Straight Hucklebuck

Step 1 is just accepting that Allen is not Mahomes, and therefore, he needs more talent around him on offense to keep up with the Chiefs. The offensive line is average, really all positions could be upgraded, but Center and Right Tackle would improve the team the most right now. I've said before that the Bills need another Diggs level, and have thought this is a big reason why they haven't improved from 2020. Beane added Diggs and then stopped at WR. A guy on CBS Sports radio a couple of weeks ago was going on and on about snowy weather and the Bills needing a power run game. I just don't buy that at all. Of course a Derrick Henry or prime Dalvin Cook would help the team, but are smart teams spending premium assets on running backs? A few years back the media was all over Etienne to the Bills. Would we be much better off with him? He missed his entire rookie season, and had 1150 yards last year.

Cowherd talks to enough people behind the scenes to help give him more scoop than the average fan. I agree that he doesn't "break anything down" on his own to a finer degree than a guy on his couch. His show became unlistenable because he repeats his basic thoughts on 3-4 topics over and over. He does the same show everyday.

But to answer the OP - Ben Johnson sounds like a guy who gets it, but how many years do you need to convince yourself? The OC of the Bengals, Brian Callahan, you would think wouldn't make it out of the next HC cycle without a job.

According to the media - just pick any offensive coach in 2023. We don't count Nate Hackett, Adam Gase, Kevin Stefanski, Kliff Kingsbury and so on. And the media will always give you the insightful and helpful tip to "get someone who has shown they can develop a QB" because you didn't know that the QB mattered much in professional football.

You get to the same point quickly with these talking-heads: nobody but the Chiefs have really won anything since Mahomes. Since he is now the bar, nobody else measures up. Brady is gone. Ultimately, it doesn't matter that the Jets have improved, that Cincinnati has Burrow, that the Jaguars are on their way up, or Buffalo is struggling/straining to hold onto the core of the 2020 team. If nobody can really beat Mahomes/Reid, then your story is a nice one, but the media only cares about endlessly ranking the current best in the world at all times. In part, the Bills are being passed over now because they aren't a new story anymore. Close, heart-breaking losses only can be sold for so long. Boredom has set in with the Bills and media are moving on to the new stories - Bengals, Jets, Lawrence, Lamar and his new deal. The other part is their core is being whittled away a little bit, and there is some friction developing - Schoen, Daboll, Frazier, Chad Hall, Edmunds, Diggs. There has been some erosion around the edges, with Beane doing his best to backfill on limited cap space. I think the feeling Nationally is the Bills haven't been good enough to win it all at their peak, and now there appear to cracks, so we're moving on.

But the media isn’t unearthing anything noteworthy. It’s Chiefs, it’s Bengals, and it’s the New York Jets hype train. What we really need is another former player to sit on the set and tell us “they really like what Miami is doing”.

That's fine. From all reports and Allen himself, he acts like a big goofball most of the time. He said in Kyle Brandt's Basement that at Jordan Palmer's camp, Joe Burrow would be "all ball" and he'd (Allen) would be trying to make jokes all the time. So even Allen himself said that he is more into football than he ever has been before, so maybe he's changing on the front.

To some it up, I think the Bills are strained. They're trying to keep as much of the 2020-2022 team together as possible, fighting age, cost and morale/confidence with three straight Playoff loses. The cap is strained. Beane has done everything he possibly can to retain as much of the 2020 jump team as he can. While Frazier doesn't feel like a big loss, his departure, combined with Daboll the year before, and Joe Schoen, and Chad Hall, there is some outward trend. The team largely took the same approach on Offensive Line - solid veterans, fringe starter types, but no bank breaking. Obviously, Torrence is the big play here. Banking on Spencer Brown at RT, risky to me. The team turned over the bottom 3 WRs as they should have - no more McKenzie, Kumerow or Crowder, now Harty, Sherfield and Shorter. I think that's warranted. At running back, they have a mixture of size, power, speed, receiving. The National media keeps calling for more and more, but I don't see the need. Defensively, can't argue with low-cost signings of Rapp & Floyd. But same as offense, largely focused on bringing as much back as they could. McDermott is garnering more scrutiny, not from ownership it seems, but more from the fanbase. Now he is coordinating the defense as well, no more Frazier excuses come Playoff time. Pressure is on Dorsey to perform. Allen is saying he is more focused on football than ever, and admitted he is working out more as before (Kyle Brandt's basement interview) he said his talent helped him get bye. Diggs has been frustrated since the Bengals game, and I think he's been consistent in his frustration with the Playoff loses going back to the Rich Eisen interview at the Super Bowl. He's 29/30 and starting his 4th year in Buffalo. Von Miller is getting old, and is coming off another injury. Feels like one last hurray with this core to get it done. At this moment I don't fear the Jets or the Dolphins, even if they got by us, no way they are better than Cincinnati or the Chiefs. But in the end, I want to see what Allen can do this season. He's been at the same production level for the past 3 seasons, so is there a (small) higher gear?

