PoundingDog

To me, outside of CB2, we still have question mark on 1T DT and FS. People may say we have Daquan Jones, but he's not good enough right now in my opinion. And we are banking on Bishop to become a play maker at FS.

I think the offers are very lowballed in his (his agent's) mind. It makes sense like you said. But I'll hold my opinion until we see him on the field. The main question is why the other lowball offers, so much so for him to take a one year "prove-it" deal at age 29. He's Joey Bosa!

Well, I'm a bit surprised that Joey netted $12 million "only" - probably the Bills too. But the market is the market. Injury aside, I feel there is something there the pros might see but fans don't see because a guy like Joey Bosa's pedigree in a premium position usually has a lot of suitors willing to gamble. But I'd also say that if no big money offers are on the table (like 4-5 year deal with big guarantees), the Bills are the kind of teams would be appealing to him. Better chance to have a stat year and championship. If Joey signed with Chiefs for the same amount, I bet 75% of the board would roast Beane for not outbiding the damn Chiefs. For those who wopuld rather pay Hendrickson. Hendrickson is actually a year old, and is probably looking for last big payday of his career. You are looking at close to $30 million average and much bigger overall guarantee... And on top of that, you have to give up a day 1 or 2 draft pick to the Bengals, which would mean another starter for the Bills defense.

Belichick''s defense had HoF players. Richard Seymour, Ty Law came to mind. Seau played for a year too. McDermott had Von Miller for half a season before injury.

I look it this way. There are coaches so good that they themselves can elevate a team to play at a level beyond their capability. They do exist but very very few. Belichick is one. Andy Reid and McVay maybe 1/2 such a guy. Note they still need a HoF guy like Brady and Mahomes to build a dynasty but they can find a way to win in general with a capable roster. The majority of the GOOD to GREAT coaches need a capable roster (Buffalo has one in my opinion), and some luck on injury and some infusion of unexpected talent popping up; all aligned to win it all. That's why in general it is so unpredictable in the past until ... we have these dynasties with NE and now KC. We are one of the fortunate teams with a HoF QB in prime. Remember there are a lot of NFL teams with a HoF QB in the past and they won once in a while if you look into the history overall. I don't think McDermott is in Belichick, Reid, and McVay category. Are we saying we MUST find the new Belichick/Reid/McVay now in order to win it all? What is the chance to land one? If you were Pegula, you had to access the likelihood to find a young Belichick within the next 2 coaching cycles while we still have Allen performing at HoF level, right?

Not saying we have to keep Cook. But your logic is going down the slippery road. We are talking about #1 weapon here. Diggs was that guy when he first showed up in Buffalo, but wasn't last year towards the end. So traded and gone. Who's the #1 weapon for the Bills now? Until proven otherwise, you can say it is Cook and he may yet to peak. Very few teams getting rid of their #1 weapon in a year they anticipate to seriously competing for the Superbowl, which I'll argue is always this coming season for the Bills. The Chiefs got rid of Hill and still won because they arguably had 2 #1 weapon in Hill and Kelce at the time.

The bottom line is to draft well, even if you have the early picks. The Bills have ignored the DT position for years. They drafted Ed Oliver high and Carter last year. That's it. They swung at DE a lot but mixed results. Even for the debate of Oliver pick, hindsight is 20-20 but there are a number of picks AFTER Oliver that went on to be much better players than Oliver. I think they recognize that weakness --- that's why they took Carter and Bishop high. Things might still work out but year 1 does not look too good for Beane, particularly when we were this close on an unexpected year.... At the GM level, talent evaluation is one thing, important one I may add, but strategic decision is also important. We know the Bills are soft in the middle for, probably, McDermott and Beane's entire time in Buffalo. And the trend is teams are shifting a bit to run attack on us more and more each year. Yet all we did is signing 1 year contracts to the has-beens to bridge one more year continuously.

If we were not so much into a pigeon hole of must-have-a-receiver mindset, which might have influenced the scoring on players, based on pure ability, would DeJean be higher on their draft board? If the Bills got DeJean and whichever WR at Bishop's spot, what kind of impact to this team in hindsight? Or maybe they could trade straight up with the Browns for Cooper using that pick.

