HappyDays

In 2020 we lost two consecutive games to the Chiefs then the Titans, then scraped by the Jets and Pats who went a combined 9-23 that year. Yes that kind of month long slump has happened every single year under McDermott and is always the reason we don't earn the #1 seed. Last year it almost knocked us out of the playoffs entirely. That is on coaching, 100%. And that's just the regular season. The playoff coaching can't even be argued. It has been outright below average. There is not a single data point that says our coaching staff has been up to par in the playoffs. This still needs to be said I guess - all other teams don't have Josh Allen. The whole conversation around McDermott is from the context that we have undoubtedly had a top 2 QB over the last four years. If it helps I think McDermott is a pretty good coach. He isn't Brandon Staley. Still I don't think he has been good enough and I'm not expecting that to change. So on one hand you want to give McDermott full credit for our regular season record, but on the other you want to blame the roster for our playoff failures and absolve McDermott there.

Man I just don't agree with this at all. Every single year under McDermott we've entered a midseason malaise where the whole team looks like crap and goes like .500 over a period of 4-5 games. That isn't normal for playoff contenders, certainly not every single year. Those midseason slumps have been the reason we never end up with the #1 seed. How is that not on coaching?

McDermott maybe feeling the heat a bit, or at least recognizing that the team needs the extra work to get over the hump.

Curtis Samuel is supposed to be the gadget player. I'm surprised how little we've heard about him in OTAs and minicamp, but maybe the Bills are trying to hide his role a bit. I think he will be deployed in a lot of interesting ways. Isabella I have zero interest in. At no point has he produced in this league and it hasn't been injuries holding him back. He just isn't an NFL player. Hamler at least intrigues me because talent has never been his problem, but you can't count on him to be healthy. If you keep him you're probably keeping 7 WRs on the roster and I don't think that's likely. I don't believe most teams have last year's PS WRs taking snaps with the 1st team. I see a lot of people saying that it's normal, but is it? I don't remember Shavers for example getting 1st team reps last year, I could be wrong though. In the past there's been a core group of WRs getting regular snaps with Josh Allen, with a couple being mixed in sparingly for injury or rest. This year the distribution of targets so far has seemed to be a bit all over the place. But that's the state of the WR room right now. We have like 7 guys that would be really good WR4s. We'll be scrambling to stack them in the right order and hopefully somebody will elevate their game enough to give our passing offense some sort of top tier ceiling.

Updates from Matt Parrino. Sounds like the offense was much better today, good to see.

Like I said it's not about the individual reps. A drop here or a miscommunication there is normal. What worries me is that Tyrell Shavers and Andy Isabella and KJ Hamler are getting 1st team reps. I'm sorry but that represents a failure of the Bills team building process. These should all be practice squad fodder, not legitimate competitors for starting snaps.

So to be clear, your opinion is that missing two starting secondary players is an equal handicap to missing one starting secondary player (Tre White, which I guess we have to conveniently forget about for the purpose of this discussion) and not having Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce on the field.

We've already signed all the waiver wire all stars, that's probably not gonna get it done. We might get deep into training camp and realize we don't have a starting caliber outside WR on the roster. That's what we need. A trade for an established talent is going to be our only saving grace. Hopefully Beane is ready to pull the trigger if we're at preseason game 1 and still don't have a clear cut WR depth chart.

I don't want to read too much into individual reps but it's hard not to be concerned. Right now who is the best outside WR on the roster? I honestly have no clue and it sounds like the team doesn't know either because a lot of WRs are getting reps with the starting offense.

One more update from Matt Parrino:

Another update from Matt Parrino:

Another update from Matt Parrino:

Another update from Matt Parrino:

One update from Matt Parrino and this isn't going to make the WR pessimists happy: My biggest takeaway is that a lot of WRs are getting reps with Josh Allen. So far we've heard Claypool, Shavers, Isabella, and Hamler all getting targets from Allen today. This room is quite a jumbled mess right now... Hopefully the cream rises to the top in training camp but early returns are not good.

The 70 yard bazooka over the top of the defense wasn't really a defensive breakdown. That is a spot on the field most defenses aren't thinking about... but Allen draws new lines on the field. I don't recall Mahomes dodging a free rusher on 4th down and somehow turning the corner to scramble for a 1st down just to keep the game alive. Like I said Mahomes played amazing. But let's consider the degree of difficulty here.

Nah. Allen turned Gabe Davis into a superstar that game while Mahomes was tossing a slant to Tyreek Hill that he ran for a 60 yard TD. Mahomes had two GOATs on the field with him and a GOAT on the sidelines. Allen had... himself. Mahomes played an amazing game but Allen played otherworldly.

I think what he has going for him is that he's the best RB we've had in the Josh Allen era. Singletary was fine but clearly had limitations. Moss was a bust for us. Cook showed up and immediately demonstrated the potential of an above average RB with speed playing on the field with Josh Allen. Make no mistake - him being the #3 RB in yards from scrimmage last year was as much a function of Josh Allen as it was of Cook himself. Could we have better, sure, but his skill set is probably the ideal skill set to take advantage of how defenses play Josh Allen so for that I am satisfied with his play. I actually don't worry about his drops because they were ALL drops in or near the endzone. That tells me it is a matter of overthinking, not skill. He has zero problems with his hands. He just needs to get over whatever mental block screwed him up on those opportunities, and I find that much easier to overcome than a true physical limitation.

This is my fear. Next offseason Pegula and the fans will justify it as "it was a planned rebuild year" and Josh Allen will be 31 years old before we decide to try again with different people in charge. Personally I think five years of elite QB play is more than enough time to make a judgment about a head coach, excuses be damned. But yes I suspect that's where the conversation will be next year, unfortunately.