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I'll take the wait and see approach. I like that he's worked under Belichick, who actually hired him twice. Plus, rumor had it he would've been the guy to replace McDaniels if/when he takes a HC gig. He and McDermott go back so I'm sure that came into play with how much emphasis McDermott places on his staff all being on the same page. I'm not gonna worry too much about his track record as an NFL OC considering the QBs he had and the coaches he worked under. Clean slate here with McDermott. Hopefully he can do what some other OCs have done and merge some of the college stuff with the pro stuff to make the transition from college to the pros a bit smoother for whichever QB they draft. Also hope he understands how to evaluate and identify what his players naturally excel at and create a system based around that. It doesn't hurt that he's been a part of several championship staffs and had (probably) the best ever NFL and college coach hire him. We'll see how it goes.

For the record, I don't think Carucci said McCoy turned them down, he just said he had a source tell him McCoy will not be their choice. So the more likely scenario is that they already know what McCoy's about based on last year's interview and are not interested in pursuing him.

There shouldn't be any doubt that Whaley had a strong eye for talent. Where I think he fell short was his team-building philosophy. I don't think he prioritized chemistry in the locker room. And I believe he did his best to provide his coaches the types of players they wanted but I also think he very much wanted his coaches to know that he got to make the final call. Probably why he has friction with both Marrone and Ryan. And he also fell short in believing that drafting players from winning programs, players accustomed to winning regularly would carry over to the professional level and help change the culture. Instead, he ended up with rosters full of pretty talented players who really didn't know how to unify and come together and develop ways to overcome adversity. McDermott has enjoyed early success because he's built a team of players who share similar mindsets. Players who just wanna win above all else, players that will be accountable and play for the guy next to them, players that put the team first and come in ready to do their job. The next step, I hope, is that they can start to develop a little swagger.

McAdoo lost his locker room and divided his team before the halfway point of the season. Not sure his style/personality would fit in with the staff here. I could be wrong and the guy could be one of those dudes that's a great coordinator but never gonna be a great HC. But for a team that's preaching unity and brotherhood, hiring a guy who made players wanna flat out quit on him may not be the best idea. I wonder if they talk with Rob Boras at all. Not saying that choice would get me hyped as his time as the Rams OC wasn't great but you never know. I think he did well in his role as TE coach this season. He really helped O'Leary emerge as a decent #2 TE.

I agree. I'm not a big fan of Culley. He's bounced around on a lot of teams but hasn't ever really coached or developed any big time QBs.

The Bucs! Nah, those things are hideous. I like the Vikings unis except for the font they chose for the jersey numbers. As a kid I liked the Bengals with the orange and black. Saints black alternates are nice, same goes for the Ravens black alternates. I like the Panthers light blue alternate jerseys. Wish they'd make those their standard home jerseys. Hate to admit it cause it's the Phins but those dark aqua green throwbacks look great. Raiders alternates with the white jersey and silver numbers. Seattle and their "see it from space" neon green alternates. I'm sure I could think of more, I'm a uniform and logo nerd.

Does the Rooney Rule apply to assistants? I thought it was just for HCs a s GMs.

I don't have anything against Mayfield, I just don't think he fits the MO of what they're looking for in a QB. Beane has described his ideal QB as a guy with prototypical size (so like 6'3"-6'5" and 225 lbs) who can routinely make plays from the pocket. That isn't exactly Mayfield's game. This isn't my first choice but I think Mason Rudolph probably checks a lot of boxes for them. He needs some work (as they all do) but it wouldn't surprise me to see them draft him. If they are as enamored with Darnold as the rumors state, they better be hitting the phones hard and trying to work out a monster deal to move up.

I genuinely hope so. Took an OL that looked very solid in '15 & '16, an OL with a couple of Pro Bowlers and this season turned them into a subpar inconsistent unit. Missing Glenn may have affected that but aside from that I think it's clear that the zone stuff is not a strong suit for the current OL group.

I think he's confusing DeFilippo and Reich... JD is the QB coach in Philly and Reich is the OC. Perhaps he thought JD was OC. Reich is technically realistic but it would be a lateral move for him and he's probably waiting for a HC opportunity. Maybe he'd come here since he's familiar and it's near his hometown but I dunno, they got a good thing going in Philly...as long as Wentz is healthy.

Alex Van Pelt intrigues me. Was OC in GB for a little bit but has been Rodgers' QB coach for the last few years now. Would be a great guy to help develop a young QB.

r/iamverysmart

Going back to 2015 when they brought Roman in, they've emphasized so much on the run game that the passing game seems neglected. It's simplified, there's not a lot creativity involved and their route concepts aren't difficult for defenses to guard against. Combine that with a QB who 90% of the time doesn't throw it unless he sees his guy open and these are the kind of stats you end up with. McDermott didn't exactly give Dennison a vote of confidence during the season-ending press conference. I also wouldn't be surprised if he isn't exactly thrilled with the job WR coach Phil McGeoghan has done... or Juan Castillo... If they're going to draft and develop a guy, I don't see any use in replacing Taylor with a different bridge QB that's likely to cost more money and may not even be an upgrade. Get an OC that knows how to scheme around his players. Let TT do his thing for next season while the rookie learns and then move on in 2019 and have the OC tailor the offense to the new starter.

