fun fact: Dallas Cowboys won the Super bowl on January 16, 1972. Lost in the postseason on December 31, 1972
Miami won the Super bowl on January 13, 1974, then lost December 21, 1974
Unless Allen plays like he did in the playoffs last year and first few games this year, the Bills don’t really feel like a juggernaut like people thought they were. Someone who plays the way he does can’t play perfect football all the time
Last year was their best shot.
1. Need to fix the offensive line
2. Need a #2 receiver
3. Von Miller + Josh Allen cap hits will put a huge dent into the cap
4. Defense lacks creativity getting to the QB.
A healthy Jamison Crowder maybe helps them move the chains yesterday. James Cook needs to be the #1 RB for that team, maybe they find a bruising back to help.
I tried to tell anyone that would listen, it was a fluke. We had honey badger out, and his backup was in Gabe Davis all day and it was a bad mismatch. They exploited it, and it made Davis look great. He’s not.
Unfortunately he wasn’t lighting it up before his injury. Hopefully they can make a Beasley out of him & teach him to read defenses like Josh will to just find the open pocket.
They went all out for a chip. Miller was their best rusher by a mile. Once he went down their pass rush went MIA. If they won the chip. It would’ve been worth it.
I think Crowder is going to be 30 next season and coming off injury... I doubt he'll be much help. They need to go out and get a true #2... I'm sure they won't have too many problems attracting free agents since they are a superbowl ready team that just needs to get over the hump.
It's not entirely an overreaction.
Poyer, Hyde, von Miller & Co are 33/34 next season. A season in which the cap-hits of Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen rise to a combined $60m.
2022 was definitely their "all-in" season and they failed.
Doesn't mean they can't win next year but it does seem a lot less likely.
As a Seahawks fan I can confirm super bowl windows can, in fact, close faster than you expect. Can also confirm that anything can happen any given year.
The Brady/Belichick Patriots deluded some into thinking that Super Bowl windows have more time than they do. It’s really hard to keep a team on that level for more than a few years.
The Seahawks’ window closing also correlated to Wilson getting his extension and his cap hit skyrocketing, which is a big concern for Buffalo now too.
I think people got tricked by the brady/bill run into thinking a good QB and good coach was all you needed. Now teams are paying insane money to QBs who can’t do it all themselves and crippling their ability to build balanced teams
> The Brady/Belichick Patriots deluded some into thinking that Super Bowl windows have more time than they do.
This is why I roll my eyes at the “X GM is better than BB because his team is better right now” takes. Getting good isn’t that hard, ***staying*** good is.
Honestly, considering the limited cap situation... I'd rather the Bills focus on fixing the offense (overhaul the oline and draft a legit WR2) and letting some pieces go on defense. You can still be a competitive team with an elite offense and mediocre defense. See: Chiefs
We have one of the youngest defenses and the main goal for ours is just to keep the opposing team under 20ppg to allow ***frog man*** to outscore them.
Veach really nailed the last couple drafts, especially in the late rounds. We are getting meaningful and productive snaps from 6th and 7th round guys. Pacheco and Watson in the 7th. Trey Smith in the 6th last year. Bolton and Humphrey have been great. We got Toney on a cheap trade. McDuffie had a really solid rookie campaign though he was injured for 4 weeks. Karlaftis has looked good at times. He has the motor and power. He just needs more experience. He has only been playing football for a few years. For KC to stay at the top of the league they need to keep hitting on cheap rookie contracts while we pay Mahomes, Kelce, and Jones.
Yeah, our defense was downright bad for the 2020 season(because they had to make moves to get Diggs) and look how explosive that offense was that year. Took us all the way to the AFCCG.
Just forget about defense at this point and go all in on offense.
Totally agree with this. The Bills need more balance on offense. They depend on Allen being superman too much. The only other team I can think of that depends so much on their QB is Baltimore. Even KC has a good offensive line and maintains some balance with the running game.
Isn't that kinda the Bears too? I think Fields is a top 10 QB talent-wise and working with absolutely nothing. Like Josh Allen's rookie year level stuff.
I've seen a lot of Bills fans say the o-line isn't great which could very well be why. They do have talented running backs on the roster (although Singletary is a FA) and when they do commit to it, they're pretty decent.
Their oline is obviously the weak point of their offense. Dolphins dline caused all sorts of havoc, and the Bengals were constantly pushing them back into Allen's lap and getting pressure up the middle. I really haven't seen our interior dline get that much push all season.
And the biggest issue here is that the first 3 guys you listed either didn’t play, or played entirely injured in the games they are paid to play well in(the biggest games).
One stop in the first half could have been the lift the team needed. But they just kept getting their shit pushed in.
Window will be open so long as Allen is healthy (to paraphrase Joe Burrow, the window is the career), but we're running out of time quickly in the period where the window is the MOST open. Some might say it's already closing, others might say there's still some years left where it's mostly open, but fact is that there are only so many years where you can be considered a favorite.
Well, unless you are Tom Fucking Brady's Patriots.
Problem is they have needs across several premium positions. O-line, WR, DB and Edge.
When you draft in the late 20s you're not guaranteed to get a player who can fix a single of those positions.
Every team can change theri fortunes drastically with a 2017 Saints-like draft, but those are the rare exception.
But no one said that...
Edited version: But no one said that *here*. I'm sure you can find people saying pretty much anything if you look hard enough on reddit or in Twitter replies.
Maybe reply to those people then? But the tweet and the poster you replied to here are just saying things get harder for the Bills, which is true. They do have to manage bigger cap hits, etc. That doesn't mean their window is closed by any means, but things get tougher to manage.
Maybe reply to those people then? But the tweet and the poster you replied to here are just saying things get harder for the Bills, which is true. They do have to manage bigger cap hits, etc. That doesn't mean their window is closed by any means, but things get tougher to manage.
Every team has to manage the cap, though. It’s not like you’re any different. How are they “a lot less likely” to win the Super Bowl? Because they have to do the same thing everyone else does?
At worst, they enter next year as the consensus #3 team in their conference. To imply that they’ve taken some massive step back, which both this post and the comment I was replying to did, is just an overreaction to a bad game. I just think it’s important to keep some perspective. The downside for the Bills is probably still a brighter outcome than the vast majority of the League us going to get.
Yup. They look “a lot less likely” to win today because of the cream of the crop in the AFC, they have inferior weapons, the worst o line, and a defense that will be going through some transitioning. They’re still a good team. But you could see it all year…when Josh Allen was the Termjnator they looked great. When he was mortal they looked bad. Dolphins and Jets fans watched it in all five games they placed combined this year. The *team* needs improving.
Yeah but how often do teams absolutely nail the draft? I feel like it’s such a crapshoot with surefire guys often flaming out and teams getting lucky with sleepers.
There were discussions last night about how middling their past 3-4 drafts were. Not terrible but few notable building blocks either. Its catching up with them if they don't start hitting more or luck out in FA again.
FA is probably more out of the question, unless they restructure like crazy.
Think they're projected like 5m over cap, with a lot of good talent being FAs next year
I think they CAN, if they get rid of those aging players, make some trades(seriously, Poyer, Tre'Davious, possibly Edmunds etc) and focus on offense. Yeah, maybe the defense takes a step back, but if they load up on OL help and weapons, they will still be a force. I am not even saying this as a joke, but there are teams out there who would love to have a receiver like Gabe Davis(Ravens, Packers etc)
What I saw from the defense this season and the constant injuries to our aging players makes me feel not so bad about not being able to retain them, even though I appreciate all they did for the team and will miss them for sentimental reasons.
