Why Nathan Peterman?

[Donuts and Doritos]

At this point who cares.

 

Asking about Peterman is like asking why the Bills drafted a TE Tony Hunter with their first 1st round pick instead of Jim Kelly, who they took with their second pick. Who cares, it worked out.

[The Jokeman]

2 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

In 2018, we drafted Josh Allen. He was a project QB, with a lot of potential, but also a lot of work. We were told that we would see little to no Josh that season, because he would be riding the bench and learning his first year. 

 

I still don't understand, five years later, why Peterman was the guy he was to learn behind. Let's even forget the now legendary 5 INT game. Let's give the benefit of the doubt that Peterman truly did majorly improve to be relatively serviceable, he was still just barely a rookie himself with almost no playing time. 

 

Why was McDermott and/or Beane so adamant about this kid? Wouldn't the best bet have been to get a Fitzpatrick-esque guy. An experienced veteran, who might not light up the leauge, but would win some games for you, and most importantly play an important mentor role in Josh's development. Seems to have worked for Tua.

 

Because instead, Peterman sucked, as we all thought, and Josh got thrown to the wolves his rookie year. Obviously it worked out, but it very well may not have.  

You forget AJ McCarron was signed as an UFA that off-season. He came off a season in which he lead the Bengals to a playoff victory. Yet he was horrible in the preseason and sulked when he lost the starting job, kudos to Beane for moving him for a draft pick. Adding Derek Anderson mid season was ultimately I think what helped Allen. 

[GunnerBill]

Beane by his own admission screwed up the QB market. The guy they wanted was Keenum. He went to Denver. Then they decided to wait it out and take whichever vet was left when the music stopped. That was AJ McCarron. It become clear quickly that was a mistake. 

 

And they loved Peterman as a person. He couldn't play football though.

[Billy Claude]

7 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

You forget AJ McCarron was signed as an UFA that off-season. He came off a season in which he lead the Bengals to a playoff victory. Yet he was horrible in the preseason and sulked when he lost the starting job, kudos to Beane for moving him for a draft pick. Adding Derek Anderson mid season was ultimately I think what helped Allen. 

 

Allen was never supposed to be in the competition,  McCarron was supposed to be #1, Peterman #2, and Allen was supposed to be #3.  However, Peterman played great against the third stringers (the Kelvin Benjamin revenge game), McCarron looked awful and sulked, so they traded him away and ended up with Allen number 2 behind Peterman.

Edited January 3 by Billy Claude

[FireChans]

7 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Beane by his own admission screwed up the QB market. The guy they wanted was Keenum. He went to Denver. Then they decided to wait it out and take whichever vet was left when the music stopped. That was AJ McCarron. It become clear quickly that was a mistake. 

 

And they loved Peterman as a person. He couldn't play football though.

It was really the best thing to happen to Allen that AJ was garbage and Peterman was their guy. 

 

Peterman was so awful that even when Allen was awful, there was no clamoring for the backup. The fans and the locker room knew it was Allen or nobody.

 

it made Allen look pretty good by comparison. He had a shaky rookie year, but every time he made a play, guys like Shady McCoy were loving it.

 

it forced Allen into action earlier than they wanted. I am a firm believer in rookie QB’s starting. Guys like Lamar and Josh would not be the QBs there are today if they didn’t take their lumps early. Remember when Josh couldn’t beat cover zero, and the light finally turned on vs the Ravens in 2019 and he almost won that game? That doesn’t happen without playtime.

 

You also don’t know if your QB is the guy if they don’t play enough. You don’t see that incremental improvement. The only QBs who benefit from not playing are the bad QB’s. Bryce Young may suck, but they will know if he sucks soon enough. If he played 6 games this year, they’d be sitting around saying he’s basically a rookie still for 3 years.

 

In short, @The Real Buffalo Joe, you should be thankful for the Nate Peterman experience.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Why is this so hard? 

McDermott is not that good at talent evaluation.

He believes in the small undersized no talent character guys. 

How many examples do we need?

Peterman, Teller, Murphy, Star, Lawson, Gilmore, and numerous other roster bottom feeders like Sweeney. Multiple good guys he let walk and multiple bad players he kept and played. 

And we are still seeing it with Fournette sitting on the PS. 

[Just in Atlanta]

Seems crazy we were in this situation not too long ago.

