The Ripoff Report 2023 Finale - Autopsy and Prognosis

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

There’s a saying I am fond of: “Success knows many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Well, that is inverted with the Buffalo Bills. The Bills deserved to lose that game last night, and there were many, many contributing factors. 

 

• If I am to pick one person who doesn’t have feces smeared on his face this morning it’s Joe Brady. I won’t say that he called a perfect game, but if I told you that the Bills had put up 24 points while holding onto the ball for 14 more minutes than the Chiefs I think a lot of people would have expected a blowout. Even if there was a bit of a stall when the Chiefs adjusted to stop the run, the offense was clicking up to the 2 minute warning. At 2nd and 9 at the 26, the Bills were in position to burn the clock and either force OT with a chipshot FG or put the dagger in with a TD. And guys were open. I can’t fault Brady for that. Maybe the offense wasn’t high flying, but if I was going to write a game script, the long drives (mostly for TD) is exactly what I would have tried to do to keep KC off the field and the defense rested. That is, if the defense could actually get a stop. If I am the Bills, I am doing everything I can to keep him, even if its just for one more year.
• Look, I get it. The defense is banged up. We all know it. We were running AJ Klein out there. But having AJ Klein on Travis Kelce? OOOOOOOF. No wonder the Chiefs spammed that advantage. It seemed like nothing changed up until it was far too late. I saw the stat of 20+ yard plays and they absolutely crushed the Bills on those. The Bills would methodically grind out a TD and then the Chiefs would zip down to match. I said this week that it was time to push all chips into the table, and someone asked me what it mean. It meant that if the injured players were anywhere near to go we had to start them. I am not on the medical staff, but we clearly saw the difference.
• I will say this about 2023: Josh’s WRs, as a whole, let him down this season and I think it’s why things seemed to struggle. I get it that Mahomes isn’t working with his best cast but my god, those drops my Sherfield and Diggs were backbreaking. For people who said that it can’t get worse than Gabe Davis, this is my retort. Even one of those deep catches working out changes the script.
• Special teams. Oof. Where do I even begin? I know I don’t like Matt Haack, but even he would have been better than Martin last night. Martin was clearly not ready and he gifted field position. Bass has been unclutch, and if he can’t kick in December winds I think it might be time to move on. But for the love of god, what was with that fake punt? I know they saw a mismatch, and it wound up not giving points, but sweet mercy was that painful to watch play out. With that kind of advantage, what does it say about coaching one of the highest paid ST units in the league? We pay guys for this level of play.
• Josh. I love Josh Allen. He is a special player. But for the love of god did he screw the pooch inside of 2 minutes. It’s not that I hate taking a shot at the end zone on a 2nd and long. In most situations, I am fine with it even if it doesn’t work out. But you have to know the situation here. The decision to gun it at that moment is terrible. Say it worked, that the Bills gun the ball into the endzone to take a 4 point lead under two minutes. That is 1:55 and 2 timeouts for the Chiefs to score and they had shown little issue moving up and down the field. Diggs is wide open on the crossing route for what should be an easy 1st down or a makeable 3rd. The clock keeps ticking. The Bills don’t need to hurry they have 2 timeouts and Kansas will be burning some too. Josh is a veteran at this point and while he had a good game on the whole those are the kinds of things people point too when they say that Mahomes is on another level. 

 

 

