Bad Preseason Takes

[hondo in seattle]

I was thinking today about how wrong I was about this season.   While I thought our regular season record might be worse than last year's because of the tougher schedule, I was confident we had a better team for a bunch of reasons...

 

Defense

*  Floyd would make our pass rush better.

*  Poona would make our run D better.

*  There was no way we'd suffer as many injuries to key players as we did in 2022.

*  McD would be a more aggressive play-caller.  

*  We'd miss Edmunds though teamwork and scheme would compensate for his loss.  

 

Offense

*  Sherfield, Harty, and Shakir would provide strong depth behind Gabe and Diggs.

*  Gabe's ankle was bothering him in '22; maybe he'd be better in '23.

*  Dorsey was a rookie OC in '22; maybe he'd learn and grow.

*  The OL would be better and might even transition all the way from bad to merely mediocre.  

*  Harris would be an upgrade over Motor: bigger, stronger, faster.  

*  If Dorsey would use him correctly, Cook could be a good safety valve for Josh.  But he would never be an every-down back.

*  Kincaid could add a wrinkle to the offense.

 

Clearly, I was wrong more than I was right.  

 

What do you got?  

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Everyone is wrong a lot. Thats what’s fun about being a fan, we can’t be fired.

[Logic]

Mine:

Deonte Harty was a hugely underrated signing. He has flown under the radar throughout his career. He will take the top off the defense, be a key deep threat for Josh, and will add speed and explosiveness to our offense. His contract was a bargain compared to what he'll provide for the team.

......Whoops.

[BillsDad51]

5 minutes ago, Logic said:

Mine:

Deonte Harty was a hugely underrated signing. He has flown under the radar throughout his career. He will take the top off the defense, be a key deep threat for Josh, and will add speed and explosiveness to our offense. His contract was a bargain compared to what he'll provide for the team.

......Whoops.

Bills have kept him under the radar. They'll spring him on Miami in week 18.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

8 minutes ago, Logic said:

Mine:

Deonte Harty was a hugely underrated signing. He has flown under the radar throughout his career. He will take the top off the defense, be a key deep threat for Josh, and will add speed and explosiveness to our offense. His contract was a bargain compared to what he'll provide for the team.

......Whoops.

I still think this.🫣

[MJS]

The Bills ARE a better team. Floyd did make our pass rush better. McDermott IS a more aggressive play caller, by far. The Oline is a lot better. Kincaid added a lot to the offense.

 

Most of what you said was right. There are a few things a little off.

[Charles Romes]

The vast majority of this board thought Bernard was a weakness, when in reality he’s a strength. 

[Virgil]

I really expected a lot more out of Sherfield and better production from our TE in 12 personnel.  
 

 

[LABILLBACKER]

8 minutes ago, BillsDad51 said:

Bills have kept him under the radar. They'll spring him on Miami in week 18.

See I don't buy that. You don't waste 9M on a player to unleash his abilities on week 17.  He's unfortunately been underwhelming and will be released in the off season.  I was 150% on board in going after Floyd. When the news broke I was ecstatic. Gabe's been a bust for awhile. 

 

I was 100% wrong on believing the OL would remain mediocre or regress. They've been a pleasant surprise along with Cook.  Shakir's role will be expanded next year but Sherfield is gone too.

[julian]

I said 12-5

 

I was off by a game

 

Greg Rousseau would have double digit sacks

 

wrong again

[Juice_32]

40 minutes ago, Logic said:

Mine:

Deonte Harty was a hugely underrated signing. He has flown under the radar throughout his career. He will take the top off the defense, be a key deep threat for Josh, and will add speed and explosiveness to our offense. His contract was a bargain compared to what he'll provide for the team.

......Whoops.

 

This is mine too. I watched his limited Saints highlights and thought he would give us a real vertical threat as well as take on some of the jet sweeps we got out of lil Dirty when Daboll was here. I'm an idiot.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

I think if we had the same amount of injuries but they were spread out a little more between the offense and defense we would’ve been much better off.  
 

those jags and pats losses our defense was straight up depleted 

 

A lot more good teams than usual were winning ugly offense/good defense type games this year.  Dlines are really getting after it

either way I think we’re gonna finish right on what I expected at 11 wins…the path there was quite strange though lol 

better team but harder schedule and a lot more ridiculous  plays made by the other team in close games…last year it was mostly contained to the Vikings game 😂. We are that ridiculous fg in the eagles game away from sitting at 9-5 right now with a 3 game win streak over 3 playoff teams 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[MJS]

34 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I really expected a lot more out of Sherfield and better production from our TE in 12 personnel.  

