SoTier

Dennison may be an experienced play caller, but "maximizing the talent he has" doesn't seem to be something that he or McDermott care to do. If it was, the OL would still be using last year's blocking schemes and Vlad Ducasse wouldn't be on the team ... and Juan Castillo wouldn't be OL coach. Oh, and let's get something straight here: the OL was not "great" at run blocking last season. It was decent but many of its deficiencies were masked by Shady's talent. Being better than most of the OLs the Bills have fielded in recent memory does not make it all that great. It also wasn't all that good in third down situations, so the Bills frequently tried to pass on thirds and short, which usually didn't work because the OL was poor at pass protection. Oh, yeah, and Tyrod's running -- much of it forced by poor pass pro -- significantly contributed to the Bills rushing total. What, exactly, has McDermott done to merit excitement? In another post, you referenced Belichick. Well, sir, Belichick had a long resume before he ever joined the Patriots. He was the HC at Cleveland for several years and coached that team to playoff wins despite having rather limited resources, including a decent starting QB named Bernie Kosar who'll never be confused with Aaron Rodgers. He was the DC who designed the Giants' defense that won the Super Bowl over the much more talented Bills .. with a backup QB at the Giants' helm no less. He was considered one of the best defensive coaches in the league when NE hired him. That's what the suits in the second floor at OBD count on. They've got all their moves down pat. They keep shuffling the personnel decks, from GM to coaching staff to players and bringing in just enough star power to excite the fans into buying the "this might be the year" BS. After a disastrous 2017 campaign, the Bills will draft a QB in the first round of the 2018 draft and project him as "The Savior" ... just like they did Losman and Manuel ... and fans like you will lap it up. Stop and think about it -- you could be describing Dick Jauron. McDermott is a Jauron clone. He might have a tad more animation though. Numerous fans have been buzzing about "tanking", but I agree with you that it doesn't really exist. My point was that Beane and McDermott really do believe the line they spout -- that they're trying to keep the team competitive now while building a winning team in the future. Well, I call that BS. It's the very same BS that Dick Jauron spouted -- when he actually said something -- a decade ago, as he dismantled the modestly talent team he inherited and turned it into a collection of second stringers and special teamers. Jauron believed in play-not-to-lose-by-too-much football, and McDermott appears to believe in the same style, especially on offense: run twice, throw a short pass, punt.

Beane and McDermott are in the process of proving that Dick Jauron was a genius. Playing-not-to-lose-by-too-much is a sure-fire road to the Super Bowl!

This. Teams that play as poorly as the starters played in preseason don't make it to the playoffs. Don't worry, the Bills will draft a QB in the first round in 2018. The big question will be, will he at least be better than the previous two first round QBs the Bills took? The way the team played in preseason, most notably the supposed first team, suggests a serious lack of coaching acumen. Maybe Beane has his own supply of pixie dust to sprinkle over the team to make it better.

ROTFLMAO! When have I heard this song before??? Every time the Bills change HCs!!!! Honey chile, the Bills aren't going to sacrifice 1 season, they're going to continue to sacrifice all their seasons into the foreseeable future! They have one of the oldest rosters in the NFL because they continually send their best younger players packing rather than pay them just like they've done over the last 15 or so years! They don't plan for the future at all: they have a 35-year-old starting LG and a 30+ year old starting C and no player on the team who even remotely could adequately replace them ... and the right side of the line remains a sieve. Kyle Williams is 34 or 35, and it's likely Dareus will be gone before next season. What do the Bills do for DTs then??? Preston Brown is coming up on a contract year next year or the one after. He's probably all ready slated to be gone. Then they'll replace the older players drafted by previous administrations with rookies and waiver wire dumpster finds and be one of the youngest teams in the league ... and THAT will be their excuse. The Bills have been "building" and then "rebuilding" for 17 years and have all of two -- count 'em! -- winning seasons of 9-7 to show for all that personnel change. The only difference between Beane and McDermott and Whaley and Marrone or Ryan is that they're not their predecessors. Enjoy your fantasy of some overhyped college QB taking the Bills to the Super Bowl in the next 2-3 years this season because it ain't happening. McDermott and Beane and the bean-counters in the Bills FO have insured that it's not happening. Oh, and BTW, all the failed GM/HC regimes over the last 17 have made all these same dumbassed moves at one time or another in the past ... including drafting a QB in the first round.

