I certainly like McD the person and have appreciated what he has built. 7 years of excellent football has been a joy…until January.
McD has always been a culture guy but I think one area he lacked a united vision is with his coordinators. Leslie was older and had more experience than McD, they have a similar D philosophy but I think McD left things to Frazier too much. On offense, I think he was a bit lost with where to go with it when he got the job as a defensive guy. So he gave Dennison try then stumbled onto Daboll where they had a lot of success. But McD always seemed to want to have a more balanced offense and Daboll didn’t. We have seen how much the two liked each other.
Now with Babich and Brady (after detouring to just not a good OC in Dorsey), McD has coordinators that he can dictate his vision better to. I think that is just making the talent that was acquired by Beane with McDs vision in mind now work better on the field than past versions of the Bills. And I think you see that harmony and joy in the way players talk about this team and how loose McD has been lately (snow angels?!)
In the end, McD will be remembered either as a Super Bowl champ or the guy who wasted Joshs prime. But I do think this is the version of the team that can do it. If they don’t get out of the divisional round, I will be shocked. If that’s the case a change would be necessary. Because if I believe the best version of the McD Bills is this and we fall short, we have to try something different…