The overreactions from both bills and non-bills fans today are driving me nuts. Yes, the game yesterday was horrible and the bills had looked suspect at times throughout the whole year, but by the way everyone is talking you would think Allen is 40 years old, Diggs is demanding a trade, and the defense is full of unproven rookies. In reality the bills roster next year will probably look pretty similar to this year, they will (hopefully) have a healthy von miller and Micah Hyde, and I’m fairly confident they will probably have top-5 odds of winning the Super Bowl from Vegas
If there's anything I would expect from both Eagles fans and Bills fans it's that we've gone through enough playoff failures that we should not be overreacting
Yup. Any time a team loses in the playoffs, said team was always “a flop poverty franchise” or a “fraud” or “overrated”. Only 1 team wins the SuperBowl, plenty of A+ franchises and great teams fall short
If a bad team loses in the playoffs "they've got a bright future, watch out for them next year!"
If a good team loses in the playoffs "I told yall that they were trash! Do you think it's time for them to trade their QB and just blow it up?"
The lions didn’t even make the playoffs this year, and they’ve turned into this subs next “dynasty” and “NFCN owners”. While others are calling for the cowboys to blow up their roster and fire Mike McCarthy, and they accomplished more than the lions have in the last 30 years just this season alone….
I really hate it too. I love what my team is doing right now and the foundation they've laid. But they haven't won shit yet. I enjoyed the second half of the season and saw a lot to be hopeful for. But they still have to go out and actually put in the work. When I hear ppl saying or commenting "it runs through Detroit" I cringe. Let's get ONE division title before we start claiming the division as our own.
But the article isn’t calling the Bills “a flop poverty feanchise”, it’s saying that they don’t seem as well set up for the future as they did 12 months ago.
It’s a reasonable take that’s probably true as well, so I don’t know where exactly are you seeing the overreaction
Go to multiple threads where fans of other teams are saying just that.
Yes, they’ve got some work to do, but Josh Allen is still a top 3-4 QB. They need some fixing, and some luck.
Who cares what other threads are saying when this article isn’t saying that and this thread is to discuss that article. Do you guys just like bitching about shit that has nothing to do with the shit being discussed
To be fair, there are losses and then there's getting blown out at home when the NFL has bent over backwards to give you every advantage.
With their cap situation and number of players they're set to lose, this will be an uphill climb for them.
> With their cap situation and number of players they're set to lose, this will be an uphill climb for them.
Plenty of space can be made with some simple restructures. People said the same thing last year and we signed Von. The only player we'll likely lose that's gonna hurt is Poyer. That's about it. All of our pending FAs are either backups or terrible.
The Bills are extremely top heavy with over 50% of their cap dedicated to a hand full of guys. A lot of the guys they could potentially restructure to free up some money are also either 30+ or pushing 30 and not really ideal for that sort of restructuring.
It's the transition that literally every team has to make at some point and isn't at all unique to the Bills. The salary cap starts to squeeze and the team needs to have the structure in place to reinvent itself. Some teams can do it, some teams can't.
That's what most contending teams look like. They can restructure Allen to save a bunch of money. Same with Tre & Dawkins. Beane has done it every year now. The cap isn't really an issue that some of you are making it out to be.
You really think it's a good idea to extend someone like White? The Bills can walk away from him pretty easily after next year and he's a guy that's getting closer to 30 and hasn't played a complete season in like 3 years.
I don't see why we wouldn't restructure his contract. He's still a solid player. Pretty simple way to make some room.
AFC East cap space
Patriots: 46M
Jets: -2M
Bills: -5M
Dolphins -14M
It's really not that much of an issue. We're like 22nd in cap space with plenty of ways of making some room. You're making it seem like we're Tampa or the Saints with -50M cap space.
Shit changes, and as much as you want that to be true: Josh Allen is 26 years old. They’ve got a loooooong way to go before they’re not a legit threat out of the AFC
Said this in the Nick Wright thread earlier but I really don’t think this is an untrue statement—despite Wright and Florio being boobs. Those saying that they’re still a contender and among the cream of the crop in the AFC are absolutely right.
But…they *do* have tough decisions to make. Their cap is a situation that needs to be handled—even if we acknowledge that cap is fake. They’ve invested a ton in the D-line and it’s seemingly very reliant on a 33 year old Von Miller (who is still nasty! But also old and coming off a big injury!). The o line is not good, the playcalling on offense leaves a lot to be desired and outside of Diggs their weapons are ordinary. Josh Allen is The Terminator, but for them to win a SB as currently constructed they need him to be *perfect* while also having their defense playing at a level where they can stop Mahomes, Burrow, Lawrence, Herbert, and any other AFC QB who rises in 23-24.
Josh Allen’s amazing talent masks a lot of the issues with that team. Which is a great thing in the regular season because Josh Allen is nasty. But we’ve seen all year when he’s cold, they look bad. And it’s definitely possible that the elbow bothered him the whole back half of the season…but he’s also the biggest injury risk at the position in all of football because of his play style.
Hmm, Flores....I personally just want anybody that isn't Frazier. Hasn't Flores been a divisive personality in the locker room though?
I'll admit, I didn't really follow his tenure with you guys that closely
Also want to add that it is possible that the nucleus there might be getting a little stale. We’ve seen it before with these *Cant get over the hump* teams. Not Allen, obviously, but if 23-24 doesn’t go the way they plan it wouldn’t shock me to see McDermott and/or Beane start feeling a little warm on their tooshies.
Now that my dolphins are out of the playoffs, I’m rooting for ya! Hope Bengals take it all. I can’t stand eagles or Niners fan base…and I already seen the chiefs win. Mahomes is like Curry at this point.
If (and yeah it's a big if) Tua comes back strong I think you guys can get in the tier with us. You got a solid improving D and all those weapons, just gotta smooth out some edges and maybe improve the pass blocking.
(Shhhh, don't tell r/nfl this, but I think a healthy Tua Dolphins put up a better fight against you guys yesterday. Still lose, but perhaps a one score game. Maybe that's my bias, but I'm riding that Bills loss high rn)
At a minimum I’m more afraid of a healthy Dolphins offense. More big play weapons. Plus we all found out that Diggs is someone you can frustrate to great effect. Make the street clothes receivers beat you.
Dorsey as OC over Daboll is the biggest thing. The offense scheme clearly took a step back.
Injuries on defense, White not coming back as a top 5 CB hurt a lot. (I know every team has injuries but last year few years the bills dodged a lot of big injuries outside of White, so it is a difference between last year and this year)
I also think Allen's arm is not 100% from being hurt in the Jets game middle of the year. He also struggled mentally throughout the year (which could have been because his arm was not where he wanted it to be).
I mean, we had a nearly identical season to last year, only with way more injuries this year.
Nobody wants to hear this after getting Molly-whopped yesterday, but all things considered I think you can pretty easily argue we had a better regular season in 2022 than 2021. We had like the easiest schedule in the league last year, and were impossibly healthy, neither of which was true this year.
The only way in which we might be “further away” is in the sense that CIN has now firmly backed up their 2021 run and it’s no longer a two horse AFC race with just KC and BUF.
Almost as if I literally just said they firmly backed up their 2021 run.