This isn't a "tank" ... at least not intentionally. That's the really scary part. They really believe their own BS.

Nailed it, dude!!!

Exactly this. I've been a Bills fan since 1963 but this team appears to be built to be a clone of the play-not-to-lose-by-too-much teams of 2008-2009 fielded by Dick Jauron. I gave up my seasons after the 2008 season when Jauron was rehired. I don't think that this Bills team can be as epically bad as the Bills teams of the most of the 1970s and 1980s only because in the salary cap era, talent is more spread out, although Beane and McDermott have done their best to dilute much of what the Bills had. I'm not going to waste my time this fall watching this latest version of the Bills flounder around on field, out-coached and out-classed talent-wise. My guess is that what we saw from the first team in the third preseason game is simply a foreshadowing of what the regular season will look like. Teams that don't play well in preseason seldom play better in the regular season. I got NFL Sunday ticket so that I can specifically follow Seattle and any other team that's in an interesting game ... as well as follow the Rams to see how Sammy does. I wouldn't be surprised if he scores more TDs himself this season than the Bills score passing TDs.

Jests 6-3. Despite only having 2 completed passes, the Jests still win on a Bills miscue on the 16th punt of the game late in the game that gives them the ball inside the Bills ten. Deja vue all over again.

Keep telling yourself that there's "no anti Whaley vendetta in the works here" and it's not cronyism ... even though cutting Jonathan Williams is ANOTHER move that makes no sense ... even though Vlad Ducasse has never, ever been more than a bad right guard since his rookie season as a Jest ... even though "Zay and Trey" are "McDermott guys" ... Keep reminding yourself of the "important foundation statement" that Beane and McDermott have made while watching the crappy, boring play-not-to-lose-by-too-much team they put on the field this season and as long as they last in B-lo. I've said before that McDermott seemed too similar to Dick Jauron to like him, and now I'm convinced they truly are soul mates. I can easily see mind-numbing 6-3/12-6 puntfest losses in the Bills future.

IMO, that's exactly what "cronyism" is ... putting friends and family before more talented "strangers". Everybody engages in it. Everybody. It's human nature to put trust in people we know over people we don't. It's nice that Beane and McDermott have risen up the NFL career ladder but that alone doesn't make them "better" than anybody else. The Bills have taken "shots at it". They traded for Bledsoe in 2002. They drafted JP Losman in the first in 2004. They drafted Trent Edwards in 2007. They used their first pick on EJ Manuel in 2013. The problem the Bills have had is not that they haven't taken shots, it's that they took them at the wrong targets. Drafting for need is a losing proposition, and that's especially so for QBs. If there's no great QB prospect available when it's your turn to pick, don't settle for whoever is available! The Bills did that in 2004, when Roethlisberger was gone, and again in 2013 when there was nobody worth taking. In most years, there might be one franchise QB available in the draft. The trick is to find him because sometimes he's not the first pick off the board. Ask NE and Seattle. In 2009, the Bills had two firsts and two seconds. Only Eric Wood stuck with the team past his rookie contract, and while he's a decent C, he's not one of the best in the league. Aaron Maybin was a bust. Jairus Byrd and Andy Levitre were decent players that the Bills let go to other teams after their rookie contracts. Having lots of picks doesn't help a team much if it doesn't pick well or it doesn't keep the players it develops. In the Bills case, they haven't picked particularly well, and they regularly let the best players they do pick go to other teams. Maybe Beane and McDermott will do better in the draft, but I doubt that they will do better keeping their own talent. I don't think that decision is really theirs to make.

