HappyDays

This is really the problem. Other playoff caliber teams make Mahomes at least uncomfortable. Houston, Baltimore, San Fran, Cincy, all of these defenses have performed decently against him. No one is asking to shut him down as bad as Philly did. Just make him uncomfortable like every other playoff team has been able to do. For us on the contrary every time he plays us it looks like he's warming up against the scout team. It's been like that every single playoff matchup since 2020. We've never forced more than two punts which is insane when you really think about it.

It's a fair question and I don't know. I want Beane to be willing to take a chance like that because we're struggling to find elite talent so taking a player that drops for non-talent reasons is one way of solving the problem. It helps that he tore his ACL in September so he wouldn't miss his whole rookie season. I've floated the idea of someone like Jonathan Jones as a cheap vet that can compete with a rookie, and we just hired his CB coach so now I think that's a real possibility. I'll trust your judgment on the chances of Revel being there at #30. All the big boards I look at have him ranked usually between 32 and 40. But who knows. CBs with elite physical traits are coveted by every team.

All the more reason to make CB a priority this offseason. McDermott's scheme needs a shutdown CB to function at its highest level. I've warmed up to drafting one in the 1st round. Shavon Revel seems like a great fit that has a realistic chance of still being there at #30.

You know I saw Spotrac projected him to get 2 years $16M and I'm a bit perplexed by that valuation. He got just 1 year $7M last year presumably because teams wanted to make sure he could stay healthy... and he answered that question by getting injured on the first play of preseason and missing almost the entire year. So now his value has gone up? I know the WR market is bad this year but that still doesn't add up for me. I'd think another 1 year prove it deal is all he would get right now.

We have 3 WRs on the roster and zero that can definitely start outside. We aren't in a position to say "no thanks" to any possible legit option.

That's right. The Bills are proof of this. The same exact DL that everyone criticized after the AFCCG was one of our keys to victory over them in the regular season. Personally I think that AFCCG performance came down to poor contain discipline which is a problem of coaching and poor secondary play which is a problem of talent. Building a DL that can do what Philly did yesterday, or the Bucs four years ago, is a pipe dream. Those teams did it with multiple top 16 draft picks and big FA spending none of which is going to be possible with Allen as our QB. We would need to already have a couple studs on the roster and Beane would still have to hit another few picks in the near future. You might as well wish for the Eagles group of offensive skill players if you're coming up with pie in the sky paths to a championship. I think we're two legit WRs, one legit DL, and one legit CB or S away from being able to defeat the Chiefs in the playoffs. And it's realistic that Beane could find all of that in this coming offseason if he spends his picks and cap space appropriately.

100%. I'm still in disbelief that they didn't given the strength of the class, and presumably knowing from futures scouting that the 2025 WR class would be weak. Right now I still would take Troy Franklin over either Bishop or Carter. Even though he didn't do much as a rookie I would still rather have a developmental vertical WR on the roster than the absolute nothing that we have in that role now. And this year you aren't likely to find a WR of his caliber in the 3rd round. I'm a fan of Matthew Golden in the 1st this year. A bit safer of a pick with maybe a more limited ceiling than I usually like in the 1st round, but I'm kind of with you now that we just need someone who can run routes and separate to give the WR room a reasonable floor.

So my take on this is you should never throw out the rules. Every year you should be drafting BPA with a high ceiling in round 1. I never want us to constrain ourselves to a specific immediate outcome because of an immediate need. But I say all of this as somewhat of a hypocrite because I was leading the "WR or bust" charge last year. So I get where you're coming from. It's just sad that because Beane has mismanaged the position so poorly, we got to a spot last year where it was a totally defensible opinion that we should draft a high floor player at a specific position. That should never be the goal. Coleman had the unenviable position of having to come in and be the savior for the room from day one. That was never realistic and Beane is to blame for the fans' expectations.

Well Alpha the offense as put together by Beane has had two consecutive chances with the ball in their hands to get past the Chiefs and fell short both times. And now we have just 3 WRs on the roster with zero that can definitely be trusted outside. The half measures and the bandaids aren't getting it done. Last year was a great year to need WRs and he didn't capitalize. This year is a crappy year to need WRs and we're backed into a corner, again. Absolutely that all falls on Beane.

Honestly I think even if we had BTJ it would still be a need right now. I was banging the drum to draft a WR high even when we had Diggs and Davis in their prime. Credit to Philly's DL but Brown and Smith being their top 2 WRs helped them build an insurmountable lead before KC could even catch their breath. That's what I want. Coleman for me was just the start of the WR infusion even if he immediately hit his ceiling. The fact that he very well could be a bust just increases the pressure.

They kept using draft picks and got a big hit in Rice and a possible hit in Worthy. That's what we need to do. Last offseason I figured we were at least two WRs away - one separator, one physical WR. So this year I hope we go for the separator. And then follow the Pittsburgh (and now KC) model of drafting one every single year on day one or two.

Sure but one draft decision shouldn't make or break the entire room. KC drafting Mecole Hardman followed by Skyy Moore didn't make any difference because they just kept investing resources into the position until they got a couple hits.

