Alphadawg7

I can't stand Mac Jones...and I am not a big believer in him and think his ceiling is probably "solid starter". That being said, I think it is a bit too early to say the Pats wasted a pic on him. It's actually rather astonishing the Pats have won as many games with Mac the last years given the clown show that has been the Pats organization and the weak cast around him, not to mention no OC. Here is how I look at it: What if NE had DeAndre Hopkins this year and a real OC? Given what they accomplished without those 2 things, I think it is safe to say they would have made the playoffs given they only needed to win one more game to do so. And it's plausible that NE could end up with both Hopkins and an OC this year. All the talk is Hopkins is going to be traded, and BB gushed over Hopkins and to Hopkins when they played each other earlier this year, so there is already speculation he could end up in NE. And can't see how they don't hire an actual OC this year. But he is a total douche and I can't stand him, so I love seeing Mac flustered and whiney.

I get your point of view here...but stats between the two are not really a factor here or comparable. Obviously, McKenzie had more volume and Cole has not played a lot of football in the past year and wasn't going to jump right back into a heavy role. He needs to learn the offense (it is different from when Cole was here last) and round into game shape. Now, that being said...it really comes down to what these guys can offer the offense. McKenzie is a finesse player who relies on his speed and quickness. But he isn't a polished route runner. He also has some unreliability to him with his hands, and he is not very good at tough yards or tough catches. But the single biggest factor may be just how much more cerebral a player Cole is over McKenzie. And having that on field IQ in the playoffs has value. To be clear, I am not predicting Cole will suddenly start and dominate snaps. I am not even convinced McKenzie will be inactive this week as some have predicted in this thread. But I do think we will see Cole used a bit more in the playoffs than he was in the couple reg season games he was active in. And I do think its possible we will see Cole in over McKenzie on key downs or moments in the game. The wildcard for me at slot is Crowder. If everyone is healthy, he might be the 2nd best WR on this team. But his disadvantage is not having a lot of time on the field with Josh due to injury, and timing and rapport is critical. So be interesting to see how much he mixes in if he does come back in the playoffs.

That was an outstanding read from an outstanding human. Funny, I was reading up on that OBJ situation myself today and it was enough to 100% change my mind on his possible fit in the locker room here. I never thought he was really going to come here, but based on his past teammates support in LA and CLE, I didn't have a fear he would be a locker room issue at this stage of his career if I was wrong and he ended up here. But regardless if he would behave in the locker room full of peers with a well coached team full of leaders or not...the bottom line is that OBJ does not deserve this locker room after what I saw on video with the plane. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt that the airline maybe handled it poorly initially (and that is not even clear on if they did or didn't), it's how he handled himself after that point that was unacceptable and just highlights who he is as a person. It is not just how you handle yourself in the locker room, it's how you carry yourself outside it too. Dawkins letter here is a slice of who this team is, how they carry themselves top to bottom. OBJ does not deserve to be part of that family, he isn't built the same as these guys and I really don't see any path that would lead him here, and for that I am now thankful after previously being fine with it (even though I never thought it would happen).

Saints winning it after Hurricane Katrina was pretty special too

To be fair, they went offense with first round when they traded our first rounder for Diggs. They were looking at a WR in the first, didn't think there would be one there they like as much as Diggs, so they used it on Diggs. Honestly, I don't get why people (not saying you, just people around here) say we ignore offense and only go defense early. In the past 5 drafts, they have taken Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs (through a trade), Cody Ford, and James Cook in the first 2 rounds of the draft. 2018 - Outside of Allen, a more defensive draft. 2019 - Yes we went Ed Oliver at 9th overall in the first, but the next 3 picks were offensive and landed Devin, Knox, and Bass, three key players for this team in what was almost entirely an offensive draft. 2020 - Went WR with our first by trading it for Diggs, then took AJE in 2nd, then went all offense again including drafting Gabe Davis and Zack Moss. 2021 - First 2 picks were DE (our weakest position going into that offseason) and they next 2 were OL guys. 2022 - Badly needed a corner, so took Elam in first, but then took Cook at RB in the 2nd. So personally, I think people lose sight a little bit of what our drafts were and think they have been defensive heavy. Truth is, they have not been as defensive heavy and some think and we have invested quite a bit into the offense that includes our franchise QB, our top 3 WR in the NFL, our starting RB and second string RB in Cook who is on the rise, starting TE, and a very good Kicker. I do expect them to invest once again into offense this year, especially at WR and OL and possibly RB if they don't bring Devin back.

