DrDawkinstein

Plenty of teams? Like who? Which perennial playoff team fired their Head Coach and regressed so terribly? The Eagles fired Reid and won a Super Bowl with his successor. Then fired THAT GUY, and have since gone back to TWO Super Bowls winning one of them. The Bucs moved on from Dungy and won the Super Bowl the next year. The Colts fired Dungy and went to the SB the next year. The Cowboys fired Jimmy Johnson and won a SB with his replacement the following year. I look forward to your examples of playoff teams that fired their head coach and then fell apart. Yes. I'm willing to take that chance because what we already have has proven he cant get it done. No matter who we hire, the rest of the Division still sucks while we still have Josh. So winning the division and making the playoffs every year is a given. That is our floor. For McD or the new hire. There is no "setting us back years". Worst case is a wild card spot if there is a year NE gets hot. If we took that gamble and hired a new HC, how long would you give him before you were calling for them to be fired? Is it as long as the 5-6 season with "good Josh" that McDermott has gotten, plus how many more you are willing to give him? If we fall short again in the playoffs this year, and it's once again obviously due to the defense, will that start you coming around? Or are you dug in on McD forever? Worse than a gamble you are betting on a horse who has proven he cant win the race.

Those games are a BLAST too But now that you mention it, the stadium being built on an ancient Indian burial ground and cursing the city in everything EXCEPT LACROSSE does add up...

Hilarious example in this discussion considering the Bulls fired Doug Collins (who helped develop a young Jordan) and brought in Phil Jackson in order to take the next step and become Championship Caliber. Thank you for proving our point.

False. Plenty of posters have provided viable options over the last few years. Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Vrabel, Ben Johnson. The Bills with Josh would be the most attractive job opening maybe in the history of the NFL. We could pull any top candidate. We wont. But we could. The idea that we'd end up with some lesser quantity is based in nothing but fear and PTSD from the Ralph era. Promoting Brady and hiring a Spags/Fangio type would be ideal. (Actual ideal would be just winning a SB with McD, but...)

We've already wasted 8 years. How many more are you willing to risk on the known quantity that has proven he cant get it done? Why is McD so different that he gets an indefinite timeline, but you want to cap anyone else? If you're worried about wasting Josh's career, then welcome aboard.

And then they fired Pederson too, and went right back to the Super Bowl and then won another one...

Excuses, excuses. Every team deals with injuries and bad bounces. Good coaches make their own luck. In 2021, we needed a stop in just 13 seconds and our Defensive HC let us down. Last season, KC just needed one stop, and Spags sent a new blitz off the right side we had never seen before because he knew Josh would roll right. THAT is the difference. Maybe not right this minute. But Payton, Harbaugh, and Vrabel were all out there and should have been strongly considered. Oh BS. We have Josh. We win 10-12 games every year with him at QB and ME coaching (and I dont know jack!). Changing coaches, at worst, means we only win 10-12 games each year. To your point, we still have Miami, NE, and the Jets in the Division. Taking the Division and making the playoffs, with a Josh Allen on the team, is a given. This is about what happens once we;re in the playoffs and all the talent is equal and it is coaching that sets teams apart.

So true and unfortunate. I'm on record in a ton of posts singing McD's praises for what he does well. And he does plenty well. Unfortunately, where he lacks is exactly the difference between playoff team and Super Bowl championship. But anytime we talk about that nuance, the insults and strawmen start flying. The best description of McD I've seen is "He's the type of coach that can take a 4-13 team to the wild card round. And also the type of coach who can take a 14-3 team to the wild card round". Making the playoffs isnt the goal anymore. I'm happy with it and I love winning the division, but the goal now is winning the Super Bowl. And that takes a different level that we havent seen from him once in 9 years.

Great post, lot to respond to here IMO, if you are looking to bring in another HC in an advisory role, then that is enough evidence that you just need to fire him and move on. I actually think McD would be better in a President/advisory role where he can help set the culture. My issue with McD is with in-game decisions and "playing it safe (scared)" when he should be looking to stick a dagger in the opponent. And more so, his inability to step it up a notch in the playoffs. I'm looking for a link or video, but there were clips and articles recently discussing how the coaches who win in the playoffs (Reid, Siriani, McVay) know that when they get to the playoffs they need to make changes and take their schemes and teams to the next level. Where as McDermott stays in his base schemes and continues to rely on his players just making plays. That works in the regular season just fine, but we've seen it bite us in the ass numerous times in the playoffs. This team lacks that extra gear and that is due to McD. For Sean, and this team, to take the next step, I think he needs to bring in a real Defensive Coordinator, let them run their own scheme and stay out of their way. And Sean should just be a true HC. Or we can find a HC who will.

