PBF81

Good post. It prompted some thoughts. If players or teams want to be better or be perceived better, then be better. We complained during the two decades that Brady’s Pats dominated the AFCE, but we never put up a competitive team otherwise during that time. A simple 10-win team would have made the playoffs often during that time. If we want to be better than other teams, then be better. Be better at drafting, coaching, on-field adjustments, executing better, etc. I took a look at the playoff stats for all of this year’s playoff games and noticed that defensively we’re on the low-end. We love looking at regular season rankings, but we don’t seem to want to look too deeply at our playoff metrics. All we do is cite our regular season rankings which don’t matter an iota come playoff time. I won’t list ‘em because too many people will complain, but one stood out. In our last 7 playoff games over the past three seasons, we’ve allowed the following numbers of 1st-Downs which is by a country mile DFL, in our last playoff game of each season; 29, 30, and 30. To add some perspective, of all 13 other playoff teams this season, of any playoff games that they’ve played over the past three seasons, not one has allowed that many 1st-Downs. We allowed 27 to the Colts in our ‘20 playoffs wild-card game, allowing nearly 500 yards and barely beating them at home as a result. Only one of those teams has allowed more than 26 1st-downs in the past three seasons in dozens of playoff games. That was Minnesota who lost to the Giants this past season, allowing 28, also in the wild-card round despite having played a very good offensive game. Winners of the past divisional rounds much less Conference Championships or Super Bowl don’t allow that many 1st-downs, which are obviously correlated to yards and more indirectly to points. This past season the winners of the divisional rounds allowed 20, 13, 19, and 15 1st-Downs. In the Conference Championships the winners allowed 18 and 11, and in the Super Bowl the Chiefs allowed 25 to the Eagles in a high-scoring game. We have allowed 27, 29, 30, and 30 in 4 of our 7 playoff games, and that has nothing to do with Allen. In the 2021 playoffs the divisional round winners allowed 16, 14, 23 (us), and 20 1st-downs. In the CC games the winners allowed 24 and 16, and 15 in the Super Bowl. Here’s the thing, even the losing teams allowed fewer than we’ve allowed in four of our seven games. We were ranked 5th in 1st-downs allowed this past season. Here are the regular season rankings for 1st-downs allowed for the other 13 playoff teams that outperformed us in spades in the playoffs; 2nd (SF), 3rd (Cincy), 6th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 26th, and 30th. So how come we rank 5th in the regular season, but over the past three years of playoffs we play, easily, to a 32nd ranking. That’s on average, it’s a country mile worse in our divisional games or AFC CG. We tout our own regular season stats, but come playoff time we ignore how we underachieve those in huge ways. There are reasons for it an it’s not Allen generally speaking. If it weren’t for Beane drafting Allen neither Beane nor McD would be here right now and both would have joined the trash heap of former coaches and GMs that we’ve had. If we want to be better or be perceived better than our top competitors, then how about drafting better, coaching better, making better in-game adjustments, utilizing our RBs better, allowing fewer 1st-downs, yards, and points than they do. There’s a reason why Allen has to do everything and the other aspects of our game are behind weighed down, and why our draftees in general are not as good as those on other teams. We just don’t want to consider it generally speaking. So if we want to be better, then be better, make yourself better. That’s what our opponents are doing, is it not. If we cannot do that, then it’s time to ask the tough questions that few posting here seem to want to ask.

Consider the aspects of team play that he has to overcome however. Perhaps he's playing that risky because he's trying to make up for obvious deficiencies elsewhere, including coaching.

Why do so many have the need to compare QBs and have "the best one." Can't they all be good but different, isn't that what makes each special. The reason we haven't won a Super Bowl isn't because of Allen v. Burrow or Mahomes or any other QB, it's because of other reasons that there shouldn't be any need to explain. If we want more, it's pretty simple, then the rest of our team, including coaching, is going to have to be better than the rest of their teams, not just during the regular season, but during the playoffs. Better drafting than those teams is part of it also. Put Allen on the Chiefs, Bengals, or Eagles this past season and I'm pretty sure his team plays better than ours did in the playoffs. All those QBs make the league and games better and more fun to watch, which is what the NFL needs. Kinda reminds me of the friend of mine that got married and at his wedding reception he comes over and asks me, do you think that [my wife] is attractive?

Do you drive past regularly? Any chance you can provide regular updates?

Right, how hard could it be, one was already there. Seems to me that TWMP would have an interest in orchestrating that.