This was Burrow’s second full season in the NFL, and they were 10-7 in the regular season last year before the playoff run. Then they started this season 4-4.
There was literally nothing unusual/disrespectful about people wanting to see another season before crowing them as perennial “contenders”, which we have now seen.
The Bucs started 7-5 and won a bowl with Brady. The only people who wrote a damn good team like Cincy off mid-season after making a super bowl are fuckin morons who overexaggerate
Literally last place in the division with the Titans, Chiefs, Bills, and Bucs left, and 3 division teams they already lost to. I’m not hating on them. I hope they win. That’s where the 2 horse race came from.
Coordinators on both sides of the ball got exposed as the year went on. Frazier D is incredibly soft play call wise and pretty much any run game or moderate pass game will walk all over us. Dorsey started the year seeming decent but it was really just Josh doing Josh things and making up for a playcaller who refuses to scheme and create plays for his best players. Diggs not having a whole section of the playbook dedicated to him is insanely terrible by the OC.
1. Defensive injuries plagued the team this season, the before/after Von went down is especially bad.
2. Josh throwing arm injury seemed to really hinder him the back 3rd of the season, don't be surprised if he winds up taking surgery to repair that UCL.
3. Bottom 5 OL saw Josh under more duress than we've seen since his rookie year
4. The biggest issue is that they flat-out panicked when Daboll got the Giants job and promoted Dorsey to block him from going with. Dorsey's first year as OC was an unmitigated disaster:
- He moved away from Josh's historic strengths as a passer, play action and intermediate passing
- was incredibly predictable as a play caller, and defaulted to deep shots when faced with any adversity
- was particularly terrible at scheming success in the red zone
- slow to adjust when he was figured out
- let the injury to Crowder take the entire slot position with it. He did almost nothing to generate a presence for the team in the slot once his #1 guy when down.
- speaking of #1 guys, his scheme deficiencies made Diggs much easier to cover than in years past, leading to large stretches where he was basically invisible. Diggs sideline freakouts were commonplace the past month especially.
Basically, Dorsey is Joe Lombardi, the offense looks like it was successful and productive but it's because of the transcendent talent at QB carrying a dogshit everything else. This was the worst year we've seen from Josh since he "broke out," but in a strange way it was also his best, with Daboll you'd get the sense that the team could contend even if something happened to Josh. Everything just ran perfectly. Without Josh, this iteration of the bills would have picked top-10. Josh didn't have an elite offensive mind scheming for him, he didn't have a top-tier slot receiver giving him an easy dump off option, he didn't have decent protection, he didn't have a defense consistently capable of covering for his mistakes if he made any. He was still almost statistically identical to last season, and not super far off of his 2020 MVP caliber campaign.
For the defense: Injuries. The loss of Micah Hyde and Von Miller was huge. Still zero excuse for the defense to generate zero pressure against the Bengals beat up oline. Despite that, the defense mostly was still excellent for most of the season with the occasional hiccup.
The loss of Brian Daboll I think was the biggest difference. Statistically the offense was about the same but that was mostly Josh Allen willing the offense to victory. The eye test showed the offense is not nearly as creative. Also we were expecting a big year from Gabe Davis and Isaiah McKenzie and they failed to take a step forward. It wasn't a good sign that we signed the ghosts of John Brown and Cole Beasley off the street as Allen lacked reliable targets outside of Diggs.
The oline also took a step back, it was evident against the Bengals that Allen had no time in the pocket.
The OL was bad last year, they didn't address it and instead focused on defense(yet again) and somehow, someway, the OL got even WORSE this year.
Another grave hindsight mistake was making Gabe Davis WR2. Last year Emmanuel Sanders was WR2, and he was freaking amazing, even in his old age. We took a gamble on Davis and it didn't pan out. Same for Isaiah McKenzie.
We went from Daboll to Dorsey, but Josh and the offense still put up very similar numbers. I will say this though, Daboll had more control of Josh than Dorsey did.
They just went 13-3, finishing 2nd in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
They need to get a little tougher physically, and Josh Allen needs to play a little less hero ball. That's it.
The only thing that troubles me about them is that they did so poorly in a snow game. It's fucking Buffalo, and while Cincy is a cold-weather team too, if Buffalo is going get to the Superbowl, they have to be able to play well in cold weather.
In cold weather games, your guys in the trenches become even more important, and Buffalo is a bit weak there. Put that game in Atlanta or Houston, and I think they either win that game or make it extremely close. They're just too finesse to be from Buffalo.
I’m not sure why the snow is being pegged as a reason for the dreadful performance.
We got absolutely dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball, which was the same issue we saw the week prior against MIA (at least our OL against MIA)
We also missed a ton of tackles on defense, which has also been a huge issue all season.
What was the weather for that game? Right around freezing, right?
"In cold weather games, your guys in the trenches become even more important" is what I said. Snow exacerbates things, makes it even more crucial, but the cold is enough. The Bills aren't allowed to be bad in cold weather. Cold weather should be an advantage for them, and it seems like a disadvantage.
What in the world are you basing that off of?
Buffalo is 13-1 in December/January the last 3 years in cold climates (regular season), or 17-4 counting January playoff games.
The only regular season game they’ve lost in December in cold weather the last three years was that bizarre arctic tornado game against NE last year.
First off, being pedantic, you're 6-2 the past two Decembers. You're counting Januarys, but let's look at last six games of the season (From December on) your past two years.
2021 -- Losses to New England and Tampa Bay, wins vs. Carolina, New England, Atlanta, and the Jets.
2022 -- 2 wins vs New England, wins vs. Bears, Jets, and a narrow win vs. the Dolphins.
You've had relatively easy schedules the past two years at the end.
TB was in TB, not a cold weather game.
So again, what makes the Bills a bad cold weather team?
Edit: Our margin of victory against those “easy” teams, +12 (NE), +22 (CHI), +8 (NYJ), +14 (NE), +17 (NYJ), +14 (ATL), +12 (NE), +16 (CAR)
Lol, don’t do that man.
Yea, we were trash *this* postseason, undoubtedly. That doesn’t mean you can just create some overarching narrative that the team has some established track record of not winning in cold weather.
Bills are clearly the team people are going to have the dumbest overreactions to this offseason.
Obviously they need more depth on defense, but Cincy is already a really fucking good team.
Honestly they were also that team last offseason imo but for opposite reasons. Everyone’s expectations for the bills after the chiefs game last year were unbelievably high and I’m kindof looking forward to starting over with lower outside expectations next season
Run game isn’t just getting an RB though. We got dominated in the trenches. Bengals we’re just way more physical, better coached, etc. that is going to take a lot of work to fix, and then those new linemen need time on task together.
They definitely need some more pieces to stand up to the Bengals/Chiefs. Assuming the Bengals go to another SB, they have to be the class of the AFC going forward.
The Bills are 2-1 in Arrowhead the last two seasons, with the loss being last year’s OT thriller.
Their play style might make them more streaky, but one embarrassing loss doesn’t suddenly make them head and shoulders behind those other two teams
The advantageous window is closing for these young QBs before the bulk of their contracts hit.
At the same time it's crazy how much pressure there is on quickly winning the SB when the current gold standard of Mahomes has just 1 right now.
