Coach McD - “We are not as far along as people may think”

[BadLandsMeanie]

How come when I say that I am a poopy-head but when McDermott says it he is a refreshing visionary leader? 

 

Not fair!

[GreggTX]

I think we were a 6-10 team last year and we got very lucky. It is going to take at least 2 offseasons to make this team a serious threat to go all the way and that's assuming that most every move they make goes right.

5 minutes ago, BadLandsMeanie said:

How come when I say that I am a poopy-head but when McDermott says it he is a refreshing visionary leader? 

 

Not fair!

You are a refreshing, visionary poopy head. Feel better now?

[BadLandsMeanie]

3 minutes ago, GreggTX said:

I think we were a 6-10 team last year and we got very lucky. It is going to take at least 2 offseasons to make this team a serious threat to go all the way and that's assuming that most every move they make goes right.

You are a refreshing, visionary poopy head. Feel better now?

Yeah thank you

[John from Riverside]

7 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Care to post the link where the quote came from?  What you posted could mean anything, no context at all.

It would not shock me to hear him say this

 

He doesnt want the team getting fat and happy that we made a wild card last year.....because while it was great to finally make it into the money rounds.....it should not be the end goal.

 

I actually think bills mgt might be shocked they did so well as we were jettisoning money players left and right for draft picks......we were in a soft rebiuld

[Guest K-GunJimKelly12]

2 hours ago, McD said:

1986 Bills were 4-12 in Jim Kelly's *Rookie year.  AFC Championship game 2 years later.... just sayin'. 

I see a lot of comparisons to players that played 20-30 years ago on this board.  There was a guy in one of the college QB threads that brought up Jim Kelly's college completion percentage to compare them to I believe Lamar Jackson. 

 

Jim Kelly played college ball in the early 80's, it is similar to comparing hockey stats from players today, with players in the 70's and 80's.  The game is completely different now and bringing up a certain player's stats from 30 years ago, to compare to a player today, really tells you absolutely nothing.  For example, if you have a great QB today, say Aaron Rodgers, and he is healthy for a full season, the chances of that team making the playoffs is probably 95% no matter what the rest of the roster is.  Say Rodgers had a pre-season,  season ending injury before the 2017 season started.  The Packers would have likely been a 2-5 win team.   Where as a healthy Rodgers makes them an instant Super Bowl contender.  If Aaron Rodgers was a QB in 1986, was healthy all season and had a similar level of talent around him as he does now, the Packers would be in the bottom half of the league.

 

The game was so different 30 years ago, and for people who are too young to remember or didn't watch a lot of football back then, it was so, so, so much more defensive.  The stuff defenses were able to get away with would blow young football fans minds.  When people are bringing up "Kelly was a 56% passer in college" and talking about the Bills record in 1986, it is much more of a reflection on the overall team and the way the game was played than it is on the player.  

Edited February 28, 2018 by K-GunJimKelly12

[Beast]

7 hours ago, Boyst62 said:

He's right. We were a .500 team that got lucky. We have a lot of room to improve. 

 

They are what they are.  A WC team.

 

No luck about it.

 

In fact, they were right in that WC game, on the road, against a team that was a hair away from making the Super Bowl.

 

The Bills are a good team with lots of room to improve. 

 

 

[QCity]

He's right.

[aristocrat]

7 hours ago, Boyst62 said:

He's right. We were a .500 team that got lucky. We have a lot of room to improve. 

 

do you go through the rest of the league and change their records after the end of the year?

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

6 hours ago, billsfan11 said:

He is correct. Technically last year was the year the Bills were supposed to get 4-5 wins.

 

And this year would be the year they would try to improve on that and maybe get to 8 wins.

 

They way over achieved last year, and let's be honest, got a lot of breaks along the way.

 

I like the direction they are going, but I think they are a few years away from being a legit contender

 

 

...have to agree.....but perhaps not a "few years away".......they won some games I doubt anybody had penciled in....and of course they snagged the "immaculate Reception" from Cincy...another good draft and some more solid FA pickups and they could be in the hunt for 2018 (will take any breaks as well)...stay tuned............

[McD]

30 minutes ago, nucci said:

and Kelly was an established Pro at the time...not a rookie QB....but point taken

 

5 minutes ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

I see a lot of comparisons to players that played 20-30 years ago on this board.  There was a guy in one of the college QB threads that brought up Jim Kelly's college completion percentage to compare them to I believe Lamar Jackson. 

