hondo in seattle

Regular season prowess buys you a ticket into the playoffs. It's important. We haven't had a coach for a long time who could do that. McD does it regularly. Football in the playoffs is played with the same rules with the same players. It's not some special animal. The only difference is that the 'schedule' gets tough. All the teams are good. Each game is, more-or-less, a 50-50 proposition. But the Bills - under McD - can beat anybody. They just need to string enough victories together in the playoffs to walk away with a championship. They haven't done that - yet. But give them enough shots at it and they will.

No GM, no HC, entirely controls a season. No GM or HC guarantees a team a Lombardi. What you want is a guy who tilts the odds in your favor. McD and Beane both do that. By building a good team each year, they give us a legit chance for a trophy. If they stay around long enough, the gridiron dice will eventually favor us.

Milestones... For nearly two decades, we couldn't win many games, couldn't get into the playoffs as a WC, couldn't win the AFCE. Now we do all those things. Beane and McD are raising the bar. They still need to raise it a bit higher. Terry is going to let them finish the job they've capably started.

Playoff history... We had zero playoff appearances or wins in the 17 years prior to McD. We've had 9 appearances and 4 wins since he's been here. It seems we're on an upward trajectory.

It's funny. So many folks thought it was Super Bowl or Bust for McD. Apparently, Terry didn't see it that way. I'm personally happy. After 17 years of hopelessness, we finally have a legitimate shot at the Lombardi with these two. You can't win the dance competition without a ticket to the dance. These guys give us tickets.

I was disappointed in him early in the season and really didn't fully grasp how much he improved late until I read that PFF named him their Bills Breakout Player of 2023. And he seems in the vid to have a high football IQ. "Despite being a first-round pick in 2022, Elam failed to become a starting cornerback by the start of the season and had an inconsistent rookie year. However, as a former first-round pick, he should have plenty of opportunities to win that position battle. He also finished the season strong, flipping his 56.7 PFF grade in the regular season to 87.1 in two playoff games, a mark that would have ranked second among cornerbacks in the regular season." www.pff.com/news/nfl-breakout-candidates-all-16-afc-teams-chiefs-kadarius-toney-steelers-kenny-pickett#BUF

I don't doubt you GB. You are one of the very best posters on this site. But aren't you a bit distant from the action? Have you ever even been to Buffalo?

I had previously posted this report on another thread. It seemed worthy of noticing. But not worthy of its own thread. At least, that's how I added it up. It's probably BS. Diggs' contract makes a trade hard. And he's too important to the offense.

Though his PFF grade in two playoff games was 87.1. He got better as the season progressed.

Meanwhile, Robert Griffin III says there's an unresolved issue between Diggs and Allen: In a June 21 episode of the “Rich Eisen Show,” Griffin reported that “some people close” to Buffalo believe there is some unresolved tension between the team’s two top stars... “I think it’s clear this is a personal thing between Josh (Allen) and Diggs,” Griffin said. www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bills-qb-josh-allen-blamed-for-his-role-in-stefon-diggs-drama/ar-AA1cTD6p?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d0770ac9f77c4fd19f36047b881de0d7&ei=21

Benjamin Albright is reporting that the Bills are open to trading away Diggs. I'm not sure I believe him but if true, it's one more reason to get DHop. “I talked to some people in Buffalo on the condition of anonymity and they said that, ‘Publicly, we’re not moving him. Privately, we would consider it under the right circumstances.’”

This might be BS, but Benjamin Albright is now reporting that the Bills are open to trading Diggs. Another sign of trouble in Paradise? Maybe. Maybe not. “I talked to some people in Buffalo on the condition of anonymity and they said that, ‘Publicly, we’re not moving him. Privately, we would consider it under the right circumstances.’” www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/breaking-buffalo-bills-are-privately-open-to-trading-star-wr-stefon-diggs/ar-AA1cTTsE?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=cd10fcc217344e618798895128ba54f7&ei=14

Sometimes guys learn and grow. Daboll wasn't a popular choice for OC when McD hired him because Daboll had failed in the coordinator role at Cleveland... and then again in Miami... and yet again in KC. But he did well enough with us to earn a Head Coach position. I'm not sure Washington underachieved with the DL. I think Beane hasn't drafted as well for the DL as we may have hoped.

