BillsVet

Understand. I see this model used in Carolina as something they need to overhaul to meet with league trends and because they have a franchise QB. Never in Carolina did they have a QB, not even Newton, who was near as good as Josh. Yet, they've gone from working to or actually putting WRs around him (2019-20) to then going the route of ignoring/under-resourcing the position in (2021-22) to deciding they'd be more complementary in 2023-24. I'd even argue their approach with WR's is always a step-behind in that they went with bigger catch-radius types when the league was going away from it in 2017-18, to returning to it as the league transitions back to the shifty guys. They come off as without an appropriate offensive strategy or being ahead of the personnel game.

This is a further upstream issue than just the OC. The blame game tends to go as high as coaching, but it's clear that off-season personnel decisions can hinder whomever the OC is. I'd like them to be more of a downfield passing team too, but they are now more run-focused primarily because they acquired the players to do it. If it works throwing shorter and running more, great. But, if they struggle at any point there's almost nowhere to go mid-season aside from back to the well and running Josh. They are too limited by WR skill-sets and talent/inexperience which will impact what they can do throwing the ball. And those WR's aren'tdownfield types. But that's the point and how they want to run this offense.

McBeane decided to remake the roster and prolong the rebuild in 2017-18 while they burned cap space. But the issue we're talking about here is WR's and their lack of draft investment there. They used far too many UFA dollars trying to buy/trade for an offense in 2019-20 and that's why we're having this conversation here today. Because they didn't find the players to develop behind those guys like Brown, Beasley, and Diggs. I even refrained from, during the first 6 years (2017-2022) of McBeane how they used 5 of their 7 RD1 picks on defense.

I knew the 2018 "they was outta money" argument would surface. Didn't prevent them from giving 5 and 50 to Star or 3 and 27 to Trent Murphy. And then, thru first half of 2018 they had one of the worst offenses since the '78 rules changes. None of this book you've written removes the fact that in 2018 they drafted their franchise QB and then proceeded to put bargain bin types around him while improving the defense each year. Even if you include the 3rd rounders from 2018-20, after Josh they went MLB, DT, DT, bust OL, RB, TE, Diggs trade, Epenesa, RB. Didn't draft a WR until Davis in RD4 of 2020 after taking Josh.

You missed the whole point. They invested in 2018 on Josh Allen. The immediate need therefore was to surround him with talent, not 5 or 6 years down the road. Their plan was to buy or trade for veterans and pay them beyond rookie wages in 2019-20. In fact, the Bills have not drafted and developed one WR1 or WR2 type guy since 2017. We are here talking about this WR issue for the 4th straight off-season because the team prioritizes their premium draft picks away from supporting Josh...until there's an emergency like last year. You know, when they missed out on the top WRs and had to trade up to take a flex TE. Or this year, taking the 8th WR off the board. Fact is, this team only prioritizes receivers when it's absolutely necessary. But they'll load up on DL year after year because someone there can't live without as many as they deem necessary.

Well, they ran it back a couple years in a row until their self-inflicted cap issues made it hard to keep spending big on defense with Josh's and Diggs' contracts. 2024 is really a referendum on this idea of complementary football. If it works, great. If not, a significant course correction is in order that supports Josh first and everything else becomes second. Still don't see this HC signing up for that though.

I don't see anyone having an issue with the concept of prioritizing the DL. NFL teams always want pass rushers with the aerial game so prolific. And of course McD values them even more because his defensive scheme emphasizes front-4 pressure. Their move to sign Miller was, on its face, a bold move to address this. It's how much this priority investment costs for other areas of the team. To that point, after taking Josh in 2018, their next 9 RD1 or 2 picks netted 4 DL, 1 MLB, 1 bust OL, 1 CB, Diggs, and Cook. At some point, a very good organization either succeeds and shows their philosophy works or takes a long look in the mirror and says something has to change during the next off-season.

Trestman. It's Marv's successor with the Montreal Alouettes as CFL Grey Cup Winner to NFL HC. Obviously. Kidding. Congrats to Marv on his 99th and wish him many more.

Bonus points for gaslighting in this thread to claim the original point I made on strength of schedule was actually "first place schedule." A true beauty you are. We done here.

Dude, you always pivot the discussion to a tangential subject when backed into a corner. It's how you end up at "first place schedule" versus the originally raised subject...strength of schedule. No one's talking about "first place schedule" except you. Same tactic used by another low-grade poster who shall remain nameless, but decided to turn the WR group room thread into the WR/TE discussion. Stick to the subject and quit the quibbling, conflation, and ridiculous pivots. Until then, you're not a serious TSW poster.

None of your quibbling removes the fact that a 40 game streak of not losing by more than 6 points is inconsequential. And if you don't even know how to figure out strength of schedule, I don't know what to tell you. If there were a remedial TSW class for fans, you'd be in the front row every year. Yeah. Hoisting the regular season success trophy is a common theme here when things go south, but it doesn't matter at this phase in the team's development beyond whether they have the #1 seed and win all their playoff games. Lot of people who want to feel good and point to those stats/game results while quibbling (see above) because their ego gets in the way of admitting the team has underwhelmed at least 3 years running.

Added context to that stat is their strength of schedule was 2021 - t-26th, 2022 - 20th and 2023 - 27th. Being in a game against the Jets and losing by 3 is a whole lot different than playingt KC and losing. This stat doesn't differentiate from that. It just highlights that games didn't get out of hand. Thing about the NFL now is most games are decided by one score and with Josh, I'd expect them to be in every game.