Significantly cheaper than Watkins.

Well said!

Good post, and I mostly agree. My take on the Bills drafting Manuel in the first is a bit different. It was only a "reach" because they were determined to draft a QB in the first round, and there just weren't any ones worth a first in that draft. I think that they understood Manuel wasn't a first round talent but they wanted a first round QB to put butts in the seats. Remember, that was when Ralph Wilson was dying, and Russ Brandon was running the team. They had "cleared the decks" of all QBs in February or March by releasing both Fitzpatrick and Tavaris Jackson, and literally had no QB until they signed the reliably accident prone Kevin Kolb who conveniently didn't even make it to the first preseason game IIRC. The motivation to take Manuel in the first was really the same one that motivated the Bills to pick Losman in 2004 when he likely would have lasted into the second or even the third round, and if he didn't, Matt Schaub would have been available and a better choice anyways. My guess is that 2018 will resemble 2013 in that the Bills have already decided to draft a QB in the first round even if there's not one worth drafting available. The DBs as a unit have been a "revolving door" since the Bills let former 1999 first round draft pick Antoine Winfield walk away in FA. He was followed by Nate Clements who also left for Minnesota a few years later. Jabari Greer was an UDFA who became a good starting CB and then left to help New Orleans win a Super Bowl. Donte Whitner, another first rounder, was good enough to become a Pro Bowler with the 49ers during their last playoff years when they fielded a serious defensive team. Gilmore just joins the long line of good/great Bills DBs whom the team won't pay to keep, preferring to create another hole that the team fills with a first round pick in the next draft instead of adding talent where the team actually needs more. BTW, WR and RB are also revolving doors for talent for the Bills. When you look back at the first two rounds of all the drafts since 2000, what stands out is how many times the Bills used first or second picks on WR or RBs ... and how often those players, when successful, left or were shipped out to find more success with other teams.

You can give them a chance if you want, but I'm done with patience. I.AM.SICK.OF.LOSING. I'm 67 years old, so I actually remember what the "Glory Years" Bills were like. I also remember the crappy, uncompetitive teams the Bills fielded during most of the 1970s and 1980s, including the ones that went zero for the 1970s against the Miami Carp. While the league has changed since adoption of FA, the Bills haven't changed their pattern of managing player personnel to maximize team profit since at least 2001. The kinds of moves that have been made this off-season are simply echoes of the moves made by previous regimes over the last 17 year, which suggests that OBD's "new regime" is following the same losing pattern all the loser "old regimes" followed. Names and faces have changed but the crappy 21st century Bills remain the crappy 21st century Bills ... closer to the awful 1970s Bills than the great 1990s Bills. McDermott and Jauron are apparently soul mates when it comes to offensive vision.

They blew everything up because by starting over from scratch, they give themselves 3-5 years of continued sucking ... just like they've done repeatedly over the last 17 years.

Once upon a time, I thought the Bills might win 8 or even 9 games. After the great moves they've made and the sterling performances they've put up in preseason, I'm thinking that unless the D is top five, and can be one of the leaders in TOs, they'll be lucky to win 4 games. If the defense doesn't play as strongly as it looked in preseason, they'll win fewer. I'm figuring the offense might score 10 passing TDs all season, and in at least 6 games, the offense is going to fail to score any kind of TD. If the Bills secondary isn't as good as it's look in preseason, then there will likely be several 35-3 or 51-6 games since the Bills face some seriously good passing offenses this season. Maybe the Bills can split with the Jests but I wouldn't count on it. This team is that bad.

All NFL teams make a profit because of the TV money. By allowing top players who would command high salaries as FA to walk away, trading away players with expensive current salaries, and replacing both with rookies and lower quality vets, the Bills increase their profit. I'm beginning to think that the Bills continuously hiring new coaching staffs that have to change schemes ever few years is a strategy to make getting rid of expensive players more palatable to fans so that they continue to buy tickets.

