mannc

And my point is that Cowher probably has watched zero Bills games this year, so his opinion that McDermott is a miracle worker is probably worth very little.

Wonder how many Bills games Cowher watched this year. Over/under is 1/2. He certainly didn’t watch either of the NE games.

If they had done the smart thing and fired Hugh Jackson at the end of last season, I have no doubt the Browns would be preparing for a playoff game right now.

Great post. I would argue that a great kicker might well be worth more to a team--in terms of wins and losses over the course of a season--than a great defensive lineman or pretty much any position other than QB. It also amazes me how many outstanding college programs can't seem to find competent placekickers, when a missed FG or extra point can mean the difference between going to a $10 million bowl game and a $2 million game. I've heard that even at a lot of major college programs, the kickers are not on full rides... Makes no sense.

Your last point is a very good one. Is there anyone better available? That has to be a consideration.

I love AJ Green, but at his age and with his injury history, I think that's too much to give up. I'd probably trade a 3d for him, but I doubt the Bengals would do it.

Yep, Gase is another example of a franchise waiting one year too long to fire it's HC. If they had fired Gase last year, it's likely that the new guy would have made a move to draft a new QB last year. This year, the cupboard seems to be bare and their best bet might be to go after someone like Nick Foles...

Tom Coughlin: Why teams don't need a Football Czar.

How could the Dolphins possible fire Gase? He made the playoffs once!?

So 20 years ago, the Lions used a bunch of first round picks on crappy WRs (until they drafted Calvin Johnson, that is) and that means WRs aren't more valuable than interior defensive linemen? Wake up and smell the coffee...☕

I really don't care what someone like Cowher or many of the other talking heads say; I'd wager that they've watched zero Bills games this year. I agree that 2019 should be make-or-break for this regime, but I can already hear the excuses if we find ourselves in the same position this time next year: "The offensive line needs another year to gel, you can't put together a whole new offense in one season, we were depending on so many rookies this year, Brady's finally retiring so we'll kick Belichick's ass next year, it's only year three of the re-build, etc..."

I'm pleased that someone actually read my post. My theory is that type 1 errors (sticking with a loser too long) are much more common than type 2 (firing too soon). I think most teams err on the side of giving a coach at least one season too many to prove that he knows what he's doing. I cited 4 examples and could have added more (Marvin Lewis, Jeff Fisher, among others). I'm having trouble coming up with even one type 2 error, although you're correct that type 2 errors are a bit more difficult to prove. I think Andy Reid had simply worn out his welcome in Philly and, as it turns out, the move worked out pretty well for both the Eagles and the Chiefs. Anthony Lynn isn't a good example because he was never really hired here and given a chance in the first place. I fully expected a barrage of negative responses from folks here who are satisfied with a coach who takes over a .500 team and delivers 9-7 and 6-10 seasons. As I've said many times, nobody has lower standards than Bills fans. Under McDermott, the Bills are 10-16, after starting 5-2. They have been blown out more regularly than any Bills teams since the mid-80s. Elsewhere the Steelers are reportedly considering firing Mike Tomlin for missing the playoffs just once, after winning a Super Bowl and making the playoffs almost continuously for over a decade. One of Tomlin's biggest problems: He can't seem to beat Belichick (see below) and that's just not good enough in Pittsburgh. As has been true since 2000, the Bills' goal every year should be to dislodge NE from the top of the division and every move they make should be with that goal in mind. Until that happens, the Bills will be a disappointment. Maybe most troubling to me is that McDermott has been a deer in headlights against NE. None of the four games vs. NE have been competitive and the last one was nothing short of pathetic. Brady had maybe the worst game of his career and the Bills still trailed 24-6 in the fourth quarter. It made me believe that McDermott will probably never be able to go toe-to-toe with Belichick, with or without Brady. I realize that's a high standard, and that plenty of other coaches would fail that test too, but if the Bills want to join the elite teams in the league, it's just the way it is. By they way, I'm amused at the folks who say "McDermott isn't getting fired this year, so why are you posting this crap?" I fully recognize that he's not going anywhere this year and I acknowledge as much in the OP, but this is a discussion board and I reserve the right to suggest that perhaps the Pegulas are wrong about this. ?

