Buffalo Bills 2019-2020

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, shrader said:

Most unanimous?

Highest percentage of votes. Most unanimous is a bad term, I'll admit that ? 

[shrader]

Just now, WildCard said:

Highest percentage of votes. Most unanimous is a bad term, I'll admit that ? 

Well maybe if you stopped sniffing that glue while your mom is upstairs with all the Santas...

[Hank]

4 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Me: "I'd prefer a head coach who was more philosophically in line with the landscape of the league."

You: "OMG how dare you expect perfection from a rookie coach!" 

Talk about awful. ???

I'm with SDS. You come across as someone who's always hated McDermott/Beane and if they were to somehow win a super bowl you'd bitch that they didn't do it the right way and it's not sustainable. 

[That Aud Smell]

10 hours ago, SDS said:

Just. Awful. 

Or maybe we all just give a young HC and GM a ***** moment to gather themselves as they start their new careers and not expect perfect decisions from day one. Jesus, you are comparing Sean’s first couple months on the job to Andy Reid. That’s patently ridiculous. 

And I missed this riposte. Seems a bit overdone, to me.

In a vacuum, I'm with you, Blue, on preferring the way the Chiefs are built to the way the Bills are built.

My point was: This ain't no vacuum. This ain't no disco.

[Doohicksie]

2 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

I got ya ? 

 

This is the perfect introduction for his guy.  It tells you all you need to know about him.  ?

[Hank]

I've been a supporter of McDermott and Beane from day one. This team was a tire fire when the came in. It looks like they started by shedding salery cap and questionable work ethic / malcontent players. Then they focused on improving the D, making it one of the best in the league while also getting the QB of the future. This year they improved the O line and may have added a very good RB. Next year is a very deep WR class, which I think is their biggest need. I think they've done a very good job so far, are trending in the right direction, and the future is bright. I'm excited. 

But for me, the best part about this year hasn't been the record, or the playoffs. It's that my eyes haven't been subjected to the Bible thumping wrassler mcjesus hate of years past. And the mcbeane/mcclappy nonsense has been minimal. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by Hank

[That Aud Smell]

4 minutes ago, Hank said:

But for me, the best part about this year hasn't been the record, or the playoffs. It's that my eyes haven't been subjected to the Bible thumping wrassler mcjesus hate of years past. And the mcbeane/mcclappy nonsense has been minimal. 

This is one of the more Online Things I've read in a minute or two.

My joy as a fan lies not so much in the team's success, but in feeling confirmed that I had a better take than others.

[PalmTreeMafia]

I am willing to respect everyone's opinions here, but  - like Hank posted above -  I'm personally very happy with the way the Bills are being built:

1. An elite defense

2. A top-5 rushing offense.

3. $90+ million in cap space for 2020

4. A group of players who like each other, work hard at their profession, actually like the city of Buffalo, and have a bunch of unique personalities (see: White, Tre'Davious).

5. A constantly improving franchise-caliber QB who has already earned the respect of his teammates (and who, by the way, is currently tied with Russell Wilson for the league lead in both game-winning drives and 4th quarter comebacks...and is also 8th in rushing TD's, ahead of Lamar Jackson).

6. Perhaps most importantly: early results. 2 winning seasons already and 2 playoff appearances in 3 years.

There are many fans frustrated with the passing game and the conservative play-calling on offense. Fair enough. And I will join you in voicing these frustrations if this is still a problem next season. But remember: $90+ million in cap space, a 2020 draft loaded with #1 WR talent, and a starting QB so raw coming out of college that it was almost universally assumed he'd sit for two years before ever seeing the field as an NFL starter. In other words: have patience. A lot of the playcalling issues may simply have to do with the current talent limitations (Gore as a power back is done, no 6-4 clutch possession WR's on the roster, Allen still learning how to read blitz packages, no starting right tackle, etc..).

By the way, the criticism against McDermott and Co. for not drafting Mahomes, Watson, and Jackson is not entirely fair. McDermott has repeatedly stated that he wasn't comfortable making such a crucial franchise QB decision when he first got the job in early 2017 and was having to rely on Whaley's scouts. He was also anticipating the well-hyped 2018 QB class. Lamar Jackson is a unique case. He is probably a QB bust in any other offensive system other than the current one run by Roman and Harbaugh. Besides, a lot of other QB-needy teams passed on Mahomes, Watson, and Jackson. I'd wait another 2-3 full years anyway before assuming all 3 are definitively better than Allen.

Finally, I don't understand the love affair for the Chiefs model of building a team. They should have won a Super Bowl last year with that offense, but they didn't because of a defense that couldn't stop a nosebleed...not to mention their proven playoff choker for a head coach and a couple of star talents who like beating women (Hill, Hunt). I still believe there are multiple ways of building a Super Bowl-caliber roster built for long term success in the modern NFL, one of which includes the current Bills model of an elite defense coupled with a strong running game and a clutch QB. It's also the model that the Patriots, Ravens, and Steelers have been trying to implement in the AFC. The Chiefs and the Texans are doing it a different way. We'll see which has more success in the playoffs this year!

 

 

[Hank]

9 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

This is one of the more Online Things I've read in a minute or two.

My joy as a fan lies not so much in the team's success, but in feeling confirmed that I had a better take than others.

Your right. Discussion is always better when posters inject it with hate speach and witty nicknames to make them feel better about their own ***** lives. Sure your right. 

