appoo

So Joe Bus made a big deal out of the lack pass of pass rush on that Hill TD - a play where neither AJE nor GR won their battles. That's where a GM earns his money. Does he look at that play and think - well a DE means Mahomes doesn't get off an easy pass, or does he think - a better corner means Hill isn't quite so open

10 years down the line, I think we're going to look back at Poyer and Hyde as legends, so I can appreciate that, and I'd imagine every coach would love to have safeties as good, smart and charismatic as Hyde and Poyer - I mean ultimately they were central in turning around the drought years culture, along with McDermott and some others. So I can appreciate and empathize with that hesitancy. It's easy for me to sit there as a fan and say time to move on from one of them, because I'm not in that locker room and I don't know the intangible impact to the locker room and scheme. But hopefully they at least entertain the possibility, and if not at safety - doing so elsewhere. Because running it back is just going mean next January we're gonna get our hearts broken again

You can definitely work with those guys and win a super bowl - but I don't think you can have three guys back there with average speed and defend elite offenses consistently - and I love both Poyer/Hyde but they are definitely average athletes, while Levi is also an average athlete for his position.

At some point he's going to lose his speed. Just gotta prepare for that

I said in another thread that my spiciest take would be replacing one of Micah and Poyer with someone like Jaquan Brisker - a dynamic safety who can run, cover and hit. I honestly think the Bills need more speed at both Safety and Corner

And if they do that....well. That means no upgrades to the secondary

I agree with this. I'm not unhappy with how Rousseou developed this year either, and I thought I saw AJ flash a few times against KC as well. I want to put resources into the secondary. Whether it's a trade or FA or moving up the draft I dunno

I'm just thinking math. But the real question is if the Bills can afford to lose both McKenzie and Sanders. My assumption heading into the offseason was the Bills would keep Isiah, lose both Cole and Sanders, and invest in another position while using late draft picks as depth for WR. Dunno, the offense loses it's only speed thread without McKenzie

That wasn't a pick play, I think the Bills were trying to bait Mahomes into throwing it deep where they had Micah able to help. The right side cleared with straight flys, the RB took Edmunds attention, and Hill simply claimed the space. For me, I'd rather put the money into a corner opposite Tre rather than a pass rusher. The Bills moved MAhomes out of his spot fairly consistently, and that's not why they lost. Actually I think the defense did well considering the personnel available to them - and that was the limiting factor. I'd rather spend on a corner to free up the safeties to be more dangerous in the intermediate game against good teams.

IF Cole Beasley is back then it means Manny Sanders isn't

I don't know about this. We play a ton of Cover 2/4/6 because I don't think McDermott are confident their off corner can handle their jobs. Getting a 2nd corner means you're able to drop one of Poyer and Micah into a shallow zone far more often than the Bills do - especially against good teams. Think about the Hill TD - that was one of the rare times the Bills were in straight cover 1 with Micah Hyde over the top. Hill utterly dusted Levi on a crosser, and with everyone manned, they didn't even realize he had the ball until he was at full speed, and that's game over. A corner who's 30% better than Levi probably means Hill doesn't have a full 2 feet of seperation - and it also means you can unleash your really talented safeties. I think someone like Rasul Douglas makes this defense A LOT better

Wait, so he didn't go over his game planning, and week specific plays, during meetings? My understanding is that in the NFL most of the meat of what happens on Sunday, happens OFF the field. That's why in the NFL you can do so much virtually. You're not spending in season working on fundamentals - you're expected to do get those down in OTAs, summer camp and players own time. You're trying to get players to understand their jobs for the week. If someone can't do that, they shouldn't be working with pros.

Humiliation will never result in a good outcome

A) Hill often plays out of the slot, so it's literally impossoble to jam him B) he's got elite quickness. Have you ever tried jamming someone who's super quick? It's like trying to jam a cat

Definitely get you! Honestly it's wild that the Bills secondary is composed of UDFA (Levi Wallace) , 7th Rounder (Dane Jackson), a 4th rounder (Taron Johnson), and a pair of FA castaways at safety and they managed to be as good as they were without Tre White. The thing is - the draft got their athletic traits right - they're all average to below average athletes for their positions. There's a good argument to be made for adding two dynamic pieces back there, one at safety the other at CB2

Nah, but you can take more risks with your safeties. Like you won't ask Tre to run across the field with Hill, but you'd trust him to take away the deep stuff - and you can ask a safety to play a zone closer to the LOS on Tre's side. Makes a big difference when you're playing a team like the Chiefs

Except the game plan worked. They got enough stops, and got Allen the ball with a shot to take the lead with under 2 minutes left. They basicaly failed the last 60 seconds of the game, and that was mostly down to A) Tyreke Hill's speed and and rookie's failing to generate the pass rush, and B) mysterious coaching decisions in the last 13 seconds.

They did a lot to protect their corners, which made it a lot harder for Poyer/Micah to get into the game. I don't know that Mahomes threw a pass beyond 25 yards? One of the spiciest takes I have is that we need to get someone like Jaquon Brisker for one of Hyde/Poyer, to get more speed, versatility and eplosiveness in the back 7.

Just some incredible football was played by the Bills last night. First up - y'all wanna see a dead body?

His scheme isn't extraordinarily far from what the Bucs do honestly, who run a base 3-4. Both teams have a fulcrum around a pair of sideline to sideline backers - though I would suggest the Bucs have a slightly better pair of backers in Devin White (super star) and Lavonte David than the Bills do with Edmunds and Milano - both use a heavy mix of zones that act to protect their corners. The real difference between the two is how they bring baseline pressure. The Bucs have slightly more versatility because they pick and choose which side to bring their rush guy, or be able to read and bring both, wheras the with 4 down you know which 4 are coming after the QB. And of course there's a bunch of gap and technique differences in a 3 man down and a 4 man down. If you can't get a game wrecker at DE, then I'd opt for a 3-4 with a pair of above average to good rushers at OLB because you can at least force the offense to guess more and you can be more varied in attack. Of course that also opens you up for more big plays and more risk. Right, Mahomes elevated to the situation at hand. The defense - mostly - did it's job Let's call that "don't fix what's going extraordinarily well". Tweak the offense, don't change it.

Think there will be some philosophical discussions that need to happen first. The 4-2-5 may not be a system that could ever hope to stop Mahomes and modern spreads. 3-4 with disguised blitzes and coverages may be better suited. You have a lot of pieces in place for that to work as well, with Milano/Edmunds as your MLBs, Oliver as a DE, Harrison Phillips as a NT, I think Boogie woudl be fine as a 3-4 DE, while Rousseau is almost a protype for a OLB... I think you need to be more dynamic in your scheme, and a 3-4 gives you a lot more versatility. It also allows you to drop 8 into coverage a lot easier. Pair a philosophical change and hire Wink Martindale

I don’t know that but I’m confident it would be a HUGE risk

You gotta add speed to the back 5. Love both Poyer and Micah but I’d want to upgrade one of them for a faster player, and I’d also add some speed at the boundary corner. Think that’s the biggest weakness here. if you can find a stud DE that’s great but I thought the DLine played well. They were pressuring. Not getting down Mahomes Is a different quest

They would have given up a TD in those 13 seconds playing man against these guys. They don’t have the horses for that. I would probably just play their base cover 4 if it were me.

I don’t mind Mcadermotts defense, but he needs more speed in the back, I think that’s a takeaway I have from tonight. At both corner and safety we need faster guys