billsfan89

Brady thrived with a defensive head coach and a rotating cast of offensive coordinators. I wonder how long it took Bilichick to be as heavily involved on the offensive side of the ball as I know by the 2010's he was supposedly much more hands on with the offense than he was early in the Pats/Brady dynasty. I think McD's gonna have to be that way soon as he's gonna lose OC after OC with Josh.

What is a "Blue Chip" player? is it an All-Pro or a Pro-Bowler? I would say that a Blue Chip player is a top 10 player at their position (and for Guard, DT, and DE where there's two on the field at the same time fairly interchangeably I would say top 15). I would argue that the following players qualify as that. Firmly top 10 Josh Allen Cook Dawkins Spencer Brown Taron Spencer Brown Shakir (If you consider a slot WR a separate position) Groot (top 15 DE) McGovern Benford Borderline top 10 Ed Oliver (top 15ish DT) Torrence (top 15ish Guard) Bernard Milano Kincaid So the Bills have about 9-10 (once again if you factor in slot WR as a position or not) and then about another 5 or so players who are right below that threshold or right on the bubble of that. I would also argue that the Bills don't have any glaring liabilities which is a massive strength. Every position is lined with at least a capable starter and there's a lot of solid role players. Guys like Edwards, Rapp, Hamlin, Douglas, AJE, Von, Daquon, and Cooper may not be top 10 players at their positions but they are at least capable starting caliber players. While Ty Johnson, Knox, Keon, Hollins, Samuel, Davis, Austin Johnson, Smoot, Dorian Williams, and Cam Lewis are all very strong role players who fill in well. TLDR: Bills have a good amount of top 10 players at their positions and several others that aren't far off while also having a well constructed roster with no glaring weaknesses, solid depth, and good role players.

I wouldn't mind Chase Young if the organization feels like on a one year "prove it" year he can really get it in gear to try and land a big contract, Chase Young is a lot younger than Mack and the Bills already have an older pass rusher in Von who likely will be back for one more year as Von seems willing to rework his contract to be palatable cap wise. Something about having Mack at age 34 and Von at age 36 doesn't seem like something the Bills would do too much age at a very critical position.

Any word on Milano?

The defense looked much more aggressive but offensively outside of that 4th down attempt it was a somewhat conservative game. McD talks a lot about "complementary football" and I think the aggressive defense complemented the conservative offense.

Are concerns legit? Yes. Is the game likely to be determined by blown calls? No but it is possible. In games where margins are likely to be tight a couple of drives extended by a bogus call could be the difference. But as a fan while I am concerned I just don't think it is worth worrying about too much. The Bills have Josh Allen that's a pretty good place to start.

The Bills in the divisional round game against the Ravens clearly were looking to run the ball early and often. Deflated stats for pretty much everyone in the receiving game. The Bills only had 22 pass attempts so not a lot of targets to go around. The leading receiver was Shakir with 6 receptions for 67 yards. Only 2 other players had multiple receptions one was a RB and the other was Samuel neither put up massive numbers. The Bills are gonna need Cooper against KC he's going to have to keep the Chiefs defense honest as I suspect KC is going to play single high safety looks or five defensive line fronts like they did in the regular season game to keep the run game in check. It's going to be on Cooper to break some plays on the outside.

KC is without Rashee Rice, that being said KC got the luxury of being the one seed wrapped up with a week left. They haven't had to play a meaningful game from week 18 until they played the Texans in the divisional and they had a mini-bye after their X-mas day game. You get a lot of time off so you have a chance to get healthy. No worries the Bills have Josh Allen.

Not many teams can sustain two injuries to one group and have a third stringer that's good or at least capable. It is what is it is depth wise for nearly every team at every position. Luckily if Rapp is out Cole is there after that it's just dam near impossible to not have a drop off.

Looking at the three defensive injuries for players that didn't finish the game or are in the protocol (Rapp, Benford, and Milano) the player the Bills are least capable of replacing is Benford. Cole Bishop has about 5-6 starts under his belt in the regular season and he looked solid in relief of Rapp in the Ravens game. I would rather Rapp play but I think Bishop can be more than serviceable. Milano started to look like a difference maker again but Dorian Williams started most of the year and if he's got to plug in I think he can do so well. But if Benford is out the Bills are plugging in some combo of Cam Lewis, Elam, and Ingram. I think Cam Lewis is a decent backup nickel and Ingram is a decent dime back. But if this team has to put those role players or Elam out there on the boundary against vets like Hollywood Brown and Hopkins I would be very concerned and it could be a liability.

Silver lining is to me Cole actually looked solid in the Ravens game. I think he's not the worst plug in backup the bigger issue is having to see Elam out there if Benford can't clear that could be a massive liability.

It's so dependent on the player, I thought Davis was going to not play this week after that brutal concussion but other times I have seen players get concussions that aren't serious looking keep a player out multiple weeks. Really hoping that he clears he's such a massive part of the defense.

It was a good defensive gameplan and the defense was very hyped to play. Even in the second half when the defense was starting to get a bit grinded down the defense still made the big play with the amazing peanut punch. McD made a great gameplan and the defense executed it. Just a true signature coaching job that I think he really needed to display. It doesn't get easier next week McD's gotta come up with a way to slow down Mahomes and Kelce.

Orlovsky pointed it out and I am glad Josh thought better of it.

Really hope he is able to clear the protocol.