GunnerBill

And all four of those 10 point comebacks are against either Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. They will end up the two greatest to ever do it by the time Pat retires. Not sure it proves any point whatsoever.

Those two sentences are slightly contradictory. I think in their near two decades of dominance the Pats swept the East twice - hence the AFCE having a slightly better rate of success against them. Also 9-7 made the playoffs plenty of times in the 16 game season. If you could nick one against the Pats then 8-6 the rest of the way would get you in. I agree that a dominant team impacts the records of the other teams and in a 16 or 17 game sample size it arguably impacts it too greatly, but at the same time The Bills have won four divisions in a row and three times the runner up have won double digit games. So I do think it is stronger now than at any time since the initial Rex Ryan effect wore off in NY.

Josh has had two good olines in his 6 years IMO - 2020 (again accept there is a covid year caveat) and 2023. The line in 2018 was an abomination (Brandon Beane admitted he did a "terrible job" that year with the line in his end of season presser), the line in 2019 was improved but still below average, 2021 it sucked for 3/4s of the year but played well down the stretch and in the playoffs and 2022 it just sucked all year. I kind of think offensive line is a spot where you are always going to need to fill a hole or two for cheap. I don't think when you are paying a QB you can also pay five studs up front. They missed big on Cody Ford, that hurt, they took a bit of a project in Brown who has just had his best year but after we lived through considerable growing pains in years 1 and 2. I think there is some truth to the idea that it hasn't been the top priority, that's fair, but I think their mixed performance on the offensive line is a combination of factors that includes resource allocation but also includes bad talent evaluations, injuries and development issues too (plus coaching actually.... wasn't a fan of Castillo or Bobby Johnson). So I'm not giving them a pass on resource allocation on the oline but I think it is more a combination of factors distinct from wide receiver where to me it is purely they simply haven't allocated enough premium resource to the spot.

The AFC has been the better conference. Without question. I accept the AFCE has been an easier division than the NFCW, that is fair, I'm not sure I buy the AFCE has been as easy as it has since the 90s.... there was a run there after the Jets with Rex until the Bills rose up where no second placed team won double digit games. It has happened in three of the four years that the Bills have won the division. Put the 49ers in the AFC playoff field I doubt they have made a Superbowl. They would get out Quarterbacked too often. Put the Bills in the NFC playoff field I am pretty confident they'd have made at least one.

I voted for 1. But it is a combination of all 3.

Yea Moss suffered from a combination of our style not meshing with his and injuries and a bad oline for some of his time here. I think he was overdrafted though. He was never a 3rd round talent. If they'd picked him rounds 4 or 5 fine.

To be fair they have had some success with lower end FAs on the OL. They got a good season out of Quinton Spain in 2019 before they fell out with him and they got a good season out of Williams at right tackle in 2020 (albeit Covid year wae the easiest year to play OL). Didn't get great value from the contract extensions in either case though. They have taken a lot of shots at OL in FA. They have just not got the right guy often enough. I was never a Feliciano fan and I knew Roger Saffold was a disaster waiting to happen. They have made three day two picks in six drafts which isn't awful. The issue is one of those was Ford who is arguably their biggest bust (though Elam may snag that title from him).

Kamara disappointed me a bit at the Shrine Bowl. He was one of the guys I was really interested in from that game but despite a couple of flashes he underwhelmed both in practices from reports and then in the game. With his smaller stature he really is probably reliant on being drafted as a sub package edge rusher because he will struggle to hold up against the run, but against that level of competition I wanted to see him dominate, and he didn't. I think for the Bills he'd be off my board. Maybe more in a 3-4 scheme where he can come in and rush from a two point stance on obvious passing downs I'd still consider him worth a shot. But the Shrine Bowl was a chance to really boost his draft stock and it was a chance he failed to take IMO.

This is true. Brandon Beane came from Carolina where during his tenure in their front office they didn't value wide receiver in the draft and spent among the lowest capital in the league over a ten year period on it (one 1st, one 2nd and two 3rds in 10 drafts). When Beane was hired as our general manager I did a breakdown of how the Panthers had drafted and what they have prioritised in free agency during his time there. What I concluded was they were one of the teams that still valued running back higher than the league average trend and they prioritised resources in their defensive front 7. The positions they general under invested early picks in (certainly in relation to the league) were wide receiver and corner. I think those trends have absolutely carried over to here. I know they drafted Elam in the first but he is the only corner Beane has picked in the first three rounds throughout his six drafts which is way below the league average. But in both places defensive line has been the priority over and over again.

Everyone loses to Mahomes in the playoffs. His three playoff losses: 1. To Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. I hear those guys were pretty good. 2. To Tom Brady and Bruce Arians (with third stringers manning both his offensive tackle spots no less). 3. To Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor in overtime (and honestly Taylor is not that good of a Head Coach despite having that win on his resume). With Josh, McDermott has never lost to a bad Quarterback. He lost to pre-legal situation Watson at a point when he was still ahead of Josh in his development. He has lost 3x to Mahomes and once to Joe Burrow. Most folks have those two as the other "elite" level guys with Josh. If he starts losing playoff games to middle of the road QBs - Tua etc then I think a LOT of us would be way more likely to agree with the criticism. But for now it remains pretty ridiculous and over the top.

