y2zipper

I agree here. The value proposition on Watson is that he's probably worth five or six first-round picks and then some if elite defensive players and elite receivers are going for two. If Houston decides to move Watson it means they're blowing it up and with the trade request coming in they can make that decision if they want. The important thing is that they get full value in return, and in that sense the only currency that they should really want is draft picks so they can build up a young roster and keep cap space free.

The hot coordinator with a great scheme pipeline seems dead and buried with this cycle. The hires are one college, two assistant coaches with no coordinator experience, three defensive coordinators and only two offensive coordinators when offensive guys were like 4 of the 6.

My initial inclination here is that Kansas City wins this one going away. Andy Reid is the best in the league coming off a bye and there's an inconsistency to Tampa that I just don't like for them here.

Looking at the postseason as a whole, Buffalo didn't look like the team that was going to be able to score a bunch of points, especially after the Indianapolis game. The conversation about the mix is interesting, but I think Buffalo is going to have to move more in the other direction if they want to successfully beat Kansas City. I think the right way to play defense against them is to use soft coverage to protect from big plays and make tackles underneath because a shorter game gives anyone a better opportunity to beat them. Buffalo however it does not have a complimentary offense right now to play that way and building some balance and would help them become a better team. As an example, I have seen buffalo have a functional run game about two times this year in the 19 games that they have played. The team really needs to focus on adding a run game or some kind of high percentage short game to move the chains consistently more in the postseason. During the regular year we saw Buffalo beat a lot of teams playing quickly and trying to score a lot of points. But nobody is beat Kansas City in a year and a half trying to play that way.

What's crazy is that everybody ripped Frank Reich going for it and not getting it in the Bills game for exactly the same reason that McDermott decided to take the three. if we're taking the hindsight call that game is over at 21 to 9 anyway because Buffalo didn't get another stop and they were overmatched so in the end we are analyzing decisions that probably don't matter. In the context of the actual game at the end of the first half, you do have to make that morale call because it's irresponsible to try and put the game on the line there at the end of the first half.

Interesting insight as always, @Shaw66. To an extent I like my press conferences dull. It correlates with being a well-round organization and having stability. McDermott just doesn't going to come out and publicly criticize people but he does have degrees and non degrees of praise that he uses to describe what happens and generally speaking, the more specific he is the more he likes it.

I think they have to go big game hunting in the pass rush because the draft just doesn't have anything there.

I would keep Milano for the 8 to 10 million a year but I would have to let him walk if he's going to try to get paid like an elite pass pressure because he's not. ...and I think doing the longer term value extension for Edmunds is a no-brainer largely because of the age curve. He's a baby, but the issues on buffalo's defense are not at linebacker.

I think too many injuries at the same position group is hard to overcome no matter what. We've seen that a lot this year with covid. There aren't replacements for Buffalo's top four receivers sitting out on the street. This year it ended up being a compound problem because there wasn't another aspect of offense to fall back on. if anything they did a pretty good job of hiding it to win two playoff games.

The rebuttal here of course is that the 2020 class is very good and buffalo brought in a star with the first pick, even though it was a trade. I'm also not sure that anybody in the league is better at finding Stars than anybody else. Although I also think with the culture reaching maturity and the window being open that now is the time where you can take a chance or two on a character issue guy, which is not something this team could have even looked at over the past 3 years. This opens the door for bringing in some Stars from other teams whether it's through free agency or through trade.

It's definitely a very good attempt at context and makes the results make sense to me, too. The only weird one for me is New Orleans, but that isn't a team that I watch a whole lot closely because of where I live. Largely Buffalo fell short is that when they change their defensive line rotation the players they signed to play those positions didn't work out very well. So in my mind I'm also thinking that the value of the quarterback position sort of tilts that towards teams that drafted Herbert and Burrow so you'd expect to see those teams at the top of a draft value chart for 2020.

The risk associated with building around a few high profile players and lacking depth is that you become the Rams. Once a few guys get beat up, you don't have players and you lose. That being said, there is very much a need for spending money on the defensive line because there's a Super Bowl window and it's right now. They just need a more consistent pass rush with the front four elevate that defense. It was something they got with the rotation last year and something they lost when that rotation went away and guys got older. I'm very much in favor of the sort of reallocation of money described here. Cut the medium size contracts that save money and use that money to bring in an impact player or two and some depth.

The point here is that White Allen Edmunds, Milano, and Dawkins is better than most teams have done the past 3 years. 2019 stands out is not quite as good as the other classes, but Buffalo's 2020 class has proven to be really good so far. It just takes more time to stack the roster. To get to a spot where Kansas City is, you still have to add about another 3 or 4 years of extracting value and buffalo drafted incredibly poorly from 2014 to 2016. Kansas City drafted Eric Fisher and Travis kelce in 2013, for example.

Well Tampa has the best run defense in the league, but I digress. The issues we saw today were season long. The offense is one dimensional and KC is an overmatch for every defense 2 years running now. On defense, the pass rush has to improve at getting home. Buffalo actually blitzes quite a bit (8th in blitz percent), but they're 27th in hurry percent and 20th in QB knockdown percent. It's an average sack team that doesn't consistently get there. It's tweaks, not overhaul. Improve the pass rush, bring balance to the offense and go try again.

On defense the issue is you're playing Kansas City. They've been doing this for 14 months save the part of the game where Mahomes sat out last week. They have scored on all of their possessions except 2 with Mahomes in the playoffs. The correct gameplan against them is to make them go underneath and shorten the game to try to get a shot at winning, but the offense didn't do its part today so the shot at winning wasn't there. The issue on offense is that it's too one dimensional. If the receivers don't get open, it doesn't work. It also appears that 3 of the 4 guys aren't healthy. In the postseason one dimensional teams can be shut down. We saw that vs the Ravens. The priority has to be bringing some balance into the offense.

Well after this year they get out of . murphy butler and jefferson so some of these expensive d line contracts are going away and the opportunity to upgrade is there. They definitely need to bring some balance to the offense and improve the pass rush though.

Yeah you really need ball control offense. KC got a 21 nothing run because Buffalo punted twice in 2 minutes in the 2nd and it was 21-9.

The defensive scheme was correct but offensively Buffalo was too one-dimensional this year. The only gameplan that works against the Chiefs is to shorten the game, but Buffalo didn't have the offense to do it this season because they can't run.

Unfortunately the talk of KC being light years ahead of everyone looks true at the moment. It is a team that's lost 1 meaningful start in 14 months...

Pretty much this. The offense has to finish some od these drives.

Yeah No one in the league does.

Yeah Allen's off.

The logic is that it's 3 points if you get the 2 and still one possession if you dont give up a TD. Assuming you get 50%, its basically a free possession.

Going for 2 is correct there but he has to catch it.

Yeah how are you calling single high with 8 seconds left? All of have to do is call prevent there.