Nihilarian

The dumbest of dumb...real head scratcher. Trading away pro bowl LT Jason Peters to the Eagles and attempted to replace him with a 7th round pick in Demetress Bell or was it Deme' tress or was it Demetrius, I can't remember? This was in 2009, and last time I looked Jason Peters was still locking down that LT position for the Eagles in 2019. 10 years man, 10 years! Now, the story on this was that Peters was a walk on TE that Bills O line coach Jim McNally coached up and converted to become one of the very best left tackles in the league. Just to give an idea how good a coach McNally was, he coached the Bengals line 1980-1994 and HoFer all pro/pro bowler LT Anthony Munoz. Anyway, when Marv Levy had a smart idea to attempt to run that deep passing scheme of the St Louis Rams "greatest show on turf" in Buffalo with new ex Ram OC Steve Fairchild as the new Bills OC. After that first season they saw that the Bills offensive line even with an all pro at LT simply wasn't good enough with LG Mike Gandy, C Melvin Fowler, RG Chris Villarrial, RT Terrance Pennington as four of those five players stunk! Now how Levy went about building that offensive line was all wrong as he should have done it with the draft. As all bad teams with bad coaches, bad scouting departments they make bad decisions and this Bills regime was no different. Levy brought in high priced free agents LG Derrick Dockery and RT Langston Walker and Brad Butler was the RG. Now Butler wasn't all that bad but Walker and Dockery weren't worth the money and Jason Peters took notice of this and he asked for more money. As I recall the Bills paid Dockery an absurd amount and all that did was piss of the pro bowler LT. Well, trading away Peters did give the Bills the picks to draft C Eric Wood with a #1 pick and LG Andy Levitre with a #2 pick. The problem was while had upgraded the middle of the line they had a lousy ends in LT in Bell and RT in Kirk Chambers. Enter new Bills GM Buddy Nix in 2010, who promptly states that, "You're going to think i'm nuts, but we're not that far away". Meaning he thought the Bills had a pretty good roster. That 2010 Bills team went 4-12. Nix went on to sign Cornell Green as a free agent RT who lasted a whole five games before being benched and released. Showing that Nix didn't know offensive line player talent at all. He did manage to find off the street players to band-aid the line with RG Kraig Urbik and RT Erik Pears. This new Bills regime in Beane/McD did make the mistake of drafting a QB and starting him behind a poor line in 2018. They did attempt to upgrade the line in both free agency and the draft in 2019. However, we all saw that line wasn't nearly good enough this past season in games against the Ravens, Patriots, Eagles and hopefully the Bills continue to upgrade the line for 2020. The Bills also had problems punching the ball into the end zone with their run game by the RBs. And yes, Nathan Peterman as the 2018 starting QB was also a huge head scratcher. Who in their right mind thought that this kid would be a viable starter behind that craptastic 2018 offensive line?

