Hapless Bills Fan

That's actually not the worst of ideas. Peyton is the master of details. Go through all his film from the season and find all his tells.

Apparently it's legit that the Raiders have asked to interview him https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/ap-source-raiders-make-request-to-interview-josh-mcdaniels/ar-AATdtnF After what McDaniels pulled with the Colts, and something that went on with the Browns, I'm like "really? can't you find someone else to talk to?" And then there's this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/dj-williams-talks-about-broncos-cheating-under-josh-mcdaniels/ar-AASKJaE https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl-news/191897-chiefs-punter-todd-haley-believed-josh-mcdaniels-cheated-in-matchup After he was fired by Denver, McDaniels took the OC job with the then-St Louis Rams to work with then-promising young QB Sam Bradford. As a rookie, under Pat Shurmer as OC, Bradford looked promising: 60% completions, 18 TD to 15 INT, 220 ypg. Not setting the world on fire, but the team went 7-7 As a 2nd year QB under McDaniels as OC, Bradford sucked: 54% completions, 6 TD to 6 INT, 216 ypg, got injured: team was 1-9 when he played Next season, under OC Brian Schottenheimer: 60% completions, 21 TD to 13 INT, 230 ypg I will say that Mac Jones has played very very well with him, so maybe he's learned something from both those experiences. But it does make me wonder about guys getting 2nd and 3rd chances who have already screwed up, vs. guys who perhaps deserve a shot.

This, actually, would surprise me. I think Beasley may have been asked by the Bills PR folks to step it back from social media if he was going to be disparaging or attacking the fans (his own people may have suggested this, and he may also have decided to do it on his own or with input from his family, I dunno). But whatever the reason, he did it. I do think there is probably some FO annoyance with Beasley over all the fines, and over getting Covid and missing a game/maybe not being 100% when he came back. There was that one incident where it looked like Beas lost his ***** over a play and got walked over to a bench and set down on it by Hyde If he retires or asks to be released, correct. If he's traded, he potentially gets it all. I think if he stays, he likely gets asked to take a haircut for the team so he won't get all of it here, either.

I think there's a chance that Cole will, in fact, want "out of Buffalo", and that could be one explanation of why Beane came across to me as "less than enthusiastic" and "less than committed" with his comments: “Cole, he’s still under contract so we didn’t, I didn’t sit down with Cole at the end and see where he was at or things like that. But I would anticipate Cole being back,” Beane said. and “Cole can still play, and he’ll continue to play in this league,” Neither of those sound like a ringing endorsement such as 'Cole is an important part of our offense, he's still one of the best slot corners in the league, he's still under contract with us and we look forward to his contributions next season'. "He'll continue to play in this league" is a strange comment (IMO) to make about a guy that you've already emphasized 2x is currently under contract with the Bills. I think it's possible Beane's had conversations with Beane about Cole wanting to move on But that's just a hunch. If Daboll does get a job, I don't think it's beyond possibility that his new team tries to trade for Beasley to help teach Daboll's offense to the WR room.

Absolutely no argument there I want more resources on O myself. As I said up-thread - I've been banging the drum that look, we have one 1st round pick on offense - maybe 2 if you count the trade for Diggs - and 4 1st round picks we drafted plus 3 additional 1st round picks we signed on defense. I think the key point of disagreement is with the idea that KC doesn't concern themselves with maintaining a strong D that, as you said "the Bills need to learn to live with what they have on defense and throw everything at the offense. This is what the Chiefs have done". I think that: 1) that's a misunderstanding of what the Chiefs have done 2) it's a bad idea - I think GB kind of went that route, and it squibbed on them. The year that GB won the SB, they had the #10 offense and #2 defense. After that, they went in on O and had #1, #8, #5, #1 offense - but D slipped to the bottom half of the league, #11 and #13 at best, and they got washed out earlier in the playoffs. I don't know. I think that Daboll is actually still developing as a football mind, and Reid (and maybe Bienemy) is there, for one thing. Daboll's situation play calling is still strange to me at times. Like, we're succeeding moving the ball downfield with a crisp passing game, and we get a turnover and he decides that's the right time to haul out a couple of gadget plays, or run it 3x in a row. I feel as though he's improving, but I still have the hunch that several times during the season McDermott has to sit him down and say "Look, as a former defensive coordinator, I'm telling you: this is what I see in your offense and how I'm going to counter it defensively, and this is why you're seeing what's happening, and you need to change. Now." Maybe I'm wrong

They were missing Matthieu when he went out with his concussion. It allowed the Bills to put Beasley in on something like 23 out of 26 snaps in the 4Q. It's time for the Chiefs to bid Sorenson good night. That said - the Chiefs went into that game saying "no matter what, Allen to Diggs is not going to beat us". Davis caught them by surprise because he hadn't been a huge factor in any but one game this season. In fact, in the 2nd NYJ game he had 14 targets and 3 receptions, because he torched them for 103 yds in the first game and the Jets were like "cover that guy!". So KC really didn't have a good plan to lock down both Diggs and Davis. When a QB can throw with that much anticipation and trust in his WR, and the WR shows up, it's pretty hard to defend, especially when you have your best guys locking down someone else.

