pocoboy

This team has the talent already. I don't think any of us can sit here and say that in the last three seasons the Bills met up against a true buzzsaw - maybe after the 2020 season vs the Chiefs, they were still trying to figure out their stature within the league. But these last two seasons were the epitome of unforced errors: 2021 - 13 Seconds was just a tactical disaster, they had that game won. One phase of the team showed their tenacity & determination, but the other withered on the vine. But even before that, the stretch leading up to (and including the first 3 Quarters of) the Tampa Bay game was sloppy & uninspired (9-6 loss @JAX, and obliteration by the Colts at home). 2022 - the overriding theme was the emotional toll of being the top dog, married with several traumatic events (Topps, Kim Pegula, Blizzard, Hamlin). The away Miami game was a harbinger, they didn't quite have their heads on straight for that, and the elements wore them down mentally. Beating the Chiefs seemed to be their Mount Everest. The team relaxed in the 2nd half of the GB game and played the @NYJ game in such a fog that Allen ended up injured while under duress trying to pull another of his heroic Houdini acts like the 13 seconds game. To impart the best possible narrative for the future, Allen's injury hampered Ken Dorsey's ability to call games that would beat the defensive formula that had proven successful in slowing down the offense. And then both Cincy games...the playoff game was an embarrassment, but one could argue their regular season match-up was headed for a similar result when Hamlin's cardiac event occurred. It's tough to sit right here and think that this team doesn't have the level of talent necessary to get the Lombardi. They certainly have weak areas - and offensive line is one of the worst to have deficiency in. But every time this team seems to be realizing their true potential, they get a case of the yips, or ennui, or whatever, and piss it all away. I'd say the Bengals are the closest team to being that "buzzsaw" I mentioned earlier, but do I really think that man for man that team is better than Buffalo? I think for this team, every week comes down to whether they are truly ready to play. Sean McDermott should probably be reading every dime store book on motivation tactics, because I feel if this team puts its mind to it, they can beat any and every team.

Lots of local media types were spending 2021-23 wailing away at how they could take luxury RB picks early because they were so deep. It just doesn't work that way. Hopefully the guys you list still have plenty in the tank and show the resurgence needed to reassert the Bills as the team to beat. That being said, it has seemed like their approach changed once already when they ascended to that height (right after that KC win in the fall of last year). Injuries, distractions, disasters, near-death experiences...they all contributed certainly. But when you combine 13 seconds, the Minnesota debacle, and both Bengals engagements...yeesh, can this team finally get their heads on straight?

That's the trouble with acting out like an infant on national television and cultivating this online persona of being unhappy multi-millionaire getting to wear designer threads and mope around. Don't really need Stef to be something he isn't, but one opens themselves up to this kind of shock journalism when they - hate to say it - act like they are unhappy in their current situation.

Has that ever stopped them before? If they thought there was more lucrative market (higher ticket prices, luxury boxes, brand new barn, etc) out there, the league would do it. If only to play that market to get the bucks for the arena renos. Would be nice to see the Jacobs family, Pegulas, and some other Boston magnate pull one of those ownership swaps to get the Sabres into their hands. They've helped the Bruins to a solid run here.

The **** flows downhill. We'll see at the end of this season how that Year 2 thing goes.

Yeah this was the kind of thing our former Def Coord passed up because, oh well, THE SCHEME. Of course if McDermott starts calling 3rd and 18 like Frazier.......

Now I know he had injury problems in Washington, and that team is a bit of a joke...but hell if he couldn't beat out Taylor Heinicke he seems like a long shot to be a competent backup on this team. Granted the thought process is probably, "We've gotta push all-in on this season with Josh still at a reasonable salary & cutting around $2MM in backup QB salary can be used elsewhere." If that's the rationale, I'd rather make Barkley the backup and sign an undrafted rookie to the PS for the bare minimum.

The question is whether this is Rivera's parry. He may be claiming it to try and cast the negativity towards Bienemy rather than himself.

It hurts to think about, but yes. And maybe last season's early demise might have transpired differently. It was rare to see a New England team fall flat like we did against Cincy. Then again, we all love the idea of Belichick & his strategy...but maybe that whole "come to play" attitude was a Brady thing? It mostly followed him to TB, and only squad injuries and aging seemed to hold that back.

