st pete gogolak

I'm regretting this post! Not enough controversy to generate a decent conversation.

Almost four years out. Regrets, there are a few. Cleveland - Baker Mayfield. Uh, yeah. If they had picked Josh, their 2018 draft could have ranked with '74 Steelers (Allen, Ward, Nick Chubb). NY Giants - Saquon Barkley. Uh yeah. Compounded mistake of picking a RB too high with a top ten pick of Daniel Jones the following year. NY Jets - Sam Darnold. Uh, yeah. Cleveland- D. Ward. If they had drafted Allen #1, this would have been an ok pick. Denver - B. Chubb. Uh yeah. They decided that they were good with Case Keenum and have cycled through Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater (am I missing anyone?). Indy - Q. Nelson. This is at least an interesting discussion. All Pro guard for next 10 years and future Hall of Famer. Plus they've been able to plug in Rivers and Wentz for passable QB play. On the whole, however, yeah. TB - Traded with Buff. Took Vita Vea at #12 and picked up a couple of CB's in Round 2. Also ended up clearing the way for Brady in a round about way. Doubt there are any regrets here. You win a Super Bowl, you don't ask what if.

One interesting tidbit. Usually when you say "X plays and we'd be whatever", the comeback is "but Y plays and you're so and so." That isn't true with this team. Every win has been a blowout. It's been an inability to run the ball in the red zone, combined with a couple of bad calls and combined with some bad luck and the result is 0 - 5 in one score games.

How about the article from the Boston TV (or radio) station saying that the Bills' window was closed. Not in danger of closing or closing if they lose to NE but CLOSED. You know whose window is closed? New England's because they're going to face Josh twice a year for the next 10 - 12 years. Suck on that.

Wouldn't this make him a perfect candidate for the Dolphins? Also, what are the cap ramifications if Star simply retires? Do we need to eat cap space?

Evans is a "fringe" HOF player at best? Really? Why don't you take a look at his career stats and get back to me. A couple of more years of similar stats and he is a lock. In fact, if we had picked Evans instead of Watkins, most posters on this board would have been more than cool with the trade-up.

Agreed. There's legitimate one score losses and bogus one score losses. The Steelers game is closer to the latter than the former. You're absolutely right that the mind blowing thing about the losses this year is that Titans, Pats and Bucs are absolutely agonizing losses where we are deep in the Red Zone with legitimate chances to win the game. Even JAX, we are a Gabriel Davis drop (someone who doesn't drop a lot of passes) from being in FG range to at a minimum send it into overtime.

Thanks for posting this. Really interesting video. It shows that the Chargers' special teams were historically bad. Consecutive punts blocked? Are you kidding me? What's interesting is that the Bills haven't had anywhere near that type of performance on special teams. It's not being able to score TD's in the Red Zone for sure, which is a result of not being able to run the ball. Still, two wins out of five in one score games puts you at 9 - 4 and leading the AFC. I can't remember being as disappointed in a season as this one. Even the 2 - 14 seasons in the 80's. Maybe the nightmare of losing to Belichick and Brady on consecutive weeks is the cause. At this point, 10 - 7 and one upset win in the playoffs would be reasonable. Think about how that would have gone over with the fanbase before the season started.

That's what he is, isn't it? Doesn't Dallas play a 4-3 and he's the Mike.

Looked it up. 2010 Chargers were #1 on both offense and defense and finished the year 9 - 7 and out of the playoffs. That, my friends, is hard to do.

After 13 games, the Bills are the #1 defense (yards) #3 defense (points), #8 offense (yards), #6 (points). And yet, they are an absolutely mediocre 7 - 6. Anomalies like this happen from time to time. Several years ago, the Chargers finished the year #1 in both offense and defense and missed the playoffs. If I recall correctly, they were horrific on special teams. Conversely, one of the Dick Jauron coached teams was near rock bottom in both offense and defense yet finished 7 - 9 thanks to playing ultra-conservative football to beat bad teams and great special teams play under Bobby April. They got their brains beat in by good teams. Here, special teams play hasn't been horrible (granted blocked punt against Pittsburgh and McKenzie fumble against Colts didn't help). It isn't turnovers either. Bills are in top ten in turnover differential. Of course, the answer is the team blows out inferior opponents and loses close games to both good and bad teams. The only outlier is the blow out loss to the Colts. Is this an anomaly? I can't think of another team that really fits this description. We know the defense isn't the '85 Bears or the '00 Ravens. It's a good but not great defense that can be exploited by the run and doesn't generate enough sacks. The offense has been very inconsistent. The inconsistency, however, seems for the most part to depend on who's starting on the offensive line. Bottom-line, maybe this is one of the few times you're not what your record says you are. I think that if the Bills make the playoffs, they will be the proverbial team that no one wants to face.

Shouldn't the front office be studying how Dallas uses Micah Parsons? ILB with 12 sacks already, drops in coverage as much as he rushes the passer. Lock for DROY and in the running for DPOY. Tell me Edmunds isn't at least in the same universe as Parsons athletically. If we're going to go with more or less the same defensive personnel next year (money should be spent on the offensive side of the ball), we're going to have to be more imaginative on how we use our defensive personnel.

Like many, many posters on this board, I feel that Edmunds could be more effective playing a different position but I'm not sure what that position would be - OLB in a 4-3? ILB in a 3-4? Old timers on the board may remember David Fulcher from the Cincinnati Bengals' glory days in the late 80's. Linebacker size, played safety and kind of created havoc all over the field. Kind of like a rover or monster man in college football. Maybe you could use Edmunds creatively in that type of role. Whatever you do with Edmunds, I'd love an LB who can be a run-plugger up the middle. Not necessarily an every down player but someone we could play against run-heavy teams, Colts, Pats, etc.