 

Jim Kelly played college ball in the early 80's, it is similar to comparing hockey stats from players today, with players in the 70's and 80's.  The game is completely different now and bringing up a certain player's stats from 30 years ago, to compare to a player today, really tells you absolutely nothing.  For example, if you have a great QB today, say Aaron Rodgers, and he is healthy for a full season, the chances of that team making the playoffs is probably 95% no matter what the rest of the roster is.  Say Rodgers had a pre-season,  season ending injury before the 2017 season started.  The Packers would have likely been a 2-5 win team.   Where as a healthy Rodgers makes them an instant Super Bowl contender.  If Aaron Rodgers was a QB in 1986, was healthy all season and had a similar level of talent around him as he does now, the Packers would be in the bottom half of the league.

 

The game was so different 30 years ago, and for people who are too young to remember or didn't watch a lot of football back then, it was so, so, so much more defensive.  The stuff defenses were able to get away with would blow young football fans minds.  When people are bringing up "Kelly was a 56% passer in college" and talking about the Bills record in 1986, it is much more of a reflection on the overall team and the way the game was played than it is on the player.  

 

I didn't try to compare stats to this.... no yardage, completion %, TD's to INT's...  I was comparing records... a 4-12 team 30 years ago most likely had the same issues/struggles as a 4-12 team in this era. We were discussing whether you'd be ok with a 4-12 record with an up and coming QB.  Some people see that as a bad thing, or a step back... my point was that a young up and coming QB could be the answer sooner than later, and used Jimbo and the '86 Bills as a reference. 

[Guest K-GunJimKelly12]

I can see this team going anywhere from 6-10 to 11-5 next season.

[MTBill]

This is the sort of quote I expect from him - and is reassuring to me.

 

Gone is the glitz and glam and rose colored glasses which state everything is perfect and fine....  then after the season, gee, I don't know what went wrong (which is usually - look at our injuries, look at these extraordinary circumstances.)

 

In short - this quote is another way of saying - Trust the Process.  We are getting better, but there may be a step backwards or laterally before results are obviously improved (e.g. 13-3 and winning the AFCE).

 

It was an important season last year - it proved that anything can happen - even in Buffalo after this drought where everything that could go wrong often seemed to.  But it was not evidence that this team is going to be winning the AFCE in 2018.

[McD]

6 minutes ago, K-GunJimKelly12 said:

I can see this team going anywhere from 6-10 to 11-5 next season.

 

I agree... tough schedule, but can/will the process overcome that? 

 

Will a trade up for a Baker Mayfield type move us faster to where we want to be, or does staying put and grabbing some help at DT, OL, WR or LB with all of our picks do us better?

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

2 hours ago, Reed83HOF said:

Sal Capaccio  ?‏Verified account @SalSports 28m28 minutes ago

You have to really, really parse words and try to read into what McDermott and/or Beane said re: Tyrod today. Phrases used: -"At this point" (used 4 times) -"Right now" -"Day-by-day" -"Unless something changes" -"he'll be here through that part" -"Way too early"

 

Sal Capaccio  ?‏Verified account @SalSports 26m26 minutes ago

One thing neither said was that he will be on the Bills' roster in 2018.

 

.....the" Marrone School of Presser Adjectival Repetition".....inherent to the podium..........

[BillsFan130]

28 minutes ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

 

...have to agree.....but perhaps not a "few years away".......they won some games I doubt anybody had penciled in....and of course they snagged the "immaculate Reception" from Cincy...another good draft and some more solid FA pickups and they could be in the hunt for 2018 (will take any breaks as well)...stay tuned............

Ya fair enough. Good points

[H2o]

It is good that he acknowledges this, but we are also officially off the schneid. 

[thebandit27]

Aside from QB, the key off-season move will be what they do at WR IMO.

 

If they can't or won't get Bryant, maybe they can flip a pick for a speed guy like Travis Benjamin or pry an overpriced player like Randall Cobb from GB.

[boyst]

1 hour ago, aristocrat said:

 

do you go through the rest of the league and change their records after the end of the year?

Yes. Patriots. 19-0

[Victory Formation]

I may be a straight heterosexual male, but I love McDermott! 

[The_Dude]

That quote makes me so happy. We got in the playoffs last year (?) but we weren’t a playoff team. It’s good to hear McDermott acknowledge that the cupboard isn’t full. I just feel like he gets the situation. But I’ll never understand what he was thinking last year when he passed on Mahomes. Bad decision imo. 

[Victory Formation]

12 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

That quote makes me so happy. We got in the playoffs last year (?) but we weren’t a playoff team. It’s good to hear McDermott acknowledge that the cupboard isn’t full. I just feel like he gets the situation. But I’ll never understand what he was thinking last year when he passed on Mahomes. Bad decision imo. 

