CincyBillsFan

They made a big time effort to boost the weapons at Jackson's disposal. The Bills could learn a thing or two from them.

Also Mixon catches a ball at his knees making it look easy. As I recall Diggs dropped one against Denver that was in the same place. Just saying.

I disagree. Those were not high level FA signings: * Morse is probably the closest thing to an aggressive FA O line signing but he was not an elite center when they signed him and he had major concussion issues whch thankfully he has avoided since being with the Bills. But yea, this was an attempt back in 2019 to shore up what may have been the worst O line in the NFL. * McGovern was a clever under the radar signing but again he was no where near being an elite Guard. He was a back up and continued the Bean/McD tradition of signing guys on a hope & prayer. Last season Safold was a similar signing and was rated as the worst starting guard in the NFL. I agree that this season the Bills finally tried to correct their 5 year strategic mistake of prioritizing the D over the O and actually focus high end draft picks on the offense. And while both Kincaid & Torrence look like they'll be top end players for years to come their impact this year is muted as they work through their rookie seasons. But look at the Bills #1 picks over McD/Bean's time as coach. From 2017 to 2022 the Bills had 7 #1 picks in 6 drafts. They used 5 of those picks on defensive players and 2 (Allen & the trade for Diggs) on the offense. Sure this last draft they seem to be changing direction but it's hard not to think that with respect to the 2023 season it was a little to late. And I disagree about a steady increase in talent for the offense. Last year's O line with the addition of Safold was one of the worst in the NFL. Sure it's better this year but that's hardly a steady improvement. It's more hit or miss. I like the fire in Spenser Brown but a 3rd round development project from Northern Iowa at RT? Again a hope and prayer on the O line. I also think that the Bills WR's were better in 2020 & 2021 then they are today. Brown & Beasley and to some extent Sanders complimented Diggs better then the current crop do. Ditto for RB where it's hard to argue that Cook, Harris & Murry are really an upgrade to Moss & Motor. And yes I think Cook is on the rise and could blossom into a great RB as long as McD doesn't snuff out the guys passion with his unprofessional benching of the man for a mistake. I'll get off my soap box for now. I love your reviews and as always they stimulate excellent followup discussions.

And among the top teams that are viable SB contenders and have elite, franchise QB's in place the Bills have had and continue to have the worst Offensive Line of the lot of them. Allen's play over the years has hid just how bad our O line has been.

Included in this has to be a change in what the Bills prioritize in the draft & FA going forward. The offense must be built to take advantage of the special skills that Allen brings to the table. The Bills have refused to commit high end draft choices and FA signings to the O line and we're seeing the result. The Bills have also failed to invest properly in high end skill position players. Look at the Eagles with Hurts, Miami with Tua, KC with Mahomes, Cincy with Burrow, Dallas with Dak, the Lions with Giff and the Jags with Lawrence. And soon you will be seeing it in Houston with Stroud. Hell, SF built a spectacular offense without the QB in place and then traded away a kings ransom to land their version of Allen. Yea it didn't work out for them but it wasn't for lack of their prioritizing their offense.

You forgot to add minimum investment in the offensive line which is even a bigger problem. Since McD has been coach (2017) the Bills have not spent a #1 pick on an O lineman nor have they signed a big time FA.

More on why context is important. I posted this on another thread where a guy was holding out Burrow as an example of everything Allen isn't with respect to TO's: "Let's be clear here: Burrow has a total of 14 TD's and 6 INT's and 1 LOST FUMBLE. I don't care about "fumbles" only lost fumbles. Allen has 26 total TD's and 11 INT's and 3 lost fumbles. So Burrow's TD/TO ration is a very good 2 and Allen's is an almost as good 1.85. Anyway you slice the data the "Allen is a TO machine" narrative is way overblown. BTW, Burrow's 2 BAD INT's in the 4th quarter against the Texans lost the Bengal's that game. Allen's TO against Denver ere nowhere near as damaging or as bad."

