This roster is a disaster however…..

[Saint Doug]

Outside of a few players (Benford, Josh, Cook), this roster is what I would call high floor, low ceiling. 

[Rochesterfan]

8 minutes ago, Saint Doug said:

Outside of a few players (Benford, Josh, Cook), this roster is what I would call high floor, low ceiling. 

 

You could be Cincinnati- a high high high ceiling team that is going to miss the playoffs again.

[All_Pro_Bills]

17 minutes ago, Pete said:

The problem has been if the opposing D stops the run game, everything becomes very difficult on offense.  Team play man to man, and WRs rarely separate.  If Josh doesn’t have his cape, that’s the game Buffalo has been losing.

And looking at this problem in practice, what does anyone expect the Patriots are going to scheme up on defense next Sunday? Everyone here can figure it out. They're going to look to take away the run by bringing the safeties down into the box and play press man coverage on the receivers. Brady better have his thinking cap on this week designing and developing a game plan to address what should be absolutely no surprise. If its me I would dial up a play action deep pass to Cooks on the first play of the game to let them know I'm ready.

 

On the lighter side, the Bills will have a total of 6 timeouts. How many will McDermott call on defense after seeing how the offense lines up on some play? And will wasting these time outs ever work or will the opponent continue to always get a first down?

Edited 54 minutes ago by All_Pro_Bills

[dickleyjones]

9 hours ago, Xwnyer said:

Even though Beane has done a terrible job assembling this roster we are still in the hunt for a playoff spot and have a remote chance of finishing first in the East.  Meanwhile teams like Bengals, Ravens and Chiefs are almost eliminated from the playoffs yet people thought those rosters are in much better shape than ours.  Could you imagine if Josh had the weapons Burrow has or we had a defense that can actually generate pressure on the QB?  We are lucky we have Superman on our side but it would be nice if he had a supporting cast like the Superman has with the Justice League 😀

 

If we don’t win the east being the fifth seed won’t be a bad thing Pitt and Balt are terrible and as long as Cincy doesn’t end up winning that division I can see us winning a playoff game on the road.

this post is a disaster however...actually no, it's just a disaster.

[Billsatlastin2018]

9 hours ago, Xwnyer said:

Even though Beane has done a terrible job assembling this roster we are still in the hunt for a playoff spot and have a remote chance of finishing first in the East.  Meanwhile teams like Bengals, Ravens and Chiefs are almost eliminated from the playoffs yet people thought those rosters are in much better shape than ours.  Could you imagine if Josh had the weapons Burrow has or we had a defense that can actually generate pressure on the QB?  We are lucky we have Superman on our side but it would be nice if he had a supporting cast like the Superman has with the Justice League 😀

 

If we don’t win the east being the fifth seed won’t be a bad thing Pitt and Balt are terrible and as long as Cincy doesn’t end up winning that division I can see us winning a playoff game on the road.

To help anyone focus on this correct statement, just go back and watch Higgins & Gesicki making these all world leaping catches yesterday! And Burrow still has Chase to boot.

 

Now, look at the reverse. Look at the 7 second TD dart to Shakir or that other unreal play by 17. Was it 10 seconds… 15 seconds? 
 

Where the hell is ONE open WR?

 

It is cringeworthy embarrassing what Beanbrain has FUBARed this season!

[Shaw66]

9 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

The roster is not a disaster. It is deep. Brandon Beane prioritises depth in his roster builds. Always has. I would argue the Bills at one point in camp this past year had around 65 guys who could probably be serviceable NFL football players without being liabilities on the field if called upon to play in spot duty. That allows the coaches to piece together a competitive team even when, for example, you are down both starting tackles or when, for example, you have multiple safeties done for the year or when, for example, your defensive tackle room is decimated by November. 

 

If anyone has ever tried to criticise Brandon Beane for depth they were barking up the wrong tree. He consistently succeeds if that is your metric. The issue is his depth approach feels like, at times, it has come at the expense of genuine game changers. Particularly up front on defense and at wide receiver.  And when you add that to the fact he has struggled to draft true game changers it leaves the very top of the roster a little thin. 

 

That is a different roster build than Baltimore or Kansas City. They are more top heavy builds and they are not able to roll with the punches from injuries as well as Buffalo is. I'll exclude Cincy from this conversation because (while their roster has issues, especially on defense) when you lose your Quarterback for 9 games no amount of depth is saving you. 

