KingRex

McD and likely Beane have shown their inability to manage the QB situation w/o getting some help with their mismanagement of Peterman's development. I think Peterman might become a solid pro if our braintrust has not destroyed his self-confidence and his teammates confidenc in him by throwing him under the bus as a 5th round drafted rookie. Shady IS the Bills O this year and showed great commitment and physical will in even playing today. If McD and Beane are so shallow and frightened they refuse help when they clearly need it we deserve to lose. Why should they be so frightened?

in what I do with TT this off-season. Shady is clearly the true Bill who embodies what we want for this team. Particularly with the ankle injury last game which reminded him and us how short a career can be, my GUESS is that Shady will have the best sense of whether RRs failings at QB or eliminating a teammate for an uncertain new talent is the better road to take. My sense is that Shady will want to go for it all in 2018 and that the key to that will be using all four of our draft picks in the fist two rounds to build a winner. Certainly trading some of this resource for a hoped to mbe franchise talent who will fail to win the next SB without more players is a bad idea. If McD wants a real assessment then follow Shady's direction.

the key to this what is your rebuilding strategy. TT is not gonna be the QB to deliver an SB win (or even a berth) to this team next year and likely ever. However, trading the draft picks which will be necessary to move up in the 2018 draft is also not gonna deliver a rookie QB with enough talent to win in 2018 (even Peyton Manning went 3-13 his first year and a rookie SB winner like Rothnsb was the last piece in having a winning SB team around him. The Bills ain't there yet. The key is to keep our 4 draft picks in the 1st two rounds and build out this team. The QB should be someone who keeps this team competing next year. Either Tyrod (quite frankly if Shady wants him) or another placeholder who keeps this team in the playoff chase is fine tll we luckout next post-season or we are truly a player away in 2019.

Nope, Not with the typical poor play calling by Dennison. Calling for pass plays with mgoal to go on the 1ish late in the 1st killed us regardless of Tyrod, Shady or whatever.

Nope! In fact, it has been our addiction to trying to find the next Jim Kelly as the ONE thing we need which to me has been the primary reason we have missed the playoffs for 17 byears. Whether it was anointing a player to start before he is developed (ex: we made Todd Collins our starter when he clearly was too afraid of the sack and would get happy feet under pressure), or we made foolish decisions (giving RJ a cap hit mint when he clearly had serious injury problems in the past and this was really stupid when we had already given Flutie an incentive laden contract and when the injury prone RJ went out, Flutie simply performed sandbagging the cap, or the Bills braintrust simply failed in developing players from Losman through Peterman by rushing them to start. The good football move for us to make is to make our priorities: 1. Build in the trenches- a solid stopper/pass rusher (or two) to replace Kyle Williams 2. Another talent on the OL 3. A solid LB 4. A #2 for the still productive but aging Shady 5. A better alternative at QB but we should not get distracted from trench improvement. I think we should upgrade from TT if one can be found after or outside of the highr priorities this year 6. In fact, I'm very interested in trying to find a better OC. This team is not one player away from going deep in the playoffs.

Make no mistake, you start Shady if he is ready to go and you use him as much as you can because a good player is a good player (and frankly a great player and obvious MVP for the Bills O is a great player). Murphy is Murphy and Tolbert is too often DNP Coaches decision. However, the modern NFL has become about hard work to try to counter superior talent, regimentation and getting a feel (building chemistry) for playing together, and analysis and adjustment to opponents.. Hard work for example, appears to be studying tape on opponents to get tip offs on at least the direction and preferably a complete read on the play the O is running or likely to call. Having been featured in over a third of the Bills O plays and really developing an O over 16 games that was centered around Shady, the Bills O will for this game be somewhere between being an O that for a week has focused on: 1. How well and how does the O work running Shady's plays for Murphy's unknown (far inferior no doubt but likely quite different running/pass catching style. 2. Practicing a more Tyrod oriented play calling likely to consist of: A. More utilization of planned TT runs used occasionally but today a standard such as QB draws when the pass coverage is wide. B. More play action passes C. More QB sweep pass/run option plays 3. New wrinkles and plays featuring Tyrod which were in the playbook, but never used as the team focused on using the better runner Shady and making sure TT survived the season. However, in any case if Shady is out or hobbled and in particular if the Bills braintrust has already decided to find a new QB (draft/FA, or trade) then by all means risk and use TT. 2. Developing altered blocking schemes and even personnel packages that suit the inferior skills and different areas of talents of Murphy and Tolbert 3. Installing as best as possible new schemes and looks for running w/o Shady such as A. Use of TEs as H-backs (running the same patterns they do now but lining up in FFB position in backfield- particularly O'Leary B. Use of wildcat sets C. Who knows The weird advantage for the Bills is that there is little or no tape for the Jags on these plays In the modern NFL where the players do their work by studying tape to look for tip-offs on the direction, flow, or specific call. Where DCs scheme to counter what the O generally does and their particular tendencies at a particular down and distance, there simply is little or no tape on what a Shadyless Bills O will do. I hope Shady plays and plays a lot, but even if injuries do not allow, I really look forward to seeing the "new" Bills O we have practiced for a week and the Jags have no tape on. If the flow of this game is actually that a more Tyrod focused Bills O builds a lead and then for the rest of the game the Bills D simply tries to hold on or even better take advantage of the Jags having to rely on Bortles passing, this might be a great game!