 

We had a lame duck GM, he wanted his guy 'Beane' to pick who he wanted, he didn't trust Whaley's thought process on QBs.

[The_Dude]

10 minutes ago, NewDayBills said:

 

We had a lame duck GM, he wanted his guy 'Beane' to pick who he wanted, he didn't trust Whaley's thought process on QBs.

 

I get that. And I’ll get mocked for this, but I think Mahomes is a hall of famer. I do. I think he’ll have a y’all of fame worthy career. And we passed on that. Now look at the **** we’re in as a result. 

[OldTimer1960]

5 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

 

I get that. And I’ll get mocked for this, but I think Mahomes is a hall of famer. I do. I think he’ll have a y’all of fame worthy career. And we passed on that. Now look at the **** we’re in as a result. 

You might be right and that would hurt, but I will admit that I wasn’t keen on drafting Mahomes.  To my eyes, he was a run-around scatter-shot passer who had a great arm and top athletic ability.  I thought that he got away with a lot of poor ill-advised passes that his WRs bailed him out on in college.

 

He could certainly prove me wrong in the NFL, but it would not surprise me if he doesn’t pan out.

[Victory Formation]

14 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

 

I get that. And I’ll get mocked for this, but I think Mahomes is a hall of famer. I do. I think he’ll have a y’all of fame worthy career. And we passed on that. Now look at the **** we’re in as a result. 

I liked him too. Reminded me of Favre and if Andy Reid likes him, chances are he will not be a bust.

[The_Dude]

20 minutes ago, OldTimer1960 said:

You might be right and that would hurt, but I will admit that I wasn’t keen on drafting Mahomes.  To my eyes, he was a run-around scatter-shot passer who had a great arm and top athletic ability.  I thought that he got away with a lot of poor ill-advised passes that his WRs bailed him out on in college.

 

He could certainly prove me wrong in the NFL, but it would not surprise me if he doesn’t pan out.

 

I know I’m putting myself out there on this but I’m positive that kids gonna be great. Positive. 

[BuffaloRush]

10 hours ago, BillsVet said:

Then the whole mindset of winning now and winning later was just happy talk.  (EDIT: They) did "win now" by going 9-7 last season, but it sounds as though McD wants to set the bar low and hope to surpass those expectations.

 

There's no doubt Whaley left this team in a massive whole. A top heavy and aging roster with no real answer at QB among other things. That said, the old expectation is it took 3-4 years to rebuild is garbage. McD may not be saying that here, but going 6-10, 7-9 in 2018 ain't getting the job done. 

 

Many fans...right here on TBD feel that whaley did an awesome job as GM

[nucci]

2 hours ago, The_Dude said:

That quote makes me so happy. We got in the playoffs last year (?) but we weren’t a playoff team. It’s good to hear McDermott acknowledge that the cupboard isn’t full. I just feel like he gets the situation. But I’ll never understand what he was thinking last year when he passed on Mahomes. Bad decision imo. 

if you make the playoffs, you are a playoff team. I wanted Watson

[Reed83HOF]

14 minutes ago, nucci said:

if you make the playoffs, you are a playoff team. I wanted Watson

Mahomes & Trubisky were the only 2 i liked...

3 hours ago, OldTimeAFLGuy said:

 

.....the" Marrone School of Presser Adjectival Repetition".....inherent to the podium..........

 

There were lots of "process" as well

[Logic]

2 hours ago, The_Dude said:

That quote makes me so happy. We got in the playoffs last year (?) but we weren’t a playoff team. It’s good to hear McDermott acknowledge that the cupboard isn’t full. I just feel like he gets the situation. But I’ll never understand what he was thinking last year when he passed on Mahomes. Bad decision imo. 

In addition to wanting someone other than Whaley to do the quarterback selecting, I also think McDermott assumed that -- after all the roster purging they were doing -- they would likely have a pretty poor record and a top 10 pick in this year's draft. Everyone figured this year's draft crop at QB would be great. So not only did he probably want the future GM (not Whaley) doing the grocery shopping, he also probably figured he'd have "more money to spend" at the store.

And for what it's worth, I agree that it was pretty silly to not pick a QB last year. The only difference is that I wanted Watson.

[Big Turk]

12 hours ago, RalphWilson'sNewWar said:

  The money quote that gives you hope we have finally found the right guy who can look at the situation, analyze the numbers and not just rest his ego on bottom line results.

 

in someways when you say “we aren’t as good as you think we are” he is basically saying yeah we are 9-7 WC team but in several key stats we were worse in 2017 than we were in 2026 and the WC is largelt based on a missed call on a Matt Ryan fumble, a missed Adam Vineteri FG, and Andy Dalton.

