Colin Cowherd's Take

[PBF81]

5 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

“It’s possible they are a better team this year even if their record is worse in 2023… success to me means progressing further …”

 

This is my definition of success as well.  There’s potential for things to be better this year, I’m hopeful they will.  I am not 100% sold on the changes made on D, but McD gets to show us what he’s got.

 

That depends upon how we lose those additional games.  

 

If we continue to get outcoached against the better teams, particularly in the playoffs, and after all of the offseason moves, then it cannot possibly be defined as success.  Presumably you agree.  

 

If we go to the playoffs and advance to the AFC CG and lose to a team that simply outplayed us despite our having put up a fantastic game otherwise, then yes.  But if we continue to play poorly against lower seeds and get outclassed and cannot advance past the Divisional Round again, then it would be a difficult argument to suggest that we've improved or to define an otherwise underachieving season as having been successful.  

 

Or if we lose a bunch of games due to allowing near 200 rushing yards for example.  In three of our losses last season, 2 in the regular season, we allowed an average of 164 rushing yards.  Cook was the only above-average RB we faced in those three games.  

 

With more talent is more expected, both in terms of record as well as playoff performance.  We have one of the most talented teams in the league, even if only because of Allen.  I envision no scenario for claiming "success" if we cannot win the division or if we get bounced from the playoffs in the WC or D round again.  

 

There is no good reason why we should be anything less than a #2 Seed if we're not underachieving.  

 

 

[newcam2012]

56 minutes ago, Real McNasty said:

Colin is in a shell and not looking at the full offseason and draft I guess. 

 

Current O line with draft position regardless of whom drafted them. It's not all doom and gloom, RT is really my only "concern".

 

LT Dawkins = 2nd         Doyle = 5th

LG McGovern = 3rd      Edwards = 5th

C Morse = 2nd              Mancz = UFA

RG Bates = UFA            Torrence = 2nd

RT Brown = 3rd            Quessenberry = 6th

I like the moves Beane has made to improve the oline. We will see soon if it pays dividends. 

 

However, shouldn't we be critical about why the Oline hasn't been good during the five year Beane/ McD era? Isn't that enough time to build a solid oline? Allen was on his rookie contract and cap room was plentiful. 

 

We fans and experts have banged the table for years to upgrade the oline. Only to find ourselves five years later hoping...

[GunnerBill]

Just now, newcam2012 said:

I like the moves Beane has made to improve the oline. We will see soon if it pays dividends. 

 

However, shouldn't we be critical about why the Oline hasn't been good during the five year Beane/ McD era? Isn't that enough time to build a solid oline? Allen was on his rookie contract and cap room was plentiful. 

 

We fans and experts have banged the table for years to upgrade the oline. Only to find ourselves five years later hoping...

 

The oline was good in 2020 in fairness (and no coincidence it was Josh's best season to date). I know Kansas City kinda worked us over in both games - and I think you can legitimately put that down to coaching, think Spags outcoached Daboll and Bobby Johnson on both occasions. But other than KC the line was good that year. Not an elite line but borderline top 10. Unfortunately my concern was always that the lack of crowds and the NFL clearly backing off on offensive holding calls to allow games to flow in empty stadiums and try to protect the TV spectacle made oline play easier and our group regressed in 2021. Daryl Williams was excellent at right tackle in 2020 and then slid back and ended up at guard and Feliciano who I was always a bit of a sceptic of regressed. 

 

But basically in Josh's career the olines have been:

 

2018 - trash (by Beane's own admission)

2019 - average

2020 - good

2021 - bad

2022 - bad bordering on terrible

 

[newcam2012]

12 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

The oline was good in 2020 in fairness (and no coincidence it was Josh's best season to date). I know Kansas City kinda worked us over in both games - and I think you can legitimately put that down to coaching, think Spags outcoached Daboll and Bobby Johnson on both occasions. But other than KC the line was good that year. Not an elite line but borderline top 10. Unfortunately my concern was always that the lack of crowds and the NFL clearly backing off on offensive holding calls to allow games to flow in empty stadiums and try to protect the TV spectacle made oline play easier and our group regressed in 2021. Daryl Williams was excellent at right tackle in 2020 and then slid back and ended up at guard and Feliciano who I was always a bit of a sceptic of regressed. 

 

But basically in Josh's career the olines have been:

 

2018 - trash (by Beane's own admission)

2019 - average

2020 - good

2021 - bad

2022 - bad bordering on terrible

 

Nice breakdown Gunner. 

[Green Lightning]

Cowherd is an overbearing blowhard that I try to ignore. However this take is not out of bounds.

[TheBrownBear]

Colin is the king of midwit sports takes. When I want to hear something of shallow intellectual consideration that I'm likely to disagree with, I'll give him a listen.