Lots of interesting tidbits... Josh is too busy to watch Hard Knocks (for the "get back in the film room" crew) Fitz wasnt happy being a Harvard alum last year, wonder what that was about. Loved Fitz and Whit's reaction to "we'll always be in the honeymoon phase". Oh young love... Fitz and Whit at 18:00 mention they paid Spencer Browns fines for fighting last year. Cybo is the funniest OL out of all those characters even tho he seems so quiet Everyone is afraid of Spencer Brown McD goes by gut feeling on whether Josh plays in preseason and sat him last minute once (wonder if we avoided an disaster there) Hyped on Keon Coleman and how he's learning how to live the NFL lifestyle. Wonder what that means. Commitment to his craft? I didnt catch who Big Cheese could be, but Chrome is Krome, Aaron Kromer.

Yep 👇 But it takes that luck and perfect situation.

Finally caught up on the last episode last night. After decades of hand-wringing about what a distraction being on Hard Knocks would be, the Bills managed to put out the most boring, least intrusive season in Hard Knocks history. Lot of good stuff from a hype stand point. That opening episode still has me juiced. My one major take away is: How about that Josh Allen? What a personality! The dude is "always on". Can sit down for any interview and jump right in with witty answers. Gives everyone the same level of engagement in every interaction whether he's talking to Terry Pegula or some random fan. I still cant believe he is "our guy"... 😍

Totally worth it. We're on year 9 with Josh. A ton of great plays and highlights, and great games, but no Lombardi yet. If we had to bring in another coach to win the SB, but sacrifice the culture after, totally worth it. Oh, Daquan Jones isnt having team dinners? Still won the Super Bowl Conner McGovern isnt making everyone pizzas anymore? Still won the Super Bowl Heck, if we won the Super Bowl, got through the parade, and then Josh announced he was retiring, we'd still be left with the best decade of our lives as Bills fans. We missed out on Vrabel and Harbaugh so we're stuck hoping McD, the king of consistency, is somehow going to make a drastic change. But if I had to put money on it, I'd predict another let down due to weak coaching in the playoffs, and then McD fires Babich as the fall guy and then promotes from within to run the same crappy system in the same crappy way.

We were talking about next year See ngbills post that starts "Names to look out for in 2026 if this year does not go well." All good!

He already took one big pay cut, so at least we know he's willing to do it. IMO, the only way that works for the Bills is if he's willing to keep that same $17M number, but spread it over 3 years. New deal, 3/$17M, $10M guaranteed, or something like that.

Thanks. I dont know about everyone on the list but I know that for Knox, we save $10M by cutting him. $17M cap hit on the team $7M in dead money if we release him Almost seems like a no-brainer, but he was in Josh's wedding so who knows... Maybe he's the next name-turned-practice-squad-player for the Bills next year...

If your wife is really looking for the full experience keep her away from anyone in a Kiko Alonso jersey!

It's both. See my subsequent posts below...

It's like we havent been reigning AFC East champs and werent just 1 or 2 plays away from winning the AFC Championship. "JAGs"... ok...

I was just going to make this point. He can be "WR2" because he's the other guy lining up outside, but not the 2nd option. Slot, TEs, screens, etc

~$23M in dead cap between Von, Tre White, and Rasul Douglas alone. Those are the big hitters in our dead space.

Seems like the answer is yes, but it's nice having it flipped to guaranteed money, so the trade off balances out. Quick math... $8M across 17 games is about $475k/game. Let's say 5 of those are in lower tax states, saving 2-5% each. Missing a 2% savings would mean losing ~$9k, 5% would be about $25k. So probably about $75k in extra taxes but he gets all $8M guaranteed. Dion spends more on drifting tires each month. With $86M in career earnings already, I dont think he's sweating that $75k.

This has been going on from before McDaniel, and will be going on after McDaniel. It's the entire environment. Similar to what Bosa has said about Buffalo reconnecting him to the feeling he had at Ohio State, and how in LA there's too many other things besides football. Small markets, so hot right now.

That punk kid had it coming.