Completely agree, it's a team effort as it were. McD's background is as a DB in college, and his first discipline specific coaching job was as a secondary/DBs coach before he went on to be Carolina's DC with very mixed and inconsistent results. 28th, 10th, 2nd, 10th, 6th, 21st in yardage D, and 27th, 18th, 2nd, 21st, 6th, 26th in scoring D, with 2013 (2nd and 2nd) on the merits of an extremely weak schedule featuring only two teams ranked in the top-12 in Offense that season, while getting ousted in their only playoff game doing only a fair job against SF, the 24th ranked Offense that season. From there he came here where he's always first been biased towards the secondary and then subsequent to that more recently the defense in general. As with you, I see no evidence of any scheme, rather more a shuffling of the roster depending upon the best players that are on the field, largely because the ones that aren't the best aren't cutting it. That's what happens and what you set yourself up for when you focus on BPA in the drafts. I see no evidence of any planning either. Last year we wasted a 2nd-round pick on a role-playing RB that they talked up, before trading for more of a 3-down RB in Harris more recently. The number of times we've drafted over ourselves on DL weighs in as well. There are far too many 1 and 2-year signings by Beane to create anything akin to continuity for the most part on the OL and at LB. The guys we've drafted for LB have typically made a big splash in college but not in situations or against opposing players or teams that would be like NFL competition. Oliver comes to mind as well although not at LB. It's all come home to roost now, in Beane's 6th Draft. If we regress this season it really says something about his methodology, or possibly this mysterious and entirely undefined "Process." It'll be very interesting how this season plays out and whether we're finally more competitive in the playoffs or not. There are already more than whispers everywhere but Buffalo as to questions surrounding both Beane and McD, and even in Buffalo many are questioning whether or not they're the ones to get us to the ultimate prize. Time will tell.

Roasting's popular around here. The funny thing is that when the topic that the person is roasted for comes true, then it's the intellectual thougth-of-the-day that it didn't make sense. To your post, this is all a direct result of poor planning by Beane. People defend Beane but there's no excuse or defense. This is his mess. Imagine if you will, Milano gets seriously injured ... we would instantly have the worst linebacking unit in the league. I'm quite curious how McD does this. Time will tell.

You were joking, right?

Without question. We've allowed an average of 393 yards in the playoffs in our 7 playoff games over the last three seasons, worse than any other team in the playoffs, and worse than KC's crappy 11th, 27th, and 16th defenses by nearly 50 ypg. You defend that as being decent, I do not. Absolutely we have different standards.

OTOH, you don't want Belichick anywhere near your draft room on Draft day. With the exception of the lines he's one of the worst drafters in the league.

BTW, the topic (and thread) were about Contracts. So stick with it. F-O-C-U-S. I have faith in you, I do. Singletary and Knox were small contracts, not the biggest. Singletary's gone, for cheap. Knox's was also tiny. 2nd and 3rd round rookie contracts are never huge. You know that, come on. Allen is Allen and no one's questioning that single pick. I'll toss in that Diggs, our $24M/year money man, has averaged 4 catches for 45 yards and not a TD to be found in four of his last 5 playoff games, and has had 0 TDs in our last five playoff games, including the two against KC and one vs. Cincy. As to Oliver and Basham, the latter's contract alwo wasn't huge, very small. Again, he's hardly one of our players that is expected to make an impact, and it shouldn't surprise you if he doesn't even make the roster this year. As to Oliver, good size but not huge contract, they're not going to extend him, but in 8 playoff games that he's been in since he's been here, he's averaged 2-1/2 total tackles (Solo & Asst) per game, 1 each TFL and QBH every other game, and 1 sack every 4 games, 2 total, and one of those 2 sacks was on Skylar Thompson. That's what you're bragging on there. Let's put this to rest, can we.

True, good point.

Thanks! Not sure why Raccuia said little disruption. LOL Looks pretty major to me.

We're so far away from the original comments. You're talking offense, how many of those players above were draft picks in rounds 1-3. Just sayin'. That's the problem with these threads, they digress and it's impossible to focus on the original statements argued both ways.

Edmunds was only 24 though. Milano started when he was 23 and didn't really take that "leap" until last season when he was 27. My thing is that if you're going to draft players when they're 20, you owe it to both your team as well as to the player to work it out to keep them at least until the forefront of their prime, and they didn't do that. IMO Edmunds improves significantly, I also think that he'll be better out of our system. He's very well-rounded despite his tackling issues which IMO aren't monumental. Williams may hit, but is he big enough to stop larger RBs and WRs. We shall see. I'm far from convinced at the moment.

