HappyDays

But he has... The drop off is real. He is on track for the lowest tackles per game of his career. He is not popping on film like he was last year before his injury. And we are the worst run defense in the league... Surely our 1T has something do with that, yes? At the very least he is looking like a big overpay. Maybe not this year with a $2.87M cap hit, but next year it balloons to $9.4M or $7.6M in dead cap if we cut him. The decision to re-sign him cost us an opportunity to upgrade elsewhere on the roster and he is not performing up to the level of his contract.

He wasn't beat physically, he was beat mentally. That is more worrying because safety is more of a cerebral position in the modern NFL especially in McDermott's scheme. That being said I hope he is up to speed soon because Hamlin starting playoff games is a frightening proposition.

I liked the Samuel signing, but that was before I knew that Diggs would be traded. The front office at that time knew that Diggs was very likely not going to be here. So they knew they were going to have a gaping void at outside WR... and with that knowledge they signed a slot/gadget WR and Mack Hollins? I don't really blame Beane for Samuel's drop off - whether from injury or bad luck it came out of nowhere - but I do blame him for coming into the season without a plan at such an important position. Part of me also wonders, if we had signed Mooney would we still have traded for Cooper? Would this regime be willing to really stack the position and try to build a shootout caliber offense? Or are they content with doing the bare minimum?

I completely disagree about DQ. I was one of the few that didn't like the signing to begin with, for a multitude of reasons but primarily because it once again meant we were choosing to invest in the defense at the expense of the offense. And DQ has been invisible. We have the worst run defense in the league... You can't spend moderate money on a 1T and have the worst run defense in the league, you just can't. So what if we had a need at DT? It is plainly obvious that Mooney would mean more to this team right now than DQ. And that is not hindsight, it was easily predictable way back in March. As I said all offseason the Bills should have made a real attempt to build around Josh first and the defense second. Instead they made the same mistake they've made every offseason for several years in a row now, and as expected the offense dropped off and the defense has been a disappointment in spite of the investments. There's really no justification or excuse for failing to sign a legit outside WR when one was sitting right there for the taking and we chose the gadget WR instead. Also that $2.25M we set on fire when we signed MVS could have gone towards Mooney. But because we overspent on yet another aging defensive lineman, we were forced to make a panic move at WR. I'd like to think Beane will learn from this experience but he hasn't learned the other half dozen times so unfortunately I'm coming to realize that this is just who he is. Just once I'd like this regime to try the one path they really haven't tried yet which is to OVER invest in the offense and see where that takes you.

Same FG% as Bass last year and also missed 3 PATs... So probably not going to be anything more than change for the sake of change, but at least they're trying. Maybe his confidence isn't totally shot like Bass.

As of right now it seems like the move was to sign Darnell Mooney instead of Curtis Samuel. Not a true #1 but a legit WR that can play outside and can separate. It likely would have come at the cost of re-signing someone like Daquan Jones. Instead they went the cheap route at WR and ended up with a predictably poor result. And they knew well before Diggs was actually traded that he would be gone. It is not a case of being surprised by a sudden last minute change in his attitude. They had time to prepare for his departure and failed to do so.

Yeah it is worrying to have un-clutch coaches and an un-clutch kicker. Combined it feels like an almost impossible to overcome handicap when you have to win multiple consecutive sudden death games against quality opponents.

It isn't just the run defense. We're giving up way too many explosive plays in general. From Joe Buscaglia's recap of the Jets game: Explosive play differential has a significant correlation with win percentage. The poor efficiency of our run defense is a symptom of this larger problem. Honestly though I expected the defense to disappoint this year. Beane should have anticipated this as well and should have thrown as many resources at the offense as possible to compensate. Hopefully adding Amari Cooper helps us become an offense that can win shootouts, because the current defensive personnel is not going to shut down the Ravens for example if we face them in the playoffs. We will need to match TDs with TDs when we face championship contenders and that's just how it will have to be.

The all-22 view of this play is insane: What the heck am I looking at here?? Those two players to either side of the Jets logo are Rousseau and Epenesa as... intermediate safeties?? This is like something stupid you do for fun on Madden, hey what if I put my edge rushers at safety and see what happens. I have no idea what the plan is here. To anyone trying to defend McDermott and blame the players for failing to execute, this sequence is not a one-off fluke, it is a trend. We have an unbelievable track record of goofy end of half or end of game defensive breakdowns under McDermott. I'm not going to bother to list them all. The players involved have changed over time. There is only one impossible to ignore constant. The scary thing is that you cannot win a championship without executing on moments like this at least a couple times during your playoff run. And executing on these moments is by far McDermott's WORST trait as a head coach. My biggest fear is that no matter what else the Bills do, this one fatal flaw will always end up costing us at some point. That exact scenario already cost us one possible championship and it hasn't gotten any better.