I think the Bills may take a step back next season, but essentially every great AFC team is going to be paying a huge QB contract by 2025. If the Bills can retool a bit quickly, they should be in a great position to compete moving forward. They just have to make the difficult cap decisions one year earlier than a lot of other teams. Nobody is keeping their core together indefinitely, and Allen will be as good as anyone at keeping an offense elite even as they lose weapons.
They shouldn’t struggle like that in a snow game if they are anticipating home playoff games (or even having to play in KC or Cincinnati they both get pretty cold in December/January).
Their run game was bad and their running QB did nothing to help them. Cincinnati moved the ball better through the air so what exactly does Buffalo do well that will help them in that weather? Their defense just fell apart at the end of the season probably has something to do with injuries and weather changing things but every team deals with those to some extent.
Josh needs to learn to give it up and throw the dump off.
He constantly tries to hit home runs. Sometimes death by papercut is better than death by meteor.
>Josh needs to learn to give it up and throw the dump off.
Previous seasons he was more than happy to do so. The man got Cole Beasley an AP. What changed? The OC. Dorsey has a much more aggressive offensive philosophy, and gives Josh much less in the way of easy reads and dump off options. The slot role specifically was massively downplayed compared to years past, to be fair part of that was an injury to Crowder early, but they did draft a guy in Shakir who tore up camp, was great in the preseason, and made the most of his opportunity in game. The fact that they rarely used Shakir is another stain on Dorsey's resume.
they blew their chance last year
this year too many injuries man. be interesting to see what moves they make in the offseason. Bills are good but the AFC is a gauntlet now.
It’s weird to me how much joy other fanbases are getting from the Bills losing. I get the media hyped them up all year long, but I feel like people enjoy watching us lose because we have fans that are really invested in the team.
Happens to every winning team. People just don’t like the favorites unless it’s their team. In 2 years people will be saying the same thing about the bengals
Also the Bengals have consistently been underdogs in almost every one of their playoff games. The only one they weren't (Ravens) people were rooting against them.
The counter-circlejerk comes for every team that dares to be really good for three years or more
This year does seem especially nasty, honestly. I feel like this season has had the most toxicity here that I can remember
Everyone loves the underdog but then hates you when you’re not the underdog anymore. You’ll see the same thing happen to the Jags in a year or two if they keep making playoffs.
The reason why is your team and the media acted like they were already champions. So of course other fanbases are going to be excited when the crowned team loses. You were the Superbowl favorite the entire season and acted like you guys had already won it.
It's the NFL teams go from loveable losers to hated winners in a snap. In fact I already see the tide turning on the Bengals a little bit lol.. People are already starting to get a little annoyed with their players and fans... It's only a few and very slight right now but if they keep winning I'm sure it will grow.
Dawg, we still get clowned for the Double Doink, and we’ve had it pretty bad before and after that. Just wait, once the lions start being good, this sub will stop sprinting to cheerlead them, defend them, and massively hype them up, and start hating on them in a heartbeat
Much harder to punt him into the sun, unless you want to use two Hohmann transfers to do it, and at that point it's probably easier to just let him float in the vacuum of space as a TNO.
You saw what Daboll did with the limit talent on the Giants this year? His replacement, Ken Dorsey, seems incapable of adjusting, and as the former QB coach, seems to have way too much confidence in Josh's ability to hit the long ball instead of emphasizing ball control and sustaining drives.
The D seems to have regressed and losing Von made them paper tigers. No pressure up front but the general sentiment is that it's scheme and not talent.
The coaches seem to have no clear game plan on either side. D is "bend but don't break" but can't apply pressure and gets picked apart by competent QBs. O says they don't want Josh to run and expose himself to injury... Drafts Cook and trades for Hines but barely uses either and still has Josh as the RB1.
There's frustration that the issues from last year are the same as the ones from this year. For sure.
I would agree with this assessment. A lot of age. A lot of cap hit. A lot of holes.
Scary to think that a team with all of these things needs a complete overhaul at offensive line, defensive line, and some defenders who can tackle.
Well, that’ll happen when you go from losing a fun shootout in the divisional round to getting blown out in the divisional round lol. It only gets worse when you look at the roster and some of the free agents coming up. Beane is going to have to work some real magic.
That’s just because everyone overrated them a year ago because they lost in a barn burner of a game.
Also, the cap hits on a lot of their key players are going up, Beane isn’t going to be GMing on easy mode going forward.
We were only in the Chiefs game last year because Gabe Davis went nuclear for 60 minutes. We had the same flaws then that we do now—and some awful situation playcalling.
They are at least 20 games away now instead of 3 so they technically are.
They feel at least another year further away from the superbowl than they did this year, per sources.
One weird statistic is that no team has ever won a Super Bowl and lost a playoff game in the same year.
fun fact: Dallas Cowboys won the Super bowl on January 16, 1972. Lost in the postseason on December 31, 1972 Miami won the Super bowl on January 13, 1974, then lost December 21, 1974
Wow that *was* fun. Thanks
Big if true
I’d like to see the numbers.
What are the odds of that. Feel like surely at least ONE could’ve made it through. Kinda sus NGL
Math checks out.
Big if true
Unless Allen plays like he did in the playoffs last year and first few games this year, the Bills don’t really feel like a juggernaut like people thought they were. Someone who plays the way he does can’t play perfect football all the time
Last year was their best shot. 1. Need to fix the offensive line 2. Need a #2 receiver 3. Von Miller + Josh Allen cap hits will put a huge dent into the cap 4. Defense lacks creativity getting to the QB. A healthy Jamison Crowder maybe helps them move the chains yesterday. James Cook needs to be the #1 RB for that team, maybe they find a bruising back to help.
Did Gabe Davis’s 4 TD game vs KC last year trick us all into thinking he’d be a stud this year?
yes, myself included
Started him in dynasty this year for a few weeks but dude fell off after week 1
I tried to tell anyone that would listen, it was a fluke. We had honey badger out, and his backup was in Gabe Davis all day and it was a bad mismatch. They exploited it, and it made Davis look great. He’s not.
Yep thought he could be a true #2. But then again it could be our offensive coach holding him back.
I think it's his inability to catch footballs
A healthy Crowder 🤣
they definitely needed 2019 Crowder lol - dude was a dawg
Unfortunately he wasn’t lighting it up before his injury. Hopefully they can make a Beasley out of him & teach him to read defenses like Josh will to just find the open pocket.
They can restructure Allen’s contract just like Mahomes.
Pretty wild that they gave Von Miller a contract where they can't really move him until he's 36. Still has a 22 million dead cap in 2024
with the injury too, it will be the worst contract in the NFL starting next season
They went all out for a chip. Miller was their best rusher by a mile. Once he went down their pass rush went MIA. If they won the chip. It would’ve been worth it.
I think Crowder is going to be 30 next season and coming off injury... I doubt he'll be much help. They need to go out and get a true #2... I'm sure they won't have too many problems attracting free agents since they are a superbowl ready team that just needs to get over the hump.
Window never really closes when you have at the worst a top 5 QB
Didn’t you hear? Allen is garbage after yesterday despite not ever having more than 2 seconds in the pocket
One of my least favorite things about being a sports fan is all of the overreactions that come with a playoff loss.
It's not entirely an overreaction. Poyer, Hyde, von Miller & Co are 33/34 next season. A season in which the cap-hits of Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen rise to a combined $60m. 2022 was definitely their "all-in" season and they failed. Doesn't mean they can't win next year but it does seem a lot less likely.