Knox missed a bunch of games, though.

[hondo in seattle]

34 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I really expected a lot more out of Sherfield and better production from our TE in 12 personnel.  
 

 

 

Yeah, I thought Sherfield would be a revelation as the #3 guy.  With Diggs doubled as often as he is, I expected Josh to go to Sherfield a lot more than he has.  

[BillsDad51]

28 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

See I don't buy that. You don't waste 9M on a player to unleash his abilities on week 17.  He's unfortunately been underwhelming and will be released in the off season.  I was 150% on board in going after Floyd. When the news broke I was ecstatic. Gabe's been a bust for awhile. 

 

I was 100% wrong on believing the OL would remain mediocre or regress. They've been a pleasant surprise along with Cook.  Shakir's role will be expanded next year but Sherfield is gone too.

Post was a subtle attempt at humor. 

[boyst]

i came in pessimistic. i am still there with some happiness in some areas.

 

i thought Poona Ford would contribute more than he did.

 

i thought Bernard was getting handed more than he could hold.

 

i reckon i'm wrong on both.

[MiltonWaddams]

The Bills would go 20-0. I’ve never been right, but you can’t hate me for trying for the past 38 seasons of being a fan…

[Mynamemike]

45 minutes ago, Charles Romes said:

The vast majority of this board thought Bernard was a weakness, when in reality he’s a strength. 

 

I was one of those people. Also thought it would cause Milano to struggle.  Boy oh boy was I wrong and I’m glad I was.  Damn shame Milano went down because he was an absolute terror those first few weeks. 

[Aussie Joe]

Bernard’s play has been the biggest unexpected positive in a couple of years with this team…

 

Cant recall anyone predicting how well he was going to go …

Hats off to the plan they had to draft and develop this guy ..

[BearNorth]

Wondering if any of us thought that we would have one of the top CB units in the league like we do.  Beane scooped up Douglas to plug and play for the injured Tre White, Taron has upped his game, and Benford has been a pleasant surprise as the #2 corner.

[finn]

I was down on Bernard, up on Poona, down on the O-line (especially Brown), up on Kincaid and Torrence, down on Davis, up on Elam. Didn't have much expectation for Harty, Sheffield, or Floyd. Bernard and O-line have been the most pleasant surprises, Harty and Poona the biggest disappointments. 

 

I still have hope that Elam will be a star. 

[BillsfaninSB]

Thought Davis would be a pro bowler in a contract year. 

[Ray Stonada]

Never thought Bernard would be an improvement on Edmunds! Love him and happy to be so wrong.

[Steptide]

I really thought Dorsey would improve this offense, and instead they regressed. We need some serious receiver help though. We desperately need a solid wr2. Harty and sherfield are useless at this point, but Brady may be able to get them involved with a full off season, who knows 

[The Wiz]

2 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Everyone is wrong a lot. Thats what’s fun about being a fan, we can’t be fired.

Tell that too my boss who is pissed I surf twitter and TBD all day to post as much useful bills info as possible.

[BuffaloBillyG]

I thought this year was the year Sean McDermott would grow a full head of hair. 

 

There's always next year.

[ColoradoBills]

Sports fans can do all the predicting they want.  It's their right.

 

I myself do it from time to time, but at the end of the day I like to watch each game as a completely unique event.

 

The simple fact that a mediocre team can one week score 0 points and the next week put up 63 shows nobody knows that will happen.

 

Go Bills!

[Dablitzkrieg]

I was way off on how good Bernard and Cam Lewis is.  Had no idea.  I also thought Harty would be more of a vertical threat.

[ngbills]

Poona - I expected much more

Von - Did not expect him to be this bad

 

[Don Otreply]

3 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

I was thinking today about how wrong I was about this season.   While I thought our regular season record might be worse than last year's because of the tougher schedule, I was confident we had a better team for a bunch of reasons...

 

Defense

*  Floyd would make our pass rush better.

*  Poona would make our run D better.

*  There was no way we'd suffer as many injuries to key players as we did in 2022.

*  McD would be a more aggressive play-caller.  

*  We'd miss Edmunds though teamwork and scheme would compensate for his loss.  

 

Offense

*  Sherfield, Harty, and Shakir would provide strong depth behind Gabe and Diggs.

*  Gabe's ankle was bothering him in '22; maybe he'd be better in '23.

*  Dorsey was a rookie OC in '22; maybe he'd learn and grow.

