transplantbillsfan

Then how can you possibly argue that the Bengals had more emotional stamina if they didn't suffer the same emotional trauma?

Cincy and then SF for the SB.

Yes I think it should and will happen. It's the same path Poyer and Hyde took to Safety. Joe Marino this week said he was like 90% sure our Safeties would be Hyde and Benford next season. And on a side note, I wonder if the firing of our Safeties coach had anything to do with the plan to move Benford. Maybe McDermott was hoping to get him there this season but thought progress was too slow...?

Are you implying the Bengals dealt with the same amount of crap as the Bills? Or are you implying the emotional distress the Bengals and Bills had to deal with from Damar's near death was equal? It would be ridiculous to imply either.

Fine by me. Most teams play better as underdogs. Just look at the way the Bengals have approached this season.

Well said. And we're just fans. Imagine how the players felt. I don't think the comments from Saffold and others on Monday about the team being fatigued should be dismissed or looked at as "just another excuse!" This team went through an unprecedented amount of crap before week 17. And then Damar. I basically moved onto next season as all that unfolded. I'd actually prefer to see the Bengals win and then the 49ers beat them in the Super Bowl.

Uhhhh... New Orleans won the Super Bowl in 2010. Katrina was in 2005.

I think replace Saffold with a highly touted Guard in FA or the draft will help a lot. That and a full offseason for Spencer Brown. Also, our best DT was out against the Bengals. Daquan Jones was such a great find in FA. And yeah... there's Von Miller... since we're talking lines. Trade for Hunter Renfrow, perhaps? Weird. I think you just excused the entire team and coaching staffunintentionally. How does trauma not impact the mental aspect of the game? Do you think the coaches were unaffected by the Damar incident? Gotta be honest, I was borderline "fire Frazier!" but after reading your anecdote I'm starting to second guess that.

The Bengals are one of the most inconsistent teams in the NFL over the last couple years. They luck into wins. I don't know how better to demonstrate that than them getting a 99 yard fumble return late in the game against Baltimore when the Ravens were about to go up by a TD in a game they were pretty close to dominating defensively or a final drive fumble by the Patriots when basically all they had to do was hold onto the football and they would have won. The Bengals are a really good team. But please stop putting them up on that pedestal.

The thing is, it's become the afterthought to the belief this team needs major changes personnel wise to compete for a Super Bowl. Since priority #1 on this board right now appears to be "Fire! Cut! Trade! Upgrade!" I think it fits. Did you watch that game they played against the Ravens the week before? Or the game they played against the Patriots a few weeks before that? The Bengals should have lost both those games. Do you think the Bills are worse than the Ravens and Patriots?

This is something we all know and acknowledge anyway about the 2022-2023 Buffalo Bills: They went through some *****!!! Tops shooting Kim Pegula getting sick Knox's brother dying 120 degree heat game in Miami Davis lingering ankle injury (multiple reporters, including Dan Fetes, said he just didn't look right in practice for most of the season) Dane Jackson having to get taken off the field in an Ambulance Micah Hyde being lost for the season Josh Allen elbow injury and minimal practice/throwing for a couple weeks and lingering through the season 7 foot blizzard that didn't allow for a week of real practice and then relocated a home game to Detroit A 2nd home game in Detroit 4 days later 4 away games in 11 days Getting stuck in Chicago overnight on Christmas Eve because of a blizzard that killed dozens of people in Buffalo Missing what many would argue are the 2 biggest Holidays of the year with their families Damar And I'm sure I'm missing some of these things. EDIT: Somehow I forgot losing Von Miller... insane list These guys are human beings and I challenge anyone to find another team in NFL history that went through as much crap as Buffalo did this year and still managed to go 13-3 in the regular season and win a playoff game with one of the harder SoSs in that year. I had issues with the offensive and defensive gameplan by Dorsey and Frazier. Obviously a problem--big problem as far as Frazier goes when you're playing zone with guys 10 yards off the line against a QB with one of the quickest releases in the NFL. But let's all take a breath. This clearly wasn't our year. But maybe it's more Acts of God than the team just not being good.

Shut up. This offseason is going to suck. Josh Allen has done more with less for 3 or 4 more years than Mahomes and 2 more years than Burrow. Sooo... this was his "down year" (yeah why not disregard elbow injury and Tops and Hyde injury and Miller injury and no Beasley and Davis drops and new OC and 2 major weather issues and Damar and...) and yet Allen had 42 TDs (2 more than Burrow in the same number of games and 3 less than Mahomes in 1 fewer game despite being on the bench for close to 3 full quarters in the Titans and Steelers games) and over 5000 friggin yards!!!! I shouldn't even have to mention how crazy that number is for 16 games!!! Allen had a down year strictly because of turnovers. Yes, that was a problem. But maybe part of that was gameplan, coaching and offensive talent. As a Bills fan you should worry about everything around Josh Allen at this point. Yep. Hope Frazier is gone. Straw that broke the Camel's back.

Benford moves to Safety. Seems obvious

Yep. I was there. Same name. Was weird what happened

If I'm bringing one back it's Beasley. I thought about the idea of mentioning resigning him because I really, really think Josh missed him this year. Honestly it's been Beas who was his #2 go-to over the years behind Diggs. I guess my hope is the younger, more talented Shakir fills that roll. But yes, maybe one more year learning under Cole would be good, too.