Would it be any surprise if Volin & others' source is none other than McWeenie and/or his camp? He's gotta lay the groundwork for whatever endgame comes from his mundane stay in Foxboro, and the best way would be for the fans to blame & abandon Hoodie for the deficiencies. Belichick will retire soon anyway. Luckily they already have their next coach/GM in da house, and hopefully he can fix NE like he did HOU.

Not easy to tell if you've truly missed on picks when they don't see the field enough. Rookies really have to show early under McDermott or else he puts you at the end of the rotation, and unless you fight your way up the ladder it seems like you're relegated to 2nd or 3rd on the depth chart. And maybe that's the way it should be, but I do feel Reid throws guys to the wolves right away. Sometimes you need to get the young guys in there and feeling confidence before they can develop.

If I was going to spend that much on a house, it'd be within walking distance to Jim Nantz's pitch-n-putt.

So first off, I'll put it this way: everyone who had an unreasonably high appreciation for Tyrod would immediately lump everyone who fell into the "Tyrod isn't a franchise QB, we need to draft one" camp into "TYROD HATERS". Including the first line of this post. If there was "hate," it may have been because people worried that the extreme back-in the Bills did in that 2017 season might have abandoned any rational plan to draft a franchise QB. And frankly, way too many of you were advocating for that, maybe so many so that the team felt the need to trade him to both extract value and also to quell any QB controversy. And if you see how Tyrod's last several years have gone, I guess you're still in the camp that the guy just hasn't gotten a shot. Several coaches, systems - and some of them bereft of true QB talent - and yet he couldn't settle into that place as the Case Keenum that takes the Vikings to near glory. It's not hate. I'd love to see him lead the charge. He's an important part of the team's history. But yeesh, this isn't personal.

I'm probably reading this wrong, but it seems to me that the hope is that Cook impresses in camp and gives them the chance to release Harris. I feel like Murray is a bruiser back they need in the short down situations to complement Cook, and would prefer not to be using Cook as the changeup to Harris. Like, if you look at 2022 rushing yardage stats, the next name after Damien Harris is...Zach Moss. And Moss has a better YPC than Harris. I'm assuming they wanted competition to challenge Cook, but it's tough to believe that aside from a true "kicking of the tires" that either guy (Harris or Murray) is their plan on 1st down.

The tough part is owning enough computers to juggle between the 5-6 accounts.

I think stability at this point is a good thing. This could be their rockiest season to date, they have a loaded non-div schedule and 3 division opponents all making strides. The plan has to be to look like that powerhouse that closed out the 2021 season and started rocking in the early 2022 season. Whatever ended up upsetting that apple cart - glimpses emerged at Miami and then took hold vs GB and at NYJ - that has to be behind them. It's imperative that they get this stuff with Diggs fixed - and that probably means getting the offense humming for an entire season with Diggs catching north of 110 balls.

The shame was that Frazier's first Head Coaching stint was terrible. I think he'd have been hired away back in 2020 or 2021 if it wasn't for that past history looming. My perception was always that Frazier's preference would be to maintain standard deployment for too long, i.e. rush the bare minimum to be effective, and trust the defensive line to use their talents to generate necessary pressure while allowing the back 7 to maximize coverage options. I feel like there were many occasions where McDermott asserted control over the defense, even if to just say, "we need to blitz more." I also feel like the situation was a lot tougher last season without a healthy Hyde and Poyer, those guys have great awareness & make excellent adjustments on the fly which is key when you're reacting to a QB's split decisions to thwart a blitz package.

We should start a prediction game for the next time an adaptation of the Kelly/Reed rumors can be reinserted into a beef. It worked for Hasek and Nolan, seems to be fitting here too, surprised we didn't have Rex sniffing Whaley's ex's feet or Tim Murray making a play for Mrs. Moulson.

