Beck Water

I mean, what are you guys expecting? It's the playoffs. Every team is going to bring their best.

Special teams, yes. Sean Payton. 14 years coaching with one of the all-time great, HOF QBs in Drew Brees. 1 Superbowl win, 2 conference losses, 4 division losses If he were coaching in Buffalo, we'd have been calling the plows for his removal in 2013 if not 2012.

Probably not much hope there. The players all read this kind of news. McDermott just needs to click his bic and the fuel will be there.

Don't try to make it make sense. Just hope it puts a little "***** in the grits" for Allen and the OL through the playoffs. He did. But last year when Allen had better statistics, we were told the award wasn't about statistics.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43359537/sources-browns-qb-deshaun-watson-retears-achilles-rehab I think Watson's GAF (give a *****) are GAF (gone as *****). He's all about the money.

Welp, Then. Actually I think the Bills coaches and players knew the writing was on the wall a couple weeks back which is why McDermott and the OL came out in public and said what they said.

I'm actually delighted by the upset talk. I think it's much easier to motivate the Bills team if they feel dissed. Zero first team all - pro's, talk of the Broncos upsetting them - LET'S GOoooOOOOOOOOOO!

And, their fans get to sit and watch while the QB they drafted #1 overall, Baker Mayfield, who took them to a winning record in his 3rd season before being kicked to the curb for Watson, leads another team to a 10-7 record and playoffs.

Well, the press does need a story, and a Cinderella story with a rookie QB beating an MVP candidate seems made for TV. But those who actually know something, like Dan Orlovsky, see the following: 1. Denver's defense is very good, especially against the run. 9th for rush attempts, 3rd for rush yards. 2. Some of that could be desperate QB trying to return to the LOS because Broncos are #1 for sacks, and it isn't close 3. Big part of the Bills offense this year has been a balanced attack with running the ball. Top-10 for both rush attempts and rush yards. Shut down the run, the Bills offense may struggle. 4. Denver has one of the best CB in the league in Surtain. The Bills aren't seen as having a particularly challenging receiver corps to take away. 5. Nix is not a genuine dual-threat QB but he is mobile in the pocket and has escapability. 41 rushing 1st downs. So he has to be contained, like a dual threat. 6. Nix has better stats than Josh Allen - more passing TD, more passing yards, higher completion % - in part due to a play action and screen passing game and.... 7. Buffalo's defense struggles against play action and screens. They depend on their front 4 to pressure the QB, which means they're always treading that fine line between being aggressive enough and overpursuing/coming too early. 8. Buffalo's defense has been very uneven. Against some good offenses like the Ravens, Rams and Lions, we gave up a *****-ton of points. Now, people who look under the hood say "yeah, injuries may have had something to do with that" but, the media doesn't look that far under the hood. By the way, good article by Joe Buscaglia https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6050954/2025/01/10/bills-wild-card-broncos-josh-allen-bo-nix/ And for you "Shakir returning punts" guys, that is Joe's prediction if Codrington can't go.

It would be one thing if there were no alternatives. But there are alternatives. Yes, there is risk all over the field in the game of football, but the risk on a punt return is objectively different. I mean think about it. On a normal play, the defense lines up with different objectives. 4-6 men are trying to get to the QB. 5-7 men are spread out across the field covering different players or trying to stop the run. On a punt return, 10 of 11 guys line up with one object: "Get to the ball. If a man has the ball, kill the man with the ball!" And the 11th man just has the distraction "punt the ball first". The level of mayhem and focus is just different. Andre' Roberts said "You've got to have a screw loose". Nyheim Hines said "I tell myself, I don't care about my life" Again, if there were no alternatives on the Bills who had tried to field a punt, that would be one thing, but Daequan Hardy was doing so in pre-season and until the Codrington trade, many thought he'd won the job, he looked adequate. Both he and Keon Coleman were fielding punts last year for their college teams.

Wow. Hope the way they treated McCloud is not something Schoen learned from Beane. Yuck - O. 1) don't ask a player who is starting to take a pay cut, while they're still slated to start 2) don't ask a player you just signed in the off-season as a FA to take a pay cut - if they aren't worth that, why did you recently offer it to them? 3) in general, don't ask players to take pay cuts during the season It's one thing if a team negotiates in the off season with a player on a long-term contract who is under-performing his contract (Knox, Von Miller), when the team is cap-crunched and trying to make moves. Everybody knows what's going on. It's another to do what Schoen is reported to have done above. Woof. Nick McCloud was a guy who was signed as an UFA originally by the Bills. "Bold" and "unusual" try "ridiculous" and "disrespectful"

That's the most logical interpretation of this.