A nice positive thread You Da Man!!!!! 🏆

Did you just write that? That's fantastic! (if you didn't write that please add credit)

Receipts!

FWIW, there was media outrage questioning Reid's abilities both in the 2017 post-season and in the 2018 post season Example: https://larrybrownsports.com/football/rodney-harrison-criticism-andy-reid/420012 Similar kind of things were said after the 2018 AFCCG loss to the Patriots, specifically after Tony Romo was looking at the Chief's defensive formations and calling out what they were doing on TV. It is noteworthy that after that game, Bob Sutton, the Chiefs DC, got the boot, and KC expended significant resources on DL and secondary.

Me. Will not give him clicks.

I think you have a point in that Allen is clearly motivated by some perceived slights - he seems to turn it up for Denver, who drafted just before us, and for some guys who dissed him. But I don't think Allen is petty enough to keep an "enemies list" like Mayfield seems to, where he will figure out who all the pro bowl voters were and get a little extra ginger when he's facing them. If you're not motivated enough by just generally wanting to show you're the best when it comes to every coach in the league and a whole group of players on every team, something's wrong.

I think you have a pretty good list. Worth noting that until the coordinator situation is settled, Beane is going to be in a bit of a holding pattern as different coordinators may have input on their needs/wants that Beane will try to accomodate. This is a high priority. Bangedupbills pointed out that Tre's minimum timeline is 9 months from his surgery on Dec 15, but 10-12 months is more common. Less is not prudent, as the risk of re-injury rises sharply with a return after <9months. He did say that he'd like Wallace back "if he wants to return", but Wallace has made it clear he thinks he's one of the best off-ball corners in the league and may want more $$ than we wish to allocate to him. Even if he does get Wallace back, he's gonna need a starting-quality guy in case Tre can't go or needs time to return to form I think the priority he expressed in his comments (after CB) 2) to add to/continue to improve the DL (might be because of the order in which questions were asked He didn't specify the interior. He needs to re-sign or draft/sign at least 2 interior DLmen, possibly 3 - Harrison Phililps, Justin Zimmer, plus a "plan B" in case Zimmer is not full-go at the start of the year), or equivalent replacements. Depending upon how they see Epenesa and Basham, he needs 1 or 2 DE to add to Rousseau Notable that he didn't mention Addison, even though Addison led the Bills in sacks with 7 (next was 4) and was 3rd in TFL and 5th in QB hits. I would love to see him going after a sack-meister but I don't see it happening. 3) OL - he referred to the current OL as "something to build on" and "starts with protecting Josh" "part of that is run game". What he does will, I imagine, depend upon whether he can re-sign Bates and/or Boettger and whether it's true that Morse plans to retire 4) He didn't just mention "depth at TE" he mentioned "a TE to compete with Dawson". Dawson improved a lot this off-season, but I'm not sure we ever did get to the point where teams said "we got to stop their TE from going off", especially against more physical teams like the Chiefs. It's said to be a pretty deep draft for TE, so perhaps there's a clue there Wouldn't bother me to have us draft a good TE prospect AND sign a FA! I assume Geary's tongue is planted firmly in his cheek there, but....

I'm a little concerned since I'm not of the school that any change to anyone is an improvement. But I do note that the Chiefs in fact wound up replacing their DC after their loss in the 2018 AFCCG, and the rest is history. A bit of background here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Sutton_(American_football) Any of this sound familiar?

Thanks I think that's been true, but there's not a lot of meaning to be inferred from it on priorities: this is also the first year that the Chiefs offense has substantially outspent the defense, but this is also the first year that Mahomes new salary has really hit. Thanks for the insight on the stars-and-jags model I'm not sure they're trying for the #1 D, but it's clearly a priority to stay in the top 10 defenses, and they're willing to shake things up and invest what they need to stay there. I kind of thought they were crazy to make the moves they made in 2019 after getting so close, but in hindsight they were crazy like foxes. As confirmation of what you say, I did a quick scan of the Chiefs top cap hits for 2021. Of the top 9 contracts, 5 are on defense: DE Clark, S Mathieu, LB Hitchens, DT Jones, and DT Reed. 4 are on offense: Hill, Kelce, Mahomes, and G Joe Thuney. The 10th is their kicker. So not only are there roughly equal top-contracts on D and O, but 3 of the 5 top defensive contracts are on the DL.