We didn't trade up for Benford or Spector. They were selected with picks accumulated by trading away vets at the end of camp - Daryl Johnson to Carolina and Lee Smith to Atlanta.

Talent pool isn't having time to refill properly. Well he isn't calling the offense here. He is just a pair of eyes for the OC.

He will be the last one capable of divorcing emotion from reason.

They used a version of that concept for the Harty touchdown vs the Giants this year too. In fact it was one of Dorsey's favourite redzone calls early in the year. Josh missed a layup with one and Harty slipped over making the cut back outside on another. But then finally against the Giants they nailed it.

No they were all bad moves. CEH and Toney even worse were entirely predictable disasters. They have $22m in space not $52m. There are some easy cuts for them to get up to $40m plus though.

Oh he definitely has a say. But Brandon Beane is the guy who runs personnel. He has the final call. It is his decision. And as I have said elsewhere the drafting tendencies Beane has now are the ones he grew up with in Carolina, even before McDermott and he met. Worth adding the one draft that we know McDermott ran he drafted a receiver in the 2nd round.

Pegula's record hiring people isn't great.

And nor can Kyle. That is the exact point. That is where they are comparable.

They could have brought him up in that window. Once they didn't he stayed on IR for the year and they couldn't have him active in the playoffs. They never really made clear why they didn't activate in that window. Maybe they just couldn't find a spot, maybe they didn't think he was fully healthy. Frustratingly his window closed then Gabe immediately got injured so we never got to find out.

Some interesting food for thought. The complexity of the offense is definitely a consideration. Gabe had production as a rookie though even if he wasn't an every down player. They obviously think it is a comparative value thing. But as I said before this is consistent with how and where Beane was brought up in this business. Carolina did not draft receivers early very often in his time there. They drafted DL, LB and RB earlier that most other teams. Beane is following that trend here.

I am fine people having different views about McDermott. I am fine with people who want to fire him. I don't agree but they are entitled to their views. It is the proliferation of LAMPs masquerading as something new while trying to re-hash the same old points and the number has shot up again the last two days. If people want to engage in honest, mature debate those arguments exist already in other threads without the board being spammed consistently. At one point this year the Bills had nearly a 3rd of their total cap send unavailable to them. That hurts any team. I said it somewhere else the other day but I can't think of a team who three years in a row have lost key defensive first team all pro level guys to severe serious enders of the likes Tre, then Von, then Tre and Matt have suffered. Because those aren't even "miss the rest of the season but go again in camp" injuries. They are injuries that have impacted the following year too. It sucks. We are due a bit of luck on that front in 2024. Here's hoping.

There is a comparison. You only see one side of it.

I agree to an extent that the have no holes be solid everywhere focus is the wrong approach. Although as I have explained elsewhere in recent days their Dline rotation really isn't out of sync with the other good teams. It is the way the NFL is going. Nobody plays their best 4 guys 75/80 % of the time. The issue for the Bills is they have ONLY had high picks and decent FA vet contracts in that rotation with the exception of Justin Zimmer. The dline is not a spot where they have taken any day 3 shots in the draft as a result because they have been "well stocked" and as Beane always says once you get into round 5 and beyond "where does a guy have a chance to make the roster?" becomes a valid part of your selection process. The single biggest change I'd make to the way they have drafted is to re-allocate some of the earlier assets on dline and running back to wide receiver. But equally I am not shocked they haven't - in the 10 drafts that Beane was in a senior position in the Carolina front office they spent a pick in the top 3 rounds on wide receivers just three times. When Beane arrived I did a breakdown of what they valued in Carolina and what they didn't and it has pretty much stayed true. Don't take WRs and OTs early. Do take Dline, running backs and linebackers early. They took NINE DLine in the first 3 rounds in those 10 years. But to that being said I still don't think the issue is whether it is defense or offense. The issue is elite level talent. I have consistently felt like we are 1 or 2 guys short of the other competing teams in that regard. I think we have been deeper in a lot of spots. Arguably more complete. But our best 21 around Josh doesn't have as much very top end talent as other best 21s around Mahomes, Burrows, Jackson, Hurts, Purdy, Prescott etc.

I don't have any disdain for Shanahan. I have called him possibly the greatest offensive play designer of all time. He is the best Quarterback hider in football. He needs less at that position to win than any other coach. He was one of the guys I wanted here in 2015 but he screwed up the interview. I just think there is a level of cognitive dissonance that goes on when you discuss him.and his success from people who only look at that. I a) don't think Josh in his scheme is the slam dunk some do; b) think he makes at least as many (probably more) poor in game decisions as McDermott has in the playoffs; c) also hasn't managed to get past Mahomes and KC. So some of the extrapolations people are making are reaches.

A million. People need to grow up.