 

 

[CincyBillsFan]

3 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

In 2018, we drafted Josh Allen. He was a project QB, with a lot of potential, but also a lot of work. We were told that we would see little to no Josh that season, because he would be riding the bench and learning his first year. 

 

I still don't understand, five years later, why Peterman was the guy he was to learn behind. Let's even forget the now legendary 5 INT game. Let's give the benefit of the doubt that Peterman truly did majorly improve to be relatively serviceable, he was still just barely a rookie himself with almost no playing time. 

 

Why was McDermott and/or Beane so adamant about this kid? Wouldn't the best bet have been to get a Fitzpatrick-esque guy. An experienced veteran, who might not light up the leauge, but would win some games for you, and most importantly play an important mentor role in Josh's development. Seems to have worked for Tua.

 

Because instead, Peterman sucked, as we all thought, and Josh got thrown to the wolves his rookie year. Obviously it worked out, but it very well may not have.  

The reality is that McD & Bean screwed up Allen's rookie year about as badly as you could.  Allen himself and DaBall are responsible for his surviving and towards the end even thriving. 

1 hour ago, uticaclub said:

Huge mistake by McDermott & Beane. If they didn't sign Derek Anderson & Matt Barkley mid-season, we wouldn't have had any fire McDermott threats in 2023 because he would have been long gone & Allen would have busted.

Agree 100%.  Bean & McD completely screwed up the plans for Allen in 2018.  To their credit they shook the cobwebs off and fired those two horrible WR's (Bengiman & Holmes) and brought in veteran help for Allen.  But the credit for Allen not busting goes to DaBoll and Allen himself. 

[CincyBillsFan]

3 hours ago, PatsFanNH said:

Maybe because they rather Peterman get killed facing teams like NE and allow Josh to learn and grow for that year.  They probably knew the O was not good enough for Allen to learn anything under center. 

Bean & McD deliberately blew the offense up that season. The problem and it's one of the reasons I'm not thrilled abut McD or Bean is they completely misread the value of McCarron and Peterman.  After Peterman set another impressive NFL record in QB futility, NINE straight possessions without a 1st down, to go along with his 5 INT first half performance the previous season. the Bills ad no choice but to throw Allen to the lions.  Can you imagine the fans reaction had Peterman been put on the field against Sand Diego in week 2?  As it was Allen's first 3 games were against three of the best D's in football at that time:  the Chargers at home and the Vikings & Packers on the road.

 

 

[NoHuddleKelly12]

3 hours ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Hopefully I can get this in fast enough:

 

Peterman was FANTASTIC in training camp, preseason, and in practice. 

NP legitimately won the starting job over Josh and McCarron that year—just go back in the archives and review the TC/preseason threads to see it! 

[CincyBillsFan]

3 hours ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

https://www.buffalobills.com/news/how-nate-peterman-earned-the-starting-qb-job
 

For those curious. 

If fans know not to trust preseason game results shouldn't coaches be expected to also know this?  The only consistency we ever saw out of Peterman in actual NFL games was his amazing ability to set NFL records for sucking.  Who can forget his two pick sixes in only two games, after Allen went down with an injury in 2018.  That McD & Bean thought Peterman could play is a major mystery to me.

 

 

[hondo in seattle]

3 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

In 2018, we drafted Josh Allen. He was a project QB, with a lot of potential, but also a lot of work. We were told that we would see little to no Josh that season, because he would be riding the bench and learning his first year. 

 

I still don't understand, five years later, why Peterman was the guy he was to learn behind. Let's even forget the now legendary 5 INT game. Let's give the benefit of the doubt that Peterman truly did majorly improve to be relatively serviceable, he was still just barely a rookie himself with almost no playing time. 

 

Why was McDermott and/or Beane so adamant about this kid? Wouldn't the best bet have been to get a Fitzpatrick-esque guy. An experienced veteran, who might not light up the leauge, but would win some games for you, and most importantly play an important mentor role in Josh's development. Seems to have worked for Tua.

 

Because instead, Peterman sucked, as we all thought, and Josh got thrown to the wolves his rookie year. Obviously it worked out, but it very well may not have.  

 

I remember we started Dennis Shaw the year we drafted him and put him behind a crap OL.   Shaw never developed into the QB we hoped he would be and lasted three years as a starter before finishing his sad career as a backup.  Some said we ruined his poise and confidence his rookie year and he never got it back.