 

so do not expect that we are moving toward our window.  In fact this quote leans toward preparing the fans for things to go slowly in season 2 and perhaps even backwards record wise (should it be with a rookie QB)

 

Either way...recognizing the limitations and allowing that to influence your decisions is sound.

 

sigh of relief!

 

Yeah maybe but we have been on the other side of those breaks plenty of times...no crying from me that we were the beneficiary for once.  You'd actually think it would happen mroe than once in 17 years.

[BillsPride12]

Who in their right mind thought we were that far along in the first place?

 

I think it's been obvious all along that we are still in the very early stages of a fullblown rebuild.

[BADOLBILZ]

6 hours ago, thebandit27 said:

 

This is how I keep looking at it...2017 was sort of a "re-shape the team image and try to survive on the field" year; 2018 will be a "fill some key spots, set the stage, and try to keep on-field performance up" year; 2019 will be a "load up on talent and let's make a run" year if all goes well.

 

 

That's the way I see it.  I haven't agreed with some of the moves and I hate Jauron Ball........but I am 100% behind their decision not to tank and to transition on the fly.   

[The_Dude]

10 hours ago, nucci said:

if you make the playoffs, you are a playoff team. 

 

Sure, man. Sure. Fine. But the team last year sucked and made the playoffs. So there’s that. 

 

It’s a testament to McD’s preparation. 

[nucci]

16 hours ago, McD said:

1986 Bills were 4-12 in Jim Kelly's *Rookie year.  AFC Championship game 2 years later.... just sayin'. 

also, that team was coming off two consecutive 2-14 seasons . 4-12 was an improvement....going from 9-7 playoff berth to 4-12 would be a huge step backward

3 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

 

Sure, man. Sure. Fine. But the team last year sucked and made the playoffs. So there’s that. 

 

It’s a testament to McD’s preparation. 

they weren't a great team but they didn't suck. Yes, very good coaching and players played well

Edited March 1, 2018 by nucci

[JinxedBill1]

21 hours ago, RalphWilson'sNewWar said:

If we were 4-12 but that Rookie was playing at a high rookie level.

I can't remember the last time we ended a season with a promising rookie going into the next season.  

 

EJ never had that feel, more like he needs to improve.  I'd like to go into the next season knowing we have the promise and potential at QB for the next 10 years and let's build around them.

[WideRightRevenge]

Under promise and over deliver ... kind of refreshing vs. "we won the offseason" from Rex

[JinxedBill1]

10 hours ago, Logic said:

In addition to wanting someone other than Whaley to do the quarterback selecting, I also think McDermott assumed that -- after all the roster purging they were doing -- they would likely have a pretty poor record and a top 10 pick in this year's draft. Everyone figured this year's draft crop at QB would be great. So not only did he probably want the future GM (not Whaley) doing the grocery shopping, he also probably figured he'd have "more money to spend" at the store.

And for what it's worth, I agree that it was pretty silly to not pick a QB last year. The only difference is that I wanted Watson.

Well said, I think that was the plan or process and we were just a better team than expected.  Not taking a QB last year was all about the current GM picking the heir apparent in a rumored better QB draft.  Jury was out on Watson and Mahomes.  Both look promising now, just shows you the crap shoot the draft really is.

[thebandit27]

10 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

That's the way I see it.  I haven't agreed with some of the moves and I hate Jauron Ball........but I am 100% behind their decision not to tank and to transition on the fly.   

 

Maybe it's the optimist in me, but until we see the same brand of football on Sundays this fall, I'm willing to chalk the on-field approach up to it being the team's only path to consistent victories last season.

 

[Doc]

1 hour ago, The_Dude said:

Sure, man. Sure. Fine. But the team last year sucked and made the playoffs. So there’s that. 

 

It’s a testament to McD’s preparation. 

 

Ten other teams in the AFC sucked worse.  And arguably 10 other teams in the NFC did as well. 

[McD]

3 hours ago, nucci said:

also, that team was coming off two consecutive 2-14 seasons . 4-12 was an improvement....going from 9-7 playoff berth to 4-12 would be a huge step backward

 

Point taken, and while that's true, I don't foresee us going 4-12.  I would think a 9-7 WC team slipping to 6-10 would be an appropriate comparison.  I agree with McDermott... we could have easily been 7-9 this past year, but we don't have the depth needed at many positions and as much as I want to love Tyrod, he's not going to win games all on his own like Rodgers, Brady, Brees, etc...  So, move up and grab your (potential) QB of the future or stay and grab the depth...?  From what we've heard, I can see us going in either direction.