This is right on the money. And there's more to it than just that. It's an integrated team-building approach. They don't do anything except by design. 

 

Two things happen when you get the right quarterback. One is you win a lot, so you're never in line for premium draft picks. The other is you pay him a fortune, so you never have cap room to buy much premium talent. It's just a given. (The exception is if your QB blossoms early, when you have a two- or three-year window with cap room.) The result is that it's very difficult come up with stud players to add to your roster. You have to get lucky with a Pucua or  a Benford.

 

McDermott's and Beane's approach to this problem always has been the same - build depth. That has two benefits. One is that instead of chasing after high-price talent and leaving yourself exposed at some positions, you have guys at every position that you can afford.  It also means that your bench players are nearly as good as most of your starters, so when injuries happen, you usually have a guy on your bench who can fill in quite well. 

 

It also means that you platoon some positions, particularly the receiver room and the defensive line.  That keeps your players fresher throughout the game, and it also means you can survive injuries with guys who have been playing a lot, anyway. Just about all of the Bills receivers have missed time, and so have many of the d linemen. The team moves on without missing them too much, because the replacements are all starter quality. 

 

Now, I know a bunch of people reading this are screaming, "That's nonsense. The Bills receivers are terrible, and their dline is a sieve."  Well, the Bills are 11th in yards per game passing, 7th in passing touchdowns, and 6th in passer rating, and that's with a team that has one of the top rushing attacks in the league - first in yards per game and second in rushing touchdowns. That means they have a very good passing attack, despite the absence of a high-end receiver. Then people will say, that's because they have Allen. Of course, but if you don't have your QB, we aren't having this question.  Sure, the Bills have Allen - he's what makes it possible to save money by having a receiver by committee approach and he's also the reason the Bills have to save money. And yes, the Bills give up a lot of yards rushing, but they're near the top of the league in yards passing allowed and they're 8th in defensive passer rating.  

 

The defense is 10th in yards per game and 14th in points per game, not great but not a disaster. So, the total defense is holding up, despite the absence of a stud dlineman.

 

This personnel philosophy is also complementary to the Bills' approach to offense and defense generally, which is that teamwork can produce greater advantages than marginally better talent. They believe that eight talented guys rotating on the dline will produce better results than four guys, one of whom is Watt or a Chris Jones. You can argue with that, but that's what they believe.  (And, as noted above, those eight guys rotating almost certainly are better than a team that relies on a Watt or a Jones when that guy is injured and out of the lineup).

 

So, it isn't simply that Beane prioritizes depth because he likes depth. They value depth over a few highly talented players and a bunch of other guys, because it fits better with their payroll, their draft status, and their ability to deal with injuries. And we see it working this season. Depth at receiver is working. Depth at o line has helped. And as much as people whine about it, Beane signing retread depth like White, Poyer, Philips, and Shaq Thompson has helped the Bills get to where they stand now. 

 

 

 

 

[The Jokeman]

7 minutes ago, Billsatlastin2018 said:

To help anyone focus on this correct statement, just go back and watch Higgins & Gesicki making these all world leaping catches yesterday! And Burrow still has Chase to boot.

 

Now, look at the reverse. Look at the 7 second TD dart to Shakir or that other unreal play by 17. Was it 10 seconds… 15 seconds? 
 

Where the hell is ONE open WR?

 

It is cringeworthy embarrassing what Beanbrain has FUBARed this season!

And yet which team won? The one with the better defense? Hmmmm guess trying to outscore opposition not always best strategy. Yet I know we won cuz of just Josh.

[Fetou]

8 hours ago, SoTier said:

 

Dude, you have no idea what a terrible roster really looks like.  

You'd have a better idea of what one looks like if you put a solid journeyman QB on this squad. 

[fergie's ire]

9 hours ago, Sweats said:

I don't think our roster is any worse than any other team.........i just don't think the players on our roster are living up to their potential.

 

We saw yesterday in the 4th quarter when they "turn it on" and wake up.

 

We need this enthusiasm and fire burning in their belly's on the first play in the 1st quarter and run with it the entire game, not just for one or two quarters.

I think this issue and can happen for a variety of reasons.  One criticism of Beane is that a lot of his free agent DT aquisitions have not been good.  However, I saw a list of the top 10 DTs in the league (sorry...don't remember who put it out) this year and 2 Beane free agent pickups made the list: Poona Ford and Tim Settle. If they played here, like they're playing now, they would have been amazing signings.