 

I don't think starting Peterman was about Peterman at all.  I think it was about either McDermott's and/or Daboll's philosophy on how to effectively develop a young, talented - but raw - Josh Allen.  I think they wanted Allen to spend more time with the coaches on the practice field and in the film room before they lined him up under center under the bright lights of game day.  

[nedboy7]

Why do I have to read about this guy every other day on here. 

1 hour ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

At this point who cares.

 

Asking about Peterman is like asking why the Bills drafted a TE Tony Hunter with their first 1st round pick instead of Jim Kelly, who they took with their second pick. Who cares, it worked out.

No come on now. Let’s discuss it 50 more times.  Then claim McBean sucks cause of it 5 years later.  

[CincyBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

At this point who cares.

 

Asking about Peterman is like asking why the Bills drafted a TE Tony Hunter with their first 1st round pick instead of Jim Kelly, who they took with their second pick. Who cares, it worked out.

I disagree.  Looking at how McD & Bean handled Allen his rookie year is an insight into how the Bills have handled him and the offense over the last 6 seasons.  My and other peoples arguments about why we need to move on from McD have been twofold:

 

*  As a defensive coach McD will commit more resources to the defense then to the offense. And he will always be more comfortable with defensive players and schemes then offensive players and schemes starting with the QB.

 

*  Both Bean & McD are much less effective at judging offensive talent then they are defensive talent.

 

I truly hope I'm wrong and McD/Bean can find a resolution to this quandary.  But until we make a Super Bowl with the current coaching/management group I remain skeptical.  The idea that teams with elite caliber QB's should have offense minded coaching is compelling to me.

 

 

 

 

[CincyBillsFan]

7 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I remember we started Dennis Shaw the year we drafted him and put him behind a crap OL.   Shaw never developed into the QB we hoped he would be and lasted three years as a starter before finishing his sad career as a backup.  Some said we ruined his poise and confidence his rookie year and he never got it back.

 

I don't think starting Peterman was about Peterman at all.  I think it was about either McDermott's and/or Daboll's philosophy on how to effectively develop a young, talented - but raw - Josh Allen.  I think they wanted Allen to spend more time with the coaches on the practice field and in the film room before they lined him up under center under the bright lights of game day.  

That's fair but in the end Allen was thrown to the wolves in week 2 without having taken very many 1st team reps in training camp and the preseason.  Even worse he was thrown into the fire with an offense that had been dismantled by management in the off season.  The reality is that McD & Bean's best laid plans went up in smoke when Peterman could not generate a single 1st down after NINE straight possessions.

 

The fact remains that a complete misjudgment by McD & Bean about Peterman AND MaCaran ruined any chance that their reasonable plan for Allen would work.  And for some of us this can be directly attributed to the fact that the Bills management & coaching embraces a defense first philosophy.

 

[uticaclub]

1 hour ago, CincyBillsFan said:

Agree 100%.  Bean & McD completely screwed up the plans for Allen in 2018.  To their credit they shook the cobwebs off and fired those two horrible WR's (Bengiman & Holmes) and brought in veteran help for Allen.  But the credit for Allen not busting goes to DaBoll and Allen himself. 

I couldn't agree more. We were in a tough spot with the salary cap, but there was no help for Allen at the start of the season.

1 hour ago, CincyBillsFan said:

I disagree.  Looking at how McD & Bean handled Allen his rookie year is an insight into how the Bills have handled him and the offense over the last 6 seasons.  My and other peoples arguments about why we need to move on from McD have been twofold:

 

*  As a defensive coach McD will commit more resources to the defense then to the offense. And he will always be more comfortable with defensive players and schemes then offensive players and schemes starting with the QB.

 

*  Both Bean & McD are much less effective at judging offensive talent then they are defensive talent.

 

I truly hope I'm wrong and McD/Bean can find a resolution to this quandary.  But until we make a Super Bowl with the current coaching/management group I remain skeptical.  The idea that teams with elite caliber QB's should have offense minded coaching is compelling to me.

 

 

 

 

Who thought it was a good idea to bring in Harty & Sherfield?

[KingBoots8]

A few things to remember: 

 

1. Peterman actually looked competent in preseason

 

yes, it’s true. When the game doesn’t matter and players are learning their schemes he can complete a pass to his own team. 
 