• So that’s my autopsy. Where do we go from here? Well…there actually isn’t a lot the Bills can do.  I know the cap is malleable but even if I wanted to advocate burning it all down the Bills really can’t. (I know, I looked into it after Denver and Philly). Our top 4 cap hits are Josh, Diggs, Von Miller and Dion Dawkins. Dawkins is the only one we could cut outright and get cap space for, and why would we? He played at a Pro Bowl level. Josh, if anything, will be looking at an extension. Even if I wanted to move on from Diggs and Von on down years, knowing their potential makes me loath to lose cap space. The biggest pending FA departures are set to be Hyde (who I think might just retire), DaQuan and Floyd. The last two I think we have a decent chance of getting back.
• In spite of everything, I do think there is legitimate reason for optimism. The one thing about the utter devastation on our defensive starters is that we found that we have extremely talent depth who looked good as starters in big moment. Bernard really came on as a LB and we thought was a Pro Bowl snub. Back with a healthy Milano that looks like an incredible talent pairing with solid depth in Williams and Spector. We still have a solid CB group (Douglas, Benford, TJ). The O-line had its best year in a while and looks to be mostly intact going in (I can see only one potential cap casualty). James Cook looks like a superstar. Our draft classes over the last two years hit in big ways. We saw starters and significant rotation from our 2022 and 23 drafts (Cook, Bernard, Shakir, Benford, Spector, Kincaid, Torrence, Williams), which speaks very well to longevity. 2024 will be taking some medicine on some contracts (Knox, Miller, possibly Tre White if the team thinks he’s washed), and this team can still compete. 
• Coaches! I really hope the Bills retain Brady and give him another year to scheme. For reference, around the league Brian Johnson of the Eagles (and the second half collapse that has every fan howling for blood) is apparently a hot candidate at the moment. Compared to that Brady is Bill Walsh. McDermott needs help too, I expect a DC to help him even if he handles play calling still.
• Offseason: WR, WR, WR. If I am Beane, I am grinding film on every 1st and 2nd round prospect. Draftek does good work, and there are 14 WRs with the measurables to be a potential Peerless Price class player in the top 100 picks. There has to be someone available at 28. I don’t care if it’s a reach, get them.

Edited January 23 by WhitewalkerInPhilly

[Buddy Hix]

Optimism???

 

Look at the cap situation. The Bills only hope would be to accept that they are in cap hell, regroup and make another run in 3-4 years…but they absolutely will not do that.

[Kwai San]

5 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

There’s a saying I am fond of: “Success knows many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Well, that is inverted with the Buffalo Bills. The Bills deserved to lose that game last night, and there were many, many contributing factors. 

 

• If I am to pick one person who doesn’t have feces smeared on his face this morning it’s Joe Brady. I won’t say that he called a perfect game, but if I told you that the Bills had put up 24 points while holding onto the ball for 14 more minutes than the Chiefs I think a lot of people would have expected a blowout. Even if there was a bit of a stall when the Chiefs adjusted to stop the run, the offense was clicking up to the 2 minute warning. At 2nd and 9 at the 36, the Bills were in position to burn the clock and either force OT with a chipshot FG or put the dagger in with a TD. And guys were open. I can’t fault Brady for that. Maybe the offense wasn’t high flying, but if I was going to write a game script, the long drives (mostly for TD) is exactly what I would have tried to do to keep KC off the field and the defense rested. That is, if the defense could actually get a stop. If I am the Bills, I am doing everything I can to keep him, even if its just for one more year.
• Look, I get it. The defense is banged up. We all know it. We were running AJ Klein out there. But having AJ Klein on Travis Kelce? OOOOOOOF. No wonder the Chiefs spammed that advantage. It seemed like nothing changed up until it was far too late. I saw the stat of 20+ yard plays and they absolutely crushed the Bills on those. The Bills would methodically grind out a TD and then the Chiefs would zip down to match. I said this week that it was time to push all chips into the table, and someone asked me what it mean. It meant that if the injured players were anywhere near to go we had to start them. I am not on the medical staff, but we clearly saw the difference.
• I will say this about 2023: Josh’s WRs, as a whole, let him down this season and I think it’s why things seemed to struggle. I get it that Mahomes isn’t working with his best cast but my god, those drops my Sherfield and Diggs were backbreaking. For people who said that it can’t get worse than Gabe Davis, this is my retort. Even one of those deep catches working out changes the script.
• Special teams. Oof. Where do I even begin? I know I don’t like Matt Haack, but even he would have been better than Martin last night. Martin was clearly not ready and he gifted field position. Bass has been unclutch, and if he can’t kick in December winds I think it might be time to move on. But for the love of god, what was with that fake punt? I know they saw a mismatch, and it wound up not giving points, but sweet mercy was that painful to watch play out. With that kind of advantage, what does it say about coaching one of the highest paid ST units in the league? We pay guys for this level of play.
• Josh. I love Josh Allen. He is a special player. But for the love of god did he screw the pooch inside of 2 minutes. It’s not that I hate taking a shot at the end zone on a 2nd and long. In most situations, I am fine with it even if it doesn’t work out. But you have to know the situation here. The decision to gun it at that moment is terrible. Say it worked, that the Bills gun the ball into the endzone to take a 4 point lead under two minutes. That is 1:55 and 2 timeouts for the Chiefs to score and they had shown little issue moving up and down the field. Diggs is wide open on the crossing route for what should be an easy 1st down or a makeable 3rd. The clock keeps ticking. The Bills don’t need to hurry they have 2 timeouts and Kansas will be burning some too. Josh is a veteran at this point and while he had a good game on the whole those are the kinds of things people point too when they say that Mahomes is on another level. 