The coaches who’ve been fired so far, or certainly will be tomorrow—Bowles, Koetter, and Joseph—all should have been fired last year, but were kept around in the interest of continuity. As a result, those franchises wasted a year finding out what was already obvious to any sentient observer—that those guys were not good coaches. Put the Browns in this category, too. If they had fired Hue Jackson at the end of last season, as he so richly deserved, they probably would be preparing for a playoff game right now. It seems clear that McDermott is going to survive Black Monday, but should he? By giving him another season, are we wasting a year of Josh Allen’s cheap rookie contract? Are we stunting his development by making him play for a coach who turtles any time he finds himself with a 14-point lead?

Let me explain something to you: No one knows who the “best player available” is at any particular spot in the draft, especially when you are comparing, for example, a DT with a WR. Some people might think they know, but they don’t. And at any rate, I would argue that a really good WR is far more valuable than a great DT, especially on this team. The Bills need offensive playmakers and a couple offensive linemen. Those are the guys they need to be looking at in the first three rounds.

That’s a silly excuse. Teams get new starters on the 0-line all the time; it’s part of life in the NFL. One thing that has been ignored is that the Bills have been remarkably healthy this year compared to most NFL teams. How many offensive and defensive linemen have missed games for injuries? I actually can’t think of any. Other than Allen’s elbow injury, how many key players have missed games for injuries this year? Again, I’m hard pressed to think of any. And yet they’ve still managed to get blown out far too often.

Do you think the Bills overachieved against NE last Sunday? How about against the Ravens in the opener? Or against the Chargers at home?

Ed Oliver is not a “generational talent” by any stretch of the imagination. He’s had a mediocre year in the USA conference and is an over-hyped bust waiting to happpen.

I’m guessing they all know he’s out the door. I really hope the Jets rumors are true.

Actually, Rex got the Bills to 7-8 in his last year, before he was fired. After his firing, they tanked the last game against the Jets, and used their improved draft position to pass on Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson?

The Giants might not regret drafting Sequon Barkley, but they should. He's played very well, as expected, but not substantially better than Chris Carson or Phillip Lindsay, a seventh round pick and an UDFA, respectively. And we see this kind of thing all the time. People have mentioned Todd Gurley as an MVP candidate, but the truth is there is very little drop-off between him and Mack Brown. Hell, CJ Anderson, a guy the Rams picked up off the street, ran for 170 yards for the Rams on Sunday.

I don't want to fire him for "giving up a season in order to build a better future." I think his firing could be justified based on his failure to demonstrate that he knows how to build and coach a modern NFL football team. He's not terrible; he's just not good enough and that pathetic display against Belichick on Sunday made that clear. Do you think when McDermott was interviewed he told Pegs that it would take three years to re-build what was then a .500 team? I doubt it.

The team McDermott took over was .500 under Rex Ryan, an utterly incompetent, checked-out coach during his time in Buffalo. it wasn't a great achievement to get them to 9-7. And of course, last year is last year. Marrone got the Jags to the AFC Championship game less than 12 months ago and now he's on his way out of Jax.

Yeah, the Saints have had a couple bad games, but it's a long season and everyone is entitled to a bad game or two. They have home field throughout and they are still going to be very hard to beat there. Gotta be the hands-down favorite at this point. And I thought you are allowed to extend first round picks after their third season...has the rule changed?

It had better not be. It would be a terrible use of high first round pick. It's a lesson that should have been learned with the Dareus pick. As we proved this year, good DTs can be found cheaply in free agency or even on the waiver wire.

Yep. Anyone who thinks we’re going to fix our WR problems in free agency are kidding themselves. We’re going to need to draft a minimum of two WR and a TE.