GunnerBill

Ha! In fairness I think the Bills would have picked Addison if he got to them. Sadly, he didn't.

Ha exactly.

I have missed 1 regular season game and 1 pre-season game since 2009. I might actually miss this Sunday. I don't know yet. A friend who is getting married is having a 1 night stag do at a drag bar on Sunday night. Normally I'd make sure to leave early and be home for the Bills. This time I am not sure I will.

Yea. Jordan Addison is pretty darn good. That helps.

Yea I cannot drink Diet Coke. It is undrinkable to me even as a mixer. Coke zero I am not a huge fan of but as a mixer I can deal.

I am not talking about just last night. I am talking about them starting 3-0 and now being 4-7. They got way too much hype early on and this was just a natural regression to the mean.

What a shock. Not.

100% this. Even on those hip drop tackles a lot of the injuries come from a players cleats not sliding the same way on the artificial turf that they do on natural grass. I know from the end of my soccer playing years as more and more non-league sides switched to artificial pitches (because they never have games called off, they can hire them out to schools in the week and generate income etc) that I really struggled to find footwear I felt safe on them in. Now that is one person and is entirely anecdotal and The Lancet did some work earlier this year that found no evidence to suggest there is a causal link between artifical turf and increased injuries. But there was earlier research commissioned for the NCAA thar suggested knee injuries and ankle injuries WERE more common on artificial turf. Basically I am not persuaded that the two are equivalent and I'd support a move back to more grass fields.

To some extent it is the NFL. But the Bills are one of the older rosters AND they will be going into year 8 of a regime that hasn't won a title. So the importance of this mini reset (and I agree it is a reload rather than a tear down and rebuild) is hightened. Also just on fact checks I think they will have 10 picks once they get the comp pick for Edmunds but they can't create cap room by extending AJE if they choose to. He is an impending FA after the season and thus currently counts as 0 on next year's cap. They could extend Greg but next year isn't his option year, next year is year 4, so his cap hit is like $3.5m. Not sure there is a way to extend for the long term and lower that by much at all. It is when a player is going into year 5 on the option that there is hay to be made from extending and lowering hits. There have been some positives this year from the younger guys. James Cook is really good IMO and Bernard even with chaos around him has been one of their best players and a very nice surprise. Kincaid has made some plays and Cyrus started the season very well (has struggled a bit more the last couple of games it's fair to say) and there should be more to come from him.

There was a lot of luck involved. And when it came to it in that Superbowl the Oline blew the game.

Unless they get an oline it won't matter.

I still say they should have drafted Penei Sewell.

We get it you hate McDermott and everything he has ever done.

Jones definitely would. Diggs might be able to play still but he won't be #1 receiver material in 2 more years. Dion has a chance to still be serviceable as a left tackle but he has ongoing weight fluctuations that make me doubt it. The point is this team WILL lose its core in the next 2 years. It is an old team. So it isn't just a case of needing a new head chef. They need some new ingredients. They could possibly punt one more year but beyond that the surgery on the roster HAS to start in a serious way. If this was a young team I'd be willing to overlook a playoff miss and keep a guy I think is a good coach and give him another shot. But it isn't. Its core is old. So my view is why not start that surgery and if you are doing that a new regime makes sense - GM and HC.

I don't agree. Sure they COULD run it back maybe 1 more year with this roster but they are fast approaching a reset point. If they want to run it back 1 more year they should retain the regime. If they want to start the reset they should fire them. But in the next 2 years it is conceivable, indeed likely, that Hyde, Poyer, White, Jones, Von Miller, Floyd, Morse, Dawkins and Diggs will have to be replaced. That is not even accounting for the guys who will hit FA. That is a LOT of turnover. If you are going to commit to begin that in earnest this offseaon it makes little sense to do so with this staff IMO. And I am far from a McDermott and Beane hater. But that is the reality for me. I think this variation of the Bills roster has missed its window. So the question becomes does this regime get the chance to carry out the reset or is it time for fresh voices. I lean toward the latter.

Yes. And he did on the first pick the other night. Gabe should still catch it. No question. But Josh didn't need to put as much as he did on that throw.

I don't want to speak for @HoofHearted and he will no doubt have his own take but to the way college defenses use linebackers these days and the way NFL teams use them are quite different. So many college linebackers seem to project as sub package players only at the next level because they are great athletes but they lack some instincts. And the ones that don't that are genuine 3 down pro style 'backers in college tend to find they are challenged atheltically in the pros - see Jack Campbell who is currently allowing a passer rating of 135 when targeted in the NFL.

Ben Johnson is the stand out candidate. Brian Johnson interests me much less. I haven't loved the Eagles O this year.

There is some truth in this in that McDermott was hired to rebuild a franchise and a culture that was in the pits. The talent on the team when he arrived was below average but wasn't awful. However, the toxicity in the building in January 2017 was worse than at any point during the drought. The Rex era had been an unmitigated disaster in all possible ways. McDermott was very successful in his rebuild. He has done a very good job as Head Coach. From turning around the culture, to establishing cohesion between coaching and the front office, to winning games, breaking the drought and having a couple of good playoff runs. But if the Bills move on after this season the specification for the next coach will not be a culture builder who has the leadership and force of personality to turn around a failing franchise. That work is done. The Bills would either need a proven winner or someone who can maximise their offensive firepower (in a world where they can also get something resembling the real Josh Allen back, and if they can't do that then the whole thing is moot anyway). You wouldn't hire a Sean McDermott type now if there was a vacancy.

I think my answer is still no, but I don't think it is a stupid question. The Texans have a lot of good young pieces on that team and a good young Head Coach. Ask me in a year and if Stroud keeps developing and Josh keeps flatlining my answer would be different.

He has done a good job turning the programme round, nobody is questioning that. But again it is a bit like the Harbaugh conversation for me.... a guy to turn around the programme isn't necessarily the job spec for the next Bills coach if it comes next spring. And for other reasons too I think he will and should stay in college.

If one goes both go and in any event Brandon will not choose the next coach. Terry has chosen two coaches here. They were both 100% HIS picks. I don't see how the next one won't be. Of your list I also am only interested in Ben Johnson and possibly Slowick - although he is so inexperienced as to be a shot to nothing.

I am not convinced Terry has any clue. I really am not. That he hired McDermott and Beane in the first place was a stroke of luck. They were the right people at the right time. Even if it is time to move on now they were very good hires. The chances of him getting it right again? Slim to none IMO. And before anyone accuses me of it this is not an excuse to keep the status quo. It is just my honest assessment of how much ownership really understand what they are doing.

Certainly possible, if that is the accusation that they are constantly nit picking Josh that they have eroded his confidence. I'm not sure what the evidence for that would be because other than the "learning to protect himself" comments publicly they have always been effusive over him. Of course we don't know what they say in private. But like I say to me something is off with Josh. And it goes beyond the football field.

Haha yep, I noticed that. Weeks 3 and 4 when the team was rolling and people were realising actually Bernard can play (and actually he really can, even in the down turn for the most part he has played well) suddenly he started slipping in this "Edmunds wasn't an impact player and he wasn't a difference maker." When for the last two year especially he'd been a "you just can't see the difference he makes without breaking down the film" guy.