Is McD actually compensating for Beane?

[harmonkillebrew]

On 1/31/2025 at 8:53 PM, BADOLBILZ said:

 

You can field a fringe SB contender with a bad roster if the QB is that good.

 

The Colts proved it going from 1st place SB contender with Peyton Manning.......to 2-14 when he missed the next season........and back to first place and SB contending the season after that when they drafted Andrew Luck with that 1st round pick obtained by going 2-14.  

 

 

Totallly.  Look at the Commanders this year.  Turned that 2nd overall pick into a franchise QB who led them to the NFCC

Josh wills this team to victory, but will not get over the hump against the very top teams until they get a better D and some more talent around him.

Even Jordan have Pippen, Kukoc, Rodman and a range of clutch role players like Steve Kerr.. Oh and an all time great coach

[DCofNC]

I think it’s pretty obvious it’s both not enough talent and not quite good enough coaching.  McD has clearly blown a few games in the playoffs all on his own, 13 seconds for example.   That said, this roster wasn’t as talented as that team and he got more out of it. 
 

The single biggest problem this team has is continued poor drafting in the early rounds.  Non-difference makers to flat out busts all over the first 3 rounds.  It just doesn’t work.  That poor drafting leads to hole filling in FA and looking for difference makers, which cost big money and bring big risk (Miller).   So you are left with little cap space and little talent and now drafting to fill holes, which takes your eyes off the BPA and if ANYONE wants to argue that Beane hasn’t been drafting to fill holes instead of taking BPA, you need to stop and think before you embarrass yourself arguing otherwise. 
 

So to the OPs question, yeah I think McD is covering for Beane on D and Allen is covering them both by dragging the team to wins.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Travis Kelce said this is the best Bills team they’ve faced.

 

But we believe it’s the least talented Bills team. I guess both can be true. 

 

But many Bills fans believe coaching is holding them back. I don’t believe all 3 can be true.

[NoName]

I think Beane has done a really good job.  However, he really did a poor job with the WR room.

 

I think McDermott has done a really good job.  However, I am really concerned about the stubbornness of the base nickle philosophy.  I think they need to play a little more 4-3.  They get gashed in the run games too much.

 

 

[colin]

12 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Travis Kelce said this is the best Bills team they’ve faced.

 

But we believe it’s the least talented Bills team. I guess both can be true. 

 

But many Bills fans believe coaching is holding them back. I don’t believe all 3 can be true.

 

I think what is most obviously true is josh has grown up, and the bills have far and away the best OL and Run game in the Allen era.  We consistently win in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball, and then you have allen making magic and cook, davis, and Ty who combine to be a top 3-5 running back unit.  To me it's how josh is playing and where our talent is (i'd say our elite talents now are dawkins, brown, cook, and allen, before it was allen, diggs, maybe dawkins (i think he's better cuz the LG is way better) and Milano).  it's gone from WLB (milano is still a player, just not what he was in 2022) and kinda S and CB (white fell off horribly after injury, but was near elite before, pay and hyde were a great duo but never the most talented guys) to OL, RB.  also, Diggs was never a vertical threat vs his underneath stuff and route running, which we have in shakir.

 

allen and a good OL can score on anyone, but we just can't score enough to offset our putrid playoff D.

[Kelly to Allen]

13 hours ago, DCofNC said:

I think it’s pretty obvious it’s both not enough talent and not quite good enough coaching.  McD has clearly blown a few games in the playoffs all on his own, 13 seconds for example.   That said, this roster wasn’t as talented as that team and he got more out of it. 
 

The single biggest problem this team has is continued poor drafting in the early rounds.  Non-difference makers to flat out busts all over the first 3 rounds.  It just doesn’t work.  That poor drafting leads to hole filling in FA and looking for difference makers, which cost big money and bring big risk (Miller).   So you are left with little cap space and little talent and now drafting to fill holes, which takes your eyes off the BPA and if ANYONE wants to argue that Beane hasn’t been drafting to fill holes instead of taking BPA, you need to stop and think before you embarrass yourself arguing otherwise. 
 

So to the OPs question, yeah I think McD is covering for Beane on D and Allen is covering them both by dragging the team to wins.

 

If you simply switch out basham and elam for Humphrey and Gordon. And Use the Von money more wisely, we probably get to the super bowl

 

Pretty catastrophic mistakes by beane. 

 

The fact that basham and elam both might be out of the league is atrocious. Beane needs to take a long look in the mirror.

 

I'm not even necessarily sure we need some big trade everyone is talking about as that could set the team back further.

 

He needs to draft better at the top 

 

This years 1st and two 2nds need to be immediate stars. No excuses 

Edited yesterday at 03:44 PM by Kelly to Allen

[Sweats]

Does our coaching staff not analyze our own tendencies as well as tendencies against other teams?

 

Do they not understand that what worked in the regular season needs to be changed up for the post season?

 

We're not beating KC in the playoffs cause we play them the exact same way that we play them in the regular season. Reid is way too smart to fall for the same thing twice. He understands coverage, tendencies and throwing different looks in the post season and until our own coaching staff understands this, we are 2nd fiddle to KC.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

30 minutes ago, colin said:

 

I think what is most obviously true is josh has grown up, and the bills have far and away the best OL and Run game in the Allen era.  We consistently win in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball, and then you have allen making magic and cook, davis, and Ty who combine to be a top 3-5 running back unit.  To me it's how josh is playing and where our talent is (i'd say our elite talents now are dawkins, brown, cook, and allen, before it was allen, diggs, maybe dawkins (i think he's better cuz the LG is way better) and Milano).  it's gone from WLB (milano is still a player, just not what he was in 2022) and kinda S and CB (white fell off horribly after injury, but was near elite before, pay and hyde were a great duo but never the most talented guys) to OL, RB.  also, Diggs was never a vertical threat vs his underneath stuff and route running, which we have in shakir.