 

 

• So that’s my autopsy. Where do we go from here? Well…there actually isn’t a lot the Bills can do.  I know the cap is malleable but even if I wanted to advocate burning it all down the Bills really can’t. (I know, I looked into it after Denver and Philly). Our top 4 cap hits are Josh, Diggs, Von Miller and Dion Dawkins. Dawkins is the only one we could cut outright and get cap space for, and why would we? He played at a Pro Bowl level. Josh, if anything, will be looking at an extension. Even if I wanted to move on from Diggs and Von on down years, knowing their potential makes me loath to lose cap space. The biggest pending FA departures are set to be Hyde (who I think might just retire), DaQuan and Floyd. The last two I think we have a decent chance of getting back.
• In spite of everything, I do think there is legitimate reason for optimism. The one thing about the utter devastation on our defensive starters is that we found that we have extremely talent depth who looked good as starters in big moment. Bernard really came on as a LB and we thought was a Pro Bowl snub. Back with a healthy Milano that looks like an incredible talent pairing with solid depth in Williams and Spector. We still have a solid CB group (Douglas, Benford, TJ). The O-line had its best year in a while and looks to be mostly intact going in (I can see only one potential cap casualty). James Cook looks like a superstar. Our draft classes over the last two years hit in big ways. We saw starters and significant rotation from our 2022 and 23 drafts (Cook, Bernard, Shakir, Benford, Spector, Kincaid, Torrence, Williams), which speaks very well to longevity. 2024 will be taking some medicine on some contracts (Knox, Miller, possibly Tre White if the team thinks he’s washed), and this team can still compete. 
• Offseason: WR, WR, WR. If I am Beane, I am grinding film on every 1st and 2nd round prospect. Draftek does good work, and there are 14 WRs with the measurables to be a potential Peerless Price class player in the top 100 picks. There has to be someone available at 28. I don’t care if it’s a reach, get them.

Well said, very well said. 

 

Now let's duck outa the way for the Fire McDermott crowd with their pitchforks and torches crowd that is surely on their way.......

 

Losing sucks but the points covered above are spot on.

[SoonerBillsFan]

11 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

There’s a saying I am fond of: “Success knows many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Well, that is inverted with the Buffalo Bills. The Bills deserved to lose that game last night, and there were many, many contributing factors. 

 