For me, a lot comes back to 13-seconds. The Houston Playoff loss was Billsy. Going up 16-0 and then not being able to score, but the talent argument could have been made because Duke Williams was our leading WR, and Pat DiMarco was targeted deep. 2020 you could say the Bills weren't ready just yet to take on the now dynasty Chiefs. But 2021, you have to get that game into the garage and, to me, that moment undoubtedly accelerated the impatience with McDermott. He has grown from the rookie HC who was trumpeting a physical run game in snowy Buffalo weather, to a HC that allows a pass-heavy offense with no real commitment to the run. But definitely, the good 2020 vibes are wearing thin, at least outwardly with the fans.

Guess they should have traded for Davante Adams or Justin Jefferson. Could have given them Oliver and a 5th. Or executed the phantom Jerry Jeudy trade.

Something like: "I can't put my finger on it, but something didn't feel the same last year"

😅🤣😂 giggles It was good for many years. There was a drop off when he moved to LA, for instance, the show became a my life in California commercial, but the topics have dried up to a point where the show is on a script. By the way, Nextmanup, of the National Shows - who is good? Should I be listening to Jay Will, Key and Max, and Max's obsessions with current best player in the world rankings, maybe I should listen to Dan Patrick and his "yeah, Paulie", "yeah Fritzie", "yeah McLovin", every 4-seconds with a Reggie Miller interview? You're the expert, so tell me. Pat Mcafee and the constant laughing? Maybe I should just listen to Schopp and Bulldog. Mike's brain has shrunk to betting and fantasy and odds making, and Bulldog hasn't left his house in 4-years since COVID and is proud to tell everyone that.

He discusses the same 4 topics everyday - Cowboys, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and a bonus topic is Patrick Mahomes ball washing now that Tom Brady is gone. Happy you get something out of his show, but I never tuned in to hear positive Bills talk. He's just an endless loop of the same topics everyday, with none of those creative topics from earlier in his career. Tell me again Colin how you've moved 7 times, or how great LA is because it's got beaches and mountains.

I don't blame anyone for listening to Cowherd, I did from 2004 until last year. With that said, his show is awful. Same opinions day after day, same stories, same guests in the same time slots. There is no real knowledge being shared. He's a normal guy who watches some sports on the weekend in California.

The National media is clueless on the Bills. CBS Sports Radio was saying the Bills need to invest in the power run game this weekend because they play in snowy Buffalo. I listened to Colin since ESPN in 2004. Dropped him completely after the Vikings game last year and haven’t listened to him once since. He does the same show every day, makes the same points, same guests, same stories, same analogies. He’s old and washed up. Dan Patrick is old and washed up. These guys do the same show every day.

Beane continues to pile in the veteran players on bare minimum money. I don't like the Oliver extension, but getting one of the veteran pass rushers (Clark, Dunlap, Houston, Quinn, Ingram, Floyd) makes a lot of sense. He's crammed in about as many players as you can expect on $20M in cap space after all the restructures.

I think it's clear that Beane has done what he can to strain the cap in a balanced effort to keep the roster at the level it topped out at. I think there were two approaches to this offseason. The Bills could have gone for 1-2 elite players (made a trade for Hopkins, pushed to sign Tremaine Edmunds right away, looked to sign an OT to replace Brown. This would have come at the expense of several depth players - Poona Ford, Shaq Lawson, Jordan Phillips, maybe Sherfield or Harty, players like that. The second option was a balanced approach that Beane has employed for several offseasons in a row - upgrade size at RB, pushed for starting talent at OG, turned over the bottom 3 at WR, etc, worked Safety depth, brought back nearly all of our own free agents, and generally squeezed every drop out of the existing cap. Let's see if the approach selected was the right one. I think the cap is strained, I think Beane has done nearly all he could (veteran pass rusher maybe) away from taking a balanced approach on the roster.

My biggest issue with McDermott has been the Playoff defensive performances, but most of the time the thing that bothers me the most is that Doug Marrone-esque I've been there, done everything, seen it all nature to the interviews that we the fans are allowed to see. Working and playing for him in that same tone would grate on me I think. Vrabel, Belichick are examples of the same thing.

Absolutely agree with this. McConnell's team last year was exposed as the frauds they were the entire season immediately in the Playoffs. Arthur Smith is going to try and win the "Titans" way and it won't work and we all know that. And Brandon Staley, his team choked away a 27 point lead in the Playoffs. So no, he's not there yet as an elite Coach. Now, I do agree that canning Lombardi on his staff and replacing with Kellen Moore was the correct decision.

And he's still rated as a 73 PFF overall. Highest among the common names - Ingram, Quinn, Ngaouke, Clark, etc.

Michael Irvin is borderline to me.

RB my gosh when will it ever end? I agree on RT, it's one of the biggest risks going into the season, banking on Spencer Brown to become a legitimate starter based on what he's shown. DT has become much less of a need since Phillips came back, and they signed Poona Ford, you only normally keep 4 anyways. They already have 11 Offensive Lineman as it is, normally you keep 10 maximum. And MLB, yes I agree. I can't say I'm confident in any of their in-house options right now.

Ok.

Browns have had a nice off-season. I liked their draft, FA was good for them, and they have needed another DE to pair with Garrett since he was drafted. Clowney was a name only.

Browns fans would tell you that Clay Matthews belongs in the HOF. 19 year NFL career.