So how did Eagles got there? Did they sign a Garrett that cost them 2 1st round picks+ to get there? Look at their D-Line (3-4): LDE Milton Williams 3rd round pick 73rd overall by Phily NT Jordan Davis 1st round pick 13th overall by Phily RDE Jalen carter 1st round pick 9th overall by Phily WLB Nolan Smith, 1st round pick 30th overall by Phily SLB Josh Sweat, 4th round, 130th overall by Phily. That's how you do it when you are paying your QB.

Watch all the highlights of last night's game, you can't help but notice Phily got after Mahomes with just 4, generally got him off the spot within 2 seconds and CONTAINED him as well. They blitzed Mahomes 0 times. No spy (or the spy was way back taking on other responsibilities as well). That is hard to accomplish, all game long I might add. The success of the D-Line allowed Phily's secondary to be aggressive. The Chiefs had been going with a quick passing game the last few games with great success because teams, like the Bills, had been playing not to let them to beat us deep. But Phily pretty much said you don't have time to go deep.

We are close - remember this is supposed to be a down year. We expected Kincaid to step in becoming the leading weapon and go-to guy. It didn't happen. The season ending non-catch play by Kincaid is very fitting: close but not quite there (also remember had Kincaid made the catch, it does not mean the Bills would've won). But Cook stepped up big time. Based on Cook's trajectory in NFL, there is reason to believe he's not likely to step backwards like Kincaid. Also Brady as an OC showed his limit: an experienced "genius" OC like McVay/Peyton might had identified what was going on in the game much earlier and moved all the chips in Cook's direction. But on defense I'd not use the word "close". Since the 49ers game, we all saw how easily opponents moved the ball on us, good or bad teams. It carried over to post season except against a rookie QB. That to me indicates a deeper issue on that side of the ball. We just had good fortune on turnovers through out the year. So if you have X amount of resource to spend. Do you spend it on offense to make it improve from a 9 to 9.5 (10 being great) so that another guy in Kincaid's shoe can make that catch in the future, or if you spend it on defense to make it improve from a 5 to 7 even 7.5? Common sense says it is easier to spend it on D and it has much more room to improve.

Easier said than done. Which one of the 32 teams would not jump on that?

The key is to stay ahead of the curve. Offensively I think we are evolving and no longer one dimensional like we were two, three years ago where it was Allen's passing and running exclusively. Today we are more than capable of relying on Cook and we have a capable O-Line. I feel defensively we are really lacking behind. We are built to stop the pass, especially the Tom Brady type of mobility challenged passing attack. The leagued has changed with more running attack and more mobile QBs. We are not adapting personnel wise and scheme wise.

Appreciate the interview. Have a little Marshawn vibe when he spoke but definitely more low-key, not looking for trouble type of guy. When they talk about generational wealth, you can see his eye lit and even said "I'm trying." If the Bills approach him thsi off-season, you get the feel a deal would be done, probably more reasonable than you think. My prediction is, like Beane has always done, Bills will extend him late in training camp before the 2025 season. So they get to see how the guy looks, and probably get the best version because they have been working hard off-season for their contract year. The projection is a bit tricky. Is 2024 the best of Cook's career? If not, how much better? One part of his weakness is blocking, which has prevented him from being on the field for 3rd down. Cook has gotten stronger noticeably in 2024. I don't know he'll improve much in that area going forward. Very reasonable to assume he'll keep the current level of output when he's 26, 27, and 28. Would Cook be willing to sign a 3 year extension and hope for another contract when he's 28?

Would be a nice side story that Allen and Hailee were both being watched by superbowl viewers. This is the first time I heard Hailee talk extensively. Not quite a laid back personality feel compared to Josh's easy-going pressers that I heard so many times last 7 years.