Since Jon Feliciano re-tweeted this: "Goblin quarterbacks do this" LOLOLOLOL

It can seem that way to you. I think there's an element of truth but overall that's a faulty perception. They care about both, and that's why they're not Green Bay. Perhaps I'll put out the bat-signal for @Zerovoltz to weigh in here. It should be noted (you may not know) that I live in St Louis. I am not and have never been a fan of any MO football team, but since the Lambs departed for LA, a lot of people here have taken up Chiefs fandom and there's a lot of local coverage of the Chiefs moves. So I hear a lot about them whether I want to or don't. First, context that the Chiefs have been a perennial playoff team since 2013, when Reid took over. From 2013 to 2021, they've missed 1 year. With Smith as their QB they never went beyond the Division round (and in fact Tony Dungy at one point opined that with Reid as their coach they never would.) They did this by paying attention to both offense and defense, and in fact a lot of the key elements of their defense were also in place by 2017. For example, Chris Jones was drafted by them in 2016. Daniel Sorenson, who at 32 has lost a step and his starting job this season, was signed undrafted by them in 2014 and was a key piece for them at FS in 2016-2017 (when he led the team in tackles). I think it's fair to say that early in Reid's tenure, the Chiefs were probably a bit more focused on winning with a strong defense and "enough" offense, and that by 2017 (still with Smith under center) this changed. But they have continued to put substantial resources into defense. It's not just going out to trade for Ingram in the middle of the season. In 2018, they drafted Nnadi who is still playing DT for them and signed Charvarius Ward. In 2019, they traded their 1st round pick for Frank Clark from the Seahawks. They also totally re-worked their secondary: they drafted Thornhill to replace Sorenson at S, they signed Tyrann Mathieu to a big FA contract as their SS. In 2020, they signed Chris Jones to a hefty extension. 2019 was probably the biggest infusion of defensive resources for them, because they moved on from long-time DC Bob Sutton to Steve Spagnuolo after they lost the AFCCG with the 24th ranked D, and they decided (pay attention) they needed better D to contend. Since then they haven't had a top D, but it's consistently top-10. KC pretty much had to re-do the OL last season because they really hadn't put much investment in it since 2015 or so. They drafted Eric Fisher at LT in the 1st in 2013 and Mitch Morse in the 2nd in 2015 (but decided they could move on from him in 2019 when they put the big resources into the D), and that was about the last significant investment on OL and it pretty well bit them on the butt in the Superbowl last year, so they had to do something - and they did. So my first question to you is, "what do you mean by their run for KC? Because as I said, KC has been a perennial playoff team since 2013, and it was clear (if you go to pro-football-reference and look up the franchise history you'll see, look at points for and against) that from 2013-2017 or so, they were leaning on their D. From 2018 (with Smith at QB) the O was the better unit But they have still made substantial investments in D, especially in 2019 when they changed coordinators. If you started out saying that the mindset should be, offense will win us a championship, see that the offense always has what it needs - I agree with you. I don't want to see our OL short-shirted and 1 playable TE on the roster to funnel ever more resources to the D. So if that's what you mean, I agree with you. But initially you said: "My sense is that the Bills need to learn to live with what they have on defense and throw everything at the offense. This is what the Chiefs have done and they're going to a 4th straight AFC Championship game." And that is absolutely NOT what the Chiefs have done, not at all. They have continued to make significant investments on both sides of the ball. And in fact, the Chiefs looked at the roster after they lost the AFCCG in 2018 and said "D not good enough!" and made major changes.

You should watch at least the offensive highlights. They are a thing of beauty and balm to the soul

It's in Las Vegas this year. No beach. Meanwhile, Josh Allen has a beautiful house on the beach in S. Cali I think it's just what he says - he wants to heal up and avoid further injury risk. If he were the first choice, maybe the risk/benefit changes. Or, maybe if it were in Hawaii and not Las Vegas. But being invited as a 2nd alternate afterthought, the risk/benefit equation shifts Why not just focus on his rehab now, get healed up, then go off someplace beautiful to play golf, party, and hang on the beach with his friends on and off the team without having to pretend to practice and play football? He can rent a big house in Hawaii and invite them all to join him there if they don't all fit in his Dana Point home. That's my feeling, Dion and Diggs should go hang out in Hawaii with Josh. But it is their call of course, and as first selections they may feel more honored.

I think you're giving a substantially incorrect impression of what Beane said. What you wrote reads as though Beane said drafting a DE in every round is how he believes you build a team and his philosophy What Beane actually said: From a purely numbers POV, with Harrison Phillips, Vernon Butler, Mario Addison, Jerry Hughes, Justin Zimmer (IR) and Efe Obada all pending free agents, it's a no brainer that Beane has to do something. Even if he re-signs Phillips, Zimmer, and Hughes, he would still need at least 1 or 2 additional guys to "hedge his bets" that Zimmer might not be full go at the start of the season, and to understudy Hughes/backstop us against the outcome of Epenesa and Basham not taking needed steps. This is just silly. No DBs can cover forever, especially against a mobile QB who can extend plays. That's why teams adopt the strategy of covering just long enough while keeping the QB on the move/trying to sack him.

Frazier and Daboll still both said to be in consideration for Miami and for NY Giants HC Oh, and Flores interviewed by Texans. He quit on the team prior to the allegations of sexual assault

Thought this was a good addition HC and GM Tracker: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-head-coach-and-gm-interview-tracker-nathaniel-hackett-matt-eberflus-first-new-hcs-of-hiring-cycle/

I think the idea is you are tagged, and therefore do not reach free agency.

Considering the playoff game made it clear Rodgers sees his WR corps as "Davante Adams and No One", that's hardly a surprise. 😂😂

it has to be said: Now that he's got a HC position, I guess we'll see if Nate can really Hackett!