*  The OL would be better and might even transition all the way from bad to merely mediocre.  

*  Harris would be an upgrade over Motor: bigger, stronger, faster.  

*  If Dorsey would use him correctly, Cook could be a good safety valve for Josh.  But he would never be an every-down back.

*  Kincaid could add a wrinkle to the offense.

 

Clearly, I was wrong more than I was right.  

 

What do you got?  

All of the above, 

[Forward Progress]

3 hours ago, Charles Romes said:

The vast majority of this board thought Bernard was a weakness, when in reality he’s a strength. 

This was me.   I thought Bernard would be picked on all year long.  He has made more big plays this year than Tremaine did in all of his years here. 

[JohnNord]

3 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

I was thinking today about how wrong I was about this season.   While I thought our regular season record might be worse than last year's because of the tougher schedule, I was confident we had a better team for a bunch of reasons...

 

Defense

*  Floyd would make our pass rush better.

*  Poona would make our run D better.

*  There was no way we'd suffer as many injuries to key players as we did in 2022.

*  McD would be a more aggressive play-caller.  

*  We'd miss Edmunds though teamwork and scheme would compensate for his loss.  

 

Offense

*  Sherfield, Harty, and Shakir would provide strong depth behind Gabe and Diggs.

*  Gabe's ankle was bothering him in '22; maybe he'd be better in '23.

*  Dorsey was a rookie OC in '22; maybe he'd learn and grow.

*  The OL would be better and might even transition all the way from bad to merely mediocre.  

*  Harris would be an upgrade over Motor: bigger, stronger, faster.  

*  If Dorsey would use him correctly, Cook could be a good safety valve for Josh.  But he would never be an every-down back.

*  Kincaid could add a wrinkle to the offense.

 

Clearly, I was wrong more than I was right.  

 

What do you got?  

The big question marks for me were the starting positiona that the Bills elected not to upgrade and instead filled with incumbents. 

 

I was most concerned with Terrell Bernard and Spencer Brown to be able to take a step forward.  I was least concerned about Gabe Davis.   This was completely wrong. 
 

Bernard is arguably better than Edmunds and Brown has improved to a good starting RT - exactly as Beane forecasted.  
 

Davis is the same WR he’s been for 3 years.  Good for a few big TD catches, an occasional big game but overall just too inconsistent and not enough of a factor at WR2.  

In the end the player I thought was the safest to improve, ended up making the least improvement.  

 

Not a player, but the other person Buffalo put a ton of faith in to improve was Ken Dorsey.  I was a little concerned about this and the concern turned out to be very valid.

 

His offense never evolved with 12 personnel and instead was too reliant on Josh.  I think Dorsey deserved another shot as OC, but in hindsight the best move would likely be to move onto Brady.   

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

I was really wrong about the potential impact of Torrence and McGovern on the performance of the o-line.  They are much better than I expected.  I also had low expectations for Oliver and he has proven me to be very wrong.  I also had no confidence that Beane could do anything mid-season to plug holes if the need were to arise.  Moves to get Douglas, Joseph, and Ty Johnson were key late additions that are low cost and really helped the team, making me wrong again.

[Big Blitz]

That Gabe Davis breakout season didn’t happen.  

[Ralonzo]

Yeah I'll own up to clocking Bernard as the second coming of Kelvin Sheppard whose best contribution to the Bills would be trade bait. It wasn't without basis - both got the corner turned on them in preseason over and over and over. In Sheppard's case it was just a step he didn't have, apparently in Bernard's it was needing to read the keys and play fast.

[Freddie's Dead]

I was right about Sharty and Sherfield being useless.

 

I was wrong about Ed Oliver being useless.

[Far away]

I thought Brady would unretire and come back to lead the Patriots into the playoffs.

[Kincaid Kool-Aid]

11 hours ago, boyst said:

i came in pessimistic. i am still there with some happiness in some areas.

 

i thought Poona Ford would contribute more than he did.

 

i thought Bernard was getting handed more than he could hold.

 

i reckon i'm wrong on both.

Right there with you on these two. Happy to have been wrong about Bernard.

[Pete]

14 hours ago, BillsDad51 said:

Bills have kept him under the radar. They'll spring him on Miami in week 18.

I agree.  I believe it was the Eagles game.  Hardy had 8 snaps.  One he was wide open deep, but Josh was under pressure.

 

IMO Brady has several plays schemed for Hardy to take top off opposing D, but he’s saving them for right moment

[Dan Darragh]

I drafted Gabe Davis on my fantasy team