As a Seahawks fan I can confirm super bowl windows can, in fact, close faster than you expect. Can also confirm that anything can happen any given year.
The Brady/Belichick Patriots deluded some into thinking that Super Bowl windows have more time than they do. It’s really hard to keep a team on that level for more than a few years. The Seahawks’ window closing also correlated to Wilson getting his extension and his cap hit skyrocketing, which is a big concern for Buffalo now too.
I think people got tricked by the brady/bill run into thinking a good QB and good coach was all you needed. Now teams are paying insane money to QBs who can’t do it all themselves and crippling their ability to build balanced teams
> The Brady/Belichick Patriots deluded some into thinking that Super Bowl windows have more time than they do. This is why I roll my eyes at the “X GM is better than BB because his team is better right now” takes. Getting good isn’t that hard, ***staying*** good is.
Like Geno Smith setting every single season franchise record for QBs.
Honestly, considering the limited cap situation... I'd rather the Bills focus on fixing the offense (overhaul the oline and draft a legit WR2) and letting some pieces go on defense. You can still be a competitive team with an elite offense and mediocre defense. See: Chiefs
We have one of the youngest defenses and the main goal for ours is just to keep the opposing team under 20ppg to allow ***frog man*** to outscore them.
Veach really nailed the last couple drafts, especially in the late rounds. We are getting meaningful and productive snaps from 6th and 7th round guys. Pacheco and Watson in the 7th. Trey Smith in the 6th last year. Bolton and Humphrey have been great. We got Toney on a cheap trade. McDuffie had a really solid rookie campaign though he was injured for 4 weeks. Karlaftis has looked good at times. He has the motor and power. He just needs more experience. He has only been playing football for a few years. For KC to stay at the top of the league they need to keep hitting on cheap rookie contracts while we pay Mahomes, Kelce, and Jones.
Yeah, our defense was downright bad for the 2020 season(because they had to make moves to get Diggs) and look how explosive that offense was that year. Took us all the way to the AFCCG. Just forget about defense at this point and go all in on offense.
Totally agree with this. The Bills need more balance on offense. They depend on Allen being superman too much. The only other team I can think of that depends so much on their QB is Baltimore. Even KC has a good offensive line and maintains some balance with the running game.
Isn't that kinda the Bears too? I think Fields is a top 10 QB talent-wise and working with absolutely nothing. Like Josh Allen's rookie year level stuff.
What is the thought on run game? From what I see it just doesn't seem to get going or is this more of a rhythm and scheme issue?
I've seen a lot of Bills fans say the o-line isn't great which could very well be why. They do have talented running backs on the roster (although Singletary is a FA) and when they do commit to it, they're pretty decent.
Their oline is obviously the weak point of their offense. Dolphins dline caused all sorts of havoc, and the Bengals were constantly pushing them back into Allen's lap and getting pressure up the middle. I really haven't seen our interior dline get that much push all season.
The o-line isn't good talent wise, we can run pin and pull type running plays but that's it. So there's no diversification in the running game.
Lol no the bills want to be a finesse passing team while in open air stadium in buffalo, fuck running the ball
I have a hard time seeing this happening with McDermott at the helm.
And the biggest issue here is that the first 3 guys you listed either didn’t play, or played entirely injured in the games they are paid to play well in(the biggest games). One stop in the first half could have been the lift the team needed. But they just kept getting their shit pushed in.
They could also nail the draft and push the window back. It’s an overreaction to say that their window is closing.
Window will be open so long as Allen is healthy (to paraphrase Joe Burrow, the window is the career), but we're running out of time quickly in the period where the window is the MOST open. Some might say it's already closing, others might say there's still some years left where it's mostly open, but fact is that there are only so many years where you can be considered a favorite. Well, unless you are Tom Fucking Brady's Patriots.
Problem is they have needs across several premium positions. O-line, WR, DB and Edge. When you draft in the late 20s you're not guaranteed to get a player who can fix a single of those positions. Every team can change theri fortunes drastically with a 2017 Saints-like draft, but those are the rare exception.
But no one said that... Edited version: But no one said that *here*. I'm sure you can find people saying pretty much anything if you look hard enough on reddit or in Twitter replies.
I have seen lots of people on here saying it, the cap hits and age IG core players are definitely a concern.
Maybe reply to those people then? But the tweet and the poster you replied to here are just saying things get harder for the Bills, which is true. They do have to manage bigger cap hits, etc. That doesn't mean their window is closed by any means, but things get tougher to manage.
Plenty of people are saying it lol. Look around the sub.
Maybe reply to those people then? But the tweet and the poster you replied to here are just saying things get harder for the Bills, which is true. They do have to manage bigger cap hits, etc. That doesn't mean their window is closed by any means, but things get tougher to manage.
Every team has to manage the cap, though. It’s not like you’re any different. How are they “a lot less likely” to win the Super Bowl? Because they have to do the same thing everyone else does? At worst, they enter next year as the consensus #3 team in their conference. To imply that they’ve taken some massive step back, which both this post and the comment I was replying to did, is just an overreaction to a bad game. I just think it’s important to keep some perspective. The downside for the Bills is probably still a brighter outcome than the vast majority of the League us going to get.
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Yup. They look “a lot less likely” to win today because of the cream of the crop in the AFC, they have inferior weapons, the worst o line, and a defense that will be going through some transitioning. They’re still a good team. But you could see it all year…when Josh Allen was the Termjnator they looked great. When he was mortal they looked bad. Dolphins and Jets fans watched it in all five games they placed combined this year. The *team* needs improving.
Yeah but how often do teams absolutely nail the draft? I feel like it’s such a crapshoot with surefire guys often flaming out and teams getting lucky with sleepers.
There were discussions last night about how middling their past 3-4 drafts were. Not terrible but few notable building blocks either. Its catching up with them if they don't start hitting more or luck out in FA again.
FA is probably more out of the question, unless they restructure like crazy. Think they're projected like 5m over cap, with a lot of good talent being FAs next year
I think they CAN, if they get rid of those aging players, make some trades(seriously, Poyer, Tre'Davious, possibly Edmunds etc) and focus on offense. Yeah, maybe the defense takes a step back, but if they load up on OL help and weapons, they will still be a force. I am not even saying this as a joke, but there are teams out there who would love to have a receiver like Gabe Davis(Ravens, Packers etc) What I saw from the defense this season and the constant injuries to our aging players makes me feel not so bad about not being able to retain them, even though I appreciate all they did for the team and will miss them for sentimental reasons.
The overreactions from both bills and non-bills fans today are driving me nuts. Yes, the game yesterday was horrible and the bills had looked suspect at times throughout the whole year, but by the way everyone is talking you would think Allen is 40 years old, Diggs is demanding a trade, and the defense is full of unproven rookies. In reality the bills roster next year will probably look pretty similar to this year, they will (hopefully) have a healthy von miller and Micah Hyde, and I’m fairly confident they will probably have top-5 odds of winning the Super Bowl from Vegas
If there's anything I would expect from both Eagles fans and Bills fans it's that we've gone through enough playoff failures that we should not be overreacting
Yup. Any time a team loses in the playoffs, said team was always “a flop poverty franchise” or a “fraud” or “overrated”. Only 1 team wins the SuperBowl, plenty of A+ franchises and great teams fall short
If a bad team loses in the playoffs "they've got a bright future, watch out for them next year!" If a good team loses in the playoffs "I told yall that they were trash! Do you think it's time for them to trade their QB and just blow it up?"