Think about the great pass Allen threw against the Jags that Diggs had BOTH hands on at the 5 yard line and the ball was wrestled away by the DB for an INT. Diggs is a great WR but he's average on those kinds of balls. And the Bills have been without a WR that can routinely make those kinds of catches since Allen has been here.

building on the "bad luck" point check out this odd stat:

Let's be clear here: Burrow has a total of 14 TD's and 6 INT's and 1 LOST FUMBLE. I don't care about "fumbles" only lost fumbles. Allen has 26 total TD's and 11 INT's and 3 lost fumbles. So Burrow's TD/TO ration is a very good 2 and Allen's is an almost as good 1.85. Anyway you slice the data the "Allen is a TO machine" narrative is way overblown. BTW, Burrow's 2 BAD INT's in the 4th quarter against the Texans lost the Bengal's that game. Allen's TO against Denver ere nowhere near as damaging or as bad. But hey I'm an Allen apologist so hat do I know.

My first response to this was to give you the vomit emoji. But then I thought about it for a few minutes and this is not such a bad idea. Importantly Bienemy is an offensively minded coach and that alone would be an upgrade over McD. Second, he's gotten more out of Sam Howell then most coaches would get. Imagine what he could do with Allen. Do I think the Bills could do better then Bienemy? Absolutely. But I would bring him in for a serious interview. The job he's done with Howell makes this guy an intriguing possibility.

Well if this was the intent then we have a better chance of Miami collapsing and sneaking into the playoffs as a division champ. Not because I don't think Allen can get out of this rough patch and be the QB we know he can be. But I'm pessimistic because I don't believe Allen struggling is the most important part of why our offense is struggling. The Bills O has deep systemic issues arising from 5 years of neglect and their over reliance on Allen being great. You can't just turn that around by yanking Allen's "head out of his ass." Until this franchise commits to the offense and that includes coaching then the best we can hope for is when Allen is playing great over an extended period of time the Bills can win the Division and even win a playoff game or two. But that's it. That's the Bills ceiling as this franchise is structured. And I come to this conclusion just considering how the Bills have screwed up their priorities in favoring the D over the O while having an elite franchise QB. This doesn't even take into account that McD has not been able to create an elite D and his tactical mistakes in games is becoming legend.

Well good for you! So how many missed reads are "a lot of them"?

Now this is just a poor effort at trolling. Come on man you can do better then this! So you're an expert on whether or not Allen is missing basic reads? I'm sure he misses then on some plays as defensive coaches are also paid to try to fool the QB. But do you have any proof beyond what Nick Wright tells you that Allen misses reads at a higher level then other QB's?

A better bit of trolling here. But I'm not sure that this says what you think it does. I mean it's clear that Allen cares and my guess is that this was the look on the face of every Bills fan as the "12 men on the field" play unfolded.

You need to up your trolling game a bit here.

Put someone else behind that O line with less mobility then Allen and you would see just how wrong you are.

This year alone Allen made some bad plays early against the Giants, NE and Denver. And in all three games Allen rebounded to have very productive final stretches where he led the Bills to a win over the Giants and put the Bills in the lead with less then 2 minuets to play against NE & Denver. So yes Allen has clearly demonstrated just in the last few weeks that he can "come back from bad plays during game's". What's your next question?

Have you considered the possibility that as a result of McD and the organization trying to calm Allen down and restrain his sugar high personality that he's been told not to be all over the sideline when the O is on the bench? That he's been "coached" to sit there and "relax"? I believe that this is a more likely explanation than one where Allen is suddenly so down and out that he can't lift himself off the bench and just sits there brooding. From Allen's and the organizations comments it's becoming clearer and clearer that McD and the Bills are trying to fundamentally remake Allen into something they want but he's not comfortably being. The hubris of this endeavor is off the charts but appears consistent with what we know about McD. That this is producing a toxic environment in Allen's head seems more likely by the day. Yes the O line has gotten better as it is no longer near the bottom of the league. But it is average at best with real issues at RT & Center (Morse may be to small).

