Lots of great ideas here. One thing throughout this year stands out to me. The Bills were often the more talented team, but for some reason found themselves playing flat during prolonged stretches in the regular season.
The opener vs the Steelers. The fourth at the Titans. First half vs the Fins. The entire Jags and Colts games. The first half at Tampa. Maybe it was coaching, players, hunger, not taking the game for granted, idk. But it can’t happen anymore. The Bills are going to be 10-12 other teams Super Bowl game each year from now on, if we weren’t before.
But, I have a feeling JA17 is gonna be on eff you mode the rest of his career now. He and we knew he and the team was good to great, now the entire league is on notice. This team will have the talent and attract the talent to stay near the top. But it’s not always about talent.
The deciding factor is going to be McDermott and how willing he is to decouple any influence from the offense and let JA17 call his shots. And even streamline the defense to play our best players. Like what Marv did with JK12. Until that happens, I think we see the ceiling being the same as we experienced this year
But that’s literally half the league after playing 17 weeks. And teams without depth aren’t playing beyond that, while we were! Our secondary depth was fine, but the lack of adjustments (say added blitzing to cover many mistakes of youth at corner) just hasn’t been there. No team has pro bowlers sitting on the bench and it’s no realistic to think that. Most of this is coaching and adjustments, something that has been solely lacking once McDermott’s initial plan is disrupted and goes out the window