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What has to happen for this team to become a Super Bowl contender (again)?


SCBills

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I'm seeing a lot of people resigned to this being a down year or becoming openly frustrated with the roster building for this season.

 

I'm not going to say that we're better than last year or those people don't have justifiable reason to feel that way.. but I don't see this roster in the same way. 

 

So what has to happen for y'all to feel like we have a Super Bowl contending squad again?

 

For me:

 

1) I believe the OL will be a strength again.  We have talent and depth that has been in the system for multiple years now and Kromer is one of the best in the game. When we look at the AFC contenders, I think the Bills and Chiefs likely have the two best OL's. 

 

2) Kincaid makes the jump to a legitimate "focal point of the Offense" type player.  

 

3) One WR steps up to give us a reliable 3rd option outside Shakir & Samuel.

 

4) Von & Jones return to 80%+ of what they were pre-injury and Rousseau stays healthy, making the jump to a double digit sack EDGE.  

 

5) LB opposite Bernard & both Safety positions give us baseline average play and don't become liabilities as I think we need the DL and CB's to carry this Defense. 

 

Not factoring in coaching (Babich/Brady), as we don't really know what they want to do yet, are these five points too much to hope for if we're being realistic?  Anything else that should be added?  

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Rookies need to step right in ready to contribute.

 

2nd year players need to improve on their rookie year

 

Everybody needs to stay healthy ... Injuries have been killer and starting out down Milano already, hurts.

 

Eliminate the mental mistakes this team often makes at crucial times.

 

Win every January game.

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The Bills need to do a better job getting to the QB with their front four. Have to make players like Mahomes, Burrow, Rodgers uncomfortable in the pocket. It's one of the main the Giants were able to defeat the former evil empire twice on the biggest stage. They got after Brady pretty good.

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This team is still a Super Bowl caliber team. Like I have said the difference between the Chiefs and the Bills in the playoffs has solely been the Chiefs make more plays when it counts than the Bills do. This team has as good a shot as any other team to get to the big game out of the AFC.

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Good post by the OP.  I see it similarly.  Need all those things to happen.  Each of them individually seems pretty reasonable to happen but all of them together seems like a bit of a stretch.  If 2-3 dont happen well "struggle" and have our worst season in 5 years (which means worse than winning a game in the playoffs).  

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11 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

This team is still a Super Bowl caliber team. Like I have said the difference between the Chiefs and the Bills in the playoffs has solely been the Chiefs make more plays when it counts than the Bills do. This team has as good a shot as any other team to get to the big game out of the AFC.

 

This is true, but they've also had some good injury luck compared to the other contending teams.   Nobody of the caliber of Tre White, Von Miller, Matt Milano has been down due to injury in the playoffs (except for one game where Mahomes went out towards the end), let alone the avalanche of injuries we had last year. 

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I mean the team is a SB caliber team as long as 17 is playing at his peak. The window this year is probably lower and the feelings less compared to prior years and I do agree.

 

I would say the reason for that is from 2020-23 (although a little less last year) you knew your defense was really good to at times great in that period, the offense has established playmakers in guys like Diggs/Beasley/Brown, and Josh had emerged himself into an all pro QB. Right now there is a lot of questions and uncertainty as this second core gets molded and you need some guys to truly step up as great players that can answer the bell, especially on offense. Additionally because Buffalo failed to breakthrough during 2020-23 when they had that corp of players you have a feeling of missed opportunity. Jet fans I get their mentality right now and the sky probably feels like the limit because their defense is good, their offense has some good young talent, and if Rodgers literally just plays league average their a 10 win team. They have no bad baggage right mentally with Rodgers as the trigger man or playoff losses, again its a skys the limit feeling. How true that is, IDK? But in Bills land after 17 it is a lot of questions not answers all over mixed with pessimism from playoff losses and not breaking through.

 

For me to feel the way I did about the team again as I did in 2020-23 I need the following:

-Either Kincaid or Shakiq takes the next step into a true pro bowl caliber player and the other continues evolving into a very solid contributer

-Coleman has a solid season with 700-800 yards 5-6 TDs 40-50 recs and shows the potential he has can be potentially transformed further

-Rosseau becomes a pro bowl DE

-the offense stays in the top 10 for scoring yards and the defense doesnt regress past middle of the road

 

I care more about the offense showing it has answers and the kids are alright then honestly anything else. Give me some building blocks long term where with another infusion of draft/fa capital it can mold into an attack with the power you saw from 2020-2022. That happens and you can take KC on regardless of D because the games are always offensive wars, you don't stop mahomes or allen you only slow them down. I want the opposition to have more fits slowly us down

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2 hours ago, SCBills said:

I'm seeing a lot of people resigned to this being a down year or becoming openly frustrated with the roster building for this season.

 

I'm not going to say that we're better than last year or those people don't have justifiable reason to feel that way.. but I don't see this roster in the same way. 

 

So what has to happen for y'all to feel like we have a Super Bowl contending squad again?

 

For me:

 

1) I believe the OL will be a strength again.  We have talent and depth that has been in the system for multiple years now and Kromer is one of the best in the game. When we look at the AFC contenders, I think the Bills and Chiefs likely have the two best OL's. 

 

2) Kincaid makes the jump to a legitimate "focal point of the Offense" type player.  

 

3) One WR steps up to give us a reliable 3rd option outside Shakir & Samuel.

 

4) Von & Jones return to 80%+ of what they were pre-injury and Rousseau stays healthy, making the jump to a double digit sack EDGE.  

 

5) LB opposite Bernard & both Safety positions give us baseline average play and don't become liabilities as I think we need the DL and CB's to carry this Defense. 

 

Not factoring in coaching (Babich/Brady), as we don't really know what they want to do yet, are these five points too much to hope for if we're being realistic?  Anything else that should be added?  

 

I agree with these...Every team goes through transition periods, people freaking out like it should never happen are just over the top.  You can't escape cap decisions in the modern FA era and you can't escape players getting older.  First off, most teams transition periods are far far worse.  Beane has managed his cap and roster well enough to be able to take a $31m hit on Diggs and still field a team that has the potential to compete still.  

 

More importantly, what SO MANY people miss is just how well setup moving forward we are with Josh at the early stages of his prime.  Next year, the cap isn't an issue and we are armed with an 2 second round picks and 3 fourth round picks to go with all our other picks.  The team has a lot of young talent and prospects on it now and Beane will be in position to be aggressive next year to make big moves in the areas we need them.

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24 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

This team is still a Super Bowl caliber team. Like I have said the difference between the Chiefs and the Bills in the playoffs has solely been the Chiefs make more plays when it counts than the Bills do. This team has as good a shot as any other team to get to the big game out of the AFC.

 

I've said this before. McD's defense are statistically dominant. Spagnola's defense makes big plays in big games.   The Bills have an incredibly annoying habit of giving up 3rd and forever at the worst possible times over the last 5 years

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