Brian Daboll ...high level coaching? The guy calls plays at times like he has Tom Brady at QB, and even then this season he would have lasting less than one game under Belichick. You don't see Josh McDaniel's putting Brady under the gun like Daboll does with Allen. Meaning if Brady is having a bad game the Patriots work that run game like no other team...usually. Well, that last sentence is not totally true as that first game against the Patriots in week four, Tom Brady went 18 of 39 for 150 yards 0 TDs, 1 INT. A 45.9 QB rating! This against that #3 overall Buffalo Bills defense. OMG, how very un-Brady like! OMG... how every Josh Allen like! This simply shows that putting the game on the QB shoulders against a top defense gives even the GOAT fits. This season Brady had a limited receiver corps in WR Julian Edelman, RB James White to throw to too. Daboll did this same thing against a few teams, the Patriots with their #1 defense 2x, The Ravens with their #4 defense and even against teams with bad defenses like the Browns and Texans. The Bills lost because they asked the QB to carry the game by throwing while almost ignoring utilizing their best weapon other than Allen in RB Devin Singletary. Let's not forget that Josh Allen led the team in rushing TD's with 9. Gore had 2 TD's, Singletary also had only 2 rushing TD's. Think about that for a min and ask why is that with that supposed improved offensive line. Green bay with Aaron Rodgers has been asking Rodgers to carry the team with his arm the last few seasons up until 2019. 2017, 7-9. 2018 6-9-1. This with arguably one of the very best QB's in the league. In 2019 Green Bay under a new HC ran the ball more often with RB Aaron Jones 1084 rushing yards 16 rushing TDs, 3 receiving TD's. This took a lot of the game off Rodgers shoulders and the Packers went 13-3 in 2019. Simply saying that Allen's completion percentage could have been so much better had the play calling stayed more consistent all season. Like it was against the Cowboys 34 rushes vs 25 passes. the Steelers 38 rushes vs 25 passes. Against Denver and at that time #4 defense against the run 47 rushes vs 25 passes. Just like the Bills did against the Texans in that WC game, with a 16 point lead the Bills blew that lead by asking the QB to keep throwing instead of pounding the rock to play keep away. The Bills weren't the only ones to do that as the 49ers seemed to do the exact same thing in the SB against the Chiefs. With a lead the 49ers asked Jimmy G to keep throwing when the teams forte was the run game. The result, a loss.

The one thing that Bills fans that were around when Polian was fired know is that ole Bill had a very fiery temper to go along with his red hair. And even at that point in time Ralph Wilson (75) was considered a cantankerous, frugal owner. The two were always fighting about something. Polian needed to go to war with Wilson over spending money on players, improvements for the stadium, better field, big screen etc. Polian happened to get into an argument with Wilson's daughter who worked for the team, Linda Bogdan, She was vice president and assistant director of college and pro scouting. (she had scouted and recommended that the Bills draft WR Jerry Butler .) Anyway, Polian was heard calling her a very unpleasant name which ultimately prompted his firing. I can also recall something about Polian's brother working security for the team and there was a rumor in Minnesota before the SB that somehow the Redskins had gotten hold of a Buffalo Bills playbook because of him. Polian was fired Feb 4th 1993. So, take your pick. On another note. When Chuck Knox was hired by Ralph Wilson he brought with him his player personnel director from the Rams in Norm Pollom. He was the one that recommended that the team hire a young upstart scout/pro personnel director by the name of Bill Polian to become the new Buffalo Bills pro personnel director in 1984. He didn't become GM until 1986. Anyway, it was Pollom who stayed with Buffalo after Knox left to eventually help draft Bills HoFers Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith and Andre Reed in the fourth round, Daryl Talley too. More of Pollom's players for the Los Angles Rams were HoFers Tom Mack, Jack Youngblood, Jackie Slater, as well as Lawrence McCutcheon and Dennis Harrah. How Jim Kelly eventually got to Buffalo was a strange story. After the fall of the USFL, at that time the Raiders owner all Davis thought he could pull off another Daryle Lamonica type trade to bring Kelly to the Raiders. (Rumor has it that Davis paid for Kelly to go to London in an all expenses paid trip with some Raiderettes.) This was on Bill Polian who convinced the Bills owner that bringing in Kelly would revive the team money wise, season ticket wise. Ralph Wilson did something he had never done previously as he made QB Jim Kelly the highest paid QB in the league to get him to play for the Buffalo Bills. It did indeed sell season tickets as Bills fans went nuts over Kelly.

@CA OC Bills Fan You are right as recalled it incorrectly. I do remember Wade was fired over not firing his special teams coach. Just got the wrong one. As for letting Chuck Knox walk away. It wasn't a head scratcher to me simply because of how frugal Wilson was at that time. He initially made Knox one of the top highest paid head coaches when he hired him. Now that the man had not only turned the team around he also gave new pride for the city of Buffalo. Remember the "talking proud" campaign which started in 1980? The Buffalo Bills were a big part of that success. Anyway, Knox felt he deserved a raise and the Bills coming off the 1982 strike shortened season at 4-5, Wilson said he felt differently. Want a real head scratcher? How about hiring ex Buffalo Bills QB and current Bills QB coach Kay Stephenson to be the head coach after letting Knox walk. Ray Prochaska was Knox's offensive coordinator under Knox and he left Buffalo to go to Seattle with Knox.

