Sean McDermott - Bills

2018

 

Thanks, 6-10.

 

I now get that green = sarcasm.

But I hope the Bills want Tomlin. And that he gets excited about a turn-key operation with a great QB already on the roster.

Don't think it will happen though.

 

Jalen Hurts has a monster contract but the eagles are still loaded like crazy...Structure of the contract matter and the draft is important too

 

Strongly agree with the bolded part.

I do think they're ****ed in that first void year. $97.5MM cap hit (which I don't think can be kicked down the road any further). Could get bigger if they continue to restructure him as his cap hit increases.

They are selling the future. But they've already got 1 SB out of it.

 

The Steelers' only two quarterbacks that have won them anything also seem to get much of the brunt of the criticism. It's a hard thing to understand sometimes because the wins wouldn't be there without them yet blame is still there.

The last several years of Ben's career had some of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. I don't think everyone fully understands how difficult it is to play the position under those conditions. Remember, the game he is talking about started with Pouncey firing the snap over Ben's head into the end zone for a defensive touchdown. The team had centers that couldn't block and couldn't even snap the ball in many instances. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, or any quarterback would have had trouble in that situation as well.

Oh well. The people closest to the situation often don't seem to know what they had. We just watched Aaron Rodgers have a pretty solid year with an offensive line that is light years better than what Ben was playing with the last couple seasons of his career. And Ben still won a ton of games.

I think sometimes people lose perspective.

 

I don't think it's all that hard to understand my position.

I think that Ben was by far the most important part of our team when he was on the team.

I think he deserves the most credit for the wins. I don't think Tomlin or Cowher deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I think Ben should get in without question on the 1st ballot (but I worry because **** Peter King who didn't even vote for Troy).

I also think he deserves the most credit for the losses. He often started slow in games where we needed the O to score early and make the other team one dimensional. And while he very often had magical 2nd half play, the hold he helped dig in 1st halves ended up being too big as he gold older.

I think these are the most painful playoff losses when he was on the team:

• GB SB loss. He threw a pick-6 in a game we lost by less than 7 points. I think many forget about this pick-6 because it happened early and Mendenhall had a stupid fumble later which often gets more of the blame.
• Jacksonville. FWIW, I think they were just a horrible matchup for us. Especially after Shazier got hurt. But here he had a fumble that went the other way for a DTD. We lost by less than 7.
• CLE. Honestly, I blame Pouncey for this game more than Ben. But he had 4 picks (I don't blame him for the last one). I think this was probably the worst game of Ben's career. Sucks that it was against the Browns. FWIW, I also think this was Cam's worst game of his career. Did nothing when his primary matchup was a guy who'd played less than a handful of games at this point.

I still love Ben and what he did for us when he was on the team. He was the biggest reason we won. And also the biggest reason we lost. Because the QB is by far the most important part of any football franchise.

Bringing this back to the Bills...I think this is also true for Allen. They're firing McDermott today. But Allen is the biggest reason they lost that game. Just like the JAX and CLE games, it's hard to imagine how he could play well enough to make it close by the end.

 

I just posted a little while ago that in the Steelers last 6 playoff games, they have allowed their opponents to score an average of 37.33 points per game. I'd like you to name a quarterback that would overcome that.

When you are always behind, you are going to make mistakes trying to make plays because you have to score every time you have the football.

 

and this is smart....The Eagles understand that their window is now, and they will only worry when the time comes, like in 2030 when the Super Bowl window will be a thing of the past.

The Rams did the same thing to win the Super Bowl in 2021 and they only had a down year (2022) after that... Elite front office finds a way

 

The only game that Ben deserve blame is the one against the Browns...The other games before,the defense was often hot garbage or the offense had some injury at the worst possible time like AB or Bell(even williams in 2015)

 

There is always blame. Of course he wasn't great all the time and he had some bad games. There is no disputing that.

The injuries to players and the other bad circumstances are all part of the equation whether it is the coach being evaluated or the quarterback. Just like when Ben was playing with a bum arm and a broken foot. I just don't see any mention of the times he was playing through stuff that maybe some others wouldn't be able to.

I guess everyone has their own view of things.

