BillsVet

Melvin Ingram impacted that Divisional game last time. Oh, and there was another guy last season...Von Miller? Anyone heard of him? He went from Denver to the Rams. Trades at the deadline used to be a rare occurrence...but teams are seeing the benefit now and why deals are happening more often. Check the number of deals in 2020-21 versus 10 years previous.

When has loading up on defense been proven as a reliable strategy in the playoffs to stop a very good or better offense? The Bills have beaten KC in the regular season twice in a row. A solid pass rush helps, but a team that sits tight at the deadline with SB aspirations makes me wonder.

Does McD agree with giving up picks to improve the offense at the deadline is what I think this comes down to. I don't know. Their last attempt at a deadline deal was the move for Kelvin Benjamin 5 years ago. Perhaps they feel comfortable again, but I think there's a prevailing mindset at OBD that Josh and their receiver group are enough. I hope this is inaccurate, but so far their investment at WR and on the OL the past 2 off-seasons indicates a certain contentment with their guys. Really doesn't matter what it says about underperformers. Chiefs paid a price to acquire a guy they think will flourish in that scheme. Kelce, Juju, Scantling, and Toney is a lot for any defense to matchup against. As for the offensive investment, Reid has the pull in that organization like McD does at OBD. They build their teams based on the favored side of the ball.

This back and forth on RB value reminds me of Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam interviewing his weather correspondent Roosevelt E. Roosevelt: What's the weather like out there? "It's hot. Darn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking." Well, can you tell me what it feels like? "Fool, it's hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It's darn hot!"

The running game was underwhelming last year, but going heavy there strikes me as odd. For that reason, a 3rd dependable outside receiver is a better value for this offense than another RB. It definitely forces defenses to adjust much more, hedges against an injury to one of their outside guys, and pushes some lesser WRs down the depth chart. And, even though they've done some stuff from under center, I'm not sure if it's done to set up PA that McCaffrey as a threat is more imposing than Singletary at this point in their careers. 6 games in, things are clicking in many respects, but teams are adapting. The passing game, given decent protection, is where the value lies offensively.

For perspective, Buffalo defeated KC in Week 5 to go 4-1 and dropping KC to 2-3. The Bills went 7-5 the rest of the way compared to the Cheaps' 10-2 finish. A lot can happen over the course of a season and while that is a great win, it's only a +1 advantage in overall record and gives them the head to head advantage. Can't have another mid-season swoon like they did last year because the Cheaps will rebound.

Did anyone else see McKenzie laughing on the sideline after one of his patented gaffes? A friend of mine commented that he did, but I missed it.

The "only it's one game" or "bad bounces" crowd apparently has ignored his whole Bills tenure. Would love to know what Dorsey and McD really think about him, but guessing he'll transition to a new role on the bench.

But, but, but...I drafted him in my fantasy league and he scored 10 TDs last season! As if that clinches it. LOL

I remember Billy Joe Hobert.

Tepper is another know-it-all owner who has no clue what he's doing. Doesn't help that the organization took half-measures trying to get a QB with Bridgewater, Darnold, and now Mayfield. And, IIRC, Rhule went all defense in his first draft.

Josh's accuracy on deep throws is so much better this season. He had missed some in 2020-21, but this season is vastly improved so far. Taking nothing away from Davis, but it's Allen hitting on throws that he previously did not.

Just don't ask Estelle to get a certain...shall we say...undergarment. LOL

It’s the airing of grievances and it ain’t even Festivus yet! Frank Costanza, is that you? TBD Grievance committee members unite! ✊

Pulled hammy again CT? Bills strength and conditioning is letting you down still.

In all this talk about weather, people do realize Buffalo visited Miami last season on Sept 25th? With the same temperature in play for that game, but the difference was Buffalo walked all over the fish 35-0. Weather wasn't a factor in that result. But now it is? As to injuries, that's been a built in excuse for decades around here. Perhaps having more than 2 boundary NFL caliber WR's on the roster would be good to hedge against that. Or, finding better OL depth and not signing a 13 year vet whose PT has decreased the last few seasons. You can't cry about injuries when the off-season priorities didn't make that a focus. Besides, Brandon Beane's and McDermott's expectations are SB after signing Miller in UFA and having Josh. It can't be anything less. The issue with the offense is a lack of talent and it won't change this entire season. That work needed to be done in the off-season and they chose to improve other areas or bring back the same offensive guys who they thought would make a difference and really hadn't before.

