JohnNord

If they are giving it to the player with the best stats it should go to Joe Burrow. It sucks but this season was never about MVP

Is this something that developed throughout the course of 2 years? Or did he refine his motion during the 2020 offseason? The video makes it sound like it happened all on three 2020 offseason which is truly impressive if that’s the case

He’s a true 1TDT which no one else other than DaQuan Jones is. He won’t make big plays but he can anchor and won’t get blown off the ball like the rest of the DT’s do.

I’d be surprised if Matthew Smiley is back as ST’s coach next season. Im not sure that the problem with the DL not getting pressure is related to McDermott and Babich, as much as just losing matchups. You can to run a loop or stunt or blitz but if your players are losing their assignments there’s only so much you can do. We all knew the roster was limited in areas. WR turned out better than expected. Safety was about the same. But DL underperformed. What McDermott can do is take more chances and be aggressive to compensate for the lack of talent

There is a lot of pressure on McDermott this season IMO. I don’t think he’s coaching for his job at all but he desperately wants to win a Super Bowl in Buffalo

I meant he hasn’t beaten Kansas City in the playoffs. The only coaches who have are Bill Belichick (2018) and Zac Taylor (2021). So while he hasn’t gotten to a Super Bowl yet, no AFC coaches have either besides those 2.

Surprisingly Dan is pretty low on Buffalo:

“Bugaboo?”

I’ve argued with Bills fans before but Sammy was an BUST of a draft pick and IMO Doug Whaley should shoulder the majority of the blame.. Sammy was not injury prone in college, so some of his failure can be chalked up to bad luck. But he also had a pizz poor attitude, bad worth ethic, and didn’t want to be Buffalo. So for that, Sammy deserves a lot blame. But Whaley clearly was in self-preservation mode hoping to double down on his investment. He made a move everyone said was reckless and laughed by saying “I like those odds!” The problem was that he traded up for a receiver who was far less productive than Evans, OBJ, Brandin Cooks, and others Davante Adams and others selected after him. Also it showed Whaley’s weakness. He took the most spectacular player of need without factoring how he would be use or whether he’d be a good fit within their culture… there was no culture!

Hiring an unproven HC like Ben Johnson to take over would be a massive mistake. McDermott has built a successful program that runs itself. He has one of the best records since 2020, won the AFCE 5X straight and will likely have the MVP this season. The only thing he hasn’t done is found a way to beat Kansas City - which only has happened 3 times since 2018. IMO if you move on from McDermott you don’t replace him with a first year coach. Everyone the examples of replacing Tony Dungy and John Fox - both those teams replaced them with proven, experienced HC’s.

Saleh to Jacksonville makes a lot of sense, especially if Kahn is married to Balkke as GM. I can’t see one of the main HC candidates turn down jobs for Jacksonville otherwise. Part of me is wondering it’s a Doug Whaley situation where he’ll allow the HC to dump the GM after the draft.

You are 100% crazy if you think he’ll be fired after an upset loss to Denver. It’s not going to happen. Read up on the Buffalo Sabres. Everyone knows they are a complete mess and have been for years, yet Terry continues to empower GM Kevyn Adams. Most owners likely would have fired Adams by now, but Terry likes and trusts him and continues to give him chances to get it right. McDermott is about 1000x more successful than Adams. The Bills are a professional, successful, respected, well-run organization thanks to McDermott. Terry is not going to risk screwing up his most high-profile and profitable Buffalo business. Also think back to last season when the Bills dropped to 6-6 on the fringe of missing the playoffs. Tim Graham reported there was a ZERO percent chance McDermott would get fired per team sources. So can want him to be fired. Or you can think he should be fired. But the reality is he won’t be fired should the team lose to Denver. It’s just not going to happen this season.

Solid picks… I’m not so sure Glenn ends up with NYJ. I can see him in NO. I think there’s also going to be a wildcard name this season, as there usually is, that will shake everything up.