• If I am to pick one person who doesn’t have feces smeared on his face this morning it’s Joe Brady. I won’t say that he called a perfect game, but if I told you that the Bills had put up 24 points while holding onto the ball for 14 more minutes than the Chiefs I think a lot of people would have expected a blowout. Even if there was a bit of a stall when the Chiefs adjusted to stop the run, the offense was clicking up to the 2 minute warning. At 2nd and 9 at the 36, the Bills were in position to burn the clock and either force OT with a chipshot FG or put the dagger in with a TD. And guys were open. I can’t fault Brady for that. Maybe the offense wasn’t high flying, but if I was going to write a game script, the long drives (mostly for TD) is exactly what I would have tried to do to keep KC off the field and the defense rested. That is, if the defense could actually get a stop. If I am the Bills, I am doing everything I can to keep him, even if its just for one more year.
• Look, I get it. The defense is banged up. We all know it. We were running AJ Klein out there. But having AJ Klein on Travis Kelce? OOOOOOOF. No wonder the Chiefs spammed that advantage. It seemed like nothing changed up until it was far too late. I saw the stat of 20+ yard plays and they absolutely crushed the Bills on those. The Bills would methodically grind out a TD and then the Chiefs would zip down to match. I said this week that it was time to push all chips into the table, and someone asked me what it mean. It meant that if the injured players were anywhere near to go we had to start them. I am not on the medical staff, but we clearly saw the difference.
• I will say this about 2023: Josh’s WRs, as a whole, let him down this season and I think it’s why things seemed to struggle. I get it that Mahomes isn’t working with his best cast but my god, those drops my Sherfield and Diggs were backbreaking. For people who said that it can’t get worse than Gabe Davis, this is my retort. Even one of those deep catches working out changes the script.
• Special teams. Oof. Where do I even begin? I know I don’t like Matt Haack, but even he would have been better than Martin last night. Martin was clearly not ready and he gifted field position. Bass has been unclutch, and if he can’t kick in December winds I think it might be time to move on. But for the love of god, what was with that fake punt? I know they saw a mismatch, and it wound up not giving points, but sweet mercy was that painful to watch play out. With that kind of advantage, what does it say about coaching one of the highest paid ST units in the league? We pay guys for this level of play.
• Josh. I love Josh Allen. He is a special player. But for the love of god did he screw the pooch inside of 2 minutes. It’s not that I hate taking a shot at the end zone on a 2nd and long. In most situations, I am fine with it even if it doesn’t work out. But you have to know the situation here. The decision to gun it at that moment is terrible. Say it worked, that the Bills gun the ball into the endzone to take a 4 point lead under two minutes. That is 1:55 and 2 timeouts for the Chiefs to score and they had shown little issue moving up and down the field. Diggs is wide open on the crossing route for what should be an easy 1st down or a makeable 3rd. The clock keeps ticking. The Bills don’t need to hurry they have 2 timeouts and Kansas will be burning some too. Josh is a veteran at this point and while he had a good game on the whole those are the kinds of things people point too when they say that Mahomes is on another level. 

 

 

• So that’s my autopsy. Where do we go from here? Well…there actually isn’t a lot the Bills can do.  I know the cap is malleable but even if I wanted to advocate burning it all down the Bills really can’t. (I know, I looked into it after Denver and Philly). Our top 4 cap hits are Josh, Diggs, Von Miller and Dion Dawkins. Dawkins is the only one we could cut outright and get cap space for, and why would we? He played at a Pro Bowl level. Josh, if anything, will be looking at an extension. Even if I wanted to move on from Diggs and Von on down years, knowing their potential makes me loath to lose cap space. The biggest pending FA departures are set to be Hyde (who I think might just retire), DaQuan and Floyd. The last two I think we have a decent chance of getting back.
• In spite of everything, I do think there is legitimate reason for optimism. The one thing about the utter devastation on our defensive starters is that we found that we have extremely talent depth who looked good as starters in big moment. Bernard really came on as a LB and we thought was a Pro Bowl snub. Back with a healthy Milano that looks like an incredible talent pairing with solid depth in Williams and Spector. We still have a solid CB group (Douglas, Benford, TJ). The O-line had its best year in a while and looks to be mostly intact going in (I can see only one potential cap casualty). James Cook looks like a superstar. Our draft classes over the last two years hit in big ways. We saw starters and significant rotation from our 2022 and 23 drafts (Cook, Bernard, Shakir, Benford, Spector, Kincaid, Torrence, Williams), which speaks very well to longevity. 2024 will be taking some medicine on some contracts (Knox, Miller, possibly Tre White if the team thinks he’s washed), and this team can still compete. 
• Coaches! I really hope the Bills retain Brady and give him another year to scheme. For reference, around the league Brian Johnson of the Eagles (and the second half collapse that has every fan howling for blood) is apparently a hot candidate at the moment. Compared to that Brady is Bill Walsh. McDermott needs help too, I expect a DC to help him even if he handles play calling still.
• Offseason: WR, WR, WR. If I am Beane, I am grinding film on every 1st and 2nd round prospect. Draftek does good work, and there are 14 WRs with the measurables to be a potential Peerless Price class player in the top 100 picks. There has to be someone available at 28. I don’t care if it’s a reach, get them.