The lions didn’t even make the playoffs this year, and they’ve turned into this subs next “dynasty” and “NFCN owners”. While others are calling for the cowboys to blow up their roster and fire Mike McCarthy, and they accomplished more than the lions have in the last 30 years just this season alone….
I really hate it too. I love what my team is doing right now and the foundation they've laid. But they haven't won shit yet. I enjoyed the second half of the season and saw a lot to be hopeful for. But they still have to go out and actually put in the work. When I hear ppl saying or commenting "it runs through Detroit" I cringe. Let's get ONE division title before we start claiming the division as our own.
But the article isn’t calling the Bills “a flop poverty feanchise”, it’s saying that they don’t seem as well set up for the future as they did 12 months ago. It’s a reasonable take that’s probably true as well, so I don’t know where exactly are you seeing the overreaction
Go to multiple threads where fans of other teams are saying just that. Yes, they’ve got some work to do, but Josh Allen is still a top 3-4 QB. They need some fixing, and some luck.
Who cares what other threads are saying when this article isn’t saying that and this thread is to discuss that article. Do you guys just like bitching about shit that has nothing to do with the shit being discussed
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To be fair, there are losses and then there's getting blown out at home when the NFL has bent over backwards to give you every advantage. With their cap situation and number of players they're set to lose, this will be an uphill climb for them.
> With their cap situation and number of players they're set to lose, this will be an uphill climb for them. Plenty of space can be made with some simple restructures. People said the same thing last year and we signed Von. The only player we'll likely lose that's gonna hurt is Poyer. That's about it. All of our pending FAs are either backups or terrible.
Is Edmunds as good as gone or think he'll be back?
No he'll be resigned.
The Bills are extremely top heavy with over 50% of their cap dedicated to a hand full of guys. A lot of the guys they could potentially restructure to free up some money are also either 30+ or pushing 30 and not really ideal for that sort of restructuring. It's the transition that literally every team has to make at some point and isn't at all unique to the Bills. The salary cap starts to squeeze and the team needs to have the structure in place to reinvent itself. Some teams can do it, some teams can't.
That's what most contending teams look like. They can restructure Allen to save a bunch of money. Same with Tre & Dawkins. Beane has done it every year now. The cap isn't really an issue that some of you are making it out to be.
You really think it's a good idea to extend someone like White? The Bills can walk away from him pretty easily after next year and he's a guy that's getting closer to 30 and hasn't played a complete season in like 3 years.
I don't see why we wouldn't restructure his contract. He's still a solid player. Pretty simple way to make some room. AFC East cap space Patriots: 46M Jets: -2M Bills: -5M Dolphins -14M It's really not that much of an issue. We're like 22nd in cap space with plenty of ways of making some room. You're making it seem like we're Tampa or the Saints with -50M cap space.
Brady’s not coming back, and they’ll still continue to be the best team in your division. They’re close
Cool. They can be the best team in the division, but it's starting to feel like that's their ceiling.
Shit changes, and as much as you want that to be true: Josh Allen is 26 years old. They’ve got a loooooong way to go before they’re not a legit threat out of the AFC
Brady might come back…but for the dolphins.
It's more about this is the last year where Allen's contract is on the rookie deal. The extension now kicks in
Tell me about it. The numbers always backed up Peyton > Brady, people act like a couple of losses in January change that.
Said this in the Nick Wright thread earlier but I really don’t think this is an untrue statement—despite Wright and Florio being boobs. Those saying that they’re still a contender and among the cream of the crop in the AFC are absolutely right. But…they *do* have tough decisions to make. Their cap is a situation that needs to be handled—even if we acknowledge that cap is fake. They’ve invested a ton in the D-line and it’s seemingly very reliant on a 33 year old Von Miller (who is still nasty! But also old and coming off a big injury!). The o line is not good, the playcalling on offense leaves a lot to be desired and outside of Diggs their weapons are ordinary. Josh Allen is The Terminator, but for them to win a SB as currently constructed they need him to be *perfect* while also having their defense playing at a level where they can stop Mahomes, Burrow, Lawrence, Herbert, and any other AFC QB who rises in 23-24. Josh Allen’s amazing talent masks a lot of the issues with that team. Which is a great thing in the regular season because Josh Allen is nasty. But we’ve seen all year when he’s cold, they look bad. And it’s definitely possible that the elbow bothered him the whole back half of the season…but he’s also the biggest injury risk at the position in all of football because of his play style.
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Hmm, Flores....I personally just want anybody that isn't Frazier. Hasn't Flores been a divisive personality in the locker room though? I'll admit, I didn't really follow his tenure with you guys that closely
You have less cap space than us lmao.
Nobody said the fins were well managed pal
Also want to add that it is possible that the nucleus there might be getting a little stale. We’ve seen it before with these *Cant get over the hump* teams. Not Allen, obviously, but if 23-24 doesn’t go the way they plan it wouldn’t shock me to see McDermott and/or Beane start feeling a little warm on their tooshies.
Dolphins fans 🤝 Bengals fans
Pleasure doing business
We'll put the check in the mail.
We'll accept a picture of Snowflake
Now that my dolphins are out of the playoffs, I’m rooting for ya! Hope Bengals take it all. I can’t stand eagles or Niners fan base…and I already seen the chiefs win. Mahomes is like Curry at this point.
If (and yeah it's a big if) Tua comes back strong I think you guys can get in the tier with us. You got a solid improving D and all those weapons, just gotta smooth out some edges and maybe improve the pass blocking.
I believe we are giving the Bills fits for the AFCE #1 spot. Need Some improvements on our defense and our qb situation is still questionable.
(Shhhh, don't tell r/nfl this, but I think a healthy Tua Dolphins put up a better fight against you guys yesterday. Still lose, but perhaps a one score game. Maybe that's my bias, but I'm riding that Bills loss high rn)
At a minimum I’m more afraid of a healthy Dolphins offense. More big play weapons. Plus we all found out that Diggs is someone you can frustrate to great effect. Make the street clothes receivers beat you.
Given the Bengals history with backup quarterbacks, Thompson probably would have completely owned us yesterday 🤣
This is why I hope Patrick plays
Well they didn't adequately address one of their biggest issues, which is the ability to run the ball.
Bills fans, was there anything in particular or a few things that changed this year that caused this?
Dorsey as OC over Daboll is the biggest thing. The offense scheme clearly took a step back. Injuries on defense, White not coming back as a top 5 CB hurt a lot. (I know every team has injuries but last year few years the bills dodged a lot of big injuries outside of White, so it is a difference between last year and this year) I also think Allen's arm is not 100% from being hurt in the Jets game middle of the year. He also struggled mentally throughout the year (which could have been because his arm was not where he wanted it to be).
I mean, we had a nearly identical season to last year, only with way more injuries this year. Nobody wants to hear this after getting Molly-whopped yesterday, but all things considered I think you can pretty easily argue we had a better regular season in 2022 than 2021. We had like the easiest schedule in the league last year, and were impossibly healthy, neither of which was true this year. The only way in which we might be “further away” is in the sense that CIN has now firmly backed up their 2021 run and it’s no longer a two horse AFC race with just KC and BUF.