 

Two things:

1. Ben wasn't involved in half of these.
2. Many of these points were scored by OUR offense AGAINST our team.

I'm not saying that Ben was the only problem. Clearly there have been many other problems. And Tomlin and other players also deserve their fair share of blame (I blame the CLE loss more on Pouncey than Ben even though Ben had 4 turnovers).

• Houston game was close until they scored 2x DTDs.
• Baltimore loss is 100% because the defense didn't show up against the run.
• ****ty weather in Buffalo. Mason Rudolph vs. Josh Allen. This is how that game ends 9 times out of 10.
• KC. I mostly pretend this game didn't happen and that Ben's career ended by beating division rivals at the end of the regular season (oddly, this is the same way I'll probably remember the end of Tomlin's career). We got a DTD and still got blown out. Ben had 44 attempts and 215 yards. I think it's unfortunate that before the game he said "let's just go out there and have fun" or whatever. Because it certainly seemed like the offense wasn't all that competitive in this game. Defense gave out after the first Q. Basically everything sucked about this game.
• CLE. Pouncey spots them 7 on what has to be the worst snap...maybe ever. How you put it feet over Ben f-n Roethlisberger is beyond me. I think they were saying how it was the worst first half for a team in a playoff game ever. Defense certainly sucked. Would have been nice to hold them to FGs on some of the turnovers. As he so often did, Ben made it close in the 2nd half (after a poor 1st half).
• JAX. After losing Shazier, needed the O to come out fast and take away their running game. Instead, we had a horrible first half (certainly a pattern with Tomlin + Ben in the playoffs). A really bad matchup for us. In two games, that Jax defense just owned Ben and our D. Not allowing anything anytime the game was within 10 points in two games.

Certainly the D didn't play well in enough in these 6 games. And the offense also sucked. Every one of these losses was an "everyone sucks here" event IMO (including coaching IMO).

But looking at the points allowed makes the D look even worse than they were. In these 6 games, our O gave up 3 DTDs against and our D did get 1 DTD for.

Still bad D. But better than the 37.3 points makes it look.

Ben wasn't good in the playoffs at the end. But I have never seen a player that could do the impossible more than he did (except maybe Troy...insane they were on the same team).

 

Depends on the goals of the team.

Rooney will never run the team this way because he's more interested in consistently being viable.

He's not like most of the other owners in the league who make their fortunes in some other way and the NFL team is just a toy.

This is the main source of revenue for the Rooneys. And I think they are terrified of being a team like the Browns where they're out of playoff contention by the bye week most years.

 

Will go down as the dumbest coaching move since the hillbillies fired Mike Vrabel.

 

I was lurking in the Bills message board and most of their fans want Tomlin. Their reason is that he went 10-7 every year with terrible QB's so he should at minimum be 14-3 every year with the league MVP at QB.

 

Also...when did Allen win an MVP with Diggs on the team?

 

That's a fair assessment of what happened. I just can't stand when fans turn on great players for one reason or another. I always have to defend Ben when I hear the harsh criticism of him and fans try to lay blame on him as if he got Mike Tomlin fired. It's silly.

It's just like the fans that can't differentiate Mike Tomlin not being able to adapt enough at the end of his career from giving him credit as a young coach that gave this team exactly what they needed to succeed and he took them to two Super Bowls. He was also a great leader of men up until his last second of being the head coach of the Steelers. That was never his weakness, and that strength never waned. It was the other aspects of coaching that caught up to him.

You can think someone has been great but can also acknowledge deficiencies or know when their time is up and they are no longer what they once were. Both things can be true. They are not mutually exclusive. All players like Ben face that, and most great coaches get there if they stay in one place long enough. Ben was a great quarterback. I think Mike Tomlin was a great coach for a long stretch.

 

Stop.... He's had 15 fumbles in the playoffs, and 6 ints.
I like how people like to leave off all the fumbles.

 

Then why are some of the same teams picking in the top ten year after year ?

 

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit I said specifically one game .

 

Maybe you should get a grip on reality 26 TDs 20 turnovers during that time.

 

It’s not a guarantee but you think picking up washed 38 year old QBs scratching and clawing to get 9 wins is the answer? I’ll take my chances.

 

I find it entertaining that people will make more excuses for other teams coaches, and players than their own team.

 

No Allen or Lamar another year…..

Starting to wonder if those guys are going to get one? I think Allen still could but that was a horrible ball security effort. Now we get to watch the damn Pats win 7 SBs.