Bleeding Bills Blue

A lot of the teams sack numbers got goosed up by the 9 sacks against Washington. Buffalo was 4th in the league in sacks, and top 10 in pressures and pressure %. Floyd had 6 of his 10.5 sacks across three games - @NYJ, WSH, NYJ. Obviously the one was rodgers ankle exploding, the others were wilson and howell. He was probably the most consistent pressure player at times, but he was also likely playing a higher concentration of 3rd downs and pass rush specific packages as he was a borderline liability in run support. He had 6 total pressures and 1 sack across the last 7 games including the 2 playoff games. This is basically shaq lawson's pressure production, playing on 3rd downs only. Outside of floyd - the departing players and pass rushers are Lawson, Phillips, Settle, Ford, Joseph. I don't see how anyone we have brought in isn't at least a capable replacement (if not an outright upgrade in several cases). It all comes down to whether Miller and Solomon can generate some juice on passing downs. Miller honestly looked more dangerous come playoff time than floyd.

They stopped them the previous 2 drives. And Klein likely doesn't play the entire drive, Play action isn't really in play, you can maybe run twice on the drive. I think its a better chance to win there than overtime.

If the checkdown is there for a first down, whats wrong with the playcall? Allen also threw a very similar TD to kincaid the week prior. So its not as if that route combination doesn't work. I personally think we win if we get the TD. They have 2 timeouts but need a TD, and their running attack that had been really effective is likely not going to be in play in a 2 minute drill.

I'm happy to see some changes in there though. Brady getting the full time gig to me seemed logical. The offense wasn't considerably better in yardage or points even, but they were very improved at running the ball and maintaining time of possession. Babich getting promoted does seem like a changing of the guard. The Frazier coverage defense got the team near the end, but it never worked against better QBs. So with the loss of poyer, hyde, and tre - its likely a signal to some changes on defense. Considering McDermott comes from a Jim Johnson coaching background, i think there is a willingness to pressure QBs differently than in the past.

They literally went 5-12 the year after they won a super bowl. I feel like that was kind of a transition year.

I like multiple tight ends because you can be pass happy on a drive, and yet you're still playing a physical brand of offense. Short TE targets lead to down field blocks by other pass catchers, and forces corners and safeties to tackle big strong dudes. Or they're forcing their linebackers to cover players like kincaid and knox - you will run into teams during the season that don't have the horses to even do this.

So there's a salary guarantee of 4.5M in 2025 that was included at signing. So he won't be cut because of that - it would actually cost cap space to cut him. Trading him another team acquires all of his base salary numbers. Buffalo would be responsible for all the signing bonuses even on a trade. In that scenario you would gain 2.6M in cap space in 2024, and eat 12.5M in cap space in 2025 (~17.5M total). The 2.6M then just pays the replacement, and you have a huge cap hit in 2025 for a player who would then have played elsewhere for both of those seasons.

Very largely dependent on this season imo. He was solid in 2023, some drop issues. I do wonder if keeping him out of the end zone (he gets like no red zone carries) will make him want to leave though.

2 of their top 3 players in target share left the roster going into this season, as well as 15 TDs. I disagree with cutting or trading another guy who has been here for 5 years and has 28 TDs over that time, especially when the savings is basically enough to sign a replacement player - while also adding a massive dead money hit in 2025.

I remember he had a really rough start, then he was injured. It's hard to evaluate a season when i know he was both playing with the injury, missed a ton of practices with the same injury, and snap counts went down considerably by the end of the season. Missed 5 games including 2 pre-bye games with Brady at OC. After that his snap counts were reduced to mostly sub-50% snaps in the 7 games he played upon returning. He was targeted 11 times in 7 games after his return, but he had 2 TDs. If he's averaging say - 30 snaps a game down the stretch... and only like 15 of those plays are pass plays... and he's probably pass protection on several of those... doesn't lead to a lot of targets to make a big impact on those stats. As for his pay - he took a pay cut to stay here and trading/cutting would result in ~12M in dead money next season for limited savings this season. If they ate the hit for diggs in 2023 i don't think they're moving knox to get blasted in 2024. Not to mention you probably get worse at the position, that might be more important than ever with changes in the WR room.

Uhh Zappe threw 3 picks, one returned for a TD, and they scored 14 points on offense... So basically a net of 7 points. Another was returned to the red zone. They outgained the bills by 13 total yards but had 4 turnovers to 1. NE got the game within 1 score with 11 minutes left. Buffalo possessed the ball for like 10 of those minutes.

