2023 Smarter Focus & Less Distractions?

[corta765]

As we take apart the 2022 season the major theme that came out of this season to me was chaos and a team that was doing too much. This to me applies to every facet of the team from the offense boom or bust nature instead at points taking the easy play, the defense with some very odd play calls (3 and 4 playing 8 yards off) and guys not being in places they should, to just the overall feeling where things had no normalcy a lot which at points was the not the Bills fault and other times maybe biting off more then they needed whether it be the amount of attention they embraced at times to the schedule they took on. My thoughts:

 

Offense: Daboll in retrospect is missed now, but during his time we all had our frustrations as sometimes he had some odd play calls that made you wonder what he was thinking. The 4th down call against PIT in the opener comes to mind when they ran an outside sweep with Brieda no where near the line or the game plan in general in JAX that took forever to develop. But in general with Daboll he excelled with some great window dressing to a variety of simple play calls like jet sweeps/screens/or just creative ways to get 5-7 yards. Dorsey I get his idea to attack deep as it was one of Josh's best strengths but he went too far at points with overly aggressive calls. Josh 100% shoulders some of this with his nature, but part of being the OC is giving calls that force your QB to follow what is given and too often it was geared towards attacking on mid to long range plays. I would expect this year Dorsey takes a look at the 2019 - 2020 film and sprinkles in more of what Daboll did along with plays geared to take advantage of the situation. That 3rd and 2 against CIN which he called Davis deep is an example of a play and situation where you should be calling a designed run for Josh 2 yards up or having Knox 5 yards up as CIN wasn't stopping him much that game. A better WR2 and OL strengthen will always help, but my hope is Dorsey can grow where the offense is more diversified, situationally smarter, and has a better identity that is not as predictable as they became. 

 

Defense: Chaos was at the maximum here and while I don't like using injuries it played a role. The last three games of the season the defense seemed to finally have broken as they were regularly allowing sustained drives as the injuries did seem to catch up and some of the play calls were so soft on coverage it was allowing NE/MIA/CIN to march on the Bills secondary. Personnel is going to change this offseason so what the D looks like is going to impact expectations, but hopefully Tre and Hyde come back to training camp 100%. One of the things I would like to see though is less chaos at the CB spot. I understand they were breaking in a lot of youth and without Tre the CB1 and 2 spots were rotating, but it behooved the Bills to not let Elam have some growing pains and figure it out. When you constantly are rotating that many players around it 100% causes breaks in communication and trust. Like many I did hope Frazier would've been let go so a fresh set of eyes could've come in. With Poyer almost for sure gone, some young D lineman that need improvement, and years of the same defense new ideas would've been helpful. Regardless the defense having a more regular base set of players to work as a unit would be helpful I think in seeing them stabilize as a group. Outside of Von, Edmunds, Milano and the Safeties everything felt in flux with the defense all season and  the questions out of training camp never really stopped at certain positions and who was the starter. Again some better injury luck certainly will help, but committing to players and trusting them may also breed better results.

 

Org As A Whole: Part of the harshness of the loss to CIN to me was the level of expectation the team itself set and embraced in regards to 2022. I have no issue with my team embracing the goal of winning the SB and that being public. At the same token Buffalo willing took the media praise and a schedule that was one of a team that was a title team. That has advantages and is fun, it also adds a ton of pressure along with irregularity to the routine players and coaches have. Every NFL coach would tell you if they could have 17 1pm Sunday games they would as it is the most normal routine across the board. In 2022 Buffalo played three games on Thursday, two games on Saturday, and two Monday games; nearly half their games were not on Sunday and they also had to move a home game (not their doing). By comparison Kansas City played just three games outside of Sunday. With that said the Bills actually were 6-0 with an * to the unfinished CIN game so they were good under the lights, but those are exhausting games that also limit the days of rest you get and also keep the media attention and microscope on you. In a season which had plenty of distractions this was just another layer of things to contend with and at points where maybe you want things to chill out only invite more questions. The players are human, at some point that type of thing will start to wear a bit on you.