Most of this is correct. However, here's the thing. Ralph might have spent a few bucks to hire Tom Donahoe and promoted him to team president while Wilson left that job to supposedly retire. Ralph Wilson was so very "hands on" as an owner that he simply couldn't step away for very long IMO. To give you an idea of how hands on this owner was, he was in the draft room advising selections on who to draft over the years. Hence all the RB's and DB's and few QB's and O linemen. Wilson was also noted to be on the phone from Detroit with HC Dick Jauron a few hours a day during the season. Buffalo had difficulty in finding a decent head coach because most knew how cantankerous and frugal he was. Even then when Buddy Nix wanted to hire Marty Schottenheimer as HC before he hired Chan Gailey, Wilson said no. Ralph Wilson was very frugal with the Buffalo Bills because he wasn't a billionaire like some are today and he came very close to being forced to sell part or all of "his" team on several occasions . His team needed to make a profit each and every season as this forced his hands with a lot of issues. On the contrary of being a "hot candidate", Donahoe was the "director of football operations" for the Pittsburgh Steelers and subsequently fired by the Steelers after he lost a power struggle with then HC Bill Cowher. Now, most owners who hire an outside team president to run their team usually will rehire a new president instead of taking over control of the team again, not this owner. As for Marv, Levy returned to the Buffalo Bills in thinking that he would be their head coach again. Only after he was hired and settled in Ralph Wilson made it clear that his new duties were to be GM only. Levy made the choice for hiring Dick Jauron and helped him pick his staff. They hired the St Louis Rams OC in Steve Fairchild who didn't call the plays for the Rams as HC Mike Martz did that job. The Tampa two defense was a hot commodity at that time in the league and about the only reasoning I can think of as to why Levy chose Jauron as HC. He made it clear it came down to Jauron and ex Packer HC Mike Sherman for the Bills HCing job. Levy mentioned in the media that Sherman "knocked his socks off" in his interview. Puzzling outcome to be sure. When it came to the draft, Levy knew he was in over his head as a talent evaluator so he went with a consensus of himself, Jauron and the scouting staff. It looked like Jauron made the calls after all, Aaron Maybin... There are reasons as to why the Bills drafted OG Andy Levitre and OC Eric Wood as Jauron watched in horror as the Bills O line attempted to triple team Jets NT Kris Jenkins and he still got to the QB. As for Donte Whitner, the Bills were desperate for a safety as Levy had just gotten rid of a player who he deemed as low in character in SS Lawyer Milloy. They drafted for a need and with nobody in the FO knowing what they were doing they also traded up to draft DT John McCargo. For some unknown reason Levy stated he thought McCargo was a big reason as to why Mario Williams was so good at NC state. As bad as the decision to hire ex Bills HC Marv Levy was I think it was far a worse decision to replace him with pseudo GM Russ Brandon and even worse was when Brandon took over as team president. 2000-2017...woof On another note, Ralph Wilson fired Wade Phillips because Wade refused to fire special teams coach who had allowed the music city miracle play. Wilson also never paid Phillips what he was the remainder due on his contract either.

What gets me is that during the Buddy Nix, Doug Whaley years i kept reading about great the roster has become over past rosters. There have been major flaws all over the rosters every year for nearly two decades. The Buffalo Bills finally have a great GM again as its been a long, long time here.

#8 in receiving in 2019 16 games played. 79 receptions, 119 targets for 1189 yards, 8 TDs, 245 yards after catch 0 fumbles, 52 first downs In his five seasons in the NFL has four 1000 yard seasons... #21 in receiving in 2019 John Brown 15 games played, 72 receptions 115 targets for 1060 yards, 6 TDs, 217 yards after catch, 53 first downs AJ Green was last relevant in 2017 where he was 12th in receiving, 16 games played 75 receptions, 145 targets, 1078 yards, 8 TDs, 309 yards after catch, 56 first downs. 2018 played in 9 games. missed all of 2019.

