PBF81

Benjamin, they grossly overpaid for Lotulolei, McD hired Beane from there, and I think at least two more players. It's gotten ridiculous.

LMAO, and now this idiotic hire of Al Holcomb. I can't imagine this going over very well given the circumstances. FWIW, Carolina had a below-average defense this season and they played hardly any above average offenses. And their solution is another Carolina person, Al Holcomb. SMH

Phenominal analysis, I really enjoyed reading that!! A few comments to the above parts ... Hill and Kelce weren't being covered, at least not effectively. It's a huge part of why Frasier's not getting any interest. The only ones not seeing it are a subset of our own fans. And this arguing back-n-forth amongst some as to whether it's Frasier's D or McD's D, but neither taking responsibility, McD assigning none (IMO that's a clue), and no one ultimately being held accountable isn't a good look and also isn't confidence inspiring. We can all argue until we're blue in the face, none of us has even a remote say in the matter. But this is the kind of stuff that produces the Marvin Lewis's of the NFL, it's beyond obvious here that there are coaching issues. McD was an OJT HC when he got here, Beane is an OJT GM, but they've topped out. Sure, people can argue that they'll improve, but Beane hasn't produced any impact players on days 1 & 2 of his drafts besides Allen. What we appear to have is a Players Coach team mentality, where everything revolves around relationships, character, and good vibes, but when it comes to accountability for not performing, SMH. I've also said it before but I'll say it again, the owners, coaches, and players all treat this like the business that it is. But for some reason, we, the paying fans, aren't supposed to look at it that way. I guess we'll have to wait and see how long it takes for a critical mass of fans to bring the same pressure to bear on Pegula. Speaking of which, we have no idea what's going to happen now either given the update on Kim's status. There's some speculation in the media in spots that a sale could result. That wouldn't surprise me, but if it does, obviously a whole lot changes. As for myself, I went thru those Super Bowl seasons, and it got old watching Levy get outcoached on the field for four straight. If Parcells or Johnson had been our HC we'd have won two, possibly three of those. We had the better team in three of the four. The Skins had a better team than we did. Anyway, fantastic analysis!!

Well, OK, IMO that's putting quite a bit of faith in the unproven, but I see your point. Morse, what, 6 concussions now and old for a C. OK, so he slides to G then? Morse didn't seem to have had a great year, at least not from what I saw. Bates, I hear a lot of talk but again, I'm not seeing even an average G here. Maybe he'll become that above-average G then. Brown, he's gonna have to take a huge step up in his third season this year to impress people. Our OL was not good this year, and those three were the core of the OL and started alongside Dawkins who seems to have played pretty well, but he's only signed for two more seasons. We'll see. If I were GM though, two of my picks in rounds 1-3, including the 1st round, would be OT and C/G.

Yup, completely agree!

Not a bad point in a vacuum I suppose, but Allen gets hammered more than most QBs in the pocket, and, that's why he has to run/scramble often, because there is no pocket. Either way, here are the facts to date on Beane's drafts: He's poured almost everything into the D, but it sucks in the playoffs. Most of his draft picks on days 1 & 2 have been in the Front-7 and he still hasn't produced an impact player there. How many more resources are we going to expend doing that. He's swung and missed on 3 day 1/2 RBs, same there. Nothing better than average if even that. No WRs on days 1/2 and only the two OL-men I'd mentioned, Ford and Brown. In short, I think that a lot of people are going to be banging their heads against a wall if he goes DE/DT/LB/RB again, despite the fact that due to his inability to draft well all of those needs still exist. I like your plan of OT in round 1. I would strongly suggest that if Patterson is there in round 2 that they take him. They won't, so we're both pissing into the wind. LOL All we can do is watch anyway. I suppose it's fun to play GM tho. I wish I had a fraction of the paycheck that comes with it tho. LOL

It's our primary one, and B, the one that's gotten the least attention on this team on Beane's watch, yet, arguably the most important given that we have Allen. Allen's gotten lucky so far. That luck's not going to hold out for 6 or 7 more seasons like that.

I have no idea how we can't go almost entirely OL on Days 1 & 2 (Rounds 1-3) On Beane's watch we've only drafted OL-men twice on days 1/2, Ford, who sucked and is gone, and Brown, probably not far behind. So in five Beane drafts we have Brown to show for our efforts in rounds 1-3. SMH Then of course we follow it up with stocking our OL with 1-2 year free agent signees on the cheap. It's the exact opposite of Belichick's approach, which was make sure your lines are great and chinse on the rest. I mean what are we going to wait for, Allen to suffer a complete knee injury, or a hip, shoulder, etc., then say "we need to beef up the OL." Honestly, any half-witted fan seems to understand this better than our multi-million dollar GM and HC. I'd probably take a chance that Patterson (C) is there late in round 2, grab the best OT or OG in late round 1. I'd probably grab another OG/OT in round 3, or a TE that can block. Morse isn't long for the team anymore, Dawkins is our only above-average OL-man. He's only under contract for two more seasons. What, we're going to wait until our OL completely sucks rhino breasts before we make a move. Beane obviously doesn't know how to draft for the Front-7. 8 of his 15 day 1/2 picks have been in the F7, including trade-up Oliver and Edmnds, and look what we have to show for it. Not a ringer in the bunch. I expect him to take another DE/OLB early tho, hey, why not, it's just a video game to him apparently.

