK - he made some plays and was a reliable third down target. The guys the Bills are running out there now are FAR worse than Nelson was.

both things can be true and are!

The Bills have no credible WRs, and the loss of Clay makes the situation even worse. That's the beginning and end of the conversation with regard to qb productivity, I think.

That may welll be the case, but I do dispute the idea that Whaley had any power after McDermott was hired. He was kept on to ensure the smooth running of the draft, and had no say beyond that. That's my take and I'm stickin' to it, at least with regard to Whaley. Re: Sammy, you've been saying a version of the above for a while, and I think that you may well be right (not saying it was the right decision to move him, btw - that's a separate issue).

14 catches for 183 yards in four games - 3.5 catches per game, 46 ypg, and 13.1 ypc. Extrapolated over a season, it's 56 catches for 732 yards and 4 TDs.

Kinda sacrilegious to say this, but to my eyes Kyle Williams is not playing all that well this season. He's not nearly as disruptive as in the past, and despite a lot of playing time he has very, very few tackles.

Agreed. The craziest thing about this season? Glass Goodwin is producing at a light years-better rate than any Bills receiver (243 yards and a 17.4 ypc), and with a worse QB. Zay Jones's most amazing stat: he has been targeted 23 times and has 5-count-'em-5 receptions.

Kind of a backhanded knock on Watkins there - basically stating that he knew Watkins gave up on the play (which he did). Not to excuse Watkins, but he was at least double- and sorta triple-covered on the play.

Buffalo had 408 yards against the Jets. It's only been 4 games.

Gerry: Not sure what you mean by this. Whaley was effectively neutered and had no say over what to do with Watkins' option, right? Or am I misreading?

Hi Josh: it would be great if the Bills reporters and columnists evinced more knowledge of stat analysis. Just by way of example, I've seen JS, BG, and VC continually invoke context-less and simplistic stat rankings to judge the Bills. It may sound like I'm shilling here for Football Outsiders, but the BN's reporters should familiarize themselves with their approach and methods, which are really strong. Last year, I felt like I was going to scream every time I read JS mention the Bills' 32nd ranked passing offense, which simply did not capture the reality of where the Bills actually stood beyond a raw yardage measure. The same goes for VC's invocation of Bills' defensive rankings; they were actually far worse than the mid-tier ranking in yardage/points under Rex in 2015-16 if you dig a little deeper. This is something friends of mine talk about a lot in both this and other contexts (everything from politics to movies to whatever): fans are a LOT more knowledgeable than I think a lot of writers assume. It's a breath of fresh air to read someone like Tyler Kepner on baseball in the NYT. More of that, please! More importantly, I think that people expect that now. One of the most persistent criticisms of the BN's coverage here is the thin level of analysis. It has gotten better over the years, but it's still not good enough.

Good post. Pretty much says it all.

I don't think so. I just think that they'll struggle too often to score 20 points, which is going to get them to 7 losses (or more). In my view, they have 3 automatic losses on the horizon - NE twice and KC. I don't see them going 7-1 in the other 8 games. I think that 10-6 is necessary for the playoffs because I think that Denver will definitely get to 10 and some other team too. Who that is, I don't know at this point.

Jones dropped an incredibly easy pass at the Bengals 9 yard line, McCoy dropped a pass right in his freaking hands at the 1, Tate dropped one in the third quarter in the middle of the field at the Bengals 32 yard line, and Tate also had what was effectively a drop near the end of the first half when he failed to execute an easy foot drag that most legit starting WRs in the NFL can do in their sleep. I agree with you most of the time, but McCoy has decidedly not been awful. His performance right now is akin to Marshawn in 2009-10 - what looked like poor play really wasn't because no back in the league was being hit a higher rate behind the LOS than Lynch. Everyone thought Lynch was overrated and slow because of the ypc problems, but didn't factor in the context. The same is true for McCoy this year. Did you watch Dawkins try to run block yesterday? Or Vlad Ducasse on that third down and short play at midfield? McCoy has zero chance to succeed in this offense given the awfulness of the receiving corps (especially now that we're going to be without Clay for a while). In fact, McCoy has ripped off a number of big runs this season where he has flashed elite skills, but almost all of them have been called back because of holds.

LAMP

Ps - do not blame playcalling, please. The talent is so poor. That's the issue.

Dawkins is brutal this game. He has cost the team points. The talent on this offense is so bad. Unwatchable.

This explains a lot. Thanks for the link.

The Bills' defensive talent is leagues worse than that on Denver, Seattle, and Carolina. What's going on right now is nice, but I don't think it's sustainable. I hope i'm wrong, of course.