Last month, I was on a boat in Lake Ontario fishing for King and Steelhead Salmon, but as happens every fishing trip, there is a lull where we wait for the fish to start biting again. To fill the space, you talk with the captain and the first mate about… the Buffalo Bills, and from that conversation came these questions. If I could ask Coach McDermott three questions, they would be these.
What is it going to take for the pressures on the QB to translate to sacks?
Over the past few seasons, the consistent success of the Buffalo Bills in the regular season has been due to the many strengths of the team. From superb quarterback play with Josh Allen, to the gelling and ascension of the offensive line as one of the most dominant in the league, to the individual contributions of skill players on both sides of the ball, the Bills have one of the best rosters in the NFL.
But when I asked the first mate of the boat why he doesn’t think we can win the Super Bowl this year, he said that the basic playoff problem still exists.
Despite significant investment along the defensive line, including drafting 11 defensive linemen since drafting Josh Allen, the ability to pressure and get home to the QB has been lacking, especially in the biggest moments. Hail Murray… 13 seconds. Now, to be fair, when they have been successful, it has swung the game in the Bills’ favor, including last year’s success in forcing Lamar Jackson into errors that gave the Bills the decisive advantages they needed.
One thing many Super Bowl winners have in common is their ability to get to the QB in the biggest games. The ‘21 Rams and the ‘15 Broncos tied the record for sacks in a Super Bowl with 7 sacks apiece. The current champs got to Patrick Mahomes 6 times in the final game of the season.
It is, of course, possible to win the big game without having a handful of sacks, but Brandon Beane and Coach McDermott have both been quite vocal about their investments along the defensive line and needing to impact the quarterback. Joey Bosa, Deone Walker, TJ Sanders, and Landon Jackson join the rotation of Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, AJ Epenesa, and Daquan Jones, and in doing so have announced that they want to win the Big Game in the same manner as the Eagles did last year… by affecting the QB.
In this game, my question will begin to have an answer if the Bills scheme pressure in a better way than simply lining up and relying on guys to win their 1-1s in a straight line in only 2.66 seconds, which was the average time it took QBs to pass against us last year. Let’s see 2 sacks and some interior pressure, while still maintaining contain on the edges to limit Lamar Jackson’s scrambling.
Do players get rusty without preseason snaps?
One of the notable shifts for the Bills and many other teams this season is the usage of players in the preseason. Before the new League rules, it was like clockwork.
Game 1: Starters play 1-2 series if not a full quarter.
Game 2: Starters play the first quarter.
Game 3: Starters play the full first half.
Game 4 was entirely for developmental players and bottom-of-the-roster evaluations.
This season, some teams held to something like that with both the Bears’ and Giants’ starters playing significant snaps against the Bills’ backups.
For the Bills, the focus instead seemed to be on developmental reps and getting snaps for newly acquired players, allowing them time to work within the system in a live game scenario.
Josh Allen and James Cook both had exactly 0 preseason snaps this season. If the mindset is to prevent injury before games mean anything, why have them practice at all then? All the injuries the Bills have sustained haven’t been in games; they’ve been in practice, especially drills, where the players’ guards have been down.
I’m not actually advocating for having no practice or forcing all players to play during preseason games, but will we see the Bills starters struggle to get into a stride in a game where the margin will likely not tolerate a quarter or a half of a slow start? If so, those who question the decision-making of the Bills’ coaching staff will have even more material with which to base their case.
Will we see yet another sleeper CB emerge for the Bills’ D?
Just imagine for a moment.
It’s third and 9 in the opening drive. Christian Benford lines up opposite Rashad Bateman. Taron Johnson takes Zay Flowers. And lining up across from DeAndre Hopkins is … 6th round pick Dorian Strong. Lamar scrambles for an extra second, allowing Hopkins to run a sluggo, but due to the pressure, Jackson throws off his back foot, causing the ball to slow, and Dorian uses his 6’2 frame and inside position to reach up and snag the pick.
What kind of chaos would that cause? WGR would be inundated with calls for every single possibility at starting QB, some for Tre, some for Max, some for Dorian.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a late-round draft pick (ala Christian Benford) emerged to be a dominant player at the CB position under the tutelage of Sean McDermott. In the third preseason game, Dorian Strong only played a handful of snaps and was taken out of the game before JaMarcus Ingram and Dane Jackson, indicating that he is higher up the depth chart. Will McDermott give the rookie a huge responsibility in this first game against one of the best offenses in the conference? Or will he go with his normal pattern of trusting guys who know the system over players who have more upside?
Of course, none of that is possible if Ja’Marcus Ingram gets the start over him as the steady system player.
Today feels like Christmas Eve!
The anticipation of the weekend struck me hard today as I realized there is only one more sleep until the Bills’ game. While the first week doesn’t determine the fate of the season, it can go a long way to answer the biggest questions that the offseason has brought. Whether those answers are comforting or problematic remains to be seen. And that’s why they play the games. All we have left to do is to say…
