Are we figured out already? The issues as I see them

[MasterStrategist]

I already hate our playcalling.  After high hopes and confidence in Brady, that has quickly dissipated.

 

We need to get our RBs, TEs more involved.  How does Brady watch film without seeing how predictable his playcalling has become?

 

I'm tired of these condensed, WR lined up beside TE, without any pass threat.  We literally telegraph so many plays each game and win downs on talent alone.

 

Need more misdirection, playaction, screens.  Get under center more.  Get Josh in a groove in playaction.  Break these tendencies of playing small ball.  Early downs were a disaster 1st half.  

 

Brady is going to need to adjust.  Nico left and our defense kept us in the game.  Josh missed some throws, we dropped critical passes.  But we have to work so hard for each completion.  We've had very few open targets today.  

 

Is that playcalling, lack of WR talent, or both?  I seem to think it's slightly more talent.  But what is going on with getting Samuel/Knox involved?  We're paying a significant cap to players who are having a minimal impact.  I'm concerned Beane and this coaching staff just aren't the fit that we give credit for.  Josh covers up most issues week to week.  Not today, he was the weakness and so was the offense in general.  

 

This continues and I'm in the burn it down and restart next year with a new staff.  This just isn't possible to have an MVP QB type and play this bad, without major changes.

[Roundybout]

39 minutes ago, FireChans said:

You are right but the talent hasn't been this poor in a long time either.

 

I honestly don't even blame Brady really. If I had to bet, he is running the show Beane and McD want.

 

I don't think either are the worst football people in the world, but imo the lack of focus or even worse, the complete misjudgment on the value of playmaking talent around Josh is a fatal flaw that should cost them both their jobs.

 

They are not the duo to bring us to the promised land. This is, as you said, their design and I'm not sure they even recognize how bad it is.

 

What's odd is in 2019-2021, there was a more clear effort to surround Josh with talent offensively. Did they forget?  Did they think they couldn't win that way?  I don't know and frankly I no longer care. We cannot go on like this lol.

Correct which is why I think the notion that McD somehow wants a more conservative offense is insane. 

[Chaos]

As long as we continue to run on 90% of first downs, we should be able to keep the other teams guessing. 

Anyone who saw the difference between the Texans with Nick Collins, and the Texans with Nick Collins today, got a pretty direct view of how much difference even one play making reciever can make on a team.   

Edited October 7 by Chaos

[TFBillsfan]

55 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Its really Ugly my friend.  Blitz hard and take away the middle and we are cooked.  If we were going to do this I would have went pure 12 formation and brought in a power back. I like cook, but I mean a guy 230+ who can pound the ball and hard between the tackles. You do that its hard to blitz as much as teams do.

Like Braelon Allen who the Bills passed on for Ray Davis!

[Old Coot]

I agree with the posters who say that our WRs are mediocre but remember that we were in Cap jail this off season. We didn't have the money to sign any top free agent WRs.

 

This leads me to a question for our salary cap gurus: How did we come to be in Cap jail?  Where is our salary cap tied up? Of course there's the cap hit we took from trading Diggs and Josh's monster deal but where is our money tied up beyond that?

[Chaos]

2 minutes ago, Old Coot said:

Josh's monster deal

Allen is no longer a top 10 paid QB.  Really not part of the problem. 

[frostbitmic]

3 minutes ago, Old Coot said:

I agree with the posters who say that our WRs are mediocre but remember that we were in Cap jail this off season. We didn't have the money to sign any top free agent WRs.

 

This leads me to a question for our salary cap gurus: How did we come to be in Cap jail?  Where is our salary cap tied up? Of course there's the cap hit we took from trading Diggs and Josh's monster deal but where is our money tied up beyond that?

Don't they have  about 60M in dead cap this year ? ... That's like paying a 2nd Josh Allen to never touch the field.

[KOKBILLS]

They are sort of the Buffalo Sabres of the NFL right now... At least as far as bad starts are concerned.

 

They have had 3 games with terrible starts...3 games... Cards at home, Ravens and Houston on the road they are outscored 28-6 in the 1st quarter and 55-16 in the 1st half combined... Yes... They have AVERAGED being down 13 points at Halftime in those three games combined. 2 of them we're kicking off in the 3rd quarter! 

 

For whatever reason they have come out completely flat in 3 out of 5 games already this year... 

 

The Texans all but begged us to win this game and the Bills would not accept it...

 

I don't know what it's going to take... 

Edited October 7 by KOKBILLS

[Comebackkid]

im not so worried about the D.   the offense is a different story though.  

seem like the more thigns change the more they stay the same.

 

the one thing i have been really down on since Daboll left was I felt, you dont

take and hire a rooke oc to coach up your elite QB.   

if you think u have the team to get to the superbowl or even close u 

go get an experienced OC that can elevate your Qb and the team.

 

That is biggest gripe with management so far.

 

[Bangarang]

41 minutes ago, Old Coot said:

I agree with the posters who say that our WRs are mediocre but remember that we were in Cap jail this off season. We didn't have the money to sign any top free agent WRs.

 

This leads me to a question for our salary cap gurus: How did we come to be in Cap jail?  Where is our salary cap tied up? Of course there's the cap hit we took from trading Diggs and Josh's monster deal but where is our money tied up beyond that?

 

Our salary cap situation isn't much better next year either.

[Comebackkid]

1 hour ago, 947 said:

The most predictable thing for me is that every time we have a successful run, we run on the next play 100% of the time. Cooks breaks off 12 yards on 1st down, next play is another run for -1, now we're in a hole. The defense knows it's coming & either run-blitzes or has the right call to stop it at the line.

i said exactly the same thing in another post.   you can pretty much call out what they are going to do every down. 

