Chilly

Being reported on Twitter that Gase has final say over the roster and will be the playcaller on Sundays. This has Josh McDaniels repeat cluster!@#$ written all over it.

Re-sign our good players, draft well, add depth through free agency.

I believe we decided not to re-sign him as he was a free agent

Thanks Rex for bringing TT in!

I'm glad we can reduce football down to one simple factor.

I enjoy Vic on Sirius NFL Radio but I'm really starting to question his sources.

Buffalo News now reporting that no ultimatum has been issued. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2016/01/05/source-bills-working-on-a-contract-extension-with-doug-whaley/

Are people on here going to start believing that we're not actually going to really overhaul the D players yet? Whaley and Rex made that abundantly clear today. I think Mario's gone but we're not going to go full tear down / rebuild mode.

I believe they never did specify which llama's ass they kicked.

Okay... on the season: Julio Jones has 33% of Matt Ryan's targets. Antonio Brown is 32%. Again Sammy is not far off when he's been healthy at 29%. You just don't like a run-oriented offense and injuries. By the way, of these five teams, here's where they rank on Points Scored/Game: #4 Pittsburgh - 26.3 #6 NYG - 26.0 #12 BUF - 23.8 #21 ATL - 21.5 #24 HOU - 20.6 We're squarely in the middle of all the teams you mentioned, AND they've had their #1 receiver healthy for more than half the year!

I wanted to see if what you were saying was really true, if we were neglecting Sammy in the passing game, so I did some digging. Below are stats since 11/08 (when Sammy finally came back healthy for the 2nd half of the year) for each of the three receivers: Sammy Watkins 8 Games Targets: 63 (7.87/gm) Catches: 38 (4.75/gm) Catch Rate: 60% Yards: 764 (95.5/gm) TDs: 7 (.88/gm) % of Team Passing Yards: 44% % of Team Targets: 29% DeAndre Hopkins 7 Games Targets: 68 (9.71/gm) Catches: 38 (5.42/gm) Catch Rate: 56% Yards: 562 (80.3/gm) TDs: 5 (.71/gm) % of Team Passing Yards: 39% % of Team Targets: 31% Odell Beckham 6 Games Targets: 76 (12.6/gm) Catches: 41 (6.83/gm) Catch Rate: 54% Yards: 742 (123/gm) TDs: 6 (1/gm) % of Team Passing Yards: 42% % of Team Targets: 31% From a pure #s perspective, Sammy and Deandre aren't that far off each other during that time, while ODB has been used significantly more. However, when adjusting for pass attempts (which is a combination of style of offense, game scripts, etc), we haven't thrown to Sammy that much less, as ODB and DeAndre get thrown at 31% of the time while Sammy gets thrown at 29% of the time when their teams pass the ball. Sounds to me like what you really want is for Sammy not to be injured during the first half of the year, and for us to change to more of a passing offense from a rushing one.

This x1000.

He's going to have to rotate in because of depth issues but I have zero problem with them making him a rotational depth guy tomorrow. I just don't think we have the horses to sit him all game.

If you believe those are excuses, what do you think are the reasons it happened the way it did and why?

Everything you've said here doesn't have anything to do with root cause of the way Sammy was used this year. There's multiple things that happened: 1. Sammy was injured. He missed three games and was limited near the start of the season. 2. We had no receiving threat outside of Sammy when Clay and Harvin got hurt. 3. Tyrod is still learning to trust his throws. When teams adjusted to play tighter coverage, Tyrod stopped looking Sammy's way. This has changed as the season has gone on, to good results. Yet despite all of this, Sammy Watkins is the top deep receiver in the NFL. There has been clear progression over the course of the year, just look at the game splits I linked above.

It's amazing people spend their time on this when there's plenty of real things to criticize this team on.

What changes happen between the first and second half in games from a playcalling perspective that cause you to think the issue is Roman? Do you believe that Sammy all of a sudden not running 9 routes that he has been so successful on all year? I think it's far more likely defenses change their coverages given our lack of a #2 receiving target and Tyrod wasn't trusting the throws to Sammy afterwards. I need to go do an all 22 study to find out because you can't see it on tv. Sammy is the top deep receiver in the NFL this year, and is developing into a hell of a player, yet Whaley is an idiot for being aggressive and getting his guy? I don't get criticism like this at all. From https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/12/31/pro-offseason-to-do-list-for-the-buffalo-bills/ "Watkins is the most-targeted receiver in the league on deep passes, with 44.7 percent of targets 20 or more yards downfield. Hes converted 34 targets into a league-leading eight scores, 16 receptions, 606 yards, and just one drop on deep passes."

http://www.nfl.com/player/sammywatkins/2543457/gamelogs What about those game splits causes you to think nothing changed during 2015?

Who are we going to replace him with at this point? IK? Jerel Worthy?

Idzik was terrible. Look how much roster turnover there was this year. His big picks are either fourth string our cut.

Why are these the only two options? When a HC is involved in one side of the ball the HC usually sets gameplans and the playbook while the coordinator teaches and installs it. Gameday management can vary.

I don't agree with this. I didn't want Rex gone but I think Thurman has done a bad job this year.

http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/182145-dennis-thurman-is-rex-ryans-albatross/

I believe he's a bum because the defense is clearly confused, it's his job to teach it, and he seems like an !@#$. Is that ok?