BillsVet

"When we go into battle we play music very loud. It kinda...calms us down." RIP.

Benjamin got injured in camp that year after going over 1k yards in 2014 as a late 1st. With him healthy, that '15 Panthers team had him and Olsen heading into the season. Point is, they're not that far off in how they view their receiving talent from ~10 years ago and constantly behind the curve of where the league's heading. And some of that is reacting to what happened the season before. Diggs wasn't physical and didn't get much YAC. Then again, neither did Benjamin and Funchess.

OBD didn't adjust their roster philosophy/strategy when Josh's extension kicked in for 2022. It was as if they continued what they were doing, only with a huge QB contract on the books. Still using high picks on defense and UFA dollars to maintain their DL depth. I also see a LOT of people here talk about how drafting RB's is supporting Josh. Their offense didn't get remarkably better with James Cook running for 1k yards and being a 10.1 yards per catch. Even if Cook performs like this and Ray Davis adds to the running game, their passing game is not as good. Can't get around that they didn't reserve room to improve the passing game, Josh was used to run it more down the stretch, and their receiving talent at best is a notch below last year with Diggs gone.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40342965/patrick-mahomes-says-chiefs-push-ball-field-2024 Take it FWIW...off-season puff piece but it's not debatable this is their offense. If Reid is telling Mahomes to go downfield (and likely has each season) it's noteworthy, because he threw 14 INT's last year which is most he's had in a season. For all the complaints about Allen, he had a lesser talented receiving group and threw 18 INTs. Yet, McBeane's moves are telegraphing they want a safer offense that doesn't throw it downfield to reduce turnovers. One that is more horizontal and less vertical. Two teams offensively going in opposite directions. One that goes with what works for both them and in the league and the other playing the contrarian role.

Yeah. Josh gets blamed. Has to be included there. He's not perfect and the throw to Shakir was not a good decision in the Divisional Round game. This off-season has already served to show more fans here that WR is not a priority for McBeane until it's so obvious a need. Should have been in 2021 and 2022, but they found other priorities, primarily defensive or lesser important positions to sign/draft. Then, they missed on WR in 2023 and were forced to take one in 2024.

I can't think of a subject during the McBeane years which occupied more off-season discussion than what they've done at WR. It's now the 4th straight off-season we're talking about it. It got a lot louder in 2024. Each of the past 4 off-seasons this sequence occurs: 1. Debate ensues about whether they need better receivers. 2. Bills sign some low-end short-term UFAs WRs and miss on top prospects. McBeane say they're good to go and homers predictably agree. 3. Season gets off to good start in first month. 4. Mid-season swoon begins with offense struggling. 5. People start wondering on TBD why they didn't do more at receiver. Homers retreat to silence. 6. Season ends and process starts anew.

Go forth and multiply. Obviously bad advice from Him. Starting to see more of these WR contract extensions be for shorter terms. Not stretched to 5 or 6 years, a couple lately at 3.

Your claim as TBD's best sophist is noted.

The fanbase doesn't have any input for coordinating the offense with Josh, so their opinion matters zero. OTOH, McD's been talking about reducing Josh's carries a couple years now...and then all 3 of his OC's who coached Josh ended up doing the same thing. A team with solid receivers doesn't have to do that to score points with a franchise QB. Josh Allen is the last guy anyone should be blaming for their poor performance. It's just typical homers who are unable to see the scheme and talent are mis-aligned with his talents. This offense and the entire team are bottom of the NFL-caliber without him. Besides, the universally regarded best QB in the game threw 14 INT's last year to a depleted receiver group. Think those 2 items aren't related? I see a couple things happening this year. They'll again try evening out the run-pass balance and it'll lead to less offensive production. Josh will struggle throwing to this bottom-tier group of receivers and they'll be right back to him running it again. The offense will continue to struggle and people will blame Josh. The same people like yourself completely ignorant to the fact personnel decisions made Josh's situation harder but easily blame him. This offense has now 8 years into this regime no true offensive identity besides Josh needing to elevate the skilled talent and carry the ball himself.

Josh accounted for 21% of the team's rushing yards under Dorsey. It was 30% under Brady. Dorsey's offense averaged 26.2 points and Brady was 27.1. The same personnel group with a healthy OL managed to score 1 point more per game, but it took Josh running it more. If they're committed to not running Josh as much, it's a big question where they'll replace that production. Because the running game was less efficient last year under Brady even with Josh carrying it more often.

And they needed Josh's 18 rushing TDs in 19 games, 11 of which came in the 9 games Brady was OC. Hard to see how the offense can re-invent itself with their current WR/TE group and NOT need Josh to play hero ball this season. Running it with Cook and Davis will not be as big a part of the solution as many assume. Nor will that receiving group which is being asked to significantly up their game at each starting position.

Winning the American Legion's cash raffle is not a strategy for paying next month's bills. And a bunch of slot-only guys and low end types doesn't make a NFL passing offense. Especially not with Josh Allen as your QB.

