Biggest Weakness?

[dpberr]

Biggest weakness is the team reading and believing its own press, and not getting over their collective selves. 

 

All this Super Bowl talk can be dangerous to a team not accustomed to such air, as it can lull you into a false belief that your collection of superior talent will win out the day in the end, and you can turn on the intensity and focus when it's "needed."

 

 

 

[Awwufelloff]

13 minutes ago, Mattymafia said:

I was good with Daboll leaving when in the wind game he called 1 designed qb run with the one of best running qb in football. On top of that, they left Mckenzie out that game and drew up zero motion or jet sweeps. That was an asinine game plan. 

I don't want Allen running the ball. He could easily turn into another Cam Newton. Getting hit by NFL players every week takes a toll on your body. There is a reason average lifespan of NFL RB is like 3 years. 1-2 designed runs a game is fine, but I don't want him running it 8-10 times a game.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Awwufelloff

[Gugny]

1 hour ago, Jauronimo said:

Leselie Frazier.  Its great that we blow out chumps and hang shutouts on marginal QBs but I don't trust this defense to get stops or make big plays against good offenses in critical situations.

 

I second this emotion.

[Rc2catch]

It’s a toss up for me. 
Pass rush imo is always the most important key to this team. I expect Von Miller might help that a little bit, but we really need one of the kids to flirt with elite status. I’d prefer it’s Rousseau. Pass rush helps cover up just about anything like corner depth or injuries to the safeties. 
 

Offensive playcalling… Get the run game in a rhythm. No more of this 3-4 carries in a half stuff. And I’m sure it’s been mentioned a lot but stop using Allen on designed runs. 

[DapperCam]

Our top weaknesses last year:

• Offensive Line
  • Williams: Pretty bad all year, especially when he was at tackle. I think he pretty much lost the Jags game for us. Isn't even signed to a team right now.
  • Feliciano: Got benched and couldn't stay healthy, now signed with the Giants I guess to be their center?
  • Ford: Not good at all. If he got cut, I don't think he would stick with another team.
  • Brown: A lot of potential but didn't play very well.
  • Morse: Good in pass blocking, not a good run blocker. The guards next to him have been pretty bad, so it is hard to judge him fairly.
  • Dawkins: Was pretty bad the first half of the year. I'll chalk that up to COVID.
• Offensive play calling
  • Just weird for the first 3/4 of the year. Refused to run, refused to take underneath stuff. When they did choose to run, it would be up the gut for nothing. Tons of stalled drives which didn't make sense based on our talent. Didn't get McKenzie involved or Gabe Davis. Bad red zone play calling. Alternated between running Allen to death, or not running him at all.
• CB2
  • Levi Wallace got picked on all year.
• Defensive Line (Sacks and Run D)
  • Bills were middle of the pack for sacks. Considering the weak schedule we faced, the amount of cap/draft assets spent on the D-Line and the quality of our defense otherwise, this should have been higher.
  • Run defense was also middle of the pack. I think this is because the interior of our defensive line was all over the place. Star was in and out of the lineup, and Harrison Phillips wasn't a true nose tackle. Addison and Hughes also didn't set the edge well. Edmunds seems to always pick the wrong gap (maybe he's just doing his assignment, I don't know).
• Punter
  • Haack stunk and was the worst punter in the NFL last year. He cost us the Steelers game with his slow as molasses release.

I think those weaknesses are the same as our current weaknesses, but we tried to address them:

• Offensive Line
  • Jettisoned Williams and Feliciano.
  • Retained Bates by matching his offer sheet
  • Extended Morse (meh, but better than creating a hole at center)
  • Hopefully Dawkins will be better for the full season with no COVID
  • Hopefully Brown will be better with another year of experience
  • Signed Saffold to hopefully improve on Feliciano/Ford.
  • Hired Kromer, probably the biggest thing here!
• Offensive play calling
  • Daboll has been replaced with Dorsey. Hard to know if this will be better or worse.
• CB2
  • Drafted Kaiir Elam
  • Kind of surprised no vet CB added, maybe that will still happen...
• Defensive Line
  • Jettisoned Hughes, Addison, Star, Butler, Harrison Phillips, Zimmer
  • Added Von Miller, Jordan Phillips, Shaq Lawson, Jones and Settle
• Punter
  • Drafted Araiza. He'll still need to beat our Haack in camp

TLDR:

• Will rookie Elam be better than veteran Wallace?
• Will Saffold/Bates be better than Mongo/Williams?
• Will Dorsey be better than Daboll?
• Will Von Miller/Lawson be better than Hughes/Addison?
• Will Jones/Settle/J. Phillips be better than Star/H. Phillips/Zimmer?
• Will Kromer be better than Bobby Johnson?
• Will Araiza be better than Haack?