Odds makers might just have it right this year. The Patriots will make acquisitions on offense for Brady to make him happy. Any top WR or TE free agent Like WRs Amari Cooper, AJ Green, TEs Austin Hooper, Hunter Henry. The NY Jets should be improved with continuity from the same coaches, draft, free agency. The Dolphins should be improved with three first round picks and perhaps QB Phillip Rivers? He did move from S Cal to Fla...They might also be drafting a rookie QB. I don't see any cakewalks this season as each and every team will be looking at Buffalo as a playoff team to beat. The Bills barely beat some bad teams last year they only scored more then 20 points in six out of ten games. That won't fly this season as they face more quality opponents. No more Duck Hodges, Brandon Allen, Dwayne Haskins, Marcus Mariota at QB. Its also not just about QB Josh Allen improving at passing either. With a power run game and that number three overall defense the 2019 Buffalo Bills should have destroyed the bad teams with scrubs QB's. Oh yea, what power run game? Motor was vastly underutilized for whatever reason. With QB Josh Allen's 510 yards rushing, 9 TDs the Bills should have been a whole lot better than 18th in rushing TD's. Think about that, Josh Allen had 9 rushing TD's...Gore had 2, Singletary had 2, THAT's IT, WTH! So basically 4 rushing TD's from both the Buffalo RB's all season long...Yeldon hardly saw the field and DiMarco had only 3 rush attempts all season as did Sinorise Perry. To put that in context GB RB Aaron Jones had 16 rushing TD's and a big reason as to why Green Bay did so much better in 2019 on offense. Tenn RB Derrick Henry had 16 rushing TD's. Carolina RB Christian McCaffray 15, Minn RB Dalvin Cook had 13. Todd Gurley who was injured had 12 rushing TD's. Elliot had 12, Ingram had 10. So, don't tell me that Brian Daboll's offense didn't put carrying the game on Josh Allen shoulders far more than he should have. That jackass of an OC should be building an offense to support Allen and not making "him" the offense! P.S. 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, a six year vet playing under one of the brightest offensive minds in the league in Niners HC Kyle Shanahan. Jimmy studied that offense with Mike Shanahan all off season. Jimmy G threw for 3978 yards 27 TD's, 13 INTs with a 67% completion percentage in 2019. Even He looked like crap with the game placed all on his shoulders when the 49ers had the lead in the second half of that super bowl. Texans playoff game come to mind? Just sayin!

The best conviction is completion... we got a gimmie go... Thanks for posting that link as I've never seen that before. Loved it! Learning as an NFL QB is like taking a drink from a fire hose.

Why on earth would Beane and the Buffalo Bills spend this money on someone they thought had no shot to make it? So many Bills fans were also wailing about spending a 3rd round pick on Devin Singletary or getting rid of McCoy for Gore. Let's just sit back and watch what happens this season.

Why is everyone forgetting about Christian Wade? Talk about explosive....if that kid can learn the game the Bills won't need to draft or sign anyone. And yes, upgrade the offensive line. Let's hope that this regime understands the importance of having an all pro offensive guard like they had with Incognito...only without the head case. Ford might just be that guy at RG so the upgrade is needed at RT. LG too if Spain isn't resigned.

