dave mcbride

The 1999 Titans D was 25th in passing yards allowed, 27th in passing yards given up, and 20th in net yards/attempt allowed. They were 15th in points allowed and 17th in yards allowed. Yet Rob Johnson was 10-22 for 131 yards passing and took 6 sacks. The 1998 Miami defense was 1st in points allowed, 3rd in yards allowed, 1st in INTs, and 3rd in NY/A. Yet Flutie lit them up like an Xmas tree (21/36 for 360 yards and 4 rushes for 29 yards) and Moulds had a career day (despite fumbling a perfectly thrown bomb that he had caught and which probably cost the Bills 7 points and hence the game). Let's stick to the facts.

Look harder at what Schatz wrote and know what he's referring to.

The idea is out there - big time: https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2017/9/16/16319028/lamar-jackson-nfl-quarterback-wide-receiver. Polian is right in the middle of it.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm fairly certain I'm right about my interpretation.

No, he's talking about race. Trust me. I'm reasonably familiar with Schatz's work. I'm not saying he's right or wrong, so don't shoot the messenger.

Benching Flutie was the dumbest move in franchise history. I'm not saying past is prelude, however.

No. I'll be blunt: he is saying that a lot of NFL fans are straight-up racists when it comes to the QB position. I'm not going to pass judgment one way or another on his views, but that is what he is saying. It's pretty clear.

Um ... I think you're missing his point. Bear in mind that Schatz thinks Taylor is at least league average.

I'm not saying past is prelude, but the national media tends to be pretty much always right about the Bills (despite what many folks on this board think). Aaron Schatz:

The scheme is fine; no doubt about that. But the person calling the scheme matters - the sequence of plays, the level of surprise, etc. etc. It's not as if Dennison has a Payton-esque record of success either. Even if you factor out that he's basically ridden the coattails of Shanahan and Kubiak (a mountain-zone Curtis Modkins, if you will), his record is pretty middling.

Why people continue to refuse factoring in what Taylor did for the run game in the Roman scheme (I mean, it's patently obvious) is beyond me. Having said this, he's not built to succeed in this scheme.

This is a fair post. I don't think Taylor is fit for this offense, but the larger problem to me is Dennison, who doesn't strike me as a particularly bright offensive mind.

Dennison is about as vanilla an NFL OC as it gets. I wouldn't expect anything innovative.

?? - Taylor wasn't a draft pick for the Bills. He was FA signing with four years' time in the league in a good organization. This is a straw-man argument.

I'm not here to defend Taylor, who has been exposed in the last couple of games, but Dennison sucks. He is a cookie-cutter OC who doesn't have half the brains of a Roman, who is genuinely creative.

The run game production was a huge product of TT's play and the way it was designed into the scheme. That's patently obvious.

McCoy has been fine. He is simply being hit a lot sooner in a much worse offensive scheme.

Um, they were seventh overall when he was benched after week 16 last year, and they finished 12th in 2015.

Better than 5-4 with this roster? They should be 4-5 given the Atlanta giveaway by the refs.

they were terrible under Rex - 24th in defensive DVOA in 2015 and 27th in 2016. They were second in 2015 under Schwartz.

yup, and perhaps they're grooming Peterman to be the longtime capable backup. He's a lot cheaper than Taylor and under control for three more years after this one.

I'm not going to celebrate because I'm not crazy about the move, but I think this tells us two things: 1) Taylor simply isn't going to be highly productive in a standard-issue NFL offense that isn't tailored to his skills, and 2) we have a crappy offensive coordinator who is ten steps down from Greg Roman in terms of adaptability and cleverness. I've thought this for a while, and this sort of confirms it. Hopefully Peterman can make this offense work. My guess is that we have Trevor Simien Mach II on our hands, but I also think they're going to draft a QB in round one.

My takeaway: his four-year career of bouncing from practice squad to practice squad with a bevy of cuts along the way suggests that he sucks. Scroll down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deandre_Coleman.

That is not my point AT ALL.

I suspect he wanted to leave given the stuff I've heard about him feeling burned by the medical and coaching staff regarding his foot last season. The fact that that team didn't pick up his option (when it was pretty clear that he was going to be healthy) and traded him as soon as they could showcase him suggests that they didn't think he wanted to be here. The new regime was pretty clear from the get-go about wanting buy-in.