 

The NFL will do what it wants with the schedule, but teams do have a sizable say in what they would like with the schedule. I am sure the Bills were informed in advance about being considered for Thanksgiving and had an option with that the same with the opening game. In 2023 the Bills already will have a game in London that is an adjustment in itself, but I would bet McD and crew would like to see a bit of scale bit to more of what the Bills had in 2021 three games outside of Sunday itself. The Bills will still be on primetime and national windows as the schedule already has four games that stick out for that (DAL/at CIN/ at KC/ at PHI) not including division games as the Bills had two at night last year, but I can see the Bills wanting to just return to a bit more focused routine based approach to quiet things a bit especially given the way this last year went.

[NewEra]

No more podcasts.  No more weekly Kyle Brandt’s basement.  No more weekly Pat Mcafee. 
 

when’s the last time we saw Kermit on a National podcast?  
 

Focus on football. 

[corta765]

23 minutes ago, NewEra said:

No more podcasts.  No more weekly Kyle Brandt’s basement.  No more weekly Pat Mcafee. 
 

when’s the last time we saw Kermit on a National podcast?  
 

Focus on football. 

 

Not sure they need to go full nuclear, but I do think this past year did go a little overboard. And again having that many primetime window games on off days will eventually catch someone.

[NewEra]

6 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

Not sure they need to go full nuclear, but I do think this past year did go a little overboard. And again having that many primetime window games on off days will eventually catch someone.

Not full nuclear….but we had way more airtime than at team in the league.  How many chiefs were on the Mcafee show this year?  how many eagles?  I don’t think I saw Hurts do a mid week interview all year.  McD,  Beane, allen, Von, Poyer, Micah, gabe, knox were all on.  Not sure if I’m missing anyone else, but sheeeesh.  
 

I watch every PC the bills out out each week.  I really enjoy listening to mcafee and other pods.  Come mid season, I already had my fill of bills interviews.  

 

[corta765]

25 minutes ago, NewEra said:

Not full nuclear….but we had way more airtime than at team in the league.  How many chiefs were on the Mcafee show this year?  how many eagles?  I don’t think I saw Hurts do a mid week interview all year.  McD,  Beane, allen, Von, Poyer, Micah, gabe, knox were all on.  Not sure if I’m missing anyone else, but sheeeesh.  
 

I watch every PC the bills out out each week.  I really enjoy listening to mcafee and other pods.  Come mid season, I already had my fill of bills interviews.  

 

 

Agreed. For a team that doesn't have a title they got a lotttt of air time and I think tightening it up a bit isn't going to hurt anything.

[WhoTom]

Get rid of the ping pong tables.

 

[transient]

You know what would really be nice, if the NFL did something about the coaching interviews during the playoffs. Watching the Bills offense against the Bengals, I'm pretty sure Dorsey could have spent that time he spent interviewing on Saturday more effectively.

[gjv]

From afar it appeared, the Bills team that played after Hamlin's on-field cardiac arrest was not the same team that played before that awful event. I base my opinion on how poorly the Post Hamlin event Bills played against a depleted New England team and a Dolphins team led by their third-string QB. Not to mention being embarrassed at home by a solid Cincinnati team. I believe, from watching player interviews, especially Tre Whites, many players internalized the horrific event and perhaps lost their focus. That all being said, I might divide my player and coaching analysis, pre/post Hamlin event.

[HamSandwhich]

4 hours ago, WhoTom said:

Get rid of the ping pong tables.

 

What will McKenzie do? 

[78thealltimegreat]

They did lose only 4 games. I will say the New York media obsession with the Jets quarterback and Miami and even New England will take attention away from them in their own division. 
So they can go about a normal football off season without a bullseye on their back. 

Edited February 7, 2023 by 78thealltimegreat

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

I think one thing that can work in our favor is the expectations will fall off nationally. We are going to start to be looked at as paper tigers and behind the Bengals and Chiefs. I think being able to fall back into an “underdog” role might be good for us. A little motivation to show that we still have that juice. Might bring back a little intensity 

[Success]

I hope they can have more fun.  When we went on that run in '20, the team was having a blast & playing loose.

 

We lost that this year. It was totally gone by the end (for some obvious reasons), but they need to forget about the disappointments and the pressure of "the window," and just play w/ some joy for the game.