Bridgewater is an intriguing option. He certainly possesses the character and leadership qualities McBeane appreciate. He's an extremely hard worker as well. However, I think Beane really wants a QB with prototypical size because as he's said before, QBs who succeed can regularly deliver the ball from the pocket. As we've seen, Taylor's size is not ideal for a pocket passer. Bridgewater has maybe an inch or two in height over Taylor but he too is a guy you'd have to use shotgun and a lot of deep drops so he can see more of the field. Tyler Bray... Didn't even know that guy was still in the league. Doubt they have any interest. Bradford...eh, maybe. But does he wanna be "the guy" somewhere or is he gonna be alright knowing he's going to be a bridge/mentor for a rookie. McCarron is an interesting name, pretty unproven though. I don't like the idea of handing the keys to Peterman while their rookie sits and learns. Gonna be an interesting off-season.

I suppose these are fair points but there are only 32 offensive coordinator jobs available in like, the world. They would most definitely have interest from a number of candidates if they decided to move on from Dennison. Some OC's would see these "barriers" as a challenge and want to come in and be the guy who turns the offense around which could put his name on the radar for a head coaching job down the line. I also can't imagine that McDermott is truly satisfied with the job Dennison did this year. Surely, they had some limitations on offense but they could have done a lot better had Dennison designed a scheme based around what the players excel at as opposed to trying to fit players in a scheme that doesn't maximize their talent. Plus, Dennison was what, the third OC McDermott offered the job to? And now his first choice Mike McCoy is available. That was the OC I wanted but he went to Denver and as we saw, things did not go well there so, how good is he? Was his success more a product of having Peyton Manning to work with for a couple seasons? I wonder what the offensive stats were when he was HC of the Chargers where he had Rivers. Because if he wasn't very successful there with a franchise QB then I don't know how well he would do with a rookie or a veteran bridge guy. I dunno... you'd think it'd be a little easier to find an OC that can scheme around his players as opposed to having to shuffle the offensive roster so it fits what the current OC wants to do. Simpler to replace one coach rather than a bunch of players.

Right now I would say KB, Zay and Thompson. They just re-signed Streater to a futures contract and he was having a good camp and likely would've made the 53 so we'll see if he comes through. Wouldn't count out them drafting one. Matthews is up in the air, he fits the profile of the kind of persona they want in the locker room but it'll depend on the type of money he's looking for. Who knows after that.

Roman = great run game designer but his passing schemes are very elementary and easy to defend. On top of that, his playbook is probably the largest in the league. And then you combine that with Rex's defensive playbook and the '15/'16 Bills basically had encyclopedias for playbooks. Coaches always talk about not thinking and playing fast. When your playbook is ginormous and includes multiple variations of the same play being run out of different formations, it makes it that much more difficult for players to digest the information and then apply it to the field, commit it to mental and muscle memory and then play fast. Leslie Frazier proved that this year. He runs a much more simplified/straightforward scheme and for the most part the defense was much better than it was under Rex. They need better talent in the front seven and they could be a very good unit. Anthony Lynn on the other hand, I feel like he did a pretty good job in 2016 considering he had to use someone else's playbook. He was smart to sit down with the offense and trim down the playbook to the things they did best and make it a little more streamlined, but of course he was limited in installing his own designs because it's pretty difficult to switch offensive (or defensive) styles with the regular season underway. Teams spend all off-season and camp installing/learning/practicing certain schemes, can't just flip everything over to an entirely different system after all that. That's all I'm asking for in 2018, an OC who will design a system that will maximize what his players are naturally good at. And an OL coach who does the same.