2. Remember how bad that line was in 2018? Here’s a reminder:

 

Dion Dawkins - the ONLY good piece

Vlad Ducasse

Russel Bodine

John Miller

Jordan Mills

 

…you don’t want to line up your future franchise QB behind that unless absolutely necessary.

 

3. We had pathetic weapons for him to pass to.

 

Kelvin “lumpy” Benjamin

Zay Jones in his “naked in a hotel hallway” era

“Ol’ Stone-hands” Charles Clay

lil’ Robert Foster 

 

nooooobody is gonna make that squad look good. It’s a total set up for failure and everyone with eyes  old see it. The only reason we trotted Josh out there that year was because we had to. 

 

[The Jokeman]

2 hours ago, Billy Claude said:

 

Allen was never supposed to be in the competition,  McCarron was supposed to be #1, Peterman #2, and Allen was supposed to be #3.  However, Peterman played great against the third stringers (the Kelvin Benjamin revenge game), McCarron looked awful and sulked, so they traded him away and ended up with Allen number 2 behind Peterman.

My exact point.

[BuffaloButt]

5 hours ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Hopefully I can get this in fast enough:

 

Peterman was FANTASTIC in training camp, preseason, and in practice. 

True.  He was what we call a practice player!!  Like in basketball, he could make every shot in practice and warm up but when the game starts, brick central!!

[Dr.Sack]

Peterman had a cool name and a punchable face. 

[Mikie2times]

Peterman does two things well. Throws tight spirals and robs panties.

 

I sure don't see any footballs around.  

 

 

Edited January 3 by Mikie2times

[NoSaint]

5 hours ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

Peterman also completely fooled the Raiders so it stands to reason that he was showing enough.  That said, having a QB room of Josh, Peterman and AJ McCarron was malpractice.

ej, kolb and Hackett serving as both OC and qb coach was pretty wild too

2 hours ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

NP legitimately won the starting job over Josh and McCarron that year—just go back in the archives and review the TC/preseason threads to see it! 

There was even the hype video

[Donuts and Doritos]

7 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

I disagree.  Looking at how McD & Bean handled Allen his rookie year is an insight into how the Bills have handled him and the offense over the last 6 seasons.  My and other peoples arguments about why we need to move on from McD have been twofold:

 

*  As a defensive coach McD will commit more resources to the defense then to the offense. And he will always be more comfortable with defensive players and schemes then offensive players and schemes starting with the QB.

 

*  Both Bean & McD are much less effective at judging offensive talent then they are defensive talent.

 

I truly hope I'm wrong and McD/Bean can find a resolution to this quandary.  But until we make a Super Bowl with the current coaching/management group I remain skeptical.  The idea that teams with elite caliber QB's should have offense minded coaching is compelling to me.

 

 

 

 

Might be a lot of reasons to get rid of or keep McD, playing Peterman for a horrible half 5 years ago isn't one of them. (& Beane squires players he doesn't do cuts or name starters that's the coaches so way off base to put this on him then or now). It's an odd time to raise this complaint so far removed & w/ a huge game coming up this Sunday. Let's get through this season 1st then we can discuss firing the coach. & Nathan Peterman will not be high on his list of faults (unlike 13 seconds).

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

6 hours ago, KingBoots8 said:

Kelvin “lumpy” Benjamin

Zay Jones in his “naked in a hotel hallway” era

“Ol’ Stone-hands” Charles Clay

lil’ Robert Foster 

 

"Say whatever you want about the other three, but you leave future Hall of Fame WR Robert Foster out of this roster of sadness!"

[Malazan]

this fanbase has lot it's g-damn mind

[Ethan in Cleveland]

12 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I remember we started Dennis Shaw the year we drafted him and put him behind a crap OL.   Shaw never developed into the QB we hoped he would be and lasted three years as a starter before finishing his sad career as a backup.  Some said we ruined his poise and confidence his rookie year and he never got it back.

 

I don't think starting Peterman was about Peterman at all.  I think it was about either McDermott's and/or Daboll's philosophy on how to effectively develop a young, talented - but raw - Josh Allen.  I think they wanted Allen to spend more time with the coaches on the practice field and in the film room before they lined him up under center under the bright lights of game day.  