I think there were 2 things football stupid about McDermott's decision to bench Tyrod an d go with Pterman starting in SD. 1. It was a dumb way to handle Tyrod who we all know is not an SB capable franchise QB.. Uh Bueller, in case you didn't notice we ain't gonna win the SB this year. The reasonable (but still unlikely at the time) was o "simply" make the playoffs. Tyrod was/is a placeholder, but clearly at that time (to folks not blinded by being in control and thinking they are smarter than they are) a vet QB even wth few pocket spills was our best chance to win because he not only had extraordinary escapability skilss, but most important did not turn the ball over. Tyrod is not Tom Brady or Joe Montana, but he really is the placeholder QB we needed to scrape this team into the playoffs. The bigger problem I have with the decision though was that it was incredibly bad player development of Peterman. Self-confidence is a big part of the game. McDermott not only put Peterman in a position where an NFL consensus 5th round draft pick is voluntarily thrown into leading the team before he was ready. Even worse, not only did he try for this unprecedented result (Roethensburger and Manning were consensus 1st round talents when they led their teams to SBs, 6th round pick Tom Brady sat on the bench and learned the game and even after being forced to start due to the freak Bledsoe injury, he sings the praises of how the plodding feet but trained football brain of Bledsoe helped him dissect the games and perform better). McDermott by announcing the change early in the week gave the SD braintrust the chance to gameplan for the rookie and SD players the chance to practice fooling him. Not only did he challenge Peterman's confidence, but he undermined his teammatres confidence in him. I think Peterman is a good player, and I hope he develops and shows the moxie to comeback from the SD debacle. However, with proper development. I think he might have developed into our 2018 QB. However, it will not surprise me to see him need to practice and play and learn until it takes til 2019 to gain the confidence of teammates and fans.

A hallmark of the NFL has been On any given day, any team can win. This has proven true whether it was a horrendous Dolphins team viewed as worst in he league beating one of the Pats juggernauts in the regular season, or a plucky NYG squad (with noneother than a couple of Bills rejects and a rookie QB) beating a perfect Pats team in the SB that it really is foolish to base choices today on potential gfame outcomes a month away. Besides, the NFL has taught us that winning while the goal does not completely obliterate how you get there If what it takes to produce a dynasty is the action which have led to millions of dollars in fines, Bellicheats stealing videotape and other idiocies, then I'm even happier with the joy of having but breaking the drought. What makes my NFL worthwhile is the $17 donations to Bengals charities, the cheering for Scott Norwood when he was wide right. Its easy to love your team when they win (the Pats win because they are good and for some reason parts of the league seem to repeatedly bend over on things like the TD reversal on Benjamin in Foxboro) but I think Bills fans have painfully learned is that it really is special when you share in the love for a team that tries hard but falls short often. The moments when they break the drought are just magic.