I think that he's probably just injury filler at this juncture. Sign somewhere during camp or after as a PS vet. Eventually either get called up or signed off the squad by another team.

Absolutely gashed in the run game in that one, and our run game was pathetic. 2 of our better run defenders leaving the game hurts a ton. Terrible travel plan. Terrible game plan. Terrible injury luck. Jax missed 1 tackle. Buffalo missed 18 per Pro football reference. Buffalo had 4 drops to their 2. Just everything about this game was letting it all slip through your fingers in some capacity.

He signed his deal in 2022 for 4 years. The last year has a massive base salary that essentially forces them to release him like a huge roster bonus, or forces them to restructure and extend. His thought is why wait to do that and give me some guarantees.

Even before Tua signs his deal. They are in a pickle moving forward. They paid Chubb. Picks and dollars for Ramsey. To a lesser extent Jackson Brooks and Sieler. Picked up the 5th year option for Phillips (this is a large cap hold going into the offseason that you may want to tag someone). They didn't pay Hunt and Wilkins. Cut Howard and eat 23M in dead space in 2025. I just don't see how they can keep Holland AND Phillips after this year. Oddly enough - this group is some of their best players from 2023. Hills cap hit in 2026 is 56M, which will require a major restructure - which is concerning when the player is 32. Armstead's cap hit increases to 22M in 2025 and he will be 34. The void years for decreasing those hits would be the same as Hill, so i suspect he is released next offseason. It's basically - you're married to this core, or you're ripping off several bandaid's at once.

He was williamsville north.

I think he was joking when he said it. The biggest challenges to playing time in the NBA (for rookies and actual basketball players) are spacing and defense. If you can't shoot well enough, or quick enough, your presence on the floor will clog up the interior. You're useless in a pick and roll because they will switch and double. Defensively, they'll pick on you every time up the floor if you are a minus in that regard. You'll pick up fouls, give up easy buckets, screw up rotations, and just generally the other team will score points when you are out there.

My biggest gripes with refs are the phantom calls and the inconsistency from crew to crew on things like defensive holding and illegal contact, and team to team on things like holding offensively. Ball spotting i guess can be an issue but it feels rarer and far less likely to have a big influence on the game results.

A laser doesn't fix issues with ball spotting so i tend to agree. It's like putting a chip in the ball - what use is it to know if the ball broke the plane if you can't determine possession, whether it was a catch, or whether their knee was down. I think a few extra camera's might be beneficial, and potentially some eye in the sky officials who can radio in calls a bit quicker. I also think the review process of having the ref run to the sideline with headphones is stupid. Why isn't there just a league office who can review and radio it in? Having played football... You look at that bullseye on like every play. It really isn't hard to see it.

It works in man quite well. See i liked them and i think it was just a check in the 3x1. If you have numbers to the sideline you can just throw a pass for an easy 5ish yards and stay on schedule. Break a tackle and its a first down. Diggs was actually quite terrible at them. Between drops, hesitation, and being one of the weaker blockers, he didn't offer much on in the bunch.

It helps having a winning culture, and a head coach who is among the better defensive coaches in football. Even losing a lot of snaps and leaders on that side of the ball, I'm fairly confident that the defense will still be good.

Prima donna was listed in all of his scouting reports from what i remember.

Coaches with super bowl championships - Reid - Best coach, coaching staff, GM, and QB in the league. It is going to be hard to win a super bowl with Allen. John Harbaugh - Won in 2013 - 3-6 in playoff games since McCarthy - Won in 2010 - 6-9 in playoff games since Payton - Won in 2009 - 5-7 in playoff games since Pederson - Won in 2017 - 2-3 in playoff games since and missed playoffs in 2/5 seasons McVay - Won in 2021 - Missed playoffs in 2022 and 0-1 in playoffs since Tomlin - Won in 2008 - 5-9 in playoffs since, hasn't won a playoff game since 2016-2017

He did lead the league in passing yards... 5th in TDs, 3rd in comp% for full season starters, top 5 in sack %, 2nd in NFL in Y/A, NY/A, ANY/A. Their offense was tops in the league in yards and 2nd in points. The other 2 guys in his class each received 50+ million. Burrow went to a super bowl yes, but he's actually missed more games than Tua, and makes 55M AAV. Herberts AAV is 52.5M on his new deal, he's also never won a playoff game, and the actual team has a losing record in games he's started.

I thought lewis and Johnson were more problematic that season.