Josh Allen: Exciting to mold team you want

[Woodman]

Josh Allen- Getting younger an exciting opportunity to mold team you want - NBC Sports

Bills quarterback Josh Allen talked about the departure of wide receiver Stefon Diggs for a good chunk of his Thursday press conference, but Diggs is just one of many veterans who have parted ways with the Bills this offseason.

Those departures came on both sides of the ball and they leave the team without a number of the players who played key roles in their recent run of division titles. It also resulted in a significantly younger roster and Allen said he thinks that can be a positive because there’s a chance to shape them in a way you can’t with older players.

[Woodman]

“I don’t think it’s a wrong thing or a bad thing to get younger,” Allen said, via the team’s website. “I think that, as a coaching staff, as a leader, to be able to come in and kind of mold these guys into the team that you want to be, I think there’s a very exciting opportunity.”

Molding a team isn’t an overnight process, but it can’t be a terribly long one either.

[Woodman]

Things just got a lot more interesting ....

[Mace]

They've been moulding on their 8th year, 7 with Allen.

8 years in, Levy was getting ready ro be fired with 6 division championships, 4 conference titles and 4 super bowl appearances, that's a standard for moulding.

[kgun12]

They've been moulding on their 8th year, 7 with Allen.

8 years in, Levy was getting ready ro be fired with 6 division championships, 4 conference titles and 4 super bowl appearances, that's a standard for moulding.

Boy, that's a reality I hadn't thought about! With all the changes this off season, this would have been the best time to make a coach change, so he could have brought in his own type of players.

[sahlensguy]

Diggs dragged the team down. It's Josh's now. No more excuses. And Kincaid will breakout.

[YardRat]

Josh better show up and improve. This season could very well determine the rest of his career, or at least the rest of his time in Buffalo.

[Historian]

They've been moulding on their 8th year, 7 with Allen.

8 years in, Levy was getting ready ro be fired with 6 division championships, 4 conference titles and 4 super bowl appearances, that's a standard for moulding.

Unfortunately, the Bills were his second NFL gig.

A fairer comparison would be to compare McDermott's tenure to Levy's time in Kansas City. (which still isn't an even comparison due to his two Grey Cup Championships)

KC	1978	4	12	0	.250	5th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1979	7	9	0	.438	5th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1980	8	8	0	.500	3rd in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1981	9	7	0	.563	3rd in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1982	3	6	0	.333	4th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC Total		31	42	0	.425

[Mace]

Unfortunately, the Bills were his second NFL gig.

A fairer comparison would be to compare McDermott's tenure to Levy's time in Kansas City. (which still isn't an even comparison due to his two Grey Cup Championships)

KC	1978	4	12	0	.250	5th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1979	7	9	0	.438	5th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1980	8	8	0	.500	3rd in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1981	9	7	0	.563	3rd in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC	1982	3	6	0	.333	4th in AFC West	–	–	–	–
KC Total		31	42	0	.425

A better argument would be that there was no salary cap to disrupt continuity and supposedly miser Ralph was able to actually pay a capable team.

Levy was not a Belichick, he poked in the KC kitchen with his attempt to implement the wing t offense as the NFL was evolving into pass offense. Wing t was a subset of Pop Warners single wing last used early 1900s.,,

He was out of the NFL near 4 years when we hired him. He came back knowing to get out of the way

But he and Polian had a synergy and molded a team.

KC, Baltimore, Cincinnati, etc...are always molding and evolving. If you compare...our program just came to a cold stop to re mold, after 8 years of planning. Molding is not slap patching until you can't anymore. And everyone assumes part time fullback Allen stays healthy.

We're 8 years into molding, maybe it's just me...I don't see anything fresh here but uh oh.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Funny that I had a lot of discussion about champion ship team over the weekend among groom's friends in a wedding I'm attending, a lot of close friends and influenced by alcohol. My stance has always been you need more than one players playing at HoF level, naturally they are mostly future HoF players. The Bills has only one, even though he's at the most important position. Von is no longer at that level, and Diggs is not. The Chiefs had many, even the Bengals looks to be ahead of the Bills in that department. So whatever you call it, "mold team you want", it's about getting guys with those potentials.

The Bills team building model is the most difficult path to mold that team, because they got the QB first. And while the QB was developing, going thru this pain process which allows the team to still have a better chance in position to draft difference makers, they went the FA and trade route. It helped Allen to develop, but you also know you are NOT getting a HoF-in-his-prime player because those ones are generally not available in the market.