I think we might do several things: 1. More planned runs for Taylor. If the down and distance call for big yards as a need, and the Bills line up wide and the safeties are cheating to cover deep and out patterns, Taylor already has in the playbook and has practiced running the draw and focusing on making an LB in the middle or a spy on him miss and then he's off to the races. This type of run which the Bills might have run when the d&d were later in the series & double digits might be used in more standard situations to replace a missing McCoy. Taylor would be repeatedly hammered physically if the Bills went this way, but if the braintrust has already decided to look elsewhere next year, then who cares. Worst comes to worst is TT does well, the Bills win and their choosing between good or better is a great problem. 2. More option sweeps for TT. Most would be run with him starting one way with the blockers seemingly going that way, but TT reverses field into something looking like a naked bootleg, or they come out more in empty backfield set-ups and Tyrod is virtually on his own, but the chances of him holding the ball and keeping his eyes downfield suits his game. 3. Installation of the wildcat with more use of Cribbs. 4. More double TE set-ups with use of O'Leary in an H-Back role who is more of a fullback (I have not seen the Bills use tis set-up, but if they are a man short at RB (particularly an important one to the short passing game like McCoy, this is one way NFL teams utilize the TE more. 5. More end arounds by the WRs- A standard for the Bills in the old days and most NFL teams that the Bills may have to employ if McCoy is down. Overall, this McCoy situation may play out to the Bills advantage ironically. If you are the Jags what kind of film study and DC prep do you do? Most teams carefully and virtually fully prepare for the several play styles McCoy excels at as he amassed a big chunk of the Bills yards. The DC must prepare his strategy for the usual Bill style and the likely ways they will reveal new McCoy centered plays because he says he's gonna play if he can. The word on the street appears to be low ankle sprain that McCoy says not as bad as he first thought. My GUESS is that McDermott says gametime decision as long as he can. The Jags either spend time preparing for a McCoy who ain't there, or he is there but the Jags spent time scheming for the type of plays above. For the individual players its worse. Normally, they would watch a bunch of tape to see if McCoy lines up or shifts his weight differently when he is set to go inside or outside on runs, or if his primary duty is to catch a pass or whatever. Likewise, the hard work involve looking at how the blockersact on different plays so that the defender can figure out which play its likely to be at that d&D and what players are in, what Shady appears to be doing, what the blocking scheme is and how it is being implemented. The Bills have spent all week practicing running different plays and doing the best they can to either run different players in Shady's role or even plays they have practiced but never used in a game or actually just learned. Ultimately god players are good players and great player are great players. If Shady is 85% use him as normal and hope for the best. If he's 60%use him as a decoy and hope you get lucky on one or two plays by him. However if he is 50% or lower, the Bills actually have an advantage for a half until adjustments are made, taught, and implemented by the Jags at halftime. I'm bummed if Shady cannot play but not giving u by a longshot. I say the big difference if McCoy is out is Kyle Williams moves to HB!

The problem was it was a stupid player development strategy. There is a good reason why virtually all rookies do not play unless forced by injury. They are not ready. At the very least, McD should have waited until late in the week to officially announce the switch as SD's D would have prepared for tyrod rather than working to disguise coverages to rape a rookie. Whether your focus was the present or the future, this was a bad move poorly done.

or so dubs ESPN PTI in their assessment of McDermott's rookie year as an HC! I have to admit, but these guys are right in their judgment. Starting a 5th round rookie QB for a team in playoff convention really does rank among one of the stupidest coaching decisions in NFL history (it was not only a bad move in terms of short-term goals of giving your team the best chance to compete this year, but it was also an unprecedented move in terms of sensible young player development). However, all is forgiven by the team making the playoffs! I'm just happy the players and Tyrod kept their eye on the prize and focused on simply winning ball games when the "process" apparently called for abandoning the QB that brung you where you are and for pursuing a player development strategy which expected a league consensus 5th round drafted rookie to lead his team to glory. In a game where self-confidence is key, I simply hope McDermoot has not ruined the seemingly talented NP by throwing him to the sharks. Nevertheless the real deal here is despite this McD/and assume Beane screw-up just win baby. Nobody's perfect and at least for a week we are cruising!

McDermott deserves tons of credit for HCing this team to the end of the huge playoff drought. However, even ignoring the simple FACT, that he ain't perfect and benched the QB that led the team to this great outcome, he made an incredibly bad decision on how to develop a talented 5th round QB choice in Peterman as a rookie. There are reasons why Bellicheat only started the talented 6th round pick Brady in his SECOND year as an NFL player when he was forced to do so by a freak collapsed lung injury to his starting QB, he failed talented thrower (but thinking fooball slow-thinking Bledsoe). I think its smart football that an HC realizes that it simply is horrendous development strategy for a talented youngster like Peterman to throw a 5th round drafted talent into the game where self-confidence and player confidence of the players in the team he leads are critical. Probably the only stupider player development strategy than foolishly panicking and throwing your talented 5th rounder voluntarily into the starting role voluntarily in regular season would be to voluntarily decide to have this talented ROOKIE start your first playoff game in 17 years. I am not questioning McDermott's decision to risk Peterman's develop into a good pro. It was unquestionably a stupid player development move which le his talented rookie to throw 5 interceptions. I think by overcoming his unquestionably bad choice this great first year HC by starting Peterman in regular season do you really think so little of McDermott that now that he burned his hand by throwing his talented rookie to the wolves in regular season he now is going to stick his face on the hot stove by starting Peterman in the playoffs? The poster disrespecting the HC who led us to the end of our playoff drought is anyone who advocates he risk really ruining Peterman by voluntarily starting him against th Jags!

