BillsVet

There are many contenders for TBD's quibbling champion. You're making your case right now...best of luck!

288 touches for 1242 yards and 10 TDs is now every bit as good as 339 touches for 2023 yards and 21 TDs. I understand now.

And when your job is on the line as Daboll's is this season, you're pushing to use all that cap space available. Because there might not be a next season.

Multi-year contract of ~13M/per to a 27 year old RB who average sub-4.0 YPC and has missed 21 games in last 4 seasons? Ouch. If that's winning UFA on Day 1 I don't want to know what losing looks like. NFC East keeps getting worse.

I am resigned to Cam Lewis re-signing. Keeping and overpaying your guys is a major reason they're restructuring many of them 1-2 years down the road. Have to see more of the contract details, but for now...meh.

HR at most corporations is almost worthless because the least talented people go there. And now most functions like benefits are online. By the way, who were the starting safeties for KC or SF last season? And were those guys 1st/2nd team All-Pro or even Pro Bowl selections last year? None of them were and it wouldn't have mattered much if it did against excellent offenses.

Safety talent is to NFL football in the 2020s like HR is to a corporation. Even having good ones doesn't really matter that much.

It is absurd to think the HC (who didn't have the time to figure out the QB position 3 months from the draft in 2017) could assess during that time how the 2018 QB class would fare AND that Buffalo would get into position to draft one. A new HC who needed help to draft a WR from the new position coach and then got intel from Carolina to jump up and take an OT in RD2. The problem McD had in the 2017 off-season was he didn't prioritize the QB or offense in general and defaulted to what he knew: secondary and defense. It was a strategic decision made by him, the dominant voice in the room (and still is) to go down that road. You well know that rebuilding teams don't have a chance in back to back years to find a veritable franchise QB. Missed opportunities don't typically have happy endings for those teams, of which there are a few notables across the NFL right now. Delaying the decision to draft a QB is often how new GMs and HC's wind up among the unemployed. The trade for Tre, on its face was bad then but is seen as worse not because we have hindsight on Mahomes. It was bad investing a 1st round pick at a position that, from a positional value standpoint, features zone corners who aren't top picks or big dollar UFAs. McD has demonstrated he can get adequate play from lesser value picks/UFAs. McD has and probably always will be stubborn to a fault by not acquiescing to the fact the NFL is offense-driven and his vision does not align with that. He just started demonstrating that really early in 2017.

A kid with an Ourlads guide could have done better than Levy, Brandon...and Nix! Imagine the possibilities! But, when you've got a guy in the room, HC or GM, who demands defense...well, by golly you go and get it. Because history has proven that you can never have enough DB's...or RB's. Right Bill?

Going to 370# during last off-season...yeah. Turning 30 soon, bad body, playing a position that demands mobility and in the final year of his contract...OBD would be wise to exercise caution. Have to project what he'll be versus what he's done which is typically the response on TBD. He has to take his career more seriously and I'd expect he shows up in top shape for 2024 to win that next contract.

I'm coming out of hibernation to say this: I agree John. Have to learn that it's having the capability of out-scoring teams is a card Buffalo needs to play. Can't always expect even a fully healthy defense (which is unlikely late in the season) to stop an elite offense. And KC wasn't even that elite this year. Time to wake up and smell the coffee: what you do in the regular season, especially early, doesn't mean a whole lot. Cause every year I see the same repeated nonsense: they were hurt by the injury bug on defense. Maybe it's time to find out why key players are getting hurt and no, it's not always bad luck. Besides, that DL was healthy in the KC game and did very little to help the back 7 against Mahomes. McD's defensive scheme demands a lot of talent and experience. That means higher picks, higher UFA contracts, and more of both. The question this thread raises is...is the investment worth it in W's and L's, like the playoff kind? Does a defensive scheme that needs lighter coverage type LB's have a propensity for more injuries? Is paying guys over age 30 with injury histories a solid investment? It's time for McD to get more out of that defense with less investment so the money can go toward building an offense that doesn't require Josh to hoof it 10x/game late in the season. Dave Gettleman being the dinosaur GM he was, I hope, did not teach Beane anything beyond what not to do...in Carolina or with the Giants.