My bad, probably hit the wrong reply button. All good kind sir

All good, my original point was the comment (I think you made but could be wrong) that the Bills faced Bears and Jets after Vons injury implying the stats being a little better because of competition quality. And my counter is the Bills played some bad teams before Vons injury too, so that balances out.

Disagree. Crowder is as good or better than any WR on this team right not named Diggs. Davis - What a disappointment he’s been. 51% catch rate, lacks focus and awareness out on the field and is playing with a lack of confidence. You can see how dejected he is after every missed opportunity by him. McKenzie - His best attributes are speed and rapport with Josh. But he is not good in traffic and drops too many passes. Beasley - He isn’t the guy he used to be. Brown - Yes he made a big play, but he was cut multiple times after leaving Buffalo, not sure he has enough in the tank to be a feature player and is better suited for making some plays here and there. Also, he isn’t a slot player and if he is to take snaps from someone it’s probably Davis. Shakir - Can’t seem to crack the rotation yet despite struggles at slot position on this team all year. If Crowder can get some timing down with Josh, he could be the boost we have been needing out of the slot assuming he also gets his game conditioning amped up quickly too.

I have to respectfully disagree, they didnt look good at any point of the season. They were a veteran and SB team, they were not going to be terrible the rest of season solely because we had a big game against them. And point is, we played bad teams in the 12 games Von was here too, so discounting the stats because we played a bad team or two after doesn't make sense.

I mean the Rams were terrible week 1 and we had other games while Von was here against lower competition, so that can be said on both sides of the Von injury

What am I missing here? How does this have any sort of Micah Hyde tie in? Nothing about this tweet seems to suggest anything about Micah Hyde unless there is something I am not catching.

I get your post here is rather positive about Beane...but there is one thing in it that gets said a lot and I think it needs to stop. People need to let go of these "misses"...go look at every GM in the league, the "miss" list accompanies all of their resumes. If you compare Beanes resume to any GM in the league since he took over as our GM, you will be hard pressed to find anyone with as good of a draft record as Beane, if any. He completely rebuilt every single roster spot on this team in short order and turned it into one of the most talented teams in the NFL, mostly built through the draft. There has never been a GM in NFL history who didn't have misses. Bill Walsh is consider the GOAT by many, yet he said JJ Stokes was the next Jerry Rice and Jim Drunkenmiller could be the next Montana. Back to good things about Beane...I would also add he is one of the best in the league, if not the best, in getting value in trades, retaining talent on balanced deals, managing the cap to keep they guys they want or acquiring ones via trade/FA.

Yeah, which is what exactly I said in the post you responded to

Buffalo Bills pass rush weeks 1-12 (With Von Miller) QB Pressure % - 29.2% (17th in the NFL) Pass Rush Win Rate - 43.8% Buffalo Bills pass rush weeks 13 to 18 (Without Von Miller) QB Pressure % - 33.8% (8th in the NFL) Pass Rush Win Rate - 44.8% (Higher than with Von) No doubt, the players and staff (and fans) would love to have Von out there still. But the stats say that we are no worse without him right now, and even a little better since he got hurt. The reality is that where Von will be missed more is in those big moments, as that closer kind of role. But, at least we didn't see a big drop off when he went down, which is what we all feared the most. Still a question on whether or not our other guys can be that closer in key moments, but I think Von's biggest impact has been to help elevate the guys around us through his energy, teachings, etc and hopefully that translates into closing out games like we signed Von for.

This is my concern as well, our D isn't going to match up well with any of those 3 teams we are likely going to face. So, it is going to come down to whether or not we can eliminate the shooting of ourselves in the foot with the turnovers and bad penalties, can we run the ball, and can some of the other guys step up to help Diggs and Josh because Davis is not the same guy right now. He is not playing with confidence right now and it's a concern.

