BarleyNY

Only an idiot would willing admit to a situation as described above. Poor execution by staff and team? Sure. We all saw that. Failure to get a called play in followed by frustration and disarray? No. Even if true you can’t tell the world that. It is so much worse. You just have to learn from it an make sure it never happens again.

Fully understand where you are coming from. This is a good reason why it won’t happen and I would not consider it unless Tre was good with it.

He’s not Kelce, but he would be our best TE. So, yes.

It really is not necessary regardless of the exact circumstances here. He’s the HC. Ultimately it is his responsibility. He chooses his staff, he chooses how involved to be in scheme, preparation and play calling - and in what situations to do so. Ditto for personnel on the roster (along with Beane, whom he chose) and on the field. McDermott should be first and foremost where responsibility is concerned, be it good or bad.

I find it very odd that you insist my issue with not wanting to support EsPN is over $60 a year and not the mind numbingly poor content offered by them. Are you projecting you own financial struggles? Are you blowing too much of your income on your ranch dressing habit? If so, check one of your tubs for a ranch addiction help line.

DL: Star, Epenesa, Rousseau, Basham, Oliver. First, pick up Oliver’s fifth year option. Look to extend him during the season if he’s still playing at the level he was last season. Effing Star. We are stuck with him next season due to his contract and lack of bodies at DT. Please re-sign Phillips to a reasonable deal. He will have to want to be here because the DT market is going to get people PAID. We have to shore up the position somehow. Gotta go value shopping in FA or the draft at DE for depth too. LB: Milano, Edmunds and Klein. Stuck with Edmunds another season, but do not compound that mistake by extending him. Also no sense paying a 3rd LB (again) when you run a Nickel base. Klein was not good this season so he’s an easy cut. He’s due a 3/20 roster bonus so he should be gone by then. I’d add a depth FA and a draft pick (3rd round or beyond) with instincts and upside. DB: White, Poyer, Hyde, Taron Johnson, Joaquin Johnson, Dane Jackson. The obvious hole is CB2. I’d like to bring back Wallace if we can get a reasonable deal done. Plus we need to add another outside CB in case Tre is not back early in the season. A draft pick or a vet that comes at a decent price are fine. We also need to draft a safety as depth/future starter. Poyer is entering the last season of his deal and we should look to extend him. Specials: Bass, Ferguson, Haack. I would look to upgrade Haack. Otherwise I’m good. Also Id probably start talking extension with Bass’ agent later in the season or next offseason. He’s signed through 2023 now.

I did not know that. So there is some value there. I just couldn’t see paying for their opinions.

I think so lowly of ESPN that I’ve never looked at what it cost. Literally any amount of money is too much for their “Insider” content IMO. However I’m happy to support sites I deem of value. ESPN just isn’t one of them.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/yearly/cap/ This is another way to look at the roster. Scroll down to each position group and you can see where the needs are. I’m only including players on the roster that matter in some fashion. No Christian Wades. My synopsis and opinions: QB: Allen is the only one under contract so we will need a decent backup. RB: Singletary and Moss. An upgrade at RB1 would be preferable. A complete back who can run, catch and pass pro is worth spending on. FB: Gilliam. Fine. Whatever. WR: Diggs, Davis, Beasley, Stevenson. Hopefully we can find some help here. Beasley is firmly on the chopping block if we find two good options. He’s due $500k by 3/20 so we should know by then. The plus is that Allen is a great selling point. Diggs is touted as an option for creating space, but there’s an issue. He’s underpaid by going market rates. I don’t know that he will be on board with a restructure that doesn’t include a bump. He might come looking for that bump anyway. Also it wouldn’t hurt to bring back McKenzie for depth. TE: Knox and Sweeney. Please, please, please find a good TE to go with Knox. Please. I’d prefer someone to push Knox down to TE2, but I’d live with someone who could push him and come in when he has the dropsies. A FA and a draft pick to knock Sweeney off the roster is my preference. OL: Dawkins, Feliciano, Morse, Williams, Brown, Doyle, Ford. Bates is a RFA. Restructure Dawkins to push cap space down the road. Morse is probably a cap casualty, tho he could take a cut to stay. His replacement should be added this off-season regardless. Feliciano and Williams are possible cuts, though I don’t think we would gut the whole IOL in one off-season. There has to be at least one IOL player added who can help in the run game. Brown is obviously safe. I’d love a swing tackle added. Oh and please get rid of Ford. He has no guaranteed salary left. Defense on next post.

