GunnerBill

Frank? The man who personally vouched for Carson Wentz and pounded the table for the ghost of Matt Ryan? Yea. No.

For years it was the Saints cos Brees was my favourite player in the league. Now it is just whoever is playing the Eagles. I hate the Eagles more than any other team in the NFL

Definitely true his lane discipline in the run game has kept him off the field at times. He was better at that in 2022 though. Wasn't just his pass rush that ticked up. I think he may be what he is... a rotational rusher not an every down player... but he may still have more to come.

It's okay. I kept the nudes.

I am optimistic about what we did on the offensive line. I am hopeful we will have a much improved group.

Even with these modern interpretations I am not a woman.

That *they* didn't take Allen. Joe Schoen very much DID take him. Indeed I am not sure the Bills select Josh Allen without Joe Schoeb. He was the first member of the senior brass to go scout him in person.

If you ignore the first year (which given what they asked of him wouldn't be unreasonable) AJE has been on a pretty decent improvement arc. Not to say he as yet has justified his draft slot.... but he is still someone whose best football could still be ahead of him I think.

@Einstein - on the injuries point, while the data is interesting thw football outsider analysis what it also shows is the last two years the teams that make the Superbowl are top 10 in their ranking. Philly and KC are 3 and 4 in 2022. The Rams and Cincy were 5 and 8 in 2021. It would be interesting to look at historically but I suspect that pattern would continue. Once you get towards even middle of the pack I suspect you don't win Superbowls. It does on the flip side also show what an opportunity wasted 2021 was for the Bills.

See I am not on board on the bolded. I think Allen has proven himself elite. I think McDermott has proven more than Beane personally.

Yes.

All teams McDermott would have taken to the playoffs too. I'd add 2012 and 2015 in there too. Allen would have had at least a couple of those teams in potential Superbowl contention but I think McDermott instead of Greggo, Mularkey, Gailey, Marrone and Rex and each of those rosters even with Bledsoe, Fitz, Orton and Tyrod would have been playoff bound. No. It is more Allen. The QB always matters more. But it is both of them.

Put Josh Allen on the 2004 team and they are a Superbowl contender. But equally leave the entire roster the same and swap out Mularkey for McDermott and they are a playoff team. Both make a difference. Josh makes more of a difference, completely. Because QBs always matter more than coaches. That's the NFL. It is after 2004 for me. The dog days of the drought were 2005-2011. Those six seasons the team seemed constantly undertalented and the coaching was uninspiring. 2012-2016 the Bills with better coaching (and not starting a bad rookie QB in 2013) should have made at least 2 if not 3 postseasons.

2021 was the coaching. Nobody has ever denied that. To the contrary. They had already beaten them just weeks before.

Ah so it is only ever the players except when it goes wrong? Nah. Coaching is worth somewhere between a quarter and a third of total performance in the NFL. Both positive and negative it doesn't only matter in the playoffs or whatever else fits the narrative.

That way round, yes it works. The QB is more important than the coach in the NFL. No question. It has been that way for as long as I have watched the league. Maybe it wasn't in the 80s and 90s but it is now. However, the opposite way... give McDermott the 2012 team that had Mario, Byrd, Gilmore, Dareus, Kyle, Fred, CJ, Cordy Glenn, Wood and Levite and Fitz at QB he would have at WORST gone .500 I actually think he'd have made the playoffs. He made the playoffs with a very similar roster in 2017. So QB matters more than coach - agreed. But McDermott had 1 year with a scrub vet at QB and made the playoffs. He would have got at least 3 of those drought teams in IMO.

Yea Chiefs are 4-3 in the same time period. Okay one game above .500 is better than one game below .500... but ultimately when you don't have good Quarterbacking in the NFL you should be around .500 or a game either side. That is the way the league is. Now if you are the Bengals and 0-4 when your QB rates below 80 over the last two years... then you might have a worry. Also telling that Allen has 11 games sub 80. Mahomes 7. Burrow only 4.

I can easily imagine a world where they did, yea.

But KC had Patrick Mahomes.

To the bolded there is a bit of an Allen cult. At least that is understandable though. He is our best player, he is out biggest asset, and he is ultimately the single biggest reason we are a potential Superbowl team. But there is a bit of a blame everything and everyone else and defend Josh at all costs. But like I say, not something I am going to spend a lot of time calling out because it is understandable. Josh is the most important guy (even though he should not be above criticism.) But remember we had a similar cultish devotion on these boards to Tyrod Taylor now that really was insane. The Allen cult makes sense. Equally Dopey making this post is just going to incite the people he doesn't want to hear from to respond dozens of times telling him why he is wrong by repeating the same arguments made multiple times already this offseason.... so tactically as a way to resolve the frustration not sure it was the move to make

There is truth to this to. And in fact they jump in to threads to make the same points over and over again where there is only a tangential link to what they want to say... almost as a counter to anyone saying anything positive. So much so in fact that one of the poster referred to jumped into a thread to argue with me the other day that I was making excuses for the Bills v Cincinnati by talking about injuries. Unfortunately for him my post was nothing to do with the Bills, or the Bengals for that matter, it was about the reason the Rams went from SB Champs to chumps... which was largely injury related. Just shows they are so keen to jump in with the "yea but" that they often haven't really engaged with the debate. The board in my 10 years of membership tends to swing different ways. We are definitely in a "negative" phase at the moment with some repeat offenders. Go back 3 or 4 years and we had a "homer" phase. Neither are great. People should be able to actually engage with the discussion without just regurgitating the narrative. In fairness to @PBF81 - he did that with me for the most part a few weeks ago. I don't think his position moved at all, but the majority of his posts in a back and forth did at least try and engage with the debate. But I think he thinks I am a massive homer. Which anyone who has been around here for the decade that I have been will know is far from the truth.

Agree with most of this although I don't really put 2020 on him either. I think the Chiefs were better coached in the game, no question (I actually think Spags > Dabes was the biggest coaching mismatch that day) but they were also just a more experienced, more talented team. You can't ignore than in 2020 they showed that in the regular season too. I don't think the Bills were 'ready' to beat the Chiefs that year. In 2021 and since we have been the better team in all 3 H2H meetings IMO.... though only narrowly in the playoff game.... and that is why it was close enough for the coaching blunders at the end to cost us.

They are all just guesses at this point. Nothing more.

I wouldn't say zero chance. But he'd need to have broken out fully into a bona fide elite pass rushing DT. In terms of the 2024 guarantees his salary ($2.5m) is guaranteed and $5.5m of the option bonus is an automatic guarantee. Then the next $7m guarantees on the first waiver day. But they are all full guarantees not injury guarantees as far as I can see. It is a very clever incremental contract by the Bills.

It will be $45m as long as they don't cut bait after 2023. Sorry... will be almost $40m guaranteed if they don't cut bait after 2023. The final $5.5m guarantees at the start of the league year in 2025.