HappyDays

Seems to me like he'll definitely be out against Indy since he can't catch, but hopefully back by KC. If not seems like he'll definitely be back after the bye. So it appears we averted a complete disaster.

No we already have enough situational pass rushers.

Ravens for sure. Anybody that's watched Burrow against McDermott's defense should know that we want Cincy out of the playoffs entirely. Burrow is probably the best QB in the league at dissecting zone defense. McDermott has never shown a willingness to adjust his scheme against him, so I want no part of that in the 1st round.

Bills 27 Colts 13 I'm feeling a redux of the Seahawks game but with a bit less scoring because of injuries to Coleman and Cooper. Pittman feels unlikely to play and Flacco is a statue so on defense we can sell out to stop the run like we did against Seattle. Flacco is the worst QB we've faced this year, even worse than Mason Rudolph IMO. He was terrible last week. McDermott doesn't lose to terrible QBs with mediocre coaching staffs. I struggle to find anything to be concerned about in this one.

I don't know, I think McDaniel's scheme hides OL deficiencies as well as anyone. Ball is in out in 2 seconds, or the run scheme dials up big blockers on small defensive players for an automatic mismatch. I'm sure they'll make a couple investments there but I wouldn't expect it to be a priority... Their biggest need is playmakers at every level of the defense.

Baker is the same player he was in Cleveland, which is a perfectly decent QB that will always hover around 16th best in the league. Cleveland let him go because they thought Watson could be a top 5 QB, obviously that has not worked out. Darnold hasn't resurrected his career. He will continue to be a backup/bridge starter because he doesn't see the field well and doesn't move through his progressions fast enough. All of his warts are popping up again now that opposing defenses have several games of tape on him in that offense. He'll be the primary reason the Vikings don't go far in the playoffs this year and they'll switch to JJ McCarthy next year.

I wouldn't count out the Dolphins next year. We just saw firsthand how good that offense is when everyone is healthy and McDaniel is willing to be patient as a play caller. They did anything they wanted to against us, and if they can drag us into a shootout it becomes basically a coin flip game. I still see them as our most viable competition for the next couple years. I don't think people are giving enough credit to how bad the Pats roster is right now... They're kind of where the Bills were in 2018 but arguably with even less talent, and Jerod Mayo has not been good at all IMO. He's a defensive coach and his defense has been abysmal (30th in DVOA). And it's very unlikely Drake Maye becomes as good as Josh Allen. I know they have a ton of resources to spend next year but they are almost like an expansion team starting from scratch. They will have to make a lot of good decisions to climb their way back into contention. I'm really not worried about them at all. The Jets are in for a few years of pain. They made a massive mistake trying to go all in with a 40 year old QB. Short term all in teams very rarely work out. The Rams did it and it worked but it took them a couple years just to get back into wildcard contention and that was with an elite coach and very good QB guiding the ship. The Jets by comparison are lost at sea and don't even have a captain. Get back to me in four seasons, we'll see where they're at.

My post on the last page:

Yeah in a way I was glad to see us win a game like we did against Miami. It's good for the team in the long run. Inevitably you are going to have to win some shootouts in this league. If for example we face Baltimore in the playoffs it isn't going to be a 21-17 kind of win... It was good to see our offense keep pace and that was without our best WR on the field.

Sounds like he had a bad attitude from the start and didn't put forth enough of an effort for the coaches to give him a shot after he recovered from his injury. Opportunities are earned, not gifted.

I highly doubt that. Beane doesn't promise starting roles to low-tier contract players. He tells them they'll come in to compete. Somehow Edwards got it in his head that he has earned a starting job out the gate despite being a backup as recently as last year.

I'm holding you personally responsible.

Noooo why Jordan Phillips?? I really didn't want to believe it was actually going to happen. @GunnerBill you were right, he has put a hypnotic spell on Brandon Beane.

Joe Marino put out some interesting info on today's Locked On Bills. He said two weeks ago a source told him that Mike Edwards was very unhappy that he had to compete for a starting job, he had a bad attitude about it, and he was apparently giving low effort in practice. That's why he was a mainstay on the inactive list. So this whole thing has been brewing for a while. It sucks that a veteran who's spent his career competing for playing time suddenly decided he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. What a loser, honestly. This is why you can't always judge coaching decisions without knowing what's going on behind the scenes.

I'm having so much fun imagining Jordan Phillips sitting on the inactive list for the next 8 weeks

It doesn't even make any sense. The Cowboys just released him like 15 minutes ago. No way we already contacted him and signed him just like that. He's posting himself in a Bills jersey with the caption "run it back" because that's what he wants to happen. This is a bizarre mass delusion from the local and national media.

Phillips is trying to post it into existence. I'll be shocked if we bring him back. He's completely washed up. If we want to give him a PS spot to replace Ankou, sure, whatever, but no way he should be on an NFL roster.

How much would we have to give up to offload that contract? And I'm only half joking.

We now have two open roster spots with Edwards being released and Smoot going to IR. I would think Ankou will get one of the openings, he has earned it IMO. That leaves one left to hopefully fill through a trade.

I don't disagree, and I'm intentionally not diving into my "fire McDermott" stance until the season is over. He's our coach right now so he has my support through the rest of the season. Just saying there is no comparison between Daboll and Johnson.

Daboll has never been a great OC at any point in his career. Ben Johnson transformed Goff into a top 10 QB and has built the most dominant offense in the league. And the offense has gotten better and better each year so it's not a flash in the plan. The respective resumes of those coaches are not close IMO.

Good news... KC was reportedly in on him. Finally a big trade went to the NFC.

AKA both of those players will be traded to whatever team makes the best offer. Hopefully we're in on SJD.

My thought is that the trade deadline should be about setting us up for the playoffs, not setting us up for November. Usually I am all about stacking the WR room, but unless Coleman's injury is a season ender we can enter the playoffs with a trio of Cooper/Coleman/Shakir. That is not a dominant group by any means but I'm good with it. We probably have the cap room to make exactly one trade (thanks to Beane's awful FA spending this year, but that's a topic for another thread). WR is the wrong position to use it on IMO. For me the position group most likely to kill us in the playoffs as currently constructed is DT and it's not close. We're going to see some great rushing teams in the playoffs - some combination of the Chargers, Texans, Ravens, Chiefs, and finally the Lions if we make it that far. And other than the Chargers, you also have to respect the pass for each of those teams. We aren't going to see any Seattle minus DK Metcalf offenses where we can just sell out to stop the run. Somebody up front needs to be able to make individual plays to shut down the run, and right now we don't have anyone on the roster capable of that. Eli Ankou might be our best run stopper which is insane. So give me a big DT and hope to enter the playoffs healthy. That gives us our best shot at making a run IMO.