 

[LABILLBACKER]

8 hours ago, corta765 said:

 

Not sure they need to go full nuclear, but I do think this past year did go a little overboard. And again having that many primetime window games on off days will eventually catch someone.

As a collective it all was just too much. We were predicted to waltz thru the regular season and win it all. Then stuff started happening. All the drama experienced, all the injuries and new OC, all the national TV games throwing off our routine.  Every week we're favored by 8-14 points.  It was bound to eventually take it's toll and it finally did with Damar. I'm not making excuses for an embarrassing home playoff game in what's "supposed" to be our weather, but eventually the bubble from everything was bound to burst.

[LEBills]

4 hours ago, gjv said:

From afar it appeared, the Bills team that played after Hamlin's on-field cardiac arrest was not the same team that played before that awful event. I base my opinion on how poorly the Post Hamlin event Bills played against a depleted New England team and a Dolphins team led by their third-string QB. Not to mention being embarrassed at home by a solid Cincinnati team. I believe, from watching player interviews, especially Tre Whites, many players internalized the horrific event and perhaps lost their focus. That all being said, I might divide my player and coaching analysis, pre/post Hamlin event.

Yea I’m a die hard Bills fan, I check this board multiple times a day and I felt drained by the end of the season and conflicted about football fandom in general after Hamlin.

 

I can only imagine how the actual players must have felt.

[John from Riverside]

9 hours ago, corta765 said:

As we take apart the 2022 season the major theme that came out of this season to me was chaos and a team that was doing too much. This to me applies to every facet of the team from the offense boom or bust nature instead at points taking the easy play, the defense with some very odd play calls (3 and 4 playing 8 yards off) and guys not being in places they should, to just the overall feeling where things had no normalcy a lot which at points was the not the Bills fault and other times maybe biting off more then they needed whether it be the amount of attention they embraced at times to the schedule they took on. My thoughts:

 

Offense: Daboll in retrospect is missed now, but during his time we all had our frustrations as sometimes he had some odd play calls that made you wonder what he was thinking. The 4th down call against PIT in the opener comes to mind when they ran an outside sweep with Brieda no where near the line or the game plan in general in JAX that took forever to develop. But in general with Daboll he excelled with some great window dressing to a variety of simple play calls like jet sweeps/screens/or just creative ways to get 5-7 yards. Dorsey I get his idea to attack deep as it was one of Josh's best strengths but he went too far at points with overly aggressive calls. Josh 100% shoulders some of this with his nature, but part of being the OC is giving calls that force your QB to follow what is given and too often it was geared towards attacking on mid to long range plays. I would expect this year Dorsey takes a look at the 2019 - 2020 film and sprinkles in more of what Daboll did along with plays geared to take advantage of the situation. That 3rd and 2 against CIN which he called Davis deep is an example of a play and situation where you should be calling a designed run for Josh 2 yards up or having Knox 5 yards up as CIN wasn't stopping him much that game. A better WR2 and OL strengthen will always help, but my hope is Dorsey can grow where the offense is more diversified, situationally smarter, and has a better identity that is not as predictable as they became. 

 

Defense: Chaos was at the maximum here and while I don't like using injuries it played a role. The last three games of the season the defense seemed to finally have broken as they were regularly allowing sustained drives as the injuries did seem to catch up and some of the play calls were so soft on coverage it was allowing NE/MIA/CIN to march on the Bills secondary. Personnel is going to change this offseason so what the D looks like is going to impact expectations, but hopefully Tre and Hyde come back to training camp 100%. One of the things I would like to see though is less chaos at the CB spot. I understand they were breaking in a lot of youth and without Tre the CB1 and 2 spots were rotating, but it behooved the Bills to not let Elam have some growing pains and figure it out. When you constantly are rotating that many players around it 100% causes breaks in communication and trust. Like many I did hope Frazier would've been let go so a fresh set of eyes could've come in. With Poyer almost for sure gone, some young D lineman that need improvement, and years of the same defense new ideas would've been helpful. Regardless the defense having a more regular base set of players to work as a unit would be helpful I think in seeing them stabilize as a group. Outside of Von, Edmunds, Milano and the Safeties everything felt in flux with the defense all season and  the questions out of training camp never really stopped at certain positions and who was the starter. Again some better injury luck certainly will help, but committing to players and trusting them may also breed better results.