One question answered:

Come on man... There can't be any WR truthers left on here!! The debate is over. The group wasn't remotely good enough and Beane made the ONLY possible move to give this team any kind of chance. BTW 1st read percentage is compiled by PFF as part of the data package that real NFL teams pay thousands of dollars for. It isn't a fake stat just because you don't understand it. They're also very generous with how they assign a 1st read to a play - if 3 WRs are bunched to one side and the QB throws to any one of those WRs, they call that a 1st read throw even though technically it could have been the 2nd WR the QB went to on that side. Watch the all-22 footage from this year, or find one of the accounts on Twitter that compiles clips. The WRs are not separating consistently. Allen regularly has nowhere to go with the ball. It was especially evident against the Jets. It isn't because of his decision making, it's because the talent in the room stinks. Beane has admitted that by trading for Cooper. Why can't you do the same?

I'll criticize McDermott when warranted but his comments yesterday had nothing to do with Cooper. He was telling the guys that are already here you're still an important part of this team and it takes all of us.

No kidding. His last 4 playoff performances equate to a 17 game season of 98 receptions, 1,250 yards, and 9 TDs. Physical outside WRs that can make contested catches are built for playoff football.

They are pretty good players at non-premium positions. And that is likely the ceiling of what we lost in the trade. Don't forget we have two 2nds so if you want to look at as if we traded Diggs for Cooper and a swap of a 3rd for a 2nd, that is a very fair trade considering the context.

I don't think you're just being a contrarian to be a contrarian. Feel free to defend the unpopular opinion, it's part of what makes the board interesting. If you look over the list of 2nd/3rd round players in Beane's tenure, there is nobody there where you say "where would our team be without him?" It is far far more likely that what we lost in this trade is a somewhat decent player who won't be fully useful to the team until 2026 at the earliest (if ever) and is replaceable for like $4M at most in free agency. That is the likely opportunity cost, in exchange for filling the biggest need on our team. We really aren't built to run the ball IMO. We have a decent, not great, IOL. Cook is very good but not elite. And we have seen in recent weeks that when the opposing defense can shut down the run and get us into 2nd/3rd and long scenarios, we have exactly zero sustainable passing plays in those situations. It is all just Allen making magic happen which is too inconsistent of a plan for a team with championship aspirations. The passing game has NOT been able to just "make it work" with current personnel. I mean even worst case scenario is that Cooper just makes defenses worry about the downfield passing game. That alone creates a massive positive snowball effect for the rest of the offense to function. Now the role players can be role players instead of featured pieces. "Everybody eats" is so much easier when you have a single player commanding extra attention. The snowball effect of Cooper's presence is almost as important as what he himself does on the field. Give it a few weeks and I think you will come around once you see the improved product.

You know what man, you're allowed to have the contrarian opinion. I respect it. But in this case the reason we had to give a 3rd is because the Browns are eating all of the money. We are paying for the low cost as much as we are the player. Leading the league in drops is a valid concern. But that also means he is in positions where he is open enough to have the ball hit him in the hands. So that is still an upgrade on what we have at outside WR now. Cooper is clearly an upgrade at the biggest need on our roster. No brainer move.

I can't remember the last time a hypothetical move widely talked out amongst the fanbase actually happened. This is crazy.

It was so quiet we didn't find out about it until right now

At least we know they are trying. They are not sitting back watching Mack Hollins running downfield routes.

Something actually happened!!

The defense did the bare minimum. They held a bad offense to 20 points which realistically should have been 26 points. Even with that if Josh hadn't performed several miracles we would have lost by two scores. So obviously he was not 100% the reason that we won, and you know that's not what we're saying, but he was absolutely the main reason. Even moreso than usual.

Actually I think the problem is that Kincaid does keep running. He needs to take advantage of all that open space and cut off his route to present himself to Josh, instead he just runs into the safety and takes himself out of the play. I really liked Kincaid as a prospect because I thought he showed an innate understanding of how to read leverage and space to make himself available to his QB. That mental game combined with his hip fluidity made me think he could be a real problem in the NFL. But the mental game just hasn't been there at all. Kelce's physical traits are obviously great but his mental traits are what make him the GOAT. I was hoping we could have a relationship similar to that for Josh. Hasn't worked out.