dave mcbride

Actually, no. Points against is a bad metric. Indeed over 40 percent of the points given up vs Miami were via an offensive turnover, and the Bills turned the ball over a LOT this year. Their offense was 30th best at avoiding turnovers and 31st best at avoiding interceptions. https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef

Regardless of whether a coach has one or two sb wins, i honestly don't think people realize how hard it is to successfully manage a group of 53 players - many of whom are jerks and/or borderline crazy - into the playoffs year in and year out against fierce competition. Yes, he has good talent, but so did Joe Torre. So much of what Torre did well was managing egos. That is a huge part of coaching. Tomlin made 2 SBs, let's not forget, and coached his team back to within genuine striking distance after falling behind by a lot vs GB. If not for a late bad fumble by Rashard Mendenhall (not the coach's fault!) or a game-ending series of incompletes by Roethlisberger (again, not the coach's fault!), they may well have won two SBs.

Make no mistake: he's better than Smith-Schuster, and it ain't even really close. Brown is phenomenal.

If this report is accurate, he comes out of this looking like a truly petty ass: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/03/team-mvp-snub-may-have-sparked-antonio-browns-ire/ .

He was squibbing most of his kickoffs. I think it's common sense that he should have been IR'd using the ol' eyeball test. As for who made the decision, you're right - we don't really know who was behind the decision to keep him active.

Not that I'm any fan of Crossman, but he's not the one who decided to keep Hauschka on the roster (instead of placing him on IR) instead of replacing him with a kicker who could reach the crossbar on 40 yard FG tries and get kickoffs past the 15 yard line ....

Gase is on record as really liking Allen.

As per Mr EpsYtown's point, this piece may be helpful to those unfamiliar with the strengths of the the E-P system: http://grantland.com/features/how-terminology-erhardt-perkins-system-helped-maintain-dominance-tom-brady-patriots/ .

From Peter King's column on Monday, in which he interviewed Williams: Williams: “Football has given me so much more than anything you can see or feel. It’s taught me about teamwork, fair play. It’s shaped who I am. Football’s hard. Makes you dig deep. Life’s hard. There is nothing like a team, nothing like a locker room, with the colors, the religions, the different backgrounds. One of my favorite teammates of all time is Marshawn Lynch, a city kid from Oakland, and me, a country kid from Louisiana. He’s just so real. Very very perceptive. He could sniff out the phonies better than any person I’ve met in my life.” https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/12/31/nfl-fmia-week-17-wild-card-playoffs-black-monday-peter-king/

Peterman made a truly perfect throw! He sucks, but don’t take that away from him!

I agree.

I'm not sure the current mascot residing on the side of the Bills' helmet would approve of re-installing Cody as a mascot: Cody received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo (American bison)meat.[19] Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868.[9] Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour[15]buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48.[20] Comstock, part Cheyenne and a noted hunter, scout, and interpreter, used a fast-shooting Henry repeating rifle, while Cody competed with a larger-caliber Springfield Model 1866, which he called Lucretia Borgia, after the notorious beautiful, ruthless Italian noblewoman, the subject of a popular contemporary Victor Hugo opera Lucrezia Borgia. Cody explained that while his formidable opponent, Comstock, chased after his buffalo, engaging from the rear of the herd and leaving a trail of killed buffalo "scattered over a distance of three miles", Cody—likening his strategy to a billiards player "nursing" his billiard balls during "a big run"—first rode his horse to the front of the herd to target the leaders, forcing the followers to one side, eventually causing them to circle and create an easy target, and dropping them close together.[21]

I don't think you can take away the Houston game. He managed to lead the team to only 3 points through nearly 3 quarters of play (It was 10-3 with 2.48 remaining in the third when he left the field). 3 points through 70 percent of the game is not good enough, and he should get the loss if you're going to use that metric.

Sorta off topic, but remember when many two years ago said this guy was the second coming at the DE position? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/T/ThomSo00.htm Is it too early to declare him a bust? His production is utterly negligible.

Just so it's clear, the injury he had this year was turf toe (torn ligament in toe). It requires surgery, but he's probably going to be fine. It's not a crippling injury. More importantly, why would the Bengals trade their best player for draft picks? Do you think their new coach wants to come into a situation where there has been a major downgrade in talent, and by choice? Not everyone is Jon Gruden.

The thing is, on passing plays, McCoy looked as good as ever - explosive with still-ridiculous quickness. It was on display vs. the Dolphins in week 17 too. How many times did you see him slamming his helmet down this season after walking off the field, right after being slammed to the turf immediately after the handoff? It was a joke. He is still a talented player, but the line was *awful*. I would bet a small amount of money that his little to-do with McDermott had to do with his frustration over that.

I will say it right now: the chance that a bona fide major-market superstar like Julio Jones ends up in Buffalo has to be close to zero percent.

Matt Patricia coaches the Lions. The Pats, who the Bills played the next week, held him in check too. Note that Patricia is a Pats guy at root. In both games, the D dropped their LBs into shallow zones across the width of the field to take away that skill of his. There's a price you pay when you do that (a lot of open receivers), but it worked. It's what Belichick always does -- try to take away your gamebreaker. That's what Allen is when he runs. The next step for him is to become the sort of QB who can exploit that strategy, and that means he needs to really improve his short game (in terms of both field reading and accuracy).

Yeah, he's not gonna be there at 9. He's too good for that to happen given the position he plays.

Matt Paradis (C) and Mark Glowinski (G) are both free agents, and the Bills will have the resources to get them. They are both good players. Both play for teams in which the QB takes up a very large portion of the cap. Plus Denver has to pay for Von Miller. Edit - Rodger Saffold, Quentin Spain, and Ramon Foster are available too. They are all better than what we have, although Saffold is a little old (31) and I find it hard to envision him moving from LA to Buffalo. Spain would only be a modest upgrade. Regardless, there are good interior-line FAs out there to be had.

I place RT as a higher priority position than you. The Jordan Mills era has to end. I think they can also overspend a bit in FA to get a decent guard. There are some out there.

He deserved it. He was great last week. I don't even fault him for the INT. It's the sort of pick that you see good QBs make all of time, including Brady/Brees. Just a misread and a good design by the Dolphins.

You have to score in this league to win games. I'm not denying the need for a pass rusher, but pass rush was one of the least of the Bills' problems this season. Hughes, Murphy, and Lawson are all at least decent pass rushers and have another year or two of high productivity left at the very least. Hughes ain't close to being done, and there is a long history of DEs playing well into their 30s because they hone their craft over time. Not one -- not one! -- of their offensive linemen, outside of perhaps Dawkins (who wasn't great but has genuine physical talent and hence potential), is remotely good. They are literally all bad. As for the pass rush, they had 36 sacks (a respectable number), but also a ton of pressures relative to other teams. The D finished 3rd in the league in net passing yards per attempt, which is a key stat. Opposing pass offenses had a very low rating of 82.6 too.

Gotta agree with Hapless--dragooning in his role as a DB coach for Tampa to punctuate your claim is akin to me arguing that Daboll (who, to be fair, I like so far) should never be fired because of his multiple SB rings. Which would be sophistry.

Beane said last year what everyone recognizes as basic common sense: that QBs don't fit into this calculus if you don't have one. Also, there were more than a few people had had a top-five grade on Allen anyway (he was of course extremely polarizing). With regard to Edmunds, they didn't draft for need; they traded up (which should not be conflated with drafting for need!) for a guy who a lot of teams had top ten grades on--including, presumably, the Bills.