 

Org As A Whole: Part of the harshness of the loss to CIN to me was the level of expectation the team itself set and embraced in regards to 2022. I have no issue with my team embracing the goal of winning the SB and that being public. At the same token Buffalo willing took the media praise and a schedule that was one of a team that was a title team. That has advantages and is fun, it also adds a ton of pressure along with irregularity to the routine players and coaches have. Every NFL coach would tell you if they could have 17 1pm Sunday games they would as it is the most normal routine across the board. In 2022 Buffalo played three games on Thursday, two games on Saturday, and two Monday games; nearly half their games were not on Sunday and they also had to move a home game (not their doing). By comparison Kansas City played just three games outside of Sunday. With that said the Bills actually were 6-0 with an * to the unfinished CIN game so they were good under the lights, but those are exhausting games that also limit the days of rest you get and also keep the media attention and microscope on you. In a season which had plenty of distractions this was just another layer of things to contend with and at points where maybe you want things to chill out only invite more questions. The players are human, at some point that type of thing will start to wear a bit on you.

 

The NFL will do what it wants with the schedule, but teams do have a sizable say in what they would like with the schedule. I am sure the Bills were informed in advance about being considered for Thanksgiving and had an option with that the same with the opening game. In 2023 the Bills already will have a game in London that is an adjustment in itself, but I would bet McD and crew would like to see a bit of scale bit to more of what the Bills had in 2021 three games outside of Sunday itself. The Bills will still be on primetime and national windows as the schedule already has four games that stick out for that (DAL/at CIN/ at KC/ at PHI) not including division games as the Bills had two at night last year, but I can see the Bills wanting to just return to a bit more focused routine based approach to quiet things a bit especially given the way this last year went.

Holy ***** corta I’m gonna make a sandwich and be right back. This is gonna take a while.

I hope that there are no life altering events next year like someone almost dying on the field in front of them right as they’re about to make the playoff push

 

Took the wind right out of their sails

[Malazan]

2 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

Holy ***** corta I’m gonna make a sandwich and be right back. This is gonna take a while.

I hope that there are no life altering events next year like someone almost dying on the field in front of them right as they’re about to make the playoff push

 

Took the wind right out of their sails

 

The 1st Jets game and half the games this season before that? Time travel is a *****, I guess. 

[Big Blitz]

12 hours ago, NewEra said:

No more podcasts.  No more weekly Kyle Brandt’s basement.  No more weekly Pat Mcafee. 
 

when’s the last time we saw Kermit on a National podcast?  
 

Focus on football. 

 

 

I don’t necessarily disagree there can be some truth to this I think it depends on the players and of course coaching.  
 

The Kelce brothers don’t have a problem.  
 

[ClemsonBills]

12 hours ago, NewEra said:

No more podcasts.  No more weekly Kyle Brandt’s basement.  No more weekly Pat Mcafee. 
 

when’s the last time we saw Kermit on a National podcast?  
 

Focus on football. 

That 20 minute podcast is what held us back this year 

[NewEra]

6 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

 

 

I don’t necessarily disagree there can be some truth to this I think it depends on the players and of course coaching.  
 

The Kelce brothers don’t have a problem.  
 

Every situation is different.  Every locker room is different.  We went from being the underdog/outcast band of misfits to Americas team over night.  You never know how a team will handle success and being branded the best team in football.  
 

The Kelces were also winning Super Bowls before doing podcasts.  They knew what it takes.  
 

I’m not saying we fell short of our goal because we did so many podcasts.  This Bills season was supposed to be “the one”.  It wasn’t.  It ended in embarrassing fashion.  Time to reflect and make some big and subtle changes.  Less time on podcasts could be one of those subtle changes.  

1 minute ago, ClemsonBills said:

That 20 minute podcast is what held us back this year 

Yeah.  That’s what I’m saying.  Totally. 

[without a drought]

4 minutes ago, ClemsonBills said:

That 20 minute podcast is what held us back this year 

It think it was the Halloween party and celebrating their kids birthdays with cake and ice cream.

 

They really need to clean up their act and focus.