Beck Water

In college, I assume you mean? We do have a punt returner McDermott trusts on the practice squad. But it was initially reported we got out of the game with no injuries, and McDermott didn't sound too concerned about Codrington's hammy today, so let's hope his treatments go well and let's see what Wednesday brings

Samuel had a nice game, to be sure. 8 receptions on 7 targets. Wasn't playing outside though, which is where having a receiver who can get separation does make a difference.

FWIW on OBL Eric Wood commented about Keon "I give him a pass on many of those, they weren't necessarily catchable"

Dude. Saying missing the playoff game would fit the narrative of "quitting on the team" or "questionable passion for the game" is, in fact, casting an aspersion.

That was my take too. You can listen to Steve Tasker and Chris Brown on that - not "will prob take us down" but Tasker said this was the team he did NOT want to face and one of them said they talked to Luke Kuechly about which offense he found most difficult and it was NO because of Payton (though I'm gonna guess Drew Brees had something to do with that). Anyway if you want a moderate dose of gloom here you go https://www.buffalobills.com/video/eric-wood-dissecting-broncos-bills-playoff-matchup-recapping-the-regular-season

He used the word "hopeful". What should we think about that?

Life advice: When you find yourself starting a sentence with "I'm not trying to be _________ but" ask your self one thing: ---> Do I actually want to be (insensitive, rude, hurt your feelings, a jerk - whatever word you were gonna use)? If yes, proceed If no, shut up I don't think McDermott gave him leave to go tour Egypt or close on a house or something. There are things that are bigger than football and can't be scheduled to occur in the off season.

No, if Cooper isn't back they will call someone up from the practice squad - possibly Shavers.

Monday is the day to "get right" from the game, watch film and "do the corrections". Tuesday is a day off Wednesday they start to install the game plan If Cooper isn't back on Wednesday then start to worry. Seems like this Fantasy Source thing just puffing up worry.

They do have talent. I don't remember who Simms called out, except that Logan Wilson their MLB was out in November. Their safeties and a CB maybe?

Are you willing to update the OP? Here's what I've heard as of 8 pm Monday Raiders - Pierce says he hasn't heard anything and is planning for 2025 Jags - Fired Pederson, keeping Trent Baalke Cowboys - have a negotiating window with McCarthy thru Jan 14th, but Bears have requested permission to interview him now Colts - staying with Shane Steichen and GM Chris Ballard. Fired DC Gus Bradley Titans - no decision yet on Brian Callahan Giants - staying with Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll Bengals - staying with Zac Taylor, fired DC Lou Anarumo

I'd be right with you on giving it to him.

Yeah, Spags wants to be a HC. His age and the fact that the hot hires are young offensive savants is against him. As Leslie Frazier found out, the number of teams queuing up for a 65 yr old DC with a poor former record as head coach is rather small. Ah, the Rams. To make a long story short, Spagnuolo made one big mistake. He hired Josh McDaniel as his OC going into his 3rd year. Longer story: After 2010, when Bradford won OROY and the Rams went 7-9 and barely missed the playoffs, Pat Shurmur, a WCO guy who is a bit of a QB whisperer, left to take on being HC in Cleveland. FOOL! but I digress. Spags then had the bright idea to hire Josh McDaniel, fresh off of being fired by Denver for being an arrogant ass and taking them from an 8-8 team to a 4-12 team. McDaniel decided to take his 2nd year QB and switch him from his QB friendly WCO to his very complicated totally different verbiage EP offense and to the Patriots Way of hard coaching. And Bradford looked like he totally couldn't play ball. Amendola (his "guy" in 2010) was hurt and Bradford was injured on and off through the season, but he really just looked like he couldn't buy a clue. Seriously. The good news is he only threw 6 INTs all year; the bad news is he only threw 6 TDs. Anyway, the Rams went 2-14 and that was it for Spagnuolo.