[BigAl2526]

20 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

 

The Bills signed one of the better pass-blocking guards in the league who is also a decent run blocker, they drafted the best guard and tight end in the draft. They also signed a power running back and kept Hines as a good gadget/third-down back. In addition to that they signed Hardy as a burner and Sheffield who was the Fins third leading receiver to supplement the WR corps depth. The Bills also further addressed depth along the interior O-line by signing Edwards a former solid starting guard for a Super Bowl winner to go off the bench and they brought back Queese as a decent backup and signed Snell an experienced RT to challenge Brown in camp. The Bills are also still in on trying to sign Hopkins so clearly they are still trying to find some players on offense still.

 

The Bills had limited resources this off-season and they spent those resources more so on the offensive side of the ball. The criticism of over-investment in defense was extremely valid in 2021 and 2022. But in 2023 they have focused more so on offense both in terms of higher draft picks and cap dollars. 

I absolutely agree, but Buffalo didn't throw $15 million per year at any free agents on the offensive line, so in the minds of some pundits they didn't do anything meaningful.

[BillMafia716ix]

Colin just sounded like a casual who doesn’t really follow the team. No mention of McGovern signing. I don’t pay attention to what the national talking heads say about the Bills. They really don’t know *****

[HappyDays]

20 hours ago, DCofNC said:

lost one of the best LBs in the league

 

Oh, that's interesting.

 

On 3/13/2023 at 10:47 PM, DCofNC said:

can’t wait for Chi to realize they got JAG in Edmunds.

 

On 1/1/2023 at 2:56 PM, DCofNC said:

Just because Edmunds is better than the trash behind him does not mean he’s a genuine impact guy.

 

On 6/1/2022 at 9:36 PM, DCofNC said:

If they re-sign Edmunds to a top 5 level deal, I’ll officially give up on McBeane.

 

Why are you stretching to find reasons to criticize Beane? It's bizarre. There are genuine criticisms to be made without suddenly flipping the opinion you've always held.

[newcam2012]

5 hours ago, BigAl2526 said:

I absolutely agree, but Buffalo didn't throw $15 million per year at any free agents on the offensive line, so in the minds of some pundits they didn't do anything meaningful.

I think you are missing the big point. The Bills oline has been problematic for quite some time. Some level of responsibility falls on the coaches, scouts, and GM. It's really been a major reason why the Bills haven't advanced further in the playoffs. 

 

So I don't or can't blame Cowherd for criticizing the Bills. He should have acknowledged the off season moves. That's whereby fault him. 

[Success]

I tried, but all I heard was Charlie Brown's teacher.

 

[newcam2012]

3 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Colin just sounded like a casual who doesn’t really follow the team. No mention of McGovern signing. I don’t pay attention to what the national talking heads say about the Bills. They really don’t know *****

He did make a lot of sense even though it wasn't pleasent to hear as a Bills fan. 

 

Now, I didn't completely agree with everything he said but the gest of his take was fairly accurate. 

[Airseven]

Not that I watch a lot of these content shows, but I find Cowherd to be very articulate and insightful. He’s able to carry a show without an abundance of guest spots nor scripted debates.

[BigAl2526]

2 hours ago, newcam2012 said:

I think you are missing the big point. The Bills oline has been problematic for quite some time. Some level of responsibility falls on the coaches, scouts, and GM. It's really been a major reason why the Bills haven't advanced further in the playoffs. 

 

So I don't or can't blame Cowherd for criticizing the Bills. He should have acknowledged the off season moves. That's whereby fault him. 

It's true that the Bills offensive line has underperformed the needs of the offense for several seasons.  It makes the Bills easy to criticize.  Any media observer has the right to be critical, and certainly the Bills have earned it based on the inadequate attention paid to addressing the offensive line.  As far as the coming season is concerned, nobody really knows whether or not the most recent off season moves will fix the problems.

[newcam2012]

39 minutes ago, BigAl2526 said:

It's true that the Bills offensive line has underperformed the needs of the offense for several seasons.  It makes the Bills easy to criticize.  Any media observer has the right to be critical, and certainly the Bills have earned it based on the inadequate attention paid to addressing the offensive line.  As far as the coming season is concerned, nobody really knows whether or not the most recent off season moves will fix the problems.

You said it better than I. 100% agree. 

3 hours ago, Airseven said:

Not that I watch a lot of these content shows, but I find Cowherd to be very articulate and insightful. He’s able to carry a show without an abundance of guest spots nor scripted debates.

I've always liked listening to him on the radio. I think he's pretty solid. Of course, I don't always agree with his takes. He says some things for shock value but who doesn't these days. 

 

I find him more right than wrong. When he's wrong he does admit it. That goes a long way in my book. 