There is no optimism.  " If you continue to do the same things you have always done..." you know the rest.

 

Many personnel changes need to be made along with HC,OC and the offensive system.  WR #2 has to be addressed this offseason and not with a cheap FA or a low draft pick

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

Just now, SoonerBillsFan said:

There is no optimism.  " If you continue to do the same things you have always done..." you know the rest.

 

Many personnel changes need to be made along with HC,OC and the offensive system.  WR #2 has to be addressed this offseason and not with a cheap FA or a low draft pick

yeah but...you do understand that teams do not radically change schemes midseason, right? Brady ran a lot of 3 WR at Clemson and arguably that's a better fit for Josh. But he couldn't do a full install on the fly.

 

HC ain't changing. Don't know what to tell you. I don't hate McD's calls this game overall (unless he was part of the fake punt). 

[Kwai San]

1 minute ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

yeah but...you do understand that teams do not radically change schemes midseason, right? Brady ran a lot of 3 WR at Clemson and arguably that's a better fit for Josh. But he couldn't do a full install on the fly.

 

HC ain't changing. Don't know what to tell you. I don't hate McD's calls this game overall (unless he was part of the fake punt). 

The fake punt was the dumbest thing ever.  RIGHT up there with Klien on Kelce.  THAT WAS BY far the worst decision of the game planning.  That's on McD.

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

13 minutes ago, Buddy Hix said:

Optimism???

 

Look at the cap situation. The Bills only hope would be to accept that they are in cap hell, regroup and make another run in 3-4 years…but they absolutely will not do that.

And if I told you that it was possible to free up $73 million in cap space by doing restructures, only cutting Harty and Hines and taking our medicine on Knox and Von?

 

(from the Greg Tompsett breakdown)

 

No Brainers - Cap Saved

Restructure Josh - $23M

Restructure Diggs - $13M

Restructure Ed - $3M

Release Hines - $5M

Release Harty - $4M

Extend Dawkins - $7M

Extend Douglas - $6M

Extend Johnson - $5M

Release Siran Neal - $3M

Release Sam Martin - $1M

Restructure McGovern - $3M

 

[Westside]

This team is run by an invisible owner. I don’t want a meddling one, but he has zero presence in the nfl. 
As long as they keep making money for him and the nfl, he doesn’t care.

As far as the “bills mafia” are concerned. Just another marketing ploy we fans fell for. Keep buying merchandise, tickets, nothing will change.

[thewookie1]

My only full disagreement is with the 2nd & 9 play analysis; otherwise I feel much the same. 

[Cray51]

I take Allen ripping that ball in the endzone on 2nd and 9 all day.  Dawkins was pushed into him via Chris Jones, but if Allen steps into that throw its a TD.  And I say that, because I fully expect Allen to march down the field and give his team a shot if KC scores with 25 seconds left.  He is that type of talent.

 

Injuries killed this defense.  Same as last year.  Douglas was hurt, Klein on Kelce just didnt work, but who are you going to put on him instead?  Cam Lewis?  Siran Neal?  A rookie Dorian Williams?  Not having Milano/Bernard/Benford hurt big time.  Not having White hurt.  This league is about getting hot and HEALTHY at the right time, and while we were hot, we weren't healthy.

 

Regardless, the biggest disappointment today was Diggs.  I dont put the loss on any single player, but Diggs did not do what he needs to do as a top tier #1 receiver.  He lacked separation, dropped a few balls, missed a crucial long ball that hit his hands.  I know a lot of people said Diggs may be fed up with Allen's hero ball, but Allen gave Diggs the chance to catch or carry the ball 10 times today, and it resulting in 3 catches for 21 yards and I believe another 9-10 on the ground.  Just not good enough from your top boundary talent

[cgg716]

29 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

There’s a saying I am fond of: “Success knows many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Well, that is inverted with the Buffalo Bills. The Bills deserved to lose that game last night, and there were many, many contributing factors. 