And it all worked because of Brady. Belichick has sucked moose balls as a HC w/o Brady. He was 41-43 in the regular season in five seasons with Bledsoe or Cassel, with only one playoff appearance, a Wild Card Round loss to us, a blowout. In Cleveland he was 36-44 in the regular season, 1-1 in the playoffs with his only win, ironically, over the Bledsoe-led Patriots before getting annihilated by the Neil O'Donnell led Steelers. In his three playoffs, he was outscored by a total of 46-89, or an average of 15-30. In total, he was 77-87 in the regular season in ten seasons w/o Brady, and 1-2 in the playoffs with miserable performances therein. He made the playoffs only twice in ten seasons, both times ending in miserable failure with the third worst loss in the '94 playoffs and the worst loss in the '21 playoffs. Belichick should have an enormous lifesize bust of Brady by his front door to praise before he leaves home every day, alongside a poster of all of the coaches and GMs for the Bills, Jets, and Fins during that stretch.

It's fun, isn't it. :/

I just counted, unless I made a mistake, Brady was 8-10 @ Miami. 2008 was Cassel.

The rest of your points are valid, but I think that this one is paramount. I'll list the QBs in our division on the Jets, Fins, and us during Brady's years in NE before Brady left, and not including Allen's first couple of seasons where he wasn't good. Look at the number of different starting QBs in that 19-year stretch. Bills: Van Pelt, Bledsoe, Holcomb, Losman, Edwards, Fitzpatrick, Manuel, Orton, and Taylor Fins: Fiedler, Feeley, Frerotte, Harrington, Lemon, Pennington, Henne, Moore, Tannehill, Cutler, and Fitzpatrick Jets: Testeverde (old), Pennington, Bollinger, Favre (old), Sanchez, Smith, Fitzpatrick, McCown, and Darnold None of 'em were any good when they were on those teams. That's an easy 6-games/season that are typically "tough division games" that weren't tough for NE.

All I'm saying is that Allen was more of a known project of sorts than a plug-n-play QB. This further reinforces both McD's & Beane's luck.

By the way, your post reminded me of this cartoon. These were the best, particularly the one about Bledsoe. But speaking of Trubisky and Chicago ... ROFLMAO LMAO, here's the Bledsoe one. Skip to the 3:10 mark. ROFLMAO

Can't see the forest for the trees thing I suppose. Good question. A refusal to want to make the tough decisions for one or more reasons likely being the reason why nothing changes. That's when ownership needs to step in, but Kim is who-knows-where and Terry doesn't seem to have the gumption.