I also blame Daboll, but not for the same reason. After reading what "Hapless Bills fan" has stated about what he knows, the offense is more of a collaborative effort as McD does have some say as to how the offense is run. That said, I think the play calling during games is more on Daboll, and still that has issues as does Allen have actual power to change the play at the line or run an RPO on his own. I'm thinking no...although this is very debatable. I kinda wish that Daboll did have total freedom and therefore he would have to shoulder all the blame or acclaim. Bills fans talking about the games the team lost last season Patriots, Eagles, Browns, Ravens, Patriots, Jets. Against the Jets in that last game the Bills rested starters so that one doesn't count. The Eagles game was the only game in which the Bills were really dominated on both lines offensively and defensively and lost 31-16 by a wide margin. It's my contention that those other four games could have been wins had the Bills run the ball more and passed less in those games. Daboll is putting way to much of the game on Josh Allen's shoulders to win games against the better defenses in the NFL. Allen is simply not ready at this point. The Titans showed the Bills how to beat the Patriots. Build a dominate offensive line and find a way to make that run game work in any situation. (You also don't need a Derrick Henry type RB to get the job done either.) If this super bowl looked like the Bills in any aspect its that the 49ers moved away from what got them to that game in the first place. Against the Packers in the NFC championship game Garoppolo threw only 8 freaking times and they ran it 42 times. Against Minnesota in the first playoff game the 49ers threw it 19 times and ran it 47 times. In the super bowl against the Chiefs the 49ers went into a Buffalo Bills mode by asking their QB to carry the game with his arm and he simply couldn't do it. Instead of running more and passing less like did in the previous two playoff games, they went 22 runs vs 31 passes. (The Bills did win some games with Josh Allen carrying the offense with some fourth quarter comeback wins. Although those wins weren't against the better defenses) OTOH, Mahomes carried the game with his arm and won MVP.

Its working for Nate Hackett in Green Bay as their HC calls the plays. I didn't mind AVP in Buffalo as QB coach as he simply wasn't ready to be the OC just yet. Good for him as he has good talent on that team.

I agree. Now, think about what Patrick Mahomes would look like without TE Travis Kelce, WR Tyreek Hill, AND Not having Andy Reid setup the game plans and call the offensive plays. I highly doubt he would look anywhere near as good as he does. I even doubt he could carry the team with his arm without those people supporting him. Give those three men to Josh Allen and allow him to sit for a season and watch, learn under Reid and you might have a different view of Allen. Name any star QB that could carry his team with his arm and take away the other offensive stars on the team and see what happens. What did Brady look like this season without Gronk! Shoot, Matt Ryan had 11 games with over 300 yards passing with a completion percentage of 66.2. Ryan threw for 4466 yards in 2019, #1 in pass attempts, #3 in passing yards and the Falcons went 7-9. His WR Julio Jones played in 15 games. He clearly can't carry his team with his arm. Aaron Rodgers couldn't carry his team with his arm in 2017-2018 either. This list is endless when you don't have a balanced team. That last paragraph might mean that when Daboll called a balanced game Josh Allen really shined like in that Dallas game. 19 of 24 for 231, 2 TDs with a 120.7 rate. Mostly when Daboll had the run game working properly it took away the pressure to carry the game on his own (his arm, hero ball). As for that last sentence, excellent point. However, I would call it more than just "strange" play calling when your team has a 16 point lead and instead of finding a way to pound the ball to play keep away. You keep asking the playoff inexperienced QB to keep throwing it 46 times. It is also more than strange that the Bills had five attempts in or near the Texans red zone and came away with four FGs, one TD. This against the worst red zone defense in the league. Blame the QB for the ineffectual run game? Blame the QB for the ineffectual red zone offense? Josh Allen also ran nine times for 92 yards in that game. If Josh Allen has the ability to change the play every down or call an RPO when he feels the need then this OC is forcing way too much responsibility on that young, inexperienced QB. Either way, the buck stops with the OC for any offensive failure.

While he played on some great teams he also played on some bad ones at the end. Just goes to show that you can have an elite QB and is he doesn't have the supporting cast around him it's just so hard to win. Just ask Matt Ryan the last two years. Or Aaron Rodgers 2017, 2018.

he gets a ring if they win...