 

His take here is not outlandish at all. In fact, I think he's more right than wrong here. 

[GunnerBill]

4 hours ago, Airseven said:

Not that I watch a lot of these content shows, but I find Cowherd to be very articulate and insightful. He’s able to carry a show without an abundance of guest spots nor scripted debates.

 

Even when Colin is wrong, and he is plenty, he actually tries to set out his logic for a position. Sometimes it feels a bit like he decides his position then retro fits the logic - and there is a bit of that here - not sure the Bills signing Leanord Floyd for $2.7m on a 1 year deal means anything at all for their intentions on offense, but compared to other talking heads Colin at least always tries to set out a coherent narrative. 

 

And of course there is some truth to the narrative that the Bills haven't done enough around Allen in recent years. Just not sure this particular move is indicative of that.

[Jay_Fixit]

On 6/6/2023 at 4:25 PM, teef said:

Without watching a single second, I’m going to guess it made you tingle down there.  Am I right?

I’ve known you for too many years and likeive has shown me too many pics of you but this is your best post ever.

[Bobby Hooks]

1 hour ago, Jay_Fixit said:

I’ve known you for too many years and likeive has shown me too many pics of you but this is your best post ever.

Two pics, and he approved them! 

xoxo, 

-Top fan 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Bobby Hooks

[Meatloaf63]

On 6/7/2023 at 4:31 PM, Shaw66 said:

I agree.

 

And I want to add something to discussion that has been nagging at me when I first saw it a few weeks ago.  I don't recall the thread where this discussion took place, but someone dug out passer rating and other performance data splits on Burrow and Allen in 2022.  I think Mahomes' data was there, too.  Among other things, the data showed that Burrow's passer rating rose incrementally from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.   Allen's dropped off in the fourth quarter fairly significantly.  Mahomes was better than Allen, too.

 

There are multiple things of significance in that information.  First, of course, is that there could be a lot of different reasons why Allen's performance tailed off in the fourth quarter - it's a team game, and any number of things could contribute to Allen's decline.  

 

Second, whatever the reason for Allen's decline, there simply is no question that you'd rather have a QB with a passer rating of 105 in the fourth quarter than 89, which is in the ballpark of what the difference was.   There's simply no question that your team is likely to have greater success if your team has a quarterback who's very efficient in the fourth quarter.  

 

Third, this kind of information really undermines the argument that you've properly challenged here - that is, if the team has an elite quarterback, the coaches should be winning Super Bowls.  Who's to say that the problem isn't simply with #17.  Maybe the coaches are doing it all right, and #17 just isn't getting the job done?   Now, I know there are all kinds of rebuttals to that, some of which I agree with, particularly it's Dorsey, it's clock management, it's the offensive line, but none of that is the point.  The point is that there's elite and there's elite, and to blindly lay the problem at the feet of the GM and coaches isn't looking nearly closely enough at what might be causing the team to fall short. 

 

Maybe the only reason the Chiefs are winning Super Bowls and the Bills aren't is that Mahomes is simply better than Allen.   I suppose that thought will cause some people to say, "Well, then that's reason enough to put McDermott on the hot seat, because he's the one who decided he didn't want Mahomes."  Those people will flame away.   They're the people who, when the Bills win the Super Bowl, will complain that they didn't beat the spread.  

Or with Allen’s arm injury he was tiring and didn’t have the strength or accuracy by the 4th quarter. What were his numbers the past few years? What about the first half of season where we took the foot off the gas with big leads? Just not enough info to make such a judgement.

[Billl]

On 6/8/2023 at 2:34 PM, BillMafia716ix said:

Colin just sounded like a casual who doesn’t really follow the team. No mention of McGovern signing. I don’t pay attention to what the national talking heads say about the Bills. They really don’t know *****

Why would a National guy mention the McGovern signing?  To this point in his career, he has been the definition of JAG.  Now maybe Beane saw something that nobody else did and he turns out to be a great signing, but unless and until that happens, it’s not a move he deserves any sort of recognition over.  It’s not like he signed an established anchor on the line or made an aggressive move to draft a blue chip prospect.  
 

If this season ends the way last year’s did, Beane is going to be a pariah.  The narrative will be that he had an entire offseason to address the line and WR situations and the best he came up with was Connor McGovern, a late second round rookie Guard, Deonte Harty, and Trent Sherfield.  Nobody is going to be shocked if those moves fail to move the needle.  Similarly, nobody is going to be shocked if a bunch of guys in their thirties are worn down and/or injured by the end of the season again.

 

Now these moves could end up working to perfection, and if they do then the Bills are Super Bowl contenders.  Still, it’s hard to blame someone who looks at the offseason and doesn’t see how the moves Beane has made have pulled them ahead of Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Philadelphia come January.