Doing that would be as intelligent an approach to developing Peterman as our QB of the future as throwing him in to start in midseason this year. McDermott gets credit for a great first year as an HC, but starting Peterman this season remains a world class clunker of a decision because it was simply a stupid call for how you develop a promising QB. Self confidence is a critical element for a successful NFL player and having a 5th round talent start as a rookie for your team may well prove to be fatal for developing Peterman. Starting him in a playoff game as a voluntary act likely would be s well. Perhaps if we bench Benjamin and start Brandon Reilly as well!

1. Are you saying the Bills should trade the likely price of moving to the very top of this draft (I think likely both if our 1sts and one or more our 2nd rounders and then expect this rookie to win w/o the DL/LB/another starter and as you suggest replace sooner rathr than later a declining Shady. Like Rothensberger when the Steelers drafted a rookie cspable of winning an SB it is ESSENTIAL there be a team around him. The Bills MUS use their multiple early picks to build a TEAM to be led by this franchise QB to lead. 2. It would be syupid to think Taylor can win an SB, however, the goal right now is simply make the playoffs and I think a team with a better OC calling plays and an HC who does not panic and make the stupid move of figuring starting a 5th round pick Peterman can lead your flawed team to the playoffs (at least Bills fans hope so this final weekend)!

The problem is that while folks recognize that yes, it is necessary to have a franchise quality QB to be a true NFL winner, it is not sufficient in and of itself. The NFL is a great game in large part because it is a TEAM sport. It is almost always necessary to acquire a franchise quality QB to lead not only your offense but your team. However, the offense is like it or not a third of the game. A winner also NEEDS a solid D and a good ST in order to win. Yes, a franchise quality QB can help (and even lead through setting a team example, keeping the O on the field and giving the ST solid field position. However, my sense is that a big part of the Bills decade+ playoff drought is because we over focus on the search for the next Jimbo that we either push young QBs to start before they are ready or hurt the team by devoting too much cap space to the QB. I think a key move for the Bills to build a winner is DO NOT trade our multiple high picks to draft one it is to be hoped h is a franchise QB as the strategy of drafting a franchise QB and developing him into an SB winner actually demands there is a team around this stud. The Bills have too many holes to make the bet a stud rookie QB turns this team unto a winner.

Its like life. Life simply isn't fair. There certainly is favoritism, but it simply is not so extreme that one can reasonably call it FIXING the game to create a specific outcome for a specific purpose. Definitely the NFL gets its refs to call games in ways that protect Brady from getting hurt (this "fix" is in to make the NFL $), and yes, NFL refs seem to routinely make calls to benefit the home team. These combined to disadvantage the Bills Sunday. However, this "fix" could be overcome by Clay hanging onto the darn TD or some better playcalling by Denison. If one wants to sell some fix theory (particularly some Trumplike global conspiracy) then a little more evidence (or even simple logic) is required. The sad fact is that no in the NFL really cares enough about our Bills to conspire against us and though Brady and the Pats do get the benefit of a call from time to time, a good team overcomes this cheating marginal assistance.

It seems to me you want to ignore who is fixing the games and why. If the whole NFL thang was fixed, the results would be far more interesting than the random stupidity which seems to too often occur in the game. If the theory is that the game is fixed to allow the Pats to win. Why? If everyone won once in a rotation, the fixed theory makes some sense.

You should add other to the choices as I think the only way this team drafts a franchise QB is simply not a very good team building strategy. Yes, a franchise QB is necessary for a true winner, BUT its not sufficient in that a bad team with a franchise QB is still a bad team. Ben Rosenberger brought Pitt an SB win, but he was the essential added piece to a very good Steelers team. The Bills will build a winner by using the multiple early draft picks to get the multiple solid players needed to make this a good team that a franchise QB turns into great players and puts over the top. Adding the 2018 version of Andrew Luck makes the Bills Indy.

A few years ago I had the same concern and asked your question to a friend who also was addicted to football. She set my mind at ease by asking one question. If it's fixed why isn't it more interesting? I had to agree. If you were some all powerful entity able to determine the results of years of outcomes wouldn't you produc a more interesting or simply more profitable result than the silliness the No Fun League has produced over the past?