The only thing i can think of is that in 2018 the Bills led the NFL with the most deep passing attempts...this with one of the leagues worst offensive lines. Which gave Allen very little time in the pocket to complete those deep passes. Hence all the QB running. That, along with Allen's completion percentage which wasn't so great from all those deep passing attempts. The deep pass has a very low chance for completion even among the better QB's. So, in my view McD went to Daboll and wanted to change all this. The Bills brought in Cole Beasley to help with the short passing game which would intern help with the completion percentage. Now Robert Foster was injured at the start of the season and no idea when he was fully healthy. Then looking at how long it took this OC to get Duke Williams involved in the offense, who knows. The one thing I know for certain is the only way to get better at something is repetition, practice. The way the Bills offense failed at the deep pass this season tells me they simply didn't practice it enough. You would think that with the upgrades to the O line and the strongest arm in the league that they would work that deep passing game over and over this year. A lot didn't make much sense this season...particularly when the run game is working so well and they go pass happy. All in all this made Allen look much worse IMO.

I agree. If you at how things went this post season. The Vikings beating the Saints by running 40 rushing attempts which won the time of possession 36:56 to 27:24. The beat one of the very best passers in the league in Drew Brees who had a receiver who had 149 receptions for 1725 yards, 9 TD's this season. Sort of unreal when you think about it. Then the Vikings go to SF and that D line of theirs stuffs the Minnesota run game holding a top ten RB in Dalvin Cook to 9 carries for 18 yards, sacking Kirk Cousins 6 times. Meanwhile, in the divisional round that 49er offense runs right over that Vikings defense 47 carries for 186 yards. Two dominant running teams duke it out and the Niners pounded the Vikings. The Tennessee Titans go to New England and beat the Goat along with their #1 defense by having RB Derrick Henry, 34 rushes for 182 yards,1 TD. The Titans go to KC and get whooped by that Chiefs passing game. Tennessee had the 22nd or so defense so they really weren't a match for the Chiefs. Now the 2019 Buffalo Bills who are force feeding their young, inexperienced QB into learning to be a better passer by throwing him into the teeth of a defense when their run game could have actually helped win games... The Bills have RB Christian Wade waiting in the wings for this season. Now they need to beef up the D line and O line and find that #1 "go to" WR. I'm thinking that O line might be the bigger priority the way the Eagles, Ravens manhandled them. I kind doubt they would have had much success against San Fran this year.

m A lot of teams have been running the ball with great success this season. Baltimore #1, San Fran #2, Tennessee #3, Seattle #4, Dallas, #5, Minnesota #6 Indy #7, Buffalo #8, Houston #9. The reason as to why the Ravens were #1 is because QB Lamar Jackson had 1206 rushing yards at a 6.9 YPC avg. Ravens RB Mark Ingram had 1018 rushing yards at 5.0 YPC. San Fran was #2 had three RBs and none were 1000 yard rushers. You know what kills a great pass rush on the QB? Running the ball right at them!

The Minnesota Vikings with Dalvin Cook use that zone blocking scheme 66% of the time. (Ex Denver HC Gary Kubiak is the assistant HC at Minnesota. He also ran the scheme in Baltimore 2014.) 70.3% of Green Bay's run game is inside, outside zone concepts. The 49ers employ a zone scheme on 49% of their run plays. Baltimore uses the zone 55% of the time. Zone blocking is used to some degree by all 32 teams and at least half the time by all of them. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28353469/the-secret-nfl-best-rushing-teams-why-zone-blocking-here-stay It really is about building the line right, finding the right RB and having instilled discipline by the players to run it...without penalties. The 2019 Buffalo Bills had the right RB! Believe it or not Buffalo Bills RB Devin Singletary averaged 5.1 yards per carry this season. Which, BTW, was the same YPC as Derrick Henry had. The difference was the Titans ran Henry 303 times and the Bills ran Singletary 151 times. Gore got more carries with 166 and he averaged 3.6 yards per carry. Gore was basically almost useless the latter part of the season. Buffalo was also 27th overall in penalties in 2019.

