finn

My read is that Beane will never fire McDermott because McDermott brought him in, an object lesson for other teams: always hire the GM first. We're stuck with McDermott, which means we're stuck with junior-varsity coordinators for the rest of the Allen era.

Every route in the book except wide receiver screen, half back dive, halfback screen, jet sweep, and mesh routes. With Brady and McDermott, you fit into their scheme or you get cut.

All that talent and nada. Yet it could be that he has poor proprioception: awareness in space. Mine is pretty poor, too. I had to quit ultimate frisbee and basketball because I kept smashing into people. If that's the case, I have far more sympathy for him that Coleman, who seems to have talent but is either stupid, apathetic, or strikingly immature, none of which reflects well on his character.

I've lost count of the number of fans of other teams tell me Allen is easily--easily--the best quarterback in the league who has been criminally paralyzed by a) lack of receivers; and b) Brady. It's glaringly obvious to everyone on the planet except McDermott and Beane.

I think the veterans on this team, led by Allen, Dawkins, and few others, are just bored. They're excited only by what they see as real challenges, like Baltimore, KC, and Tampa Bay, but just cannot find motivation to play against the Dolphin-type teams on the schedule. They've seen the regular-season movie too many times and want to skip right to the playoffs. The coaches might do a great job with a young, up and coming team, but that's not what they have. They're probably helpless. (They're helpless with Coleman's attitude, too, but that's a different matter entirely.) So the season could still come together. We might not be seeing a fundamentally flawed or untalented team exposed by mid-level teams but rather a very dangerous team that frankly can't be bothered anymore, even if it means playing an extra playoff game and on the road to boot. In the playoffs, they might finally get their act together and show us something for more than just a game.

I said elsewhere that Beane might want to trade Dawkins before next season. He still has a few years left and might fetch a second-round pick. Beane has got to do something different. If he sticks to his modus operandi he'll just get the same results, over and over: some hits, some misses, and a not-good-enough team. It's time to rebuild, overdue in fact. Trade Dawkins, Bernard, Knox, Coleman, maybe even Oliver, and cut the washed vets, including Rapp and Dequan. Trade up for and sign three or four impact players and build your team around them and a young, athletic core: Walker, Sanders, Bishop, Hancock, Hairston, Benford, Stone (I hope), Grable, Torrence, SVP, Cook, Hawes. But that's just half of what they need to do. We all know what the other half is. Does Beane have the moxie and vision to pull the trigger?

I feel a bit calmer the morning after, but it's clear this isn't our year. The greatness of Allen is masking an otherwise average (at best) team, coach, and GM. You can point to a few very good Bills players other than Allen, but every team has a few of those. It's a tribute to their quarterback that they have a real shot at the playoffs given the mediocrity that surrounds him. Would this exact team be Super Bowl quality if it had two excellent coordinators and head coach? It would help (a lot), but I don't think it would be enough, not with this roster. They would also need two or three more difference makers in addition to Allen and Cook. The recipe: A new coach (you simply have to pull the plug at this point; his time has passed), two much better coordinators, TWO (not one) elite receivers, an elite linebacker, and an elite pass rusher. Transition to the younger, faster players already on the roster. Trade the players who can't stay healthy, are too expensive, or who are about to hit the wall (Bernard, Kincaid, Dawkins, Knox, Dequan) in order to move up in the draft and free up cap space for free agents. And of course cut the deadwood: Milano, Poyer, White, Taron, Rapp, Samuel). It would require a bold GM to pull all this off, but it can be done. We're four players and a head coach away from the Super Bowl.

Just a reminder that this is a 5-5 team we're playing. Miami, Atlanta, now this team? Of course it's coaching!

The defense is so, so bad that it couldn't be worse if Beane had devoted the first six picks of every draft in the Allen era to offense and fielded a defense comprised only of low draft picks and free agents. That's how bad this defense is. Of course, the way Beane drafts, the offense might not be any better than it is now.

I'm wondering how this exact same set of players would play after a year with the Houston coaches--and how the Houston players would fare under the famous "McDermott scheme." I think I know the answer.

Shakir, tackled for a loss. Shakir, tackled for no gain. Shakir, goes backwards 15 yards on a kick return. Shakir fumbles. Did I mention that Shakir is considered the best receiver on the team? Says it all, doesn't it?

And they can't get separation once they get down there.

I'd like to see Bernard in Brazil, retired.

There goes Brady's head-coaching gig. Bad news for him and bad new for us.

So I think we finally found the limits of Allen's abilities: If you give him no one to throw to, no running game to lean on, no time to throw, and start his drives inside the ten yard line, an offensive coordinator with the mind of a hamster, THEN he can do nothing. What a lousy player!

Brown blocking air there.

Put together his catches on offense and special teams, and Shakir is averaging -6 yards.

If so, he would do better letting his wife call them instead.

If he retired it would be addition by subtraction. He's a nice player, but he's built like a seventh grader.

For once, that "zero" meme is accurate. I also have zero confidence that McDermott could lead this team to the Super Bowl even with two Josh Allens.

I hope McDermott is taking notes. He would be an assistant coach on this defense.

It would be if Josh Allen played on it.

I'm worried that because of the short week he'll be even more predictable than usual. Get ready for a lot of bubble screens.

I feel the same way and wish I didn't. If they had won in 2022, all these years wouldn't matter nearly as much, they would just be gravy. It was a lot more fun watching when they were up and coming with nothing to lose.

I don't see how people who claim Mahomes and Burrow are better can never acknowledge the yawning chasm between the receivers those two have thrown to all their career and those that Allen has had to work with. Yes, he had Diggs (who routinely disappeared in the playoffs), but that is it.