I agree with the thread author that the Bills will not likely make the playoffs this year. However, I disagree with the implication he seems to be making that the reason they will fail to make the playoffs was (or even worse is) the decision to go with TT as the starting QB rather than with Peterman. Does any rational person with even trace knowledge of the NFL seriously think that any athlete with consensus agreement among the professional scouts is a 5th round draftee talent is in anyway a reasonable bet to lead his team to the playoffs. No! I like Peterman's play. I think with proper development and exposure to the game (and a little dumb luck) he MIGHT become a franchise QB. However, the BEST development approach to use to help Peterman become all he can be as a player is to plant his butt firmly on the bench and focus on training his mind to understand the game developing in front of him. Should he play? Sure, but if you are truly interested in developing him to be the Bills starting QB then the hope should be that Tyrod never gets hurt and that Peterman gets some useful game experience mostly in mop-up time. I think the biggest mistake McDermott has made this year in panicking and benching an unproductive TT and announcing this to the world early in the week to give opposing HC and DCs the maximum chance to prepare for the youngster NP and rape this talented rookie for 5 INTs. From Todd Collins to JP Losman etcthe Bills (and some desperate and loud fans) have a habit of rushing young QBs into a starting role before they are ready. Anointing and demanding this 5th round talent to start and lead this team as a rookie is simply bad training technique and a disservice to not only Peterman but the Bills and their fans!

No and heck no!!!! A team none other than the NO Saints lost 2 games in a row before peeling off a wining streak which we were a direct victim of yesterday. In terms of W/L record we are in better shape right now at 5-4 than they were at 0-2. The big difference is that NO seemed focused on wining as much as they could this year with the aging Drew Brees while the Bills under Beane/McDermott seemed most committed to establishing the "process" building this team "the right way" for the future. This season is important yes, but really is of secondary importance for them to getting the players they want to play their new Bills way.

My GUESS is that the eventual evaluation of NP will be that the Bills braintrust rushed him into a starting role before he was ready. He was a consensus 5th round draftee. Though generally many scouts felt he was actually the most starter ready of the QBs in the draft but no one mistook him for Luck (and look how this investment has gone). In the end, if our porous OL gives up a hit causing injury to NP we may miss having a QB with escapability of Tyrod.

another potential negative is that by demanding that NP produce now that the team and NP as a player might benefit more from instead demanding of NP tha he train for the future. I know some people seem to believe that the best training is simply playing the game. However, from Todd Collins to JP Losman the Bills have several examples of rushing QBs into starters role before they were ready. Even a QB as good as Tom Brady sings the praises of what spending a year on the bench did for him to be an important part of him becoming he player he is today. I think a big negative of this move is that the cast of players around NP or TT MUST improve their games in order for this team to be credible. The OL play puts him at risk and our future orientation in how the braintrust manages the WR situation may be setting up a goal NP may have a hard time achieving with the level of talent and management we have around him. This is not even counting the FACT that a key pat of losing the last two was the collapse of our D. If the result of us throwing NP into the fire and we get blown out by poor D play we might waste the 2 2st rounders to move up in the draft to get a franchise QB when we really need to position players on the DL and at WR.

He lasted through 5 rounds due to a consensus judgment of every scout in the league. The consensus can obviously make big time mistakes (look no further than Tom Brady). However, the scouts as a whole generally make pretty good judgments and Peterman was correctly judged to be one of the ready to go players, but simply did not demonstrate that his potential for a strong start did not show a lot of long-term upside. My sense is that he will not be an embarrassment as a player, but he is unlikely to solve the real problems on this team that have led two straight blowout loses. 1. The QB switch does nothing for a DL which without Dareus simply demands that an opponent run up the middle again and again. Yes, Dareus was a problem child and not a McD/Beane guy. The Bills survived with him being part of the rotation and even the occaisional game without him, but having him as part of a rotation and forcing the opposing OL to prepare not to be embarassed by this juvenile talent instead of preparing how to exploit Worthy has made our D a problem that a QB making our O better is not gonna solve this problem. 2. Denison has really shown little as OC. He likely will give the same mediocre play calling for NP he did for TT. 3. Our QB coach and OC proved unable to train TT out of a particular set of specific problems (Holds the ball too long, loss of Watkins ended deep ball threat (and even losing Woods as a solid #2). Benjamin pick-up was a good one, but his contribution ((if any) is likely on him rather than differentiating QCs. 4. Our OL played great the last two years but has performed poorly this year. NP is a better runner than expected but the escapability employed by TT was extraordinary. NP is gonna have to run for his life or we may be seeing Tyrod sooner than expected. I'd probably can Denison before canning TT.