All this is great...but if I am being unbiased and honest of looking at the team we saw in the playoffs last year and this team heading into the playoffs this year...I see 2 areas of concern: Dorsey - His offense is lacking. He is not helping Josh at all because he doesn't scheme guys open. Go watch a Chiefs game, and look at all the creativity they use to SCHEME guys open. Dorsey's offense 100% relies on guys winning their routes, and the big issue is they are not doing it often enough. Most of our passing production comes off Josh extending plays and guys breaking off their routes and finding a place to get the ball. Dorseys lack of adjustments have been very concerning as well. This is why the offense can look so stale and pedestrian and yet still have enough explosive plays because of Josh to put up a good amount of points. Josh is just that talented, but Dorsey's offense is hard to instill confidence in, not to mention, he is an atrocious play caller in the red zone. Gabriel Davis - I have great concern for him right now, and I think if we are going to get to the SB we are going to need other guys to step up like Brown, Knox, running backs, etc because Davis is playing with no confidence right now. He looks dejected out there and he doesn't have any of the swagger we have seen before him. The routine throw to the sideline against the Pats he had so much space to easily get 2 feet in, that is a standard NFL play just about any WR is capable of making. But not only did he not do that, he didn't even get one foot in bounds. He just has no focus or awareness right now. Then he dropped what should have been a sure TD pass and even made it more difficult than it needed to be. What concerned me the most was just how distraught and dejected he looked right after he dropped it. This team 100% can reach the SB and win it...but at the same time, our secondary has been a liability, so I think its going to come down to whether or not our offense can play smart and efficient football. If our offense finds a similar groove to last year, I don't think anyone can stop us. If we get more of the same from the second half of the season out of the offense, then its going to come down can we eliminated the self inflicted wounds more in terms of dumb penalties and turnovers.

Reality...our secondary's weak spot is speed. If Tua plays, they are certainly more dangerous just having guys like Waddle and Hill, even though we should, and likely still, beat them handedly. Without Tua, it will be like last years Pats game, and curb stomp. What delusional Dolphin fans don't understand, is the one game they beat us in like forever (in Miami this year) is that the Bills utterly dominated every aspect of that game statistically. The only reason we lost that game was a botched snap before halftime by our backup long snapper costing us a FG. But...more importantly, by the end of that game, we had 14 starters or guys who started that game in place of starters either not play, leave the game for good hurt, or go through heat exhaustion and leave the field multiple times. We had to trot out a 3rd string TE with on the OL just to finish that game who had a torn ACL and still played 5 snaps on that torn ACL because we didn't have enough OL to put on the field. And still...we could have won the game if those exhausted OL could have gotten down on the line 1 to 2 seconds quicker where we could spike and kick the short game winning FG. But these Dolphin fans like to over look all that and just pretend they decisively beat us...heat, injuries and ourselves beat us that day, the Dolphins had actually very little to do with it.

His numbers are better because he’s been the #2 all season, so it’s due to the target volume. Last year he was never really a number 2 WR with guys like Sanders and Cole here. And he is under performing significantly of expectations and reliability. I almost cringe now when we throw to him because he is so unreliable.

I don’t think Lamar will play next week. Reports he still has bad swelling in his knee right now still. Doesn’t sound like a guy who is a lock to play, and for his own self interest probably shouldn’t play given the state of his contract.

Take away this game (where Hamlin didn’t play) and Hamlin was the leading tackler for the Bills this season. Yes he is no Hyde, but he had value.

Regular season doesn’t matter in the playoffs. And they played us close in one of those losses. Again, I expect to win. But I’m just saying it’s silly to disregard them as if this will be some cake walk.

Im no Debbie downer, but if you think this matchup isn’t a tough one then you haven’t been paying attention to where the Bills have shown themselves to be vulnerable. I believe we will win this game, but there is no question we have the absolute hardest road to the SB in the NFL right now. Our beat up secondary has to go through Dolphins WRs then likely through Cincy’s to likely face off against Mahomes and KC again. Yes we can win all 3 if that plays out like that, but we are down to our 3rd string safety and Tre isn’t all the way back yet and lacks the burst against those fast WRs. Mac Jones just out scored our offense today 24-21. We can’t bank on ST TDs every week. We need someone besides Diggs to step up on offense to help Josh out. So again, we should win this game, but to mock anyone who sees it as a tough matchup seems off base to me. It is a tough matchup, and no gimme.

As bad as that was, not getting a single foot in bounds on that sideline throw was inexcusable. I mean he should have easily had both and didn’t get one.

Agreed, it’s almost like he has regressed this year in several areas.