Legalizing sports gambling has paved the way for more statistical analysis in sports than ever which on TSW can support or diminish poster opinions. This usually means taking a statistic and delving deeper beyond that stat though. Requires an understanding how stats should be used and which ones matter over others. This point about not losing by more than 6 in the past 40 games means almost nothing. In that 40 game window we're talking about games like the inexplicable Minnesota loss at home in 2022. Also doesn't illustrate the games they played to the level of their competition like the losses by 2 at Miami and 3 at NYJ in 2022 or the opener last year. Given the competition, losing by less than 1 TD in those games isn't something to celebrate. The Bills' last 3 years have had 2 constants: some level of excellence at the start of the season (weeks 2-5 in 2021, Weeks 1-2 in 2022, Weeks 2-4 in 2023) followed by the mid-season swoon that starts around week 6 and goes to about week 13 from 2021-23. That's what needs to change in 2024.

Subterfuge is a beautiful thing when executed so as to confuse. But they're not making life easier for Josh by, if true, dialing in the routes. Warren Sharp posted on X that Josh Allen had a 31.8% incompletion percentage (EDIT: due to inaccurate passes) on throws over 10 yards. In the 2023 regular season, only 3 QBs with a minimum of 200 attempts were better: Cousins, Jake Browning, and Patrick Mahomes. If Josh is making those throws and they overhaul the WR group, I'm not seeing them dialing routes closer to the LOS as a good option. I'm seeing them forcing a square peg into a round hole and expecting it to work, but that's why we had an 80+ thread on what the WR group is now. Then again, McD has never been a proponent of analytics which, in fairness, many HC's aren't. And I'm going to disagree on the "diversification" of the WR group...they're all pretty much slot guys in different body types. And especially not guys who can be feature options many here assume will work because they're all of a certain quality.

31 other NFL teams can see what Buffalo's doing at TC. If everyone in this thread and identified media can see it, so can opponents. They'll install the offense and bring it out when they need to. Or... This offense is about making Josh into someone who takes the easier and more higher percentage throw. Their receivers are suited to that and those things go together to an extent. Probably a combination of both.

Yeah. And, this is the first year that McD has an OC and the personnel to run his complementary version of football to the max. Because Brady is aligned with McD in a way Daboll and Dorsey were not. He'll design an offense that fits within the HC's concept. And if it doesn't work, the long knives will come out for Allen. I hope it doesn't reach that, but this isn't so much a Josh issue as it is the wrong strategy/vision for how to win in the modern NFL with a franchise QB.

I've now seen in this thread how Brady's statement of offensive philosophy can be compared to: 1. Geno Auriemma's UCONN women's basketball teams 2. The San Francisco 49ers offensive skilled position talent 3. Top Euro soccer stars of the 1970s 4. McDermott's concept on defensive personnel Kenny Bania would respond to this kind of material in this way:

Looking back, their significant moves at WR amount to: 2017: Draft Z. Jones (trade up in 2nd) and trade for Benjamin (cost a 3rd) 2018: ? 2019: Signed Brown and Beasley in UFA 2020: Trade for Diggs (cost a 1st) and perhaps G. Davis in 4th 2021: Sign E. Sanders in UFA to 1 year deal 2022: ? 2023: ? 2024: Sign Samuel in UFA and draft Coleman (2x trade downs in 2nd) Slim investment at a position of high positional value...particularly when the draft regularly offers talent. And yeah, shouldn't happen with Josh as your QB.

It's abundantly clear from this post GB that...you hate the Bills. So pessimistic!

It's one thing to move out an underperforming player and another to do it with a replacement on the roster who has produced in that role already. Their process, as it relates to higher-performing players that are disgruntled, seems to be just move the guy and deal with the ramifications later. It's not a stretch to think they just rolled the dice they'll get production from this group of slot receivers. When it doesn't happen that way, then what? Another in-season trade? Draft a guy in 2025? It never made much sense that, if McBeane wanted Diggs gone that you'd do it at the beginning of the league year and not wait weeks to move him. Possible they expected the market to yield more, which is odd considering that Diggs' contract they gave him would be difficult to deal for a higher return in 2024. They took the 2025 2nd and I'm sure that'll be part of whatever move they make in-season to find someone else when their slot receiver group struggles to produce.

We're going to revisit the bolded above during the season because it's likely to be a point made by others if these receivers live up to their history or first year status. Amazing that people can make this claim here after what he's proven what he can do as a passer, particularly in 2020 and 2021. You know, when he had better WRs to throw to.

Harmon does not address how Samuel, bereft of a primary option in this passing game, will produce the way he thinks. That element has been minimized throughout this thread. Those seasons in Carolina and the last 2 in Washington featured him as no better than a WR2. In both situations, other receivers were the primary options (DJ Moore, and Terry McLaurin) and drew better defenders.

Quantify this assertion. Because I don't get how a guy who has seen his yards per reception decline 4 straight (full) seasons as someone who is "one of the top man beaters in the NFL." It would be funny if they used assets, like the 2nd in 2025 acquired for Diggs, to get a better receiver at or near the deadline. They'd be paying a buyers premium given the point in season and by then what's likely to be their clear need at WR. I'm sure opposing GMs would make them pay for miscalculating that WR group was capable of replacing Diggs and providing solid receiving production. It would also be another major in-season direction turn for the offense after the last few years of being adamant Josh not need to carry the ball. Which doesn't happen because the offense struggles. And this year, with a WR group that is ranked by multiple sources as bottom of the league, it signals they don't know what they're doing to devise an offensive scheme and resource it which can win in different ways.

I can imagine McD would love to have another WR come over in a trade that was disgruntled with his last team. Besides, they have Chase Claypool and if he has a career season after being pretty much out of the league he'll be their WR1, er X.

If you're tired, best to get some rest and quit quibbling in this thread. All the massive stretching you've taken here is clearly tiring you out. P.S. Stevie Johnson has more 1,000 yard seasons (in a 16 game schedule) than Buffalo's entire receiving group heading into camp does in their careers.