HappyDays

Here we go again. I remember people saying the same thing last year after the Baltimore and Houston losses. Then we added a downfield boundary WR and lo and behold the "regression" was stopped in its tracks. And Cooper was no elite threat for us by any means, but just having that baseline option available made a massive difference. I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face - the worst sin this regime has committed is convincing a portion of the fanbase that Allen is anything less than elite. They are ruining his legacy as evidenced by posts like this. Tom Brady had a disappointing final year in New England and people thought his career was over. Instead he went to the team with the best set of offensive weapons in the league and promptly won another Super Bowl. Every QB that has ever played in the NFL has needed help to perform at their best.

Yeah I'm just talking about recent years. Since 2021 Beane has spent exactly ONE top 140 pick on a WR. One in five drafts. That's an almost incomprehensible failure for any team, let alone one built around its rocket arm QB.

Rice was a 2nd rounder. They also used a 2nd rounder on Skyy Moore (awful pick, but I'm just talking about the investment strategy). That is 3 top 64 picks on a WR over the same period that we have used 1. This year they spent a 4th on one while we used a 7th. They have absolutely prioritized the position more than we have.

I don't mean this as a criticism but Shakir is a limited player. He does his one trick extremely well and for that alone I think he is worth his contract, but he is not someone you want to rely on down in and down out. His failure to make what has become a pretty routine sideline catch in the modern NFL is a good example of what I mean. And just to be clear I don't blame him for not making that play. It's not his fault he's been elevated into the role of full time slot WR when his proper role is YAC specialist that you manufacture a few touches for.

I don't think Palmer was a bad signing. $10M is the going rate for #3 caliber WRs. That is what Tutu Atwell and Dyami Brown are getting paid and Palmer is better than both of them. The problem is that that was Beane's signature move at WR this year. Last year it was Curtis Samuel. Those should be moves to round out the offense, not your big ticket items. We let Diggs go and I agreed 100% with that decision, but Beane made no attempt to find anybody even close to his level. They chose "everybody eats" over "feed a couple stars" and it has proven undeniably the wrong approach to building around your franchise QB. Mahomes had crap around him for a season or two, and KC has made every effort to fix the problem. Meanwhile Beane has taken to yelling at local radio hosts because he knows better than everyone. Palmer + Rousseau + Bernard could have given us DK Metcalf. I was adamant in the offseason that adding a star WR needed to be the singular priority because it was our only possible path to a Super Bowl and unfortunately my worst fears about their approach have come true.

I think they need to remove the ping pong tables from the locker room

Atlanta's offense has been the worst in the league passing the ball 10+ yards downfield this year. I knew Bijan was going to make some plays and you can live with that. It's just appalling that they had exactly one WR to worry about and they just let him find soft spots in zone or end up in 1v1 coverage all night long. It could have been a lot worse too. We got lucky London stepped out of bounds at the end of the 1st half and Penix missed a few throws where he was wide open. I just don't understand how you let the only pass catcher worth mentioning do that to you. Just like Diggs last week. Forget genius defensive coaching, we are failing at the basics.

He put out top 5 and 10 defenses (in the regular season anyways) when Leslie Frazier was his DC. His own turn at DC was a disaster and Babich's turn has been even worse. I've begun to suspect all the talk about McDermott being a DB guru was Frazier's handiwork as well. Since he left just about nothing has gone right on that side of the ball.

There's been regression from just about everybody on defense this year. Benford, Bernard, Rousseau, Rapp, Taron. All of them are playing worse than last year. Even White is worse than he was last year and that's really saying something. You're just not going to convince anybody on here that McDermott is some guru who gets the very best out of his players. Frankly I think the opposite has been true, the players on defense are not being put in position to succeed within their own skill sets. There is just no excuse for giving up over 300 yards in the 1st half alone. Only one Falcons WR caught a pass tonight. You'll never guess who? Letting their one guy beat you repeatedly is an abysmal failure of game planning and coaching. By the way I agree that Beane failed in his attempts to add talent to that side of the ball, but he got the archetypes that McDermott asked for so McDermott is responsible for using them. It was entirely predictable that all the investments in the world would make no difference to the defense's performance because the coaching on that side of the ball has grown stale and easy to expose.

