Maybe It's Good the Players Are Not Happy

[NewEra]

10 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Josh delivered a blessing in disguise.

Maybe.  Maybe not.  We’ll find out 

[Gregg]

4 minutes ago, Green Lightning said:

Unless CJ Stroud is your QB.

 

A 5-year-old would have played better at QB than what Stroud showed on Sunday.

[<bills4life>]

2 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

That may have happened if they had bottomed out and missed the playoffs. But hiring a GM and then letting him hire his coach, which is the preferred method, takes a lot of time. The candidate pool of HCs would be really thin if the Bills started that process this late in the cycle. We are already in a situation where Baltimore and Pittsburgh also have openings. 

I get your point. I’m hoping when the dust settles, beane finds and hires a gm. That would be more palatable to me. 

[Green Lightning]

2 minutes ago, MrEpsYtown said:

 

 

Yep, I don't disagree. Should have been a total change.

 

I'm guessing Pegula was afraid to navigate this process on his own. The Dolphins had to get Troy Aikman to help? That's just crazy stuff. If Beane has less to do with player personnel as more of a czar, that could be a good thing. He should be gone, but I kind of understand why he isn't. 

Could be Pegula's Kevyn Adams syndrome. 

[WotAGuy]

18 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

My hope is that a new voice in the locker room will focus everyone and prevent those lapses as we saw in Atlanta and Miami. There is no excuse for playing that badly in those two games. After the Miami game, the general comment from the Bills was that "they wanted it more." HOW!!!! How could a Miami team, that was going nowhere, want it more than a contending team coming off a huge win against KC? That can't happen.

I think that’s a sign of mental fatigue; the Bills have been good for so long, and it became clear that the regular season and even division titles, weren’t going to do it. So I think they have periods where they coast and lose games, knowing it won’t matter as long as they can regroup and turn it on in the playoffs. Problem is, they never showed an ability to do that in the playoffs, so the mid-season funk only dug a deeper hole for them. 
 

It must be a real challenge to get up and stay up for 17 weeks and “want it” more than your opponent every week. I think that is why McDermott had to go. Needed some new life injected into the organization. He took them as far as he was capable. 
 

 

Edited January 20 by WotAGuy

[harryS]

Even the most mediocre coaches can have their players be upset if they're fired.

 

It's only the complete disasters that the players are glad are gone.

[JGMcD2]

11 minutes ago, &lt;bills4life&gt; said:

Keon Coleman comes to mind.  The second time he came late or no show to a meeting he would have been gone.  Never should have been drafted that early to begin with. 

Except that isn’t Sean McDermott’s fault. By all accounts, he was done with Keon Coleman and had already benched him. The GM who spent a second-round pick on Coleman kept him on the roster, and injuries ultimately forced him back into the lineup.
 

The irony in some of these comments is hard to miss. McDermott has been criticized for years for being too rigid, and now he’s somehow being blamed for not being rigid enough.

[thenorthremembers]

14 minutes ago, haroldwaide said:

As much as it hurts to say this...Bellicheat would have won multiple superbowls with this team...

Belichick didnt win a thing without Tom Brady and now cant make logical life decisions for himself.   

[Mr. WEO]

3 minutes ago, NewEra said:

Maybe.  Maybe not.  We’ll find out 

 

If the goal is to get to the SB it was clear this was never going to happen with McD.  This organization is starving for outside voices after a regime that was completely incestuous, promoting underlings that McD could dispose of whenever it seemed to favor him.

 

The results are what they are.

[BuffaloBillyG]

41 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

Six straight seasons of basically the EXACT SAME result.

Start strong.  Slump mid-season (costing us the bye).  Finish strong and end with 11-13 wins. 

Wild card victory.  Loss in the divisional or championship round.

 

Something had to change.  It would be insanity to think otherwise.

 

It is well known that players liked Sean McDermott.  He was a player's coach, who created a family-atmosphere in the locker room.

Lots of veterans (Poyer, White, etc.) came back here because of how much they loved playing on this kind of team.

Coaches also liked being here, because McDermott liked promoting in-house, instead of exploring all options outside the organization.

 

But maybe that approach was ultimately part of the problem.  Maybe it led to the team being too comfortable and complacent.

Maybe Josh Allen doesn't need a buddy on the sidelines.  Maybe he needs someone that's going to challenge him to reach the next level.

 

The most successful franchise in NFL history had an unbearable jerk on the sideline, who everyone hated.  Just something to think about.

 

A lot of the players that spoke out so loudly yesterday are guys that aren't likely to be back under a new coach. They know they had a job with McDermott and in his system. Guys like Poyer, Phillips, Lawson, Taron...these guy's are likely not going to be part of the plan next year. Notice guys like Bishop, Benford, Oliver didn't say anything (that I saw). There's a lot to be said for employees wanting to keep the status quo.

 

Oddly, I didn't see anyone from the current offense chime in. Mitch Morse had a comment. 

 

Also, I find it fun that if you look at all the coaches that were fired on the whole "players grading" thing they do...most of the coaches fired actually had high marks from the players. 

 

The only surprising thing to me is after years of a sizable portion of the fan base wanting McDermott gone and supporting Beane, at the end people are in their feels about Sean and bashing their once hero Big Balla Beane. 

 

I feel bad for Sean. I feel worse for the fanbase that has still yet to see a Super Bowl appearance from this era of Bills football. 

Edited January 20 by BuffaloBillyG

[Augie]

9 minutes ago, NewEra said:

Maybe.  Maybe not.  We’ll find out 

 

Firing someone is easy. Finding a better coach than McD is no slam dunk. We were one bad call away from still being in this. We will most likely have a guy who has never been a HC before. Some guys are just born to be coordinators. Time will tell. 