Agreed, which is why I'm not sure why Raccuia said that parking won't be affected very much for this upcoming season. If it's not affected much, it would seem to me that they wouldn't have begun construction until after the season, but they're starting now.

Agreed, although I think that I would have kept Edmunds. Edmunds had more upside in being only 24, just in case, but also, the drop from Edmunds to ?? will be greater than the drop from Oliver to Poona Ford now or Jordan Phillips would have been.

It could also be if you don't think that the player's worth the money but you don't have an immediate replacement, hence as a temporary plug until you can draft a guy or get a free agent to replace him. IOW, you're not going to sign him under any circumstances, but he's worth the 5th year option price but not worth the money he's seeking in a long-term contract. Oliver's kind of in that boat. He'll get more than he's worth, but for the $10M he's getting this year, Beane doesn't have much choice and he knows the system. There would be a chemistry learning curve with a newbie, not to mention risk there too. Oliver's not worth the money but it's also far from being a ripoff. Beane will have to address that next offseason though.

Yeah, it'll be better, but would still be nice to see some more detailed pics of the stadium. They still haven't put very much out. Maybe now they'll release a whole lot more. As long as Allen's still here and in one piece.

I'd almost prefer that. Next up, the new pricing. Some have mentioned here that the new model for pro sports is that these companies buy up many seats and then package them up for travel deals, which is why there are so many opposing fans in some stadiums. Based on the responses to their pricing survey, it may be bittersweet. We'll see.

I hear ya, what's interesting is that they said that parking's only going to be minimally impacted this fall. I'm not sure how that's possible as LOT 4 would seem to be all but entirely unavailable if they're really going to begin the "big digging," as will be some of the RV Lot too. I mean they've at least gotta fence if all off for safety reasons. Should be interesting to be sure. Might be the better season to hit some road games.

That's a coincidence, because what I wrote was in English too. Let me know whether you need to have the concept of players/contracts corelated to their performance on the field when justifying whether or not those contracts were good ones or not. Regarding contracts ... That's the problem with the premise of this thread to begin with, contracts don't always translate to performance. If you need some players as examples, let me know. Happy to provide a few. Lotulolei was one. And oddly enough, Beane signed him. Trent Murphy was another overpaid one. John Brown was overpaid although not significantly. Mario Addison grossly overpaid. Vernon Butler a complete waste of money. League wide, Russell Wilson's another current example, a really good one in fact. You've heard of him, right?

Let's focus on the latter three years as a good GM improves his team over time. Baltimore is the only one. You're really not going to cite NE with Jones in his rookie season and not a WR to mention on the team, at home for us, are you? I'd hardly call that a feat. I'm not sure how that is demonstrating how the D didn't show up. We also no-showed, at home, for Cincy before Hamlin got hurt in that game, it's hardly as if we were shutting them down. In five of those playoff games we allowed over 32 PPG. That's good? We must have different standards. Unfortunately we don't play Baltimore or teams with rookie QBs the caliber of Mac Jones in the playoffs very often. For reference purposes, in 2020, when we "held" the Chiefs to 38, the Browns and their 21st ranked D held them to 22, and the Bucs and their 8th ranked D held them to 9. Together those two teams didn't allow what we allowed. In 2021, we allowed the same number of points that the Steelers and their 21st ranked D did to the Chiefs, the Bengals and their 17th ranked D held hem to 18 fewer points. This past season was a complete debacle and everyone knows it, we can make excuses, but vs. the Bengals in the regular season game, they were ripping off yards like it was an all-u-can-eat buffet before Hamlin went down. Everyone has different standards, I'll accept that you don't think that's problematic, I simply don't ever see us even sniffing a Championship like that tho, and getting back to contracts which this thread was about, few if any of the defensive players that some are defending in this thread, including Diggs for example who has the largest contract on the team otherwise, simply didn't show up generally speaking in the playoffs. Since we're talking about contracts and how good players are, it's hardly an NFL secret that the better players step up in the playoffs. Ours haven't.

That's off of the original topic of contracts, but have you compared how our "#1" & "#2" defenses have played against defenses ranked notably lower than ours, and at times against the same opponents that we've played? Which times, specifically?

Oh do they. Great, I'd absolutely love to hear your explanation of Diggs' playoff performance the past five playoff games, particularly against KC & Cincy. If you enjoy that enough I'm happy to throw in another couple of high draft high contact players to get your explanations for. Let's tackle them one at a time however. Curious, did you look into it before making your comment? ... or did the words just start rolling out? We can recommend the discussion on "football IQ" once we mail that down. Fair enough? I'll look for the ping. 🙂