TrueBlueGED

That's taking it too far. I'm not their biggest fan, but they're not in fireable territory yet. If Allen busts? Yup, then let's talk. But they've been in place for a year and made the playoffs. In spite of my belief they fell back asswards into that success, it still buys them some time.

I don't think he was mad in that somebody ordered him to make the change, I got the sense he truly believes in Peterman and is really frustrated it went so poorly that he had no choice but to make the move. It's definitely too early to judge Lotulelei and Murphy. I'm simply saying the notion that our offense sucks because they had no money to spend on it really isn't true. They had money and chose to use it on the defense.

There is little doubt in my mind that McDermott genuinely believes in Peterman. Well, they give pretty big contracts to both Lotulelei and Murphy. They chose to spend the money they had on defense. Much like they chose to load up this season with dead cap.

Right. The one thing that looks good is Dion Dawkins--getting at least a decent LT with a 3rd round pick is nice. But man, when that's you're only hit...

This is definitely possible, but it doesn't really make me feel any better going forward. If we adopt the Howard Simon theory that they knew the offense would stink, but couldn't fix everything in one offseason, so they opted for defense first....it still leaves us room to evaluate the things they have done on offense. Jordan Matthews, Kelvin Benjamin, Zay Jones, MIke Tolbert, Chris Ivory, Russell Bodine, Marhsall Newhouse, Nathan Peterman....what among their offensive additions would give me any confidence that when they finally do decide to spend an offseason investing in the offense that they'll actually get it right? On merit, I would disagree with the decision to build the defense before the offense when you invested a lot in a QB prospect, but even if I were to put that aside...why should anyone believe in their offensive judgment?

Yea, ultimately I think Karlsson settles into upper-20s to low-30s. They didn't only lose Perron, but Neal as well. Schmidt just got suspended for 20 games. I like Patches and think he rebounds, but if he doesn't, that's a lot of offense that went out the door. I think the team as a whole played a bit above their talent level. I mean, almost literally, the entire roster had career seasons. I don't think they end up a bottom-5 team or anything, but even a drop from the SC Final to bubble playoff team is a pretty significant fall.

I agree, which isn't exactly confidence-inspiring. It's one thing for fans to buy into the hype and be overly hopeful--irrational exuberance is what fans do! I'll snark on it from time to time, but really, fans thinking their team will be better than it's likely to be is about as surprising as the sun coming up in the morning. But I really expect the people in charge of the team to know better. How could they possibly look at this roster and think it would produce anything other than bad football?* Did they really think Tyrod/Dennison were the problems on offense? Did they genuinely just overrate...everything...because they made the playoffs last year? So many questions. *I don't think every week is going to be a less of similar magnitude to the Ravens game. I think the defense will crawl its way to at least mediocre to keep things closer than 40 points. But we're definitely going to do a whole lot of losing. I genuinely believe Smell is on to something with McDermott. We can quibble about the why, but ultimately, I think he respects Peterman the person so much that it's completely skewing his judgment on Peterman the player. Even in the face of clear evidence, beliefs are difficult to change in people.

Vegas:NHL::Bills:NFL Okay, I don't think they crash that hard. But I definitely think last year will be shown to have been more mirage than solid foundation.

"Peterman's five completions on Sunday traveled an average of minus-0.4 yards in the air." From Bill Barnwell's morning column: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24630537/week-1-2018-nfl-replacements-change-season-comes-next

If they genuinely believe what they say publicly (always a huge "if" with coaches/management), I think this is very possibly true. It's one thing to tell the media you like a player's story as a reason for acquiring/starting them...it's quite another to actually like the narrative. They certainly wouldn't be the first coach/GM to buy what they were selling, to their own detriment.

I also don't want my post to be misconstrued as a re-litigation of Ryan's tenure--he was objectively a flop. Mostly, I just think it's an example of how humans are bad at remembering details in general, and especially if there was a favorable end result.

One might argue that looking like a well-coached team in losses was an unearned calling card. 5 of their 7 losses were by double digits: 13, 37, 30, 20, 21. In two seasons, Rex Ryan's teams never lost by more than 17. Now let's compare public perception of coach competence... Credit to Jeremy White for the stat. If it's wrong, blame him!

It continues to blow my mind that this is a thing.

In other news, Rodgers currently has Bledsoe-esque mobility...and he's still awesome. So much fun to watch.

We gave up two 2nds and Cordy Glenn. That's a lot. And the fact that we don't have anything around Allen is, right now, quite the indictment of McBeane. It didn't have to be that way.

Given what we've seen from McBeane, they could spend the next 3 drafts on offensive players and we might still suck on that side of the ball.

Devonte.

In other news, the Patrick Mahomes fear bunker is filling up fast. Granted, he has Andy Reid designing an offense and actual WRs to throw to, but still...

If Bosa is so good that he is clearly the best player in the draft (like Myles Garrett, just for an example), then I stay put. Otherwise I move down. I'm leaning towards he's that good, but I'd like to see the rest of the season play out and have a better handle on the other options available before I lock myself into that position.

In the nobody cares category: My money league fantasy team is off to a great start: have lost both starting RBs (Freeman and Fournette) and my TE (Olsen) to injury.

There are only two positions I'd be okay with staying at #1 for: DE and QB. Anything else, trade down. And we all know that there is no reality in which the Bills draft a QB there, regardless of how this season plays out.

Because there's no need to let our team being bad ruin the entirety of what can make sports fun?

Bill Barnwell‏Verified account @billbarnwell 5m5 minutes ago More The Browns are +5 in takeaways today. Since the Browns returned to the NFL, teams with a turnover margin of +5 or better in a game are 132-4-1. The Browns are responsible for two of those losses and the tie.

Football Perspective@fbgchase Hue Jackson is now a sparkling and symmetrical 1-31-1 as head coach of the Browns.

I can't believe they're going to let Hue Jackson be Baker Mayfield's first coach.