I'm sure that is what they wanted to do. 

But once Peterman showed he sucked again they had no choice. Even though that offense built by Beane was not competitive (excuse being he had to get cap under control) Peterman showed he was incapable of being a NFL QB. 

Had McD started him again he loses the locker room. 

Just about any other QB in the league would have been better than Peterman and could have let Josh sit for several more weeks.

[CincyBillsFan]

6 hours ago, Donuts and Doritos said:

Might be a lot of reasons to get rid of or keep McD, playing Peterman for a horrible half 5 years ago isn't one of them. (& Beane squires players he doesn't do cuts or name starters that's the coaches so way off base to put this on him then or now). It's an odd time to raise this complaint so far removed & w/ a huge game coming up this Sunday. Let's get through this season 1st then we can discuss firing the coach. & Nathan Peterman will not be high on his list of faults (unlike 13 seconds).

I agree with you if this was a stand alone event.  But the mishandling of Allen's rookie year and the surreal trust in Peterman speak to a bigger problem with McD and offense in general and QB's in particular.  Again, my main reason for wanting to move on from McD is that when a franchise has an elite, generational talent at QB you will better exploit this good fortune with an offensive minded coach who surrounds that QB with the best possible offensive talent.

 

For the record I would love to be proven wrong here as I don't see McD being replaced anytime soon.  But all the evidence I see in today's NFL supports my concerns of McD.

 

 

[CincyBillsFan]

13 hours ago, uticaclub said:

I couldn't agree more. We were in a tough spot with the salary cap, but there was no help for Allen at the start of the season.

Who thought it was a good idea to bring in Harty & Sherfield?

Good question.  My guess is that McD/Bean were hoping to replicate the success they had bringing in Brown & Beasley in 2019.  Obviously they missed. 

 

I don't know if we could have signed D Hopp with our CAP restrictions.  My guess is that if we signed D Hop we wouldn't have been able to sign Floyd and Floyd has been a difference maker on the D.  But these are the tough choices that a GM/Coach must make and an offensive minded coach would have signed D Hop and the defensive minded coach Floyd. The Bengals let two very good safeties go in order to put more FA money into their O line.  That's how an offensive minded coach with an elite QB thinks.

 

For the record, and given the performance of both Floyd & D Hop (68 catches for 1011 yrds & 6 TD's) Hopkins would have been the better signing.  Can you imagine his numbers with Allen throwing the ball and not the collection of misfits in TN?

 

 

[Beck Water]

18 hours ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Top tier trick shot videos 

 

I think you're confusing Peterman with Alex Tanney.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

7 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

I think you're confusing Peterman with Alex Tanney.

You might be confusing them, I’m not. 

[Beck Water]

22 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said:

Good question.  My guess is that McD/Bean were hoping to replicate the success they had bringing in Brown & Beasley in 2019.  Obviously they missed. 

 

If the Bills were hoping that Sherfield or Harty could replicate what they did with Brown or with Beasley, that hope was badly misplaced. 

 

Sherfield was a 5 year vet career STer who put up decent numbers for 1 year with Miami, playing behind one of the best 1-2 punches at WR in the league.

Harty had one decent year with NO in 2021 but has struggled career long with hammy and foot injuries, missing almost all of 2022.

 

Brown put up 4 seasons that were better than Sherfield's single best season, including a 1000+ yd season as a #2

Beasley was a legit slot contributor for 7 years in Dallas.

 

I think Beane was hoping Sherfield would replace Kumerow on ST but be better able to play WR (that's probably true - but a fairly low bar)

I think Beane hoped Harty would replace McKenzie as the "gadget guy", #4-5 WR but have a more complete route tree and better ball tracking skills/focus and also be able to return punts and kicks if needed.   He has been our punt returner since Nyheim Hines went on NFI, so that worked out, but he's not been able to replicate McKenzie.

 

22 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said:

I don't know if we could have signed D Hopp with our CAP restrictions.  My guess is that if we signed D Hop we wouldn't have been able to sign Floyd and Floyd has been a difference maker on the D.  But these are the tough choices that a GM/Coach must make and an offensive minded coach would have signed D Hop and the defensive minded coach Floyd. The Bengals let two very good safeties go in order to put more FA money into their O line.  That's how an offensive minded coach with an elite QB thinks.