[Gregg]

6 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said:

Belichick didnt win a thing without Tom Brady and now cant make logical life decisions for himself.   

 

I do think he would have won with Allen. At the very least he would have built a better defense. If Allen had help on that side of the ball, I am sure he would have a Lombardi or two by now.

[BuffaloBillyG]

1 minute ago, Augie said:

 

Firing someone is easy. Finding a better coach than McD is no slam dunk. We were one bad call away from still being in this. We will most likely have a guy who has never been a HC before. Some guys are just born to be coordinators. Time will tell. 

You're not wrong. But it seems like every season we are "one bad call away" or "if these two players ended different". Always a reason. 

 

The fact remains...it should never have had to come down to that one call. This was a Bronco team we should have beat the breaks off. The end of the first half kept that from happening. Not having help for your two 5th string DBs that came into the game and promptly get burned for TDs kept that from happening. These are basic coaching calls that a rookie coach should be able to identify. 

[NewEra]

1 minute ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

If the goal is to get to the SB it was clear this was never going to happen with McD.  This organization is starving for outside voices after a regime that was completely incestuous, promoting underlings that McD could dispose of whenever it seemed to favor him.

 

The results are what they are.

🤷🏻‍♂️ you hate McDermott, so you obviously feel that we would’ve never won a Super Bowl with him.  

 

McDermott has had his fair share of L’s.  This seasons ending wasn’t on him imo.  If we had made one less mistake vs Denver, we may have won a Super Bowl this year. 
 

if we don’t win a super bowl with Josh Allen, we may have made a mistake, but we’ll never know for sure. 
 

I can’t pretend to know the future (with or without McD), but I’ll be really excited about our future if we hire Kubiak.  If we hire Brian Daboll…..I believe it will be a mistake.  Just have to wait, hope, pray 
 

 

[<bills4life>]

8 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

Except that isn’t Sean McDermott’s fault. By all accounts, he was done with Keon Coleman and had already benched him. The GM who spent a second-round pick on Coleman kept him on the roster, and injuries ultimately forced him back into the lineup.
 

The irony in some of these comments is hard to miss. McDermott has been criticized for years for being too rigid, and now he’s somehow being blamed for not being rigid enough.

Coach? Gm? Owner?  Doesn’t matter to me. Keon was never that good to begin with. All share blame in his drafting, development, and aversion to being a professional football player. 

[NewEra]

4 minutes ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

 

 

The fact remains...it should never have had to come down to that one call. This was a Bronco team we should have beat the breaks off. The end of the first half kept that from happening. Not having help for your two 5th string DBs that came into the game and promptly get burned for TDs kept that from happening. These are basic coaching calls that a rookie coach should be able to identify. 

5 turnovers were the biggest factor in the loss.  Not one of those is on McD.  Those are not basic coaching calls.  If you want to say that he should’ve kneeled….i counter with he trusted that the best player in the would know better than to do what he did. 

[Mr. WEO]

Just now, NewEra said:

🤷🏻‍♂️ you hate McDermott, so you obviously feel that we would’ve never won a Super Bowl with him.  

 

McDermott has had his fair share of L’s.  This seasons ending wasn’t on him imo.  If we had made one less mistake vs Denver, we may have won a Super Bowl this year. 
 

if we don’t win a super bowl with Josh Allen, we may have made a mistake, but we’ll never know for sure. 
 

I can’t pretend to know the future (with or without McD), but I’ll be really excited about our future if we hire Kubiak.  If we hire Brian Daboll…..I believe it will be a mistake.  Just have to wait, hope, pray 
 

 

 

I don't hate people--that's childish.  But I can concede the obvious (unlike you). 

 

No one watching his career in Buffalo can conclude that, given more time, he would have led the Bills to the SB.  Even  Pegula finally realized this.  

[Einstein]

37 minutes ago, NewEra said:

2 of the under throws were interceptions (yes, the cooks interception was underthrown and a better pass = game over).  

 

The Cooks pass was thrown nearly perfectly and how it’s taught. You never throw long there. You throw slightly short which allows the receiver to go up and get it, and also draws a PI half the time. 

[MrEpsYtown]

12 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

Except that isn’t Sean McDermott’s fault. By all accounts, he was done with Keon Coleman and had already benched him. The GM who spent a second-round pick on Coleman kept him on the roster, and injuries ultimately forced him back into the lineup.
 

The irony in some of these comments is hard to miss. McDermott has been criticized for years for being too rigid, and now he’s somehow being blamed for not being rigid enough.

 

Yep I think Sean McDermott kept the players accountable. I think he was really excellent at everything it takes to be a head coach, building culture, organization, scheduling, player and coach accountability etc etc. 

 

Where he struggled was on the actual field. 

 

In terms of draft picks, I generally give credit/blame for all the defensive picks to McDermott and give credit/blame for the offensive picks to Beane. 

 

For Josh, I give no one credit. McDermott wanted Trubisky in 2017, and I think they both wanted Darnold in 2018. Josh fell to them because teams are dumb. 

[Mr. WEO]

Just now, NewEra said:

5 turnovers were the biggest factor in the loss.  Not one of those is on McD.  Those are not basic coaching calls.  If you want to say that he should’ve kneeled….i counter with he trusted that the best player in the would know better than to do what he did. 

 

Of course it is.  Plain and simple--not taking a knee before the half was the difference in this game.  It was an incredibly dumb decision by a guy who sudddenly thought he might feel like Dan Campbell or whatnot.