 

• If I am to pick one person who doesn’t have feces smeared on his face this morning it’s Joe Brady. I won’t say that he called a perfect game, but if I told you that the Bills had put up 24 points while holding onto the ball for 14 more minutes than the Chiefs I think a lot of people would have expected a blowout. Even if there was a bit of a stall when the Chiefs adjusted to stop the run, the offense was clicking up to the 2 minute warning. At 2nd and 9 at the 36, the Bills were in position to burn the clock and either force OT with a chipshot FG or put the dagger in with a TD. And guys were open. I can’t fault Brady for that. Maybe the offense wasn’t high flying, but if I was going to write a game script, the long drives (mostly for TD) is exactly what I would have tried to do to keep KC off the field and the defense rested. That is, if the defense could actually get a stop. If I am the Bills, I am doing everything I can to keep him, even if its just for one more year.
• Look, I get it. The defense is banged up. We all know it. We were running AJ Klein out there. But having AJ Klein on Travis Kelce? OOOOOOOF. No wonder the Chiefs spammed that advantage. It seemed like nothing changed up until it was far too late. I saw the stat of 20+ yard plays and they absolutely crushed the Bills on those. The Bills would methodically grind out a TD and then the Chiefs would zip down to match. I said this week that it was time to push all chips into the table, and someone asked me what it mean. It meant that if the injured players were anywhere near to go we had to start them. I am not on the medical staff, but we clearly saw the difference.
• I will say this about 2023: Josh’s WRs, as a whole, let him down this season and I think it’s why things seemed to struggle. I get it that Mahomes isn’t working with his best cast but my god, those drops my Sherfield and Diggs were backbreaking. For people who said that it can’t get worse than Gabe Davis, this is my retort. Even one of those deep catches working out changes the script.
• Special teams. Oof. Where do I even begin? I know I don’t like Matt Haack, but even he would have been better than Martin last night. Martin was clearly not ready and he gifted field position. Bass has been unclutch, and if he can’t kick in December winds I think it might be time to move on. But for the love of god, what was with that fake punt? I know they saw a mismatch, and it wound up not giving points, but sweet mercy was that painful to watch play out. With that kind of advantage, what does it say about coaching one of the highest paid ST units in the league? We pay guys for this level of play.
• Josh. I love Josh Allen. He is a special player. But for the love of god did he screw the pooch inside of 2 minutes. It’s not that I hate taking a shot at the end zone on a 2nd and long. In most situations, I am fine with it even if it doesn’t work out. But you have to know the situation here. The decision to gun it at that moment is terrible. Say it worked, that the Bills gun the ball into the endzone to take a 4 point lead under two minutes. That is 1:55 and 2 timeouts for the Chiefs to score and they had shown little issue moving up and down the field. Diggs is wide open on the crossing route for what should be an easy 1st down or a makeable 3rd. The clock keeps ticking. The Bills don’t need to hurry they have 2 timeouts and Kansas will be burning some too. Josh is a veteran at this point and while he had a good game on the whole those are the kinds of things people point too when they say that Mahomes is on another level. 

 

 