 

allen and a good OL can score on anyone, but we just can't score enough to offset our putrid playoff D.

McDermott’s vision for what he wanted the Bills offense to be shouldn’t be overlooked. He wanted an offense that had a strong OL that ran the football and made Allen’s life a little easier.

 

The defense is due for a rebuild. This is really the first offseason he can rebuild the look of the defense. Let’s see if they become tougher to play against on defense with more physicality and size upfront along with more athleticism in the secondary.

[JP51]

On 1/31/2025 at 8:50 PM, Mikie2times said:

To me, one of the 4 statements has has to be true.  Sure, a relationship exists between these concepts. It could be 60% coaching and 40% talent as an example. But one of the 4 statements has to be the most accurate over the rest. 

 

McD is bad and the talent is good 

 

• Since 2020, 78 players have had a 10 sack season. The only Bills defender to cross that number was Leonard Floyd in 2023.
• From 2020-2023, 168 Pro Bowl selections were made for defensive players. Buffalo had 4 Pro Bowl occurrences good for a 7 way tie for 18th-25th in the league.  This data did not include this year because I didn't have the full data, but it was zero for Buffalo thus year. 
• Former starters who left for Free Agency have gone onto to do very little. 

 

McD is bad and the talent is bad

 

The Bills have the 2nd best EPA on defense in the regular season since 2020.

 

McD is good and the talent is good

 

Since 2020, out of 18 teams that have played in the divisional round or later the Bills EPA ranks 16th. 

 

McD is good and the talent is bad...........

 

To me this is a consideration worth exploring more as it seems to allow for all the the above being true.

 

Bad defenses are not capable of performing as well as we do in the regular season. I know we like to to say we just feast on the lesser teams, which is true, but everybody else seems to struggle feasting at a level we do. Which means it's either coaching or talent that is creating this heightened performance against lesser teams.

 

So then you say ok, what's a logical reason why we would be able to do so well in the regular season and be so bad in the divisional round or later? Some say KC. Well, we also played Baltimore and Cincinnati and it's been pretty ugly against all of them. It wouldn't seem to make sense to say, well, coaching is good in the regular season, but bad in the playoffs. I mean the balance could shift to that more, but how much? If it's good in the regular season can it swing all the way to bad in the playoffs?  I guess it's possible but that seems like a jump in logic.

 

So now we look at the roster. People seem to hold Beane in high regard and each season we hear about this notion of Buffalo Bills defenders being disrespected/Pro Bowl snubbed. Our success has made many posters not really focus on the actual talent or they just assume the talent level is high. Which I think could be a mistake. It could be possible that we have had a bottom 20 defensive roster the entire time McD has been here. One that simply breaks down when facing the higher end teams. If the roster is in fact very bad defensively, it would make sense that coaching could facilitate success in the regular season and potentially have the bottom fall out against the better teams as the talent edge becomes too much. Then sure, any decrease in coaching ability in the regular season vs the playoffs would really accelerate that downtrend. 

 

All this is to say, perhaps it's Beane that should have the warmer seat than McD? 

 

This isn't a fully formed opinion by any stretch. Just something I was kicking around and was curious how other felt?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I agree this is a combo ... Beane's upper tier drafting has not produced the game breakers it needs too... simply functional players... leaving the D with C minus talent... not liking McD's approach to defense honestly as it really hasnt adapted and we have seen tremendous player regression for multiple players... this moves to coaching... mostly Babich, but McD as well... 

[Nihilarian]

Some of you need to get a grip on reality! Do you realize how close this last game was that the Bills lost by 3 points? Some Chiefs players were crying after that game because they didn't think they would win that game. 

 

An NFL team doesn't go 13-4 with bad players or bad coaching and it should have been 14-3 except the Bills sat some starters against the Patriots. (perhaps they didn't want NE to get the 1st overall pick?) The Bills swept Miami, they swept the NY Jets, and could have swept the Patriots.

 

For crying out loud the only team to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a meaningful game in 2024 was the Buffalo Bills. The San Diego Chargers made the playoffs went 11-6 and lost 2x to the Chiefs, and the Denver Broncos made the playoffs and went 10-7 and lost one and won one at the end of the season as the Chiefs really didn't want the Bengals in the playoffs. 

 

THIS WAS A CLOSE GAME and for some reason, the Buffalo Bills simply couldn't get the ball to bounce their way...and the stinking refs too. 

 

This team is a few defensive players away from being great. They need a freaking better pass rush and some better players in the secondary...that is all!

 

Buffalo GM Brandon Beane is without question one of the best in the NFL and the only HC that has won more games over the last five years has been KC HC Andy Reid. BTW, has an ex-HC as his DC in Steve Spagnuolo, and an ex-HC in Matt Nagy as his OC.

 

 

Lastly, the AFC West division should be a lot tougher to win with the Chargers, Broncos, and now Raiders all with good head coaches. My take is this is the last year we see the Chiefs being this good.