dave mcbride

Um ... I think you're missing his point. Bear in mind that Schatz thinks Taylor is at least league average.

I'm not saying past is prelude, but the national media tends to be pretty much always right about the Bills (despite what many folks on this board think). Aaron Schatz:

The scheme is fine; no doubt about that. But the person calling the scheme matters - the sequence of plays, the level of surprise, etc. etc. It's not as if Dennison has a Payton-esque record of success either. Even if you factor out that he's basically ridden the coattails of Shanahan and Kubiak (a mountain-zone Curtis Modkins, if you will), his record is pretty middling.

Why people continue to refuse factoring in what Taylor did for the run game in the Roman scheme (I mean, it's patently obvious) is beyond me. Having said this, he's not built to succeed in this scheme.

This is a fair post. I don't think Taylor is fit for this offense, but the larger problem to me is Dennison, who doesn't strike me as a particularly bright offensive mind.

Dennison is about as vanilla an NFL OC as it gets. I wouldn't expect anything innovative.

?? - Taylor wasn't a draft pick for the Bills. He was FA signing with four years' time in the league in a good organization. This is a straw-man argument.

I'm not here to defend Taylor, who has been exposed in the last couple of games, but Dennison sucks. He is a cookie-cutter OC who doesn't have half the brains of a Roman, who is genuinely creative.

The run game production was a huge product of TT's play and the way it was designed into the scheme. That's patently obvious.

McCoy has been fine. He is simply being hit a lot sooner in a much worse offensive scheme.

Um, they were seventh overall when he was benched after week 16 last year, and they finished 12th in 2015.

Better than 5-4 with this roster? They should be 4-5 given the Atlanta giveaway by the refs.

they were terrible under Rex - 24th in defensive DVOA in 2015 and 27th in 2016. They were second in 2015 under Schwartz.

yup, and perhaps they're grooming Peterman to be the longtime capable backup. He's a lot cheaper than Taylor and under control for three more years after this one.

I'm not going to celebrate because I'm not crazy about the move, but I think this tells us two things: 1) Taylor simply isn't going to be highly productive in a standard-issue NFL offense that isn't tailored to his skills, and 2) we have a crappy offensive coordinator who is ten steps down from Greg Roman in terms of adaptability and cleverness. I've thought this for a while, and this sort of confirms it. Hopefully Peterman can make this offense work. My guess is that we have Trevor Simien Mach II on our hands, but I also think they're going to draft a QB in round one.

My takeaway: his four-year career of bouncing from practice squad to practice squad with a bevy of cuts along the way suggests that he sucks. Scroll down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deandre_Coleman.

That is not my point AT ALL.

I suspect he wanted to leave given the stuff I've heard about him feeling burned by the medical and coaching staff regarding his foot last season. The fact that that team didn't pick up his option (when it was pretty clear that he was going to be healthy) and traded him as soon as they could showcase him suggests that they didn't think he wanted to be here. The new regime was pretty clear from the get-go about wanting buy-in.

Jax is far more talented, but since Bortles turns it over with such regularity, it might actually turn out to be a game given the Bills' ability to ballhawk.

The Saints' RBs are far from mediocre.

I don't either. It's an issue that the team faces and which the fans don't factor in enough. Players don't want to stay.

20-18. You should always count game one of the 2015 season, in which Cassell got credit for the start because they ran a trick play on the first play of the game, with TT split wide.

There does seem to be a constant here that you're not addressing: highly talented players really seem to want to get the hell out of Buffalo. I'd add Watkins and McGahee to this mix.

A much better measure is DVOA, which factors in opponents and a whole bunch of other relevant factors like turnovers ( http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef ). 2017: 16th (he took over a D that was 27th in the league the year before; that was Ryan's D) 2016: 10th 2015: 2nd 2014: 15th 2013: 3rd 2012: 11th 2011: 32nd 2010: 11th (Philly) 2009: 3rd (Philly) All in all, his record is quite good. In 9 seasons, he has finished in the top half eight times, in the top 11 six times, and the top 3 three times. He had one disaster season - his first year in Carolina. Incidentally, your 2011 stats are wrong. Carolina's D was 27th in points allowed and 28th in yards allowed. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/car/2011.htm

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/film-room/2015/film-room-ryan-fitzpatrick for all of his flaws, taylor is a lot better than fitzpatrick.