Im sitting here, a bit bored because there is little action going on. So thinking back to last year, when our Coach, Mike Mularkey, and genral manager, Tom Donohoe, stated, believed, and acted on the idea that even though the Bills were out of the playoffs, it was still vitally important to go with "The Best Chance to Win".
Lots of people endorsed their approach, mainly I think because they wanted to see entertaining football from their team for the last few games.
The conventional wisdom has been however, that when a team is out of the running they use that time to look at their depth, and give them playing time. Maybe that is outdated, but I was in that camp.
So sitting here now, I'm mired in thoughts like, we have Lionel Gates on our roster, but we have no idea how he would perform in a game. The same can be said for a great many of our players. Freddie Smith, Goerge Wilson, etc. Or, did Coy Wire progress enough last year that he will be able to fill in at safety for us? We don't know. We have close to no idea at all, except that he wasn't so hot the last time he had a chance.
Or of course I think about us having JP Losman who no matter how you feel about him, plainly could desperately use a few extra games of experience, if only for us to have a better handle on where he stands.
But we didn't do any of those things. Now I enjoyed the win over the Bengals as much as anybody. And it was at Christmas time too. But sitting here now, I can't think of anything else we got out of the "Win Now" idea. And it doesn't seem worth it for the Bengals game because that is gone and it was fun but it left us I think with more big questions for this year than we should have. I feel like we mortgaged our future for a cotton candy cone of a win against the Bengals.
So, I'm not looking for people to bash or insult either way. But I would appreciate a level discussion about the topic. Looking back, should we have looked to the future and played our depth last year? I think so. But also I wouldn't mind hearing some valid reasons why we got something out of "Win Now" in the meaningless games (with respect to the playoffs). Because sitting hear right now I can't see a thing. I wouldn't mind knowing we got something, anything, out of it. So if folks have some good reasons why that helped us, and they don't have to do with how players "feel", but instead are about how it helped us have abtter team this year, I would appreciate them also.
Lots of people endorsed their approach, mainly I think because they wanted to see entertaining football from their team for the last few games.
The conventional wisdom has been however, that when a team is out of the running they use that time to look at their depth, and give them playing time. Maybe that is outdated, but I was in that camp.
So sitting here now, I'm mired in thoughts like, we have Lionel Gates on our roster, but we have no idea how he would perform in a game. The same can be said for a great many of our players. Freddie Smith, Goerge Wilson, etc. Or, did Coy Wire progress enough last year that he will be able to fill in at safety for us? We don't know. We have close to no idea at all, except that he wasn't so hot the last time he had a chance.
Or of course I think about us having JP Losman who no matter how you feel about him, plainly could desperately use a few extra games of experience, if only for us to have a better handle on where he stands.
But we didn't do any of those things. Now I enjoyed the win over the Bengals as much as anybody. And it was at Christmas time too. But sitting here now, I can't think of anything else we got out of the "Win Now" idea. And it doesn't seem worth it for the Bengals game because that is gone and it was fun but it left us I think with more big questions for this year than we should have. I feel like we mortgaged our future for a cotton candy cone of a win against the Bengals.
So, I'm not looking for people to bash or insult either way. But I would appreciate a level discussion about the topic. Looking back, should we have looked to the future and played our depth last year? I think so. But also I wouldn't mind hearing some valid reasons why we got something out of "Win Now" in the meaningless games (with respect to the playoffs). Because sitting hear right now I can't see a thing. I wouldn't mind knowing we got something, anything, out of it. So if folks have some good reasons why that helped us, and they don't have to do with how players "feel", but instead are about how it helped us have abtter team this year, I would appreciate them also.
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