Flip Johnson

At those numbers you bring Shakir down a little bit and keep all four. TB would be the easiest to replace if you had to part with one. Cook and Benford are legitimate blue chip players and Shakir is very good at what he does.

He is, and has been, 100% washed. It is sad to watch him play now.

The more truthful statement is that the Bills need to put more resources into the defensive line, which is hard to do from the back of the draft. If you look at his drafts re: DLine in the Allen era, they are okay, not a lot of big hits or misses. Everyone is about on level with their draft class - Basham was a bust, Oliver has been very good but not a star, and Rousseau has probably been a little better than you would expect for a #30 overall pick. Guys like Epenesa and Harrison Phillips basically performed at the level they were projected.

It's not a man vs. zone situation - The Bills ran more man than normal against KC. We are lacking the high level athletes in the secondary to make that approach work - especially after Benford went down.

In the 4th game of the McDermott era Hyde had 2 picks and the Bills beat Atlanta 23-17 in ATL. The Falcons were defending NFC Champ and 8pt favorites that day. In the 3rd Q Matt Ryan tried to go deep over the middle and Hyde climbed the ladder and made the pick. After that teams stopped throwing deep against the Bills. it was one of the (many) games in 2017 that the Bills had no business winning and it helped break the drought. Hyde (and Poyer) were huge in turning around the culture of the team. I hope they both go on the wall together.

Also Ronnie's "catch" was a lot harder.

A truly wild take. I assume that you would think John Harbaugh should be fired as well? Teams were frothing at the mouth to hire Mike Vrabel this year. Imagine if McDermott had been available. You would be hiring a coach in February, choosing between the leftovers of the coaching cycle, and trusting Allen in his prime to A) someone learning how to be a head coach, B) a 75 year old man who adds nothing schematically or C) a retread with a much worse winning percentage than your old coach.

The 51yd FG was massive. The Bills probably don't win without that kick.

Not at all the same, not on the same level with McDermott who has a much higher career winning percentage and for all his faults has never had a down year. Vrabel gets a ton of credit for getting a #1 seed with Ryan Tannehill. That's great, but let's remember he had an incredible RB in his prime, a top 5 WR, and an excellent defense while playing in the AFC South. Tannehill was a top 12-15 QB at the time. It is not like Vrabel was adding anything schematically to that offense. Once Arthur Smith left and injuries hit his offense it was a bad team.

Solomon, Bishop, and Carter, just because they have a chance to actually matter in the postseason.

+23 turnover differential is incredible. 458 carries with zero turnovers is unbelievable. The ball security from JA and the RBs has been A+. If you knew at the beginning of the year that JA would only throw for 3,731 yards or that Kincaid would only have 44 catches for 448 yards you might assume that we had a disappointing offensive season.

Rapp is clearly the best safety on the team when healthy. We can get by with Hamlin. Bishop and perhaps Hyde have a couple weeks to show that they are a better option than Hamlin. It's a similar situation at LB. Bernard is obviously the best LB. Williams has flaws but there is proof of concept that we can get by with him. Milano has two weeks to show that he's a better option.

OJ had "off field issues"?

QB Josh Allen RB Thurman Thomas WR Stefon Diggs TE Dawson Knox OT Dion Dawkins/Howard Ballard G Billy Shaw C Kent Hull DE Bruce Smith DT Tom Sestak OLB Darryl Talley MLB Matt Milano CB Butch Byrd SS/FS Poyer/Hyde P Brian Moorman K Tyler Bass KR Terrence McGee Head Coach: Marv Levy

Smoot would matter for the playoffs. We need fresh bodies, plus Smoot can provide some depth inside.

We watched Benford and Douglas get beat in zone, we could have watched Elam pick up PIs in man. If you play Stafford and those WRs in a climate controlled environment and get zero pass rush you are going to get picked apart.

Those were all desperation moves because of injuries.

Whatever you think about Hamlin, Micah Hyde didn't leave San Diego and come back to Buffalo in December to run around on the practice squad and be ready in case someone gets hurt. He will be starting at safety in the playoffs.

How's Kyle Williams feeling?

This has the potential to massively change the way the game is managed by the Chiefs. Butker is an automatic 3pts if you get to the 40. Now they will be going for 4th down on anything but chip shots.

If Bishop was demonstrating in practice that he was processing quickly enough and the he was the better player then he'd be on the field. Hamlin is an intelligent player who understands where he is supposed to be and has a nose for the football. He is probably the slowest safety in the NFL but at least you know that. Bishop played one game and gave up a free access touchdown. It's hard to predict how he might hurt you.

It's not about the run defense. If he was healthy for even a few games and could give 10-15 interior pass rushes a game it would make a difference. Are we excited about Austin Johnson and Eli Ankou on 3rd and 8? JP can crash the pocket when he is motivated and healthy.

Get well Stef. Whatever else you want to say about him, the best four year stretch of any Bills WR ever - and it's not close. He was declining, he needed to go, he should have caught the ball against KC ... yes. 445 catches 5,372 yards 37 TDs

They could sign a kicker to the PS and let that guy start competing with TBass in practice. If nothing gets better then they could carry two kickers and start making TBass inactive on game day.

Norwood: it was always unlikely that he was going to make that kick on grass. The game was lost a hundred times before that kick. Music City: Squib kick was fine, it was a special teams/officiating debacle. 13 Seconds: Coaching Bass: needs to make that kick, but the blown opportunities beforehand are what matter more.