[LGR4GM]

26 minutes ago, Hank said:

 Then they focused on improving the D, making it one of the best in the league while also getting the QB of the future. This year they improved the O line and may have added a very good RB. Next year is a very deep WR class, which I think is their biggest need. I think they've done a very good job so far, are trending in the right direction, and the future is bright. I'm excited. 

This seems to be almost everyone's sentiment. 

[Eleven]

12 hours ago, TrueBlueGED said:

And the first time we made the playoffs in this run we scored...*checks notes*...3 points. 

It's 2019 in a cap league where elite defenses can be held together for a couple of years before contracts break it all up. The league is built for offenses to win, and the teams with the best offenses win over a longer period than those with defenses. Because one player on offense means a lot more than one player on defense. I think they built the team backwards. If Allen becomes one if the greats it won't matter, but he's sure not there yet. 

Would you rather be the Chiefs or the Bills right now? The baseline shouldn't be two decades of complete organizational ineptitude, it should be teams that win consistently over an extended period of time. 

Win consistently over an extended period of time?  The Chiefs?  Really?

[That Aud Smell]

27 minutes ago, Hank said:

Your right. Discussion is always better when posters inject it with hate speach and witty nicknames to make them feel better about their own ***** lives. Sure your right. 

[Randall Flagg]

43 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

This is one of the more Online Things I've read in a minute or two.

My joy as a fan lies not so much in the team's success, but in feeling confirmed that I had a better take than others.

Eh. I was one of those guys, and I now admit it was reeeeeally annoying, and really cringe.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Marchand'sNose said:

4. A group of players who like each other, work hard at their profession, actually like the city of Buffalo, and have a bunch of unique personalities (see: White, Tre'Davious).

I think it's important to remember the contribution of Kyle Williams in laying the foundation for this.  He was nothing but class through good and bad, and even though many of the current Bills never played with him, the tone in the locker room was influenced by him.

[That Aud Smell]

1 hour ago, Marchand'sNose said:

4. A group of players who like each other, work hard at their profession, actually like the city of Buffalo, and have a bunch of unique personalities (see: White, Tre'Davious).

Man - great post. I want to honk this especially. It really does seem to make a difference.

Of course, the team must first be good enough to win its fair share of games before chemistry can help give an edge. And this team is good enough to be that sort of team.

26 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

Eh. I was one of those guys, and I now admit it was reeeeeally annoying, and really cringe.

That's not my point. I too was a poster who regularly expressed concern with McDermott's approach and grounding principles (mostly the faith-based theme that Pegula laid down at the presser). I had no issue with the wrestling - that was mostly someone else here (@jeffismagic maybe? (sorry if not)). There were specific examples that I cited in detailing my concern - that book McDermott recommended to Beane (some lightweight Christian self-help claptrap (that's strictly MY take, btw)).

I had (and have) a personal aversion to what appears to be McDermott's outlook on the universe. And when the team struggled, I was willing to pin some or much of the struggles on the fact that the HC had an outlook that I deemed ... not well-considered. I posited that faith-based approaches tend to exclude rigorously intellectual reviews of facts and theories (as contrasted with, say, the Machiavellian Belichick). 

But my views on this have evolved, incrementally. At some point in time, I came to realize that a person like me - (overly) intellectual, highly (hyper?) analytical, closer to being effete than tough - is not the sort of person you find on an NFL roster, at least in any appreciable numbers. And I began to sense that McDermott's "shtick" might work quite well in leading an NFL team. And then the team started to put together better performances with limited talent and significant holes on the roster.

So I'm over that aspect of my concerns with McDermott and Beane. There are other concerns, of course. But I'm satisfied that they're smart enough to get the job done (not that they will/must get it done - but they may!), and I'm satisfied that they know how to lead grown-ass men (and can do so quite capably, thanks).

My point was only that @Hank had posted that his principal joy from this season was not the team's record or playoff prospects, but rather was seeing less and less of the McBeane takes with which he disagreed at the outset. Maybe that was just hyperbole, but it struck me as a super online thing to say.  

[WildCard]

I can't be the only one that misses that psychopath jeffismagic

[Doohicksie]

I can't even remember him.

[LGR4GM]

4 minutes ago, WildCard said:

I can't be the only one that misses that psychopath jeffismagic

He put my meltdowns to shame. He was the hybrid form of the snowpeople if you remember them. 

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, LGR4GM said:

He put my meltdowns to shame. He was the hybrid form of the snowpeople if you remember them. 

Can't say I do, the snowpeople were before my time. I've heard them mentioned before though

[LGR4GM]

4 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Can't say I do, the snowpeople were before my time. I've heard them mentioned before though

Like a gale of snow blown in off the lake, they dumped their blizzard of ideas and disappeared just as fast. 

[Eleven]

27 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

He put my meltdowns to shame. He was the hybrid form of the snowpeople if you remember them. 

 

25 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Can't say I do, the snowpeople were before my time. I've heard them mentioned before though

What are the snowpeople?

[triumph_communes]

Pats game will be a preview on whether Allen has overcame the choking or not

[LGR4GM]

28 minutes ago, Eleven said:

 

What are the snowpeople?

You don't remember yellowSnow and there were a few more iterations always with snow in the name. 

[Eleven]

11 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You don't remember yellowSnow and there were a few more iterations always with snow in the name. 

I guess I don't.  Oh well.

[Randall Flagg]

 

Finally my boy Brett does a Bills video