Not sure Benford is where you want to hang McDermott's hat right now

That isn't true anymore. The league has swung right back to the downfield passing game winning you games. Cover 2 shell had its moment but offenses have figured out how to punch back. Look at what the Bucs are doing. Or Seattle. Or KC as their offense looks better and better each week. Look at how the Pats have played on offense to establish their lead in the division. You HAVE to be able to throw the ball downfield or you don't have an offense. Defenses are not gonna let us run and Shakir quick screen them to death all game long. We have to prove we can beat them over the top or the season is over.

On our final few drives, we were trying to feed the ball to Elijah Moore and Tyrell Shavers. Imagine trying to win a Super Bowl and that's the best you give your QB to work with. Unreal.

My biggest concern is that Beane has the luxury of feeling this way because Pegula is putting no pressure on them. If we had strong ownership McDermott and Beane would be sweating bullets right now and making whatever moves they could to save the season. But I've never gotten the sense that they feel any kind of pressure.

Here's a thought - in the last year of Highmark Stadium there might be zero playoff games played there. That affects season ticket sales for next year. Is that enough of a reason for Pegula to make big changes?

It feels different because we have a legit division threat now. Miami was paper tigers that never gave you a real reason to worry about them. New England is legit. They have the coach and they have the QB. In years past these slumps just affected our seeding which was bad enough. Now it is genuinely possible and I might even say likely that zero playoff games will be played at Highmark Stadium in its final season Hey maybe that will be the thing that pisses Pegula off enough to make the necessary change. And that's my answer to this thread - sure go ahead and fire the DC, make a big trade for a WR, whatever. The real change has to happen in January or else Josh Allen will never win a Super Bowl.

Bourne or Jennings aren't enough. I've been an advocate of Rashid Shaheed. But he isn't enough either. It has to be Olave or some other legit #1 if one is available. No more half measures in surrounding our MVP.

I was told on here that Elijah Moore was just stuck with bad QB play his whole career. Palmer was stuck in a run-heavy offense. And they both had such great "separation metrics." Turns out they are who their production said they were. Oh well. At least (hopefully) these past two games will force Beane to make a move like he did after the Baltimore and Houston loss last year. But this time it needs to be bigger than Amari Cooper. We need a legit #1 weapon in the building or the season is toast. Even with one it might not matter but I'd like to go down swinging if nothing else.

I think McDermott and Beane are in lockstep on roster decisions, that's all I'm saying. I don't think Beane goes rogue when year after year he way over invests in the DL while leaving scraps for the passing game. That is an organizational direction and I believe McDermott steers that direction. I'm not defending Coleman anymore. He hasn't progressed at all. Of course I have been consistent in wanting way more investment at that position. I'll take the L on Coleman as a prospect, I was 100% right about the room though. It's deflating to watch my worst fears come true. McDermott has made 3 coordinator hires since Daboll and Frazier left. Babich, Dorsey, Brady. 3 internal hires, two of which turned out horribly, one of which is turning out mediocre. So yes he gets his share of the blame for the team falling out. We have these ridiculous godawful slumps every single year and this year it might have finally cost us the division. That if nothing else should spell his fate.

Truly shocking that in a game where we needed a 2nd half comeback led by the offense, Moore and Shavers were the featured players. That is 2018 bad.

I'm not one to bump old threads. But does this go down as one of the all-time PR blunders in Buffalo sports history? It was destined to look really stupid if the WR room ended up being a disappointment, and predictably that is what has happened.

Allen can really throw rockets downfield. It's too bad his targets are the likes of Tyrell Shavers and not Metcalf or Pickens.

Not bowing out, I just have nothing new to say. To me McDermott and Beane are a package deal. McDermott's coordinator hires have been horrible. His side of the ball falls apart every year whenever we need it to step up.

Fire Brady for who? McDermott just makes internal coordinator hires every time because he is deathly afraid of stepping outside his comfort zone. Making more coordinator changes would be a band aid to try and hide the real problem in the coaching staff.

The only positive from tonight is that Deone Walker has been living in the backfield. We found our 1 tech. Unfortunately we haven't found anything else that we needed.

We don't need one. Beane yelled at local media then signed the WR that just ran the wrong route, because we don't need one. The sad thing is the fanbase ate it right up.