Ah OK. Thanks! I mean, isn't that always true of the playoffs?

If the question is "who is the Bills most productive WR this season and far too valuable to the offense to be risked on returning punts?" then sure, Shakir is that answer.

the Joker in the decision making deck: Punt returns and whether or not Codrington can go

But Keon is so slow, and cant cut!

OK thanks. Not what I thought I heard but I could be mistaken I'm confused who is "they" in this sentence? The Broncos last played AZ in 2022 The Bills of course opened the season in AZ but, we only sacked Murray 4 times. Most Murray was sacked this season was 5x Browns, Colts, Chargers, and Bengals....Browns, Chargers and Bengals scored more than 30 points. I dunno what to make of that....if you happened to do something like that for the Bills D including the Rams and Lions games, we'd look like we fell off a cliff, I guess? Did they have some major injuries? Looks as though they were missing a starting CB for 3 of those 4 games but that's a bout all

The league average punt return is 1~0 Y/R (I looked: 9.9 Y/R actually) The Bills are 8th in the league averaging 10.8 Y/R The Broncos are 1st in the league with 15.7 Y/R No return vs 15.7 Y/R seems like a significant advantage to me.

Dang, you're right!

No, it's not a misallocation of resources. The draft is a bit of a crap shoot. Teams put their best effort into scouting and then take their best shot. It's understood that some picks will hit, and some will miss. Kincaid is on a rookie contract, he's not taking much resources. The only TE in Kincaid's draft class who is contributing more is Sam LaPorta, and he's doing it on significantly more receptions. GB got a nice TE in the 3rd round, but there were 7 TE drafted after Laporta in the 2nd and 3rd rounds - so sure, you can get a good one, who is he? Every team would like their draft process to improve. I will say that Beane consistently takes a kind of "boom or bust" approach to drafting. He has a "type": athletic, very physically talented guys who have fallen towards the bottom of the first round where we can reach them because of some perceived gap in their skills which Beane believes the Bills can coach up. Exhibit A Edmunds pre draft profile extolled his size, speed, and explosiveness but noted: "Instincts are average and relies on athletic gifts. Can be a step slow to diagnose. Lured by misdirection. Will take random downhill paths that trap him in the quagmire." So the idea was the Bills would coach him up on his ability to diagnose and make it instinctual. AJ Epenesa was another project, they asked him to totally re-make his body for the NFL. Rousseau, relatively minimal experience playing football - was drafted with only 1 season of college football, due to a broken ankle as a freshman and then Covid as a junior. Kincaid, beautiful route runner with soft hands but only played 1 year of HS football before deciding to go that way in college, pre draft profile notes "Jarred off of his base by average contact." and "Physical defenders are able to slow his routes." Again, Beane's idea is he'll get coached up and learn to release and cope with physicality in the league and then, look out. Coleman is sort of along the same theme as Kincaid and Rousseau, very athletic guy with good hands who is not a polished route runner and struggles to release against press man. I can't say Beane's idea is wrong. We're drafting near the bottom of the rounds consistently so if a team wants to bring in top talent, they have to try some kind of strategy or get lucky in the late rounds. The fact that Kincaid missed 4 games with his knee injury didn't help his production, either.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43348810/tyreek-hill-agent-says-star-wr-committed-dolphins Drew Rosenhaus says Hill is really committed to the Dolphins "I think at the end of the day, he's committed to this Dolphins football team," he said. "I believe Tyreek is a great asset to the Dolphins and I think he's the last guy people should be worried about in this organization. They have many more worries -- Tyreek Hill's not one of them." But he can not confirm that Hill wants to stay in Miami: "Let me just say this -- I've got to have that conversation with Tyreek. I'm not going to speak for him," he said. "I'm not going to say, 'He does, he doesn't.' That's a discussion I'm going to have to have with him that I haven't had yet."

Believe it or not, the guy on the roster with the most recent experience returning punts is.....Keon Coleman. He returned punts for FSU last year. If you want the ball caught no matter what the winds are doing, bring up Hyde and stick him back there. If you want a guy with more recent experience, bring up the guy that Codrington beat out, but who was drafted in part for his ST chops, Daequan Hardy. Dark horse not involving PS call-ups, Coleman. Again, do NOT want to see Shakir fielding punts, just like when Hyde was our starting safety I didn't like seeing him back there. Hollins does not have NFL experience returning punts, and only 1 KR.

I do NOT want to see Shakir back there returning punts. He has been the most productive WR for the Bills, and it isn't close. Coleman is 2nd with 265 fewer yards. Just "No" to risking Shakir on the craziness and the scrums that punt returns can involve.