Really? Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements, Ruben Brown, Pat Williams, Jabari Greer, Willis McGahee, Jason Peters, Donte Whitner, Marshawn Lynch, Chris Hogan, and now Stephon Gilmore all say "Hi."

LOL. Seriously? "Should be fine"? If they score 10 passing TDs, that will be a lot. My guess is 6 games without an offensive TD. So, their offensive strategy will be to pray that the D and the ST can score some points. The ghost of Dick Jauron returns to B-lo. I can't wait for the 12-6 and 6-3 TD-less losses to fellow bottom feeders!

Really? Have you checked who the Bills have available to play QB? I wouldn't be surprised if Watkins caught more TD passes this season than the entire Bills receiving corps. That doesn't mean I think Watkins will necessarily light up the league, but that I think if the Bills score 10 passing TDs this season, that will be a lot. The Bills passing offense is non-existence and looks to remain so. And some here just like to believe that the clowns at OBD drive are even interested in building a winning football team, so they keep making excuses for them letting go or shipping out good players.

Keep telling yourself that. The Bills had the 4th overall pick in 2002 and it didn't lead to anything special. The Bills had the 3rd overall pick in 2011 and that didn't change their losing ways, either. In 2004 and 2013 they drafted first round QBs, both of whom busted. In 2009, they had a cartload of draft picks, too: 2 firsts and 2 seconds IIRC. They picked the great Aaron Maybin with their first pick. The reality is that the Bills drafting has sucked ... and that they've fired old scouts and hired new ones means nothing. They could have been victims/beneficiaries of the regime change. So, why the hell should anybody think that the current regime, which has done the same kind of $$$-motivated personnel moves previous failed regimes have made and has fielded as inept an offensive unit as any that Dick Jauron ever put on the field, is going to produce anything but another loser that will set up the team for more losing seasons into the foreseeable future?

Agreed. I was hopeful early on, but the more I see of the new regime, the more I'm convinced they're as bad as the worst of the previous regimes, ie, the Brandon-Levy-Jauron triumvirate. The names change but the organization's lack of interest in winning football games remains the same.

I think "a coach being incompetent" is more accurate.

I totally agree. Anybody who's watched other teams' third preseason games can easily see how bad the Bills are even if they won't admit. The 2017 Bills are reminiscent of the worst of Jauron's teams ... and maybe even as bad as the utterly uncompetitive of teams from the late1970s or the mid/late 1980s. They are pathetic.

Excellent post, mjt. I will add 2 points to what you said. Belichick, when he was HC in Cleveland and DC in New York, also got an awful lot out of whatever talent he had to work with because he devised offenses/defenses to fit his players' strengths. Remember, the Giants that beat the Bills in the Super Bowl, did so with a backup QB and a stout defense. The offense in preseason bears a sickening resemblance to the great offenses that Jauron put on the field ... you remember the epic ones that lost 6-3 to Cleveland and 12-6 to the Niners at home? (//sarcasm off for the literally minded folks). Well, here we go again. I peg the over under for games where the Bills offense fails to score a TD at 6 myself. My take on the situation that the Bills have been in for the past 17 years and look to still be mired in is that, yes, it is the coaches, but who hires the coaches? The suits in the FO, be that Russ Brandon or the ownership, have to take responsibility for hiring HCs who want/allow/insist on running their own schemes whether or not they fit the players. If they have a good defense -- as they had in 2014 -- then why hire a HC who wants to use another scheme that is likely to make most of your defense uncomfortable? There were no other candidates out there who favored the 3-4 defense? Maybe they weren't buffoons enough? Why was McDermott, who had only been a DC not a HC, given a blank slate to bring in an OC and position coaches who radically change the offense? The Bills couldn't have found another first time HC willing to build on the solid foundation the offense had??? In IT, most programmers/system administrators/managers subscribe to the maxim, "don't fix what ain't broke". The Bills need to adopt that saying as their mantra and hire in accordance with it.