I watched most of the game with the volume turned down because I actually grew tired of Romo pretty quickly this season. And Nantz is a bum, IMO. I also think Collinsworth is off his rocker. Romo gets ahead of himself and ends up saying some things that sound pretty dumb in hindsight. When Buffalo lined up to kick a FG on 4th & 2, Romo said, "Buffalo may as well take the delay of game penalty here and save a timeout, five extra yards at this part of the field is nothing for a kicker." My immediate thought was, "How's about no? Maybe Jacksonville will jump offsides and if they do, that's a first down. If they take a delay of game penalty, it's 4th & 7 and a five yard offsides penalty brings them back to 4th & 2." What happened? Jacksonville jumped offsides and gave Buffalo a first down. I dunno, it's probably just me but commentators get on my nerves after a while. I'm sure they're directed to do these things but they always try and make every little situation sound so dramatic and "game changing" when in reality it's just another play in the game. And yes, it sucked to see Thompson flying downfield and Taylor just not seeing him. He also had Clay right in front of him early in the game on a play where he rolled right and ended up throwing it away. He would've had to thrown it back across his body a little bit but it's a throw most QBs can see and make. He did not play well yesterday, bottom line. The passes he did complete were mostly inaccurate with poor ball placement, forcing his receivers to slow up, twist/turn back, get low to grab it, he zipped a bullet at Zay that was 12 feet over his head. That ball placement stuff sounds like ticky-tack draft talk but in reality it's one of the more important traits for a QB to be good at because poor ball placement eliminates the chance for the receiver to gain YAC. He overthrew Thompson, he overthrew O'Leary, these were plays that could've swung the game their way. I place some blame on him, I also place some on Rick Dennison for being a very non-creative OC. An OC who doesn't maximize the talent of his players, an OC who doesn't evaluate what his players do best and design his scheme around that. I also wanna throw Juan Castillo under the bus because he took a decent OL and made them look terrible for most of the season. This is an OL that really excelled in Greg Roman's system and he combines all types of blocking schemes but mainly uses man on man, power and pulling style stuff. 2015 and 2016 showed us that clearly this OL was good at that. Last year, PFF had Shady near or at the top of their list for yards gained before contact. That's on the OL. They were opening up massive lanes in 2016. This year, it was like they couldn't get out of their own way. Shady went from a system where he usually had a clear lane to get through, to a system that gave him little space to work with and coaches that coached him to take the "3 yards and a cloud of dust" if it was there. I'll put some of the negative runs on Shady but some also need to go on the OL and the scheme because every game there were at least a few plays where defenders were coming in unblocked (untouched in some cases) and dropping Shady for 5 yard losses. Not retaining Aaron Kromer was a misfire on McDermott's part for me. Kromer had that OL playing great, now he's in LA and what happened this season? Todd Gurley was electric, had plenty of space to run and the Rams sent two OL to the Pro Bowl (Whitworth and Saffold, I believe). Wood and Incognito went last year. Not this year, tho. I guess I'll just never understand coaches who favor their system over designing a system around what your players do best. It's that, or Dennison just isn't creative/smart enough to identify what his guys do well and scheme up plays based on that. Get a young, creative mind in there at OC. Someone who can relate to whichever QB they get and knows how to design plays that'll maximize what his players do well. And I'm like 94% sure that this front office is not going to drop $15-$20 million on another bridge QB like Alex Smith or Sam Bradford, or whoever else may be available. They've spoken too much about building through the draft and developing homegrown talent. If they do sign a veteran QB, I expect it to be a guy who's been mostly a backup but has started here and there. I guess it depends on what they decide to do with the OC. But they aren't backing up the Brinks truck for Cousins or anyone else. They especially aren't going to pay out a ton of guaranteed money to a QB who may only play here for a season or two. My best guess is they make a move in the draft to get one of the better QBs, sign a veteran and let them battle it out with Peterman in camp. Or I could be completely wrong. Who knows. But it sure is a poopy Monday knowing your team definitely had a chance to win a playoff game against an extremely overhyped and overrated Jacksonville team. Good defense? Yes. Are they an '85 Bears-level defense? Not even close. (And I only mentioned that because I've read or heard a talking head or three try to compare them to the 85 Bears and 2000 Ravens). Had the easiest schedule in the league and still only won one more game than the Bills. End rant. Go Steelers.

Haha, I swear I'm like the only one that doesn't mind Billy.