• So that’s my autopsy. Where do we go from here? Well…there actually isn’t a lot the Bills can do.  I know the cap is malleable but even if I wanted to advocate burning it all down the Bills really can’t. (I know, I looked into it after Denver and Philly). Our top 4 cap hits are Josh, Diggs, Von Miller and Dion Dawkins. Dawkins is the only one we could cut outright and get cap space for, and why would we? He played at a Pro Bowl level. Josh, if anything, will be looking at an extension. Even if I wanted to move on from Diggs and Von on down years, knowing their potential makes me loath to lose cap space. The biggest pending FA departures are set to be Hyde (who I think might just retire), DaQuan and Floyd. The last two I think we have a decent chance of getting back.
• In spite of everything, I do think there is legitimate reason for optimism. The one thing about the utter devastation on our defensive starters is that we found that we have extremely talent depth who looked good as starters in big moment. Bernard really came on as a LB and we thought was a Pro Bowl snub. Back with a healthy Milano that looks like an incredible talent pairing with solid depth in Williams and Spector. We still have a solid CB group (Douglas, Benford, TJ). The O-line had its best year in a while and looks to be mostly intact going in (I can see only one potential cap casualty). James Cook looks like a superstar. Our draft classes over the last two years hit in big ways. We saw starters and significant rotation from our 2022 and 23 drafts (Cook, Bernard, Shakir, Benford, Spector, Kincaid, Torrence, Williams), which speaks very well to longevity. 2024 will be taking some medicine on some contracts (Knox, Miller, possibly Tre White if the team thinks he’s washed), and this team can still compete. 
• Coaches! I really hope the Bills retain Brady and give him another year to scheme. For reference, around the league Brian Johnson of the Eagles (and the second half collapse that has every fan howling for blood) is apparently a hot candidate at the moment. Compared to that Brady is Bill Walsh. McDermott needs help too, I expect a DC to help him even if he handles play calling still.
• Offseason: WR, WR, WR. If I am Beane, I am grinding film on every 1st and 2nd round prospect. Draftek does good work, and there are 14 WRs with the measurables to be a potential Peerless Price class player in the top 100 picks. There has to be someone available at 28. I don’t care if it’s a reach, get them.

Given everything you said about the D, which is accurate, the thought of not taking points to wind clock creeps in. But you have to take them if they are there, 1000 things can go wrong if you try and grind the clock too.

 

Mcd does have to go, but he won't, this is who he is. And most importantly, the offense needs to be rebuilt on the cheap, he can't do that. So even one more year of Allen's prime wasted is too much 

[CodeMonkey]

Quote

 I really hope the Bills retain Brady and give him another year to scheme. For reference,

I believe the announcers last night said there were teams sniffing around Brady for a head coach position.

 

I'm actually surprised KC didn't take advantage of Klein on Kelce even more than they did.

Edited January 22 by CodeMonkey

[Wayne Arnold]

38 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

• Josh. I love Josh Allen. He is a special player. But for the love of god did he screw the pooch inside of 2 minutes. It’s not that I hate taking a shot at the end zone on a 2nd and long. In most situations, I am fine with it even if it doesn’t work out. But you have to know the situation here. The decision to gun it at that moment is terrible. Say it worked, that the Bills gun the ball into the endzone to take a 4 point lead under two minutes. That is 1:55 and 2 timeouts for the Chiefs to score and they had shown little issue moving up and down the field. Diggs is wide open on the crossing route for what should be an easy 1st down or a makeable 3rd. The clock keeps ticking. The Bills don’t need to hurry they have 2 timeouts and Kansas will be burning some too. Josh is a veteran at this point and while he had a good game on the whole those are the kinds of things people point too when they say that Mahomes is on another level.

 

If you have a sure touchdown with less than two minutes to go, you take it.

 

What QB in the middle of a play sees a touchdown developing and thinks "Oh well our defense sucks so forget throwing to an open WR in the end zone, I'm going to just dink and dunk here to wind the clock down and hope there's another opportunity for a touchdown later"?

 

It doesn't work that way. To blame Allen for that is laughable.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

How do you absolve Brady and blame Josh for the pass to Shakir. That play is specifically drawn up to be a TD pass.  Josh read it correctly. He is hit as he throws the ball. 

If he throws to Diggs and we settle for a FG and OT loss everyone is ripping Josh for not throwing to a wide open Shakir in the endzone. 

I'm fine with blaming Josh on the 3rd down throw away. He had underneath options that would have made the FG close or maybe would have gotten a first down.  No idea what he was seeing or doing on 3rd down. That was hero ball Josh that failed. 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

27 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

How do you absolve Brady and blame Josh for the pass to Shakir. That play is specifically drawn up to be a TD pass.  Josh read it correctly. He is hit as he throws the ball. 

If he throws to Diggs and we settle for a FG and OT loss everyone is ripping Josh for not throwing to a wide open Shakir in the endzone. 