Do they? I dunno - on one of his Chris Simms Unbuttoned shows Simms ran down the Bengals defense and the talent they've lost since 2022 and haven't replaced. Being out last season for 7 games and probably limited in the off-season, it seems to me that Burrow started the season slow and the Bengals had some losses because of that. I mean, 164 yds, no TDs and 10 points against New England, seriously? I think you might also justly point to the ebb and flow of offense in the NFL. More and more teams are playing to shut down the pass, and the league leaders this year are using the run game to exploit that coverage and the league's trend toward lighter linebackers who can cover in the passing game. Meanwhile the Bengals are like 30th in the league for rush attempts, rush yards and 26 for Y/R. Whoever it was covering the game Saturday kept yammering about how Burrow likes his receivers spread out, 5 wide. Well, 5 wide helps decode the coverage, but honestly, it shouldn't be entirely up to Joe especially if he's getting the ***** knocked out of him every play. Anyway, makes me wonder if Lou isn't the "escape goat" for Zac Taylor. Seems to me there could be a real chance the Saints hire Joe Brady

I could say "no" at $20M very easily. After Tyreek left KC, Mahomes had a career year with insane passing numbers, all pro, and league MVP. It was commented then that Mahomes was playing more freely and comfortably because he didn't feed any pressure to "feed" Hill and could just go where the defense took him on each play. Kind of like some of the commentary about Allen playing freer and more comfortably and just being able to take what the defense gives him this season. In any event it's a moot point. Hill is under contract in Miami through 2026 for $10M fully guaranteed salary plus a $1M signing bonus, but that's because the Dolphins treated a $17M 2024 option bonus like a signing bonus and amortized it. They'll carry something like $28M of dead cap if they trade the "Cheetah", they'll want to be compensated, and they won't be wanting to trade him in the division. He was. Hollins was also mugged on a couple. I think the refs hadn't gotten the memo that they were supposed to be helping the Patriots lose this game.

Just a couple little points: Coleman was not being covered by a LB on that play. He was being covered by cornerback DJ Reed. It was a scramble drill, and Reed was tryin' to keep up as Coleman shot towards the post then reversed at Allen's hand signal and ran back towards the corner. The LB was just trying to get into the party when he realized Allen was still on his feet and there were 2 receivers in the end zone. And no, perceiving Coleman's foot as nearly on the turf is an optical illusion of that angle, it was actually ~ the LB's knee. You can watch the whole play unfold here if you like. https://www.buffalobills.com/video/can-t-miss-play-keon-coleman-s-high-point-td-catch-caps-josh-allen-s-heave-bills-vs-jets-week-17

What a load of non-sequitors in response. No claim was made by anyone that the Bills have never traded up for a player in their history. That's your man 'o straw. That indicates It's probably not worth my time to respond, but what the hell - I'll try once. A further response from you with cracks about "mensa" and "nonsense I'm spewing" will earn you a fast ignore. Obviously, Beane has a history of trading up for players. Outside of the Allen and Edmunds trade-ups which included capitol acquired starting with the 2017 draft and continuing throughout the 2017 season Beane has traded up twice in the first: 2022 Pick 130 (a 4th round) and a swap of 1sts to go up 2 spots for Kaiir Elam 2023 Pick 130 (a 4th round) and a swap of 1sts to go up 2 spots for Dalton Kincaid Brian Thomas Jr was not available when the Bills picked. That's a fact. To be able to draft Thomas, the Bills would have had to move up at least 6 spots in the 1st, from 28 to 22. That's a value of about 120 points, which is a late 3rd with maybe a 6th or a next year's 5th back. Yeah, yeah "if Beane really wanted to", the reality is that other GMs aren't going to give their 1st round pick away without fair value, and that means using some of the draft picks that allow Beane more "shots on goal" to keep the roster stocked. Example: the six-spot tradeup from 22 to 16 in 2018 that resulted in Tremaine Edmunds required using 65, a pick at the top of the 3rd round. And, one more time: we didn't have a 3rd round pick going into the 2024 draft. The Jags roster and what happened to their WR corps is also fact. The point isn't to diss off Thomas as a receiver - he's a good receiver and may become a great receiver, sure. The point is that the Jags had no run game to speak of and no other receivers to speak of, so he got a lot of targets. Put an equally talented receiver on the Bills who had fewer total passing attempts, and more targets to divide those attempts between, and he wouldn't be standing out to as one of the top receivers in the league for yards. Or maybe he would, I don't know - maybe you compulsively watch Jaguars games and study their film. I don't. As far as me "pining" for better WR, my opinion here is a matter of record and I have receipts: I think that Beane and the Bills have underaddressed the WR position and underresourced it in the draft. But the guys I mentioned are all players the Bills could have actually realistically have drafted - unlike Thomas, who would have required a trade-up the Bills did not have draft capital to move up for last draft.