Aaron Rodgers 21 of 39 for 326, 2 TD. WOW REALLY? A 300 yard passer, throwing 39 times... that lost! Jimmy Garoppolo 6 of 8 for 77 yards WTF? and they won 37 to 20? But, but it's a passing league? Niners RB Raheem Mostert 29 carries for 220 yards As others have put it, the Bills need more pieces, they need a better offensive line at certain positions. They need some better WRs, and a more dedicated OC to actually running the ball when needed. Mostert is only 5'10'' 205 lbs, so you don't need a Derrick Henry monster of a RB. The 49ers had three RBs on their roster and none were 1000 yard rushers in 2019. You just need to put some really good talent in front of him to block properly. That means using some first and second round picks on the O line. Utilizing the right run scheme too.

On 1/17/2020 at 5:18 PM, Shaw66 said: As for the best way to get Allen up the learning curve, they've been very clear that their plan was that Allen would sit the first year. They couldn't stick with the plan, and as they've said, Allen had a rocky first year, but he seems to have survived it. He was better in 2019, but he had his stretches where he still looked like a rookie. You actually missed one point I made in that not all QB's are the same entering the NFL from college as some are much more NFL ready as they played in big time college programs. It's those programs that initially start their development to be an NFL starting QB and without being in a big time program it's a much more difficult transition. The number of failed QB's in the NFL is almost countless over the years, from first round picks and so on. So much depends on their surrounding cast as even when they have somewhat good coaching, they still need a good O line, good run game, good receivers. A lot also depends on what scheme they ran in college and will they be able learn and properly develop in the NFL scheme they enter. Aikman, Manning and Elway all came from big time college programs. Josh Allen played at Wyoming. Not exactly a big time QB grooming college was my point here. I never said that JP, Edwards or EJ were ruined because they didn't get more time on the bench or that they were ruined by being thrown in to the fire too early. What I did say, What happened with JP was being benched after 7 games his starting season, changing HC's, OC's, schemes and ultimately was being benched again for Trent Edwards. The Bills hired quality, experienced DC's but were intent on promoting inexperienced OC's from within. From Steve Fairchild and his Mike Martz deep passing scheme to a WCO with QB coach Turk Schonert promoted to OC and he lasted one season before being fired two weeks before the 2009 season. Alex Van Pelt was the Bills QB coach at that time who was then promoted to OC. Van Pelt lasted only one season too. As for EJ he had Nathaniel Hackett as his OC and he too was benched after going 2-2 because the coaches had no patience in giving him to to learn and play as others have suggested. If your are going to go with a young inexperienced QB, stick with him as benching destroys confidence. See my point about the lame OC's? The Buffalo Bills also had some pretty crummy offensive lines from the early 2000's until somewhat recently. Tough to be in a deep passing scheme with a bad O line. Anyway, have no problem starting Josh Allen from the very first as long as he has the talent around him to help him succeed. Clearly because the GM changed 4 of 5 offensive linemen, starting WRs and the tight ends from his first season they realized he needed more help and he got it. Now they realize they still need to make more upgrades in certain areas. My only real fault with Brian Daboll is that he puts Allen to much under the gun by asking him to carry the offense with his arm against some of the better teams. Against those teams in which they lost and he was beaten down. Daboll didn't do this against Dallas, Denver or Pittsburgh and they won those games. Daboll has other faults as I pointed out in other threads. Yes, I don't like him because I think the Bills can do better for Allen. Don't get me wrong here as I'm very happy the Bills found McD and he brought in Brandon Beane. And Beane might be as good or even better than the best GM this franchise has even seen in Bill Polian. Yes, they both have made some mistakes as first timers in their respective jobs and both have corrected some glaring mistakes. Perhaps both Beane and McD feel that they haven't given Daboll enough talent on offense to succeed and are giving him another season. I honestly hope they are right and this OC steps up and gets the offense into the top ten. However, I remain dubious.