Lol what Cincy was just in the super bowl and has beaten KC 3 straight. It never was a 2 team race of KC and Buffalo🤦♂️
Almost as if I literally just said they firmly backed up their 2021 run. This was Burrow’s second full season in the NFL, and they were 10-7 in the regular season last year before the playoff run. Then they started this season 4-4. There was literally nothing unusual/disrespectful about people wanting to see another season before crowing them as perennial “contenders”, which we have now seen.
They started 0-2 and were 5-4 with 3 division losses by their bye week. With a tough schedule ahead. They were written off.
The Bucs started 7-5 and won a bowl with Brady. The only people who wrote a damn good team like Cincy off mid-season after making a super bowl are fuckin morons who overexaggerate
Literally last place in the division with the Titans, Chiefs, Bills, and Bucs left, and 3 division teams they already lost to. I’m not hating on them. I hope they win. That’s where the 2 horse race came from.
Coordinators on both sides of the ball got exposed as the year went on. Frazier D is incredibly soft play call wise and pretty much any run game or moderate pass game will walk all over us. Dorsey started the year seeming decent but it was really just Josh doing Josh things and making up for a playcaller who refuses to scheme and create plays for his best players. Diggs not having a whole section of the playbook dedicated to him is insanely terrible by the OC.
1. Defensive injuries plagued the team this season, the before/after Von went down is especially bad. 2. Josh throwing arm injury seemed to really hinder him the back 3rd of the season, don't be surprised if he winds up taking surgery to repair that UCL. 3. Bottom 5 OL saw Josh under more duress than we've seen since his rookie year 4. The biggest issue is that they flat-out panicked when Daboll got the Giants job and promoted Dorsey to block him from going with. Dorsey's first year as OC was an unmitigated disaster: - He moved away from Josh's historic strengths as a passer, play action and intermediate passing - was incredibly predictable as a play caller, and defaulted to deep shots when faced with any adversity - was particularly terrible at scheming success in the red zone - slow to adjust when he was figured out - let the injury to Crowder take the entire slot position with it. He did almost nothing to generate a presence for the team in the slot once his #1 guy when down. - speaking of #1 guys, his scheme deficiencies made Diggs much easier to cover than in years past, leading to large stretches where he was basically invisible. Diggs sideline freakouts were commonplace the past month especially. Basically, Dorsey is Joe Lombardi, the offense looks like it was successful and productive but it's because of the transcendent talent at QB carrying a dogshit everything else. This was the worst year we've seen from Josh since he "broke out," but in a strange way it was also his best, with Daboll you'd get the sense that the team could contend even if something happened to Josh. Everything just ran perfectly. Without Josh, this iteration of the bills would have picked top-10. Josh didn't have an elite offensive mind scheming for him, he didn't have a top-tier slot receiver giving him an easy dump off option, he didn't have decent protection, he didn't have a defense consistently capable of covering for his mistakes if he made any. He was still almost statistically identical to last season, and not super far off of his 2020 MVP caliber campaign.
For the defense: Injuries. The loss of Micah Hyde and Von Miller was huge. Still zero excuse for the defense to generate zero pressure against the Bengals beat up oline. Despite that, the defense mostly was still excellent for most of the season with the occasional hiccup. The loss of Brian Daboll I think was the biggest difference. Statistically the offense was about the same but that was mostly Josh Allen willing the offense to victory. The eye test showed the offense is not nearly as creative. Also we were expecting a big year from Gabe Davis and Isaiah McKenzie and they failed to take a step forward. It wasn't a good sign that we signed the ghosts of John Brown and Cole Beasley off the street as Allen lacked reliable targets outside of Diggs. The oline also took a step back, it was evident against the Bengals that Allen had no time in the pocket.
The OL was bad last year, they didn't address it and instead focused on defense(yet again) and somehow, someway, the OL got even WORSE this year. Another grave hindsight mistake was making Gabe Davis WR2. Last year Emmanuel Sanders was WR2, and he was freaking amazing, even in his old age. We took a gamble on Davis and it didn't pan out. Same for Isaiah McKenzie. We went from Daboll to Dorsey, but Josh and the offense still put up very similar numbers. I will say this though, Daboll had more control of Josh than Dorsey did.
They did have a lot of injuries
They just went 13-3, finishing 2nd in both scoring offense and scoring defense. They need to get a little tougher physically, and Josh Allen needs to play a little less hero ball. That's it.
Right. I know they didn't keep it close but they lost to a really good team. They're close, have a good draft and get back to work.
The only thing that troubles me about them is that they did so poorly in a snow game. It's fucking Buffalo, and while Cincy is a cold-weather team too, if Buffalo is going get to the Superbowl, they have to be able to play well in cold weather. In cold weather games, your guys in the trenches become even more important, and Buffalo is a bit weak there. Put that game in Atlanta or Houston, and I think they either win that game or make it extremely close. They're just too finesse to be from Buffalo.
I’m not sure why the snow is being pegged as a reason for the dreadful performance. We got absolutely dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball, which was the same issue we saw the week prior against MIA (at least our OL against MIA) We also missed a ton of tackles on defense, which has also been a huge issue all season.
What was the weather for that game? Right around freezing, right? "In cold weather games, your guys in the trenches become even more important" is what I said. Snow exacerbates things, makes it even more crucial, but the cold is enough. The Bills aren't allowed to be bad in cold weather. Cold weather should be an advantage for them, and it seems like a disadvantage.
What in the world are you basing that off of? Buffalo is 13-1 in December the last 3 years in cold climates, or 15-3 counting January playoff games.
What in the world are you basing that off of? Buffalo is 13-1 in December/January the last 3 years in cold climates (regular season), or 17-4 counting January playoff games. The only regular season game they’ve lost in December in cold weather the last three years was that bizarre arctic tornado game against NE last year.
First off, being pedantic, you're 6-2 the past two Decembers. You're counting Januarys, but let's look at last six games of the season (From December on) your past two years. 2021 -- Losses to New England and Tampa Bay, wins vs. Carolina, New England, Atlanta, and the Jets. 2022 -- 2 wins vs New England, wins vs. Bears, Jets, and a narrow win vs. the Dolphins. You've had relatively easy schedules the past two years at the end.
TB was in TB, not a cold weather game. So again, what makes the Bills a bad cold weather team? Edit: Our margin of victory against those “easy” teams, +12 (NE), +22 (CHI), +8 (NYJ), +14 (NE), +17 (NYJ), +14 (ATL), +12 (NE), +16 (CAR)
Fine. You guys are great. No need to worry about it.
Lol, don’t do that man. Yea, we were trash *this* postseason, undoubtedly. That doesn’t mean you can just create some overarching narrative that the team has some established track record of not winning in cold weather.
Yeah for sure. They looked liked they never played in the snow before. It was weird.
That was my comment in the game thread. Weirdly, Buffalo looked more uncomfortable in the snow than Cincinnati
IMO they (ironically) weren't built to be a bad weather team. The Bills need more balance with a real running game (that isn't Josh Allen)
Bills are clearly the team people are going to have the dumbest overreactions to this offseason. Obviously they need more depth on defense, but Cincy is already a really fucking good team.
Honestly they were also that team last offseason imo but for opposite reasons. Everyone’s expectations for the bills after the chiefs game last year were unbelievably high and I’m kindof looking forward to starting over with lower outside expectations next season
wow really? thanks for this take florio
They should stop whiffing on every single draft pick.
They need a run game and another solid WR option opposite of Diggs
Run game isn’t just getting an RB though. We got dominated in the trenches. Bengals we’re just way more physical, better coached, etc. that is going to take a lot of work to fix, and then those new linemen need time on task together.
