We need a downfield passing game

[boyst]

Traylon Burks is available.... 

7 minutes ago, dave mcbride said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6698187/2025/10/08/bills-wide-receivers-problem-trade-deadline/
 

More ammo regarding the Bills’ flawed group of boundary receivers. 

does it mention ideas for those that do not want to subscribe?

[dave mcbride]

37 minutes ago, boyst said:

Traylon Burks is available.... 

does it mention ideas for those that do not want to subscribe?

Not really. It's more an analysis of what's wrong. Joe B does say that he doesn't think Beane has gotten to the point of seeking out a trade -- yet. But it's the exact same problem as last year and they didn't adequately address it in the offseason. The best outside separator has been Palmer, but he's not getting a lot of snaps. Maybe Palmer becomes a bigger part of the passing game going forward. 

Edited Wednesday at 01:17 PM by dave mcbride

[boyst]

1 hour ago, dave mcbride said:

Not really. It's more an analysis of what's wrong. Joe B does say that he doesn't think Beane has gotten to the point of seeking out a trade -- yet. But it's the exact same problem as last year and they didn't adequately address it in the offseason. The best outside separator has been Palmer, but he's not getting a lot of snaps. Maybe Palmer becomes a bigger part of the passing game going forward. 

i can't believe how Diggs did so well in the game against us. i am sure he won't fair the same outcome the rest of the season. the guy plays with a good chip and will be non existent in many games. but with good coaching you could get that same output week to week because coaching is about being able to get the most of your players while capitulating to their needs.

 

diggs needs the ball and his ego stroked. it's not easy to do that for everyone but it can be done with many.

[HappyDays]

8 hours ago, dave mcbride said:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6698187/2025/10/08/bills-wide-receivers-problem-trade-deadline/
 

More ammo regarding the Bills’ flawed group of boundary receivers. 

 

Thanks for posting this Dave. I'm going to copy and paste a few short snippets, and none of this should be a shocking revelation:

 

Quote

And not only did the Patriots run a high rate of man coverage — 37.7 percent, which is the highest rate the Bills have faced this season, according to TruMedia and Pro Football Focus — but they also didn’t blitz Josh Allen often. They trusted their cornerbacks to win those matchups, and they usually had a spy waiting for Allen if he decided to tuck the ball and make something happen.

 

Quote

Through the first five games, Allen and the Bills have only attempted a throw of 20 or more yards through the air 16 times. For all of Allen’s attempts this season, that puts him at a deep throw rate of 9.5 percent. Among 33 qualifying quarterbacks this season, that ranks 25th in the NFL — a shocking statistic given that Allen is one of the most naturally gifted passers in the league and has one of the strongest arms at his position.

 

Quote

They have seen man coverage at one of the highest rates in the NFL this season, with defenses using that approach against them at the fourth-highest rate in 2025. ... On the season, Allen has completed only 36 percent of his passes when targeting wide receivers 20 or more yards down the field, and has an interception on top of it.

 

As Joe points out later in the article, it was a known issue in the offseason that we had no vertical threat on the roster. Even more shockingly, we had the same problem on the roster last year which forced Beane to trade for Cooper. So he doubled down on his previous mistake and his answer to the problem was to yell at Jeremy White on live radio. Real nice.

 

This regime has neutered a lot of what makes Josh Allen special and that more than anything should spell the end of them if they don't make a drastic change soon.

[BillsShredder83]

14 hours ago, gobills404 said:

 

This is a Gabe stat, disregard.  Also, most of these ppl asking for downfield stuff arent asking for 4 Verticals.  We want regular plays like 2021 with Jon Brown back in the mix.<--- thats bolded because its important, in the mix.

 

Remember how we functioned on that wild intermediate throws only offense, griping we had no YAC.... and we had no YAC bc there were a ton of routes kinda designed to put WR's 20 yds down field, at the sideline making the grab.... spread the field out, but also, if a throw got tipped or dropped, it was more likely to end up safe out of bounds.

 

Intermediate: we had multiple versions and depths of Corners/Comebacks

 

That was a beautiful offense, but we relied on it too heavily.  Diff coordinators obv, but feels like we've over corrected in the opposite direction.

 

Maybe you schedule a drive one in every 4... or an opening drive of a quarter, where we go up-tempo with some intermediate. Maybe a half drive like this... have fun get creative, mix it up.  Josh's arm is built so beautifully for these.  Ppl think the deep ball is what his arms for. IDGAF about 60 yard bombs really, too inconsistent to rely on.  But the intermediate mixed in, thats why you want a QB with a howitzer!!!

 

^^Truth is we dont  have the WR's to do this at will.  Thats sad. Bringing in a true #1, would make every other WR on the team so much better too 😕

[hondo in seattle]

22 hours ago, Billsatlastin2018 said:

After 5 games, the Bills have the following ranked Receivers in terms of yardage:

 

#26 Kincaid

#46 Shakir

#49 Coleman

#70 Palmer

 

Exactly what I have said before. They don’t have a WR in the Top 25… not anywhere close!

 

Receptions are worse!

