billsfan89

I am ok with taking a chance on a guy with a 9.88 RAS. This board complains this team doesn’t have freak athletes but then the Bills draft one who doesn’t perform his rookie year and it’s a waste. The Bills going into the draft had the luxury of being fairly set at DE for 2025. Bosa/AJE /Groot and Hoecht were 4 capable starting caliber DE’s the Bills could take a chance to develop a guy for a year who has high upside and athleticism. It sucks he got hurt but him and Walker were the risky picks this team needs to keep making esp after round 1-2 when prospects are usually flawed heavily

I think Beane’s resignings are mostly fine. I can’t think of one that’s been all that terrible that was upper mid level money or better. Maybe Knox but Knox is at least productive and keeps Josh happy. I think largely the issue has been external free agents. 2020 to 2022 when the Bills were still on Josh’s rookie deal were very frustrating with external free agents. They had signed a bunch of JAGS and OK Dline players (Butler, Addison, Q. Jefferson to name a few) from 2020-2021. They needed a big time pass rusher difference maker and they could have gotten that had they combined the cap space they were paying to guys like Addison, Jefferson and Butler. Then in 2022 when they decide to go after a big fish they go out and get Von who was awesome but then got hurt on a freak play. 2023 the Bills cap started to feel a crunch and they have had to be more restricted with external free agents. It’s been a mixed bag McGovern and Edwards were home runs. But Samuel and Palmer have been busts. Largely I think the Bills are at a point where they have to start taking more bold risks. They don’t have to go stupid and make big move after big move to chase losses. I think they need to make more high upside lower floor picks in the draft like Walker esp in the mid rounds. I think with vet guys they have to continue to do what they did with Bosa and sign guys who are a bit of an injury risk but have high upside. I think they may have to trade a high draft pick swap for a WR to help now. If this team lets say makes the playoffs and wins a round but loses a close game in the divisional round the mandate should be to either fire McD or put him and Beane on a Super Bowl or bust mandate and they should manage the roster that way.

Fans always look for big name former head coaches to be DC’s/OC’s. I don’t hate that idea but sometimes it gets ridiculous

I’m not really sure Ingram is that much better than Dane Jackson so I’m not really sure what that loss is here. They took a chance trying to get Slay he’s not interested in coming and it cost the Bills their 4th outside corner. I’m not really seeing how this is that tragic a situation

I trust McD on secondary issues he’s usually good on that. Is Slay good? Probably not but could he provide a slight upgrade at boundary CB4? Yeah certainly possible.

Dorian Williams should also get some play, he’s solid against the run, can QB spy most QB’s, and a decent blitzer. I would look to have Shaq/Milano/Bernard in rotation in nickel situations and then use Williams as a third LB and situationally.

I probably would say they most closely resemble the 2011 Ravens with a better QB and a worse defense. 2011 Ravens were a 12-4 team but did win on the road in the playoffs. But the Bills if they should make a run will probably make it off of Josh and the ground game and a defense that “gets hot”. Who knows the AFC Isn’t exactly having a power house team you really fear even on the road

Baltimore is badly banged up and underperforming. Lamar is very limited and can’t run; Henry is still a very good back but he’s not the elite monster he once was and the defense is lackluster due to injury and other factors. With a limited WR core, Henry losing a quarter step and Lamar with limited legs their offense goes from elite to Ok and with a below average defense they aren’t the juggernaut you think they might be.

I felt like last year teams respected Cooper a bit so there was more openness to the passing offense. But the turnovers are the biggest difference overall.

They had not only the worst Special Teams unit in the league that year but one of the worst special teams units of all time in 2010. So much so that giving up the least yards per game defensively and gaining the most yards on offense they still managed to only be 9-7 and miss the playoffs. The Special Teams unit contributed to their turnover margin not being that great (at +6 it wasn't bad but just above average) and the Special Teams frequently gave opposing offenses short fields to work with so the defense yards allowed was somewhat inflated by not having that many yards to give up (although they still ranked 10th in terms of points per game). That team was best on offense and defense in the league that year but freaking historically awful on special teams. Their average margin of victory was 14 points their margin defeat was 4.4 points. All of their losses were by one possession margins. Shows you how important special teams are...

The easy answer is it depends on what the defense is giving you

I think Ben Johnson probably doesn't come here as the expectations would be way too high right out the box and for a first year HC Chicago was an excellent fit. Chicago had this off-season a QB with 3 years plus an option on a rookie deal, an extra high second round pick, tons of cap space, a solid level of overall talent, and all he had to do was win 8-10 games his first year to be a success. That's far better than Buffalo who would have Super Bowl expectations and limited cap and draft capital to implement what Ben Johnson would have wanted to do. So even had the Bills moved on from McD it isn't 100% they would have taken on Johnson. Overall I do agree that there's not many coaches that got hired since 2022 (the only time I think you could have reasonably fired McD was after 13 seconds) that I would have hired over McD. There's been a lot of bad hires since 2022.

I'm rooting for KC over the Texans. The Chiefs at 7-6 don't dramatically up their playoff odds and the Texans losing puts them most likely out or near out of the race for their division and gives the Bills better margin for error for a wildcard spot. Plus I genuinely think the Texans are the only true bad matchup for the Bills in the AFC.

Maye is good but I do want to see him do it against better defenses. We've seen guys burst out in year 1 or 2 in recent years and comeback down to Earth. CJ Stroud set the rookie record book ablaze in 2023 and he's not been bad but he's regressed a bit in years 2-3. Jayden Daniels this year same thing. Bo Nix has also regressed from a strong rookie year. Credit to the Pats for winning on their schedule but there's a long way to go for Maye.

Credit Joe Brady for running the play until they proved they could stop it. So many times OC's even good ones will stop running a successful play for no reason. The Bills had an unstoppable play and just kept running it. No reason to do anything more complex.