They'll get a bunch of calls this week in a blowout of the Panthers. Next week against the Pats, not so much.

Do you mean Aaron Donald? Or Sam Darnold? Or Aaron Rogers? I might be ok with it if it included all three. Three year Super Bowl window with Rogers. Experienced back-up in Darnold and instant upgrade to DL. Beane, get 'r done!

I like McDermott well enough. Wish Reich was our HC, however. How come we never approach ex-Bills? I remember a game where we were getting blown out (by the Titans?) and our coaching staff was chock-full of coaches who were ex-Oilers from the Comeback Game (Gilbride, etc.)

This title will invite a lot of sarcastic responses but seriously, what was the defensive strategy yesterday? Bill Belichick will design a game plan to remove an opposing team's offensive weapon and make someone else beat him (Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXV, Marshall Faulk when Pats beat the Rams). The obvious call yesterday, especially with the weather, was design a game plan to slow down Taylor and make Wentz beat us. To me, that means going from 4-2-5 to 4-3-4. Did Edmunds injury scotch that idea? Maybe. But when Edmunds, Milano and Klein were healthy, we went 4-2-5 against the Titans and Henry killed us. To me, maybe not the key play of the game, but an illuminating play none the less, came very early. First Colts drive, 3rd and 2, Taron Johnson hits Taylor behind the line of scrimmage and Taylor drags him for three yards and a first down. I think that was only 3rd down on Colts' first two touchdown drives. Would a stop have made any difference? Probably not, but it was sickening to see Taylor run over us the entire game. Wentz made a couple of nice throws early but basically he was Wentz.

Jauron wasn't the worst Bills' HC but he was most hated by me (except maybe Rex). He would be maddeningly conservative on offense and defense, designed to beat bad teams and get blown out by good teams (hence 7-9, 7-9, etc. etc.). Was there a signature win against a good team his entire tenure? If there was, I can't think of it. One year under Jauron, we were something like 30th in offense and 30th in defense, yet conservative playcalling and great special teams got us to - you guessed it - 7-9! Going back to Whitner - Cargo, not only was Ngata available but instead of Cargo, we could have picked Nick Mangold. OL and DL would have had their respective anchors for 10 years plus.

And yet, they've beaten Titans and Bengals handily.

This is nuts. A team with Gronk, OJ Howard and Cameron Brate is better positioned at TE than at worst 30 of the 32 teams in the league. And THEY sign Fells??? Is there anything stopping us from trying to sign him to our active roster?

In the off-season, Beane resigned Feliciano and D. Williams and drafted OL #3, #5 and #6. Also signed some JAG free agents. I don't think it's fair to say he didn't address the OL in the off-season. Brown appears to be a great pick-up. At worst a long-time starter, maybe a lot better than that. Dawkins getting COVID didn't help. He's been subpar. Williams was great last year, not so much this year. I'm guessing the real problem is that he expected Ford to take a starting guard spot and that has been a total disaster. With Ford looking like a total bust, Dawkins and Williams having subpar years and Brown and Feliciano hurt, well there you have it. The OL is a mess. I don't think it is as bleak as people think. If Brown and Feliciano come back, the line will be serviceable this year. If we have any money to play with, I'm sure we'll target OL. If not, we'll use a high draft pick on a nasty interior OL, a Wyatt Teller-type. We definitely need OL who can do more than pass block.

This isn't an injury excuse (because ALL TEAMS have injuries) but it's an injury analysis. The worst two games the Bills have played this year have been the two games after the bye. They went into Tennessee on a Monday night and played the Titans to a standstill and absolutely had a great shot to win the game. Last week against Miami they looked awful and looked worse against a bad Jacksonville team. Defense played well in both games. Who would have guessed that Spencer Brown and Dawson Knox are absolute essentials if the team is going to go anywhere this year? I've been very impressed with Brown. I think he has the potential to be an All-Pro in a year or two. It allows Williams to slide inside and give us adequate guard play. Knox gives us better blocking and a valuable outlet for Allen. If the offense looks as bad as it's been when the two of them get back, we're toast but I think we'll be back to where we were offensively before the bye. Not perfect but capable of complimenting a good defense. Also, I think the Board it too hard on Beane for offseason moves re the offensive line. He drafted OT #3 (who looks to be at a minimum a long-term starter), OT #5 and OG #6. The key was Ford playing like a #2 pick and taking a starting job. That, of course, has been an absolute disaster. Like everyone else, I want to go to the time machine to stop the Wyatt Teller trade. He is exactly what this OL needs. Got to believe guard will be priority at draft time.

Well, it makes the 2022 draft a lot easier. #1 - OG; #2 - OG; #3 - RB. If Williams isn't a free agent, he is the swing tackle. Hope AJ, Greg and Boogie improve enough to provide a pass rush.

In 1964, Elbert Dubenion had over 1,000 receiving yards on 42 catches! Average 27.1 yards per reception. Crazy stat. I'm guessing that will be a Bills record that is never broken.

Well, are you arguing that Allen is Beane's only draft success or are you arguing that Allen is not Beane's only draft success. If it is the later, then you've set up a straw man to knock down. Ronnie Harmon ended up being a pretty damn good football player. Some with the Bills, mostly with the Chargers. Unfortunately, he'll always be remembered in Buffalo for one play.