 

Thanks for the help Beanie Boy!

 

 

 

The average team has two receivers in the top 64.  We have 3, almost 4...    Everybody eats.

[The Wiz]

 

[Stretch]

Trade for Calvin Ridley on the cheap?

[Old Coot]

3 hours ago, The Wiz said:

 

Conclusion: other teams' OL are better at hiding the holding than our OL.

[Scott7975]

19 hours ago, nedboy7 said:

The takes after this loss are so wild and in a lot of cases just not accurate.  

 

For me it is not about this loss. I expect to get losses and this one doesn't bother me. This isn't the first game that I suddenly thought about this. It's just the first time I posted my thoughts about it in a thread I created.

8 hours ago, BillsShredder83 said:

This is a Gabe stat, disregard.  Also, most of these ppl asking for downfield stuff arent asking for 4 Verticals.  We want regular plays like 2021 with Jon Brown back in the mix.<--- thats bolded because its important, in the mix.

 

Remember how we functioned on that wild intermediate throws only offense, griping we had no YAC.... and we had no YAC bc there were a ton of routes kinda designed to put WR's 20 yds down field, at the sideline making the grab.... spread the field out, but also, if a throw got tipped or dropped, it was more likely to end up safe out of bounds.

 

Intermediate: we had multiple versions and depths of Corners/Comebacks

 

That was a beautiful offense, but we relied on it too heavily.  Diff coordinators obv, but feels like we've over corrected in the opposite direction.

 

Maybe you schedule a drive one in every 4... or an opening drive of a quarter, where we go up-tempo with some intermediate. Maybe a half drive like this... have fun get creative, mix it up.  Josh's arm is built so beautifully for these.  Ppl think the deep ball is what his arms for. IDGAF about 60 yard bombs really, too inconsistent to rely on.  But the intermediate mixed in, thats why you want a QB with a howitzer!!!

 

^^Truth is we dont  have the WR's to do this at will.  Thats sad. Bringing in a true #1, would make every other WR on the team so much better too 😕

 

Thank you. Exactly.

[boyst]

6 hours ago, Old Coot said:

Conclusion: other teams' OL are better at hiding the holding than our OL.

that is 100% all this is. every OL holds every damn play it is just how good are they at it

[gobills404]

This guy had the 12th highest yards per reception in the league last year. Maybe he’s available for trade?

 

Edited 6 hours ago by gobills404

[Richard Noggin]

On 10/8/2025 at 9:02 PM, The Wiz said:

 

 

Atlanta and Buffalo about the farthest two teams apart on this graph. Fun little Vegas/NFL storyline brewing for MNF. 

[folz]

On 10/7/2025 at 1:39 AM, Scott7975 said:

I don't know if this is just by Brady's offensive design or if the receivers are all just that bad or what, but we need to be able to pass the ball downfield.  Dink and dunk is fine. It also has to be part of our arsenal. It can't be the entire gameplan though. A downfield pass game opens that stuff up more. We have a QB with the biggest cannon in the NFL and we don't even use it anymore.

 

I know people will say that we just don't have any receivers capable of it. I don't really believe that. I see no names all the time catch downfield balls. If it's true then it's true. If thats the case then I as much as I hate to say it... we need Gabe Davis back on the active roster. I don't trust his hands, but the dude has made downfield plays for us. It needs to be part of our arsenal. We aren't going to dink and dunk our way to a superbowl. It takes too much precision and leaves no room for mistakes. Hell, I think this Pats game was the first time I seen Brady take a shot on 2nd and 1 instead of just running the ball to pick up the first down. I been banging the table about that since last year.

 

I'm not saying there aren't any problems, but some of you guys may be surprised to know that currently the Bills are 3rd in the league in 20+-yard passing plays/receptions. Not sure how you qualify that.

 

And New England dinked and dunked their way to a few Super Bowls, so...

[djp14150]

38 minutes ago, folz said:

 

I'm not saying there aren't any problems, but some of you guys may be surprised to know that currently the Bills are 3rd in the league in 20+-yard passing plays/receptions. Not sure how you qualify that.

 

And New England dinked and dunked their way to a few Super Bowls, so...

The issue is how many of those were 20+ yds thrown not factoring in YAC

[folz]

2 minutes ago, djp14150 said:

The issue is how many of those were 20+ yds thrown not factoring in YAC

 

I'm not sure, we'd have to go back and look at all of those catches to see how many air yards there were for each. Obviously, we know that Shakir and Cook get a ton of YAC, but I would venture to guess that most of Keon's 20+-yard catches were more air yards than YAC (same for Palmer and probably Kincaid too, and Hawes' couple of grabs, and Knox---I don't remember a ton of YAC for those players--i.e., taking say a 5-yard pass and turning it into a 25-yard play).

 

But, in the long run, how much does it matter if you get say 25 yards that is all in the air, or 25 yards with a short pass and YAC. 25 yards is 25 yards, right?

 

[In Summary]

49 minutes ago, djp14150 said:

The issue is how many of those were 20+ yds thrown not factoring in YAC

...or how many were in-rhythm throws as part of a designed play...