Adding in the stats from LAR and TEN makes the offense looks better, but the trend is down: In the first 2 weeks they had 65 offensive points and Josh was averaging 8.6 per throw with 7 TD to 2 INT . They've scored 42 points these last 2 weeks and Josh is averaging 6.2 yards per attempt with 3 TD and 1 INT. I'm not blaming Josh, but if that isn't struggling for an offense that I saw some people talking in the off-season about being the highest scoring in NFL history. 21 PPG is league average BTW. Baltimore came in giving up 350 yards passing per and limited Buffalo to 213. Josh had 400 yards against Miami, but needed 63 passes to do it. There's gonna be ups and downs in the regular season and they ain't scoring 35 per, but that's a drop off by any measure.

You do not understand what an NFL GM and HC are responsible for. They spend all off-season seeing what went wrong, what's getting worse, and develop plans to fix but more to anticipate what will need to improve. In this light... They came out of last season with Diggs, Davis, Beasley, and multiple WR 4/5/6 and PS caliber types. On a team with Josh freaking Allen at QB. The response? They proceed to cut the now-retired Beasley and sign the similarly sized Crowder to replace him. They used a later round pick on another slot type receiver and signed the now departed Tavon Austin. (EDIT: they re-signed McKenzie - another slot guy). And it's a surprise the passing game is struggling? A big part of the problem is their solution to offensive issues in the off-season was to improve the running game. With UFA's on medium to low cost short term deals. And, for the 3rd out of 4 years to use another pick on a RB. It's roster negligence given what the NFL has been as a passing league the past 15 or so years. It seems the GM and HC just expect Josh to elevate WR 4/5/6 types, that Diggs and Davis will not miss time, they'll become a strong running team and the defense will be elite enough if that doesn't work. Talk about going down the wrong path.

It cost 11M in cap space to sign Jones, Settle, Phillips, and Lawson to that DL. Shades of 2018 when they preached being cap poor to clean out the previous regime's issues but still had the money to sign Star to an inflated contract. And that doesn't mean trying to run the ball more or find more slot receivers to shorten the offensive field for Josh. In the cap era you can't have 2 elite sides of the ball nor should a team with Josh Allen expect him to make things happen on offense. He has to be surrounded with better talent.

Last night I saw the best YAC guy in the NFL take one 51 yards after a 6 yard reception for a TD. Crowder and McKenzie have never done that. Shakir aint't that guy and Cook as a RB isn't going to do it either. All of the WR's you mention are short to intermediate guys save Davis, who has been/is hampered with injuries 3 of his 3 seasons. Backs don't typically take passes to the house, nor do slot receivers. Maybe the offensive philosophy needs to change and then the type of receivers/OL to do that.

The issue is OBD made (again) a decision to invest more on defense this off-season and I say that fully agreeing with the decision to sign Von Miller. They recognized that Josh was needing to do too much and too frequently need to run to extend drives. Fully agree there as well. They decided the best way to help Josh was taking the ball out of his hands and having a better running game. To do that, they believed the new OC, same RBs, changes to blocking scheme, a 13 year vet on a 1 year deal and a 2nd round RB would accomplish this. They proceeded to throw token attention to WR, a position the GM (IIRC) admitted was thin during camp. Through 4 games RB/WR have 64 carries for 277 yards and 0 TDs. Josh is still running it on average 8 times a game and has 40% of their rushing yards. He was, through the final 7 or so games last season running it about the same number of times. The better answer was to find another solid outside WR and improve the OL with guys who could give Josh time to throw. And not need another 4 DL (save Miller) to keep McD's defensive rotation intact. It's early and the schedule was not kind to begin the season, but early returns are not good .

Absolutely no one around here was talking about either of these players experiencing injuries. Or, that the team needed more WR help. No one.

People replicate article titles observed on news websites whether they know it or not. It's why so many thread titles now ask a question as opposed to making a declarative statement.

Last season and the year before doesn't matter anymore. It is what you do now that does, as in this season. This is the problem after the 17 straight years of missing the playoffs. Being a perennial playoff team and being relevant (i.e. getting national attention) has now become satisfactory. But to stay in the conversation it's gonna take getting to the SB, not falling in another divisional game. Because going from being a ~.500 team and making the playoffs is a lot smaller leap than it is to go from playoff team to a SB contender. Right now, this coaching staff is showing their vision for how to play football is flawed in some respects. They turtle when the big moment arrives and that's on the HC and his staff.

I've always wondered what the interaction is like between the HC, his GM and the offensive staff during off-season reviews. As in, how they determine which areas on offense to improve after the playoff loss, then establish UFA targets and assemble the draft board to meet that review. At the same time, how much pull in that org chart does a rookie OC have to push for players who'll allow him do what he believes is effective? Does Dorsey have a voice in that room to say he needs better talent than 13 year vets, more slot receivers, and another highly drafted RB when their WR depth is minimal?