Restructure player contracts to add some freedom in the salary cap. Josh Allen's contract to free up 20+ million so at the very least do that. Bills UFAs to resign (in order of importance) Tremaine Edmunds Sam Martin Jordan Phillips Shaq Lawson Ike Boettger Bobby Hart David Quessenberry Dean Marlowe Bills UFAs to let walk Jordan Poyer Jamison Crowder Jaquan Johnson Taiwan Jones Case Keenum A.J. Klein Jake Kumerow Tyler Matakevich Justin Murray Rodger Saffold Devin Singletary Tommy Sweeney Greg Van Roten Bills RFAs to resign Tyrel Dodson Dane Jackson Bills RFAs to let walk Cam Lewis Notable Bills position shift Christian Benford to Safety as the starter next to Hyde in 2023 Positions to target via FA/trade (Hard to pinpoint names but I'll try with some... obviously it'll be a mixture of FA & draft) Tight End (Gesicki and Engram would be nice if we could spend, but a young guy with untapped potential like Irv Smith might be what we see. Won't be surprised if Hayden Hurst ends up a Buffalo Bill considering we love going after guys who torch us) Wide Receiver (DJ Chark on the high end. JuJu on the mid level. DeMarcus Robinson on the low end) OL (not familiar enough with all the players... but this is one we need to go after in both FA & the draft and any OL position please.) Draft positions to target on Day 1 & 2(in order of importance... but these are all positions we MUST draft) Guard/Center (preferably someone with that position flexibility) Wide Receiver Safety Running Back Other positions to target through the rest of the draft (also depending on who we get in FA/trade) Linebacker Tight End DT In essence, if Buffalo can resign all the UFAs I mentioned above (and obviously some of those are purely depth players... which this year proves we really need), Benford can make the transition to Safety (and I think he should be able to considering both Hyde and Poyer also started their careers at Safety) and manage to find a borderline pro bowl Guard and really solid Wide Receiver, I'll be very optimistic. This is also all assuming and hoping that our young players like Shakir, Elam and Cook take a step or 2 forward in year 2, Von Miller is back for most of next season, and depth guys like Tommy Doyle are back. Also, an important note. I don't think our roster moves are the most important. Frankly, I think it's most important for us to overhaul our coaching staff. Frazier needs to be gone. Fortunately, we don't need to fire him because his contract is apparently up. Eric Washington needs to be gone. Our DL has been just getting trounced for years and look at the resurgence Jerry Hughes just had in Houston this year getting away from him. And I would say get rid of Kromer, too, but this was year 1 for him, so I'd give him another year. But Frazier needs to be gone and McDermott needs to make sure this team finds a DC (or calls the plays himself) who can implement a better mixture of zone and press-man principles and can actually adjust during a game.

Go away

Stop. And shut up. If the names in your title were Dorsey and Frazier, I might agree.

And that's part of why we absolutely love him. Josh should feel devastated and I'm not remotely upset for Diggs sprinting out of the building. Those 2 players have been relied upon to carry the team the whole season. Honestly, if I were Josh I'd be looking at the Bengals on the other sideline wondering why that team is so loaded and deep while we are not. Ironic that the Bills were being touted as the most talented team in the league preseason, isn't it?

I actually like listening to Cowherd. I think he's one of the better listens/watches among the national pundits. However, he does this interesting thing where he admits to being wrong about certain things fairly early and fairly well but is always just waiting to revert to his initial stance. Cowherd slammed Allen for his first 2 years in the league consistently. He did it even as 2020 began. I remember after we beat the Jets 27-17 opening week, Cowherd was basically criticizing Allen's passing and saying he would always need to be great at running. A few games into 2020 he turned a corning. Last offseason when we lost Daboll he started to stick one foot out the door implying Daboll was the reason Allen is Allen. And now this. But he'll jump right back in and pretend he was never out if Allen plays really well the next few weeks and we win a Super Bowl.

Collinsworth probably wasn't consulted about this.

Don't know where to bring this up other than here... So... I had heard on the radio before the Dolphins game that the AP reported Hamlin would be attending the game, but Hamlin tweeted that instead he would be staying home. Was the AP wrong that he planned to attend? I think it was at least a thought on his part https://www.outkick.com/damar-hamlin-plans-to-attend-sundays-playoff-game-and-he-wants-it-to-go-a-special-way/ Soooo... wild and crazy thought here... did Hamlin plan to attend the game but either choose on his own or be told to stay home instead by McDermott and company? And not even for health reasons... more for "we're obviously going to win this game so it won't be my/your last chance" reason. Basically (and after the way Buffalo played, you wonder), did Buffalo just plan on Hamlin showing up at the Divisional round game as an emotional lift because they didn't think it was remotely necessary against the Dolphins? I think Hamlin is at the game this weekend. Considering the opponent, there should be a lot of emotion for both teams.

Yep. You forgot the TD to Knox if we're just focusing on WR ***** ups... and I guess also Beasley not catching a ball or getting a holding or DPI call. And I realize those passes aren't part of the point you were making. I said to my buddy we went back in time for this game because our WR corps was our 2020 WR corps plus Shakir. That's not a good thing at this point. Allen was also the reason we won. Did you watch Burrow tonight? He really wasn't any better

That's on you. 2 weeks ago this team saw a teammate die and be revived on the football field. A week and a half ago they got the good news that he'd live a likely somewhat normal life. A week ago they won their regular season finale against a divisional opponent largely on emotion. I view this week almost as week 1 of a new season. Had to shake some rust off. A win is a win. Who cares how fans feel about it as long as they advance? So, respectfully.... who cares if you can't smile about your team winning a playoff game and advancing?

Before this thread becomes the afterthought it's going to become as Mahomes wins MVP, may we just take a moment to consider that despite starting 16 games instead of 17 and playing even less when you factor Josh sitting large chunks of the Titans and Steelers games (did Mahomes even take a seat this year?) Allen has 3 fewer TDs, 2 more INTs, 500 fewer total yards and the same number of wins. All while dealing with an elbow injury and everything else this team had to deal with during the season. Milano finally and miraculously got his much deserved All Pro spot. Maybe Allen gets a bunch of deserved MVP votes.