HappyDays

Is anybody on the board arguing the offense won't produce "solid results"?

Their skill sets couldn't be more different.

We haven't added, we've subtracted. Davis, Harty, and Sherfield all have replacements on the roster. Diggs does not. But my point is that every single offense can argue they have "multiple good options." That's a meaningless statement because it's the utter floor of any offense that exists in the modern NFL.

I also don't know what "multiple good options" means. I mean that could describe literally every offense in the NFL if you squint your eyes hard enough.

What if they had a stud and multiple good options

First time visiting the forum?

WR is too valuable a position to keep 1 of 6 roster spots for just special teams when the top of the depth chart is well below average. Andre Roberts was our special teams ace when we had three legit starters above him on the depth chart. And we are an injury away from Mack Hollins playing real snaps in a playoff game like Trent Sherfield did last year.

3 of the last 4 years he had 250 or less receiving yards. His career arc prior to signing with us is almost identical to Andre Holmes before he signed with us. Giving him guaranteed money is one of the weirdest signings of Beane's tenure. It's really just a poor testament to the state of the WR room that he's a roster lock instead of on the roster bubble. I wish the 4th WR on our depth chart wasn't known for just his "big personality" but I've accepted it. The only thing I don't understand is why some people are trying to make him out to be more than he is?

You know I've always thought this is how it should be in the playoffs. Make it true of the OT coin toss too. Make a higher seed that much more valuable.

Yeah that's one of the more suspicious stunts the NFL has ever pulled off. Institute challenges for PI, never reverse them even in clear and obvious situations, then say "whelp we tried, it didn't work" and get rid of it immediately the following season.

In all seriousness I would add a 2nd bye week, one in the first 8 games and one in the last 9 games with at least a 4 week gap between byes. It's criminal that they haven't already done this.

How about one rule change to ruin the sport? The QB gets a 15 yard penalty if he leaves the pocket, and the size of the pocket is determined subjectively by an umpire standing behind the field of play.

Are you sure about that? I saw people on here freak out because they got Justyn Ross as a UDFA, then again when they traded for Kadarius Toney, and people still haven't learned because we heard it all again after they traded up with us and took Xavier Worthy. I'm keeping my expectations low, where they should be. Still Claypool is more than just another Andy Isabella IMO. He has some sort of past production to lean on so there is a glimmer of hope there. If the plan is to take a shot in the dark on him and then trade for a WR at the deadline if/when he fails, I'm okay with that.

I think of these four best case scenarios, three need to happen: 1) Dalton Kincaid proves he is a top 3ish pass catching TE. 2) Brady proves he is a top 5ish OC. 3) Keon Coleman hits the ground running and is immediately capable of being a full time X receiver with 1,000+ yards. 4) Chase Claypool suddenly turns his career back around and becomes a 1,000+ yard WR. And I have them ranked in order of how likely I think they are to occur. But all of them are long shots and we need 3/4 of them to come true to have a championship caliber offense IMO.

There aren't any. Him being a top 10 offensive mind in the NFL is one of several best case scenarios that need to come to fruition for this offense to be at a championship level. He was thought to be something of an offensive savant in his time at LSU so the hope is that with a full offseason to install his own offense he will prove to be at that level. I'm not particularly optimistic but he'll get his chance. I assume you mean without a true field stretcher. To that I would still definitely say no. MVS is going to be our field stretcher and that's why they signed him - the role was missing from the roster. I don't believe you can have a high level NFL offense without a true field stretcher, even if it's just of the Gabe Davis variety running decoy/clear out routes downfield. The defense has to at least respect that area of the field. I see what the team is trying to do. They're trying to build a more consistent, less boom or bust, move the chains offense where the explosive plays are created more after the catch than before the catch. They're going big outside and quick/fast inside. I have zero issues with the philosophy, I'm just not convinced the talent and/or coaching is great enough to make it all run at a championship level.

I tend to agree. I think the plan is to run something like the 2022/2023 Chiefs offenses. The Chiefs over those two seasons threw just two TDs total of 20+ air yards. Mahomes averaged 4.2 air yards per TD throw over those seasons which is insanely low. They became very much a ball control grind out long TD drives kind of offense and I expect us to attempt the same. The addition of Samuel & Coleman tells me we are going to reduce the air yards per throw and try to increase the YAC per throw to make up the difference. I think MVS will have several Gabe Davis-esque 0 reception games where he's running nothing but clear out routes. Not sure I fully agree with the vision but I see the vision.

I don't but it's not similar team building at all, that is one thing I know for sure. Anyways that's not an argument to keep McDermott. If the current guy isn't good enough you have to try something different. If different fails, well at least you tried. The only reason to keep McDermott is if you think the team has a strong chance of winning a championship under his leadership. That is the only question that matters. So far we have not really come close under his leadership. Now we're entering his 8th season, let's see what happens.

I trust the consulting firm they use to run the search to make a good hire, yes. It wouldn't be too difficult. It's not like last time when the Bills job was considered to be the dregs of the league. Any great coaching candidate would love to get the keys to Josh Allen for 5+ years to start (or revitalize) their career. I think everyone has had their say a dozen times over, yes? There's really nothing else to be said. The conversation this offseason is the same as it was last offseason, just with one more data point of evidence to consider. This coming season will give us one more data point to use to evaluate him. I strongly suspect it will turn out the same as past years, but hopefully I'm wrong.

He hasn't turned anything around though. The latest playoff loss exemplified his worst traits. Poor personnel decisions. Poor defensive scheme that led to fish in a barrel offensive production. Coaching brain farts at critical moments of the game. I don't think McDermott has improved as a coach since 2020 to be honest, and last year if anything I thought he took a step back in certain areas. But man I am already so sick of this conversation. I have no choice but to be in wait and see mode so that's what I'll do.

I'd like to see Kincaid run more seams. Early in the year it was mostly all flats and checkdowns and quick hitches. Later in the year we let him fly down the field more and from my memory we tended to have very good success on those plays. With a WR room that I think will struggle to find consistent vertical separation, Kincaid can possibly be our one consistent means of freezing safeties and opening up pass catchers underneath.

A negative can't be proven 😁 This whole conversation about where McDermott stacks among former Bills coaches really avoids the million dollar question. The question is, can McDermott win ONE Super Bowl during Allen's career? Really the question should be can McDermott win MULTIPLE Super Bowls during Allen's career but I think as a fanbase we've collectively shelved that goal, which is telling on its own. I would feel better if McDermott had one signature defensive game in the playoffs on his resume. Really, just one. I know the Ravens game played in hurricane winds is the example everyone uses, personally that doesn't do it for me. The statistics on his defense against divisional winners in the playoffs are horrendously bad. There's not a single data point that gives me reason for optimism on that front. My one hope right now is that he relinquishes full control of the defense to Babich, play calling and all, and Babich turns out to be a defensive mastermind. Or at the very least varied and creative enough to just slow down some of these great teams in the playoffs. At least with Babich we have no data points to go off of so there is some reason for blind hope.

What if McDermott is the best Bills coach of the millennium, but also isn't good enough to win a championship?

I'm convinced not one person on this board ever watched Kelvin Benjamin play.

I don't know how the WR corps will ultimately come together but there's a clear theme - size, vertical jump, catch radius. They are going in the total opposite direction of recent years as far as outside WRs go. I've always felt Allen would thrive with that style of WR which is why I was so high on Coleman in the draft. If Claypool can get close to what he was his first two seasons we suddenly have multiple physical studs on the field with Josh Allen, for the first time in his career.