Every time I see an ESPN insider article linked I have the same thought: Someone paid for ESPN insider? I mean, show me someone who pays for ESPN insider and I’ll show you someone who puts ranch on their wings. 🤭

It’s just not worth talking about specific free agents until March. So many will be re-signed, especially the top ones. Nothing has shaken out yet. Now is the time to look at our roster and determine where our holes are, which FAs we should re-sign and which players aren’t living up to their contracts. The other places to look are on rosters with new coaches. There might be some opportunities there for trades and with high turnover due to rebuilds.

Lol. Even at the tail end of his career Gonk would be TE1 if Knox was his competition. And it’s really not that close.

Knowledge of your opponent can’t hurt, right? Especially when there isn’t a lot of change or growth. I’ll give Reid a lot of credit. When he was with the Iggles the joke was that he bought his tickets to Hawaii cheap because he got them early. For the youngsters here, that was because he seemed to always coach the NFC team in the Pro Bowl which used to be held every year in Hawaii. It was an honor that was given to the head coach of the losing teams in the AFC and NFC championship games. And he was there a lot. He was a very good coach, but he has grown into a great one. Sure, he’s got Mahomes instead of McNabb, but he’s so much better now. He'd get his team far, but you just knew that he blow it at some point. He’s grown from one who was at McDermott’s level (and that’s certainly better than most) into what we have seen in KC. We just have to hope that McDermott elevates his game - or finds coordinators that do. Incidentally I think Daboll did a fantastic job, but is gone to the Giants this year. Hopefully Dorsey is up to the challenge.

This is very weak sauce IMO. Firstly, it’s not like KC wasn’t missing some key pieces of their team Sunday night. In fact, they were missing more than the Bills were. Secondly, some people myself included, discussed how egregiously thin our CBs and secondary corps were during the off-season. IOL too. Meanwhile tremendous cap and draft capital was poured into the DL, but we have only seen average to good results out of that so far. It’s been a poor value for what’s been spent. While we weren’t going to find anyone who could fill Tre’s shoes, we could’ve gotten both another decent CB and S who could spell our starters without being total liabilities. That might’ve been nice to have against KC. McDermott went all in on the DL so they would have a very deep rotation and they could stay fresh. But the secondary was paper thin going into the season and that definitely cost us Sunday.

Andy Reid has his team fully prepared for situations like we saw Sunday night. We’ve seen that before. McDermott did not. And we’ve seen that before too. That was the difference between the Chiefs or Bills getting to the SB. And it was the difference last season too even though the Bills were not directly involved. The pivotal moment came in the Chiefs-Browns game, but KC moved on to the AFCC game against the Bills because they were fully prepared. Ultimately it’s up to the Pegulas to make sure that McDermott & Co address preparing for such situations moving forward.

Phenomenal

I think that while KC has better top end DL talent, they are very shallow there. The Bills have much, much better depth. Also Frank Clark is a great talent, but he didn’t have a great year.

When both are healthy* I’d say the Bills and Chefs are pretty much a push in talent in every category - except TE.

I’ve been an advocate of adding a good TE to pair with Knox. Add a better RB and some IOL help and we would have a lot more scheme flexibility on offense.

Hear me out - penalty kicks.

He’s here next season due to the Bills having picked up his fully guaranteed, $12.7M fifth year option. Not much to be done about that at this point. What we shouldn’t do is compound that mistake by extending him further. Drafting a mid round LB with good instincts this off-season would be smart. Then at least we would have that player in place and he’d have some knowledge of our scheme. We could still look for a bigger upgrade in 2023.

Daboll has done Allen immeasurable good. He’s helped him grow from one of the rawest rookie QBs I’ve ever seen to what he is now. And Daboll tailored an offense that emphasized Allen’s strengths and minimized his weaknesses. He did an incredible job with Allen.

I think McDermott is a good head coach too. The best answer might be to find a DC who can improve the defense. That would mean McDermott would have to cede control over it. It’s pretty much the same construct and scheme as he ran in Carolina. That’s what has to change. I don’t know what Frazier could bring to the table if he had more control, but based on his track record I don’t think he’s the answer. I would move on from him and find someone who would actually run their own defense. So I guess I’m on the same page with Frazier, but I don’t want to see him swapped out for another guy who is just there to run McDermott’s defense. McDermott also has to give up running the defense.

For what it’s worth, the refs were allowing holding by both OLs. Typical “it’s a playoff so swallow your whistles” game. Oliver did very well under the circumstances.

How do you gut Frazier for this, but not McDermott? It’s his defense in scheme and personnel. I’m not saying Frazier shouldn’t be accountable. He should and so should McDermott. It is both or neither.