[Chandler#81]

Gutless Fanbase 

[Greg S]

11 minutes ago, dpberr said:

Biggest weakness is the team reading and believing its own press, and not getting over their collective selves. 

 

All this Super Bowl talk can be dangerous to a team not accustomed to such air, as it can lull you into a false belief that your collection of superior talent will win out the day in the end, and you can turn on the intensity and focus when it's "needed."

 

 

 

 

Normally I would agree with you but 13 seconds was a big slap in the face for them. Besides McDermott always preaches the one game at time and respect your opponent type of mentality.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Greg S

[Homey D. Clown]

1 hour ago, Awwufelloff said:

What is this teams biggest weakness this year?

 

CB depth/talent?

Offensive Line?

Coaching?

 

If our season doesn't go as planned what will be the culprit? 

 

CB Depth,  Pass rush pressure, lack of a dominating ground game.

 

Just look at the KC playoff game.  The defense had none of that, and the offense was pedestrian on the ground.

[somnus00]

Not sure if I'd call it a weakness, but certainly a big question mark is the ability for the coordinators to show flexibility/creativity.

 

This defense now has a few pieces that don't necessarily fall into the normal Frazier/McDermott style defense that we've seen so far in Buffalo. Miller, Bernard, Elam, Settle. These are different types of guys that would allow a DC to get creative. Is Frazier willing to do that, or is he a conservative guy who is set in his ways?

 

The offense now has personnel to run 2 tight end sets, empty backfield with Cook motioning out wide, etc. Will Dorsey be creative, or will he feel the need to be Daboll 2.0 since they had success in the past?

 

McDermott, to me, has shown a growth mindset (willingness to self-evaluate and change) so I'm not so worried about him. I don't know if Dorsey and Frazier have the same mentality.

[nosejob]

1 hour ago, Jauronimo said:

Leslie Frazier.  Its great that we blow out chumps and hang shutouts on marginal QBs but I don't trust this defense to get stops or make big plays against good offenses in critical situations.

I couldn't agree more. My 2nd concern would be starting MLB and my 3rd would be expecting Taron Johnson to tackle Henry, Taylor and any other big back. Hopefully, they'll have enough sense to go 4-3 and adjust to individual opponents.

[MasterStrategist]

On Defense:

1. Physicality up front

2. Lack of front 4 pass rush

3. Corner speed (without Tre)

 

On Offense:

1. Lack of balanced attack (albeit mich improved in playoffs, this was on Daboll) & redzone offense.

2. More YAC/playmakers

3. OL play

 

On defense:

1. they attacked FA to improve the top 2 areas.  Very showing that they let 4 prominent P/T guys go.  

2. Von brings an entire different dynamic to our pass rush, hopefully helping Oliver too.  But agree with posters saying we need 1 of our 3 young guys to take a big step.

3.  Elam brings speed at corner and offers alot of different coverage options.  I think this will be a great area of strength once Tre is back.

 

On offense...

1. Daboll always had a way to frustrate me, more than impress, with how he ran his offense.  Yes, playoffs was fire, but he was also conservative on a few drives to start 2nd half in the KC game that hurt us. Dorset is an unknown, but hopefully he along with the additions of Howard, Cook, and others will allow us to be more balanced, and lead to more consistent results.

 

2. the additions of Cook/Crowder/Howard/Shakir >>>>> Breida/Beas/Sweeney/Sanders.  We needed more Yac and someone other than Diggs/Josh to be top contributors.   It also took forever to get McKenzie and Davis more involved in the offense, that alone should help this year

 

3. OL: can't say we did alot, which may be ok and again probably my least concern.  But will say Saffold >>>> Williams, OL continuity is a great thing, Bates helped our OL click toward end of year, and bringing back Kromer should only help.  I'm hopeful for players such as: Brown, Bates, and Ford (yes him too).  My biggest concern is backup C, maybe Mancz is good enough to be the man, but I don't like the idea of Bates being the backup there.