Why do we care about WGR's power rankings?

I don't either. But New England is obviously no longer a QB-centric offense. Running backs are more vital to the Pats than they are to us.

I kind of thought the DC duties this year would be shared between McD and Al Holcomb who's been a DC before. I would have guessed that McD would be the main person responsible for game-planning and play-calling with Holcomb running practices. But with Washington's new title, I'm wondering what the defensive coaching hierarchy is really like.

It's not nepotism. He's not hiring friends. He's hiring people he knows and trusts. Look around the NFL. Most HCs hire people they've crossed paths with. But they're not hiring guys to hang out and drink beer with. Instead, they're hiring people who have impressed and think similarly. As a HC, you can hire a known commodity. Or you can hire a guy with a good reputation who interviews well, hoping he'll work well with the rest of the staff.

It takes two to tango.

I appreciate the intelligent response, but I remain unconvinced. I know in my own current line of work that certain 'players' flourish under some leaders but not under others. The 'coach' matters. I saw this in the military as well. Brady won a SB post-Belichick. Montana won a SB post-Walsh. But here's the thing: the QB position is cerebral. The better you understand your own scheme and the opponent's scheme - and the faster you can process the action on the field through the lens of that understanding - the more you succeed. I think it's very likely that Belichick and Walsh helped Brady and Montana achieve their greatness. Their coaches taught them the nuances of the game, how to prepare, how to diagnose a defense, and so on. There's a Buddhist saying: once you cross the river, you don't need the raft anymore. Once Brady and Montana mastered their craft, they didn't need Bill or Bill anymore. But I'm not convinced they would have attained their stratospheric heights without HC masters mentoring them when they were starting out. Mining Bills history a bit... How successful would Jim Kelly have been with Hank Bullough as his head coach? Or Josh Allen with Harvey Johnson? Would Dennis Shaw have enjoyed a better career if he has started out with someone like Sean Payton instead of John Rauch?

Kubiak had a mediocre 82-75 W-L (.522) record as a head coach. I'm not convinced that the Broncos won because of him. In might be more in spite of him.

Isn't Schatz the guy who once said this about Allen: "A parody of an NFL quarterback prospect... there is zero empirical evidence to support him becoming a reasonable NFL starting quarterback... I would rather have Tyrod Taylor quarterbacking my team over the next four years than Josh Allen." I hope he's right about the quality of the Bills team this year but I don't know how much I trust his analytical models.

Don't underestimate Reid. I remember thinking Philly made a huge mistake when they fired him and I certainly think there's a chance he would have won a championship there. It's like Belichick-Brady, Walsh-Montana... Great teams often have a good HC and a good QB. It's hard to disentangle who contributes more. You also have to ask yourself, who coached the QB up to his optimal level? Would Montana, for example, have ever achieved at such a high level without Walsh and his assistants coaching him up? Would Mahomes be this dominant if he started in the NFL with a different coaching staff and a different system?

Top three QB. 2nd ten contract. That's what you want.

Statistically, we were a top offense in spite of having a BAD o-line... This is true. When I look at Dorsey's statistical performance and think about the challenges he faced, it seems like he did very well. And yet when I watched games, I thought he could be so much better which his play-design, play-calling, usage of backs, etc. And, yeah, I know Josh had a UCL problem. I still think Dorsey slumped in the 2nd half of the year and became more predictable.

I think most coaches are doing everything they can to win the next game. But I think the upper-echelon coaches, like Reid and Belichick, think about seasons, not just games. For example, McD could do things like this: * Call no designed runs for Josh during the 2nd half of the season. Then call RPOs or QB keepers on critical third-downs in the playoffs against an unwary defense. * Use a mostly man-defense against the Pats. Not because it'll work better than zone. But because it'll work well-enough, and we want to put a man-heavy game plan on tape so future opponents have to prepare for it. * Not blitz for the four games before the Fins and then throw a sh*t-storm of blitzes against Tua.