 

I think this is a fair point, and the gram of truth behind some of the kvetching "he only cares about defense" Ty Dunne published.  Someone at Buffalo Rumblings - I think "Skarekrow"? did a thing last year (I think) showing that while overall, the number of draft picks and cap expenditure were fairly equal offense/defense, when you look under the hood in terms of FA signings and draft picks, Beane has tended to use more high draft picks for defense and used offensive FA $$ to sign more lower-tier guys instead of a few serious contributors.

 

13 minutes ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

You might be confusing them, I’m not. 

 

I'll be damned, you're right, Peterman did do trick shot videos as well.  Huh.  Tanney's were cooler though.

Edited January 3 by Beck Water

[Beck Water]

16 hours ago, ngbills said:

These same coaches benched Tyrod for Peterman in a playoff race. I would not give them too much credit. They are very lucky that Allen has a beast mentality because they have not been the brightest and would argue not helped Allen (that was Daboll, not McD). 

 

Erm....it's not the same coaches.  Rico Dennison (OC who reportedly banged the table to start Peterman over Taylor) was unceremoniously shown the door after the season, probably in large part for "making the boss look like a dang fool in public"

[Snowbowl]

Another Peterman thread? Seriously?

[longtimebillsfan]

19 hours ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

In 2018, we drafted Josh Allen. He was a project QB, with a lot of potential, but also a lot of work. We were told that we would see little to no Josh that season, because he would be riding the bench and learning his first year. 

 

I still don't understand, five years later, why Peterman was the guy he was to learn behind. Let's even forget the now legendary 5 INT game. Let's give the benefit of the doubt that Peterman truly did majorly improve to be relatively serviceable, he was still just barely a rookie himself with almost no playing time. 

 

Why was McDermott and/or Beane so adamant about this kid? Wouldn't the best bet have been to get a Fitzpatrick-esque guy. An experienced veteran, who might not light up the leauge, but would win some games for you, and most importantly play an important mentor role in Josh's development. Seems to have worked for Tua.

 

Because instead, Peterman sucked, as we all thought, and Josh got thrown to the wolves his rookie year. Obviously it worked out, but it very well may not have.  

Why this thread?

 

Give it a rest.  That was 6 years ago.

[hondo in seattle]

16 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

That's fair but in the end Allen was thrown to the wolves in week 2 without having taken very many 1st team reps in training camp and the preseason.  Even worse he was thrown into the fire with an offense that had been dismantled by management in the off season.  The reality is that McD & Bean's best laid plans went up in smoke when Peterman could not generate a single 1st down after NINE straight possessions.

 

The fact remains that a complete misjudgment by McD & Bean about Peterman AND MaCaran ruined any chance that their reasonable plan for Allen would work.  And for some of us this can be directly attributed to the fact that the Bills management & coaching embraces a defense first philosophy.

 

 

You are right of course.

 

But I don't think anyone imagined Peterman being as bad as he was.  Yeah, Peterman sucked his rookie year.  But he looked okay the following preseason as I recall and some folks said he looked really good in practice.  He didn't have the strongest arm, obviously, but reports said he had poise, made good reads, and had command of the playbook.  He seemed like a reasonable caretaker until the real QB was ready to take charge.  

 

Even now people seem to think Peterman has something to offer.   He's still on a roster.

I wonder if there was back-and-forth between Daboll and McD (or McD and Beane) on how best to develop Allen.  It does seem odd that Peterman only lasted a half-game before being replaced by Allen.  Maybe Daboll or Beane convinced McD - against his better judgment - to start Peterman and develop Allen slowly.  But watching Peterman's dismal play destroyed McD's patience.  It's hard to know.  

[pigpen65]

Peterman was a religious fanatic. If you ever watch an interview with him he's one of those guys where every other word is god or jesus. So why Peterman..... I just think those types are kept around to keep an eye on things. Coaches like a to have a couple of them in the locker room to tattle on the cattle.

[Low Positive]

As far as I understand it, Nate Peterman is a whiteboard wizard. Essentially an extra coach in the QB room. It's what's kept him employed in the league and I expect that he'll be a great OC if he decides to get into coaching. 

[The Jokeman]

7 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

Good question.  My guess is that McD/Bean were hoping to replicate the success they had bringing in Brown & Beasley in 2019.  Obviously they missed. 