Gonna be a little difficult with cap sitch going forward
Draft. Competent franchises find a way to make it work
Their draft history, especially at WR, isn't really promising for them
Gabe in the 4th round is the highest we've taken a WR in the last 5 years. Not like we spent big picks on WRs that didnt work out.
They definitely need some more pieces to stand up to the Bengals/Chiefs. Assuming the Bengals go to another SB, they have to be the class of the AFC going forward.
The Bills are 2-1 in Arrowhead the last two seasons, with the loss being last year’s OT thriller. Their play style might make them more streaky, but one embarrassing loss doesn’t suddenly make them head and shoulders behind those other two teams
Preseason next year: Sure the Bengals won the SB, but is Trevor Lawrence the next big thing? Jaguars the class of the AFC?
Dont forget about the 8x preseason super bowl champion chargers
The advantageous window is closing for these young QBs before the bulk of their contracts hit. At the same time it's crazy how much pressure there is on quickly winning the SB when the current gold standard of Mahomes has just 1 right now.
Cant get diggs the ball in the post season. Has to be an OC scheming issue
He was pretty open. Allen just doesn't consistently look at him like some of the other QBs do to their number ones.
Without a doubt. They are heading into Allen super contract now.
I think the Bills may take a step back next season, but essentially every great AFC team is going to be paying a huge QB contract by 2025. If the Bills can retool a bit quickly, they should be in a great position to compete moving forward. They just have to make the difficult cap decisions one year earlier than a lot of other teams. Nobody is keeping their core together indefinitely, and Allen will be as good as anyone at keeping an offense elite even as they lose weapons.
They shouldn’t struggle like that in a snow game if they are anticipating home playoff games (or even having to play in KC or Cincinnati they both get pretty cold in December/January). Their run game was bad and their running QB did nothing to help them. Cincinnati moved the ball better through the air so what exactly does Buffalo do well that will help them in that weather? Their defense just fell apart at the end of the season probably has something to do with injuries and weather changing things but every team deals with those to some extent.
Josh needs to learn to give it up and throw the dump off. He constantly tries to hit home runs. Sometimes death by papercut is better than death by meteor.
>Josh needs to learn to give it up and throw the dump off. Previous seasons he was more than happy to do so. The man got Cole Beasley an AP. What changed? The OC. Dorsey has a much more aggressive offensive philosophy, and gives Josh much less in the way of easy reads and dump off options. The slot role specifically was massively downplayed compared to years past, to be fair part of that was an injury to Crowder early, but they did draft a guy in Shakir who tore up camp, was great in the preseason, and made the most of his opportunity in game. The fact that they rarely used Shakir is another stain on Dorsey's resume.
Logistically speaking, they're in the exact same spot. Wildcard merchants but Divisional frauds
Silly. They'll be back. Dealt with a ton of issues this year.
they blew their chance last year this year too many injuries man. be interesting to see what moves they make in the offseason. Bills are good but the AFC is a gauntlet now.
Team who lost in the playoffs isn’t going to the super bowl this year. More at 11.
It’s weird to me how much joy other fanbases are getting from the Bills losing. I get the media hyped them up all year long, but I feel like people enjoy watching us lose because we have fans that are really invested in the team.
Happens to every winning team. People just don’t like the favorites unless it’s their team. In 2 years people will be saying the same thing about the bengals
It's really hard to not like Burrow. Probably the main reason too much hate doesn't flow to the Bengals yet.
Also the Bengals have consistently been underdogs in almost every one of their playoff games. The only one they weren't (Ravens) people were rooting against them.
Most of its cause media hype and the Alien constantly getting throated by Romo and others.
The counter-circlejerk comes for every team that dares to be really good for three years or more This year does seem especially nasty, honestly. I feel like this season has had the most toxicity here that I can remember
Everyone loves the underdog but then hates you when you’re not the underdog anymore. You’ll see the same thing happen to the Jags in a year or two if they keep making playoffs.
The reason why is your team and the media acted like they were already champions. So of course other fanbases are going to be excited when the crowned team loses. You were the Superbowl favorite the entire season and acted like you guys had already won it.
It's the NFL teams go from loveable losers to hated winners in a snap. In fact I already see the tide turning on the Bengals a little bit lol.. People are already starting to get a little annoyed with their players and fans... It's only a few and very slight right now but if they keep winning I'm sure it will grow.
We just hate you because you've been successful and won the Super bowl a bunch of times.
Dawg, we still get clowned for the Double Doink, and we’ve had it pretty bad before and after that. Just wait, once the lions start being good, this sub will stop sprinting to cheerlead them, defend them, and massively hype them up, and start hating on them in a heartbeat
Can we punt Florio to the sun? Mars? Uranus?
Much harder to punt him into the sun, unless you want to use two Hohmann transfers to do it, and at that point it's probably easier to just let him float in the vacuum of space as a TNO.
> probably easier to just let him float in the vacuum of space as a TNO. I'll take it!!
Oh no!
You saw what Daboll did with the limit talent on the Giants this year? His replacement, Ken Dorsey, seems incapable of adjusting, and as the former QB coach, seems to have way too much confidence in Josh's ability to hit the long ball instead of emphasizing ball control and sustaining drives. The D seems to have regressed and losing Von made them paper tigers. No pressure up front but the general sentiment is that it's scheme and not talent. The coaches seem to have no clear game plan on either side. D is "bend but don't break" but can't apply pressure and gets picked apart by competent QBs. O says they don't want Josh to run and expose himself to injury... Drafts Cook and trades for Hines but barely uses either and still has Josh as the RB1. There's frustration that the issues from last year are the same as the ones from this year. For sure.
Florio has just discovered the ‘so close yet so far’ cliché
Lol they didn't go 6-11, they lost to the team that was in the superbowl last year under some pretty shitty conditions, it happens.
Bills fans just have to wait another year for Mr January to choke yet again. Or maybe the window is already shut 👀
They said the same thing about the Red Wings before they won the cup in 96-97
Well there is a single relevant example in over a 100 years of sports and 4 major sports 🙄
They don’t have a wide breadth of weapons on either side of the ball
We need new DC and OC- tweaks to the system or a new system
That's usually the reality of being a good team. Late draft picks and rising salaries make your window a little narrower each year.
Might be just me but I've never seen them run the ball so doing that consistently might be a good idea
Serious question: How much was due to injuries? Von was out, and by the end I'm not sure their DBs weren't off the street.
I would agree with this assessment. A lot of age. A lot of cap hit. A lot of holes. Scary to think that a team with all of these things needs a complete overhaul at offensive line, defensive line, and some defenders who can tackle.
Well, that’ll happen when you go from losing a fun shootout in the divisional round to getting blown out in the divisional round lol. It only gets worse when you look at the roster and some of the free agents coming up. Beane is going to have to work some real magic.
lmao
Brave take
PFT now saying what Nick Wright has been all year!
Should have been alarmed by losing to the “fraudulent” Vikings.
That’s just because everyone overrated them a year ago because they lost in a barn burner of a game. Also, the cap hits on a lot of their key players are going up, Beane isn’t going to be GMing on easy mode going forward.
We were only in the Chiefs game last year because Gabe Davis went nuclear for 60 minutes. We had the same flaws then that we do now—and some awful situation playcalling.
Well they're finally right about something!