I'm fine with blaming Josh on the 3rd down throw away. He had underneath options that would have made the FG close or maybe would have gotten a first down.  No idea what he was seeing or doing on 3rd down. That was hero ball Josh that failed. 

...because...your #1 WR is open for an easy catch that gives you a fresh set of downs and ticks off 40s or forces a KC timeout and 4 more chances to score (at minimum)

47 minutes ago, Wayne Arnold said:

 

If you have a sure touchdown with less than two minutes to go, you take it.

 

What QB in the middle of a play sees a touchdown developing and thinks "Oh well our defense sucks so forget throwing to an open WR in the end zone, I'm going to just dink and dunk here to wind the clock down and hope there's another opportunity for a touchdown later"?

 

It doesn't work that way. To blame Allen for that is laughable.

Look, I am all for the "don't mistake a bad outcome for a bad decision" approach. If that's the decision Allen makes in quarters 1-3 I am applauding his guts and noting that it means that the defense is going to have to play back more.

 

In that moment? 

 

Did you blame Singletary for going down at the goal line vs the Dolphins game 2 last year? Because that let the Bills put in the dagger. Same philosphy.

 

You want to give Mahomes 1:55 and 2 timeouts to close out the game? With the way the D had been playing? Are you out of your mind?

[Ethan in Cleveland]

12 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

...because...your #1 WR is open for an easy catch that gives you a fresh set of downs and ticks off 40s or forces a KC timeout and 4 more chances to score (at minimum)

Look, I am all for the "don't mistake a bad outcome for a bad decision" approach. If that's the decision Allen makes in quarters 1-3 I am applauding his guts and noting that it means that the defense is going to have to play back more.

 

In that moment? 

 

Did you blame Singletary for going down at the goal line vs the Dolphins game 2 last year? Because that let the Bills put in the dagger. Same philosphy.

 

You want to give Mahomes 1:55 and 2 timeouts to close out the game? With the way the D had been playing? Are you out of your mind?

If a TD only gets you up by less than 3 points yes that is crazy to go for the TD there.

If a TD puts you up by 4 or more you score whenever you can.

Again if you don't want to score there don't call a play that is designed to be a TD. 

Stopping at the 2 yard line to kick a game winning FG is not the same as being down 3. A FG only gets you to OT.

You need a TD.  Yes in a perfect world you keep milking the clock. And if they had gotten four or five yards on first down you probably run it again. 

But it was second and 9 and they ran a play that worked. 

A TD pass there and Allen walks off the field again with the lead. 

[Wayne Arnold]

15 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

You want to give Mahomes 1:55 and 2 timeouts to close out the game? With the way the D had been playing? Are you out of your mind?

 

Then it's on the coaches for the play call and the defense for sucking. Not on Allen for scoring a touchdown to take the lead late in the game. Good Lord.

[Buddy Hix]

1 hour ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

And if I told you that it was possible to free up $73 million in cap space by doing restructures, only cutting Harty and Hines and taking our medicine on Knox and Von?

 

(from the Greg Tompsett breakdown)

 

No Brainers - Cap Saved

Restructure Josh - $23M

Restructure Diggs - $13M

Restructure Ed - $3M

Release Hines - $5M

Release Harty - $4M

Extend Dawkins - $7M

Extend Douglas - $6M

Extend Johnson - $5M

Release Siran Neal - $3M

Release Sam Martin - $1M

Restructure McGovern - $3M

 

You lost me at restructuring Diggs, guy is washed.

[Drew21PA]

Wait

 

i felt Joe Brady was average at best in the third and fourth quarter

 

se disappeared again - then 2 minutes to go and he didn’t execute play calls when it mattered to win

 

no runs 3 straight passes - zero creativity

 

 

[Dan Darragh]

2 hours ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

solid depth in Williams and Spector

Not sure I agree on Williams.  Given that he was a highly touted 3rd round pick, how did he end up at #6 on the depth chart? (Milano, Bernard, Dodson, Klein and Spector ahead of him)

 

Apparently the coaches aren't impressed enough with him to prefer him to Klein who was on the couch, and who even several years ago was noticeably slower than molasses.