I actually listened to Schopp and the Bulldog. Not my favorite show by any means, but I’ll give them credit - the interview with Dunne was good. Schopp asked what happened behind the scenes. Dunne admitted he’s never spoken on this before but was ok sharing the broad details. He said that after the article dropped, he got a phone call from McDermott the next day. He couldn’t share everything they spoke about but said McDermott wanted to get to know him in the offseason and learn about what he does. McDermott and Dunne met in-person at the NFL Combine in late Feb. This was not for an article just both getting to know each other. I believe Beane met with him separately as well for a story. Again no details were shared but I’m guessing they spoke on a few different occasions. Two months later, Dunne got media credentials for the first time in Buffalo. To his credit, Bulldog asked whether he thought the Bills were working him. Dunne said no because it’s rare for an NFL team to reach out like that after such a critical article. He mentioned his piece on Aaron Rodgers and that he’s not welcome with the Packers and that there are bad feelings toward him from the Jets since Rodgers arrived. As far as this current interview, with the postseason approaching he put in a media request with Bills PR and it was approved. It was supposed to be a 15-20 minute interview but McDermott gave him a full hour. FWIW Tyler thinks the Bills will beat Denver handily. He was also asked whether McDermott has evolved from the criticisms he mentioned in the article - Dunne said “we’re about to find out.”

Look how much leeway Mr. Pegula is giving Kevyn Adams with the Sabres…there’s no way McDermott is fired with a 1st round exit

If what he said was correct, I would imagine that they met some time after last season for an off record conversation. I’m sure there’s a lot Dunne is leaving out. In the past he was denied media credentials. This season, he was credentials once mini camp started. I have to assume Derek Boyko was heavily involved here. I don’t think anything it was anything crazy. Just that they came to an understanding i.e. if he’s publishing a negative piece on the coach, to actually ask McDermott or current employees for comment, as opposed to relying on old accounts from former players and coaches.

What did he say?

You can be negative or positive but either way it won’t change the fact it’s the playoffs and the Bills season could be done. It’s going to be disappointing either way so IMO It’s better to look at things positively.

I listened to the press conference with McDermott. Kind of sounded confident that Cooper would be back but we’ll see.

I was watching him and didn’t think he played that great. He was ok at best, but they weren’t asking him to do a whole lot. There were multiple times when Watt went right around him but Burrow was getting the ball out so fast it didn’t matter. That’s the thing about Burrow, he’s used to playing with bad offensive lines and has leaves to get the ball out on time and to the right receiver.

The only similarity is that the Bills are playing at home against a lower seeded team. The 1996 Bills were 10-6, lost 3 of their 4 games and barely made the playoffs. Also their three best players on offense had seriously declined that season (QB, RB, WR). Tom Coughlin wasn’t really a veteran coach. Jacksonville was his first stop as NFL HC. Also that Jacksonville team was filled with veterans with playoff experience. So while it was their first first playoff appearance as a franchise, plenty of players already had experience. There’s not a lot of similarities other than is Denver wins, it will be a major upset. Didn’t Jeff Burris also return an INT for a TD that bailed them out temporarily? I remember feeling relieved when Todd Collins came into the came in at the end. Then he tried to take a deep shot and got hit as he threw. It was pathetic.

I really love this idea. Lou also knows Baltimore well:

Some of this might be correct. I do think that Lou was able to shine the brightest in the playoffs though. There’s an interesting stat that compares QB performance in the post season along with defensive support. Josh has mostly been great in the postseason but has gotten little support. Joe Burrow is the opposite. He’s been mediocre to good in the playoffs but has been supported by strong defensive support. I think this is a great to Lou’s defense and he always seemed to be a “big time” DC

I wasn’t really surprised. We all knew that he didn’t have great separation and that he’d need to work on his route running. I think an entire offseason will help. My bigger concern is when he’s had a chance to make plays, like last week’s insane throw and scramble from Josh that was wiped away by holding, he doesn’t always finish the catch. Granted these aren’t easy catches but if you’re not going to get separation and are known as a “50/50” guy, you need to make those catches. He probably had 2 of those situations yesterday. Keon is much better when facing zone defense in shorter areas. It does make you wonder whether he ultimately will be best used as a “power slot WR” as many draft analysts believed. Problem is - Buffalo already has a good slot WR that’s likely on the verge of re-signing

I think he did ok. I didn’t noticed any big plays but also didn’t notice any huge mistakes.