 

I don't know if we could have signed D Hopp with our CAP restrictions.  My guess is that if we signed D Hop we wouldn't have been able to sign Floyd and Floyd has been a difference maker on the D.  But these are the tough choices that a GM/Coach must make and an offensive minded coach would have signed D Hop and the defensive minded coach Floyd. The Bengals let two very good safeties go in order to put more FA money into their O line.  That's how an offensive minded coach with an elite QB thinks.

 

For the record, and given the performance of both Floyd & D Hop (68 catches for 1011 yrds & 6 TD's) Hopkins would have been the better signing.  Can you imagine his numbers with Allen throwing the ball and not the collection of misfits in TN?

 

 

The problem is in Tennessee he is the primary focus of the passing game. In Buffalo he's likely 2nd or maybe even 3rd in the pecking order. Would he be better than our 3rd option. Is now? Sure but as you elude at the expense of Floyd. To me it's not worth it. 

[JohnNord]

On 1/2/2024 at 5:02 PM, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

In 2018, we drafted Josh Allen. He was a project QB, with a lot of potential, but also a lot of work. We were told that we would see little to no Josh that season, because he would be riding the bench and learning his first year. 

 

I still don't understand, five years later, why Peterman was the guy he was to learn behind. Let's even forget the now legendary 5 INT game. Let's give the benefit of the doubt that Peterman truly did majorly improve to be relatively serviceable, he was still just barely a rookie himself with almost no playing time. 

 

Why was McDermott and/or Beane so adamant about this kid? Wouldn't the best bet have been to get a Fitzpatrick-esque guy. An experienced veteran, who might not light up the leauge, but would win some games for you, and most importantly play an important mentor role in Josh's development. Seems to have worked for Tua.

 

Because instead, Peterman sucked, as we all thought, and Josh got thrown to the wolves his rookie year. Obviously it worked out, but it very well may not have.  

If you watched the preseason in 2018, you’d know that Peterman looked really good playing against bland defenses and second and third teamers.  
 

Also there were still some like John Gruden who spoke highly of The Peterman as a prospect.  So even though he had a horrendous game in San Diego, it was was a small sample size.

 

There’s a lot of hindsight about Peterman too.  The consensus from some is that McDermott was crazy to bench Tyrod.  
 

But if you lived the 2017 season, Tyrod was struggling to pass for 200 yards…200 yards!  His performance was on a steady decline culminating with a 56 yard outing against NO.  
 

Yes a starting QB passing for 56 yards in 4 quarters.  In that game, he was the worst player on offense.  
 

So turning to Peterman was an attempt to for a spark.  The Bills weren’t moving the ball through the air much or scoring points, so I’m guessing he thought there wasn’t much to lose.  
 

It was a knee jerk reaction and a mistake McDermott has owned up to.  But the move wasn’t as far fetched as some want to portray.  Look at Tyrod’s stats that game.  

 

Tyrod would remain a very limited passer but the best thing he did was not throw INT’s and hand off to Shady.  

8 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

I think you're confusing Peterman with Alex Tanney.

It was the Peterman.  He did several of these videos:

 

 

[CincyBillsFan]

2 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

The problem is in Tennessee he is the primary focus of the passing game. In Buffalo he's likely 2nd or maybe even 3rd in the pecking order. Would he be better than our 3rd option. Is now? Sure but as you elude at the expense of Floyd. To me it's not worth it. 

Given his production in TN and the "quality" of QB's throwing to him D Hop would clearly be the #2 guy in Buffalo.  In fact he would be the 1B guy.  And his presence would draw coverage away from Diggs.

 

The Bills made a choice and they went with defense.  And you can argue that from a defensive standpoint it was the right choice.  But therein lies the problem, the best teams with the best chances of making and winning a SB are all focusing on their offense. Even Baltimore with it's great D spent the off season focusing on the O and helping Jackson out.

 

 

7 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

I wonder if there was back-and-forth between Daboll and McD (or McD and Beane) on how best to develop Allen.  It does seem odd that Peterman only lasted a half-game before being replaced by Allen.  Maybe Daboll or Beane convinced McD - against his better judgment - to start Peterman and develop Allen slowly.  But watching Peterman's dismal play destroyed McD's patience.  It's hard to know.  

I would love to know the answer to this question.