So from what we know about McDermott, he is sincerely committed to Kaizen, the business principle of involving the whole organization in striving for continuous improvement. So I would imagine he looked at that piece, looked at places where it pointed to areas he could improve, and decided on how to address them. As for last year's article, I think it was notable that a lot of the Buffalo press corps did not speak out on it one way or the other. The most cogent comment on it came from John Wawrow, aka @Delete This Account, a guy with considerable experience and considerable access/trust within the Bills organization. His summary of the article was "former employee has issues with former boss" and something to the effect of "that's why many of us will sit this one out". I agree that NFL head coaches are a special, driven breed and that can make them come across as jerks from time to time. People who are laser-focused on one goal, also, can fail to perceive how they come across viewed from a broader perspective. But also, when you interview 40 people and interview them at length, you can both ask for, and elicit, stories that can portray a person in a particular slanted way.

I don't think that's McDermott - he doesn't have time to lug around hate for a journalist. He and Beane (separately) actually sat down with Dunne at one of the off-season events last year - Senior Bowl or Combine - and had what Dunne described as a "good conversation". I think part of that conversation may have been McDermott and Beane saying "look, as a journalist, why wouldn't you reach out and get our side of it?" to which Dunne could say "as an independent journalist, the Bills have not credentialed me or given me access to you". I think one outcome was, Dunne agreed to reach out and get McDermott or Beane's side of anything he wrote about them (not agree with their side, just seek it out). And Beane/McDermott ensured Dunne got some form of press credentials to the Bills, which Dunne doesn't always use but has tweeted about a couple times just enough to make the point he's able to be there. And yeah, I'd like to read it 'cuz Ty Dunne writes well but nah, I'm not gonna subscribe to do so. Dunne didn't have press credentials to the Bills at the point where he wrote that hit piece last year. He gained access last spring after he spoke with Beane and with McDermott, I forget if it was at the Senior Bowl or at the Combine - the latter I think.

I got to say Glenn had the Lions D looking fierce last night. Collinsworth kept babbling about how the Lions had no one who could provide any pressure while Darnold was getting tossed around like a rag doll and running for his life back there. And the Jets have good defensive players.

Right. But if "getting a win" was "priority #1" the way the coaches were saying before the game, don't you think they would have gone for a FG? There would be other punts, and there were - and Martin getting his bonus depended upon a very heads-up and go-hard play from Jamarcus Ingram.

Don't forget McDermott declining a 10 yd OH penalty so that NE could kick a 42 instead of a 52 yd FG - just to give us a few point cushion in case his D got a safety or something. That was ....yeah. Oh, and that was after we punted instead of attempting a FG from the NWE 35 when the game was BUF 10 NWE 14. Did you happen to watch the Chiefs at Denver game? What the Bills did was subtle and based on a poke here and a nudge there. There was nothing at all subtle about what the Chiefs did.

I actually thought for the most part guys were going pretty hard. We were starting our 2nd string OL the whole game, across the board, and I think they wanted to show what they could do. 0 sacks despite Trubisky having the mobility of a busted lawn mower and being slow with his reads; 130 yds rushing - not too shabby. I think Mitch is well-liked and the receivers who played wanted to run decent routes for him. Hollins was playing for incentives and going hard. That said, they weren't giving it everything they'd got to gain YAC or fight back through contact. I think it shows the guys who played were going pretty hard in that McDermott had to resort to tactics like punting instead of attempting a FG when the Bills were on the NWE 35 yd line and declining a holding penalty when NWE was on the BUF 24 so that NWE got to kick a 42 yd FG instead of a 52 yd try. Then he played his trump card, substituting Mike White for Mitch Trubisky. That's the point at which the offense at least just went through the motions.

I know, I was dying. They were just all over him. Well....Burrow was starring in a remake of "run for your life" much of the game. Neither Cam Heyward nor TJ Watt seemed to have much impeding them.