Look the modern era teams winning superbowls. Brady, Roethlisberger all had a team built minus the QB: they had those HoF level guys in other positions. Once the HoF QB showed up, even in his early years, they won with the collective team. Mahomes had Kelce and Jones and Hill when he showed in KC. Even Payton Manning had Marvin Harrison and Marshall Faulk already on the team. The Colts traded Faulk for drafting James, another HoF. But they got a bad coach in Mora. They leveraged Mora's bad 6-10 season to draft another HoF Freeney. And they also got Reggie Wayne which is pretty much Diggs level.

Now look at the Bills. What do they have? They got a James, but not Edgerrin James. Anyone whose career on the path of Freeney, Marvin Harrison? They need to start from this draft.

[sahlensguy]

Funny that I had a lot of discussion about champion ship team over the weekend among groom's friends in a wedding I'm attending, a lot of close friends and influenced by alcohol. My stance has always been you need more than one players playing at HoF level, naturally they are mostly future HoF players. The Bills has only one, even though he's at the most important position. Von is no longer at that level, and Diggs is not. The Chiefs had many, even the Bengals looks to be ahead of the Bills in that department. So whatever you call it, "mold team you want", it's about getting guys with those potentials.

The Bills team building model is the most difficult path to mold that team, because they got the QB first. And while the QB was developing, going thru this pain process which allows the team to still have a better chance in position to draft difference makers, they went the FA and trade route. It helped Allen to develop, but you also know you are NOT getting a HoF-in-his-prime player because those ones are generally not available in the market.

Look the modern era teams winning superbowls. Brady, Roethlisberger all had a team built minus the QB: they had those HoF level guys in other positions. Once the HoF QB showed up, even in his early years, they won with the collective team. Mahomes had Kelce and Jones and Hill when he showed in KC. Even Payton Manning had Marvin Harrison and Marshall Faulk already on the team. The Colts traded Faulk for drafting James, another HoF. But they got a bad coach in Mora. They leveraged Mora's bad 6-10 season to draft another HoF Freeney. And they also got Reggie Wayne which is pretty much Diggs level.

Now look at the Bills. What do they have? They got a James, but not Edgerrin James. Anyone whose career on the path of Freeney, Marvin Harrison? They need to start from this draft.

We've been saying this for a few seasons. It's why Josh was the true MVP of the league at least a couple of times.

Tough to draft HOF level guys at 28.

That said, were not that far away.

[OpIv37]

This is just media nonsense.

If we brought everyone back, it would be “I’m so glad to get another run at a title with a great bunch of players.”

We didn’t, so “this is a great opportunity to mold the team I want.”

[sahlensguy]

This is just media nonsense.

If we brought everyone back, it would be “I’m so glad to get another run at a title with a great bunch of players.”

We didn’t, so “this is a great opportunity to mold the team I want.”

Which scenario do you prefer?

I know which one I'm in favor of...

[OpIv37]

Which scenario do you prefer?

I know which one I'm in favor of...

I don’t know. What we had clearly wasn’t good enough. But anyone who follows Buffalo sports has to know that “different” quite often doesn’t mean “better.”

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Man I re-read what I posted yesterday. It's not that clear, maybe still under the influence.

In summary, what I want to say is those elite QBs who won early in their career already had elite (HOF worthy) pieces in place when they showed up to the teams. The Bills stripped everything to bare and started out with locating the elite QB. When they hit on the QB, they are now drafting in the mid to late 20s. More difficult to get the complimentary elite pieces if the front office is not elite itself compared to the rest of the league. Thus the Bills are on a different path to win superbowl than the Brady/Mahomes/Roethlisberger's. Manning didn't win until his 8th season despite having a couple of pieces already when he drafted by the Colts.

To be fair, when Beane showed up as the GM for the Bills, there was not much to strip from the Bills roster. 17 years drought says as much of the talent level on the Bills roster. That 2017 off-season might be a critical year that McDermott and Whaley missed in transition. The only elite piece at the time, in hindsight, is Gilmore. Kyle Williams is just a solid soldier. You do all you can to keep Gilmore kind of talent. Or the Faulk to Edgerrin James route to get an equivalent. I wonder what Beane's influence would be if he were hired at the same time as McDermott. Would he managed to keep Gilmore and drafted Mahomes, getting 2 elite pieces to start the new regime. They attempted to get some pieces in place before they went after the QBs by getting White and Zay Jones. But neither of them turned out to be elite. Opportunity lost.

[Mad Max]

I don’t know. What we had clearly wasn’t good enough. But anyone who follows Buffalo sports has to know that “different” quite often doesn’t mean “better.”

Brooo. Lightning has struck.

You have uttered something that actually resonates.