Great post, and I would add this in relation to a few of your comments ... "This is a fan board and the many here look to McD as a messiah,..." It is a fan board, and fans otherwise in general. Nice guys are liked, McD's a nice guy. Levy was incredibly well liked, but he did nothing as a HC prior to coming here, in fact, I have no idea why Polian selected him of all possibilities. He was a sub-.500 coach (31-42, .425) with KC prior to coming to Buffalo, and with ZERO significant NFL coaching otherwise. He stayed, not because he could get us a championship, but because he was a great guy, and he was. But sometimes that's the "tough decision," to get rid of the nice guy that can't get it done, or perhaps relegate him to another role, which is unheard of in the NFL. For example, put McD at DC and bring in an offensive-minded HC. Hell, give McD the same money he's making now. I've never understood the bickering over paying a HC up to $10M when he's the one that decides the direction that your team is going, and when numerous players make more than that. Anyway, most coaches wouldn't accept that on pride alone, but that's what needs to be done here, it's pretty clear. It won't happen for that reason tho, until Allen's spent, and then we get the next "QB quest" with coaches "that aren't as good as McD," ... and we'll wonder why not. LOL "McD took that team (a meaningless loss in week 17) and went from 7-9 to 9-7 and a Dalton miracle to the playoffs." It's quite clear that this team is no better than the average 6.6 win teams we had since our last playoff appearance and prior to McD getting here, without Allen. Take him out of the mix and you don't even have an average team. Beane's done nothing significant on his watch, another issue similar in nature. Allen does everything. He has half of our rushing TDs. Imagine Keenum or Barkley running this offense. What, 7-10, tops? How many times has the running game powered this team to a win over a team with a good defense? How many times has the defense powered this team to a win over a team with a good offense? I'm sure that there's an exception or two, but it doesn't happen for the most part. Allen has to do everything, and it's pretty clear that the coaches don't challenge him on his risks because they know he's carrying their water. "And I have to again point out how this coaching staff coddled and stunted Allen. 300 yards passing is generally used as a starting point with QB's. It took Allen 28 starts to pass that # (part of McD's incredible 42 game stretch)." Here's my take on that. All of the QBs that you named had prolific success in college football. Allen did not. Allen posted a mere two 300-yard games at Wyoming, and only three more over 250, and none were against teams that ever challenge for an NCAA title. Allen went up largely against non-NFL bound competitiont, whereas the others you named did not, they regularly played against players that are now in the NFL. Rodgers probably comes closest to Allen. Mahomes was probably the most prolific, 22 of his 32 games were over 300, five were over 500, 11 over 400. I was surprised that he wasn't among the first few picks and I recall wondering why everyone thought that Trubisky was so good as to be 2nd overall. Then again it was Chicago. Anyway, I'm surprised that Allen's done what he's done. He's very bright and I give him the credit for his own development, which fuels your argument that with better coaching he'd be much better. Obviously I agree. He may have come up to speed faster with better coaching, but I never would have expected him to come up like the others given that his learning-curve in that way was far steeper. Look at Picket for example, in his Sr. season he had 11 of 13 games over 250, 8 of 13 over 300, 3 over 400, and 1 over 500. In Allen's Jr. season, his last at Wyoming, he had 1 game over 234 yards, 328 and 2 TDs against Gardner-Webb. Even his Sophomore season, only 1 game over 300, against UNLV. His development IMO, which agreed, could have been faster and better, has been nothing short of remarkable otherwise. We knew that Burrow was going to be good just watching him dismantle Clemson and their 3rd-ranked scoring D in the NC game. Similar for Lawrence, who also came out as a Jr. But Allen never had the chance to develop against that level of competition. It's incredibly rare for a QB to learn to do that in the NFL.

What is it that they say about doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results ... A. How long for that maturation? McD's had 6 seasons now. B. Beane can't hit home-runs or triples on days 1 & 2 of the Drafts to save his life. C. Like clockwork, in the playoffs our Defense goes on vacation. D. In the playoffs and in many regular season games we have to overcome our own coaching blunders and incompetencies to win often. I'm just curious how many more tries, seasons, will correct what even fans know is obvious.

We'll continue to be out-coached, particularly in the playoffs. We've recently had the same fortunes that NE/Brady had for 20 years, a weak division to the extent that the other three teams sucked. But that's gonna change. We're not going anywhere with a defense that routinely allows 30 PPG in the playoffs. We can think and Bill-ieve that we are, but we aren't. If if's and but's were candy and nuts ... McD hasn't improved in 5 seasons, Allen's simply improved, carrying McD's water. And Beane's drafting is hardly any cause for hope either, in fact, to the contrary. At least with Polian there was hope for getting qualified starting talent routinely in the Draft.

The only relevant comparison between this team and that one, is that they both have coaches that are out-coached and outclassed by their best peers, to the extent that it'll be pure luck if we win a Super Bowl with them, but that they're so liked as people that despite their professional incompetencies, they'll be here until the special talent that is Allen is spent. The '90s era team was more a special collection of overall talent and not simply one spectacular player. Also that Beane isn't even close to Polian, who assembled an entire team, not merely lucked out on one player.

Allen's the only QB that I'm aware of that plays at a high level, despite on every play potentially having to overcome coaching/poor-play-calling, highly questionable OL play, and an extreme lack of riding production to support him. Given his situation, it's remarkable what he's done.

It's no accident that THE PROCESS was never clarified or defined. So I guess it's a never-ending project. Just keep trusting, like a stopped clock, at some point it will work out.

LOL, not really my style, but I couldn't resist.

As I said, Milano wasn't very good back then, in fact, his value was purely as a pass-D LB, his run-D skills were among the worst in the league. As to Lorax, yes, but he was on the downside as well. I guess it's possible that they built the roster to only have two competent LBs, although under any circumstances that would seem to be incredibly foolish. It also feeds into why the D is so bad. I'll throw another wrench at you, perhaps it's that way because McD isn't in fact a good coach. He's a former DB, and in coaching a former DB Coach turned average-at-best DC. So it's quite possible we have a Peter Principle in action here.

Well, the only problem with that line of reasoning is that they did play a base 4-3 a couple of years ago, but were forced to abandon it because we had no capable LBs to fill those roles, particularly with Edmunds OJT-ing it and Milano primarily a pass-defending LB until late last and this seasons. Beane's drafting has led to poor day 1 and day 2 results. When you constantly have overlay your prior draft picks with picks at the same positions, you have no choice but to neglect other unit needs.

After all, can't argue with the D's success in the playoffs. Oh, ... wait ... 😏