HappyDays

So I agree with this, Diggs should be counted as a 1st round investment. Yeah it's not exactly the same as drafting a rookie WR but it feels like pointless semantics to argue that it doesn't count. The combined offseasons of 2019 and 2020 was really the last time Beane made it a point to invest in the position. The result was a very effective three headed monster spearheaded by Allen coming into his own. Since 2020 though it's impossible to deny the lack of investment. I feel better about the strategy right now than I did 18 months ago but I definitely still have my doubts.

For me it's not about the total investment (or lack thereof), it's about the various times over the years where they had a chance to invest in one but didn't. The 2019 2nd round really sticks out, taking Cody Ford over DK Metcalf and AJ Brown, even Terry McLaurin. Last year when they took DeWayne Carter over Troy Franklin. Or this past offseason where they didn't trade for DK Metcalf and passed up on guys like Jalen Royals and Tory Horton on day three. None of this is based on hindsight either, plenty of us on here were calling for these moves when they were available. It feels like they've only invested in the position when absolutely necessary. Any time they have an opportunity to really stack the room they keep finding a reason to use the draft pick or the money on some other position. Beane can give whatever reasons he wants, it's a simple fact that he values the position less than any other GM in the league. This feels like a defining season to see if that strategy can really work to win a championship. The first 53 minutes of the Baltimore game kind of got erased from the fanbase's memory but there were real problems with the downfield passing offense in that game and it remains to be seen if that is going to be a fatal flaw of this team.

Do you believe Sam Darnold would have ended up the MVP if he had been drafted to Buffalo? Not a gotcha question, I'm genuinely curious what you think.

I don't think he is ever going to live up to his status as a 1st round pick at this point. The route running/pass catching abilities just haven't been as good as advertised. But he has been better this season as a blocker and is still a solid pass catcher at least. So at least he hasn't been a total bust like Elam was.

We need to wrap up the #1 seed by week 18 to give our defense two full weeks of rest. With our schedule and our division that is a very doable outcome if we stay focused and don't drop any stupid games.

I just couldn't disagree more with this. Daboll was a nobody that had spent his career as the OC for bottom ranked offenses. Allen's pass catchers were Kelvin Benjamin, Zay Jones, Andre Holmes, and Charles Clay. His starting OL was 2nd year Dion Dawkins, Vlad Ducasse, Russell Bodine, John Miller, and Jordan Mills. A lot of young QBs have a solid veteran in the room to help them learn - Allen had Nathan Peterman. We only retroactively say that the Bills set Allen up for success because he ended up a success. The reality is he had as bad a supporting cast as you could possibly formulate. Allen has a lot of superpowers that make him an elite QB. One that probably doesn't get enough credit nationally is his ability to confront his flaws and fix them ridiculously fast. Allen has had plenty of bad games throughout his career but he has very very rarely had two in a row. He completely rebuilt his mechanics from the ground up and recently changed his entire play style to fit a new scheme and philosophy. I credit McDermott and Beane for turning the culture around here but I don't credit them for Allen's ascension. His own mental and physical abilities made him who he is today.

He wears blue and orange. That makes it easy to dislike him in my book.

I think Mayfield is actually the perfect example of what I mean. He was not a bad QB in Cleveland, they just decided to move on because they have the worst owner in the NFL. And I think Mayfield himself would admit he wasn't really giving it his all early in his career. Not that he was especially lazy like say Jamarcus Russell was, but you didn't hear the stories of almost psychotic commitment to getting better like you heard with Allen or Mahomes or Brady. Did spending a year on the Panthers scout team turn his career around? Did Matt Rhule change the way he approached the position? Of course not. What happened is he put his head down and re-dedicated himself to his craft, then when opportunity knocked on a potential game winning drive for the Rams he was ready and seized his moment. Next thing you know Liam Cohen is getting the credit for "fixing" Baker Mayfield and gets a head coaching opportunity because they think he can "fix" Trevor Lawrence. Well, early returns on that aren't looking so great. The QB is going to have to fix himself. Nobody can do it for him. This conversation reminded me of a hilarious post I saw earlier:

My unpopular opinion is that QBs make themselves. The coaching doesn't matter nearly as much to that outcome as people think. I'm not saying coaching doesn't affect how well the offense as a whole functions, just that great QBs will be great no matter what coach they get tethered to and ditto for bad QBs. Daboll was dubbed a QB whisperer because Allen became elite under his watch. Turns out he's closer to the guy that had 30th ranked offenses for the vast majority of his pre-Allen career. Nobody should have expected Ben Johnson to show up and "fix" Caleb Williams. I'm sure some Bears fans are disappointed but that's only because they had an unrealistic expectation. I continue to believe they will move on from Caleb Williams next year unless he shows massive improvement over the course of the season. Johnson isn't going to risk his first head coaching shot on an underperforming QB that he isn't tied to. He'll get his handpicked QB next year and then we'll begin to really see if he can live up to the hype.

For that to take place KC would have most likely needed to beat Baltimore in Baltimore which would not be a bad outcome for us at all.

Depends on how they look over the rest of the year. I'm always going to be concerned that their offense dominates us because they do it on an annual basis, so until I see us slow them down when it counts it's hard to feel overly confident. Right now I'd say 60% confidence level.

Andy Reid has been scheming guys open, Mahomes just isn't hitting on schedule throws at the clip he's capable of. I've seen him overthrow a bunch of wide open WRs downfield in the first two games. If any improvement is coming, his play is where it it will come from. The run game I think they are just sunk. It's all JAG RBs and the IOL has taken a step back. On defense Spags has definitely been floundering a bit. It kind of reminds me of McDermott when he was our acting DC in 2023, where we just kept blitzing over and over again because we had no other answers and opposing offenses were killing us for it. Spags knows his base front 4 can't get pressure and his back end can't hold up. So he is resorting to the same tactic and equally getting killed for it. The offense can get significantly better, at least the passing offense. The defense however I'm not really sure that it can.

No they will make the playoffs. Their coaching staff is too good and Mahomes will bounce back especially when he has his #1 WR back. I just don't buy this narrative that starting 0-2 doesn't matter because something something the Patriots. They have some pretty fundamental issues on both sides of the ball. The whole right side of the OL is a mess. They can't run the ball. They have no difference making skill players. Their secondary is McDuffie and a bunch of JAGs. Their front 4 is middling. It is not just a case of sloppy play from a bored team where you can see an obvious path for improvement. Those fundamental issues are going to be there all year. If the Chiefs make it to the Super Bowl out of the AFC, that is a massive massive failure on the part of Buffalo and Baltimore. Both teams, especially us, have had their opportunities to block the dynasty but have failed to make the plays to close out those games. KC has also out-coached both teams in those games. This year I am very confident that both rosters and both QBs are better than their counterparts in KC. It seems likely that KC will end up in a divisional dogfight until the end of the season which means they won't be able to rest anybody and may enter the playoffs as a wildcard. I'm not counting them out but I'm also not going to pretend they have some magical aura around them that means these issues don't matter.

TE is a position where guys come out of nowhere. Kittle for example was a 5th rounder. Very difficult position to project to the pros and Hawes just seems like a natural. I think catching that seam against Baltimore was huge for his confidence. Now he knows he can make tough catches through contact against the most physical secondary in the NFL which means he can do it against anyone. He isn't quick enough to become a consistent separator but if he can develop a feel for working open in zone and an ability to make tough catches in traffic, that along with his elite blocking could make him a potential impact TE2.