When Raiders GM and past NFL league draft analyst Mike Mayock did his scouting on Josh Allen he stated that he that the greatest potential of that years QB draft class. However, he also stated that Allen was very raw in coming from a college not known for developing QB's. Josh Rosen at UCLA, Sam Darnold at USC, Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma, Lamar Jackson at Louisville all were more polished to start in the NFL their first season and all were in big time college programs that allowed them to develop into NFL ready players. Josh Allen rated as very raw and needed some time on the bench to learn and develop. He was supposed to sit for a season and learn behind a veteran QB and instead he was thrown into the fray because the guy they had pegged as the starting QB (who got all the first string reps) was horrific. How bad was he? 5 of 18 for 24 yards, 2 INTs, 3 sacks in nearly three quarters of a game bad. (BTW, how did that "complex" offense work for Peterman?) Stating that, in his two games in 2019 QB Matt Barkley took steps backwards too In Daboll's scheme. 2018, one game start 60% completion percentage 117.4 rate, QBR of 83.4. 2019, 2 games 27 of 51 for a 52.9% completion percentage, a rating of 51.0, a QBR of 9.2. Barkley in his NFL career has had a completion percentage of 60% or darn near that in his five seasons...until this year. 2018 Peterman 0-2, 44 of 81 for a 54.3% completion percentage...296 yards, 1 TD, 7 INTs. 2018 Anderson 0-2, 42 of 70 for a 60% completion percentage...465 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs. So, it's not just Josh Allen with having difficulty in Daboll's offensive scheme.

How did that "complex" offense work against the Patriots, Ravens, Texans? Truth is it didn't! Come to think of it the 2019 Bills were still 26th in passing yards, 24th in passing TD's. About on par for Brian Daboll with his 6 years of experienced as an NFL OC with four different teams. Anyway, the Bills did attempt to defeat that cover o blitz by having Allen throw deep a few times early in that game and when he didn't complete any of those deep passes that Ravens defense that blitzed around 50% of the time stepped up their blitzes to 60% or more. Hitting a deep bomb against a defense using cover o works because there is no deep safety to keep that play from becoming a TD. Still, there is more than one way to defeat that blitz with screens, hot reads or the deep post. Simply step up the protections by adding extra tight ends, tackles to block the extra man if they have a star pass rusher. The Ravens and Patriots defenses work because they have such good secondaries that can run man coverage's. The Patriots cover o works well because as soon as a blitzer is blocked he drops into coverage. Bottom line: basically the Bills OC did try to defeat the cover o blitz and when his first plan didn't work he had no answer the rest of the game, 39 pass attempts, 6 sacks. This is a way to ruin a QB. We all watched as the Bills lame OC's ruined JP, ruined, Edwards, ruined EJ. Destroying a young, inexperienced QB's confidence and demoralizing him is not the way to forcing him into greatness. Can anyone guess how many QB's in the league can beat a blitz consistently, not many! Two of the greatest in defeating a blitz are Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. The late great Bill Walsh stated it generally takes four years of playing in the NFL to fully develop an NFL QB. When you force a young player into a sped up process, will that make him learn faster? I dunno, takes four years of undergrad degree, four years of med school and 3-7 years of residency to become a doctor in the US. Think forcing him to learn faster will make him a better doctor?

Russell Wilson is a very unique individual. Wilson went from 3 years at NC state after he was demoted to back up to Wisconsin where he led them to a big ten conference title an appearance in the Rose Bowl and set a single-season record for passing efficiency, with the highest quarterback rating (191.8) in NCAA history. “Listen, son, you’re never going to play in the National Football League. You’re too small. There’s no chance. You’ve got no shot.” These are the words that former North Carolina State head football coach Tom O’Brien uttered on a phone call with one of his quarterbacks in the spring of 2011 https://theundefeated.com/features/the-long-and-the-short-of-is-that-russell-wilson-proved-his-college-coach-wrong/ Don't get me wrong here as i'm not advocating for the Bills RB's to carry the team as I'm fine with a balanced attack. However, I simply think its ludicrous to ask the QB to throw 35-40 times a game when you have a perfectly good RB, run game. Particularly throwing into the teeth of a defense or if you have a lead.