God bless you and your family. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

I'm saying it's suspect that everyone jumps on board the OC decision when there's an underwhelming track record hiring coordinators. This is a macro level discussion which has devolved into isolated issues. Brady will implement the offensive game-plan which aligns with the HC's guidance. Right or not, it comes back to McD. My concern is, particularly since the 2020 off-season, that Buffalo will maintain status quo, and the offense will be built as if the Bills had a game-manager or slightly better QB. Brady's hiring seems to point in that direction, though it's a long off-season. We'll see.

Why not? McD's got a 3 year streak of firing a coordinator to take heat off himself for disappointing post-seasons. Funny thing about McD...he knows the owners aren't going to fire him with 4 years and 35M in guarantees due. I haven't even heard he needed to meet with them post season either. Besides, Terry has enough to contend with and wants nothing to do with a HC search. Brady will do what Dorsey and Daboll wouldn't (with Josh at QB): coordinate the offense to be "complementary" to the defense. And that means more running, more safe throws, a decent regular season record, and losing to KC/CIN or whomever actually runs a competent offense they play in the post-season.

When it's all said and done, the NFL is all about luck. No getting around it. Those 4 losses in the playoffs to KC and CIN each year came down to being banged up, bad officiating, or just bad luck. Really can't expect to win without much without everything being in perfect alignment before the kickoff.

One of these years the Bills will have their entire defense healthy in the playoffs. It’s only a matter of time.

No one who sat near him in the front row of 123 could ever say a bad thing about him. RIP Jon.

There comes a point where strategically building McD's style of defense requires too much good fortune, too many resources, and delivers too little regardless of who coordinates it. Particularly against good offenses that can throw the ball and more against offenses that can throw and run as we've seen the last 2 playoff losses. Just not a sustainable style of defense and why it's a broken record every off-season to hear about injuries. Front 7 types are making contact dozens of times a game for an entire regular season and people expect them to remain healthy in the playoffs? Case in point is both LB's need to be agile in this scheme to cover, but at the POA they're not the sturdy types in run support. Milano missed 13 games in his last 5 seasons entering this year. Great player, but shouldn't be a suprised he gets hurt. To mitigate injuries at the DL, they've consistently dressed/paid decent money to 8-9 DL every year. Lot of cost, but as we see in the playoffs, not a lot of production. Few rookies start in that rotation, necessitating lot of UFA dollars. Still perennially doing that because HC wants it. If after 5 seasons of re-tooling and improving that defense it can't be counted on, it's time to change strategy. Still not holding my breath McD will have an epiphany and shift his priority to offense and Josh against his defense.

And I'd add...the insanity of using their top pick to fill a need at a position of low value should have died around 2009. (Cue the response that McD's safeties are not of low positional value)

It is...but only when your team drafts like hot garbage, i.e. Buffalo from about 2005-2016. And most of the 70s.

There's must be a morale issue in that locker room trusting in McD's "process" by this point. His personality is already abrasive and he lacks the credibility to keep doing the same thing without people questioning it. He can spin things for fans, but inside that locker room with more disappointments it's not going to go far.

All of this makes me laugh. After the Divisional Round last year, Beane went to the podium and talked about how Cincinnati could draft JaMarr Chase because Burrow got hurt as a rookie. Right now, I take nothing they say (particularly given the timing) at face value. They know the audience is unhappy and media availability is to signal to players certain messages and placate the disappointed fans.

I will trust them if they bring back Phil McGeoghan as WR coach to advise the HC whom to select in the draft.

Ideal off-season: Beane tells McDermott to pound sand on defense because they won't be short-changing Josh anymore with receiving talent. That it's time to build a passing game around their franchise QB that can out-score teams when necessary. Real off-season: McD gets high-resource new safeties and interior DLinemen. OBD uses some mid to late round picks and bargain bin UFA deals on receivers. Season: Similar to the past 3. Pegula is MIA and McD is back in 2025 to run it back another season. Good times.

There's lies, damn lies, and statistics. Churchill knew what in advance that TBD'ers with too much time on their hands would get to this point...and have for years. (Correction - not Churchill, but perhaps former British PM Benjamin Disraeli or Mark Twain...who knows?)