The early season Miami loss provided fans a lot of cannon fodder, probably was his worst-called game of the season, and was likely the point where he realized the honeymoon was over. Once you get on the bashing train, it's tough to disembark until there's a real obvious moment where brilliance can't be denied. Maybe we would have gotten that if the elbow injury hadn't hampered Allen so much. I think the abysmal offensive performance against Cincinnati in the playoffs reinvigorated the feelings, but I do agree that the changes to the defensive coaching staff were more pressing. There were two games vs Cincinnati where clearly the defense was going to have no answer, and each of the losses last year save the Miami game had this feeling that no matter what the offense would do, the defense was going to fold it away (and even in a few of the wins). They definitely had their hardships as a defense, with Hyde and Miller being knocked out, White barely getting back from his knee, Poyer dealing with things most of the year, and just about every other mainstay on defense suffering from an injury at one point or another. But it seemed like Frazier had lost it - some of the secondary calls in crucial moments were just maddening. But the defense never really eclipsed 13 seconds, and though they got that final stop against Mahomes last fall, outside of the first couple of games it seemed like they were a bend _and_ break defense more than anything.

This is probably going to get worse, not better. You are between a rock and a hard place now. There is no solution besides placating him, but that feels like a temporary salving of a gaping wound.

That's my frustration with what seems to be a section of the fanbase that spends more time on gameday with their face planted in the ground vs. glued to the action. Losing makes the tailgate a lot more fun, it seems.

It's these types of things that make me wonder if Daboll did a much better job than Dorsey of ensuring key players knew their responsibilities on routes etc. I rationalize that by the fact that early in the season there was likely still some memory from previous gameplans and training sessions, but as time faded and plays evolved Dorsey didn't get that aspect right nearly enough.

The Hamlin incident preyed upon the biggest weakness of this team: they are emotionally immature, at least in my opinion. If 13 Seconds doesn't happen, I think this team might be celebrating two in a row. But they still haven't fully recovered from that. Actually, the KC win mid-season may have served to hinder the recovery from that - regardless of what we make of the GB game that followed the bye, it's tough not to look at that Chiefs victory and wonder if they climaxed at that point. And perhaps they get everything back if the litany of disasters doesn't afflict the team - the elbow injury, the blizzard, Von's injury, Hamlin's event...and surely the Topps shooting and Kim's situation were all mixed in there too. But for f***'s sake, I'm sick of being a town that has to drag out adversity after adversity (or perhaps excuse after excuse) why my teams have s*** the bed. Is the difference between a winner and a loser that the winner doesn't need to scribble down the events that kept them from the title? All my defensemen were injured...Hull's skate in the crease...Dickerson's big mouth...the helmet...Norwood... At some point I want my team to say F*** it and do it. Just do it. I don't really want to discount the severity of things from last season, but if we're sitting here in February of 2024 talking about the distraction of the stadium project or someone getting injured or they played too many games in too few days or the London trip, I'm not going to be very patient with it. This team isn't new to this anymore. They've got to solve it. And that probably means the most daunting expectations on our QB that could be expected, and I just hope he's got it in him.

My only observation about McDermott & the team at this stage is about development and learning from mistakes. The thing with Dungy (mentioned by another commenter), he won it all when he ended up with a bonafide HOF QB. To me, McDermott has the tools to win it all if either (or both) a) he learns from the tactical mistakes of previous years, or b) Josh Allen finds his way into that elite company. Is JA17 ever going to be Peyton? That's highly unlikely. But at this stage he's not HOF ready. The best way would be finishing it off in style, leading the team to the ring. Longevity is also an option. At this point, we're left saying "he did everything he could save for 13 seconds" which discounts the Bengals' and Rams' stature. McDermott definitely deserves love, but these contracts are going to make it a bear if they don't come together and get it done soon. ADDENDUM - I think when we mention Dungy, you could toss Reid into this discussion too. With a legitimate HOF QB he overcame those tactical mistakes that dogged him in Philly.

It was mildly sardonic, but there comes a point where someone must "play the hand they've been dealt" (or dealt themselves, in this case). I think I'd characterize JA17's 2022-23 season as volatile - there were some intense highs and lows, plenty of good stuff, but a few too many times like the fumble vs Minnesota. I think it's fair to say that Josh's performance year over year is the biggest contributor to their success or failure. I guess Beane will be hoping that settling Oliver's mind about the next several years will have the opposite effect of, say, Albert Haynesworth.