You win some and you lose some are generally what happens, because both sides are guessing, to an extent. This is also why you don't want to get into a one play do-or-die situation. But if one side consistently guesses better than it is preparation. Belichick and Pats were that. and now Andy Reid and Spagnuolo are taking full advantage of their near 3 weeks off time to do that as well. Maybe there is a tendency of Allen --- decision wise --- being identified (like showing one look and he may check into certain set of plays). Peyton Manning was like a coach on the field and even he struggled with the mastermind of Belichick for years. It also speaks of the well coached Chiefs team, like the Pats under Belichick, no one on the field gave away clues to Allen. I can see one of the reasons McDermott wants to establish more running game is that it is far less complicated if you are able to run the ball, and I still believe that is the main deficiency of Brady's plan and call on Sunday, not adapting to using Cook early enough in the first quarter. And we don't have that stud WR/TE weapon that no matter what he's just better to make a play --- we all love that guy but I don't think that's going to change any time soon when you have pay Allen. Defensively, the overall theme was Allen had far less time than Mahomes back there. Scheme aside, I just think we don't have enough talent compared to Chiefs' D because we did a whole bunch things to Mahomes as well. But our D line could not put enough quick pressure and our secondary couldn't cover their guys one-on-one (we tried enough man coverage there). As a result you see Mahomes generally had a much easier time moving the ball. I'd love to see more of the play like the Worthy catch/non-catch where Mahomes had to heave it up under pressure.

I'm going to say that Cook is the biggest positive surprise (yes bigger than Allen changed his game to be less volatile) this year which could have a profound impact to the Bills going froward. I still don't think he's complete back in the form of the like of Barkley but I feel comfortable to put him in Diggs position of the past that we design plays to put him in prominent weapon status. We talk about players who do not shrink in the playoffs. In the past, we have Allen and who else? Even Diggs was not that in Buffalo. But this year Cook showed he is that guy we can depend on in the playoffs. He's a must resign in my book now. The Wide receivers will continue to be "everyone eats" pattern. I think we need to add some speed. Again, it is not something we need to chase (like trading multiple picks or allocate big money. Hope younger ones like Coleman can pop at some point like Cook. Defense is where we need to pour more resource and this is where it is easier to achieve a turn around quickly. I think the main issues are at the front and the backend. The kind of LBs we have - being smart and fast - got exposed because of what happens in front and behind of them. I don't have the details on how to solve the issue but from a higher view, that's what I would have set priority and direction to build upon. The loss yesterday hurts, but if you look at it from a different perspective, we are moving in the right direction; most of us expect us to take a step backward this year (damn Chiefs, they took similar hit 2 years ago, but surprised everyone all the way to superbowl champs). We are just moving slower than the Chiefs. The kind of offense we were running from Daboll to Dorsey had run its course. What we have now fits playoff style better. The defense definitely took a step back like we expected and is not playoff caliber. I'm not talking about dominant defense that shuts people out completely; just one like the Chiefs, making it difficult for opponents - great QBs can still move the ball but they require you to make great play after great play.

In fact I was thinking about that. You need all the advantage you can get against Mahomes. Playing at home, you can change some of the plays that otherwise you can't. Also the cadence, like the snap count on the tush push. You can change that more easily on the fly instead of set in the huddle.

I just can't take this argument any more. The last 2 games, Jackson and Mahomes seemed to have easy time with our D but for different reasons. Jackson had Henry and the Bills correctly decided not to have Henry beat them. This game they focused more on Mahomes, but give him credit, he just seems to make the right decision most of the time and I thought his leg made the difference today. Allen made a big step forward in my mind this season in decision making. But compared to the gold standard Mahomes, he's still a bit behind. Of course the Chiefs D contributed to the result of making Allen looking not as good. That's why I believe the best way to move forward is plodding Allen to continue his growth while enforcing our D talent to bring Mahomes' effectiveness against us down a notch.

Josh played his levelbut not his best. Josh is compared to Mahomes, and I have to say Mohomes, despite a fumble, outplayed Josh tonight. Like I said in the game thread, going forward, this offense is going to be Josh and Cook. Cook has arrived, proved he can deal with the big boys the Ravens and Chiefs game. Then spend resources on D. Without having to chase points, this offense can is scoring about 30 points on the Chiefs. You'd like to say we should be able to hold them to 30, but we could not. We have to transform the D just like we have transformed the offense: get stout upfront.

I would give it to Cook

One thing they need to do is play action off Cook (maybe an offseason goal). You know the Chiefs will adjust to stop Cook from now on

The D line showed up 2nd half. Stop #2

Win or Lose, the Bills are entering Allen and Cook era. Cook is about to become a super Star in this league.

Offense look very hard on us because we are not able to use Cook. They have to stop the Chiefs otherwise it is going to be one dimensional quickly