I think it helps when guys like Hyde sign here. He left a consistent playoff team to join a franchise that hadn't seen the playoffs in 17 seasons. It helps that he was offered probably the best deal he could've hoped for during FA. And then they pair him with Poyer and the two have become a really solid duo at safety. It also doesn't hurt to see his comments from the other day about how he was apprehensive at first about joining the Bills but after meeting with McDermott and hearing his vision, he was sold. And he considers McDermott to be one of the most prepared and committed coaches he's played for. Players talk to each other all the time and we know they try to recruit for their teams where they can. I think McDermott has gone a long way in just one season in terms of changing the vibe in the locker room. It's a team mostly full of guys who have similar attitudes in that they wanna win, they put the team first, put their egos aside and prepare each week to do their job. It's a shame that sometimes the most talented players come with the biggest egos or the less than stellar attitudes. I hope McDermott and Beane won't shy away from drafting or signing a player that might not check off all the boxes for them in terms of character. Sometimes the talent outweighs the players attitude. And if McDermott has changed the locker room the way we feel he has then he and Beane should have some confidence in signing/drafting a player who needs a tune up in the character department as this locker room should be able to take a player like that under their wing and get them to buy in 100%. That's my one main buggaboo with Team McBeane... I understand they want high character players but I really hope they don't pass up on a super talented player because he isn't a boy scout or doesn't completely meet their character standards. That said, their stance on character makes it a little easier to predict/speculate on players they'll be interested come free agency and draft time. Haha, it's interesting you say that because when Marrone was here, his approach to coaching was to run it like he ran the program at Syracuse. That obviously (obviously!) didn't go over well with most of the players. You can't go in as the new HC and start disrespecting veterans by trying to run things as if its college. Between that, his irritability and mood swings, I can imagine Marrone was not the most fun coach to play for. Dareus clearly did not admire/respect the guy and it's kinda hilarious that when he's traded, he's traded to the team with the coach he really doesn't care for. But I do understand what you mean here, the fans in Buffalo surely provide a very similar environment to what these guys experienced in college. And, I know each team in the league thinks they have the best fans ever but when it comes to Buffalo, I really think there's just something different about this team and town. I mean, how many other franchises out there would continue to sell out games losing season after losing season? How many teams have fans that'd stick with them through a 17-year playoff drought? How many teams would still sell-out games that are gonna be played in 12 degree weather? And that game is meaningless because the team is already out of the playoff race. Not many other teams have the type of dedication Bills fans provide. Said dedication has unfortunately driven some to turn the tailgates into an ECW event but hey, the dedication and commitment we fans show this team, to me, is unmatched anywhere else in the league.

I actually thought his vision was a bit better than Shady's on Sunday. I understand that teams key in on Shady and make him their top priority but there were a few plays against Miami where he had a lane but he would either cut back or try to reverse field and just got dropped for a loss each time. Murphy was more straight-ahead, probably followed the plays closer to the design than Shady does as they trust him to pick his lane and go. Tolbert is gonna get some carries. I hope they resemble his few carries in Miami because that's when he's most effective, downhill. If I see them call a stretch play to him one more time I'mma lose it.

It's been said since before the season even started that Darnold was leaning on returning to USC. The expectations on him this season were high, I can't imagine what they'll be for 2018. For some, anything less than the greatest season in all of sports ever won't be enough. Doesn't seem like Rosen has the type of character and attitude McDermott and Beane want in the locker room. And if he doesn't have a real high passion for the game that's another red flag for the Bills because they've made it clear that they want team-first players with a do your job mentality and a strong desire to win. I think Mason Rudolph fits what they're looking for at QB. Not saying he's my favorite QB coming up this year but he has some talent and some things to work with. He's experienced, from all things I've read he's been viewed as a good leader at OK State and his size fits the description of what Beane said earlier in the year. This is the second or third time I've seen Mike White linked with the Bills. Other than that, I haven't read or heard of any other team that seems to have a real high grade on him. He kinda strikes me as a solid backup kind of player but I guess that depends on the kind of offense this team plans to run if they move on from Taylor.

The ol' Douggernaught! One of the brightest and most genius displays of coaching I've ever witnessed in the history of all sports in all the world came from him during his first season (first game, even) as Bills head coach. That amazing coaching display I speak of? Continuing to run a no-huddle uptempo offense against the Pats with a one point lead and just over three minutes to go in the game. I do believe they went three and out around their own 30, punted to the Pats who then took it down the field for Gostkowski to hit a 35 yarder to win it. If that's not pure coaching genius I don't know what is! That aside, I think Marrone's biggest issue while in Buffalo was his entire approach to coaching. He wanted to run a pro team like he ran his Syracuse teams. Tried treating professionals like college kids and that didn't go far in the locker room. Then he bails on a team he had just spoke to about the future only hours prior to his quitting. What's kinda hilarious to me is the fact that it appeared to be no secret that Dareus was definitely not a fan of Marrone... and that's where the guy ends up after getting traded lol.

That's definitely one of the guys I'd like to see in a Bills uniform but it's likely he's picked in the 10-15 range. He's exceptional and only going to get better.

I think a thread from a few weeks ago said something like, "8-8 or 9-7 with this team is impressive" and I responded that I agreed. After all the changes and all the turnover, just about everyone was saying, "Yeah, they're focused on 2018, it's not about this year." And in that thread there were people saying 8-8 or 9-7 wouldn't be enough and that we should be embarrassed about such a record and McDermott should not only be fired but banned from coaching or even offering advice in any sport ever again. My response to them was, what would meet your expectations for this season? Especially with this roster. They have one legit star and the rest of the team is comprised of a few really good players, a handful of above-average players and then mostly average players after that. For them to make the playoffs with all the trades, that horrendous three-game skid, the questions surrounding the QB position, etc etc, it most certainly is impressive and gives me a lot of excitement heading into next season. I mean, they broke the streak with a team full of "effort" guys. I can't wait to see who they go after and add to this team in the off-season and see what they're capable of when they have better players plugged into positions of need.