[Logic]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I agree with all of this except Ereck Flowers 🤢

I know he stunk as a tackle, but he improved each year as a guard.

Here's an article talking about his much improved play with Washington, including some links to Brian Baldinger's cutups and praise of Flowers.

https://commanderswire.usatoday.com/2021/11/25/nfl-analyst-brian-baldinger-has-high-praise-for-washington-guard-ereck-flowers/

And here's a graph showing his pass protection grade each week over the course of his career.




And finally, I know how everyone feels about PFF, but Flowers graded out higher at LG last season than EITHER of the Bills' current starting guards. 

Flowers had a 72.0, Bates a 64.3, and Saffold a 69.3.

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/ereck-flowers/9442

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/ryan-bates/28300

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/rodger-saffold/5558


All in all, I don't think Flowers is much worse than the two guards we plan to start. He may be on par with or better than both. At the very least, he's better than Greg Mancz and post-achilles injury Ike Boettger.

[Mattymafia]

2 hours ago, Awwufelloff said:

I don't want Allen running the ball. He could easily turn into another Cam Newton. Getting hit by NFL players every week takes a toll on your body. There is a reason average lifespan of NFL RB is like 3 years. 1-2 designed runs a game is fine, but I don't want him running it 8-10 times a game.

They ran him a lot in other games where it wasnt necessary. This game, it was completely necessary. 

[Bob in STL]

Biggest weakness is interior OL and OL depth in general.  This is the only area that was not adequately addressed unless Saffold has a good year and there are no major injuries.  
 

 

[GunnerBill]

2 hours ago, Logic said:

I know he stunk as a tackle, but he improved each year as a guard.

Here's an article talking about his much improved play with Washington, including some links to Brian Baldinger's cutups and praise of Flowers.

https://commanderswire.usatoday.com/2021/11/25/nfl-analyst-brian-baldinger-has-high-praise-for-washington-guard-ereck-flowers/

And here's a graph showing his pass protection grade each week over the course of his career.




And finally, I know how everyone feels about PFF, but Flowers graded out higher at LG last season than EITHER of the Bills' current starting guards. 

Flowers had a 72.0, Bates a 64.3, and Saffold a 69.3.

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/ereck-flowers/9442

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/ryan-bates/28300

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/rodger-saffold/5558


All in all, I don't think Flowers is much worse than the two guards we plan to start. He may be on par with or better than both. At the very least, he's better than Greg Mancz and post-achilles injury Ike Boettger.

 

Nah. He sucks. Even last year when I watched him he sucked. 

[HamptonBillsfan]

The biggest ?marks?, not yet Weaknesses are the O-line development, as Dorsey will likely want a run threat to make Josh even more dangerous. Also, can Sean improve in game decisions as he has been reluctant to put the pedal down while protecting leads. Sean, coach this team as if you believe they're great. Stop coaching not to lose.

[TBBills]

FG holder 

[Allen2D̶i̶g̶g̶s̶TBD]

I'm very confident in our starters, but we have aome positions that have a concerning lack of depth

 

Backup QB:

Keenum is a big step down from Trubisky. Barkley has been terrible anytime he's had to play. I'm surprised we don't have a development qb with upside.

 

Offensive line depth: Cody Ford and Tommy Doyle aren't capable starters yet could be forced into starting roles with a single injury 

 

Safety Depth:

Jaquan Johnson and Damar Hamlin are unknown quantities and we have no veteran depth 

 

Cornerback Depth: 

Tre might not be back week 1 and we need to add veteran depth. We play almost 100% in nickel so this is even more important for our defense.

[Freddie's Dead]

Game day situational coaching.  Bills offense clicking?  No problem.  Not clicking?  We lost every single one-score game last year.  McChoke needs to be better.

[BM77356]

5 hours ago, Awwufelloff said:

What is this teams biggest weakness this year?

 

CB depth/talent?

Offensive Line?

Coaching?

 

If our season doesn't go as planned what will be the culprit? 

Edmunds hands down!

4 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Don't you think Beane addressed this ?  I'm as big an Edmunds critic as anyone, and his run defense is awful. But the DL run defense on paper looks better.

Edmunds is a liability in the run game because he  makes initial contact  5 yards on OUR side of LOS. However, his coverage ability is liability. Absolutely  no sense of space. He gets abused by QB's and TE'S