Because I defend Allen with data & evidence I've been called an "Allen apologist" and that I have a bad case of Allen "hero worship". So I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to explain why I'm so fired up about this topic. For over 50 years I've been a passionate Buffalo Bills fan. And throughout that long period of time I've had the joy & privilege of seeing only two elite QB's at the helm of the Bills: Jim Kelly and now Josh Allen. And Kelly held that position for six years (1988 - 1993) and Allen has held it for three and a half years (2020 - now). That means for over 80% of the time that I've been a Bill fan I've had to watch average to bad QBing. So when Allen goes through a rough patch my first inclination is to look at all the evidence before claiming he's regressed or he wasn't really that good or he has some fatal deficiency that he won't be able to overcome. And I remember that Kelly also went through rough patches. And to date my conclusion, based on all the evidence that I've seen, is that Allen is still operating at an elite level in spite of having to deal with some serious headwinds that Kelly never had to. So when I point out what those headwinds are it's not to make excesses for Allen but to show that his rough patches may seem worse then Kelly's because he is working in an inferior organization which has not prioritized the offense. This means Allen has achieved elite status under much more difficult circumstances then Kelly did, IMO of course. It will also require a real commitment to fixing the O line and prioritizing the offense. I thought about the mental relief it must be for a Mahomes or Burrow or Hurts to know deep down that their organizations will move heaven and earth to fix problems on the offense. You can bet that Mahomes knows that once he gets through this season the Chiefs will fix his WR problem just like they fixed the O line problem coming out of their SB loss to TB.

NFL years are like dog years. Five years under McD in the NFL is like you or me working 15 years in a normal job. All I'm saying and maybe I misunderstood the point of the poster referring to McD as just Allen's coach is that this relationship at the professional level is way more complicated and profound then it is in Pop Warner or High School.

But McD is more than a coach he's Allen's boss in the workplace and yes a bad boss can suck the life out of their employees.

He has a much better O line and that's no small thing. He also has one of if not the best offensive minds in the NFL calling plays and running the show. Mahomes can be confident that in the off season the Chiefs will get him more weapons. Just like they rebuilt his O line after the loss to TB in the SB. Don't underestimate the importance to a QB's mental health when he has confidence that the franchise will do right by the offense. Mahomes has it and conversely why would anyone think Allen has it given the reality of how the Bills have structured and built their Offense?

I'll take your first sentence as a compliment except that rather then use the word "apologist" I would use the word "realist". Over the years when Bills fans have periodically jumped out of the woodwork during rough patches and went after Allen tooth & claw I just point out the obvious. You know the stuff that I see when taking my eye test: Allen's overall production and the lack of high end complimentary offensive personnel and coaching that I see on other SB contending teams with elite QB's. You say he's an NFL QB and he'll make some decent throws every game. Fair enough. But when I watch NFL & College football (and I watch a lot of both) I see offensive skill players making all sorts of amazing catches. I see guys grabbing the ball inches off the ground or high pointing and coming down with contested catch after contested catch. Little dump off throws get taken 75 yards to the house as O linemen throw great down field blocks and RB's break tackles & turn on the jets. Now tell me what your eye test says about Bills skill players over the last couple of seasons? Diggs had that awesome 55 yard YAC TD against Miami...............but how many other great plays do you recall our play makers actually making? I recall a few Davis drops of 55 yard Allen passes from last season. And I'm not trying to be a smart a## here but do you remember our skill players making a lot of wow catches this or last season? Just last night Wilson benefited from 2 great catches - a one handed catch that went for 20 yards and that amazing TD catch. Meanwhile did our receivers make a single wow catch? I saw a ball go through Davis hands for an INT instead of a 1st and goal and Diggs couldn't handle a low, but not that low, Allen throw that might have gone for 30 yards. Yea I get that Allen needed to make a better throw there but wouldn't it be nice if Bills receivers actually made tough catches now and then? And I don't see Allen "pouting" I see a man who looks down and out and is very frustrated. Looking lost is not the same thing as pouting. And for the record, Kelly was NEVER expected to do for those SB Bills teams what Allen is expected to do for the Bills today. Kelly had much better coaching and was surrounded with all pro and future HOF offensive talent.

Overly simplistic take on what Knox did for the offense. Sure his drops were a problem but he did make tough catches, especially near the goal line, as well. And the guy could generate some serious YAC with his imitation Angry Man runs. But most of all we probably miss his blocking.