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, Sweats said:

 

 

Here's a little excerpt why Brady was released from Carolina......once teams figured him out, he didn't adjust and rode the one trick pony all the way to the unemployment line.

Well if this comes to fruition, than he'll follow Dorsey out the door and Josh will be waiting for his 4th OC.  Or you can just hire Ben Johnson as HC and end this nonsense. 

[Roundybout]

6 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Well if this comes to fruition, than he'll follow Dorsey out the door and Josh will be waiting for his 4th OC.  Or you can just hire Ben Johnson as HC and end this nonsense. 

And this would help how?

[Matt_In_NH]

It is measure -counter measure.  They need to adjust to what has happened the last two weeks and they can and will.  

[Blackbeard]

9 hours ago, MasterStrategist said:

lack of WR talent

This. 
 

When this happens, there is a chain reaction by the defenses.  We’re very stoppable on offense.   This is a MAJOR issue. 

[RyanC883]

14 hours ago, Sweats said:

 

 

Here's a little excerpt why Brady was released from Carolina......once teams figured him out, he didn't adjust and rode the one trick pony all the way to the unemployment line.

 

glad McD hired him.  JA is a QB, not the GM.  JA should not be selecting the OC and the top WR in the draft.  

12 hours ago, Bangarang said:

 

Our salary cap situation isn't much better next year either.

 

good thing we have money tied up in JAG players

13 hours ago, Old Coot said:

I agree with the posters who say that our WRs are mediocre but remember that we were in Cap jail this off season. We didn't have the money to sign any top free agent WRs.

 

This leads me to a question for our salary cap gurus: How did we come to be in Cap jail?  Where is our salary cap tied up? Of course there's the cap hit we took from trading Diggs and Josh's monster deal but where is our money tied up beyond that?

 

true we could not FA a top WR, but we could have attempted a trade, or traded up in the draft for Nabers, B. Thomas, etc.  

[Roundybout]

 

I mean come on. What is Josh supposed to do here?

[Utah John]

I think the key losses in the offseason were the two safeties -- who were both too old and slow anyway, so it was necessary to move on from them -- and Mitch Morse, who was NOT old and slow and was playing very well.  What Morse did and what McGovern isn't doing is calling the blocking assignments to pick up the packages that defenses are throwing at us.  Josh is running for his life almost every play.  Against the Texans, he had a clean pocket once, when the Texans rushed four and didn't do anything exotic, and Josh hit Coleman for a TD.  And that was the last time the Texans did THAT.  They immediately got back to the stunts and twists, and the Bills just aren't blocking them.  Maybe the Bills need to go 21 or 22, to keep a solid pass blocker in the backfield, and that's probably got to be Gilliam, who's more stout than any of the three RBs.  

 

As for the safeties, Poyer and Hyde did magic, year after year.  Smart, aggressive, fast -- both were terrific players.  NOT easily or quickly replaced.  Hamlin is not the guy.  He was too slow before he died and he isn't faster now.  Bishop is making mistakes, which hurt but come on, he's a rookie learning a complicated system when most of the defensive playmakers are gone.  

12 hours ago, Bangarang said:

 

Our salary cap situation isn't much better next year either.

 

13 hours ago, Old Coot said:

I agree with the posters who say that our WRs are mediocre but remember that we were in Cap jail this off season. We didn't have the money to sign any top free agent WRs.

 

This leads me to a question for our salary cap gurus: How did we come to be in Cap jail?  Where is our salary cap tied up? Of course there's the cap hit we took from trading Diggs and Josh's monster deal but where is our money tied up beyond that?

The Bills took several shots at the bargain bin in WR FA, overpaying for them (Curtis Samuel, OMG, Valdez-Scantling, oh crap).  They're overpaying Bass (who might have us all quaking every time he lines up, but he's actually been doing well).

[nedboy7]

13 hours ago, Chaos said:

As long as we continue to run on 90% of first downs, we should be able to keep the other teams guessing. 

Anyone who saw the difference between the Texans with Nick Collins, and the Texans with Nick Collins today, got a pretty direct view of how much difference even one play making reciever can make on a team.   

 

Without Nico getting hurt that game wouldn't have been close IMO. 

 

 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/lists/national-reactions-sean-mcdermott-dumb-buffalo-bills-loss-texans-nfl/

[Logic]

The issues that seem most concerning to me right now:

1.) Failure to adapt. As you mentioned, defenses seem to have figured out how to stop Plan A. The fact that no reasonable Plan B has yet been presented is troubling. Opposing coaches take away what you want to do frequently in the NFL. Good coaches adapt and counter-punch. Brady still has yet to show he can do it.

2.) Unwillingness and/or inability to feature our best players on offense. Everyone said it was some kind of a GOOD thing that the Bills started spreading the ball around when they switched to Brady last year and stopped "forcing it" to Diggs. Well...why weren't they able to spread the ball around AND feature Diggs? Fast forward to this year and Brady hasn't shown that he has the slightest idea how to feature and maximize the talents of Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, Keon Coleman, or $24 million dollar man Curtis Samuel. He doesn't have "gotta have it" plays for those players. He doesn't ever seem to go into a game saying "this is a Kincaid day" or "this is a Samuel day" and featuring those players. Does he even know how to do it? In retrospect, was his complete unwillingness/inability to get Diggs involved last year a sign of things to come?

You can overcome a less-than-great receiving corps with a great coordinator. You can overcome a less-than-great coordinator with a great receiving corps. Right now, the Bills have a less-than-great receiving corps AND a less-than-great coordinator, and I fear they won't be able to overcome both. If things don't change, and change fast, they Bills don't have a prayer of competing with the big boys of the AFC come December and January -- if they even make it that far.

Edited October 7 by Logic