As I've said Kirby, the mistake cannot be boiled down to a single decision made 9 months ago. The mistake was to never make it a point to prioritize the WR room after 2020. It was a series of repeated mistakes that got us where we are today. From 2021-2024, Beane drafted exactly 1 WR on day one or two. That's unconscionable with Allen as the QB. It led us to a point where they were backed into a corner and absolutely had to draft a WR last year regardless of what their BPA board looked like. I can give Beane some grace for individual evaluation failures because every GM has those on his resume, but I can't forgive him for overarching philosophical mistakes that span multiple years. Here we are again backed into a corner with only 3 WRs on the roster heading into 2025 and once again he will need to draft one relatively high no matter what.

I'm not ready to say the Bills themselves have gotten over their own mental hurdle against the Chiefs. But hopefully this loss will at least propel them to a lower seed. Us getting the #1 seed would be huge as far as getting over the hump.

Part of me wonders if this loss will leak into KC's season next year. I've been leading the brigade on how different they are and how the usual rules don't apply to them, but that mystique around them has faltered somewhat since getting their asses kicked and I imagine even the players can't help but feel some of that themselves. Not that I expect them to drop off a cliff or anything like that, but I'm not sure another casual road to the #1 seed is going to happen. Last time they got shellacked in the Super Bowl, Mahomes spent much of the next season in a big slump and ultimately choked in the AFCCG against Cincy.

The absolute worst thing the Bills defense did this year was too many blitzes with soft coverage behind. It was mind numbing how frequently our scheme was like pointing a big neon sign at a WR to make it nice and easy for the QB. All year I felt like there was very little rhyme or reason to some of our play designs. It felt like we were pulling concepts out of a hat. So I agree with the obvious point that Philly is much more talented than we are, but that doesn't excuse the coaching. It simply has to be better. The fact that the organization has already made a couple of philosophically-different hires tells you they know it too. I mean we've had four playoff matchups against KC and they've never punted more than twice against us.

This is what really baffles me about the AFCCG. In the regular season matchup we made it a point to contain rush Mahomes and it really affected him. Then in the AFCCG we completely abandoned it and Mahomes was doing whatever he wanted in the 1st half. For the life of me I can't figure out what changed. Same DL players were on the field.

I try to be charitable to QBs because it's such a difficult position. I don't know of any QB in history that would have performed well under those circumstances last night. Brady would have made less mistakes but no way he would have done enough to overcome that game script. The pick six was brutally bad but it wasn't any worse than the pick he threw to start the 3rd quarter last year, it just happened to be run back for 6 this time around. KC's offense last night reminded me of our loss to the Urban Meyer Jags. I remember after that game thinking Allen didn't play particularly well but he also had no real chance to succeed because of no run game and relentless pressure on every down. There's a certain point where the QB just can't overcome the mess around him.

They may have been better served leaving Thuney at LG and making do with Wanya Morris at LT. I understand the thought process but putting an almost unrosterable player at LG just to get average LT play was probably a step too far.

My hot take is that it wasn't much different from his other Super Bowl appearances. Especially last year's. Middling play in the 1st half before turning it on in the 2nd half. The difference this time is his defense wasn't able to keep them in the game so by the time he found his groove it was way too late. Everybody forgets now but last year against SF he led his offense to 3 points in the 1st half, then started the 2nd half with a brutal INT that gave SF the ball at midfield. I give major credit to Jalen Hurts for playing an almost perfect game and doing enough to build an insurmountable lead. Purdy last year let KC hang around.

Chiefs have a tough offseason to navigate. Now I'm sure there are some moves they can make to push up that $11M but the Hunts have not shown a willingness to pay a lot of money up front to create cap room. I don't think they can afford to re-sign Trey Smith so they start the offseason in terrible shape on the OL. I expect that to be their focus in the draft. We thought Coleman and Bishop were disappointing, well their 2nd round pick OT Kingsley Suamataia was so bad they moved Thuney to LT just to keep him off the field.

Biggest thing I noticed is they executed their contain rush to perfection. Mahomes had no escape lanes. In our game in the 1st half we had zero contain discipline, I almost couldn't believe what I was watching.

I'm fine laying off of McDermott this offseason for all the reasons you mentioned. But that comes with the obvious caveat that all of these excuses go away next year. We're going to have close to $40M in cap space when the various restructure and cuts are done, and we have a lot of draft picks. The entire core of players is returning and both coordinators are back. So this year has to be the one. If the year ends in the exact same fashion - losing in the playoffs while giving up way above average production to our opponent - McDermott has to go, and he can take Beane with him. They cannot be allowed to lead Allen's career into his 30s after wasting all of his 20s. Just get it done.

Looking at it again, that tweet was posted when the game was 34-0. So spiritually I feel like it's true even though by the letter it isn't. Brady never had garbage time TDs in the Super Bowl because he wouldn't ever play as poorly as Mahomes did in this one before the game was out of hand.

The crazy thing about Brady is he had a 1st ballot HoF career in his 20s. His early to mid 30s he put together a lesser HoF career. Then when he turned 37 he put together his most impressive HoF career yet until he retired. Literally three HoF careers in one. And in his Super Bowls he was doing this: I have a hard time seeing a QB ever dethroning Brady's GOAT status. But Allen and Mahomes are almost a full decade away from reaching Brady's 3rd HoF career. Their stories aren't even halfway finished yet.