More quantity is a the wrong way to put it. You either have quality or you don't and are forced to play guys who aren't as talented. But the primary issue last year as it will be this year is they use Josh far too much. In 11 games under Brady, Josh carried it 83 times for 424 yards and 11 TD's. And they needed every bit of that production to win games. When your offense depends on the QB to produce on the ground, it's covering up some major flaws. Those problems were not addressed this year, notably with replacements for Diggs and Davis. They're once again hoping someone steps up into a role with more defensive attention on them. What the debates this off-season have been about is, why do the Bills not build with better talent around Josh? Why is it frequently the last priority to place high-end talent around him, preferring to go with project rookies, guys who've never played at the level they're now expected to, and some veterans who are what they are? I predict by mid-season, there will be a chorus of people who, all-homered out, will say they didn't have room to spend on WRs but they can in 2025.

Calvin Johnson was freak-ish in his day. But then he got Lions'ed.

And the delusional ones, I suspect, are prepping for fantasy football and view RB's like Buddy and Chan did circa 2010. Only half-kidding. The running game is the change-up to the fastball of passing the ball. When mixed in, it's great taking something off to confuse hitters. But if you have nothing but off-speed, they'll catch up quickly. Still think McD puts way too much stock in running it and throwing to the backs because it's safe to him. Might work here and there like against the Cowboys and Jets last year. But without the passing game they'll fall short when getting those chunk plays and scoring is needed.

Buffalo was fortunate that their 5 starting OLinemen, Dawkins, McGovern, Morse, Torrence, and Brown all played 96% of their offensive snaps. I do not expect them to feature a starting 5 next season that duplicates that luck It also speaks to how having a unit that is experienced with perhaps less talent > a talented unit that is newly assembled. If the OL is comprised of Dawkins, Edwards, McGovern, Torrence, and Brown that's at least 1 new face and I'm not sold McGovern is penciled in at C just yet as much as SVPG is talked up. Also think the threat of Allen running has bailed them out some, but would need more data on his non-designed runs to see how much.

It's funny, because there was talk by some solid posters here about the WR position as a need in 2021, 2022, it heated up in 2023, and continued into 2024. It's become clear their lack of investment there points to a schematic priority they don't share with most of the NFL. Frankly, it's personnel blockheadedness. OBD do not get points in 2024 for what they did in 2019, 2020, or 2021. That was an eternity ago and the NFL is a "now" league. Offensively, the NFL is a vertical game and throwing downfield well tends to win in the post-season. Throwing horizontally and short to backs, slot receivers, and to the TE makes them predictable. Their personnel is going to limit them a lot sooner than people realize. The MVS signing was an acknowledgement they know they're limited at WR they needed to sign a guy who's been available for 2 months on the market. All their guys practically have the same skill set.

It's pretty simple. Bills have dramatically under-allocated draft picks and UFA dollars to the position the past 7-8 offseasons. This, ergo, somehow becomes how the position isn't really that valuable to align with what the "team" has done. Not surprised people arrive at that take to deflect from what the team decided. This issue at WR will become even more noticeable in September and continue the whole season, whereupon people will forget theoretical discussions about the value of WR's in the 2024 NFL and wonder why the heck McBeane don't invest there.

To quote Chesterton, "We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green." Developed countries are losing population rapidly and people respond to the idea of marriage and family like it's wrong.

16 days? That's all? Some here have been doing it 10, 20 years or more. It is so much fun telling people what is real instead of making them feel good. So take those arrows and smile.

Maybe McD can get Phil McGeoghan back from the UFL next season and help him find another WR. It's already worked once before, why can't it again?

Buffalo Bills WR room slogan this year should be "The sum is greater than the parts." Issue with their WR/TE group is they're either very young or a one-trick pony. It'll take a lot of scheme and tremendous development to get consistent production. Still no all-around WRs on the roster who can remain on the field in most situations. Diggs lined up in different positions and offered versatility they now lack. It's still going to be a predictable offense in certain situations.

Not a big fan of Warren Sharp, but on X the other day he posted that Buffalo has the 4th cheapest WR room at 15.2M in the league ahead of only the Cardinals, Chargers, Steelers, and Packers. Baltimore was next at 20.3M.

Amazing how they led the league in points scored that season and a full point per game higher than the season before with Hill. Maybe not as dominant, but still pretty good to win a SB for a transition year. Ironically, both KC and BUF have the same set-up with their HC's relationship to the GM. In neither does the GM supervise the HC and the latter sets their vision for the roster. KC, despite being somewhat cash poor, is still a better run organization than Buffalo.

I remember making fun of people here who claimed KC was done after trading Hill. With Mahomes, Kelce, and yeah, even Reid that was absurd. KC then invested part of the money saved from not paying Hill on Juju and some other receivers. And then won the SB. It's kinda like the people who pronounced KC done when they lost their starting multiple OLinemen from their 2020 bad OL ...and then picked up Joe Thuney and Orlando Brown at the start of UFA.